Free Republic

President Clinton, citing the need to avoid the appearance of "abusive executive authority" in the nine-month jailing of Wen Ho Lee, said Friday he will discuss his concerns with Attorney General Janet Reno. "I'm sure I'll have a chance to talk to the attorney general about it," the president said, adding that his staff has already been in contact with her. Clinton said he did not previously discuss the matter with Reno because "it would have been completely inappropriate for me to intervene." The 60-year-old Taiwan-born scientist, fired from his job at the Los Alamos weapons lab in March 1999 ...

Blair seeks 'more robust' approach to peacekeeping CHERIE BLAIR is eschewing the usual political spouse's role on her visit to New York this week with her husband. While the Prime Minister attends the United Nations Millennium summit, she is taking part in an academic discussion of international human rights law at New York University with fellow lawyer Hillary Clinton. Any spare time that she has will be spent with her baby, Leo, who is being cared for by his nanny. To protect his family from the hubbub around the United Nations, Mr Blair has installed them at the Carlyle, ...

AL GORE'S teenage son, who was nearly killed in a road accident at the age of six, upset his father on the eve of last week's Democratic convention by being arrested for driving at nearly twice the speed limit. Albert Gore, 17, was charged with "careless and reckless" driving after police stopped his 2000 Oldsmobile as he drove at 100 mph in a 55 mph zone in Currituck, North Carolina. He will appear in court next month. His mother, Tipper, is said to be furious about the incident. She has spoken publicly about suffering clinical depression after her son's ...

The infighting in the Reform party gets weirder and weirder. Earlier this year, Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura threw up his hands and quit Ross Perot's third party, accusing the Texas billionaire of conspiring to squash pro-Ventura forces And that's nothing new: Because of internecine squabbles, the party is already on its third chairman this year. Now the latest round of fighting is over allegations of voter fraud. And the alleged culprit is none other than Pat Buchanan. The onetime Republican presidential hopeful is the leading candidate to capture the Reform party's presidential nod -- and its coveted $12.5 million in ...

To a large gathering of conservatives soon after the 1992 election, the introductory speaker began thus: "Welcome to the midpoint of the Bush-Clinton era." The applause was wild and knowing. It was the response of conservatives who so disdained George Bush, the father, that they pretended there was not a dime's worth of difference between the candidates. Eight years later, they know better. Which explains the almost total acquiescence of the right to the nomination of George Bush, the son. George W. Bush was inadvertently helped by John McCain. McCain's challenge allowed Bush to play the conservative, a role ...

Is the economy being saved or destroyed? LAST WEEK'S half-point interest rate hike to 6.5 percent is clear and convincing evidence that the Federal Reserve Board has completely lost touch with reality. The central bank has become obsessed with fighting a phantom inflation it fears might result sometime in the future because the Fed lacks faith in the free market's ability to balance demand with the supply of goods and workers during a booming economy. The Fed's announcement of its sixth interest rate hike in a year was a demand-side caricature of Keynesian thinking so convoluted that it would ...

Shaping the Debate About Gore A group of California Republicans is calling Vice President Al Gore a hypocrite in a television ad modeled after the game show "Jeopardy!" In the ad, which began running Monday, contestants pick questions from the category "Political Hypocrites," in which all of the answers are "Al Gore." The questions involve campaign finance reform, Medicare cuts and the tobacco industry. Produced in house by the group called Shape the Debate, the spot is running nationally on cable and heavier in Washington, D.C.; New York; and San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, Calif. The group bought ...

Rich Lowry is editor of NR. March 24, 2000 Cataloging the hypocrisies and inconsistencies of John McCain is by now a tired sport. But Friday’s interview in the New York Times provides one last opportunity — at least for the time being — to behold the Arizona senator at work. The latest, of course, is that McCain is starting a PAC. Nothing remarkable in that necessarily, except a few years ago McCain was trying to ban PAC’s. The senator might want to stop to explain why PACs once were such a blight on our political system that they deserved ...

President's search for foreign policy coup likely to backfire By Christina Lamb, David Wastell in Washington and Julian West in New Delhi THE sewers have been checked, stray monkeys cleared from the streets and sniffer dogs deployed en masse. But the enormous security operation behind today's arrival of President Clinton in Delhi for the last big foreign trip of his presidency - and the first visit by an American president in 22 years - cannot protect him from the diplomatic minefield. For a president seeking a foreign policy success in his last year of office, South Asia is not ...

PAPER DELVES INTO GORE'S GRADES AT HARVARD The WASHINGTON POST has obtained Al Gore's grades from Harvard University which he has previously refused to release -- and the picture drawn is that of a privileged slacker. The POST unloads Sunday on its front page. Despite an impressive 1355 SAT score (625 verbal, 730 math), Al Gore hit trouble spots at Harvard, especially in one semester of his sophomore year when he received one D, one C-minus, two C's, two C-pluses and one B-minus, reports presidential historian David Maraniss and POSTIE Ellen Nakashima. "That was the year Gore's classmates remember him ...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN MARCH 05 2000 21:55:21 ET XXXXX MCCAIN WRITES OFF CALIFORNIA! Sen. John McCain's top advisers Sunday night admitted they have given up hope of winning California, the NEW YORK TIMES is reporting in Monday editions. TIMES reporter Alison Mitchell, citing Bush's strength among the state's Republicans, outlined McCain's new battle strategy. "It would start with sweeping New England, where 102 delegates are chosen, and winning a clear majority of New York's 101 delegates. McCain's aides said he would also have to rack up a decent number of delegates in Ohio." But McCain's future looks filled ...

Bob Jones just announced that as of today, the school has dropped the inter-racial dating ban. They don't want to hurt the cause of Christ for an out-dated rule.

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX MON FEB 28 2000 20:29:12 ET XXXXX NY TIMES/CBS POLL: BUSH BEATING MCCAIN BY 9 IN NEW YORK A NEW YORK TIMES/CBS NEWS POLL set to run in Tuesday's TIMES shows George W. Bush ahead of John McCain by ten points. The results: George W. Bush: 46% John McCain: 36% Alan Keyes: 3% Undecided:15% With only a week left until the primary, the TIMES' Marjorie Connelly reports that the statewide telephone poll questioned 1,034 registered voters from Thursday through Sunday.