Free Republic

Special Counsel John Durham’s indictment of researcher Igor Danchenko yesterday brought many powerful leftists into the spotlight. Impeachment witness Fiona Hill was involved in bringing the right people together. Christopher Steele has long been credited with creating his infamous dossier but may have only been a front to distance Hillary Clinton’s campaign from the whole mess. Now we know a primary ringleader in the creation and subsequent use of the dossier. Charles Dolan, Jr., a PR consultant for the Clinton campaign, is the person referred to as “PR Executive-1” in the indictment. Fox News host Jesse Waters, sitting in for...

Few Americans could fathom the notion that the United States is so indebted to China that one of Beijing’s spies could get away with espionage – especially with an White House in love with espionage prosecutions. But that might be the only reasonable explanation for the Obama administration’s decision to pass on prosecuting a State Department contractor who was allegedly paid thousands of dollars to someone believed to be a Chinese agent seeking information on Americans. According to Fox News, a November 2014 FBI affidavit that was filed in U.S. district court in Maryland indicates that the FBI launched a...

Former US President Bill Clinton admitted Tuesday that he intervened in the Israeli elections in 1996 to help then-Prime Minister Shimon Peres defeat rival Binyamin Netanyahu. "It would be fair to say that I tried to help Peres win the elections, and I tried to help him in such a way that I would not be openly involved," Clinton said in an interview with Israel's Channel 10 News. "I tried to help him, because I thought he was a bigger supporter of the peace process, and I tried to do it in a way that served, in my opinion, Israel's...

With the Trump impeachment drama in full swing, it is useful to look back into history to see how past impeachment activity can impact the future. "We all know that the Republicans acted against their own interests when they impeached President Clinton in 1998, because this caused an electoral backlash against them in 1998. But what few realize is that the Democrats, too, at this time, acted against their own self-interests by their refusal to convict Clinton in the Senate, thereby preventing the accession of V.P. Al Gore and causing the election of the second President Bush in 2000." More...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury is investigating a prominent Democratic lobbyist and a former GOP congressman for their involvement in an influence campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests tied to Paul Manafort, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. At the center of the widening probe are Tony Podesta, a longtime Democratic operative, and Vin Weber, a former GOP congressman and leader of his own high-powered lobbying firm, Mercury LLC. The two men were hired as part of a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort directed by Manafort and longtime associate Rick Gates.

When I see former FBI New York honcho Jim Kallstrom appear on Fox News, I see a tortured soul. As boldly honest as he has been on the subject of Islamic terrorism, this once honorable man has lived a lie for the last twenty years on the subject of TWA Flight 800. Others have lived the lie as well, but none so personally. It was Kallstrom who spoke to the press, Kallstrom who testified at congressional hearings, Kallstrom who consoled the families of the 230 dead with the assurance he would leave “no stone unturned” in his pursuit of the...

Almost 55 months after confessing felonious conduct, Teamster money-laundering scandal figure, Jere Nash, has finally been sentenced. U.S. Dist. Judge Thomas P. Griesa (S.D.N.Y., Nixon) sentenced Nash Apr. 9 to a mere two years probation for his role in a series of schemes which lead to the embezzlement of some $885,000 from the Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters' treasury and to $538,100 in illegal campaign contributions to the failed reelection campaign of expelled IBT president Ron Carey. The sentencing appears to have been hush hush: the four N.Y.C. major dailies and the two Washington, D.C., dailies apparently did not cover the...

The political scientist who applies the ‘rational choice’ theory of economics to voters says there was a method to the GOP’s primary madness. Go to the source:

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party's most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump's candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt regarding the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

From Michigan to Louisiana to California on Friday, rank-and-file Republicans expressed mystification, dismissal and contempt over the instructions that their party’s most high-profile leaders were urgently handing down to them: Reject and defeat Donald J. Trump. Their angry reactions, in the 24 hours since Mitt Romney and John McCain urged millions of voters to cooperate in a grand strategy to undermine Mr. Trump’s candidacy, have captured the seemingly inexorable force of a movement that still puzzles the Republican elite and now threatens to unravel the party they hold dear. In interviews, even lifelong Republicans who cast a ballot for Mr....

It would appear Trump fever has broken. It would seem the down, dirty, and ugly attacks by Rubio particularly, but also Romney, Cruz and others have kicked in. I sense that Trump has become a figure of ridicule, and no politician survives that. Plus his latest flip flops, like on torture, have weakened him as a serious person, although that may not have been obvious at the time. I think the teflon has worn off. If true, Chris Christy gets the bad timing of the year award

Based on the latest polling data, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump appears certain to win the upcoming March 8 Michigan primary and is likely to also take the corresponding race today in Kansas. A FOX 2 Detroit/Mitchell poll released on Friday shows Trump increasing his already massive lead in the Michigan primary. In the survey of likely GOP voters, Trump was picked by 42%, putting him 23% ahead of – and more than double – his nearest competitor, Ted Cruz, who sits at just 19%. Marco Rubio placed third at 15%, in a statistical tie with John Kasich....

The New York Times greets people at newsstands today with huge headlines, usual reserved for wars and other historic events. "Romney ... Trump ... Nation in peril." And, yet, before the ink is even dry, the Romney-led #NeverTrump movement is visibly a flop. And the Romney speech is a non-story. A. RNC Chairman Priebus: The rules of the nominating process are “no different today than 100 years ago. Which is you have a process. And whatever candidate gets a majority of the delegates is going to get the support of the party. That’s how it works,” Reince Priebus said on...

Senator Ted Cruz scored a hard-fought and decisive win in the Kansas caucuses on Saturday, demonstrating his enduring appeal among conservatives as he tries to reel in Donald J. Trump’s significant lead in the Republican presidential race. Mr. Cruz’s victory illustrated the doubts about Mr. Trump that still linger among the sort of traditional Republicans who attend time-intensive party caucuses. With results still being tallied, Mr. Trump appeared to finish well behind Mr. Cruz, with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida taking third.

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Friday praised Donald Trump for his last-minute decision to skip the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CPAC organizers announced Friday that the GOP presidential front-runner had dropped out of his commitment to speak at the conference on Saturday morning. The real estate mogul's campaign issued a statement shortly after saying he would instead be campaigning in Kansas and Florida. “Because of this, he will not be able to speak at CPAC as he has done for many consecutive years,” the statement read. “Mr. Trump would like to thank Matt Schlapp and all of...

While Ann Romney wouldn’t necessarily name her favorite candidates running for president, she did praise Donald Trump while talking to Sean Hannity last night.

In any primary, there are a thousand questions to ask, but the first one – yes, the primary one – must be this: What year is it? No, not just “is this a presidential year or a midterm election,” though that’s important too... But what year is it, historically? That is, is it most analogous to a year we’ve seen before, or is it unlike any prior election, so we shouldn’t bother to see if we can learn from parallels? It is often said that there is nothing new under the sun, that we’re always fighting the same war, that...

Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, has never been fond of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. But in an interview Wednesday, Mr. Dole said that the party would suffer "cataclysmic" and "wholesale losses" if Mr. Cruz were the nominee, and that Donald J. Trump would fare better. "I question his allegiance to the party," Mr. Dole said of Mr. Cruz. "I don't know how often you've heard him say the word 'Republican' - not very often." Instead, Mr. Cruz uses the word "conservative," Mr. Dole said, before offering up a different word for Mr. Cruz:...

Illegal aliens should not receive public benefits other than emergency aid, and those who become parents while illegally in the United States should not be qualified to claim benefits for their offspring. Legal immigrants should depend for assistance on their sponsors, who are legally responsible for their financial well-being, not the American taxpayers. Just as we require "deadbeat dads" to provide for the children they bring into the world, we should require "deadbeat sponsors" to provide for the immigrants they bring into the country. We support a constitutional amendment or constitutionally-valid legislation declaring that children born in the United States...