Free Republic

Maybe it was the pressure of the moment. Being under the Tim Russert spotlight can get to anyone. Under Russert's grilling about guns on this morning's "Meet the Press," former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney claimed an endorsement he'd never won. ....snip..... "I just talked about, about guns. I told you what my position was, and what I, what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA." The problem? He was never endorsed by the NRA, and didn't have their official support during his 2002 gubernatorial campaign. The NRA declined to endorse in that race,...

During a campaign swing for his wife, former President Bill Clinton said flatly yesterday that he opposed the war in Iraq “from the beginning” — a statement that is more absolute than his comments before the invasion in March 2003. Before the invasion, Mr. Clinton did not precisely declare that he opposed the war. A week before military action began, however, he did say that he preferred to give weapons inspections more time and that an invasion was not necessary to topple Saddam Hussein. At the same time, he also spoke supportively about the 2002 Senate resolution that authorized military...

Things I'm starting to see on the main forums for the Duke case confirm my opinion that a legal equivalent of WW-II is about to erupt in Durham; I would anticipate hundred million if not billion-dollar suits against Duke and the city of Durham, and a hundred or so million-dollar suits against individuals. The most major forum for such discussions seems to be liestoppers.blogspot.com. One article posted there today appears to be a rundown of the causus belli for the coming war and reminds me more than anything else of the list of grieviences against King George: "...there were freshmen...

MANCHESTER – New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said yesterday her 2002 vote for a resolution authorizing the invasion of Iraq was "not a vote for a pre-emptive war," but instead a show of support for further United Nations weapons inspections. The Democratic Presidential front-runner, who has been criticized by hard-line anti-war groups for not apologizing for the vote, emphasized that distinction in a telephone interview from Washington. While fellow candidate John Edwards, a former senator, has apologized for his vote on the October 2002 resolution, Clinton again did not. "I will let others speak for themselves," she said. "I have...

One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is "completely heterosexual." Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations, the Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur told The Denver Post for a story in Tuesday's edition. "He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." Ralph said the board spoke with people close to Haggard while...

NEW YORK - Her on-off relationship with Jude Law made her an overnight celebrity, but Sienna Miller says that wasn’t her goal. “I was just never desperate to be famous, which I know sounds cliched and probably like a lie, but it is, in my case, very true,” the 24-year-old actress says in the January issue of W magazine. “And that’s the irony of my situation. “It was always about acting, and now it’s all about everything but that. I fell in love with someone very, very famous, and that’s beyond all of our control. Strategically I probably could have...

JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT IN A LIE This is rich. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (who? Oh yeah..him,) the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee who ran with The Poodle two years ago, has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Believe it or not, it all revolves around Wal-Mart...and a game console. You see....Edwards is always bashing Wal-Mart. Not because of their promotion of eminent domain abuse, but because of their policy of promoting low prices and non-union labor. Edwards just isn't going to ever shop there. Or his he? It turns out the answer to that question is...it...

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards acknowledged Thursday that amid his criticism of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a volunteer member of his staff asked the world's largest retailer for help obtaining a hot new Sony Playstation 3 for Edwards' family. Edwards, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, told The Associated Press that the volunteer "feels terrible" about seeking the game unit at Wal-Mart while his boss claims the retailer doesn't treat its employees fairly. "My wife, Elizabeth, wanted to get a Playstation3 for my young children. She mentioned it in front of one of my staff people. That staff person mentioned it...

THE son of the jailed Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri declared yesterday that he was proud to be a British citizen. Mohammad Mostafa Kamel, 25, who was jailed for terrorist offences in Yemen in 1999, said that it was wrong to associate him with his father’s views. “Everybody has their own beliefs and it doesn’t mean that if my dad believes something that I believe the same,” he told the BBC World Service Outlook programme. “I don’t agree with everything my dad says.” Mr Kamel, who was dismissed from a part-time maintenance job on the London Underground after his bosses...

Kerry says he deserves 2nd chance in '08 1 hour, 29 minutes ago Sen. John Kerry says he deserves a second chance if he decides to take another crack at becoming president. The Massachusetts Democrat, who lost to President Bush in 2004, said it is a basic principle that "Americans give people a second chance. And if you learn something and prove you've learned something, maybe even more so. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. We'll make that decision down the road." Ronald Reagan twice unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for president before he got it...

DES MOINES, Iowa --Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry lashed out Sunday against a group that bashed him during his last run at the White House. Kerry, who made a weekend appearance in northwest Iowa, said he is concerned that Swift Vote Veterans for Truth is again resorting to "the politics of fear and smear." The group, financed by Texas conservatives, ran commercials questioning his claim of being a decorated Vietnam veteran -- the centerpiece of his presidential campaign in 2004. "We're not going to give them an ounce of daylight," said Kerry, who is considering another run at the Democratic presidential...

Plamegate: Patrick Fitzgerald's three-year manhunt to track down who blew Valerie Plame's CIA "cover" has been exposed as a costly sham. He apparently knew all along that his man was not Scooter Libby. ...But it's hard to see anything but politics as the motivation for Fitzgerald's handling of the Plame affair. The facts indicate that Fitzgerald knew early on that the original leaker was State Department official Richard Armitage. So why did Fitzgerald let a cloud hang over White House adviser Karl Rove's head for so long? And why is Fitzgerald continuing to hound Libby, the former vice presidential chief...

The “Real” Reason Kerry lost—Remembering and Honoring Vietnam’s Heroes. With newspaper reports (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1639667/posts) of John (The Snake) Kerry out to prove his claims about his exploits in Vietnam and thereby, intending to discredit the Swift Boat Vets (and by association, all of the rest of us Vietnam Vets who opposed him, more so, for his actions after he returned from Nam) I thought it appropriate to post this, on this Solemn Day of Commemoration. I composed this poem and posted it on the eve before the last election (November 1st) and I believe it speaks for itself. God Bless (and...

A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER HE LOST the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry can't get enough of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. No matter the occasion, he doesn't miss an opportunity to parade his campaign wounds, however incoherently and obsessively. Supporting an Iraqi war vet running as a Democrat for Henry Hyde's congressional seat? "I know something firsthand about the Swift Boat-style Republican attack ads of the last election -- but you don't have to take my word for it," Senator Kerry wrote in a March fundraising e-mail, on behalf of Tammy Duckworth, an amputee whom no one...

Most of the controversies from the wild 2004 presidential campaign have long been forgotten. But one is coming back, the New York Times reported this week, and we're glad it is: Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is joining an effort to debunk the many attacks on his service in Vietnam more than two decades earlier. Kerry is a holder of three purple hearts, a bronze star and a silver star, all awarded in a four-month stint aboard Navy swift boats in Vietnam's Mekong delta.

Editorial: Kerry takes up the Swift Boat charges He deserves this opportunity to set the public record straight. Most of the controversies from the wild 2004 presidential campaign have long been forgotten. But one is coming back, the New York Times reported this week, and we're glad it is: Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is joining an effort to debunk the many attacks on his service in Vietnam more than two decades earlier. [snip] Although they had little bearing on Kerry's qualifications to be president, his young-man's sentiments on Vietnam were a legitimate issue. But that's...

As we watch the left of the Democratic Party press its case to return to the top of the heap in American politics, or at least evade the fate of the Dodo, we have ever more evidence validating an insight on which I stake my reputation as a political seer. To wit: partisan politics more often falls under the professional expertise of the psychiatrist than that of the political scientist. A learned shrink can often tell us more about a political issue than any other professional, not excluding a swami or a voodoo priest. Consider the ongoing controversy over Sen....

June 05, 2006 The Truth, John Kerry, and The New York Times By Thomas Lipscomb Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth charges in the 2004 election. Now as then, the Times acts as if the issues involved were between Kerry's latest representations of his record and the "unsubstantiated" charges of the Swift Boat group. The Times used the term "unsubstantiated" more...

Sunday, June 4, 2006 10:49 p.m. EDT John Kerry: Bush A Criminal, Looting Country Failed presidential candidate John Kerry blasted President Bush on Thursday as a "criminal" who has been "looting the country." The Massachusetts Democrat offered the incendiary comments during an off the record meeting with liberal bloggers after a speech in Los Angeles to the Pacific Council on International Policy. According to the Web site L.A. Observed, Kerry asked the bloggers to keep his comments confidential; a request they apparently dismissed out of hand without telling him. Blogger "Hollywood Liberal" reports that Kerry "agreed completely with someone's assessment...

Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth charges in the 2004 election. Now as then, the Times acts as if the issues involved were between Kerry's latest representations of his record and the "unsubstantiated" charges of the Swift Boat group. The Times used the term "unsubstantiated" more than twenty times during its election coverage and continues to make no discernable effort to...