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Not many authors on a book tour manage to snag a visit with the president of the United States. But Condoleezza Rice is no ordinary book author. The former secretary of state and onetime national security adviser met one-on-one with President Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon, after a week of television appearances promoting "Extraordinary, Ordinary People," her memoir about her parents. The White House said Obama wanted to discuss a range of foreign policy issues with her.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is defending President Barack Obama's efforts to combat the recession and unemployment, saying his focus has been on helping the jobless and underemployed. In a Labor Day appearance on ABC News' "Good Morning America," Solis said Obama is doing a good job. Solis says the Obama administration knows people are hurting from the weak economy. She pointed to last year's $814 billion economic recovery act and administration proposals for job training and hiring incentives for businesses. On CBS' "Early Show," she said that over the last eight months, the U.S. economy has added some 90,000 private...

While Newsweek's David Graham is hard at work defending President Obama's summertime leisure -- "A Short History of Presidential Vacation Outrage" -- by insisting that the press corps always complains about any president's vacation habits, it's instructive that he failed to indict his own magazine. "War on terrorism stalled, economy on precipice, time for a month on the Crawford ranch." Accompanied by a disapproving down arrow, that's how the August 5, 2002 Newsweek feature "Conventional Wisdom" derided President Bush's working vacation a mere three months before midterm elections in his first term.

LONDON (AFP) – Scottish ministers on Wednesday defended their decision to free the Lockerbie bomber after renewed US anger over the release threatened to spoil the new British premier's first visit to the White House. Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said he did not regret freeing Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds last August. And Salmon denied claims from US lawmakers that the release formed part of an oil deal between BP and resource-rich Libya. "If you take a decision in good faith, you don't regret it," Salmond, the leader of Scotland's devolved government, told BBC radio. He...

Critics who complain about his favorable depiction of Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders are spreading “mythologies,” director Oliver Stone said Friday night after a Santa Monica screening of his film “South of the Border.” Stone participated in a Q&A session at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex after the screening, which was picketed by protesters who felt that his documentary’s positive look at anti-imperialist leaders in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and other countries overlooked the economic ills and repressive policies of countries like Chavez’s Venezuela. Actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who earlier in the week told theWrap that Stone’s depiction of Chavez was...

n a rare moment of drama in her confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan was forced to defend her revision of an obstetrician group's policy statement on partial-birth abortion while she was an adviser in the Clinton White House. As a Republican-controlled Congress in the 1990s debated whether to ban the controversial procedure, Kagan wrote a memo in which she expressed concern about a statement that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologist was going to release that revealed its panel of experts found no circumstances in which the procedure was the only option for saving the life...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Vice President Joe Biden took off his suit coat, rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and told dozens of GE Appliances and Lighting employees Monday that the federal government's stimulus package has been good for their company. Biden spoke about 20 minutes in a warm production plant at GE. Near the end of the speech, GE Appliances and Lighting President James P. Campbell fell from his chair on the stage and collapsed. Biden asked if there was a doctor in the house, but Campbell was able to leave the stage on his own power.

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert on Wednesday defended Helen Thomas's anti-Semitic remarks by attacking conservative talk radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, John Gibson, and Michael Savage. Addressing the comments that led Thomas to resign her position with the Hearst News Service, Colbert said, "Jesus Christ on a matzo cracker, Helen. What were you thinking?" He continued, "You don't just blurt out racially charged comments on camera." As pictures of the four conservative talkers appeared on the screen, Colbert quipped, "You do it on your radio show" (video follows with commentary):

I've noticed a few recent news articles are reporting Rand had the following exchange with Rachel Maddow. Maddow: Do you think that a private business has the right to say, "We don't serve black people"? Paul: Yes. I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form... If you go to the video however, Rand obviously never said the word "yes". Here it is, cued up to the exact moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VGdP2mNPeo#t=8m1s It was merely some sort of insignificant vocalization to maintain the flow of conversation that was already made difficult by the satellite delay. Now he WAS laying out what...

Blumenthal defends service record By Ted Mann Publication: The Day Published 05/19/2010 12:00 AMUpdated 05/19/2010 06:45 AM Jessica Hill/AP Connecticut Attorney General and Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal stands with veterans as he addresses a report that he has misstated his military service during the Vietnam War at a news conference held in West Hartford on Tuesday. Jessica Hill/APMerrick Alpert, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to the media after Attorney General Richard Blumenthal addressed a report Tuesday in West Hartford that he had misstated his military service during the Vietnam War. of COMMENTS ( 4 ) AG regrets...

"I am proud of my service in the United States Marine Corps," Richard Blumenthal (D), candidate for US Senate, said. "Hoo-rah" and "Semper fi" was uttered several times. "I take full responsibility" for misspeaking he said. "I will not allow anyone to take a few misplaced words and impugn my record of service to our country," he stated. "I served in the United States Marine Corps reserves and I am proud of it," he concluded. "I did misspeak on a few occasions," he admitted. He also added that he "regretted" it.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Connecticut Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal is defending himself against a report he misstated his military service in Vietnam. Blumenthal's campaign on Monday night called a report on the New York Times website, which includes video of him at a 2008 event saying he had served "in Vietnam," an "outrageous distortion" on his record.

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday defended the Mirandizing of Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing, while senators had a mixture of praise and criticism for the timing of Shahzad’s arrest. Asked during an Appropriations hearing whether the reading of Miranda rights had impeded the investigation, Holder said, “No, it did not. As we have seen in prior investigations, the giving of Miranda warnings has not deterred people from talking to us, and Mr. Shahzad is, in fact, continuing to cooperate with us.”

NEW YORK (AP) - As Congress debates sweeping legislation aimed at guarding against another financial meltdown, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become Wall Street's spokesman and defender amid a chorus of populist voices. With President Barack Obama set to visit New York to push for passing financial reform, the billionaire mayor, who got his start on Wall Street in the 1960s and is considered a national expert on financial matters, argues that too much regulation could endanger the economy as much as others say it would protect it.

The 9th Circuit court in California has rejected the left's latest attempt to silence and eradicate Christianity from American culture.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger defended the state's greenhouse gas reduction law today, dismissing a Legislative Analyst's conclusion that determined the measure would cost the state jobs in the near term. "I travel up and down the state, unlike others that only have theoretical opinions," the governor said during a brief sidewalk news conference after giving a speech at a downtown Sacramento hotel. "I see first hand ... that all kinds of (green industry) places want to expand, all we have to do is give them the incentives, the tax incentives and the job creation packages. I know that AB 32 will...

On the floor of the Senate, Republican Jim Bunning of Kentucky just defended the position he's taken that has delayed an extension of jobless benefits for the nation's unemployed and has forced the furlough of about 2,000 federal workers. Saying that he has blocked votes on the legislation to underscore his opposition to the ongoing growth in federal debt, Bunning read a letter from "Robert in Louisville," who told the senator that even though he hasn't been working regularly in the past two years he supports what Bunning is doing.

The White House on Friday defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to scuttle a bipartisan jobs bill and replace it with a Democratic-written measure, arguing that Mr. Reid's bill will end up drawing Republican support. The Nevada Democrat's decision to scrap bipartisan legislation -- after it had drawn praise from the White House on Thursday -- along with his blocking of amendments to his bill have sparked criticism from Republicans as well as moderate Democrats. Asked if President Obama approves of Mr. Reid's actions, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not address the chain of events on Capitol...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Called a prostitute by conservative talk show hosts, a Louisiana Democrat on Thursday defended a deal she cut for her Hurricane Katrina-ravaged state in the Senate health care bill. Sen. Mary Landrieu insisted the Medicaid boost worth $300 million wasn't the price for her vote for President Barack Obama's sweeping health care plan and she noted that state Republicans backed the deal. Defiantly, she said she would do it all over again if she had to. "I don't need this job badly enough—maybe some people do, I don't—to throw the people of my state under the bus...

Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina stood by her now infamous “demon sheep” ad on Thursday morning, arguing that the online video, widely panned by pundits but also widely viewed, did what it was intended to do – challenge the underpinnings of primary opponent Tom Campbell’s candidacy. “Look, what I like about the ad is first, it’s funny, but it’s also factually correct. Despite all the commentary about this ad, no one, including Tom Campbell, has even attempted to dispute the facts because the facts are true,” .. Fiorina’s campaign caused an uproar on Wednesday when it released a three-minute, 21-second...