Free Republic

What damage did Democrats suffer when they attacked Miguel Estrada?Both President Barack Obama and Republicans get something they want from the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. Mr. Obama said he wanted to replace Justice David Souter with someone who had "empathy" and who'd temper the court's decisions with a concern for the downtrodden, the powerless and the voiceless. "Empathy" is the latest code word for liberal activism, for treating the Constitution as malleable clay to be kneaded and molded in whatever form justices want. It represents an expansive view of the judiciary in which courts create policy that couldn't...

Talking with Megyn Kelly.

Rove sides with Limbaugh Posted: 01:32 PM ET Rove said he's siding with Limbaugh. Rove said he's siding with Limbaugh. (CNN) – In the ongoing war of words between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell, top Bush strategist Karl Rove is siding with the popular talk radio host. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Rove said Limbaugh would edge out the former secretary of state if he "had to pick between the two." Rove's comments come after a back-and-forth between Limbaugh and Powell, during which both have charged the other is hurting the GOP's chances of success in the future. Discussing divisions...

The Heritage Foundation is pleased to present the following webcast tonight for our members and supporters. You can watch the webcast live on MyHeritage.org.Tonight: Karl Rove on restoring conservatism Tuesday, May 19 at 8:15 p.m. Eastern — Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and now a political commentator, will explain how conservatives can recover from political setbacks at the inaugural event sponsored by the Southeast Michigan Committee for Heritage. The webcast will begin with brief remarks by Heritage President Ed Feulner. Watch the event live online on MyHeritage.org.  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former White House aide Karl Rove and a special prosecutor have ended their interview about the firing of U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration. Rove left his lawyer's office about a half-hour after prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who is weighing whether to bring criminal charges in the politically charged dismissals. The former presidential adviser declined comment as he left the interview, but a spokeswoman for his lawyer said Rove cooperated and tried to answer the prosecutor's questions. Dannehy's inquiry follows an earlier Justice Department inquiry in which Rove and other Republican officials refused to cooperate. That investigation concluded...

Someone important appears not to be telling the truth about her knowledge of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). That someone is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her. Here's what we know. On Sept. 4, 2002, less than a year after 9/11, the CIA briefed Rep. Porter Goss, then House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Mrs. Pelosi, then the committee's ranking Democrat, on EITs including waterboarding. They were the first members of Congress to be informed. In December 2007, Mrs. Pelosi admitted that she...

Someone important appears not to be telling the truth about her knowledge of the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs). That someone is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. The political persecution of Bush administration officials she has been pushing may now ensnare her. Here's what we know. On Sept. 4, 2002, less than a year after 9/11, the CIA briefed Rep. Porter Goss, then House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Mrs. Pelosi, then the committee's ranking Democrat, on EITs including waterboarding. They were the first members of Congress to be informed. In December 2007, Mrs. Pelosi admitted that she...

It is May 12. Pied Piper Pitt Day! Let the bells ring out in joy! Gather up your family for the celebrations! Today we honor the man who on May 12, 2006, just 24 business hours ago, broke the big journalistic scoop that Karl Rove had already been indicted.It was shortly after this revelation and arrest of Rove that William Rivers Pitt became the toast of the journalism world. He quickly left Truthout behind to become a regular guest on MSNBC and a respected pundit published far and wide. He could often be spotted in Peter Luger's steakhouse holding...

Few events mobilize as many interest groups and set Washington atwitter as much as a Supreme Court vacancy. In the Bush White House, I served on a five-person committee charged with recommending nominees for Supreme Court vacancies. We had the opportunity to do so twice, though admittedly it took us three nominees. We collected thick binders of background material on prospective nominees -- not just opinions, utterances and legal writings, but everything from college transcripts to tax-return summaries to charity dinner speeches. We had years to prepare, update and review this exhaustive research. It helped get Chief Justice John Roberts...

While officials in the Obama White House dismissed yesterday's "100 Days" anniversary as a "Hallmark Holiday," they understood it was what sociologist Daniel J. Boorstin called a "pseudo-event." By that, Boorstin meant an occasion that is not spontaneous but planned for the purpose of being reported -- an event that is important because someone says so, not because it is. What happens in a president's first 100 days rarely characterizes the arc of the 1,361 that follow. Jimmy Carter had a very good first 100 days. Bill Clinton did not. Still, a president would rather start well than poorly --...

Barack Obama was criticized harshly on Wednesday for leaving the door open to the prosecution of former Bush administration officials who authorized severe CIA interrogation procedures. Obama's decision to release classified memos last Thursday that detailed aggressive techniques on terrorism suspects that included waterboarding, sleep deprivation and forced nudity has triggered a political firestorm in Washington. Politicians on the left are eager to launch investigations into the Bush-era policies that were part of the effort to prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks, while those on the right said Obama seems to be breaking a pledge to look forward,...

Meghan McCain: Help! I'm being followed on Twitter by former Bush administration bigwig Karl Rove BY Michael Saul DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Updated Monday, April 20th 2009, 4:29 PM The daughter of 2008 GOP presidential candidate John McCain fingered Rove, former President George Bush's political guru, as an Internet stalker in her latest blog posting Monday. "Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy," wrote McCain, 24, on the DailyBeast website. McCain wrote she joined Twitter a few months ago because it allowed her to share the "less serious" and "humorously uncensored moments" of her life. Twitter, the wildly popular...

Meghan McCain loves Twitter — except for the "creepy people." Like Karl Rove. In a post for the Daily Beast published Monday, McCain says the social networking site has been a "liberating" experience for her — if only her dispatches weren't being read by the former Bush advisor. "Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That's creepy," she said. "I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It's allowed me to share the less serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there's also been...

Derided by elitists as phony, the tea-party movement is spontaneous, decentralized, frequently amateurish and sometimes shrill. If it has a father it is CNBC's Rick Santelli, who called for holding a tea party in Chicago on July 4. Yesterday's gatherings were made up of people who may never meet again (there's no central collection point for email addresses). But the concerns driving people to tea parties are real, growing and powerful. Politicians ignore them at their peril. One concern is the rise of state and local taxes. New York and California passed multibillion-dollar tax increases this year. Other states are...

Former White House political czar Karl Rove has a history of referring to Barack Obama as "arrogant." As the race between the Democratic senator from Illinois and Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain geared up last year, Rove went out of his way to attach the scarlet A for arrogance to Obama. The man who managed George Bush into the White House -- with an assist from partisan Republicans on the Supreme Court -- said on Fox News last July: "I will say yes, I do think Barack Obama is arrogant." ABC News reported that he had told a Republican gathering...

Former White House adviser Karl Rove's bare-knuckled response to recent statements by Vice President Joe Biden has brought into public view a growing resentment on the part of Bush administration veterans over what they regard as repeated and unwarranted slams from the Obama White House. The current president and his team are being "gratuitous, slightly petty, and slightly obsessive in blaming Bush for things," one former White House adviser told me. "Completely gratuitous," said another. "Unfair," said a third. The hard feelings surfaced after an April 7 interview on CNN in which Biden recounted a visit with George W. Bush....

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a "liar" on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden's claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings. "I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told FOX News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop." Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States." Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although...

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a "liar" on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden's claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings. "I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told FOX News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop." Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States." Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although...

Karl Rove doesn’t want to call Joe Biden a liar, but “serial exaggerator” probably undersells it. “He’s making these things up out of whole cloth,” Rove says about Biden’s claim that he spent “hours” alone with George Bush, and told him that “no one was following him.” In these circumstances, Rove’s epithet of “blowhard” might be the mildest description:

"It’s his imagination; it’s a made-up, fictional world. He ought to get out of it and get back to reality." http://www.butasforme.com/2009/04/10/biden-liar-scolding/

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a "liar" on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden's claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings. "I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told FOX News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop." Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States." Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although...

The Pew Research Center reported last week that President Barack Obama "has the most polarized early job approval of any president" since surveys began tracking this 40 years ago. The gap between Mr. Obama's approval rating among Democrats (88%) and Republicans (27%) is 61 points. This "approval gap" is 10 points bigger than George W. Bush's at this point in his presidency, despite Mr. Bush winning a bitterly contested election.

Rahm, Rove, Rezko and the Blagojevich TrialBy Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK Published Apr 4, 2009 From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009 **SNIP** Democrats won't be the only ones discomforted by the trial. Another accused co-conspirator is William Cellini, a powerful GOP power broker, who has denied wrongdoing. Blagojevich is also accused of directing lucrative state bond business to an unidentified lobbyist as part of a deal to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to Rezko, who in turn allegedly agreed to split the money with the governor and two associates. The unnamed lobbyist, according to a...

He tells the President to stop campaigning and start Presiding.

"Don't think we're not keeping score, brother." That's what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press. A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration's stimulus bill. The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president's budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign. Senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and her chief of staff, Michael Strautmanis,...

Here is video of Karl Rove yesterday on Fox News Sunday responding to a new Democrat National Committee ad that targets him as "arrogant." Rove says the Obama Administration's attacks on Rush Limbaugh and himself are following radical Saul Alinsky's rule of "ridiculing" your opponents, but he feels they are running this tactic into the ground. . . . . . (Watch Video)

He tells Chris Matthews that he has been "suckered" for even showing the ad. LOL!

Talking with O'Reilly.

President Barack Obama and his West Wing lieutenants are playing on the world's largest stage, yet act as if no one is watching them when they contradict their campaign promises. That behavior is unwittingly giving the Republicans an opening. For example, Team Obama thinks the president, having spent a good portion of the campaign decrying the $2.9 trillion in deficits during the Bush years, can now double the national debt held by the public in 10 years. Having condemned earmarks during the campaign, the Obama administration now believes it can wave through 8,500 of them in the omnibus-spending bill, part...

Presidents throughout history have kept lists of political foes. But the Obama White House is the first I am aware of to pick targets based on polls. Even Richard Nixon didn't focus-group his enemies list. Team Obama -- aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House...

Presidents throughout history have kept lists of political foes. But the Obama White House is the first I am aware of to pick targets based on polls. Even Richard Nixon didn't focus-group his enemies list. Team Obama -- aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House...

He talks about the whole "Bait And Switch" thing.

President Obama’s Job Approval Rating in Perspective: While the latest Gallup poll (3/3-3/5) shows 62% of Americans approve of the way President Obama has been doing his job, how does that compare with how other recent presidents fared in their first months in office? Obama’s approval rating is approximately on par with that of several of his predecessors: George W. Bush had a 63% approval rating in a March 5-7, 2001 poll, and George H. W. Bush was also at 63% in a February28-March 2, 1989 poll. But early approval ratings may not offer much information about the rest of...

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers, top former aides to President George W. Bush, will testify under oath to a House committee investigating the firings of nine United States attorneys in 2007, under an agreement announced Wednesday by the panel. The agreement settled a rancorous dispute that began in mid-2007 when the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Mr. Rove and Ms. Miers, who, according to e-mail messages released by the Justice Department, played a role in the firings.

Former top Bush aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers agreed Wednesday to testify before Congress under oath about the firings of U.S. attorneys, a controversy involving allegations of political interference that grew into a constitutional standoff between two branches of government. The Bush White House had fought attempts to force Rove and Miers to testify, and the agreement — steered by aides to President Barack Obama — ended that dispute. Both the White House and lawmakers, especially now that Democrat Obama has replaced Republican George W. Bush — were leery of having a judge settle the question about the limits...

Karl Rove explains the reality behind the rhetoric.

Why does he routinely ascribe to opponents views they don't espouse? President Barack Obama reveres Abraham Lincoln. But among the glaring differences between the two men is that Lincoln offered careful, rigorous, sustained arguments to advance his aims and, when disagreeing with political opponents, rarely relied on the lazy rhetorical device of "straw men." Mr. Obama, on the other hand, routinely ascribes to others views they don't espouse and says opposition to his policies is grounded in views no one really advocates.

President Barack Obama reveres Abraham Lincoln. But among the glaring differences between the two men is that Lincoln offered careful, rigorous, sustained arguments to advance his aims and, when disagreeing with political opponents, rarely relied on the lazy rhetorical device of "straw men." Mr. Obama, on the other hand, routinely ascribes to others views they don't espouse and says opposition to his policies is grounded in views no one really advocates. On Tuesday night, Mr. Obama told Congress and the nation, "I reject the view that . . . says government has no role in laying the foundation for our...

Karl Rove, that evil conservative strategist and professional boogeyman to the left, has gone on record asserting that Obama is winging it, and suggesting that our newly minted Dear Leader may be incompetent. In an article for the Wall Street Journal today, Rove takes the point in demonstrating the many many signs that our nation is currently being led by an empty suit with a head full of leftist dogma.....

Team Obama demonstrated remarkable discipline during the presidential campaign. From raising an unprecedented amount of money to milking every advantage from the Internet to grabbing lots of delegates from inexpensive caucus states, they left nothing to chance. And now the administration has scored a major legislative victory in an extraordinarily short period of time. Less than 700 hours after taking the oath of office, President Barack Obama signed the largest spending bill in American history.

One of the reasons that Barack Obama is now president of the United States is the fact that he ran a near flawless campaign. It was perfectly planned and he maintained strict message discipline. Funny thing has happened since inauguration day. It seems that planning has gone out the window, in fact it seems that President Obama may be winging it. Look at some examples. The stimulus bill was mis-managed, he lost control of the message. The closing of Guantanamo was mismanaged, Obama was criticized for having no Idea of where to put the prisoners? Every new President loses a...

Rove Responds to Axelrod Karl Rove, a former senior adviser to President George W. Bush, insisted in an interview with "Today" show host Matt Lauer this morning that he had every right to offer his analysis of the economic strategy adopted by the Obama Administration -- a response to critical comments made by Obama senior adviser David Axelrod in an interview with the Post last week. "I am not giving him advice, I am commenting on what they are doing," Rove told Lauer. "And I'm sure even this White House would say people have the right to offer an opinion."...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is asking for two more weeks to weigh in on whether former Bush White House officials must testify before Congress about the firings of nine U.S. attorneys. The request comes after an attorney for former Bush political adviser Karl Rove asked the White House to referee his clash with the House of Representatives over Bush's claim of executive privilege in the matter. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., has issued a subpoena requiring Rove to appear next Monday to testify about the firings and other allegations that the Bush White House let politics interfere...

Tom Brokaw talked with Meredith Viera this morning on The Today Show, and gave his take on President Obama's first prime-time press conference, and the Obama Stimulus Bill. Brokaw said that Karl Rove will issue a warning to Republicans in a column later this week that if the economy begins to recover later this year, they will be "on the outside looking in" having opposed the Stimulus Plan. . . . . (Watch Video)

<p>When President Obama charged that Reagan-era "trickle down economics" didn't work, not only was he wrong, but he's also wrong to think that his own trickle-down plan to grow government will stimulate the economy.</p> <p>So writes Karl Rove, former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, in a recent opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal.</p>

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama attacked "trickle down economics" as "bankrupt" and an "old, discredited" philosophy that "didn't work." He was wrong. Even worse, though, is that he and congressional Democrats are embracing a Democratic version of trickle-down economics that won't work. It's embodied in the House-passed "stimulus" bill, H.R. 1, whose deeply flawed assumption is that spending $1 trillion to grow government will trickle down to help people who lost jobs. The Democrats' spending is horribly mismatched with industries that have suffered job loss. Since December 2007, Americans lost 791,000 jobs in manufacturing, 681,000 jobs in professional and...

Rove now cooperating with Justice Dept. Karl Rove is still stiff-arming Congress by refusing to testify in the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal -- but he has suddenly changed his tune about cooperating with federal prosecutors, TPMMuckraker's Murray Waas reports: Rove will cooperate with a federal criminal inquiry underway into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and has already spoken to investigators in a separate, internal DOJ investigation into the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his attorney said in an interview. Rove previously refused to cooperate with an earlier Justice Department inquiry into the firings. The Justice Department's Inspector...

Karl Rove, one-time deputy chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, spoke to a jam-packed Storer Auditorium at the University of Miami Thursday afternoon. After a brief opening speech, Rove transformed the event into an open forum during which audience members could ask him a question or engage him in a debate. The “campaign architect,” as he is commonly called, built a case against President Barack Obama’s order to close Guantanamo, an overseas CIA detention center where terrorists and other “enemy combatants” are held. Obama’s order could enable terrorists to be tried in U.S. courts, to be given...

Rove subpoenaed by Conyers By: John Bresnahan and Andy Barr January 26, 2009 06:31 PM EST House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has subpoenaed Karl Rove, the former top political advisor to President George W. Bush, to question what Rove knows about “politicization” of the Justice Department. The Senate Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed Rove during the last Congress, but relying on an executive privilege claim by Bush, Rove refused to appear. Conyers had previously subpoenaed former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten, Bush former White House chief of staff, seeking any information they had. Conyers is also...

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove to testify about the Bush administration's firing of U.S. attorneys. The subpoena Monday by Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers continues a long-running legal battle. Rove previously refused to appear before the panel, contending that former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. Conyers also wants him to testify on whether politics played a role in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat. "I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress...