Free Republic

Despite his war wounds, can Bob Kerrey still kick Chris Matthews' butt? We might soon find out, because on this evening's Hardball Matthews lumped Kerrey into a group of Clinton sycophants he derided as "castratos" and a "eunuch chorus." Chris was kvetching about the way a variety of Hillary Clinton supporters including Kerrey have lined up to take shots at Barack Obama. The former Nebraska senator went out of his way, in endorsing Hillary yesterday, to draw attention to Obama's Muslim background. View video here.

Joe Scarborough: MSNBC's kind of Republican. The sort who not only tells Democrats they're "very badly" needed in Washington. Who not merely expresses the desire to write them a campaign check. But who even volunteers [tongue-in-cheek, one would hope] to do illegal check-bundling for them a la Norman Hsu. After recently putting in an embarrassingly sycophantish performance when interviewing Hillary Clinton, Scarborough was back ingratiating himself with another Dem today. Interviewing former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey on "Morning Joe," talk inevitably turned to the possibility of Kerrey seeking a Senate seat again. Scarborough waxed wildly enthusiastic.View video here. JOE SCARBOROUGH:...

A possible title bout between political heavyweights Mike Johanns and Bob Kerrey for the U.S. Senate has the makings of a marquee matchup. The clash of past champions would offer voters a choice between two distinctly different personalities, each with a lengthy public record to defend. It would be a fight with national implications: Democrats would view it as a chance to widen their Senate majority; Republicans would be forced to defend a seat in a red state. The only thing missing? The fighters themselves. Neither man has entered the ring, despite being heavily recruited by his party. Democrat Kerrey...

It is the kind of embarrassment that any school would want to avoid: an esteemed board member who has given generously of his time and money gets caught in a headline-grabbing scandal. And in the case of the New School in Greenwich Village, it turned out to have some national resonance: Norman Hsu, a major Democratic donor active in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign and a New School trustee, was found to be a fugitive who had skipped out after a felony theft conviction in California 15 years ago. Compounding matters, he failed to show up for a court...

The political winds are picking up in Nebraska, but determining which direction they'll go has become a game of speculation swirling around the intentions of Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel. The air of uncertainty began when Hagel, 60, promised to discuss his political future at an Omaha news conference in March, and many expected the second-term senator to announce a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Instead, Hagel simply said he was leaving his options open, raising a number of questions and the possibility that he might not run for re-election. The lack of certainty foreshadowed a possible showdown that could...

Hagel to announce his future plans next Monday Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who is up for re-election next year, will be making an announcement on his political future Monday morning at 11:00 EST in Omaha, Nebraska. Hagel hasn't announced what his decision will be, but he has hinted recently that he may be ready to step down. Washington Post columnist David Broder, after interviewing Hagel last week, wrote that "my guess is that he will say that 12 years of battling the institutional lethargy of Capitol Hill will be enough." Hagel has been one of the president’s harshest GOP critics...

Former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) seems to be creeping ever closer to a Senate race in 2008, telling the board of trustees at the New School -- where he serves as president -- that a candidacy is a possibility.... Kerrey seems convinced that Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) has decided against running for a third term in 2008, creating an open seat and a golden opportunity for the Democrat's return to Washington. Kerrey has spoken with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) about the possibility and would probably have the right of first refusal among Democrats; "I was flattered that...

Bill Clinton: Wall Street Journal Editorials Even More 'Irrational' Than Fox News Pundits By Tim Graham | August 8, 2007 - 09:07 ET While Hillary Clinton was assuring the union crowd last night that she knows how to battle the "right-wing machine," Huffington Post blogger Blake Fleetwood reports that Bill Clinton is still taking on the Clinton-challenging media machine. At a fundraiser closed to reporters (but not to bloggers?), the former president asserted "the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News." He also asserted that...

May 23, 2007, 5:00 a.m. Preoccupied with Democracy in IraqLike Bush, Bob Kerrey is courageous, and confusing, on fighting radical Islam. By Andrew C. McCarthy Kudos to former Senator Bob Kerrey. The Nebraska Democrat has written a stirring opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, eloquently arguing that we must defeat al Qaeda in Iraq. Surely, it will win him no fans among the hard Left that today controls his party. Kerrey boldly holds the mirror up to the surrender lobby. “Iraq,” he writes, “has become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the...

At this year's graduation celebration at The New School in New York, Iranian lawyer, human-rights activist and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi delivered our commencement address. This brave woman, who has been imprisoned for her criticism of the Iranian government, had many good and wise things to say to our graduates, which earned their applause. But one applause line troubled me. Ms. Ebadi said: "democracy cannot be imposed with military force." What troubled me about this statement -- is that those who say such things seem to forget the good U.S. arms have done in imposing democracy on countries like Japan...

Former Clinton political hitman James Carville, who recently touted New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for a 2008 presidential run, is reportedly behind an advertising campaign attacking President Bush for his 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock as well as his ties to the oil industry in general. American Family Voices, a group described by the New York Times as "secretive," has paid to run a 30-second commercial on cable news programs in Washington, D.C., and in New York through Thursday. The ad blasts President Bush as "sly like a fox" for talking down his dealings with Harken Energy, which Democrats...

It’s the time of year when long-suffering tuition-poor parents get primped up and drive countless miles to stew in summer’s heat, sitting on excruciatingly uncomfortable folding wooden seats on damp fields, gnats biting at their ankles and ears. They do this for one reason: to see their offspring get their long-hoped-for diplomas. (After which the detritus collected over four or more years gets piled into the car with the offspring and returned home.)

NEW YORK -- Arizona Sen. John McCain received a cantankerous reception during his appearance at the New School commencement Friday, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised signs in protest and a distinguished student speaker pointedly mocked him as he sat silently nearby. The historically liberal university has been roiled in controversy in recent weeks over the selection of McCain, a conservative Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate, to deliver the commencement address. Some 1,200 students and faculty signed petitions asking the university president, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, to rescind the invitation. Petitioners said...

...a beautiful prose poem to America, national service, and civil debate (congrats Mark Salter, as ever), and gets derided for it, of course. “I supported the war in Iraq.” Boos. Explains the war was not for cheap oil. A little heckling: “You're full of it!” Says he thought the “country's interest and values demanded” the war. Someone shouts: “Wrongly!” Someone else: “More poetry!” (A reference to lines from Yeats McCain had quoted earlier.) He says “whether [the war] was necessary or not...we all should shed a tear” for those who have sacrificed in it. Some hissing. Shouting. He eventually enters...

If hypocrisy and doublethink were Olympic events, New York’s academic community would be awash with gold medals. Two controversies this month have shown the extent to which noble and supposedly immutable concepts like free speech and opposition to censorship can be tweaked and twisted to suit political agendas. The New School’s president, Bob Kerrey, has invited Senator John McCain to address the university’s commencement ceremony on Friday. Some students are so angry about this that they have organized a petition to get the invite revoked. Senator McCain’s crime appears to be that he is a conservative. The protesters’ absurd rationale...

Not in D.C. Anymore For some students at the New School, in Manhattan, their institution and conservative politicians go together as well as Swiss cheese and peanut butter. Bob Kerrey, the institution’s president and a former Democratic governor and senator from Nebraska, announced this spring that U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and past and possibly future presidential candidate, would be the commencement speaker at the New School. Kerrey said the senator’s acceptance “is a big honor for our graduates and their families.” But hundreds of students, staff and faculty members at the institution of about 9,000 students have...

For some students at the New School, in Manhattan, their institution and conservative politicians go together as well as Swiss cheese and peanut butter. Bob Kerrey, the institution’s president and a former Democratic governor and senator from Nebraska, announced this spring that U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and past and possibly future presidential candidate, would be the commencement speaker at the New School. Kerrey said the senator’s acceptance “is a big honor for our graduates and their families.” But hundreds of students, staff and faculty members at the institution of about 9,000 students have signed paper and online...

CAIRO, Egypt - A former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner says a recently declassified Iraqi account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda. In an interview yesterday, the current president of the New School University, Bob Kerrey, was careful to say that new documents translated last night by ABC News did not prove Saddam Hussein played a role in any way in plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001. Nonetheless, the former senator from Nebraska said that...

9/11 Commissioner and Former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey: Iraq-al Qaeda Docs "Tie [Saddam] into a Circle that Meant to Damage the United States" From today's New York Sun: CAIRO, Egypt - A former Democratic senator and 9/11 commissioner says a recently declassified Iraqi account of a 1995 meeting between Osama bin Laden and a senior Iraqi envoy presents a "significant set of facts," and shows a more detailed collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda. In an interview yesterday, the current president of the New School University, Bob Kerrey, was careful to say that new documents translated last night by ABC...

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission), an independent, bipartisan commission created by congressional legislation...is chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks...