Free Republic

We believe Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is best equipped to carry forward the philosophy of free people and free markets - of limited government, free trade and strong national defense - that has long animated the GOP and enriched American political life. Rubio's energetic and articulate optimism - his embodiment of a diverse and entrepreneurial youth movement in the GOP - has struck a chord with voters and has convinced a growing roster of respected Republican leaders, including Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty and Norm Coleman, that the proud son of Cuban immigrants stands the best chance of securing the nomination for...

UM EL-NASSER, GAZA STRIP -- On the sandy hillside at the edge of this village, Palestinian children tumble and slide in the billowing dust beneath a camouflage-draped Israeli army post that guards three nearby Jewish settlements. "Every time our children play along that road, we worry," said Ali Abu Klaik, 50, who raised 14 children here and saw a 15th die. Once the Israelis "are all gone, God willing, this place will be better." From this battered town at the northern end of the Gaza Strip to a wind-blown refugee camp 24 miles away on the Egyptian border, the 1.3...

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., set off a firestorm last week when he compared U.S. treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo to practices employed by Nazis, Soviets, Pol Pot and their ilk. His remarks were condemned by the White House, the Pentagon, the Christian Coalition, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Newt Gingrich (who called for his censure by the Senate) and by the entire right side of the talk radio/television/blog world. The heat got so bad that, late in the week, Durbin apologized if his remarks had been "misunderstood." They weren't, and Durbin should not have apologized. Instead, the senator should have...

When the White House says Democrats are trumping up accusations against John Bolton, nominated to be U.N. ambassador, it's kind of like the White House saying Martin Luther King Jr. trumped up accusations of racial bias: sad, laughable and demonstrably untrue on its face. But that's the line the Bush administration is taking on Bolton, despite an almost certainly fatal wound his nomination suffered Tuesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After an impassioned plea by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said what he had heard troubled him enough that he didn't feel comfortable voting for Bolton....

Swarming and Reforming The Strib? I reserved the name "SwarmingtheStrib.com" today. I have in mind an experiment. Perhaps it will grow legs. Perhaps not. Here's the idea. The worst major newspaper in terms of bias and chronic inaccuracy and axe-grinding is of course the Los Angeles Times. But among the second tier papers, the Minneapolis Star Tribune is as rotten a combination of no-talent tenured editorialists, biased reporters, and make-it-up-pollsters as anywhere in the United States. Combine this in-the-left-ditch daily with Minnesota Public Radio, and it is amazing that any Republican gets elected in the Gopher State, much less the...

The views expressed in last week's editorial on the president's State of the Union speech are so far from the mainstream of what most Minnesotans and Americans believe that they clearly fit under the late Sen. Pat Moynihan's observation: Never has the opposite of the truth been so precisely stated. Because of the nature of your inaccurate attack on the president, we have taken the unprecedented step of replying with one voice. If it is going to serve the public and stimulate a thoughtful dialogue, an editorial board should not allow personal, partisan bitterness to trump the facts. Even opinions...