Overview for FF Spotlight

The Real Ron Paul

Ron Paul’s former senior aid, Eric Dondero, has gone to RightWingNews.com and written a damning indictment of his former boss. The essay shows that Ron Paul is beholden to terrible conspiracy theories and has many questionable personal beliefs. While he is supposedly not homophobic, he …

Written by FrumForum Editors on Monday December 26, 2011

The GOP's Followership Problem

Here's a question to worry about in 2012: Does the inability of Speaker Boehner to lead his House caucus foreshadow the inability of a President Romney to lead a dual-chambered Republican Congress? One of the dominant factors motivating the decisions of rank-and-file right-wing House …

Written by David Frum on Monday December 26, 2011

Jesus vs. Santa

In my column for the National Post , I ask who is truly waging the War on Christmas: We hear a lot about the war on Christmas. But the true seasonal struggle is the war within Christmas, a single holiday shared by two deeply antagonistic religions. Religion 1 is the religion of Jesus …

Written by David Frum on Saturday December 24, 2011

Ron Paul Hates Government, Loves Pork

For many in the militant libertarian wing within the GOP (and outside of it), Ron Paul has emerged as Moses come to lead the American people out of the land of big spending liberal statists and hair-trigger Neocon Pharaohs. They see Paul as an outsider on the inside, despite having first entered …

Written by Brad Schaeffer on Thursday December 22, 2011

Ron Paul's Useful Idiots

We’ve been spending a lot of time on this website critiquing conservatives and libertarians for supporting Ron Paul. However, the great thing about Ron Paul is that his appeal also extends to the most gullible members of the liberal left. Today’s piece of useful idiocy in support of Ron Paul …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Thursday December 22, 2011

Brinkmanship Works

It seems that everyone is deploring the “tactics” of the House Republicans in refusing to pass a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and by doing so, drawing out the standoff until the last minute. Is this the way resolve a dispute? Yes, deadlines force the combatants to make concessions…

Written by Howard Foster on Wednesday December 21, 2011

Boehner is Trapped by His Caucus

An old joke heard often in the Southwest ends this way: “It isn’t always your enemies that get you into it; it isn’t always your friends who get you out of it; but, when you are in it up to your neck, keep your damned mouth shut.” Unfortunately, Speaker John Boehner’s predicament confirms …

Written by Steve Bell on Wednesday December 21, 2011

Who is Killing Iran's Currency?

Something - or somebody - is destroying Iran's currency . Steady decline over the past two months has turned into a "panic" over the past 72 hours. [T]he rial fell to unprecedented lows against the dollar Tuesday, amounting to a 15 percent loss in value over the past three days, the Fars News …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday December 21, 2011

Congressional Quagmire

The problem is bigger than the House of Representatives. The prior question is: why did the Senate adjourn having passed such a ridiculous thing as a two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday? It's the answer to that question that reveals the true dysfunction in Congress. The Senate …

Written by David Frum on Tuesday December 20, 2011

Criticizing Holder is Not Racist

In a New York Times piece ostensibly characterizing Eric Holder's Justice Department tenure as tenacity in the face of partisan beligerence, the US Attorney General gives opponents the equivalent of manna from Heaven: “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified …

Written by Jay Gatsby on Tuesday December 20, 2011

Gingrich Finds Judicial Review Inconvenient

Newt Gingrich claims to be an historian (rather than, heaven forbid, a lobbyist), who was paid over a million dollars by Freddie Mac. Taking the former House Speaker at his word—if only temporarily—one has to assume that the giant, federally-protected home mortgage security company wanted …

Written by Les Francis on Monday December 19, 2011

Res Judicata: Where is the Authority For a Cell Phone Ban?

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has proposed a nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving, which strikes me as a good idea in principle. But like so many good ideas, we cannot judge it by its facial appeal. Moving beyond that, one needs to ask, does the federal government …

Written by Howard Foster on Monday December 19, 2011

The Right to Rise? Ok!

In today's Wall Street Journal , Gov. Jeb Bush celebrates the "right to rise," a concept he credits to Rep. Paul Ryan. The idea behind the phrase is a powerful one: "We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise." At a time when Americans born into the poorest …

Written by David Frum on Monday December 19, 2011

Vaclav Havel Was a Champion of Freedom

Vaclav Havel has died. I did not spend time on his plays but read his essays avidly. He was a great hero of the free. One of the things I admired about him, as noted in this piece, is his disregard for his own crowd's leftist pieties. He never ceased to criticize Castro and Cuba for the eliminati…

Written by John Vecchione on Sunday December 18, 2011

Vaclav Havel Wrote to Make Europe Free

Asked once whether he would like to be remembered as an author or as a politician, Vaclav Havel answered that he was first and foremost a, “dramaturge who acted as a citizen and thanks to this circumstance was able to spend a part of his life in a political position.” Havel’s outlet was …

Written by Robin Tim Weis on Sunday December 18, 2011

The Anti-Lincoln Brigade

You know what's really discouraging? This is discouraging, this apologetic by Matt Welch, editor of Reason magazine, on behalf of Ron Paul. Welch takes exception to my restatement of the I thought notorious fact about Ron Paul's preference for the Confederate over the Union cause in the …

Written by David Frum on Friday December 16, 2011

The World Loses a Light

Hitchens is gone. And the phrase that echoes in my mind is Nehru’s at the death of Gandhi: “The light has gone out of our lives.” For every young writer – and every victim and opponent of authoritarianism – there is now darkness. To Hitchens, there was no difference between the two: he …

Written by Kapil Komireddi on Friday December 16, 2011

Don't Be Fooled, Congress isn't Working

For the seventh time this year alone, Congress appears poised to pass another continuing resolution for spending for a fiscal year that has already begun. If any fact indicts the dysfunction of both the Executive and Legislative Branches, that fact does. Late last night, the House of …

Written by Steve Bell on Thursday December 15, 2011

She's Back!

Last night, the most coveted endorsement in the Republican presidential primary was secured by Mitt Romney . Ending months of intense speculation, Tea Party diva and thrice-failed Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell threw her support behind the former Massachusetts Governor’s bid to secure …

Written by Fictio Cedit Veritati on Wednesday December 14, 2011

Romney Doesn't Carry Small Change

Mitt Romney's proposed $10,000 bet with Rick Perry has earned a lot of criticism for the candidate. Given that it was a rhetorical device (albeit a clumsy one) rather than an actual bet and given that a $10,000 is not really a lot of money for a presidential campaign, I'm personally inclined to …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday December 12, 2011