Free Republic

I believe the American people have a right — indeed, a responsibility — to know what was done in their name; how these practices did or did not serve our interests; and how they comported with our most important values. The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless. They must know when the values that define our nation are intentionally disregarded by our security policies, even those policies that...

There's no official Sen. Ted Cruz presidential team — yet. But the Texas Republican is already surrounding himself with key strategists and advisers that could make his transparent White House ambitions a reality. The tea party firebrand relies on a small circle of advisers to inform his views and amplify his ultraconservative message. The inner circle breaks down into two groups: his chief advisers in the Senate office, and the chiefs of his nationally-focused political operation, which he beefed up in the summer of 2014 by hiring a crop of seasoned Republican campaign operatives. These are the key players that...

Hopefully, Russians realize that our House of Representatives often passes thunderous resolutions to pander to special interests, which have no bearing on the thinking or actions of the U.S. government. Last week, the House passed such a resolution 411-10. As ex-Rep. Ron Paul writes, House Resolution 758 is so "full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from the chilliest era of the Cold War." H. R. 758 is a Russophobic rant full of falsehoods and steeped in superpower hypocrisy. Among the 43 particulars in the House indictment is this gem: "The Russian Federation invaded the Republic of Georgia...

(CNN) -- Just about six years after his career seemed to come to a crashing halt, when Barack Obama defeated him in the presidential election of 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain is poised to re-emerge as a major player in the next two years. As the new chairman of the influential Armed Services Committee, McCain will be able to use this perch of power to loudly challenge the President's foreign policy agenda. Call it McCain's revenge. For several years, it seemed as if McCain was finished. The 2008 election delivered a huge blow to his political standing. Once considered the...

Sen. John McCain is blocking the confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominee to be America’s second-highest ranked diplomat. McCain says Tony Blinken, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, is “totally unqualified” to serve as Secretary of State John Kerry’s understudy. …

"We need somebody who's got experience. You're here for the 'Colbert bump.' Is this a trial balloon to be secretary of defense?" Colbert asked. "Actually, I was thinking about running for president again. What do you think?" McCain deadpanned. "You would have the full resources of the 'Colbert Report' at your back in 2016 — if it were still on the air," Colbert shot back.

While the primary politics of 2016 may not afford movement conservatives a great many opportunities to take on establishment Republicans in primaries, there si one notable exception. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will be 80 years old, if or when he stands for re-election. On top of that, he's the establishment Republican many conservatives love to hate most and there are reasons to think he's vulnerable. Issues-wise, he's weak on immigration, the Bush tax cuts and cap and trade. There also appear to be viable challengers, should McCain opt to not retire, as many either wish, or believe he should. Reps....

Democrats hope to take back control of the Senate in 2016, but their plans could be complicated by potential retirements. The two Democratic senators most likely to retire are Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who represent both sides of the party’s ideological spectrum. Boxer, whose fourth term expires at the end of 2016, has a paltry $149,000 in her campaign account, less than almost every other senator facing election next year. As the nation’s most populous state, California is expensive to cover with advertising. If Boxer decides to run for reelection, she would face a major fundraising...

Washington (CNN) -- South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is getting encouragement from a close colleague and friend, Sen. John McCain, to run for President. "I think he is looking at it, and I am strongly encouraging him to take a look at it," McCain, an Arizona Republican, told ABC News in a story published Monday. "I know of no one who is better versed and more important on national security policy and defense than Lindsey Graham, and I don't think these challenges to our security are going away." Graham floated the possibility of a run in an interview with the...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) implied that he would run for another Senate term in 2016 and is worried that he is the top target of conservatives and Tea partiers who have never trusted him. “You have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst,” McCain told MSNBC on Wednesday when asked if he would run for reelection in 2016. “I definitely think that I would have to absolutely anticipate a tea party candidate or two or three... everybody tells me that I’m the number one target of the tea partiers.” McCain told the left-wing outlet that he was...

Senators John McCain and Ted Cruz don’t exactly have the best relationship. Cruz has said Republicans like McCain are why their party doesn’t do better, and McCain has not been shy about publicly dumping on Cruz, especially during last year’s government shutdown. And in a new interview with Salon today, McCain wanted to make it clear that the incoming crop of Republicans that will give their party control of the Senate will not be Cruzes. McCain even claimed that a lot of the GOP Senate candidates who won are in the same mold as himself and Lindsey Graham.

“And I would imagine from my first glance at her credentials that she would get approved by the Senate. This is a very outstanding young woman from everything that I can tell.”(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said Monday that based on his first impression, he assumes U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch will get approved by the Senate to replace outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder. McCain called Obama’s nominee and the chief federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York an “outstanding young woman.” “I think elections have consequences and therefore you give his nominees the benefit of the doubt,...

Sen. Chuck Hagel, who accompanied Sen. Barack Obama on his trip to South Asia and Iraq last week, criticized the McCain campaign for its latest television ad attacking the Democratic candidate. The ad blasts Obama for not visiting wounded troops during his visit to Germany. Obama has said he chose not to cancel a visit to a military hospital there after consultations with the Pentagon, due to concerns that such a visit might be seen as using wounded troops for political purposes. The McCain ad, which contains footage of Obama bouncing a basketball before U.S. military personnel in Kuwait, implied...

Republican Sen. John McCain discusses Tuesday's elections, his disapproval of President Obama's policies and talk of using executive order to push through immigration reform.

Sen. John McCain is the least popular senator in the country of those surveyed by Public Policy Polling, with low marks from members of his own party, independents and Democrats. Just 30 percent of Arizona voters approve of the job the Republican senator is doing, while 54 percent disapprove, according to a PPP release Thursday. That is the worst of any senator’s polling in the nation that PPP has found. Among members of his own party, McCain is at 35 percent approval to 55 percent disapproval; the comparable figures among Democrats are 29 percent to 53 percent, and among independents,...

National Security Advisor Susan Rice disputed Republican critiques of President Obama's foreign policy by arguing that "political polarization" accounts for the "one weakness" of American strength in international affairs. "The one weakness that our friends and partners point to and the one thing that undermines our strength around the world is our political polarization," Rice said during an event hosted by the Women's Foreign Policy Group. Rice didn't mention Republicans specifically, but cited policy fights that they have provoked, such as over budget issues. "When countries look at us, they wonder and they worry if we will have our collective...

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would work with Congress on new war powers to fight Islamic State militants and expressed cautious optimism about whether the international face-off over Iran's nuclear program will be resolved — two issues that could prove harder for the White House to maneuver with Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill. Obama spoke at a news conference the day after his party was thrashed by Republicans in midterm elections, leaving the GOP soon to be in charge of both the House and the Senate. When he approved U.S. airstrikes in late September against extremists who have...

One of the president's chief critics could soon lead the Senate's main military committee. With Republicans gaining the majority in the upper chamber in Tuesday's midterm elections, Sen. John McCain is widely expected to become the next Armed Services Committee chairman in January. McCain, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008, has decades of experience in foreign policy and defense issues in the Senate, where he was first elected in 1986. He also served in the Navy, and he spent more than five years as a prisoner of war after his plane was shot down during the Vietnam War.

Your tax dollars -and international credibility- pissed-away on ISIS Then there's this one ISIS just posted on their website: The guy in the mustache/striped shirt posting with McCain isGeneral Salim Idris, who was the Free Syrian Army's Chief of Staff at the time.  An East German-trained electronics professor, he was a general in the Syrian Army under Assad when he defected to the rebels in July 2012. Idris was thought by McCain to represent the moderate elements of Syria's armed opposition, who subscribed to the pro-democracy Proclamation of Principles. But ISIS kicked him -and other 'moderates'- out and went on the savage offensive...

There are several debates when it comes to Barack Obama. One has to do with whether he is more Marxist or more Muslim. The answer may involve his usage of one to promote the elevation of the other ... Though Brzezinski rightly expressed concerns that the ‘Arab Spring’ could turn into the ‘Arab Winter’, he essentially advocated a repeat of his 1979 Afghanistan strategy in Libya ... After Gadhafi was overthrown, four Americans were murdered in Benghazi and the U.S. abandoned its embassy in Tripoli. Those of us with much less worldly experience knew it was a bad idea. How...