Free Republic

Among Richard Nixon’s many presidential priorities—ending the Vietnam War, thawing relations with China, expanding environmental protections—there was one initiative his team hoped to keep well under the radar: his secret “enemies list.” In an August 1971 memo, White House Counsel John Dean offered a piquant summary of the project’s goal: to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” The formal list began in June 1971as a short memo of 20 names of people, most of whom had deep ties to the Democratic Party. Actor Paul Newman made an appearance, with the notation “Radic-Lib causes. Heavy Mc Carthy...

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, which thankfully left him with only a small wound to his ear, horrified me and reminded me of two assassinations that changed my life in 1968 when I was only eight. I was shocked when my hero, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was shot dead in Memphis in April. Crying myself to sleep and praying for his family, I promised myself I would devote my life to the Civil Rights Movement and to making America a more just and equitable society for everyone. Nothing I have done can compare with King’s...

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said the hard-line opponents to House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) becoming the next Speaker “are enemies now.” Crenshaw told CNN’s Manu Raju on Tuesday ahead of the Speakership vote that those dug in against McCarthy will “obviously” not get the committee assignments they want over their defiance, but “it’s going to be so much worse than that.” “They are enemies now,” he said. “They have made it clear that they prefer a Democrat agenda than a Republican one.” Crenshaw earlier on Tuesday dismissed the idea that opponents to McCarthy had a viable alternative who could...

Washington (CNN)The Trump-era Justice Department's decision to secretly seize data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee went even beyond the nefarious actions of former President Richard Nixon, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday. The California Democrat also believes former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, should testify before Congress. "What the administration did, the Justice Department, the leadership of the former President goes even beyond Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon had an enemies list. This is about undermining the rule of law," Pelosi told CNN's Dana Bash Sunday on "State...

In the final press conference of his first term, President Obama called on House Republicans to pay the bills Congress has already racked up. He also reiterated that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. President Obama warned congressional Republicans Monday that a failure to raise the federal debt ceiling in the next several weeks would spell “disaster” for the US and global economies. And he reiterated his position that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. “These are bills that have already been racked up, and we need to pay them,” Mr. Obama said in the last...

Sometimes a political figure becomes so hated that he can't do anything right in the eyes of his enemies. President Bush has achieved this rare and exalted status. His critics are so blinded by animus that the internal consistency of their attacks on him no longer matters. For them, Bush is the double-bind president. If he stumbles over his words, he is an embarrassing idiot. If he manages to cut taxes or wage a war against Saddam Hussein with bipartisan support, he is a manipulative genius. If he hasn't been able to capture Osama bin Laden, he is endangering U.S....