Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- This month's trial of former state Sen. John Ford on corruption charges could last up to a month. Ford is accused of taking $800,000 in consultant payments from TennCare contractors to promote those private companies' interests with the state's expanded Medicaid program. Ford was known for his flashy attire when he was a lawmaker. On Monday he was led into court in a dark green jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was convicted earlier this year of taking $55,000 in bribes during the unrelated federal Tennessee Waltz investigation and is serving a 5 1/2...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to please a pro-Israel crowd this week by saying that Jerusalem should be the capital of Israel and that the holy city should not be divided. That angered Palestinians, who claim part of the city, and Obama clarified his remarks to say that the fate of Jerusalem should be a matter for negotiation. That angered some Israelis and their U.S. supporters. By week's end no one was happy. WHAT HE SAID: Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hillary Rodham Clinton — former first lady, New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate who won 18 million votes — is not your typical mouthpiece. Never has been, never will be. When she formally bows out on Saturday and endorses Barack Obama, she will speak of party unity and do her part for the nominee. But with her own stature and political future to consider — including the possibility of joining him as his running mate — everything Clinton does for Obama going forward is also a shadow campaign for the next phase of her career. "It's...

The AP gives us a story about some so-called “documentary” about what evil befell the poor folks of Crawford, Texas, after Governor George W. Bush bought his ranch property there. I’ll start right out with the key section that pretty much describes what we’re dealing with, a quote by the director of this film. “I wanted to do a film indicting Bush for this political stagecraft, using this town as a prop.” A guy that wanted to exploit the kind folks of Crawford, Texas is being presented as a wonderful fellow by the press? Say it isn’t so! Naturally, the...

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran for the presidency with the aura of inevitability, faces the reality of being one of 100. For the first time since she was elected to the Senate in 2000, the former first lady is no longer the candidate with the best shot of capturing the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. That title belongs to someone else. She's still simply the junior senator from New York with no committee chairmanship, the coin of the realm bestowed by seniority. At least for a while. As she walks the familiar marble halls of Congress, from news conferences to committee...

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- Republican John McCain has been slow to take advantage of his potential head start for the presidency against Democrats, who are better organized and generate more excitement among voters. McCain enters a November-focused campaign with distinct disadvantages, his aides and advisers acknowledge: his party's unpopular incumbent president, his unwavering support for the war in Iraq and the Democrats' unmistakable fundraising potential. Yet the Arizona senator and his party have inched toward blunting the shortcomings instead of racing to erase them. "This has given us time," said Frank Donatelli, vice chairman of the Republican National Committee and...

Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard Wednesday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different - or said more about how each one hopes to bring their historic race to a close. Obama, feeling sure of the Democratic nomination, was trying to stake an early claim to a state that could be crucial in the general election against Republican John McCain. Clinton, insisting she can still be her party's nominee, was making a plea for the state's disputed primary results to be...

SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Barbara Gonzel has lived in a two-bedroom duplex in northwest Los Angeles for 13 years, protected from the region's soaring housing costs by the city's rent-control ordinance. That could change, and Gonzel could find herself paying hundreds of dollars more in monthly rent, if voters approve one of two property rights initiatives on the June 3 primary election ballot. One of the measures, Proposition 98, is supported by landlords and business owners and contains a provision that would phase out local rent-control ordinances for apartments, duplexes and mobile home parks. It also would eliminate tenant-protection rules that...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman — who quit the Democratic Party 12 years ago to become a Republican — has accused likely Democratic opponent Al Franken of changing positions, demeanor and rhetoric in his attempt to win a Senate seat. Coleman makes the charge in a fundraising e-mail sent out this week with the subject line, "It's Hard to Deny this Kind of Evolution." "After decades of carrying the flag for radical left-wing causes, his extremely liberal viewpoints are couched in softer, more acceptable terms," Coleman writes of the former "Saturday Night Live" star. "And for the most...

Apex, N.C. (AP) -- People who suggest Bill Clinton might be hurting his wife's presidential bid more than helping it haven't spent much time in the small towns where he draws adoring crowds of Democrats who wish he could serve a third term. While the former president has angered some blacks with his comments about race, many voters in North Carolina, Indiana and elsewhere express deep affection for him, the last Democrat to occupy the White House in nearly three decades. They often cite him as the main reason for supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama. Surely in the...

The Supreme Court's refusal to strike down an Indiana law requiring government-issued photo identification at the ballot box could disenfranchise minority and elderly voters at next week's primary and prompt other states to pass similar laws, voting advocates said Monday. The court, in a splintered 6-3 ruling Monday, said Indiana's law, which took effect in 2006 and requires voters to present a state or federal photo ID card at the ballot box, does not violate the First or 14th amendments. The court said the law served as a justifiable protection to the electoral process. "It's especially worrisome that the court...

If the long-running Democratic presidential race were a play, Republicans would be clamoring for even more after the six-week intermission now giving way to the Pennsylvania primary. Little more than a month ago, few voters knew of Barack Obama's controversial pastor or Hillary Rodham Clinton's make-believe story about sniper fire in Bosnia. Obama hadn't ruminated to his own detriment about bitterness in small-town America. And Clinton hadn't felt it necessary to rearrange her staff after her top strategist supported a Colombian free trade pact she opposes. Obama hadn't bowled. Nor the former first lady gamely knocked back a shot of...

Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved. A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the meetings described them Thursday to the AP to confirm details first reported by ABC News on Wednesday. The intelligence official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not...

Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama's 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday. The survey showed the extended Democratic primary campaign creating divisions among supporters of Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and suggests a tight race for the presidency in November no matter which Democrat becomes the nominee. McCain is benefiting from a bounce since he clinched the GOP nomination a month ago. The four-term Arizona senator has moved up in matchups with each of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama....

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Public approval of President Bush has reached a new low in the Associated Press-Ipsos poll, driven by dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy. A survey released Thursday showed just 28 percent approve of the overall job he is doing. . . .

For all their delight in soaring voter registration and strong poll numbers, some Democrats fear the contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton might have a nightmarish end, which could wreck a promising election year. The chief worry is that Clinton may carry her recent winning streak into Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and other states, leaving her with unquestioned momentum but fewer pledged delegates than Obama. Party leaders then would face a wrenching choice: Steer the nomination to a fading Obama, even as signs suggested Clinton could be the stronger candidate in November; or go with the surging...

One in 10 voters believes Barack Obama is Muslim, a mistaken impression that lingers across party lines, a poll showed Wednesday. Fourteen percent of Republicans, 10 percent of Democrats and 8 percent of independents mistakenly think he is Muslim, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just over half of each group correctly identified him as Christian, while about a third said they don't know his religion. The false rumor that the Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois senator is Muslim has been fanned on the Internet and conservative talk radio. It has persisted despite the recent controversy...

New Orleans (AP) -- Republican Sen. John McCain, showing a flash of the temper he is known for, repeatedly cut off a reporter Friday when asked whether he had spoken to Democratic Sen. John Kerry about being his vice president in 2004. "Everybody knows that I had a private conversation. Everybody knows that, that I had a conversation," McCain told the reporter. "And you know it, too. No. You know it, too. No. You do know. You do know." The reporter, Elisabeth Bumiller of The New York Times, was following up on a question McCain had answered at a campaign...

(AP) -- For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association. Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet. And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions — during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland. During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views,...

She's still fighting, but it's awfully hard to find encouraging news for Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic homestretch. She's behind in money, delegates and momentum. She's selling experience when everyone seems to want change. And all the cheering for the man who could be the first black president is drowning out any excitement for the first female. Once deemed the nearly inevitable Democratic nominee, Clinton has now lost 10 presidential contests in a row as the battle heads for a March 4 showdown in Texas and Ohio — states she must win. By most measures, the combative New York...