Free Republic

After several mercifully Benghazi-free months, the 2012 attack on the diplomatic compound in Libya is about to be thrust back into the spotlight around its September 11 anniversary. The special House committee investigating Benghazi is finally expected to begin its work, in earnest, with its first hearing the week Congress returns from August recess. Meanwhile, two books promising explosive new allegations about the terror attack will hit shelves in September, and Fox News plans to air a new, one-hour documentary on the attack this week, featuring exclusive interviews with Americans who fought in the onslaught. Add that to the usual...

Like it or not, this truism is very true: Being president in the modern era requires a certain "It Factor." You don't need star power to make it to the U.S. Senate, or to rise in its leadership. (Looking at you, Senators Reid and McConnell.) You don't need an almost celebrity-like sexiness to succeed in the House. (Who among us would describe Steny Hoyer or Steve Scalise in such terms?) But when we're talking about the presidency, it's not enough these days to be a highly intelligent lawmaker with a history of policy expertise and success. You've got to have...

I know what you’re thinking: “Yes, Hillary will be nominated, but Mitt Romney? Again?” The problem with all the other potential GOP presidential candidates is that either they are indicted (Perry), about to be indicted (Walker, Christie), the Tea Party hates them (Rubio, Paul), or they are just too crazy, even for the GOP (Cruz, Palin, Bachmann). Then there’s Bush III (Jeb). When you see him on TV, doesn’t he seem to be half-asleep? Even his own mother thought he wouldn’t be a good candidate. Paul Ryan? He just doesn’t LOOK “Presidential.” He looks like Hoody Doody, baby boomers’ favorite...

Progressives really, really, really wanted to hear from Hillary Clinton on the events in Ferguson, Mo., where an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer on Aug. 9, sparking days of unrest in that small city outside St. Louis and elsewhere. Al Sharpton said he wanted to smoke Clinton out on Ferguson and suggested that if she ran in 2016, he would be a thorn in her side on civil rights issues. MSNBC host Chris Hayes thought it was “bizarre” that Clinton hadn’t at least weighed in with a statement on the incident, even though...

WASHINGTON — A House Republican-led investigation of the 2012 terrorist attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, will extend well into next year, and possibly beyond, raising concerns among Democrats that Republicans are trying to damage Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential prospects. Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina and the chairman of the House select committee on Benghazi, said his go-slow investigation was not motivated by politics. He said that he had gone out of his way to maintain good relations with Democrats on the committee, asking Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s ranking Democrat, to join...

Paul expanded on his remarks and offered a detailed rendering of his views on foreign policy that, regardless of their merits, are undoubtedly innovative for a man likely to seek the GOP's presidential nomination in 2016. … : I would say the objective evidence shows that Libya is a less safe place and less secure place, a more chaotic place with more jihadist groups—and really, we’ve had two really bad things happen because of Hillary’s push for this war. One is that our ambassador was killed as a consequence of not having adequate security and really as a consequence of...

Nearly three weeks after an unarmed black teen was gunned down in a St. Louis suburb by a white police officer, sparking violent riots and a national conversation about race, Hillary Clinton finally broke her silence about the ongoing tension in Ferguson, Mo. "Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown, as a mother, as a human being, my heart just broke for his family because losing a child is every parent's greatest fear and an unimaginable loss,” the former Secretary of State said Thursday at a technology conference in San Francisco. "Behind the dramatic, terrible pictures on television, there are...

Hillary Clinton addressed the events in Ferguson, Mo., on Thursday for the first time since the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer, calling for a "thorough and speedy investigation." "We don't want to see our streets look like a war zone. Not in America. We are better than that," she said at a technology conference in San Francisco, responding to images broadcast across the country of police in helmets and armored vehicles deploying tear gas. She also praised "decent and respectful law enforcement officers, who showed what quality law enforcement looked like." "We cannot ignore...

Hillary Rodham Clinton says the fatal shooting of an unarmed Missouri teenager and the violent protests that followed resulted from frayed bonds of trust in his racially divided community. […] As a potential Democratic presidential candidate, Clinton has been criticized for waiting so long to talk about the black teen’s shooting by a white police officer. …

Although LGBT behavior and lifestyles are gaining acceptance in the West, the same cannot be said about many corners of the world. Where the more “liberal” West is defined by its focus on individual rights, the Middle East, Africa, and East are defined more by their focus on cultural rights, thus the individual right to express sexual identity is less significant in these regions than the cultural right to maintain traditional values. Because sexual identify plays a significant role in cultural identity, even tolerating LGBT behavior is asking for a considerable shift in cultural values and practices. Instead of inspiring...

Calling Hillary Rodham Clinton “a war hawk,” Sen. Rand Paul says that if the former secretary of state seeks the presidency, some voters will worry that she will get the U.S. involved in another Mideast war. Paul is a leading anti-interventionist in the GOP and is considering running for president. Last year he opposed President Barack Obama’s call for military action in Syria. […] “I think that’s what scares the Democrats the most, is that in a general election, were I to run, there’s gonna be a lot of independents and even some Democrats who say, ‘You know what? We...

I’m surprised, not because I think Hillary’s wildly more popular than O but because, in year six of an increasingly lame lame-duck presidency, you’d think “anyone but Obama” sentiment would be high on both sides. And since Hillary’s the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, she’s the obvious “anyone” in a poll like this. Democrats can idealize her and pretend that she would have avoided all of the mistakes that Obama’s made; Republicans, having concluded that no one could possibly be worse than The One, can prefer her on those grounds alone.But that’s not what we see.The obvious explanation for the Democratic numbers,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

We are regularly told by our prognosticating betters that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might as well already be the Democratic PartyÂ’s 2016 nominee. She is inevitable; more inevitable, in fact, than the last time she was inevitable. But there has been grumbling on the progressive left about Clinton for months. She is seen by many in the Democratic PartyÂ’s left-wing as too close to Wall Street, too hawkish on foreign affairs, and behind the eight ball on social issues like supporting same-sex marriage rights. Will they settle for Hillary? Sure. Are they enthusiastic about a second Clinton...

Hillary Clinton hasn't been seen this year on the campaign trail or at fundraisers for Democrats running for the Senate. She's not following the course of a politician she has been compared to frequently: Richard Nixon. As Patrick Buchanan shows in his recent book, "The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority," Nixon campaigned tirelessly for Republican candidates in the 1966 midterm elections. That election produced big Republican gains, and helped elect Nixon president in 1968. So why isn't Clinton following Nixon's example? Simply? She doesn't see this as a good year for her...

The rank spectacle of ex-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton suddenly turning on her commander in chief and former boss to shiv him in the back over the burning ruins she helped make of the Middle East is staggering to behold. The brassiness, dishonesty and shamelessness as she slides into yet another presidential campaign season is enough to choke that old Arkansas draft mule of a husband she hitched her career to. The scheming calculation of it all would make Lady Macbeth take to the bed for blushing. How on earth did such a crafty street fighter get so completely...

Hillary Clinton has come under fire this summer for her speaking fees, including some charged for events at universities and colleges where many students put themselves deep in debt to get their education. Clinton and her defenders insist that those fees get paid out by donors, not the schools themselves, and that some of those fees get donated to the Clintons’ charitable foundation rather than into her pocket. Those pockets get a pretty cushy ride back and forth to these events, though, as the contract for her UNLV speech uncovered by the Las Vegas Review-Journal details: According to a...

This week former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stirred up a kerfuffle in an interview published in The Atlantic magazine by implying that the Obama Administration’s foreign policy was “a directionless mess.” President Obama angrily rebuffed Clinton’s remarks as “horse shit.” However, the soothing ambiance of a gathering at a posh Martha’s Vineyard resort has dampened down combative tempers on both sides. As a spokesman for Hillary explained, “it was a case of public perception vs. core reality. Given the President’s abysmal voter approval ratings it is imperative that any Democrat who hopes to win an upcoming distance herself from...

Wherever Hillary Clinton is going, she needs at least a Gulfstream G450 to get there. The once nearly “dead broke” former First Lady now makes steep demands when she gives speeches to corporations, groups and universities, according to emails between Clinton’s agent and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where Clinton will earn $225,000 for a 90-minute speech in October. The school received a bit of a break from the $300,000 Clinton requested during initial negotiations, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which obtained the emails that were sent last year. The correspondence showed that Clinton normally requires “round-trip transportation...

Hillary Rodham Clinton likes to travel in style. She insists on staying in the “presidential suite” of luxury hotels that she chooses anywhere in the world, including Las Vegas. She usually requires those who pay her six-figure fees for speeches to also provide a private jet for transportation — only a $39 million, 16-passenger Gulfstream G450 or larger will do. And she doesn’t travel alone, relying on an entourage of a couple of “travel aides,” and a couple of advance staffers who check out her speech site in the days leading up to her appearance, much like a White House...