Free Republic

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will speak for the first time at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a clear sign that he is mulling a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The American Conservative Union, which sponsors the conference, announced Tuesday that Bush will address the group, set for March 14-16 in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington. Bush has been invited by the group to speak at CPAC several times, but this will be his first appearance. “We are pleased to announce that my friend Gov. Jeb Bush will be a featured speaker at CPAC 2013,”...

Newly surfaced emails reveal problems going back to 2007 with the ATF office in Phoenix and guns ”walking” across the U.S.-Mexico border. The emails about the Bush-era problems were given to Congress by the Justice Department as part of the congressional investigation into the ATF’s botched Obama-era firearms trafficking case, dubbed “Fast and Furious.” The documents show that the special agent in charge of the ATF’s Phoenix office, William Newell, was involved in a 2007 incident that resulted in guns slipping into Mexico and, later, part of Fast and Furious. Newell was the special agent in charge of the Phoenix...

If there’s one point of convergence between the Bush administration’s friends and foes it is in the bipartisan belief that many of the president’s hiring decisions cannot be considered a success. Whether it was the amiable but under-qualified Harriet Miers or the well-meaning but fumbling Alberto Gonzalez, the president has a distressing knack for rewarding loyalty and friendship above competence and merit. The case of Scott McClellan, the ex-White House press secretary and former presidential favorite whose sniping tell-all about the Bush presidency has the political world abuzz, does not offer a counterexample.

President Bush, delivering another budget veto to a Democratic-led Congress whose spending he calls out-of-control, accuses leaders of "acting like a teenager with a new credit card.'' This is one of the promised lines that Bush will deliver at a speech at the Grand Theater in New Albany, Indiana, today, part of a continuing attack on congressional spending. And with it, Bush has vetoed another spending bill, a $150-billion health, education and labor bill which the White House faults for $10 billion in excessive spending and too much "pork.'' The congressional majority "was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility,...

Editor's note:.... Yesterday President George W. Bush met with a small group of journalists at the White House. National Review’s Byron York was there and wrote up the meeting here. Below is the transcript, as provided by the White House. Thanks for coming. What I thought I would do is talk a little bit, share my mind with you, and then answer questions for a while. We're on the record until I tell you we're not on the record. And some times that works, and a lot of times it doesn't work. I'm a skeptical "off the record" guy. As...

Support has fallen for sending U.S. ground troops to Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, according to a new TIME/CNN Poll. Only 51 percent of Americans are now in favor, from 70 percent in December, (Opposed are 40% now, v. 22% in December.) Most Americans (65%) agree with the Bush administration's argument that the U.S. would be morally justified in invading Iraq to remove Saddam from power (26% say it would be unjustified). But nearly half (49%) say that action would lead to a long and costly war before the U.S. could claim victory. One in seven (15%) believe the U.S....