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SCHIFF: "But this has become the President's defense. And yet, this defense proved indefensible. If abuse of power is not impeachable, even though it is clear the Founders considered it the highest of all high crimes and misdemeanors, but if it were not impeachable, then a whole range of utterly unacceptable conduct and the president would now be beyond reach. Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and let Jared Kushner run the country, delegating to him the decision whether to go to war. Because...

Seven years after running for president as the GOP standard bearer, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney on Monday described himself as a “renegade Republican” and said that he is “not part of the Republican establishment these days.” In a wide-ranging speech at the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank in Salt Lake City, Utah’s junior senator argued against “socialist” proposals being discussed on the Democratic presidential debate stage such as “Medicare for All” and free college tuition. He also lamented that “neither party is interested in talking about the debt and the deficit.” “I guess I should consider myself a renegade...

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis declined to carry out orders from President Trump or otherwise limited his options in various attempts to prevent tensions with North Korea, Iran and Syria from escalating, The New Yorker reported Monday, the latest account of Trump’s own officials trying to check his worst instincts. "The president thinks out loud. Do you treat it like an order? Or do you treat it as part of a longer conversation? We treated it as part of a longer conversation," a former senior national security official told The New Yorker. "We prevented a lot of bad things from...

John Kerry on his message to Trump: 'Resign' By Owen Daugherty - 01/22/19 12:18 PM EST Former Secretary of State John Kerry had a simple message for President Trump on Tuesday, saying he should “resign.” Kerry was speaking on a discussion panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he was asked what his message to Trump would be, according to CNBC. Kerry was at first hesitant to answer the question, saying Trump "doesn't take any of this seriously.” “He doesn’t have an ability to have that kind of conversation,” Kerry said after debating whether to answer or...

Never Trumper John Podhoretz, a contributing editor for the now-defunct Never Trump magazine the Weekly Standard, tweeted on Wednesday that he wondered whether the U.S. economy tanking would lead to President Donald Trump losing enough support from Republicans in Congress that he would be removed from office.

Sen. Jeff Flake, the left-wing ‘Republican’, is a nasty, vengeful guy. Three days before the election, he appeared on Wolf Blitzer’s show to praise Obama, criticize Ted Cruz and the President, and he suggested criticism of George Soros is anti-Semitic. He downplayed the “threat” posed to America by illegal immigration and blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for calling out his opponent who has supported illegal immigrants. A Project Veritas undercover video appeared to show that Cruz’s opponent Robert Francis O’Rourke has been aiding illegal immigrants, possibly illegally.

A Democratic candidate for Minnesota state representative is ending his campaign because of backlash to a post he made on social media about the Islamic State. Dan Kimmel, a software developer and self-described "business process expert" from Burnsville, Minn., posted a tweet Saturday night that said "ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though." His tweet came a day after attacks in Paris left 128 dead and at least 350 injured. The Islamic State claimed responsibility. Kimmel has since deleted the statement and...

What could go wrong? A lot, if you consider the former peanut farmer and president’s last intervention in Venezuela.Joshua Goodman of AP reports on Carter’s expressed interest in going to Caracas: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expressing concern about Venezuela's escalating political crisis and wants to meet with leaders on both sides in an upcoming trip. Carter, a mediator of past political conflict in the deeply polarized South American nation, made the offer in private letters he sent this week to President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Expressing "grave concern" about the loss of life in recent...

He blames the Syrian civil war on climate change. Yes, he really went there.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticizes Congress for not hastily appropriating federal money for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts in New York and New Jersey while praising a more prompt response to Hurricane Katrina. REID: It's too bad that it's taking so long. When we had that devastating [Hurricane] Katrina, we were there within days taking care of Mississippi, Alabama, and especially Louisiana -- within days. We are now past two months with people of New York and the people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New England....

The French fashion world has dealt a new blow to Nicolas Sarkozy’s desire to upstage President Obama: Elle magazine, the Parisiennes’ style bible, has proclaimed that Michelle Obama is more chic than Carla Bruni. The magazine’s annual best-dressed list, unveiled yesterday, awarded first place in the category of “political chic” to America’s First Lady, and second to France’s Première Dame. It is the second year in a row that Ms Bruni, 42, has come second on the list; last year Elle put her behind Asma Assad, the British-born wife of the Syrian President.

Man, Ed Rendell is so screwed -- literally. I don't normally listen to Opie & Anthony looking for breaking news, but astonishingly that's what I just got. A few minutes ago, the cast of the show on Sirius XM radio were interviewing Kristin Davis -- not the one from Sex and the City, the former Manhattan Madam who spent four months in Rikers in connection with the Eliot Spitzer hooker scandal from last year. There's been quite a bit of speculation that her operation at one time serviced another high-profile governor, besides Spitzer, and up until now she's been largely...

New York Senator Hillary Clinton acknowledges a 3-minute ovation during the Democratic National Convention 2008 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, August 26. Democratic women Senators appears on stage at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, August 26, 2008. U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is expected to accept the Democratic presidential nomination at the convention on August 28. US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama watches New York Senator Hillary Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention on a TV screen in Billings, Montana on August 26. Vice Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden (R) (D-DE) stand at the podium...

On February 17, 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. Some are concerned about what NATO, the United Nations, and the European Union have nurtured there since the military and humanitarian intervention in 1999. James Jatras, a U.S.-based advocate for the Serbian Orthodox Community, put it bluntly last year when he said Kosovo was a “a beachhead into the rest of Europe” for “radical Muslims” and “terrorist elements.” It’s an assertion without evidence. “We’ve been here for so long,” said United States Army Sergeant Zachary Gore in Eastern Kosovo, “and not seen any evidence of it, that we’ve reached the assumption...

PARIS, Jan. 31 — President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012. He said that he welcomed last week’s State of the Union address in which President Bush described climate change as a “serious challenge” and acknowledged that a growing number of American politicians now favor emissions cuts. But he warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty...

It's usually best in the American context to keep one's criticisms of Israel polite and measured, but there are times when it's better to be blunt in the hopes of achieving clarity. Israel's current war in Lebanon is strategically blinkered and morally obtuse. The idea that the United States or American Jews like me should support it out of friendship is akin to the notion that a real friend would lend a car to a drunk buddy after the bartender confiscates his keys. I understand why the Israeli government and public think this war is a good idea, but they're...

Racism is partly to blame for the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, calling President Bush's response to the disaster "incompetent." "Today, as the President comes to Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi for his ceremonial trip to look at the victims of the devastation, he would do well to have a plan more significant than a ceremonial tour," Jackson said Friday. "His whole response is unacceptable." Bush has acknowledged that the federal response has not been acceptable, but promised that the government would get supplies to survivors and crack down on violence in New Orleans. Jackson questioned...

It is probably not a good idea in terms of job security to publicly call your boss a horse's ass. So have some sympathy for Will Adams, spokesman for Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo. He was asked by reporters to explain the asinine thing the congressman said last week. Adams told them Tancredo is just a "free thinker." By which standard Michael Jackson is just a tad eccentric. Or haven't you heard? Tancredo thinks maybe the United States should bomb Mecca. You know Mecca. City in Saudi Arabia. Birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. Holiest shrine of Islam, a religion practiced by...

A campaign convenience is no more. According to The Washington Times, Teresa Heinz, the erstwhile Teresa Heinz Kerry, has stopped using the last name of her husband, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, last year's Democrat presidential nominee. Preceding its Women Who Make a Difference Awards dinner next month, the National Council for Research on Women is featuring "a conversation with Teresa Heinz," according to a release from the organization. The council failed to mention the final half of the Fox Chapel ketchup heiress' formerly elongated last name in several other references. "I just checked and she no longer uses her (entire)...

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, who in her first postelection column last week accused President Bush of "dividing the country along fault lines of fear, intolerance, ignorance and religious rule," apparently thinks she went too easy on the Republican. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that her second postelection column, published yesterday, bordered on the hysterical. "Just how much did Karl Rove hate not being one of the cool guys in high school in the '60s? Enough to hatch schemes to marshal the forces of darkness to take over the country?" Miss Dowd asked. "Oh, yeah," she...