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Apparently Jeb Bush’s focus on “The Donald” has become quite personal. Bush is said to be “deeply disappointed” that the media and corporate attacks on Mr. Trump have only made the outspoken billionaire’s appeal to voters that much stronger. It is a political dynamic for which Bush political operatives are increasingly confused and concerned over. Those concerns were said to be given some salve in the form of assurances from Bill Clinton during a personal call he had with Jeb Bush two days earlier. While most of that conversation remains private, Jeb did share with others that the former president...

Officials in PM's party aren't waiting for the election results: To them, it's already clear the campaign was a 'colossal failure,' thanks to Netanyahu. Likud officials aren’t waiting for the election results. On Wednesday, following less than favorable polls, senior officials labeled the election campaign a failure, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the party’s poor showing in the polls ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. “The Zionist Union will be larger than Likud after the election. This, it seems, is already a fact. The question is what the gap between the two will be. Even if we manage...

WASHINGTON - A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade. New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of...

<p>The new White House press secretary got into a familiar old spat with the White House press corps the other day over the use of anonymous sources.</p> <p>Josh Earnest — has there ever been a more perfectly named spokesman? — was a bit off in his timing. He lit into The Washington Post — and noted its reporters were absent from the briefing — for its alleged overuse of unnamed sources.</p>

Newt Gingrich plans to formally suspend or end his presidential campaign next Tuesday, senior Gingrich aides told Fox News.

“In the absence of a candidate who has any poetry — who has any ability to connect on an emotional level — how do you create a bond?” Romney’s agenda, the adviser said, is “warmed-over oatmeal” and needs to be bolder. “If you’re a super-charismatic candidate like George W. Bush or John McCain...They had other, more emotional-level, values-level ways to connect with voters. This guy just doesn’t have it. He has all the warmth of a Wall Street CEO.” ...the more they put on a facade, the more people pick up on it.” "...Mitt Romney is still a big question...

With just days to go before Nevada Republicans head to the polls to choose who they want to take on President Obama in November, reality show host Donald Trump is injecting himself into the race and endorsing Newt Gingrich. Trump's office announced Wednesday that he would make a major announcement Thursday morning in Las Vegas, without providing details of what he would say. Two sources confirmed to CBS News that the publicity savvy businessman plans to endorse the former House speaker in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Nevada holds its caucus Saturday.

UPDATE -Mayor Emanuel is denying he is involved in anyway with the exchange of information regarding Cain's sexual harassment accusers. Herman Cain's campaign is revealing suspicions about who is behind the story regarding the former unidentified employees who accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment in the late 1990's. According to a source who is friends with the Cain campaign, not only is the Rick Perry campaign involved but also the Mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is likely involved with the sexual harassment accuser attacks. A friend of the Cain campaign believes a...

Amid a hard fade in the polls and a struggle to remain in the 2012 spotlight, Michele Bachmann suddenly finds herself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons — namely, her troubling habit of making misstatements and demonstrably false claims. It’s a problem, former top staffers for the Minnesota congresswoman told POLITICO, that’s plagued her since she first arrived in Congress in 2007. Three former senior aides to Bachmann painted a picture of a shoot-from-the-lip member who cavalierly makes assertions without knowing the facts — and would occasionally make them up to suit her needs. The issue was...

"The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president," says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. "She's making money, she's moved on, she's kind of an entertainer rather than a politician. She still has some sway with the grass roots, but she is not going to run." "I don't think she's going to run," says a Republican close to Tim Pawlenty. "She has faded a lot in the last few months. I look at what she's doing now and say that she's found a way to get back in the story." Maybe these representatives...

An official from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) told the BBC that the compound was raided by the ISI while still under construction in 2003 when the agency believed senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libi was on site. Since then, however, the official claimed the intelligence agency had taken no interest in the facility: "The compound was not on our radar; it is an embarrassment for the ISI… We're good, but we're not God" (BBC, May 3). However, in a statement that appeared to reveal the confusion over the incident at the highest levels of the Pakistani government, an official from...

U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo MoziloBy E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times February 18, 2011, 4:11 p.m. Federal prosecutors have shelved a criminal investigation of Angelo R. Mozilo after determining that his actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing. As the former chairman of Countrywide Financial Corp., Mozilo helped fuel the boom in risky subprime loans that led to the crippling of the banking industry and the near-collapse of the financial system. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles began probing Mozilo in...

Federal prosecutors have ended a criminal investigation of Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo, a person close to the investigation said Friday. The federal official told The Associated Press that the probe launched in 2008 into the actions of the former chief executive of the housing giant during the mortgage meltdown has been closed with no indictments. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was never publicly announced, and the Department of Justice as a policy does not announce the closing of investigations. In October, Mozilo agreed to a $67.5 million settlement to avoid civil trial...

WASHINGTON - A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, recommended that the base's former commander be reprimanded, but a top general rejected the recommendation, according to a congressional aide familiar with the inquiry's findings. In the latest examination of a facility that has become a battleground over the U.S. treatment of detainees from the war against terrorism, the aide said investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive. But Gen....

Blog Police Creeps Are George Soros Plants For at least a month now a crew of three or four screen names here on Free Republic have been used to spam post after post all across the board. They have decided that they are Free Republic's police, they think they speak for the whole board, and have been attempting to drive people off this site. But are they real FReepers? Or are they something else? It is pretty clear that they are being paid to do this by a George Soros-styled, left wing organization to spam FR, attack posters, and attempt...

George W Bush has suggested that Republican leader Sarah Palin is "unqualified" and she spoiled the party's 2008 presidential election campaign, a top aide of the former US President has said. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man. He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin," a Republican official close to Bush was quoted as saying by the 'New York Daily News'. Bush suggested that the 46-year-old glamorous former Alaskan governor is not at all qualified to be President and criticised Senator John...

Mr Bush has allegedly told friends that Mrs Palin is not qualified to be president and criticises John McCain for picking her as his Running Mate in 2008 "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official close to Mr Bush told the New York Daily News. "He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin." Mr Bush has allegedly been disparaging about Mrs Palin in the past. Matt Latimer, former special assistant to Mr Bush, wrote in a book released last year:...

Ex-President George W. Bush rips wisdom of Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and John McCain to friends WASHINGTON - Two years of retirement haven't dulled George W. Bush's political zest - and President Obama and Sarah Palin are among his under-the-radar targets. The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News. "He thinks McCain...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin slammed reporters who write about her using anonymous sources Thursday, calling them “impotent” and “whack.” The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee made the remarks in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s WABC radio show. In response to a question about an upcoming trip to Iowa on Septmber 17, Palin singled out a piece in CQ Politics which reported that Palin had asked for an opportunity to speak in the Hawkeye state, instead of being invited to speak. “I did see a headline on CQ Politics and they’re way whack, saying that I asked for an opportunity...

LOS ANGELES, July 30 (UPI) -- Bristol Palin, the daughter of former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and her fiance, Levi Johnston, have split a second time, sources told E! News. The sources said the breakup followed a fight between the Alaska natives over one of Johnston's ex-girlfriends, E! News reported. The younger Palin, 19, and Johnston, 20, are the parents of a 19-month-old son named Tripp. Neither Palin nor Johnston has publicly commented on the latest split, E! News said.