Free Republic

On his Fox News program last night, Shepard Smith revealed a conversation he said he had with former New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato in which D’Amato was quoted as saying that the Republican National Committee will change the rules to give Gov. John Kasich a shot at the nomination.

ASHINGTON, June 7— A re-examination of years of terrorist plots and attacks around the world, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, suggests that American intelligence agencies profoundly underestimated Al Qaeda's reach and aspirations for more than a decade as it grew from obscurity into a global terrorist threat, lawmakers and investigators said this week.As Congressional investigators look back far beyond the series of signals missed before the Sept. 11 attacks, they are seeking answers to many questions about Al Qaeda that law enforcement and intelligence agencies still cannot answer themselves, officials said.In particular, they said, Congressional investigators are trying...

1. Democrats Campaign to Lock up Latino Vote 2. McCain Denies Rightward Shift 3. China and Saudi Arabia Forge Stronger Ties 4. Weld and D'Amato Put Spin on Their Feud 5. Club for Growth Endorses Ken Blackwell 6. Al Gore Gets Campaign Manager 7. We Heard: Mel Martinez, Laura Bush Bio 1. Democrats Campaign to Lock up Latino Vote Democratic strategists are seeking to turn the Hispanic community's discontent over immigration policy into an opportunity to win over Latino voters. The activists believe the recent pro-immigration rallies - which are a reaction to the Senate's failure to pass a guest-worker...

GOP Gubernatorial hopeful Bill Weld came under a blistering attack last night from ex-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, who argued the former Massachusetts governor has "a lot of explaining to do" about a simmering scandal at a Kentucky school. D'Amato went after Weld in an interview on the cable news station New York 1, saying, "he wouldn't be my choice at all" in New York's Republican gubernatorial primary this year. D'Amato conceded that part of his dislike for Weld stemmed from the prosecution of his brother Armand by the federal Justice Department, for which Weld had been a top official before getting...

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- Long Island's federal courthouse was named in honor of former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato at a ceremony that brought out friends, family and a fistful of old political enemies. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Schumer and Joseph Biden, all Democrats, were present Monday to celebrate D'Amato's 18 years in the Senate as New York's pugnacious Republican representative. The former first lady and then-President Clinton were once the focus of a Senate committee investigation headed by D'Amato that looked into the Whitewater land deal. "I have to confess that if a few years ago someone had in the...