Free Republic

James R. Schlesinger, a Republican economist who advanced rapidly to some of the highest positions of government power in the 1970s but whose abrasive leadership style led to conflicts with presidents, bureaucrats and the American public, died March 27 at a hospital in Baltimore. He was 85... Mr. Schlesinger specialized in the economics of national security, which helped propel his rise during the Cold War from academia to influential jobs in the federal government, including CIA director, secretary of defense and the nation’s first secretary of energy...

Last night, while reading Journals, a book consisting of the previously private reflections of the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., I came across this March 7, 1981 entry: I guess I was wrong about the Reagan crowd. They turned out to be considerably more doctrinaire than I expected them to be. In domestic policy they seem really to believe that reducing the budget and cutting taxes will produce prosperity without inflation. The more likely effect, it seems to me, of cutting taxes for the rich and social programs for the poor is to rekindle social tensions. Still I think Reagan...

The former defense secretary on the U.S. deterrent and the terrorist threat. 'Nuclear weapons are used every day." So says former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, speaking last month at his office in a wooded enclave of Maclean, Va. It's a serene setting for Doomsday talk, and Mr. Schlesinger's matter-of-fact tone belies the enormity of the concepts he's explaining -- concepts that were seemingly ignored in this week's Moscow summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev. We use nuclear weapons every day, Mr. Schlesinger goes on to explain, "to deter our potential foes and provide reassurance to the allies to...

I was shocked to see that Obama and 1948 Presidential candidate Henry Wallace had so much in common. Both candidates said they would help bring racial unity between blacks and whites. Both advocated universal government health insurance. Both wanted to establish peace with enemies abroad through talking instead of through strength. However, those aren't the only similarities. -Both had/have extensive and regular contact with Communists; Both were/are influenced by shadowy figures behind the scenes with interests adverse to the United States. -Wallace's highly popular book was actually ghost written by a group of Communists. There are questions surrounding the true...

Stupid Intelligence on Iran If Tehran did slow its weapons program, Bush policies probably had something to do with it. JAMES SCHLESINGER The release earlier this month of "key judgments" from the National Intelligence Estimate--including the bald assertion "that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program"--has caused both astonishment here at home and consternation overseas, where it has resulted in confusion about America's policy goals and steadiness. Let us stipulate that the intelligence community has acquired evidence sufficiently persuasive to lead it to reverse its prior judgment that Iran was hard at work developing nuclear weapons. For that...

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman accused rival Democrat Ned Lamont of lying about him in a lively and sometimes raucous debate Monday night. The front-runners tussled over the accuracy of Lamont's campaign advertising in a debate televised statewide from the Garde Art Center in New London. It all started when Lamont said his campaign's television ads and direct mailings are 100 percent true when he responded to a panelist's question. "I am proud of the ads we are running, and I am happy to have anybody take a look at them," he said. Lieberman has seen Lamont's ads and he is...

(WTNH/AP, Oct. 23, 2006 11:45 AM) _ Tonight will your final chance to hear the three major candidates for U.S. Senate go head-to-head on the issues. Also, the campaign of Democratic senate candidate Ned Lamont says it's filing a formal complaint with a federal agency against Senator Joe Lieberman. Lamont's campaign says the complaint with the Federal Election Commission accuses Lieberman of failing to account for $387,000 in petty cash his campaign spent days before the state's August Democratic primary. The Lieberman camp denies any wrongdoing. Lieberman spokeswoman Tammy Sun says that the cash was paid to field coordinators who...

That’s the word on the street, although the reality-based community has been known to confuse electoral reality with wishful thinking. Tinti’s not worried and says Connecticut Republicans realize that a vote for Schlesinger is a vote for Lamont. Just like, er, Democrats “knew” that a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush in 2000. Of course, if we acted like Democrats we wouldn’t have two chambers to lose.HuffPo’s already working on the empty suit’s concession speech. Rational response to the polls? Reflex reaction of a party prone to defeatism and used to losing? Or just getting a jump on...

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman continued his tightrope walk Tuesday across the divide separating Democrats and Republicans, swaying back and forth. Lieberman is the man in the middle, a Democrat seeking re-election as an independent, largely reliant on Republican and unaffiliated votes. -snip-All five Senate candidates - Lamont, Lieberman, Schlesinger, Ralph Ferrucci of the Green Party and Timothy Knibbs of the Concerned Citizens - will tape a debate today for broadcast Thursday at 7 p.m. on WFSB-TV, Channel 3. -snip- In New Haven, moments after Lieberman confirmed he was rooting for Democrats to win the House, one of the Republican congressmen...

STAMFORD -- U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman went into yesterday's first debate anticipating attacks from his primary opponent, Democrat Ned Lamont. He was stunned, however, when some of the harshest criticism came from Alan Schlesinger -- the Republican candidate who has been overshadowed in the race and trailing far behind in polls. "I thought the attacks were only going to come from this side," Lieberman said at one point, referring to Lamont. The three U.S. Senate candidates appeared on the same stage for the first time yesterday in an hourlong lunchtime debate at the Stamford Marriott Hotel and Spa, hosted by...

Democrats here are convinced that Mr. Lieberman stands a good chance of returning to the Senate as an independent, and many have reassured him that he will not be stripped of his seniority if he wins, according to people in several Senate offices, who were granted anonymity to speak of the sensitive situation amid an intense political climate... Three debates, scheduled for Oct. 16, 19 and 23, will provide the Republican, Alan Schlesinger, his first real chance to speak to voters statewide. If Mr. Schlesinger draws even 15 percent of the vote, strategists said, that could be a critical advantage...

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I) has increased his margin over Democrat Ned Lamont by eight points. He now leads the antiwar candidate 50% to 40% (see crosstabs). Thirty-nine percent (39%) are certain of their Lieberman vote, while 30% definitely expect to pull the lever for Lamont. GOP nominee Alan Schlesinger now attracts 6% of all voters. Soon after losing the Democratic nomination, Senator Lieberman, campaigning now as an Independent (or "Independent Democrat"), was five points ahead. His lead then narrowed to two points in our most recent poll. Lamont recently pumped another $1,250,000 of his own funds into the campaign in...

  Connecticut US Senate If the general election for US Senate were being held today between Ralph Ferrucci, of the Green party, Timothy Knibbs, of the Concerned Citizens party, Ned Lamont, the Democrat, Joe Lieberman, of the Connecticut for Lieberman party, and Alan Schlesinger, the Republican, for whom would you vote? (names rotated) 9/19/06 Lamont Lieberman Others Undecided Likely voters 45% 47% 3% 5% Republicans (26%) 15% 66% 8% 11% Democrats (39%) 62% 36% 0% 2% Unaffiliated (35%) 47% 45% 3% 5% 8/21/06 42% 44% 3% 11% Based on 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely...

This poll is still on Rasmussen's premium section, but got leaked onto the blogosphere. Topline numbers: Lieberman (I-Inc.) 45% Lamont (D) 43% Schlesinger (R) 5% 550 Likely Connecticut Voters +/- 4.5% MOE

If the election for United States Senator from Connecticut were today, and you were standing in the voting booth right now, who would you vote for? Republican Alan Schlesinger? Democrat Ned Lamont? Independent Joe Lieberman? Or some other candidate? 7% Schlesinger (R) 38% Lamont (D) 51% Lieberman (I) 1% Other 2% Undecided

WASHINGTON -- The Republican candidate shunned by President Bush, the GOP establishment and many in his party is hoping conservative groups will get behind his longshot bid for the Connecticut Senate seat. Alan Schlesinger, who has ignored calls from some Republicans to abandon his candidacy, planned a two-day trip to Washington to test his call for fiscal conservatism with outside organizations. "We're trying to move this campaign on the issues," he said Monday. "There's been enough about the horse races. Now we're going to talk about issues." The Connecticut Senate race shapes up as a two-man contest between three-term Sen....

CHICAGO -- Connecticut was the talk of Chicago this past weekend, at least as far as the assembled Democratic establishment was concerned. At their annual summer meeting in the Windy City, the party's national committee focused on some controversial 2008 business and on preparations for a hard-fought 2006 fall campaign season. But many members had their minds on the odd set of circumstances in Connecticut which have Republicans backing Democrats' own incumbent senator, Joe Lieberman, while the party's establishment supports nominee Ned Lamont. So sure was the GOP that Lieberman's Senate seat would be out of their reach that they...

If Sen. Joe Lieberman votes next year to organize the Senate under a Democratic majority leader, or is the deciding vote in defeating a conservative Supreme Court nominee, or in filibustering a conservative appellate court nominee, President Bush may have only himself to blame. As of now, the White House is not endorsing Alan Schlesinger, the Republican candidate running against Lieberman and Democratic candidate Ned Lamont in Connecticut’s three-way senatorial race. The implication is that the President wants Lieberman—a hard-core liberal who had an American Conservative Union rating of 0% in 2004—to defeat the Republican and be re-elected to the...

HARTFORD -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell refused Friday to personally endorse Republican Alan Schlesinger for U.S. Senate. Rell also wouldn't commit to campaigning with Schlesinger in his three-way contest against U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont. "Don't read anything into it," Schlesinger said. Last month, Rell and other leading Republicans in Connecticut urged Schlesinger to reconsider his candidacy after news reports that he gambled under an assumed name at a Connecticut casino and paid $28,000 in the early 1990s to settle gambling debts with two Atlantic City casinos. President Bush also is declining to endorse Schlesinger...

The election in Connecticut for U.S. Senate isn't just testing the loyalties of Democrats. The campaign of U.S. Rep. Nancy L. Johnson isn't saying whether the top-ranking Republican congresswoman, who represents the 5th District, is going to back Republican Alan Schlesinger in the race. "She hasn't endorsed anybody yet," spokesman Brian Schubert said. He declined to elaborate, or explain why Johnson might not endorse Schlesinger. And there don't appear to be any top Republicans rushing to Schlesinger's side. Gov. M. Jodi Rell, arguably the state's most popular Republican, is cool toward his candidacy. It is unclear if she will campaign...