Free Republic

I'm now watching Democratic pundits say, "Gloves are off. We saw last night that Sarah Palin is an experienced and practiced pol. We don't need to be defensive about going after a woman." Pre-speech: Inexperienced, backwater rube. Post-speech: Polished veteran attack machine McBrilliant!

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle illegally over the weekend when he collided with a car in his Brentwood neighborhood, the Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday. Police Lt. Paul Vernon said Schwarzenegger does not have the proper motorcycle endorsement on his California driver's license, contradicting statements made by his spokeswoman since the Sunday accident that left the governor with 15 stitches in his upper lip. "He does not have the license," Vernon said. Police did not cite the governor because they arrived after the accident, Vernon said. Police referred their findings to the...

White House urged to 'come clean' in CIA leak case Maryland Democrat tells Bush to honor pledge to fire officials Saturday, November 5, 2005; Posted: 3:32 p.m. EST (20:32 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush should "come clean" about any White House officials involved in the leak of the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame and "honor his pledge to fire all those involved," Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland said Saturday in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "It's been one week since the vice president's chief of staff was indicted, and there are still very serious questions about how...

Where does this presidential race stand? Unfortunately the plethora of public polls does more to confuse than to clarify. Contorting and distorting the data with absurd “likely voter” models only makes matters worse. Cutting through the clutter, a few facts are clear: • Averaging the recent polls together gives George W. Bush a one-point lead, 47 percent for Bush to 46 percent for John Kerry. • About 5 percent of the electorate remains undecided. • Almost every poll that has released battleground-state results shows Kerry ahead there. For instance, the ABC/Washington Post poll that had Kerry four points behind nationally...

<p>Four years ago, then-Sen. John Ashcroft led the successful fight on the Senate floor to deny a federal judgeship to an impeccably qualified African-American nominee.</p> <p>He said his opposition to Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White was because the jurist was "pro-criminal," but Ashcroft knew he wasn't.</p>