Free Republic

Embattled U.N. envoy Susan Rice is dropping out of the running to be the next secretary of state after months of criticism over her Benghazi comments, she told NBC News on Thursday.

(snip) But Joel Bennett, the lawyer for one of the accusers, who is a married federal employee who lives in Maryland, told CBS News today that his client is telling the truth. "I wouldn't characterize it as an ax to grind," Bennett said. "I'm sure she feels as though she wasn't treated properly by Herman Cain." But Bennett said said he does not remember the specific allegations, or what kind of settlement they eventually reached. (snip) "I reference this lady's height," Cain said. "And I was standing near her and I did this, saying 'you're the same height as my...

Here's an FR thread from when Mark Lloyd's article on the "Structural Imbalance in Broadcast Talk Radio" first appeared.

If you think American politics have gotten nastier, crueler, and more symbolic over the last 20 years, blame Ted Kennedy.

In a blistering rebuke, President Bush said Thursday that the Senate's procedure for approving federal judges has become too political and discourages qualified nominees from being considered. "The Senate is no longer asking the right question, whether a nominee is someone who will uphold our Constitution and laws," Bush said in excerpts of a speech he was to deliver Thursday night to The Federalist Society, a conservative group that emphasizes legal matters. "Instead, nominees are asked to guarantee specific outcomes of cases that might come before the court. If they refuse — as they should — they often find their...

The Chronicle's story today on the ongoing furor over Ann Coulter and the 'F-word', reports that the backlash includes a campaign initiated today by a gay rights group and media watchdog to persuade mainstream media outlets to dump her for good. The organizations in question, GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, are seeking to get rid of Coulter from the airwaves and from being syndicated to newspapers. Is all this a step too far?Ironically, GLAAD itself is the target of a campaign by the American Family Association to get the Ford Motor Co., a development noted by the gay web...

With the battle over the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court set to take center stage on Monday, the American people have undoubtedly become familiar in past weeks with his critics -- along with their criticisms, attacks and mischaracterizations. If the best predictor of future behavior is past performance, then it is reasonable to expect that a host of rather predictable, knee-jerk criticisms -- which have already been refuted with fact -- will be leveled against this fine nominee in a misguided effort to discredit his qualifications. As a preview of the coming debate, here...

It is premature to pronounce the job completed, but with the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for a seat on the Supreme Court, George Bush has substantially narrowed the rift with his conservative base he created with his nomination of Harriet Miers. Ms. Miers, a woman of many fine qualities, was perceived as simply lacking the constitutional sophistication to withstand the pressures of a liberal Court majority and its allies in the academy and the media sufficiently to help bring the Court back from its self-assumed role as a political rather than...

Is "miered" the new "borked"? Robert Bork's failed nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 spawned the verb "borked," defined loosely as getting rejected in an unseemly, even unfair, manner. Now there is talk online about whether Harriet Miers' withdrawal of her nomination to the high court will give rise to the term "miered." While liberals led to the opposition to Bork, it was conservatives who brought down Miers' nomination. A contributor to The Reform Club, a right-leaning blog, wrote that to get "borked" was "to be unscrupulously torpedoed by an opponent," while to get "miered" was to be "unscrupulously...

just breaking!!!!!!!!

Dear Laura Ingraham (AKA Helen of Troy): Shutup And Talk Just as your book Shut Up And Sing disqualifies actors and singers from exhibiting their political preferences because of their lack of expertise, I am asking you to call off the dogs on Harriet Miers. I am not merely a mind numbed loyalist to President Bush; I am only asking that you do criticize Harriet Miers, but not as obsessively - 7/24 - as you have. IOW How about another subject, Laura? You cannot see that you are becoming the elitist that you accuse everyone else of being. Who are...

With a Republican Senate, President Bush has the chance to succeed where Reagan failed by getting a conservative constitutionalist confirmed to the Supreme Court.ON OCTOBER 23, 1987--a day that lives in conservative infamy--Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by a Democratic Senate. Now, 18 years later, George W. Bush has the chance to reverse this defeat, and to begin to fulfill what has always been one of the core themes of modern American conservatism: the relinking of constitutional law and constitutional jurisprudence to the Constitution.The restoration of constitutional government has been the one area in which modern...

When Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987, the Reagan White House was not prepared to fight effectively for his confirmation. Indeed, Bork was such a respected judge and admired legal scholar that President Reagan and his aides assumed Bork would have a relatively easy time winning Senate approval. He lost 58-42. In preparing now for a vacancy on the high court, the Bush White House has studied the Bork confirmation fight. And it has learned lessons it hopes will help when President Bush picks a nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first justice to...

Well isn't that interesting: John Edwards is on his way out, so that makes Arlen Specter the trial lawyers' darling in the Senate. The liberal Specter is also in line to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If that happens, we're betting that President Bush's plans for tort reform will be dead on arrival. The real problem, though, will be the Senate approval for Supreme Court Justices. Bush may get to pick three this term, as well as elevate Clarence Thomas to Chief Justice. As Justice Committee chairman, will Specter play ball and support Bush's picks? Many groups around...

A rejoinder to Hugh Hewitt. What did Specter say last week? Specter, with the apparent support of Hewitt, claims that AP reporter Lara Jakes Jordan distorted his words. Specter didn't "warn" the president not to nominate judges who might vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. He merely predicted that such nominees would face filibusters. This explanation will not wash. The senator said that Roe was "inviolate" in his view; that it was settled law, like Brown v. Board; that any nominee who disagreed would face a filibuster; and that he "would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations...

It has been almost a year since President Bush nominated Arkansas lawyer Leon Holmes to the federal bench. Since that time, he has had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, but his nomination remains stalled. Holmes enjoys the support of his two home senators, Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. Even with their support, however, some Senate Democrats were uneasy with Holmes. Sen. Charles Schumer, the hard-core liberal New York Democrat, railed against Holmes, but those attacks began to subside last year. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has said the Holmes nomination wouldn't be filibustered by Democrats. So what...

<p>Meet Janice Rogers Brown, the latest judicial nominee headed for a filibuster. Senate Democrats would have you believe this black seven-year veteran of California's Supreme Court is somehow not qualified to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.</p>

Congratulations to my two U.S. senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. And to Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy. And to the whole, solid block of Democrats in the U.S. Senate.You must be very proud. All of you played a key role in blocking the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the federal judiciary. Month after month after month. For more than two years. Until finally he gave up and withdrew his name from consideration.

<p>In the months since President Bush nominated me to the board of the United States Institute of Peace, confirmation etiquette has obliged me not to talk about my nomination. I thus found myself having to remain mute as opponents said what they would about me.</p> <p>For five months, I quietly endured Sen. Edward Kennedy borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing peace" and a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer" of cultural bridges, among other slings.</p>

Etiquette called on me, as a nominee of the president of the United States, not to talk about my nomination to the board of the United States Institute of Peace while it was in process. Although the nomination was contested, I found myself having to remain mute as opponents said what they would about me. During five months of enforced quiet, I endured Senator Edward Kennedy borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing peace," a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer" of cultural bridges, and other slings. Fortunately, others responded on my behalf; for...

<p>IN the months since President Bush nominated me to the board of the United States Instititute of Peace, confirmation etiquette has obliged me not to talk about my nomination. I thus found myself having to remain mute as opponents said what they would about me. For five months, I quietly endured Sen. Edward Kennedy borking me as someone not "committed to bridging differences and bringing peace" and a Washington Post editorial criticizing me as "a destroyer" of cultural bridges, among other slings.</p>