Free Republic

It's tempting right now to say President Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents ever to dis-grace the White House. But is that fair, or even accurate? Historian renderings of a legacy are often at odds with fluctuating public opinion polls that gauge the heat of the moment. Take Truman. The man had a 22 percent approval rating toward the end of his presidency--due in large part to a highly unpopular Korean War--yet he's among the most popular presidents in history. I'm going to play the devil's advocate and argue that it is at least in the...

Both presidential candidates took a few days to get their bearings and talking points in order after the beginning of the wild week on Wall Street. McCain McCain's quick comment: Fire Chris Cox, Chairman of the SEC. That effort to find a convenient scapegoat misses the mark and is also unfair. Cox has responded with a ten-point rebuttal pinpointing specific SEC actions — including strengthened investor protections, targeting fraud, emergency orders against naked short-selling involving Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, "sweeping" and "landmark" enforcement actions, etc. It is understandable that McCain wants to distance himself from President Bush. That does...

David Frum on Scott McClellan's new book: George Bush got the team he deserved Posted: May 30, 2008, 3:47 PM by Marni Soupcoff David Frum Except maybe for MSNBC’s wild-eyed commentator Keith Olbermann, nobody in politics or media seems to have a good word to say for Scott McClellan, the former George W. Bush press secretary turned ferocious Bush critic. The right complains of McClellan's disloyalty. The left complains that McClellan’s change of heart arrived too late. The old Washington hands shake their heads at a press secretary writing a book at all: FDR’s and Eisenhower’s men took their secrets...

Has there ever been as much chatter among the pundits about someone as light weight, un-talented, inconsequential (and utterly predictable) as Scott McClellan? I mean, who was he again? Oh yeah, that boring, un-engaged pasty little white dude who mumbled through the daily press briefings after Ari Fleisher and before Tony Snow. I remember him now. I used to wonder how in the world it was that the President found someone so totally unimpressive to help fight his media battles. Then I remembered: McClellan was a more appropriate as Press Secretary for the New Tone President than either his predecessor...

The former Bush administration pitchman making explosive election-year charges about how the White House handled the Valerie Plame case and built the case for invading Iraq said Thursday that he went to Washington to change it and became “disillusioned” when he realized he was just a pawn in the never-ending political game.

I'm currently of the opinion the disaster that has been president Bush for the last few years (yes, I was a supporter of George till he quit being a conservative) should cause Obamanation to win. I'm all for fighting the war over there. What I'm not for is letting the current congressional majority pass whatever they want and the President not showing any leadership skills with Republicans currently in congress. RINO's like McCain have ruined the party with their descent to moderation from Regan style Republican values. Obama should win this election so the nation can see the real differences...

One hundred nine historians already nearly unanimously agree. They call the presidency of George W. Bush a "failure." The History News Network (HNN), who polled the historians, failed to name them or where they work. Wonder why? American Enterprise magazine, in 2002, examined voter registrations to determine the political affiliations of humanities professors at an assortment of colleges and universities, public and private, big and small, located in the North, South, East and West. Of those registered with a political party -- and most were -- historians overwhelmingly belong to a "party of the left" (Democratic, Green or Working Families...

The big story this morning is President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset invoking the example of Hitler to warn against the appeasement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the opening segment, from Mika Brzezinski [subbing for Joe Scarborough and seen in file photo] to Willie Geist to Pat Buchanan to Mike Barnicle to David Shuster, nary a word in defense of Bush was heard, with Shuster twice referring to Bush's remarks as "grotesque." The only slight straying from Bush-bashing orthodoxy was Barnicle's observation that when he first heard of the remarks, he took them as aimed at Jimmy Carter, not Barack...

Times Executive Editor Bill Keller delivered the Hugo Young Memorial Lecture in London in November, sponsored by the liberal Guardian newspaper, and said some things to his journalistic friends he might not felt comfortable telling a more general audience. "...And I would argue that in this clattering, interconnected, dangerous world, journalism that cuts through the noise has never been needed more. We have a war going very badly in Iraq, and another one in Afghanistan where our declaration of victory looks very premature." "...Third, we are agnostic as to where a story may lead; we do not go into a...

In just two weeks, six retired U.S. Marine and Army generals have denounced the Pentagon planning for the war in Iraq and called for the resignation or firing of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who travels often to Iraq and supports the war, says that the generals mirror the views of 75 percent of the officers in the field, and probably more. This is not a Cindy Sheehan moment. This is a vote of no confidence in the leadership of the U.S. armed forces by senior officers once responsible for carrying out the orders of...

Former Army Lt. Col. James Reilley was in charge of monitoring war crimes investigations conducted by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division in the early 1970s. In 2004, he reported that the John Kerry / VVAW Winter Soldier claims were baseless; that war crimes during the Vietnam War were few and none were authorized by the chain of command. In August, Col. Reilley took an Iceland Air flight to Sweden. On the way, he opened the July/August issue of the airline's in-flight magazine to find this: SHRIMP TO THE RESCUE Casualty numbers continue to climb alarmingly. The Green Zone is...

T he Washington Post's recent series on Dick Cheney's vice presidency certainly got my attention. Having held that office myself over a quarter-century ago, I have more than a passing interest in its evolution from the backwater of American politics to the second most powerful position in our government. Almost all of that evolution, under presidents and vice presidents of both parties, has been positive -- until now. Under George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, it has gone seriously off track. The founders created the vice presidency as a constitutional afterthought, solely to provide a president-in-reserve should the need arise....

A civil servant and an MP's researcher have been found guilty of leaking a secret memo about talks between George Bush and Tony Blair. David Keogh, 50, from Northampton, has been found guilty of two offences under the Official Secrets Act. MP's researcher Leo O'Connor was found guilty of one Official Secrets offence. It recorded Oval Office talks between Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair about Iraq in 2004, the Old Bailey was told. Sentencing was adjourned for reports........

Know our enemyMonday, February 12, 2007 Liberals everywhere are waging war on phantom threats like atmospheric CO2cc11; and insensitivity and capitalism, while ignoring the real battle to the death that has already begun. But instead of engaging the enemy combatants of Islamofascism, the left has aimed all its fire power on the Bush administration. The gathering storm is global. It is virulent, violent and unappeasable. That sword of Allah is aimed straight at you, to separate your disbelieving head from your disbelieving neck. When the Iraq Surrender Group Report came out with its recommendation to pursue "dialogue" with Syria, Sen....

Bush's Iraq plan, between the lines Anthony H. Cordesman Friday, January 12, 2007 WASHINGTON President George W. Bush has presented a new strategy for the war in Iraq that he feels can reverse the country's drift toward large-scale civil war. The new plan focuses on stabilizing Baghdad by adding thousands of American troops with newly expanded powers to take on Shiite as well as Sunni rebels. It also includes a limited increase in United States forces in Anbar Province, and calls for Iraqi forces to take formal control of the security mission in November. The president was refreshingly candid, saying...

RICHMOND — An obscure new political group headed by an Iraq War veteran will begin airing television ads today that accuse Republican Sen. George Allen of voting to withhold lifesaving body armor for U.S. troops.The bluntly worded 30-second ad by VoteVets.org is significant because it's the first attack ad of this year's hotly contested Senate race between Allen and Democrat Jim Webb.It's also the first of many likely to be aired this fall not by campaigns but by so-called 527 organizations similar to 2004's anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the pro-Democrat Americans Coming Together. The ad's tone is...

by Mark Finkelstein September 2, 2006 - 19:20 I don't know about you, but by the end of the Bush-bashing festival that was the MSM's coverage of the one-year Katrina anniversary, I was about ready to climb up on my roof with a bedsheet message begging to be evacuated by helicopter. Neal Gabler also had a complaint about the Katrina anniversary coverage: there wasn't enough of it. On this evening's Fox News Watch, Gabler made his comment in the context of the panel's discussion of the John Mark Karr fiasco. Griped Gabler: "The embarrassment isn't that he wasn't guilty, the...

Lord knows I have my problems with President Bush. He taps the federal coffers like a monkey smacking the bar for another cocaine pellet in an addiction study. Some of his sentences give me the same sensation as falling backward in one of those "trust" exercises, in which you just have to hope things work out. Yes, the Iraq invasion has gone badly, and to deny this is to suggest that Bush meant for things to turn out this way, which is even crueler than saying he failed to get it right. But you know what? It's time to cut...

Bush-bashing for sport has never lacked fans in the blogosphere, but questioning the president's intelligence lately has gone mainstream. Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman and host of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country," recently tossed his beanie into the ring, running a 10-minute segment titled: "Is Bush an 'Idiot'?" Scarborough wasn't calling Bush an idiot, mind you. He was just quoting that renowned American intellectual, Linda Ronstadt. Recently, Ronstadt had commented on the president's performance while attending an international summit of heads of state. No wait, my mistake, she made those comments to reporters and audiences while touring in Canada. But never mind....

``'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).'' -- ``Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," Lewis Carroll Bush-bashing for sport has never lacked fans in the blogosphere, but questioning the president's intelligence lately has gone mainstream. Joe Scarborough, former Republican congressman and host of MSNBC's ``Scarborough Country,'' recently tossed his beanie into the ring, running a 10-minute segment titled: ``Is Bush an 'Idiot'?'' Scarborough wasn't calling Bush an idiot, mind you. He was just quoting that renowned American intellectual, Linda Ronstadt. Recently, Ronstadt had commented on the president's...