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Bill Clinton's chief of staff when he was governor of Arkansas is expected to turn herself in after authorities issued a bench warrant for her arrest for allegedly smuggling contraband into a state prison, her attorney told CNN Wednesday. Betsey Wright served Clinton as chief of staff for 7 years in Arkansas and ran 3 successful campaigns for governor. Betsey Wright allegedly smuggled a red Doritos bag containing 48 tattoo needles, a pen with tweezers and a needle inside, a Swiss Army knife and a box cutter into the Varner Unit, a high-security state prison in Grady, Arkansas, according to...

Clintonista Paul Begala says all you unpatriotic, wimpy, whiney Americans out there should just shut up and pay your taxes. "Why are they out there whining with this Tea Party thing? Just a bunch of wimpy, whiney, weasels who don't love their country and don't want to support - there are guys at Walter Reed who gave their legs for my country, and they're whining because they have to write a check?" the political consultant who worked in Bill Clinton's White House told Don Imus.

MOSCOW. (Andrei Kislyakov, for RIA Novosti) - So do UFOs with little green men inside exist or not? CNN supposedly filmed a UFO moving at a great speed from the right to the left during the inauguration of President Barack Obama. (But those who watched the replay say it was a bird.) After that, former President Clinton's White House Chief John Podesta, now one of Obama's closest associates, demanded that the thick UFO files be made public. The number of UFO sightings has dramatically increased in recent times. According to Britain's Ministry of Defense, there were supposedly 285 UFO sightings...

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder jokingly asks U.S. President Barack Obama to stop talking during a ceremonial installation with his wife Dr. Sharon Malone at George Washington University in Washington, March 27, 2009 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (L) acknowledges the crowd and applause of U.S. President Barack Obama during a ceremonial installation at George Washington University in Washington, March 27, 2009 U. S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., left, and Vivian Malone Jones' children, Michael Anthony and Monica Alicia, right, unveil a portrait of Jones Malone, first African American to graduate for the University of Alabama in 1965,...

Alexandria, Va. (AP) -- The Justice Department may have hoodwinked a defendant in a high-profile terrorism case into thinking his plea bargain would protect him from further prosecutions, a federal judge said Monday. Monday's hearing in U.S. District Court was the latest in which Judge Leonie Brinkema questioned the Justice Department's tactics in pursuing a criminal contempt case against former professor Sami Al-Arian, once accused of being a leading Palestinian terrorist. Brinkema gave Al-Arian's lawyers 10 days to file papers seeking dismissal of the case on the grounds that prosecutors failed to keep promises made under the plea bargain. She...

WASHINGTON -- The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday. Mr. Panetta received $56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches and $28,000 for a speech for Wachovia Corp., according to disclosures released ahead of Thursday's scheduled Senate hearing on Mr. Panetta's nomination.

By any standard, the story of Pedro Miguel González is astonishing. The son of a prominent Panamanian politician, González, according to U.S. prosecutors, murdered a United States Army sergeant on a road outside Panama City on June 10, 1992, the day before Pres. George H. W. Bush was to visit the country. With his father’s help, González fled Panama, eventually coming back to be acquitted in a sham trial. Though the Clinton administration labeled him a terrorist, González became an important political figure in Panama, ultimately winning election as president of the national assembly — an event that so angered...

Here is video of Attorney General Nominee Eric Holder responding to questions today from Sen. Arlen Specter about Holder's involvement in the notorious Mark Rich pardon that was granted by President Bill Clinton in the final hours of the Clinton Presidency. Holder worked in the Clinton Justice Department as Deputy Attorney General, and was involved in recommending the Rich Pardon. . . . . . (watch video)

Now that Barack Obama is assuming the presidency, partisan criticism is suddenly passé. Really, it's all just so churlish, so "yesterday." Just ask Chris Matthews. In the course of cheerleading the MSNBC coverage of Hillary Clinton's confirmation hearing today, Matthews suggested that the media shouldn't cover the Republican National Committee's criticism of Clinton. The comments came during the Hardball host's chat with Newsweek's Jonathan Alter. A few minutes earlier, Matthews had assured us that those who had the privilege of knowing Hillary personally were aware of what a "wonderful" person she is. Then it was time to attack Republicans for...

Carol Browner a Socialist? By Doug Bandow on 1.12.09 @ 6:16PM There's a tendency of conservatives to carelessly toss about the "S" word. Like John McCain, who opposed the Bush tax cuts while spouting left-wing rhetoric, then accusing Barack Obama of being a socialist because the latter proposed to increase taxes on the rich.

Sunday's New York Times ran two columns that advocated for investigations into America's use of coercive interrogation techniques - known to editorial writers as "torture" - of enemy combatants, as well as one that opposed a show trial. Also Sunday, television's "24" uber-agent Jack Bauer stood before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating intelligence abuses and gave a bombastic Senate inquisitor what-for: "Please do not sit there with that smug look on your face and expect me to regret the decisions that I have made, because, sir, the truth is, I don't." Asked if he had tortured a suspect, the Kiefer...

Panetta's a patriot, an experienced Washington hand, and close to the president-elect. As with many of the other early appointments on the incoming national security team, conservatives should be asking themselves if they ought not to be thanking their stars that the new team appears very realistic about the world they are being called on to lead and the enemies they will be facing.

Conventional wisdom last week decreed that President-elect Barack Obama had done such a fine job culling his Cabinet that only one pick - Attorney General-nominee Eric Holder - would present a problem, but most likely, a surmountable hurdle. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson - Obama's presumptive commerce secretary - stepped on that happy tale when he withdrew his name from consideration Sunday in the midst of a federal corruption probe. Back to Holder. Inside money would bet that Republicans will use Holder's Jan. 15 Senate confirmation hearing to grill him on his role in President Bill Clinton's notorious last-day-in-office pardon...

President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday. Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the...

Houston Mayor Bill White used a Web video to announce his plan to run for U.S. Senate today.... He cites turbulent economic times, a rising federal deficit and high unemployment rates in the video, saying "this may be an opportunity for our nation to do things it has only dreamed of before..." White previously worked as deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy under President Clinton and as chief executive of the Wedge Group, a Houston-based holding company with interests in oil-field services, engineering and real estate. In comments today, he also highlighted signature domestic issues such as health...

This arises out of the Elian Gonzalez mess back in the Clinton years when the boy was forcibly removed from his home at gunpoint by federal agents. Then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder flatly denied in an interview with Fox News that the child was taken at gunpoint. Judge Andrew Napolitano nails him. More . . .

Franklin Raines From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Franklin Delano Raines (born January 14, 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Fannie Mae who served as White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. He is currently employed by Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign as an economic adviser. The son of a Seattle janitor [1], Raines graduated from Harvard University, Harvard Law School; and Magdalen College, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Raines was of age during the Vietnam War, but performed no military service. He served in the Carter Administration as...

An internal Justice Department investigation released Monday has concluded that senior officials broke the law by hiring immigration and other officials based on partisan considerations. The report — issued by the inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility — culminates an investigation that lasted more than a year, stemming from the firing of seven U.S. attorneys in one day in 2006. The report focuses on some of the senior officials in the circle of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Specifically, the report names senior counselor and White House liaison Monica Goodling and Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Both...

On Sunday's This Week, ABC's George Stephanopoulos condemned John McCain for charging that “Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” Stephanopoulos, who interviewed McCain on Saturday at his Arizona ranch, declared: “I can't believe you believe that.” McCain insisted “I'm not questioning his patriotism. I'm questioning his actions. I'm questioning his lack, total lack of understanding,” leading Stephanopoulos to counter: “But that is questioning his patriotism. When you say someone would rather lose a war, a candidate, that's questioning his honor, his decency, his character.” As McCain continued to defend his assessment, Stephanopoulos...

Sweet P Farm is nestled at the top of a winding driveway, hidden from view by 77 acres of gentle woods and meadows, a retreat in the Berkshires where Governor Deval Patrick can swat a few tennis balls on his private court, work on a chapter of his memoir, or stroll through the wildflowers in his backyard. But during this year's high summer season, Patrick is opening his rural getaway to the Massachusetts political world, transforming it into something like the state's own version of Camp David. The governor hosted a big ticket fund-raiser at the home last week that...

The Rage Offstage at Marvel By BILL ALPERT Lawsuits against Marvel, Lee and Bill and Hillary are pressing Paul's claims that a dot-com he started with Stan Lee in 1998 was undone by the actions of the former president, short-sellers and Stan Lee himself. In a Manhattan federal district court, some of Paul's associates argue that the bankrupt dot-com, Stan Lee Media, still owns rights to Marvel characters like Spider-Man and The X-Men. On behalf of the former dot-com, they want half the profits that Marvel (ticker: MVL) is piling up, now that it's producing its own films like the...

In its final days, Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential cam paign has come to echo George Wallace’s 1968 run. Like Clinton, Wallace as a candidate stalked the Northeast exploiting white anger. Like her, he bypassed the nation’s more educated and liberal parts to focus squarely on those who felt left behind, rallying animosity against elites.

John McCain is America's favorite kind of candidate. With his record of extraordinary patriotism and his distinctive Senate tenure, McCain is a nominee whom voters from both parties — and independents, too — could easily support. But he has been dealt a terrible hand: a tanking economy, an unpopular war, a Republican incumbent whose approval ratings are at their all-time low and a gloomy national mood, with 82 percent of Americans saying in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that the country is on the wrong track. Political scientists add all that up and predict that the Democrats are...

A Hardball epic . . . Message to Chris Matthews: when ripping a guest for his lack of historical knowledge, try to avoid making a history mistake of your own in the same segment. It happened on this afternoon's Hardball. After lambasting a guest for not knowing his Neville Chamberlain history, Matthews surmised that the attack on the USS Cole in October, 2000 happened under . . . President Bush. View video here.

A federal jury has found Los Angeles private detective Anthony Pellicano guilty of racketeering and conspiracy. The verdict, which could mean a penalty of eight to 10 years in federal prison, effectively brings to a close the career of the most infamous private eye in Los Angeles -- a man who insinuated himself into the loftiest legal and entertainment circles in town and even consulted on law enforcement cases, until he became the subject of one. Pellicano sat grinning and looking around room before the verdicts were read. But when he realized the jury had found him guilty, he crossed...

oseph C. Wilson IV SANTA FE, N.M. - In recent weeks Americans have been subjected to a litany of outrageous statements from Sen. Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. While Obama was finally compelled to distance himself from his radical preacher, the relationship raises legitimate questions about Obama's judgment and naivete. Obama, after all, wants to be president of the United States, and in that quest has proposed unconditional summit meetings with some of our country's most determined enemies, including Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Obama's campaign has been built upon his supposed transcendent qualities and intuitive judgment....

Dee Dee Myers has just come out with her amusing tale, Why Women Should Rule the World. You may recall Mrs. Myers was the first female White House press secretary, appointed during the first two tumultuous years of the Clinton administration. Simply put, Myers is a female supremacist. "Women tend to be better communicators, better listeners, better at forming consensus," she argues. That entitles women to run the world because they do everything better than those power-hungry men, Myers believes. As the unsmiling Myers goes about promoting her book, one wonders what led her to pen a tome filled with...

Former White House staffer Craig Livingstone on WMAL's Chris Plante Show Washington, DC, live now.

The early days of 1996 were tense times inside the Clinton White House. On Jan. 4, the First Couple's top personal aide reported that she had stumbled upon Hillary Clinton's long-lost Rose Law Firm billing records—documents that had been requested by Whitewater prosecutors two years earlier. Ken Starr quickly subpoenaed the First Lady to testify before a federal grand jury on Jan. 26 of that year. But anybody looking through Hillary Clinton's newly released White House records for clues as to how she handled this personal crisis will find … absolutely nothing. ... The heavy deletions are perhaps not surprising,...

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Mike Huckabee broadened his populist-inspired appeal for support in Michigan on Saturday, saying he viewed his presidential campaign as a "cause" that represents a threat to the Republican establishment in Washington. With polls showing support in Michigan's Republican primary Tuesday to be extremely fluid among Mitt Romney, John McCain and Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor also lashed out at candidates who campaign on a theme of opposing abortion but do little about it when they get into office. "We're people who will no longer just allow people to get elected, promising that they're listening to us...

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...

Just in case you thought there was a limit to the vulgarity of Paul Begala . . . Bill Clinton's former adviser was a guest on the Situation Room this aftern0on on CNN. Talk turned to the strategy Republicans should adopt in upcoming special elections. WOLF BLITZER: How much of a lightning rod -- you're an expert on this subject -- will Hillary Clinton be for Republicans out there, cause they're already, in some of these special elections that are coming up, they're already pointed to her to try to help Republican candidates? View video here.

Today, Laura Ingraham had George Stephanopolos on for a phone interview. I called Kristinn to advise him to listen and he reminded me that George Stephanopolos was the ultimate "plant", having appeared to be just another caller that got through to The Larry King Shoe during Bush '41's apppearance literally days before the election. In fact, Stephanopolos wasn't just another caller waiting in line like everyone else, Stephanopolos was on an inside phone line for guests, having been arranged by a King producer, despite the claims by King during the show that George got through because "anyone can call". So...

It took 15 years to become official, but Carole Simpson has now confirmed what we always suspected: she's a Clinton backer. Readers will recall that during the 1992 campaign, the then ABC News anchor moderated a presidential debate in which she made life uncomfortable for George 41, notably with her snide "who would like to begin, the education president?" poke. According to this Boston Globe article, back in 2003 Simpson was "eased out" of her anchor chair in favor of Elizabeth Vargas. Simpson has now taken a teaching position at Emerson College in Boston, and last night turned up at...

The far left’s campaign to rehabilitate the CBS Killian memos and attack the bloggers who discredited them is in full bloom today, as Sidney Blumenthal makes a ludicrous, stupid accusation in an article for Salon.com: Dan Rather stands by his story. "..Within minutes of the conclusion of the broadcast, conservative bloggers launched a counterattack. The chief of these critics was a Republican Party activist in Georgia. Almost certainly, these bloggers, who had been part of meetings or conference calls organized by Karl Rove’s political operation, coordinated their actions with Rove’s office..." Rove? Karl Rove? If only this Blumenthal tool knew...

For Democrats, things rarely get much better than this. In 2008, they’ll be running to succeed an unpopular incumbent, against an opposition that has rarely been more disorganized or dispirited. Polls show a Democratic advantage on major issues nearly across the board. Amid all these favorable signs, it’s only natural that some of the party’s top strategists would be pondering the same question: Wonder how we’ll screw it up this time? “We are a little bit of a shellshocked political party. We somehow or another always figure out a way to blow it,” Democratic strategist James Carville said. “Democrats have...

Former Clinton labor secretary and perennial industrial policy hustler, Robert Reich, is a leading negative indicator. Whatever he predicts, the exact opposite occurs. In the 1980s, Reich declared that the U.S. economic growth rates were in a permanent slump and that we needed to adopt the economic model represented by the once famed Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. ---snip--- Now comes the insufferable Reich with an idiotic article in the current Foreign Policy (sub required) arguing that capitalism is undermining democracy around the globe.

USA Today: Did Sandy Berger 'Steal' Secret Docs? We're Debating That Still Posted by Ken Shepherd on June 8, 2007 - 10:24. You know, it seems pretty cut-and-dried to me. Stuffing secret documents down your pants and removing them from a secure room in a federal facility, that constitutes stealing.USA Today's "On Deadline" blog isn't sure, though. (bold/italics are USA Today's): Sandy Berger, the national security adviser under former President Clinton, was disbarred yesterday in the District of Columbia.The Washington Post says Berger agreed last month to give up his law license in order to avoid a prolonged investigation that...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal judge Thursday froze the assets of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La., who was indicted this week on charges of soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Among the 16 criminal counts Jefferson is facing is a criminal forfeiture count, and prosecutors have already said they will seek to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jefferson that they believe he obtained illicitly by peddling his influence to help broker business deals in Africa. Jefferson is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court. The restraining order issued by U.S. District...

On May 17th, Sandy Berger, President Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser, voluntarily gave up his law license and with it the right to practice law. That is a stunning move for an accomplished lawyer, one of the nation's most influential public officials. Someone should take note. In fact, everyone should. Berger previously entered a deal with the Department of Justice after he was caught stealing and destroying highly sensitive classified material regarding the Clinton Administration's handling of terrorism issues. That deal allowed him to avoid jail time, pay a modest fine, and keep his law license. It also allowed him...

Edwards: Move Past 'War on Terror' May 23 11:36 AM US/Eastern By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) - Democrat John Edwards Wednesday repudiated the notion that there is a "global war on terror," calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained American military resources and emboldened terrorists. In a defense policy speech he planned to deliver at the Council on Foreign Relations, Edwards called the war on terror a "bumper sticker" slogan Bush had used to justify everything from abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison to the invasion of Iraq. "We need...

Clinton aide forfeits law license in Justice probe By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES May 17, 2007 Samuel R. Berger, the Clinton White House national security adviser who was caught taking highly classified documents from the National Archives, has agreed to forfeit his license to practice law. In a written statement issued by Larry Breuer, Mr. Berger's attorney, the former national security adviser said he pleaded guilty in the Justice Department investigation, accepted the penalties sought by the department and recognized that his law license would be affected. "I have decided to voluntarily relinquish my license," he said. "While I...

Mr. Tenet's account of all this gives the reader no idea of the substance of our critique, which was that the CIA's analysts were suppressing information. They were not showing policy makers reports that justified concern about ties between Iraq and al Qaeda. Mr. Tenet does tell us that the CIA briefed Mr. Cheney on Iraq and al Qaeda in September 2002 and that the "briefing was a disaster" because "Libby and the vice president arrived with such detailed knowledge on people, sources, and timelines that the senior CIA analytic manager doing the briefing that day simply could not compete."...

CIA TENET: BUSH ADMIN USE OF HIS 'SLAM DUNK' COMMENT TO PUSH WAR WAS DISINGENUOUS, DISHONORABLE AND RUINED REPUTATION AND CAREER Thu Apr 26 2007 14:11:35 ET Ex-CIA Director George Tenet says the way the Bush administration has used his now famous "slam dunk" comment Ð which he admits saying in reference to making the public case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq Ð is both disingenuous and dishonorable. It also ruined his reputation and his career, he tells Scott Pelley in his first network television interview. The interview will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 29 (7:00-8:00...

In his new book At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA George Tenet depicts President Bush's decision to invade Iraq as a foregone conclusion, but he seemed to have a different version of events when I interviewed him just after the invasion. Strongly implying that he was against the war from the beginning, the former director of Central Intelligence writes that, as far as he knows, the Bush administration never had a "serious debate" about the "imminence of the Iraqi threat" or even seriously considered the implications of an invasion or the possible consequences. Moreover, Tenet...

The CIA has been fighting the Bush administration since 9/11. 9/11 proved the monumental incompetence of the CIA, and its weakness in the post Cold War era. What the CIA is doing right now, by giving false "leaks" to help the Democrats rewriting history, is to erase this shameful period. Edward J. Epstain raised questions about the reliability of the CIA about the WTC 1993 case : "BY EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, March 21, 2007 Last week Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) admitted to having been responsible for planning no fewer than 28 acts of terrorism, including the...

(CBS) Ex-CIA Director George Tenet says the way the Bush administration has used his now famous "slam dunk" comment — which he admits saying in reference to making the public case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — is both disingenuous and dishonorable. It also ruined his reputation and his career, he tells 60 Minutes Scott Pelley in his first network television interview. Pelley's report will be broadcast Sunday, April 29, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. The phrase "slam dunk" didn't refer to whether Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs, says Tenet; the CIA thought he did. He says he was...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush should follow British Prime Minister Tony Blair's lead and start withdrawing troops from Iraq, former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday. "Engaging in a broad-based diplomatic offensive, and beginning a redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq, represents the best way to secure America's interests in the region and combat the serious threat of terrorist networks," Holbrooke, who served under President Clinton, said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. Britain will withdraw about 1,600 troops in the coming months and aims to cut more by late summer. The announcement came as Bush is implementing his plan...

In a chandeliered room at the Justice Department, the longtime head of the counterespionage section, the chief of the public integrity unit, a deputy assistant attorney general, some trial lawyers and a few FBI agents all looked down at their pant legs and socks.

The Bristol County district attorney yesterday defended throwing out OUI charges against a politically connected socialite who flunked four sobriety tests and two breath tests, blaming red tape for blocking prosecutors from getting the Breathalyzer report. “This case could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” said DA Paul F. Walsh Jr. Walsh’s office dropped OUI charges against Suzanne Magaziner last week despite a police report alleging that she twice blew .12 on the Breathalyzer, which is above the legal limit of .08. But Walsh said his prosecutor, Roger Ferris, decided he had little chance to win the case, mainly...