Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- This may shock you. During the eight years of the Reagan Presidency I was not his biggest fan. I looked not so much at what he accomplished but what he didn't accomplish. My expectations were that government would get smaller under President Reagan. It didn't. I was disappointed. I looked at the agencies left in place -- the National Endowment for the Arts, the Legal Services Corporation (which has done so much damage) and A.I.D. -- and I felt that the Reagan Administration did not make a real effort to curtail them. I was disappointed. Also there was...

Christmas has been a special time of the year for as long as I remember. People were nicer. Things slowed down a bit so ordinary folks could enjoy the Christmas Season. We had very little when I was growing up. One year when things were especially tight my mother and I walked six blocks on Christmas Eve to purchase a Christmas tree for the two dollars we could afford. I didn’t mind as long as I could open that magical box which contained all of the ornaments, some pre-dating World War I. As little as we had, we always shared...

Recently elected Senators Thune (R-SD) and Martinez (R-FL) were guests of honor at separate receptions on January 4 to celebrate each being sworn-in as a Senator earlier in the day. I was privileged to attend two receptions for Senator Thune and one reception for Senator Martinez. Fellow DC Chapter members Staytrue and Kristinn, who had separately arranged to go to the evening reception for Senator Thune, went with me to that reception. The noon reception for Senator Thune was held on the top floor of the Hart Senate Office Building. One side of the room was basically glass, providing a...

The year was 1969. A year earlier Richard Nixon had won what was up to then one of the closest elections in American history. It was 5 a.m. the morning after the 1968 election when Ohio was declared to be in the Nixon column, thus officially depriving Vice President Hubert Humphrey of any chance to win the Presidency. Nixon had been through it all before. Eight years earlier it was then Vice President Richard Nixon who watched as Illinois was declared to be in the John F. Kennedy camp by just a few thousand votes (votes which almost certainly ...

Public opinion polls burst on the scene in the USA in the 1920s. The popular magazine Literary Digest sponsored the first political polls. The Digest was right on the money in predicting the landslide win of Herbert Hoover in 1928. Likewise, the magazine forecast Hoover’s demise in 1932. Then came the 1936 election. Kansas Governor Alf Landon was the Republican nominee. Franklin D. Roosevelt was running for a second term. The 1928 Democrat nominee, Alfred E. Smith, broke with his party and denounced FDR for breaking almost all of his campaign promises in 1932. Literary Digest predicted that Landon would...

WASHINGTON -- While it would take a Kerry victory of enormous proportions to cause the House of Representatives to restore Democratic control, the Senate is a far different matter. There are enough Senate seats at play that if Democrats get all the breaks, they could well end up controlling that body again. Some years one party or the other gets almost all of the breaks. That is why, although political analyst Stu Rothenberg says the Republicans still have a slight edge, it is simply impossible to say that Democratic control is out of the question. In fact, it is very...

Uninformed Westerners could hardly be blamed for taking comfort in the words spoken by an Islamic television newsman shortly after the massacre that took place at the Russian school in Beslan. "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims," asserted Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, General Manager of a popular satellite television station, Al-Arabiya. Rashed cited terrorist incident after terrorist incident perpetrated by Muslims. "The majority of those who manned the suicide bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses and buildings all over the world were...

WASHINGTON -- Up to this point I have refrained from commenting on the whole CBS controversy. Years ago, when I was the political reporter and weekend anchor at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, the CBS news team was regarded as the finest in the nation. When Walter Cronkite told us that this is the way it was, half the nation believed it. I recall when a young Dan Rather, then up and coming, called from his hotel room after watching one our newscasts just to say he thought we had done an excellent job. The whole newsroom glowed for about...

The first of the presidential debates will be held this Thursday, September 30. The Pew Research Center reports that 4 in 10 Americans say they are sure to watch that first debate, which would give it a far greater audience than four years ago when the ever-underestimated George W. Bush was believed to have bested the well-known debater V.P. Al Gore. Debates have a big tradition in presidential politics. They fell into disuse for many years. Their modern-day rival occurred 44 years ago when Democratic nominee Senator John F. Kennedy upstaged V.P. Richard M. Nixon. I say "upstaged" because I...

Zell's Zeal And Kerry's "Defenselessness" By Paul M. Weyrich | September 20, 2004 Kerry said in this flyer: "If we don't need the MX and the B-1 or these other weapons systems, there is no excuse for casting even one vote for unnecessary weapons of destruction and as your Senator I never will." Send this page to a friend Format this page for printing Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) , an ex Marine, is angry that the party he spent a lifetime helping to build, has gone so far to the left that it is barely recognizable. Miller attacked the Democratic...

Senator Zell Miller (D-GA), an ex Marine, is angry that the party he spent a lifetime helping to build has gone so far to the left that it is barely recognizable. Miller attacked the Democratic nominee, Senator John Kerry (D-MA), in terms that no Republican would dare to do. He gave a litany of the weapons systems that Kerry voted against in his two decades in the United States Senate. The Kerry apologists, who were all over the media the morning after the Miller speech, tried to suggest that when a Senator votes against a bill containing a weapons system...

It is hard for this old, hard-bitten political commentator to admit he was wrong, but I must do so. I have been highly critical of the Bush campaign for the primetime line up they initiated for the Republican Convention in New York. The big tent has people of divergent views. It just seemed to me that people whose views were not compatible with the GOP platform were being put out there front and center whereas the stalwart conservatives were relegated to time slots that only C-SPAN junkies would see. I made my views known in a commentary that was picked...

The other day I received a magazine published by a conservative think tank in Canada. On the cover was a tombstone that said “R.I.P. Free Speech.” Indeed, it is no longer permissible in Canada to preach that homosexuality is a deviant life style. That is now hate speech. A minister or priest risks jail by preaching what is in the Scriptures. Guess what? What is happening in Canada is likely to happen here. Canada led the way with homosexual “marriage”. Even the recently defeated Conservative Party did not propose to repeal the right of homosexuals to “marry”. They did suggest...

The other day I received a magazine published by a conservative think tank in Canada. On the cover was a tombstone that said “R.I.P. Free Speech.” Indeed, it is no longer permissible in Canada to preach that homosexuality is a deviant life style. That is now hate speech. A minister or priest risks jail by preaching what is in the Scriptures. Guess what? What is happening in Canada is likely to happen here. Canada led the way with homosexual “marriage”. Even the recently defeated Conservative Party did not propose to repeal the right of homosexuals to “marry”. They did suggest...

Commentary Defense Against "Full Faith And Credit" Commentary by Paul M. Weyrich July 21, 2004 The fight to preserve marriage as solely a covenant between a man and a woman continues. The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has taken action on a related issue that is also of great importance. Indeed, it is likely that the House will vote on the issue later this week. Rep. John Hostettler (R-IN) is sponsor of H.R. 3313 -- the Marriage Protection Act (MPA), which carried the day 21-13 in committee last week. (Snip) In other words, enact this bill into...

Those of us who believe in the protection of innocent life achieved an important victory last fall after many years of struggle. President Bush signed into law the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on November 5, 2003. Even though many Americans were horrified to learn what this gruesome procedure entailed, there was a vocal, well-funded minority determined to fight the truth to the last. In the end, we prevailed over the supporters of legalized abortion, and thankfully, we have a president who is sincerely devoted to the pro-life cause and is willing to place his reputation on the line to...

The Man Who Brought Down "That Wall" By Paul M. Weyrich This may shock you. During the eight years of the Reagan Presidency I was not his biggest fan. I looked not so much at what he accomplished but what he didn't accomplish. My expectations were that government would get smaller under President Reagan. It didn't. I was disappointed. I looked at the agencies left in place -- the National Endowment for the Arts, the Legal Services Corporation (which has done so much damage) and A.I.D. -- and I felt that the Reagan Administration did not make a real effort...

In San Diego, a couple of teachers were suspended for showing the pictures of American Nick Berg being killed by his Muslim captors in Iraq. Oh, the outrage -- that our delicate high schoolers would be subjected to reality. Far from suspending these teachers, we should give them medals (maybe the ones John Kerry threw away). They have done their students a big favor. They have introduced these soon-to-be-adults to the notion that it is a dangerous world out there. Kids from this generation are hooked on video games that are so vile, so violent -- even Satanic -- that...

It is true that to take over the Senate the Democrats would have to win three of the five Southern seats and win all of the other seats where they have a shot. I remember calling Sen. Bob Kasten (R-WI) in 1986 to congratulate him on his re-election.  He said,  "I'm almost sorry I'm coming back. You could not have a worse situation...Reagan still in office and the Democrats controlling the Senate. Nothing will get accomplished."  Kasten was right. Reagan's last two years were spent on the defensive about Iran Contra and various other manufactured scandals. No significant legislation made...

A rapid-paced afternoon-long briefing for supporters of the Free Congress Foundation last week produced one "can you top this" presentation after another: Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) reported on the latest developments in the effort to stop the Law of the Sea Treaty. He also told the group of his efforts to deny federal funds to extremist groups whose views are not based on valid scientific data. Right now he is working on so-called environmental groups. Rep. Roy Blunt explained the strategy of the House leadership regarding the passage of appropriations bills. He believes that the House can pass all 13...