Free Republic

House Speaker kicks off his term with two political victories Associated Press AUSTIN (AP) — Just three months into his leadership term, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick already has commanded the chamber through two of the most contentious debates the legislature has seen in years. With a group of Republicans who are in the majority for the first time since Reconstruction and a team of Democrats who are unaccustomed to being the underdog, members of both parties are grappling for every bit of power they can wield. Craddick's first major battle as speaker was over a bill that combined medical...

There were many smiling faces in Ramallah on Monday as Palestinians celebrated the capture of American and British soldiers by the Iraqi army. "This is a big day for the Iraqi people and all the Arabs and Muslims," said a policeman at Yasser Arafat's battered headquarters. "Everyone here was happy to see pictures of American soldiers in Iraqi custody. This is a big blow for [George W.] Bush and [Tony] Blair. I don't believe they will be able to continue with the war now that many of their soldiers are being killed or taken prisoner." One of his colleagues in...

Who would have suspected that George W. Bush, a president who came into office vowing to "change the tone" of the meretricious Clinton era (a dark age when America howled under the twin lashes of peace and prosperity), would emerge as the country's leading exponent of situational ethics? Maybe true conservatives always understood. Ever since Ronald Reagan ended his second term with the Department of Education still intact, it's been clear how little even a committed ideologue can achieve in real politics. So it's hardly surprising that Bush, who ran the most content-free campaign since some nameless William Henry Harrison...

Cartoon by: Carmelo Torres The GOP's November 5 election victory was a referendum of sorts against "gay marriage," homosexual adoption, and attacking the Boy Scouts - as candidates who strongly defended traditional family values on these issues won key races across the nation. Candidates in competitive races who embraced the most extreme homosexual planks - such as Georgia Sen. Max Cleland's (D) support of the "gay" lobby over the Boy Scouts of America, and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Shannon O'Brien's (D) flip-flopping embrace of "gay marriage" - lost their elections after being criticized for abandoning mainstream values. Although liberal and self-described...