Free Republic

On this day in 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigns in the wake of the Watergate burglary scandal. He was the first president in American history to resign. In a televised address, Nixon, flanked by his family, announced to the American public that he would step down rather than endure a Senate impeachment trial for obstruction of justice. Since 1972, Nixon had battled increasing vociferous allegations that he knew of, and may have authorized, a botched burglary in which several men were arrested for attempting to bug the offices of the Democratic National Committee...

Last week, U.S. Congressman Allen West looked the part of a college professor giving a lecture as he took the stage at the Lifelong Learning Center on the campus of Florida Atlantic College in Jupiter. At his second town hall meeting of the day, West gave a Power Point presentation without the often-distracting fanfare caused by protesters showing up wherever he appears. The room was not without distractions, however, and West handled them in a lighthearted manner, even having a little fun with the audience. But the subject matter during the presentation, and questions following, were no laughing matter.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Seven attorneys general trying to block the federal health care law's requirement for contraception coverage saw their lawsuit dismissed Tuesday by a federal judge who said they didn't have standing to file it. U.S. District Court Judge Warren K. Urbom ruled that the states failed to prove they would suffer immediate harm once that part of the law is enacted. The Nebraska federal judge also noted that President Barack Obama's administration has agreed to work with religious groups to try to address their concerns. The lawsuit was challenging a rule in the law that requires contraception...

Reflections on the Vice-Presidency, as Mitt Romney considers his options… It is said that, just before he died, President Dwight Eisenhower said “I only made two mistakes as president, and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court." He was mistaken. His biggest mistake was selecting Richard Nixon as a runningmate, because without those eight years as a vice president, it is inconceivable that ornery Senator Richard Nixon could have won the presidency. Only this credential from 1953 to 1961 could have facilitated that elevation. The same could be said of many presidents. The most important appointment – the...

Dave Spence was hard to miss in the Missouri capital's "Salute to America" parade. Wearing shorts in the 98-degree heat, the Republican businessman from St. Louis County zigzagged down High Street, energetically shaking hands, then jogging to catch up with the RV plastered with his billboard-sized photo. Not so noticeable was his rival in the Aug. 7 gubernatorial primary, Bill Randles of Kansas City. In jeans and a white polo shirt, Randles waved politely while walking down the center of the street alone. His wife Bev handed out candy along the curb while a volunteer followed in the couple's SUV....

    On Wednesday's Mark Levin Show:A House Congressional panel has voted to place Eric Holder in contempt of Congress regarding the Fast and Furious investigation.Also, President Obama has cited executive privilege and refuses to hand over evidence or documents regardingwhat he knew or when he knew it.Mark applauds the Republicans for standing up and delivering a blow to the tyranny that is going on, and urges them to keep at it. Mark explains the history of executive privilege, as well as the power of Congress versus the power of the Executive. It is clear that Eric Holder is at...

I’ll indulge in some measure of fiendish joy by suggesting to my left-leaning San Francisco neighbors that Barak Obama and Richard Nixon may soon share adjoining pages in history books. Disposing of partisan puffery, and being a member of no major political party, my partisanship is simply nonexistent, the country has almost witnessed the unfolding of a White House cover-up. I say this because some members of the mainstream media and the Obama re-election committee (am I being redundant?) have avoided reporting on the Fast and Furious gun running operation. For NBC Nightly News viewers, allow me to recap the...

"Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein now claim, in a Washington Post piece, that President Nixon was “far worse than we thought,” and accuse him of conducting five “wars”: against the anti-war movement, on the media, against the Democrats... The facts of Watergate have been wildly exaggerated. Neither in financing techniques nor in the gamesmanship with the other side was the Republican campaign of 1972 particularly unusual. And it was puritanical compared with what appears to have been the outright theft of the 1960 election for Kennedy over Nixon by Chicago’s Mayor Daley and Lyndon Johnson."

The White House asserted executive privilege Wednesday over some gun-trafficking-probe documents sought by congressional Republicans, throwing into uncertainty a possible vote to sanction Attorney General Eric Holder with contempt of Congress. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the contempt fight. The panel's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), said the committee was evaluating the White House's assertion. In a letter to Mr. Issa, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the president had asserted the privilege to block the documents from being released, but he held out the possibility of negotiating an agreement over...

Barack Obama’s administration is the most corrupt ever to occupy the White House declared Watergate burglar and retiring radio talk star G. Gordon Liddy. With tomorrow marking the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break in, Liddy was speaking today in an interview on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on New York’s WABC Radio. Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed during Richard Nixon’s presidency. Klein asked Liddy: “You lived through and in fact were a part of different presidential administrations. … Looking now at Barack Obama’s previous four years, have you ever seen a White...

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (Woodstein for our purposes) now claim, in a Washington Post piece, that President Nixon was “far worse than we thought,” and accuse him of conducting five “wars”: against the anti-war movement, on the media, against the Democrats, on justice, and on history. In evaluating such a volcanic farrago of pent-up charges, the facts must be arrayed in three tiers: the facts of Woodstein’s activities and revelations; the facts of the Watergate case and related controversies; and the importance of Watergate in an appreciation of the Nixon record.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: So the media is telling us it's been a bad week for President Obama. I'd rather look at it through a different prism. It has been not just a bad week, it has been a bad three-and-a-half years. Not for Obama, but for us. Every week is a bad week for America, with Barack Hussein Kardashian in the White House. Every year is a bad year for us. It has been a bad three-and-a-half years. And as much, ladies and gentlemen, as I am dedicated to the educational and informative task of teaching people about the destructive...

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, arguably the two most famous newspaper reporters in American history, did something on Sunday they haven't done in 36 years: They shared a byline in the Washington Post. Woodward and Bernstein, who are on a mini-publicity tour surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-ins, published a joint opinion essay for the Post's Outlook section about what they've learned since first reporting on the scandal: President Richard Nixon, who was forced to resign in the wake of Watergate, was "far worse than we thought."

Judy Shelton, an economist not on a university payroll, has sought to satiate this widespread curiosity in her book, Fixing The Dollar Now: Why U. S. Money Lost Its Integrity And How We Can Restore It... ... our first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton—widely thought to be, with some justification, an advocate of a strong, central government. “To emit an unfunded paper as the sign of value ought not to continue a formal part of the constitution, nor ever hereafter to be employed; being, in its nature, pregnant with abuses, and liable to be made the engine of imposition...

When I look back at history, I think it is just great how President Nixon is responsible for landing men on the moon. What's that? You say that President Kennedy is really responsible for initiating the plan years before, and that President Nixon just happened to be the guy in charge when it finally happened? Oh, ok. That's fine. I think it is just great how President Obama is responsible for killing bin Laden.

(CBS News) Chuck Colson, a former aide to Richard Nixon, evangelical leader, author and nonprofit founder, died Saturday at the age of 80.

As the 40th anniversary of Watergate impends, we are to be bathed again in the great myth and morality play about the finest hour in all of American journalism. The myth? That two heroic young reporters at The Washington Post, guided by a secret source, a man of conscience they dubbed "Deep Throat," cracked the case and broke the scandal wide open, where the FBI, U.S. prosecutors and more experienced journalists floundered and failed. Through their tireless investigative reporting, they compelled the agencies of government to treat Watergate as the unprecedented constitutional crisis it was. No Pulitzer Prize was ever...

Pat Nixon, née Thelma Catherine Ryan, byname Pat or Patricia (born March 16, 1912, Ely, Nevada, U.S.—died June 22, 1993, Park Ridge, New Jersey), American first lady (1969–74), the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, who espoused the cause of volunteerism during her husband’s term. Nicknamed “Pat” because of her birth on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Thelma Catherine Ryan was the daughter of William Ryan, a miner and farmer, and Katarina Halberstadt Bender Ryan, a German-born widow and mother of two boys. Soon after Pat was born the family moved to Artesia, California, where...

President Obama met with a group of Democratic governors on Friday and discussed plans to work around Congress toward policy goals. Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was “very good” and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress. “There was a sense that none of us should wait, we can’t wait for things to happen in Congress,” Markell said of the meeting. “We’re going to do what we can do [now].” Obama has positioned himself against Congress as...

Actress' claim to be gay by choice riles activistsLISA LEFF The Associated Press Posted: Sat, Jan. 28, 2012, 12:19 AM SAN FRANCISCO - Cynthia Nixon learned the hard way this week that when it comes to gay civil rights, the personal is always political. Very political. **SNIP** While the broader gay rights movement recognizes that human sexuality exists on a spectrum, and has found common cause with transgender and bisexual people, Nixon may have unwittingly given aid and comfort to those who want to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, adopt children and secure equal spousal benefits, said Jennifer...