Free Republic

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down under pressure, the first cabinet-level casualty of the collapse of President Obama’s Democratic majority in the Senate and the struggles of his national security team amid an onslaught of global crises. The president, who is expected to announce Mr. Hagel’s resignation in a Rose Garden appearance on Monday, made the decision to ask his defense secretary — the sole Republican on his national security team — to step down last Friday after a series of meetings over the past two weeks, senior administration officials said.

The top deputy to Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation on Thursday amid revelations that Operation Fast and Furious scandal guns were used to harm Americans in Phoenix in 2013, a development top congressional Republicans say President Obama’s administration sought to cover up. ... Holder, the attorney general, has failed to cooperate with the Fast and Furious congressional investigation led by Issa and Grassley. Holder was voted, on a bipartisan basis, into both criminal and civil contempt of Congress—a first in the history of the United States for a Cabinet-level official—after he failed to provide documents to Issa’s committee...

The Justice Department second-raking official is preparing to step down, completing an exodus of top brass from the agency, according to published reports. Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole would become the third member of the Justice Department’s brain trust to announce his departure in recent weeks. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder announced his departure in late September, though he has pledged to remain in office until his successor is in place. The White House has indicated that President Obama would not nominate anyone for the position untl after the November midterms. Associate Attorney General Tony West, the third-ranking DOJ official,...

Less than a year ago, Mark Driscoll, an evangelical pastor, was flying high. His hometown Seattle Seahawks were in the Super Bowl, and the brash pastor scored a big, faith-fueled interview with five of the team's top players, including quarterback Russell Wilson. But in a remarkably fast fall from grace, Driscoll resigned Tuesday as pastor of Mars Hill Church, a congregation he founded 18 years ago and turned into a force in the mostly secular Pacific Northwest. In a statement, Mars Hills' board of overseers said Driscoll hadn't committed any acts of "immorality, illegality or heresy" -- sins that have...

The White House sprayed by bullets. A hospital guard with a criminal record and a gun the Secret Service didn't know about riding on an elevator with the president in Atlanta. The fence-jumper who made it all the way into the East Room of the White House. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson had no choice but to resign on Wednesday afternoon. She did it a week or two late, but she did the right thing. The vaunted federal agency -- whose core duty is to protect the president of the United States, his family and his home - has become...

In light of a federal judge denying a request from the Department of Justice to delay the release of a long-sought after Fast and Furious document list, the sister of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Kelly Terry-Willis, doesn't find the timing of Attorney General Eric Holder's resignation to be a coincidence. "I do not find it a coincidence that Eric Holder chose now to resign after Judge Bates denied the request from the DOJ to delay the release of the Fast and Furious documents. I personally think Eric Holder was really hoping that the documents would never be made public...

Scandal: The attorney general who oversaw the administration's Fast and Furious gun-walking operation into Mexico resigns right after a federal court denies a DOJ request to delay releasing Fast And Furious documents. Eric Holder's resignation as attorney general, like anything that occurs in the Obama administration, raises questions of timing. Pundits ask why now, with some suggesting President Obama is getting a two-fer — ginning up his base with tributes to the first African-American AG before the midterms while starting the nomination and confirmation process before a possible Republican takeover of the Senate in November. Rush Limbaugh has even suggested...

September 25,2014 Eric Holder Is Leaving Now, Because Obama Thinks The Senate Is Lost by MacAoidh/Scott McKay It’s busting out on to the wires today. Holder is resigning, effective as soon as his replacement can be confirmed. He had to do this now, rather than wait until after the midterms, because Holder’s tenure as Attorney General has been marked by a pattern of activist Leftism and constitutional/legal abuse such as has never been seen in American history, and if there is a Republican majority in the Senate next year they’re not going to be able to confirm anyone like him....

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to announce Thursday that he is resigning from the Obama administration, a Justice Department official confirmed to Fox News. The decision would cap a tumultuous six-year term for the nation's top law enforcement official. Holder is one of the few Cabinet officials to have stayed on since the beginning of the Obama presidency. The Justice official said Holder has agreed to remain on the job until his successor is confirmed. According to the official, Holder has discussed his plans with Obama on "multiple occasions" in recent months. "[He] finalized those plans in an hour-long conversation...

The timing on this move is, to say the least, curious. One of the last three members of Barack Obama’s original Cabinet will announce his resignation today, according to multiple sources talking with NPR. Eric Holder will step down as soon as his replacement can be confirmed — and that may be quite a fight: Eric Holder Jr., the nation’s first black U.S. attorney general, is preparing to announce his resignation Thursday after a tumultuous tenure marked by civil rights advances, national security threats, reforms to the criminal justice system and five and a half years of fights with...

Alex Salmond has left the Scottish Nationalists in turmoil after announcing he is to resign as First Minister and SNP leader only hours their decisive defeat in the independence referendum. Mr Salmond said his party, the Edinburgh parliament and Scotland would “benefit from new leadership” after voters rejected by a margin of 55 per cent to 45 per cent his plan to leave the UK.

MILAN— Luca Cordero di Montezemolo is to quit as chairman of Ferrari after 23 years at the company and just days after his boss said the luxury car brand's Formula One race results over the past six years were unacceptable. Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat F.MI +1.43% SpA, which owns 90% of Ferrari, will take over from Mr. Montezemolo, whose departure is effective Oct. 13. That is the same day Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a new company created out of a corporate reorganization, is slated to make its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Ferrari has long been Fiat's...

Sen. Barbara Boxer called rumors that she planned to resign "bizarre" during a news conference in San Francisco's Ferry Building late this morning. Boxer, 73, said she has no plans to leave a job she loves while serving her fourth term in the U.S. Senate and will decide next year if she will run for re-election in 2016. Speaking to a crowd of reporters, the senator highlighted multiple regional, state, national and international issues she will address when Congress returns to session on Monday following a five-week recess. She noted that this is the 54th straight month the country has...

Tough words from Billy and Karen Vaughn, whose only son Aaron gave his life in a 2011 crash of a SEAL Team Six Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, perhaps in the shootdown shortly after the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. For years, Barack Obama relied on the success of the bin Laden mission to make the argument that he could lead the nation in war. Now the Vaughns accuse Obama of “a cowardly lack of leadership,” and demand his resignation over the administration’s failure to stop ISIS when it had opportunities to do so: On Monday, the Vaughns wrote...

On the occasion of this week's 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency, The Washington Post sponsored a reunion featuring Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporters who "brought down" the 37th president. In fact, Nixon committed political suicide. He thought he could get away with what other politicians had done, but forgot the rules are different for Republicans. The Post event resembled a celebration with much laughter and stories about how Publisher Katharine Graham and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee had told the newsroom "no gloating" when it became apparent Nixon would resign. But gloat they did...

The mayor of San Marino has stepped down after he was captured on surveillance video tossing a bag of dog waste onto his neighbor’s walkway earlier this month. Dennis Kneier announced his immediate resignation Tuesday in a letter to the city and the City Council. “As is well known, early in the evening of Saturday, June 7, I had a lapse of judgment and discarded dog waste on a neighbor’s walkway,” Kneier wrote. “It was insensitive, disrespectful and wrong. I have apologized to my neighbor for my action, and I will pay a fine for littering. I can understand why...

Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday, after more than a month of battling criticism about access to care and tampering with official wait lists at VA health centers. At a meeting with President Barack Obama, during which Mr. Shinseki presented the VA's internal findings of improper scheduling procedures and long wait times across the VA health system, the retired general offered to resign to give a new VA leader the chance to fix the systemic problems at the department. His resignation marks his second departure from public service since his career began in the military in the...

David Cameron has promised to quit as Prime Minister if he is unable to deliver an in-out referendum on the European Union by 2017. He promised he would not “barter away” the referendum in new coalition negotiations, as an angry Conservative activist told him the public do not believe he will deliver on his promise to give the British people a say on EU membership. There are fears the pledge could be blocked by the Liberal Democrats during coalition talks if the 2015 election produces another hung parliament. Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, claims Mr. Cameron has no intention of...

CLAREMONT, N.H.,A 79-year-old substitute teacher chose to resign from teaching after a very unfriendly dispute with school administrators in Claremont, N.H. Carol Thebarge opted to give up her job after 35 year instead of “unfriending” her students on Facebook. "Do we have the right as teachers, when we respect our students and our students respect us, to have that relationship?" Thebarge told WMUR. "I feel like mine is very safe. I have never been inappropriate." School administrators at Stevens High School told Thebarge that her account was a potential safety concern, especially after another teacher was let go after being...