Free Republic

But note how very laudatory The Hill is regarding the wily Reid. And note the article goes out of its way to protect Obama from any political fallout from Reid's aggressive, no-compromise stance -- claiming that Obama is just a spectator in all of this, and himself only wishes to compromise.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The HillPresident Obama has handed over the reins of leadership on government funding and the debt limit to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Reid is now fully in charge of his party’s negotiating strategy, a significant change from past showdowns with Republicans./i> He has taken the initiative from...

Iran Tuesday ruled out engaging in a "dialogue" with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a conference on Iraq's security this week, saying that the time was not right for negotiations. Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to attend the May 3 to 4 conference in Egypt alongside Rice, raising expectations that the two could meet in the highest-level bilateral talks between the two foes since 1980. But asked whether the two would hold talks at the Sharm El Sheikh meeting, deputy foreign minister Mehdi Mostafavi replied: "For the moment the conditions do not exist for such a dialogue....

Republican strategists are looking to a small group of less than a dozen potential Senate candidates who could make or break their party's chances of retaining the GOP'S razor-thin Senate majority in the 2004 election. If the potential GOP candidates decide to run, they could force otherwise safe Democratic incumbents like Minority Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and Minority Whip Harry Reid (Nevada) to invest heavily to defend their seats, and curtail their campaigning for other Democratic Senate hopefuls. But if they opt not to run, races in about a dozen states will likely fall into the noncompetitive column. "A universe...