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Amid a hard fade in the polls and a struggle to remain in the 2012 spotlight, Michele Bachmann suddenly finds herself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons — namely, her troubling habit of making misstatements and demonstrably false claims. It’s a problem, former top staffers for the Minnesota congresswoman told POLITICO, that’s plagued her since she first arrived in Congress in 2007. Three former senior aides to Bachmann painted a picture of a shoot-from-the-lip member who cavalierly makes assertions without knowing the facts — and would occasionally make them up to suit her needs. The issue was...

"The bottom line is Sarah Palin is not going to run for president," says a Republican adviser close to front-runner Mitt Romney. "She's making money, she's moved on, she's kind of an entertainer rather than a politician. She still has some sway with the grass roots, but she is not going to run." "I don't think she's going to run," says a Republican close to Tim Pawlenty. "She has faded a lot in the last few months. I look at what she's doing now and say that she's found a way to get back in the story." Maybe these representatives...

An official from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) told the BBC that the compound was raided by the ISI while still under construction in 2003 when the agency believed senior al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libi was on site. Since then, however, the official claimed the intelligence agency had taken no interest in the facility: "The compound was not on our radar; it is an embarrassment for the ISI… We're good, but we're not God" (BBC, May 3). However, in a statement that appeared to reveal the confusion over the incident at the highest levels of the Pakistani government, an official from...

U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo MoziloBy E. Scott Reckard, Los Angeles Times February 18, 2011, 4:11 p.m. Federal prosecutors have shelved a criminal investigation of Angelo R. Mozilo after determining that his actions in the mortgage meltdown — which led to $67.5-million settlement against him — did not amount to criminal wrongdoing. As the former chairman of Countrywide Financial Corp., Mozilo helped fuel the boom in risky subprime loans that led to the crippling of the banking industry and the near-collapse of the financial system. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles began probing Mozilo in...

Federal prosecutors have ended a criminal investigation of Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo, a person close to the investigation said Friday. The federal official told The Associated Press that the probe launched in 2008 into the actions of the former chief executive of the housing giant during the mortgage meltdown has been closed with no indictments. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was never publicly announced, and the Department of Justice as a policy does not announce the closing of investigations. In October, Mozilo agreed to a $67.5 million settlement to avoid civil trial...

WASHINGTON - A military investigation into FBI reports of prisoner abuse at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, recommended that the base's former commander be reprimanded, but a top general rejected the recommendation, according to a congressional aide familiar with the inquiry's findings. In the latest examination of a facility that has become a battleground over the U.S. treatment of detainees from the war against terrorism, the aide said investigators recommended that Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller be reprimanded for failing to oversee the interrogation of a high-value detainee, which was found to have been abusive. But Gen....

Blog Police Creeps Are George Soros Plants For at least a month now a crew of three or four screen names here on Free Republic have been used to spam post after post all across the board. They have decided that they are Free Republic's police, they think they speak for the whole board, and have been attempting to drive people off this site. But are they real FReepers? Or are they something else? It is pretty clear that they are being paid to do this by a George Soros-styled, left wing organization to spam FR, attack posters, and attempt...

George W Bush has suggested that Republican leader Sarah Palin is "unqualified" and she spoiled the party's 2008 presidential election campaign, a top aide of the former US President has said. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man. He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin," a Republican official close to Bush was quoted as saying by the 'New York Daily News'. Bush suggested that the 46-year-old glamorous former Alaskan governor is not at all qualified to be President and criticised Senator John...

Mr Bush has allegedly told friends that Mrs Palin is not qualified to be president and criticises John McCain for picking her as his Running Mate in 2008 "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official close to Mr Bush told the New York Daily News. "He thinks McCain ran a lousy campaign with an unqualified running mate and destroyed any chance of winning by picking Palin." Mr Bush has allegedly been disparaging about Mrs Palin in the past. Matt Latimer, former special assistant to Mr Bush, wrote in a book released last year:...

Ex-President George W. Bush rips wisdom of Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and John McCain to friends WASHINGTON - Two years of retirement haven't dulled George W. Bush's political zest - and President Obama and Sarah Palin are among his under-the-radar targets. The 43rd President has told friends the ex-Alaska governor isn't qualified to be President and criticizes Arizona Sen. John McCain for putting Palin on the 2008 GOP ticket and handing her a national platform. "Naming Palin makes Bush think less of McCain as a man," a Republican official familiar with Bush's thinking told the Daily News. "He thinks McCain...

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin slammed reporters who write about her using anonymous sources Thursday, calling them “impotent” and “whack.” The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee made the remarks in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s WABC radio show. In response to a question about an upcoming trip to Iowa on Septmber 17, Palin singled out a piece in CQ Politics which reported that Palin had asked for an opportunity to speak in the Hawkeye state, instead of being invited to speak. “I did see a headline on CQ Politics and they’re way whack, saying that I asked for an opportunity...

LOS ANGELES, July 30 (UPI) -- Bristol Palin, the daughter of former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and her fiance, Levi Johnston, have split a second time, sources told E! News. The sources said the breakup followed a fight between the Alaska natives over one of Johnston's ex-girlfriends, E! News reported. The younger Palin, 19, and Johnston, 20, are the parents of a 19-month-old son named Tripp. Neither Palin nor Johnston has publicly commented on the latest split, E! News said.

Huckabee’s taken potshots at her from time to time, but between this fusillade from unnamed Mitt advisors and the furious counterattack on Romney at Conservatives 4 Palin, I’d say that the 2012 primary is now, at long last, officially on. In the immortal words of Greg Stillson, “The missiles are flying. Hallelujah.” Still, few express much regard for Palin’s ultimate chances. One adviser to Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and, by traditional standards, the putative 2012 frontrunner, says of Palin, “She’s not a serious human being.” Another Romney intimate warns, “If she’s standing up there in a debate and...

Catholic nuns are urging Congress to pass President Obama's health care plan, in an unusual public break with bishops who say it would subsidize abortion. Some 60 leaders of religious orders representing 59,000 Catholic nuns Wednesday sent lawmakers a letter urging them to pass the Senate health care bill. It contains restrictions on abortion funding that the bishops say don't go far enough. The letter says that "despite false claims to the contrary, the Senate bill will not provide taxpayer funding for elective abortions." The letter says the legislation also will help support pregnant women and "this is the real...

By Tim Lindell This is from Newsweek, so take it for it's worth: Here's where things get testy: (John) Coale says the McCain campaign, and later the Republican National Committee, led Palin to believe that they would pay her bills, but never did, causing Palin's debt to pile up. But two former senior McCain officials, who asked for anonymity to keep political peace, say there was no such promise (online finance records show no payments to Palin's lawyer). I wonder how much there is to this. Filtering out Newsweek's spin (for example, they claim Palin is "fuming" with no source...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Some of Sarah Palin's former campaign aides are frustrated with the Alaska governor for remarking in a lengthy, freewheeling speech that she had refused to pray with them before last October's vice presidential debate. Palin told the story in a speech to a GOP dinner in Alaska last Friday. "So I'm looking around for somebody to pray with, I just need maybe a little help, maybe a little extra," she said of the moments before the debate. "And the McCain campaign, love 'em, you know, they're a lot of people around me, but nobody I could find...

Abstract: There is a growing discontent by Republicans with John McCain’s presidential campaign. Nowhere is that more evident than Florida, a state McCain must carry to win the White House. Troubled by sliding poll numbers, GOP loyalists here wonder whether the national campaign has taken the state for granted. "My question would be, 'What campaign?' I just don't see one," said Bill Negron, an Orlando member of McCain's regional Hispanic steering committee. "To me, it looks like people are working hard to ensure that McCain doesn't get elected." One GOP strategists who has advised the McCain organization called it the...

Though it was high in shock value, the Palin pick left bruised feelings among the short-list contenders who were not picked -- and infuriated some Republican officials who privately said McCain had gone out on a limb, unnecessarily, without laying the groundwork for such an unknown. Two senior Republican officials close to Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty said they had both been rudely strung along and now "feel manipulated." "They now know that they were used as decoys, well after McCain had decided not to pick them," one Republican involved in the process said. Democrats quickly absorbed the Obama talking...

BISMARCK, N.D. - A B-52 bomber was mistakenly loaded with five nuclear warheads during a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The bomber carried advanced cruise missiles as part of a Defense Department program to retire 400 of the missiles, the Military Times said, quoting three officers who spoke on condition they remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the incident. The officers said the nuclear warheads should have been removed before the missiles were mounted onto pylons under the bomber's wings for the Aug. 30 flight from Minot Air Force Base in North...

A 40-year-old professional man with close ties to Republican officials told the Idaho Statesman he had oral sex with Sen. Larry Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The man spoke to the Statesman on the condition he not be named. He said he was sure it was Craig he had oral sex with but said he had no evidence other than his word. Craig denied the allegations, and said, "I am not gay and I have never been in a restroom in Union Station having sex with anybody. "There's a very clear bottom line here," Craig said. "I...