Free Republic

Just when you thought contemporary journalism couldn't sink any lower, along comes Ali Watkins, now 26, a reporter for the New York Times whose rapid rise through reporting's corrupt and partisan ranks includes stints at the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and Politico. Back in February, Ms. Watkins suddenly became the object of official attention when the feds seized her email and phone records as part of an investigation into a prominent Senate staffer, James Wolfe -- the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee and a Democrat, of course. Then, in June, Wolfe was arrested and charged with lying...

During the 2004 presidential campaign, John Kerry tried to overcome the dubious distinction of being, per the National Journal, the most liberal senator. His attempts to deny the obvious led to a memorable exchange with NYT's Elisabeth Bumiller [transcript after jump] in which he famously fought off the liberal tag as a "laughable characterization." But four years later, having lost the presidency and just this week failed in his bid to become Secretary of State, perhaps Kerry calculates he has nothing left to lose. Writing at the Huffington Post, he's letting his liberal flag, or his progressive pennant, to be...

From Elisabeth Bumillers' New York Times follow-up article of today [emphasis added]: Later in the day, one of Mr. McCain’s senior advisers directed strong criticism at The Times in what appeared to be a deliberate campaign strategy to wage a war with the newspaper. Mr. McCain is deeply distrusted by conservatives on several issues, not least because of his rapport with the news media, but he could find common ground with them in attacking a newspaper that many conservatives revile as a left-wing publication. Let me get this straight. The Times has run an article relying as sources on anonymous,...

<p>BOSTON — He says he is not enough of a masochist to listen to Rush Limbaugh. He jokes at a Republican dinner about a looming foreign policy crisis: “I have a four-hour speech on the North Korean nuclear buildup that I know you’ve been waiting for.” And he still treats the media as his No. 1 constituency, plying them with nonstop talk and stories, like one about a date from his Navy days who cleaned her nails with a switchblade.</p>

The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn when the Justice Department said that the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down this coming week because he had been nominated to a judgeship by President George W. Bush. The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department's Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill. Democrats swiftly questioned the move's timing, and called for a special prosecutor as Bush...

President George W. Bush is planning a two-day wind sprint across India this week, when he will meet with political leaders, chat up high-technology millionaires and give a speech at a 16th-century fort. But to the consternation of many Indians, he will not see the country's most famous monument, the Taj Mahal, a decision Bush blamed last week on an omnipotent scheduler. "Look, if I were the scheduler, perhaps I'd be doing things differently," Bush said when he was asked in an interview with Indian reporters at the White House why he was skipping the Taj. "I'll be the president,...

President Bush spent the weekend in the warm winter sunshine at his Texas ranch, where he rode his bike, entertained friends and cleared his head. It had been a long week: the State of the Union address on Tuesday, then trips to pitch his "American competitiveness initiative" in Tennessee, Minnesota, New Mexico and Texas from Wednesday to Friday. Most of what Mr. Bush said was the CliffsNotes version of the State of the Union speech for local television markets. But he also wandered into an aside about why math and science students should not think of themselves as the "nerd...

In a Change of Plans, Bush Says He Will Attend King's Funeral By ELISABETH BUMILLER CRAWFORD, Tex., Feb. 4 — The White House announced here on Saturday that President Bush would attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King in Atlanta on Tuesday, postponing a scheduled trip to New Hampshire. White House officials told reporters on Friday that Mr. Bush would be speaking about the federal budget on Tuesday in Manchester, N.H., but on Saturday afternoon the White House sent out an e-mail message saying that Mr. Bush would attend the funeral instead and was switching the New Hampshire trip to...