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hillary clinton is a "CONGENITAL LIAR" "I am not a crook"   by Mia T, 7.08.05 "Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady... is a congenital liar.* William Safire, Blizzard of Lies *The first word I had in mind was 'prevaricator,' which means 'liar,' and the second one was 'dissembler,' which also means 'liar.'" "She's the most unbelievable actress I have ever met," said a woman who worked on Hillary's Senate campaign. "I remember one time at a Women's Leadership Forum event in New York, thirty of us sat around Hillary, talking...

Washington LEGEND has it when Henry David Thoreau went to jail to protest an unjust law, his friend, the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, visited him and asked, "Henry, what are you doing in here?" The great nature writer replied, "What are you doing out there?" The Supreme Court has just flinched from its responsibility to stop the unjust jailing of two journalists - not charged with any wrongdoing - by a runaway prosecutor who will go to any lengths to use the government's contempt power to force them to betray their confidential sources. The case was about the "outing" of...

...Nixon (who, among other things, will likely be remembered as America's last anti-Semitic president) expresses horror at discovering Felt to be Jewish. This conversation, dated Oct. 19, 1972, is even more Gothic than the last: Nixon: Well, if they've got a leak down at the FBI, why the hell can't Gray tell us what the hell is left? You know what I mean?... Haldeman: We know what's left, and we know who leaked it. Nixon: Somebody in the FBI? Haldeman: Yes, sir. Mark Felt. You can't say anything about this because it will screw up our source and there's a...

Your mother's maiden name is not the secret you think it is. That sort of ''personal identifier'' being used by banks, credit agencies, doctors, insurers and retailers -- supposedly to protect you against the theft of your identity -- can be found out in a flash from a member of the new security-industrial complex. There goes the ''personal identifier'' that you presume a stranger would not know, along with your Social Security number and soon your face and DNA. In the past five years, what most of us only recently thought of as ''nobody's business'' has become the big business...

'NY Times' Unveils Expanded Opinion Section By E&P Staff Published: April 10, 2005 11:00 AM ET NEW YORK As promised, The New York Times unveiled its expanded Sunday op-ed section, a move set in motion at least partly by the decision to move the lengthy Frank Rich contributions here from Arts & Leisure. But there are several added angles, as well. For one thing, since the new two-page group of columns runs as a spread, not merely opposite the editorials, the name has been changed from op-ed to “opinion.” The paper has also shuffled columnists with longtime Sunday favorites Maureen...

NEW YORK The New York Times has named conservative columnist John Tierney to its op-ed page after the departure of Times legend William Safire, the paper announced Tuesday. "Safire retired, and now we have John Tierney as a new Op-Ed columnist," Diane McNulty, a Times spokeswoman, told E&P. "You don't replace William Safire." Tierney, who joined the Times in 1990, will begin writing a twice-weekly op-ed column in April, the paper said. Since joining The Times, Tierney has been a general-assignment reporter, a staff writer for the Sunday magazine, and a columnist. He wrote the weekly “Political Points” column during...

If there was any doubt that Meet The Press is a forum for bush hating, Democrat spin, This morning's Bush hating lovefest with NYT pundits Friedman, Dowd and Safire wiped away any questions. One particular exchange put Russet's bias in perspective. Both Friedman and, the Bush hating icon, Dowd alluded to the Goebbell-ish lie that Bush did not tell the truth about the reason for attacking Iraq. Russet did not question their assertion, but Safire objected to this lie and brought up intelligence received from France, England, etc., to the fact that Saddam had WMDs. Russet was not about to...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

The Nobel laureate James Watson, who started a revolution in science as co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, put it to me straight a couple of years ago: "Never retire. Your brain needs exercise or it will atrophy." Why, then, am I bidding Op-Ed readers farewell today after more than 3,000 columns? Nobody pushed me; at 75, I'm in good shape, not afflicted with political ennui; and my recent column about tsunami injustice and the Book of Job drew the biggest mail response in 32 years of pounding out punditry. Here's why I'm outta here: In an interview 50...

OP-ED QUARTET: A COLUMNIST'S FAREWELL My relationships with first ladies were varied. Pat Nixon was a pal; we were both volunteers during her husband's first comeback in the 60's, sometimes working at adjoining desks in the Nixon, Mudge law offices. She answered the phone as the receptionist "Pat Ryan," her maiden name, and assured political callers she knew Mr. Nixon well enough to get through to him with a complete message. Her daughter Julie inherited that cheery sang-froid: "My father does not get angry, or blow up, or anything like you read about him," Julie Eisenhower would insist. "Of course,...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Washington On his way out of the first Cabinet meeting after his re-election, President Bush gave his longtime chief speechwriter the theme for the second Inaugural Address: "I want this to be the freedom speech." In the next month, the writer, Michael Gerson, had a heart attack. With two stents in his arteries, the recovering writer received a call from a president who was careful not to apply any deadline pressure. "I'm not calling to see if the inaugural speech is O.K.," Bush said. "I'm calling to see if the guy writing the inaugural speech is O.K." Yesterday's...

OP-ED COLUMNIST Washington In the aftermath of a cataclysm, with pictures of parents sobbing over dead infants driven into human consciousness around the globe, faith-shaking questions arise: Where was God? Why does a good and all-powerful deity permit such evil and grief to fall on so many thousands of innocents? What did these people do to deserve such suffering? After a similar natural disaster wiped out tens of thousands of lives in Lisbon in the 18th century, the philosopher Voltaire wrote "Candide," savagely satirizing optimists who still found comfort and hope in God. After last month's Indian Ocean tsunami, the...

In this, the granddaddy of all year-end fearless forecasts, you are invited to weigh intriguing possibilities in a dozen fields. For each, pick one, all or none, and don't play it safe; one correct wild guess gives you bragging rights forever. 1. The Oscar for Best Picture goes to: (a) Robert Zemeckis's "The Polar Express"; (b) Michael Mann's "Collateral"; (c) David Mamet's "Spartan"; (d) Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" (to win this choice, a trifecta is needed with Best Director and Best Actor as well); (e) Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" (from Academy members seeking vengeance). 2. Political scandals will include:...

Washington — As a primary human drive, not even the pursuit of prolonged pleasure can compete with the avoidance of pain. That is why the sudden emergence of the painkiller issue strikes home to so many who are afflicted with pain ranging from splitting headache to crippling arthritis. In recent weeks, people seeking relief have been afflicted by the overreaction to reports that several new pain alleviators, taken in large doses by especially vulnerable patients, may increase the risk of heart problems. These new, expensive medicines were developed to reduce pain without the risk of side effects like ulcers that...

I now admit to having expected the war in Iraq to be won in a matter of months, not years. Saddam's plan to disperse his forces and conduct a murderous insurgency, abetted by his terrorist allies, was a surprise. This by no means suggests that President Bush's decision to overthrow a dangerous despotism was a mistake. On the contrary, it was and is the right war (against a genocidal maniac who was gaining strength) in the right place (the Middle East cradle of terror) for the right purpose (to get the Arab street out of the rut of hatred and...

In "The Plot Against America," the novelist Philip Roth imagined what might have befallen this nation if the appeasing Charles A. Lindbergh had defeated the anti-Hitler F.D.R. in the 1940 election. Here's my idea for the sequel: Opening scene in the Oval Office in winter 2001, after U.S. and allied forces crushed the Taliban in retaliation for their part in 9/11, with bin Laden not yet found in Afghanistan. President Bush tells his national security aides he wants to continue to wage war against the web of terrorists, lest America be attacked again with nukes or germs. The C.I.A.'s Tenet...

The person to watch in American medical science today is a California real estate developer named Robert Klein II. As the driving force behind the initiative to invest $3 billion in stem cell research over the next decade, the builder-financier has just been nominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to head the citizens' committee overseeing the state's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Here we have federalism in action, with states competing to lead the central government in creating national policy. When the government in Washington decided to move cautiously in funding this promising but controversial scientific research, individual states saw the competitive...

he elder President Bush's most memorable foreign-policy blunder took place in Kiev in 1991, then under Communist rule. With the Soviet Union coming apart, the U.S. president - badly advised by the stability-obsessed "realist" Brent Scowcroft - made a speech urging Ukrainians yearning for independence to beware of "suicidal nationalism." His speech, which he now insists meant only "not so fast," was widely taken as advice to remain loyal to Moscow's empire.I dubbed this the "Chicken Kiev" speech. That so infuriated Bush, who mistakenly saw the phrase as imputing cowardice rather than charging colossal misjudgment, that he has not spoken...

The elder President Bush's most memorable foreign-policy blunder took place in Kiev in 1991, then under Communist rule. With the Soviet Union coming apart, the U.S. president - badly advised by the stability-obsessed "realist" Brent Scowcroft - made a speech urging Ukrainians yearning for independence to beware of "suicidal nationalism." His speech, which he now insists meant only "not so fast," was widely taken as advice to remain loyal to Moscow's empire. I dubbed this the "Chicken Kiev" speech. That so infuriated Bush, who mistakenly saw the phrase as imputing cowardice rather than charging colossal misjudgment, that he has not...