Free Republic

Democratic centrists are pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set aside a flagging climate change bill to focus on what they think is a more achievable goal: overhauling the nation’s healthcare system. But those close to Pelosi (D-Calif.) say she is charging forward on cap-and-trade legislation, despite the potential defections of Democrats who represent states with industries that would be adversely affected by the bill. Pelosi views the bill’s troubles as predictable and solvable aspects of the legislative process. Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), a leader of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, sees healthcare as a more productive use of time....

For the better part of the past couple of years most pundits have been predicting huge gains for Democratic candidates in the 2006 elections. Even though the polls, from time to time, have showed bad news for the GOP, I remain unconvinced that a Republican slaughter is inevitable. Several months from the November elections, in politics, is an eternity. Most voters are still vacationing at the beach or buying their kids’ back-to-school clothes. While there are some signs and trends that do not bode well for the GOP, there are others that do provide reason for optimism. It is definitely...

"We should work diplomatically and aggressively to give them reasons why they [the Iranians] don't need to build a bomb, to give them incentives. . . . I'd like to use carrots as well as sticks to see if we can change the nature of the debate. --Ned Lamont, April 25, 2006 Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary was a triumph for the European wing of the Democratic party. So it's fitting that Lamont is pro-carrot. It was impossible to go to Europe during Bush's first term without getting a lecture about the utility of carrots,...

That was unfortunate timing this week for the Lamont Democrats, declaring themselves officially the antiwar party within 24 hours of the Brits foiling an Islamic terror plot to spread thousands of U.S.-bound bodies across the North Atlantic ...

That was unfortunate timing this week for the Lamont Democrats, declaring themselves officially the antiwar party within 24 hours of the Brits foiling an Islamic terror plot to spread thousands of U.S.-bound bodies across the North Atlantic, or perhaps across New York, Boston and Washington as the planes descended. Yes, we know; they support the war on terror but are merely against George Bush's war in Iraq. How does that work? Last week before the Lamont victory, 12 members of the congressional Democratic leadership sent President Bush a letter urging that he start a phased pullout from Iraq, euphemized as...

WASHINGTON -- With the defeat of Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut, anti-war forces are poised for a takeover of the Democratic Party. Tuesday's exhilarating victory, and the elan and electoral legitimacy gained, may carry the newly energized Democratic left to considerable success in November. But for the Democratic Party it will be an expensive and short-lived indulgence. The Iraq War will end, as will the Bush presidency. But the larger conflict that defines our times -- war on Islamic radicalism, more politely known as the war on terror -- will continue, as the just-foiled London airliner plot...

More noteworthy than Ned Lamont's defeat of Joseph Lieberman is the loony left's and Democratic leadership's puffed-up reaction to it. I say give them more rope and let them completely hang the party they've hijacked. Many are acting surprised at the Democratic Party's readiness to throw Lieberman overboard. They shouldn't be. Lieberman's 90 percent liberal voting record isn't good enough for the monomaniacal antiwar fringe. Complete obedience is required. No belligerence toward terrorists can be tolerated; all venom must be reserved for President Bush and the neoconservative cabal. While Joe Lieberman was good enough in 2000 to join Al Gore...

The narrow primary defeat of veteran senator Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary is more than a loss for one man. It is a loss for his party and for the country. It completes the capture of the Democratic Party by its Taliban wing. They used to be "San Francisco Democrats," a phrase coined by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick to describe the party's 1984 convention. But they have now morphed into Taliban Democrats because they are willing to "kill" one of their own, if he does not conform to the narrow and rigid agenda of...

You fight the global war against jihadist Islam with the political parties you have. We have two. One is the Republican party, led by George W. Bush. Its heart and mind are mostly in the right place. Its performance as a governing party in time of war is, admittedly, another matter. Do we have a strategy for victory in Iraq? Not if one judges by Donald Rumsfeld's testimony last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee. It shouldn't be too much to ask for competent leadership at the Defense Department in time of war, leadership characterized by a willingness to...

The New Democrat Coalition huddled for three hours Tuesday to plot strategy, determine which issues it will champion and try to generate new ideas for the Democratic Party. The gathering, which was billed as a retreat for the group of 42 centrist House Democrats, was part of an ongoing effort launched earlier this year to increase New Democrats’ clout in Congress and help them become a source of ideas for the party as a whole. Until this year, the New Democrats’ influence had been waning and they had struggled to find their voice and relevancy after the like-minded Clinton administration...