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Bush was preparing to give a speech to the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The conference is the event of the year for conservative activists; Republican politicians are required to appear and offer their praise of the conservative movement. Latimer got the assignment to write Bush's speech. Draft in hand, he and a few other writers met with the president in the Oval Office. Bush was decidedly unenthusiastic. "What is this movement you keep talking about in the speech?" the president asked Latimer. Latimer explained that he meant the conservative movement -- the movement that...

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Q -- Why did your campaign lose? A -- I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too much of what had gone on in these last eight years, that Americans were kind of shaking their heads like going, wait a minute, how did we run up a $10 trillion debt in a Republican administration, how have there been blunders with war strategy under a Republican administration.

CARLSBAD, California (Reuters) - News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy economic backdrop over the next 18 months. Murdoch has yet to endorse a U.S. presidential candidate but considers Barack Obama very promising, the media magnate said in an interview by two Wall Street Journal reporters at an annual conference for high-tech industry insiders. News Corp recently acquired ownership of the Journal and its parent company Dow Jones & Co. "You have got the Obama phenomenon. You have got, undoubtedly, a recession ... The average American is...

In what could prove an embarrassing new setback for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the eve of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for his resignation. The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales. "Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of...

It is becoming evident to many -- including me -- that Tony Snow, as White House Press Secretary -- has had to bite his tongue more and more lately because the president will not or cannot defend his administration. At press conferences he is backed into a corner by the snarling mad dog MSM, which knows what blood smells like and knows the president does not fight back on domestic issues. Snow is a fighter and this appears to be eating away at him slowly. I expect his resignation before the fall. This would be a significant loss.

just breaking on FOX

BAGHDAD (AP) -- U.S. and Iranian envoys exchanged direct talks Saturday on efforts to end Iraq's violence and bolster its government, opening limited but potentially significant contacts that could ease their nearly 28-year diplomatic freeze. The discussions were confined to one session during a conference on Iraq stability, but they appeared to offer room for further interaction between the two nations _ which find themselves increasingly drawn toward common issues in Iraq as the nation's most influential allies. The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he exchanged views with Iranian delegates "directly and in the presence of others" at...

WASHINGTON -- At a time the nation is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Air Force is battling another enemy: age. The average age of military aircraft during the Vietnam War in 1973 was nine years. Today, the average age is 24 years, and venerable planes such as the KC-135 Stratotanker and the B-52H Stratofortress are well into their 40s, nearly twice as old as some of their pilots.

I was thinking about this and thought I'd get the opinion of FR. If there were no term linits, and W could run for a 3rd term, would he win the nomination? Would he have widespread conservative support? How much? Putting to one side the organization/money card and assuming that that was all a wash, if the primary in 2008 shaped up as: Bush McCain Romney Giuliani Gingrich Brownback Hunter Huckabee Who would win? Would would you vote for? Who would be the best chance to win 2008?

Los Angeles is the second-largest Mexican city in the world. It makes little sense to screen tourists, inspect cargo containers, and check the passenger lists of incoming flights, when our border remains porous. It is absolutely correct that the best way for jihadist cells to cross into the United States is from Mexico. At the same time, focus has turned more to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, in whom illegitimacy, school dropout rates, and criminal activity have risen to such [high] levels. Since 1990 the numbers of poor Mexican-Americans has climbed 52 percent. Half of births to Hispanic-Americans were...

US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice was quizzed yesterday over the failure by the current US administration to present any form of solid evidence over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. During the questioning one Republican congressman, Ron Paul told the hearing "Unproven charges against Iran's nuclear intentions are eerily reminiscent of the false charges made against Iraq." Paul went on to say "This sounds like Iraq, where accusations came first and proof was supposed to come later – only that proof never came because the accusations turned out to be false."

(CNSNews.com) - Weeks after accusing President Bush of "shameful" behavior over the imprisonment of two Border Patrol agents who shot an unarmed suspected drug smuggler along the U.S.-Mexico border, a federal lawmaker turned up the heat further Wednesday, suggesting the president should be impeached if either of the two men is murdered in prison.

There was someone in the gallery during President George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech that he would not dare publicly recognize. Even though he knew she was there, I’m confident he never even bothered to look up at Gallery 5, Row B, Seat 9, because sitting in that seat was Monica Ramos, the wife of imprisoned former Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos. She was the invited guest of Republican California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

The President is correct -- the U.S. is too dependent on foreign sources of energy, a necessary and vital component to national security. Government policies should do more to promote domestic energy production in all its forms, including but not exclusively related to motor fuels. The fact of the matter is that the country is over 70% self-sufficient when we consider total energy (coal, nuclear, hydro, renewables, gas, etc). Although much of that dependence relates to oil, the U.S. does not import nearly as much from the Middle East as some suggest. As energy expert Daniel Yergin recently pointed out...

Calls State of the Union speech 'total sellout of the United States of America to Mexico' Monica Ramos, the wife of one of two U.S. Border Patrol agents imprisoned last week for wounding an escaping drug smuggler, attended the State of the Union speech in person last night – and was sharply critical of President Bush, calling him a hypocrite and worse. Ramos, wife of Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos, attended the event as a guest of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean began prison sentences last week, of 11 and 12 years respectively, for their...

While liberal interest groups were quick to criticize President Bush's State of the Union comments on issues ranging from the war in Iraq to the environment, conservatives were also upset as he continued to push for immigration reforms that they claim go easy on illegal aliens. While Bush reported that he is doubling the size of the Border Patrol to monitor the U.S. border with Mexico and pledged to enforce immigration laws at the workplace, his temporary worker proposals are still a touchy subject for his conservative base. "We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to...

<p>President George W. Bush will give his 2007 State of the Union address to a Joint Session of Congress.</p>

STATE OF THE UNION EXCERPTS Tue Jan 23 2007 17:10:15 ET The American people expect their elected leaders from both parties to work together on the important issues facing the Nation. Tonight the President will lay out an ambitious agenda, driven by bold and innovative concepts. He will discuss the importance of forging common ground with the new Congress and explain that to keep America safe, we must prevail in the war on terror. “Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate – and I congratulate the Democratic majority. Congress has changed, but our responsibilities have...