Free Republic

John Kerry, apparent Democrat nominee for President, is the more important person with the less important problem. Jamie Gorelick, member of the 9/11 Commission, is the reverse. So in explaining why each is unfit for the position he seeks and the one she holds, we begin with Kerry. We’ll use a version of a game we all played at an early age, “Pin the Tail on the Donkey,” to deal with Kerry and Gorelick. This week ABC came up with a videotape of Senator Kerry saying the opposite then of what he’s saying now about his “medals thrown over the...

The XYZ Affair In the wake of the ratification of Jay's Treaty between the United States and England, the French policy of seizing American vessels on the high seas threatened to cripple the American merchant fleet. Unprepared for war and lacking a sufficient naval force to defend American merchant ships at sea, President John Adams dispatched a special commission to France to renegotiate trade treaties with the French Republic. The American commission to France was made up of John Marshall of Virginia, Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, and South Carolinian Charles Pinckney. While the Americans were negotiating from a standpoint of...