Free Republic

Mitchell Reiss has helped lead a campaign to rehabilitate the reputation of anti-Iranian militants A foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been active in recent months in an advocacy campaign to rehabilitate the reputation of an underground organization in Iran known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq. The MEK has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a "terrorist" organization. Mitchell Reiss, former director of policy planning at the State Department during the Bush administration, is now advising the former Massachusetts governor on foreign policy, the New Republic recently reported. Reiss also advised Romney's 2008 campaign. Currently...

The developers behind the proposed Ground Zero mosque have applied for about $5 million in federal grant money set aside for redeveloping downtown Manhattan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to a new report. The application was submitted as a "community and cultural enhancement" grant, which is a program run by the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Corp. Developer Sharif El-Gamal discussed the grant proposal in recent closed-door meetings, according to The Daily Beast. The revelation that the developers have asked for this grant could reignite outrage about the mosque's proposed location.

Newsweek reports that Mitt Romney is taking a different and unique approach than other potential 2012 candidates are. Unlike other politicians, including Obama himself, who feel compelled to offer their opinion on every issue that stirs controversy, Mitt Romney remains focused on the core issue that worries, as well as, unites Americans: the economy. But now, while Palin and Co. are using the Ground Zero mosque controversy to burnish their far-right bona fides, Romney is seizing on the kerfuffle as an opportunity to do something else entirely: prove that he’s the only potential Republican nominee with the fortitude to ignore...

AS-SALAMU ALAYKUM Matt Drudge sending a message?

See how they try to lead people into buying into certain "convention wisdom's"....this is silly and CNN knows it, and the RINO's in the party of course will claim that they support the teas party when they actually don't. "More than half of all Republicans we questioned consider themselves Tea Party supporters or active members of the Tea Party movement," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Romney tops the list among Tea Party Republicans; Gingrich is next on that list and Palin is in third." -CNN

It is a truism of modern media that few subjects draw more attention than politics. If you're a savvy journalist or blogger looking to attract page views in today's 24-hour news cycle, the shortcut to success requires slapping some political "analysis" on to whatever story you're covering, like so: "University releases groundbreaking cancer study: What does it mean for Obama?" Of course, I've been guilty of this to some extent in my (young) journalism career. And having spent the past few months interning at a national news outlet with a website that has scores of competitors, I understand all too...

Former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney - believed by many political observers to be a clear GOP front-runner in the 2012 presidential race - is virtually in a dead heat with contender Sarah Palin, according to a new CNN poll. The poll shows Romney only 3 percentage points in front of former Alaska Gov. Palin, within the margin of error. “It’s a pretty open contest, and that’s interesting in and of itself,” said Suffolk University political professor John C. Berg. “It means the primary contest will be tighter.” Only months from the unofficial start of the 2012 presidential campaign, Romney...

Laura Ingraham was on the Glenn Beck radio show in the last hour this morning...While talking about potential candidates for 2012, She was asked if Romney was a "progressive" she said NO he isn't one of them at all...I've heard that she loves Romney like a Ken doll and is a Romneybot, but this is amazing! She also said that she would take Newt as President in a heartbeat! What gives?

For the men (and one rather polarizing woman) who might run for president as Republicans in 2012, now is the wilderness campaign. After the midterms, the struggle for the nomination will move out into open country. But for the moment, it's all guerrilla warfare and tactical maneuvering - in the form of Web videos and op-eds, speeches and endorsements, and the occasional public dig at a potential rival. By definition, in a wilderness campaign it's hard to tell who's winning. Are all of the endorsements Sarah Palin has made building an army of "Mama Grizzly" Republicans who will rise up...

The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks. The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit Wednesday to challenge a city panel's decision to let developers tear down a building to make way for the mosque two blocks from ground zero.(continued)

The Muslim community center to be built just blocks from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan cleared its final hurdle on Tuesday and was approved for construction. As a pleasant surprise, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0, denying historic protection for the building that currently occupies the site where developers plan to build the $100 million center, which will include a mosque. Though this news should hardly be noteworthy, it unfortunately is. Since its incipient stages in July 2009, when a Muslim-run real-estate development company purchased the damaged, vacant building and land where the new center...

A tantalizing bit of 2012 gossip dropped way, way down in an otherwise fun piece about amnesty shills boo-hooing over having (temporarily) lost McCain. Note to Politico: This is what’s called “burying the lede.” Their hope now is that Republican presidential candidates and former operatives under Bush, a reform proponent, can convince GOP congressional leaders that the issue needs to be dealt with before 2012 — or that they could risk alienating the burgeoning Hispanic vote in the crucial swing states of New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a front-runner for the nomination, has signaled...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a front-runner for the nomination, has signaled quietly to Graham that Republicans must address immigration before the campaign heats up, according to several sources familiar with the conversation.

Gd, I love this woman! She is not afraid of the jackals, hyenas, and vultures who troll her home, her garbage cans, and her most prized possession, her children. She has spine, character, ethics, integrity, and above all, true grit. If she runs, I'll be right behind her. Here is Sarah's twitter: (hat tip MZ) Peaceful New Yorkers, please refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused at Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.The Islamic supremacist mega mosque is a stab in the eye of every American. The question is, why there? Why did...