Free Republic

Tehran is reconsidering its approach to retaliation against Israel following Ismail Haniyeh's assassination, Professor Uzi Rabi, head of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University, explained to Nissim Mashal and Liat Ron in an interview on 103FM on Thursday morning. "There is ongoing deliberation in Tehran. If we go back to the day after Haniyeh was eliminated, they spoke of revenge at the highest level. However, as days pass, it seems that Iran is having second thoughts, mainly due to the American buildup in the Middle East," Rabi said. "Currently, Iran even sees...

Will wonders never cease?  Erick Erickson, one of the original leaders of the NeverTrump movement and the one who initiated the NeverTrump hashtag, has come out saying he will vote for the Trump-Pence ticket in 2020.  Quoting Erickson: I will vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.  And, to be clear, it will not be just because of what the other side offers, but also because of what the Trump-Pence team has done.  They've earned my vote. My, my, my.  Probably not many here care what Erickson has to offer.  I don't.  But look at his conversion as yet another straw in the wind pointing...

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is losing part of his arsenal of local leaders as more and more long-time members of his gun-control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns say they aren’t happy with the coalition’s trajectory and want out. While the group apparently is growing in membership overall amid an effort to assume a larger profile in the national gun debate, it's turning some members off. In the past five months, 50 members of the group have quit. Many say they did so because the organization abandoned its mission statement of going after illegal guns, and instead used its political...

Aides to President Barack Obama are putting the final touches on a new strategy to help Democrats recover from a brutal August recess by specifying what Obama wants to see in a compromise health care deal and directly confronting other trouble spots, West Wing officials tell POLITICO. Obama is considering detailing his health-care demands in a major speech as soon as next week, when Congress returns from the August recess. And although House leaders have said their members will demand the inclusion of a public insurance option, Obama has no plans to insist on it himself, the officials said. “We’re...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Monday he was feeling good after nearly a month in drug rehabilitation and was looking forward to getting back to work. "I can tell you today, I feel confident about my health, positive about my future, and passionate about my work representing the people of Rhode Island," the Rhode Island Democrat said in a speech at Brown University on the future of mental health care and addiction treatment. It was his first public appearance since being released Friday from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. The six-term congressman checked into the clinic...