Free Republic

March 4, 2007 -- EDITOR'S NOTE: The Post's editors sat down with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last week to discuss the state of American politics and government during the War on Terror, themes core to his forthcoming book "American Solutions." Below is a partial transcript.GINGRICH: This is the most systematic period of appeasement since the 1930s. Our elites have been morally bro ken . . . the administration clearly no longer has the nerve to tell the country the truth. Five years after 9/11, we are in mortal peril - and we had better figure out a grand strategy...

MEXICO CITY A day after meeting with President Bush, Mexico President-elect Felipe Calderon said Friday he was optimistic Washington will push through a comprehensive immigration overhaul. Calderon made the comments during a meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is a strong supporter of a guest-worker program. Schwarzenegger, on a two-day trade mission to Mexico, was accompanied by California farmers who have complained that a crackdown on immigration has caused them labor shortages. During his visit, the governor said a planned U.S. border wall is "an incomplete way" of solving illegal immigration and said both California and Mexico would benefit from...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Sunday to pursue a peaceful nuclear program — an effort the United States maintains is really a cover for trying to build atomic bombs — and said his government will not be an extremist one. Ahmadinejad also said Iran did not need the United States to help it become more self-reliant. His comments came as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld criticized Friday's vote, in which the ultraconservative former Tehran mayor steamrolled former President Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, as a "mock election." Rumsfeld said more than 1,000 potential candidates — including all women —...