Free Republic

Trump at a rally tonight (11/5) sums up his competition, and refers to Ron Desantis as "Desanctimonious"

President Biden's National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is one of the key officials fending off criticism. He was doing much the same after another bungled government action in a different Islamic country nearly nine years ago: Libya Benghazi The Obama administration, including Sullivan, who was then Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, heaped public blame for the attacks upon a "spontaneous mob inspired by an anti-Muslim video." However, emails showed all U.S. officials knew from the earliest moments that the attacks were planned and executed by an Islamic terrorist group. In the Afghan debacle, fault is...

Palestinians plan to engulf the Gaza border with smoke and flames from thousands of burning tires on Friday as Israel holds firm to its order to shoot any protesters who come close to the security barrier. In the past several days, groups of young Gazans have been collecting old tires around the Strip and bringing them to the border. Palestinians intend to light the tires on fire to blur the vision of the soldiers on the Israeli side of the security fence, according to a Gaza-based source familiar with preparations for what he called “the Friday of Old Tires.

The wait is over. Fox News said Tuesday that Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich will all appear on the dais Thursday for the first prime-time debate of the primary season. The seven other major declared candidates -- Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki, and Jim Gilmore -- will appear at a debate earlier Thursday evening. The debate in Cleveland marks the beginning of a new stage in the Republican nominating contest, where candidates will likely...

C’mon, you know I had to blog it. I’m thisclose to starting an official RomneyWatch™ feature for this subject on Hot Air. Although, given the conditions she lays out in the clip, I should probably call it JebWatch™ instead. (JebWatch™ alert: He’s headed to the early primary stateof South Carolina next month to raise money for Nikki Haley.)If memory serves, Ann was the Romney who was most adamantly opposed to Mitt running again in 2012. The 2008 campaign had been disappointing, grueling physically and emotionally, and she didn’t want the family to endure another ordeal. She came around eventually. You would think...

The GOPe RINOS and their enablers are starting to believe that grassroots tea party conservatives are their enemy. And they might even be right for a change. So how are they going to combat that? Why, by moving even farther to the left, of course. Would never occur to these yahoos to even try to stand on principle and lock-in the grassroots conservative vote. Our representatives are permanently out to lunch. What do you think? Should we moderate our stance or soften our positions on abortion? Homo marriage? Gun control? Amnesty? Border security? National security? Commie health care? Big government?...

George W. Bush-era energy policy wonks are finding a new home with Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor can count on support from a who’s who of former Bush officials willing to raise money, brainstorm policy ideas and generally help spread the word among the ranks of like-minded GOP energy experts. Already on board the Romney train are Jim Connaughton, who ran Bush’s White House Council on Environmental Quality for all eight years; former Assistant Energy Secretary Andy Karsner; former EPA air chief Jeff Holmstead; and former EPA congressional affairs liaison Edward Krenik. The former Bush officials all told POLITICO...

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama is executing the pirouette familiar to politicians who inveigh against Washington: First you run against its insiders, then you hire them. During the campaign, the candidate made some overly broad promises about ejecting lobbyists from the government Now, as president-elect, he is trying to adjust those declarations to the reality that an absolute ban on lobbyists would be both unnecessary and self-defeating.

As President-elect Barack Obama quickly selects officials for his administration, attention is starting to turn to the potential obstacles they face in Senate confirmation hearings. The Associated Press, citing a Democratic source, reports that John Podesta, a leader of Obama's transition team, had told Senate aides on Friday that Obama hoped for a speedy confirmation so the new administration could get to work quickly thereafter. But past controversies involving some of his picks could make for bloody hearings. The latest list of Obama's expected Cabinet selections includes Hillary Clinton for secretary of state, Timothy Geithner as his Treasury secretary, Eric...

DailyKos and DemocraticUndergroud types are starting to get a bit miffed at their messiah. So far, no one from their ranks has been given the nod to take a spot on Obama's staff or to fill his cabinet openings. The "progressives" are noticing, too, that far from bringing a "new" wave of politics to Washington, so far Obama is bringing back the age of Clinton. Instead of Washington becoming Obamopolis, it is a re-birthed Clintonville that is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. It is certainly too early to claim that Barack Obama is going to be a...

Doesn't it look like Obama is trying to steal all of Clinton's "soldiers"? It looks like he is going far beyond just reusing the old Cinton people for their experience. He is relying so much on the Clinton administration people that it really looks like he is doing it for political reasons. It looks like he is trying to eviscerate the Clinton machine. This way their loyalty will be to Obamana, not Hilary. This will also make it much more difficult for her to run against him in four years since most of the Clinton's old loyalists will be on...

If I told you that there was something in Washington called the Baker commission but didn't tell you what it was about, you still could probably name many of its members. If you are of a certain age, you might wonder, "Jim or Howard?" And you might have a quibble or two. Where is Dick Holbrooke? Does Sandra Day O'Connor's new availability mean that Madeleine Albright is out of luck from now on? Are they sure that Larry Eagleburger is still alive? But Vernon Jordan is there, along with Ed Meese and Alan Simpson and Lee Hamilton. This is one...

The press is having a field day trying to spin the story that the 9/11 Commission has conclusively contradicted the White House on whether there were ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Yesterday The New York Times began their lead editorial titled The Plain Truth: It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11. Now President Bush should apologize to the American people, who were led to believe something different. The...

http://www.co.alameda.ca.us/rov/current_election/6362.htmEvidence that Berkeley is living in the past...Mayor Tom Hayden!!