Free Republic

Here’s an interesting twist on the adoring political spouse: Does it matter to voters if a wife or husband really, really doesn’t want to be part of the campaign? The former “Saturday Night Live” writer, 55, met the glamorous bachelor in 1995 when he was still in office. The two fell in love and then “I lured him to my hometown, New York City, when he decided not to run again,” she wrote. They married in 2001 and settled in Greenwich Village where they’ve raised their son Henry, now 10. Describing herself as “secretive” and “so private,” Paley said she...

A Nebraska newspaper is easing its ban on publishing gay marriage announcements to allow notices about legally recognized same-sex unions. Omaha World-Herald Publisher Terry Kroeger announced the change Tuesday. The paper had been criticized online for its refusal to print a lesbian couple's commitment notice. Kroeger says the World-Herald may have been slow to react to this issue, but the newspaper never hated gays and lesbians. Kroeger says the newspaper changed its policy because five states, including neighboring Iowa, and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage. The World-Herald will now accept paid announcements of weddings, engagements and anniversaries...

The reward being bestowed on 6,000 or more people who donated money to the Schindlers' legal battle to keep their daughter's feeding tube in place is this: Bob and Mary Schindler have sold or traded those donors' names and e-mail addresses to a conservative direct-mailing company. The company, Response Unlimited, is pushing the information hard, telling potential buyers that "these individuals are passionate about the way they value human life, adamantly oppose euthanasia and are pro-life in every sense of the word!"

the (relatively silent) majority of Americans feel(s) that the most compassionate treatment for Terri Schiavo - as well as the proper legal course of action - is to let her vegetative existence end, as advocated by her legal guardian, her husband. For Republicans who consider their party a captive of the religious right on matters like medical research and right-to-die legislation and now legislative intrusion into the judicial system, there is a way to at least feel more comfortable with their political consciences. That way is to leave a party whose leadership is currently attempting to leave behind in the...

The writer is one of the lawyers who in 2000 successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Stenberg vs. Carhart, in which the court struck down a Nebraska law against the procedure ofter termed partial-birth abortion. On June 4, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill banning so-called partial birth abortions - just three years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar Nebraska ban. The bill, which is similar to one already passed by the Senate, is expected to be signed by the president shortly. Proponents of the bill have been working overtime...