Opinion Linda Chavez

  • Overreach by Unions in Wisconsin

    Linda Chavez - Fri, May 25, 2012

    The Wisconsin recall election of Republican Gov. Scott Walker is not going quite like the unions and the Democratic Party expected. Back in 2011, many pundits thought that the governor had overreached when he took on public employee unions, restricting — though not eliminating — collective bargaining rights. But he did so because he inherited a state in dire financial shape with a deficit of $3.6 billion and public employee pensions and benefits that threatened to bankrupt the state. More »Overreach by Unions in Wisconsin

  • Family Mysteries

    Linda Chavez - Fri, May 18, 2012

    Like many Americans, genealogy has been a keen interest of mine. I've had a good sense of where my family came from — Spain on my father's side and the British Isles on my mother's. But what I knew was only part of the story. And this Sunday, May 20th, what I subsequently learned will be aired on the PBS series "Finding Your Roots." More »Family Mysteries

  • Loose Lips Endanger Lives

    Linda Chavez - Fri, May 11, 2012

    The U.S. dodged another terrorist bullet when a would-be "underwear bomber" turned out to be a double agent. The news became public this week after rumors had circulated in April that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a Yemini-based group that is now the chief terrorist threat against the U.S., had been planning a spectacular attack to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden last May 2. More »Loose Lips Endanger Lives

  • Obama Fails on Human Rights

    Linda Chavez - Fri, May 4, 2012

    The Obama administration's record on human rights, never strong, just got a whole lot worse. This week's dramatic saga of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng's escape from house arrest in Shandong province to safety inside the U.S. Embassy to the embassy's role in handing him over to Chinese authorities is a disgraceful tale. Once again, the Obama administration has chosen to put human rights violations on the back burner, as it has nearly every time it has been asked for help, whether from Iranian protesters in 2009 or Syrian freedom fighters today. More »Obama Fails on Human Rights

  • Rubio's Lifeline

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Apr 27, 2012

    Marco Rubio has thrown the GOP a lifeline; let's see whether his fellow party members are willing to grab it. The freshman U.S. senator from Florida has been a hard-line foe to illegal immigrants, both in his home state and since his election to Congress, but now he is considering drafting a new "DREAM Act," which would offer legal status to illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. More »Rubio's Lifeline

  • Romney Should Show He's a Leader, and Here's How

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Apr 20, 2012

    If Mitt Romney is to have any chance of beating President Barack Obama in November, he must win a larger share of the Hispanic vote than current polls suggest he will. And he won't unless he solves his immigration problem. More »Romney Should Show He's a Leader, and Here's How

  • Feminists Limit Women's Choices

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Apr 13, 2012

    Not since Hillary Clinton's infamous remark during the 1992 presidential campaign — "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas" — has a prominent Democratic woman so insulted full-time homemakers. Speaking on CNN Wednesday, Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said that Ann Romney has "never worked a day in her life" and, therefore, can't understand the struggles of most women. More »Feminists Limit Women's Choices

  • Americans by Any Name

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Apr 6, 2012

    A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center says a lot about the assimilation of the nation's largest minority group — both good and bad. Hispanics — those 50 million people who trace their ancestry to a Spanish-speaking country — have become both more numerous and more diverse in the past 40 years. In 1970, Hispanics were primarily U.S.-born Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans — who are U.S. citizens, whether born in Puerto Rico or on the mainland. But the adult population of Hispanics today is almost equally divided between those who were born in the U.S. ... More »Americans by Any Name

  • Not Black and White

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Mar 30, 2012

    It may be months before we know what actually happened the night Trayvon Martin was shot in Sanford, Fla. on February 26. But many seem to have already decided that this was a brutal case of racial profiling and vigilante justice, emblematic of lingering racism in America. More »Not Black and White

  • True Terrorist Threat

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Mar 23, 2012

    Much of the attention in the Middle East over the past few months has been focused on the suffering of the people of Syria. But the Assad regime in Syria, which is slaughtering its own people by the thousands, does so with help from its only ally, Iran. And it is not only in Syria that Iran wreaks havoc; Iran is the chief state sponsor of terrorism throughout the world. More »True Terrorist Threat

  • Who Is a Citizen?

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Mar 9, 2012

    Is Mitt Romney in favor of increasing the number of illegal immigrants in the United States? You might not think so, given his tough anti-illegal immigration rhetoric, but his leading immigration adviser wants to do just that. What's more, the proposal this adviser is pushing would impose a new tax — from $1,200 to $1,600 — on every American family for the birth of each child. These are the conclusions of a new study put out by the conservative think tank the National Foundation for American Policy. ... More »Who Is a Citizen?

  • Government Assistance Comes With Strings

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Mar 2, 2012

    When it comes to the Nanny State, count me a critic. But I make a distinction between the government improperly sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and government acting as a good steward of my tax dollars. The difference explains why I support a proposal by a conservative state legislator that lets government tell food stamp recipients what they can and cannot buy with government funds. But there are limits to this intrusion. More »Government Assistance Comes With Strings

  • Lighten Up on Political Correctness

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Feb 24, 2012

    Have we become so hypersensitive that a phrase in use for half a millennia must now be banished from the English lexicon? I'm speaking, of course, of the furor created last week when ESPN's mobile site ran a story headlined "A Chink in the Armor." More »Lighten Up on Political Correctness

  • Raiding Social Security

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Feb 17, 2012

    Extending the payroll tax cut — as the GOP leadership has now agreed with Democrats to do — may be good politics, but it is lousy policy. More »Raiding Social Security

  • Referendum on the Incumbent

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Feb 10, 2012

    Conventional wisdom suggests that the current refusal of the GOP base to accept Mitt Romney as the de facto presidential nominee will doom the party to failure in the fall. The thought is that too many debates, too much sniping among the candidates, and an overall enthusiasm deficit will leave the nominee — and the odds still favor Romney — mortally wounded. More »Referendum on the Incumbent

  • Feminists Are Anti-Choice

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Feb 3, 2012

    Horror of horrors! Lego has introduced a new line of gender-specific toys aimed at girls. I might not even have become aware of the controversy had it not been a topic of discussion on the all-female PBS talk show "To the Contrary," on which I frequently appear. That we are still debating the pros and cons of allowing boys and girls to prefer different play choices says a great deal about the failure of the feminist movement. More »Feminists Are Anti-Choice

  • For Gingrich, Amnesty no Impediment to Nomination

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Jan 27, 2012

    One thing was missed in Newt Gingrich's victory in the South Carolina primary: Conservatives embraced a pro-amnesty candidate without batting an eyelash. This should come as a wake-up call to those who've been pushing a hard-line anti-illegal immigrant position in the Republican Party. More »For Gingrich, Amnesty no Impediment to Nomination

  • The Higher-Education Bubble

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Jan 20, 2012

    When President Obama gives his state of the union address next week, you can count on his making a big pitch for education. No president in recent memory has failed to tout expanded educational opportunity as the panacea for all that ails us — and Obama has been the most passionate of pitchment on the issue. In last year's speech, he said, "Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine." More »The Higher-Education Bubble

  • Don't Abandon Capitalism

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Jan 13, 2012

    It's bad enough when Democrats start playing class warfare, but when Republican presidential contenders begin using phrases like "vulture capitalism," it's time to be really worried. More »Don't Abandon Capitalism

  • Goodbye, Momma

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Jan 6, 2012

    My mother died this week. More »Goodbye, Momma

  • Coulter's Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Dec 30, 2011

    Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has some advice for GOP presidential hopefuls: Hang tough on illegal immigration. Coulter sees illegal immigration as one of the two signature issues of the Republican presidential campaign (the other being repeal of Obamacare). Coulter predicts that if the candidates fail to be sufficiently hard-line, they'll invite future political suicide: "... Capitulate on illegal immigration, and the entire country will have the electorate of California." More »Coulter's Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

  • Home for Christmas

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Dec 23, 2011

    For more than a dozen years now, I've spent the days leading up to Christmas in search of a special gift. Not the kind you can buy at the mall or charge on your credit card but the gift of a traditional Midnight Mass. It goes back to my childhood, when I couldn't wait until I was old enough to attend Midnight Mass with my grandmother at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Denver. More »Home for Christmas

  • Tebow Critics Put Their Own Bigotry on Display

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Dec 16, 2011

    Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has been a controversial sports figure ever since he agreed to do an ad for the conservative organization Focus on the Family; the spot aired during the 2010 Super Bowl. Feminists and other groups, who feared the ad would be overtly pro-life and anti-abortion, tried to keep it from running. In the end, the message turned out to be pretty innocuous, and those who tried to censor it looked downright silly. More »Tebow Critics Put Their Own Bigotry on Display

  • Obama Is No Teddy Roosevelt

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Dec 9, 2011

    Barack Obama channeled Teddy Roosevelt this week in a speech in Osawatomie, Kan. Supporters are calling it the most significant economic speech of his administration. More »Obama Is No Teddy Roosevelt

  • Egyptian Elections Pose Danger for US

    Linda Chavez - Fri, Dec 2, 2011

    Americans notoriously care little about foreign affairs, but this week's elections in Egypt deserve our attention. The Egyptian version of the so-called Arab Spring began as a popular uprising against long-term strongman Hosni Mubarak and promised greater liberty and freedom for the most populous Arab nation. But early returns from parliamentary elections in about a third of Egypt's provinces, including Cairo, suggest that Islamists will carry the day. The implications for peace in the Middle East are worrisome. More »Egyptian Elections Pose Danger for US

More »