Free Republic

As scandal-ridden politicians attempt comebacks, the Holy Father urges us to respond to God’s love. By Kathryn Jean Lopez ‘Couldn’t we have one?” That was Chuck Todd’s question on his political geek show, The Daily Rundown, on MSNBC one recent morning. Todd was moderating a panel discussing former New York congressman Anthony Weiner’s insistence on running for mayor of New York City despite his history of Twitter ill repute, coupled with former governor Eliot Spitzer’s zeal for political comeback as the city’s comptroller, despite the prostitution scandal that ended his tenure in Albany. Politicians don’t have to be and frequently...

‘I’m Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage” is the title of an article Doug Mainwaring wrote earlier this year. A tea-party activist in Maryland, he found out the hard way — through the eyes of his kids — that children really do flourish with both a mother and a father active in their daily lives. “To be fully formed, children need to be free to generously receive from and express affection to parents of both genders. Genderless marriages deny this fullness,” he wrote. Mainwaring talks with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about last week’s Supreme Court decisions and the...

Tolerance equals ideological submission for those who are encouraging a boycott of the Salvation Army for its opposition to redefining marriage and its religious beliefs about homosexuality.

'Saint Sarah' Misses the Point Newsweek Cover Story Is a Caricature of Christianity KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ You’d think she were one of the mysteries of our faith, all the writing that has gone into trying to grapple with the political career and attraction to and hatred for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. In the case of the recent Newsweek cover portraying Palin as “Saint Sarah” — in a backhanded canonization not quite the same as the Vatican approach — the quandary isn’t all that mysterious. The Newsweek story, written by a writer who fashions herself as an expert on religion,...

Thursday, March 18, 2010 The CBO Score, As Reported by Steny Hoyer House Budget Committee Ranking Republican Paul Ryan responds to an NRO query about the news this morning: “The Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that there is currently no official cost estimate. Yet House Democrats are touting to the press — and spinning for partisan gain — numbers that have not been released and are impossible to confirm. Rep. James Clyburn stated he was 'giddy' about these unsubstantiated numbers. This is the latest outrageous exploitation by the Majority — in this case abusing the confidentiality of the nonpartisan Congressional...

Reuters makes it sounds like Sen. Scott Brown is guilty of robbery: Republican Scott Brown's formal arrival in the U.S. Senate on Thursday robbed Democrats of their crucial 60-vote supermajority and set the stage for a bitter November election fight for control of the 100-member chamber.

Kathryn, All politicians should be able to give the rapid, and to the point, answers that Scott Brown gave during his press conference this afternoon. Unfortunately, most politicians don't have a set of core beliefs that allow them to answer without thinking, or using a teleprompter. What a breath of fresh air.

From a mom in Democratic country: My daughter just got back from middle school, in Stow, MA. They had a mock vote. Brown 62% and Coakley 29%. This from a school that had over 90% mock vote for Obama in 2008. And: Dear KLo, Hey, if Brown wins in Massachusetts (taking Kennedy’s Senate seat in the process), does that mean that the Republicans will have a chance of taking Obama’s Senate seat (now held by the disgusting Burris) in Illinois? Yes! Brown’s victory, if it happens, will give hope that even in this very blue state (because its politics is...

If you watched the Obama rally (which was easily accessible on national television), you saw people who showed up at a political rally excited about the president of the United States and yawning at the candidate they're being offered by the Democrats on Tuesday. If you watched the Brown rally (available via livestream on his site), you saw people revved up about an actual candidate on the ballot Tuesday. If you watched Obama, you got dismissive attacks on Scott Brown. If you watched Scott Brown, you got positive reasons to vote for him. And Brown is a guy who could...

does Barack Obama have against truck drivers? He's hit Scott Brown for driving a truck at least three times now in Boston. Truck drivers are voters too. UPDATE: Four! UPDATE: Five!

President Obama just said: "I'm here to support Coakley over Brown, but I don't know Brown's policies." So what exactly made him qualified to attack Brown's policies?

The title of this piece — “His invisible friend Joe the Plumber” — comes from a line with which MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann started his late-night post-debate broadcast on Wednesday night. The problem with the host’s description is that Joe the Plumber is anything but invisible. To the taxman. Now, to the candidates. I don’t know if Joe the Plumber will win the election for John McCain. But he should. Because in the end this election is all about freedom. And Senator Government is not. Joe the Plumber, as everyone by the end of this weekend is liable to know, is...

Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn was among the conservative Republicans who bucked both parties’ leaders to kill the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 on Monday. She explained her reasoning to National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Monday morning on Bill Bennett’s radio show, you said you were leaning “no.” What solidified that no? Marsha Blackburn: Hearing from my constituents in the district solidified the “no” vote. We had phone calls and e-mails by the thousands. They did not want a bill that would favor Wall Street over the taxpayer. Lopez: Are you concerned by your vote you...

THE CONSERVATIVE ELITES ATTACK! In today's New York Times, David Brooks launches a critique of Sarah Palin, essentially concluding that her populist appeal is dangerous and ill-conceived. He yearns for the day when "conservatism was once a frankly elitist movment," one that stressed "classical education, hard-earned knowledged, experience, and prudence." Brooks, like a handful of other conservative intellectuals, believes Palin "compensates for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness." Well, at the risk of appearing brash, let me say that I am glad to see my old friend finally pushed to the point where he has to make...

She’s gonna make it after all. Considering the location of the Republican convention, the theme song had already been written for Sarah Palin’s vice presidential campaign. It comes from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, based in the Twin Cities. “Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well, it’s you, girl, and you should know it; with each glance and every little movement, you show it. Love is all around, no need to waste it. You can have a town, why don’t you take it? You’re...

A poisonous cloud has been circling the Republican presidential nomination this season. First, it was "the Mormon question" raised against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, which was used as a political sledgehammer by one of his primary opponents. Now, it's religious writing from the youth of the still-young Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Can we please not go there again? Can we please not use religion against another candidate this cycle? As the media twitters about recently elected Jindal being considered as a possible choice for John McCain's vice presidential running mate, a buzzkill arrives. On the Left blogosphere, an article...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 "You're Going to Lose If You Keep This Up"   [Kathryn Jean Lopez] As Sean Hannity issued the above warning to congressional Republicans today on his show, the House — including enough Republicans (100) to amass a veto-proof majority — passed the pork-laden farm bill. We editorialized on the bill: The program is nothing more than a massive income transfer from American taxpayers to a small handful of very large producers who grow just a few crops; the program can’t be serving the purposes its defenders claim it does — ensuring a stable food supply and...

Here Come the Jersey Clones A devastating bill inches toward law. The U.S. Congress remains practically agnostic on human cloning. Or so its inaction suggests. A bill sits in the House of Representatives waiting to face debate. A Senate bill sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback, too, waits in the wings. The president issued a challenge to the legislative branch to get moving during his State of the Union address last week, and to get moving toward a total prohibition on all human cloning — not some half-baked ban that would, in the end, let the clone creation march onward anyway;...

What’s so bad about Planned Parenthood? It’s a question Americans must wonder about as they see pro-lifers protesting or praying outside clinics. And it deserves an answer because it gets to the heart of some key and contentious questions we face as a society, one that is ever creeping toward a brave new world (in many respects already living in it) as biotechnological choices propagate. Consider that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood in her Senate runs. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, has given money to them in the past....

Samaira Nazir was brutally and needlessly murdered. The 25-year-old in Southall, England, was killed in April of last year by her 30-year-old businessman brother — all in the name of “honor.” He stabbed her, cutting her throat in front of his young children, ages 2 and 4. Samaira had turned down family arrangements for marriage and ultimately fell for another man, an Afghan her family said was from the wrong — lower — caste. As a prosecutor put it, “It would appear she lost her life for loving the wrong man.” Her brother, appropriately, has been found guilty of murder,...