Free Republic

I was wondering when you were going to call me," so said the irrepressible Nolanda Butler Hill when I phoned last week. She knew precisely what item of news had prompted me to call: the revelation that Barack Obama had selected Clinton deputy attorney general and Ron Brown protégé Eric Holder to help vet his vice presidential candidates. As the confidante and business partner of the late Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Hill knows from personal experience that Holder's sins go well beyond his seamy role in the Marc Rich pardon scandal.

“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Hillary Clinton told the editorial board of The Sioux Falls Argus Leader last week in explaining her reason for staying in the presidential race. This comment evoked predictable outrage from the Obama-happy media. “The politics of this nation is steeped enough in blood, Senator Clinton,” wailed MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann in higher dudgeon than usual. “You cannot and must not invoke that imagery! Anywhere! At any time!” Unfortunately for an earlier black rival of the Clintons with presidential aspirations of his own, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the then Clinton-happy media...

Nearly 12,000 readers weighed in on an online poll that asked: Do you think Hillary's reference to the RFK assassination was appropriate? The results: YES = 16% NO = 84%

While Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her advisers insist that she is determined to win the Democratic nomination, friends of the couple say that former President Bill Clinton, for one, has begun privately contemplating a different outcome for her: As Senator Barack Obama’s running mate. The reports about Mr. Clinton’s musings surface as the Obama camp has quietly begun the process of searching for a partner on the Democratic ticket. The prospect of an Obama-Clinton ticket has been fodder for political gossip for months, with some Democratic leaders pushing the idea as a way to unify the party. The Obama...

(CBS) O.J. Simpson's girlfriend, who had been hospitalized in February after a fall, was back in the hospital, this time with two broken legs and other serious injuries, CBS4 in Miami reported. Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Pat Santangelo said Christie Prody was injured early Saturday morning on the Don Shula Expressway near Miller Drive after she pulled over to an emergency lane because she had two flat tires on her 2-door Mitsubishi. Police say she rode on the flat tires for quite a distance because one of the tires was completely shredded and the other had come off the rim...

In early December 1997, after eighteen months of successful damage control by the White House, the black community in Chicago finally learned of the anomalies in the death of Ron Brown. Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Commerce, Brown had dreamed of becoming America’s first black president from the time he was a little boy. And although he was, as Joe Biden might have put it, as “articulate and bright and clean” as Barack Obama, he never got the chance. Brown died on April 3, 1996--twelve years ago today--when the USAF plane in which he and 34 others were flying crashed “inexplicably”...

April 3, 1996 Ronald H. Brown, the U.S. secretary of commerce, is killed along with 32 other Americans when their U.S. Air Force plane crashes into a mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown was leading a delegation of business executives to the former Yugoslavia to explore business opportunities that might help rebuild the war-torn region.

As has become painfully normative, Hillary, the major media ask you all the wrong questions. The current controversy centers on whether you and your daughter Chelsea actually had to dodge sniper fire upon your landing at the airport in Tuzla in Bosnia on March 25,1996. The photographic evidence seems to suggest otherwise. But sniper fire or not, as you and I both know, this really was risky business. As testament to how dangerous trips in and out of Bosnia could be, just nine days later, another U.S. Air Force plane carrying American officials took off from that same Tuzla airport...

Triple hearsay but all named sources: Mona Charen heard it from John Batchelor, who heard it from Chuck Todd at NBC, who heard it from Hillary’s people. We’ve discussed why Obama would never, under any circumstances, want the Glacier looming over him from the number two spot. Why would Hillary want it any more than he does? Even if you assume the worst, that she’s after power any way she can get it, arguably she’ll retain more in the senate as a Moynihan-esque Democratic counterbalance capable of thwarting Obama’s legislative initiatives than in the vice presidential sinecure, where he’s bound...

You don't have to love Hillary Clinton to feel her pain. By the end of Tuesday night's debate, she knew she had failed to change the dynamics of a race slipping away from her. The deflated look on her face telegraphed acceptance, even resignation. But any sympathy is tempered by the fact she has only herself to blame. Her uneven performance, punctuated by one of the strangest complaints I have ever seen in a presidential debate, likely dashed her last hopes of victory. The self-pity behind the complaint was shocking and unappealing. She started by being feisty - to a...

The Hillary Clinton Accountability Project will shortly launch its fundraising drive to raise $500,000 to support the most important citizen’s legal initiative of 2008. The landmark civil fraud suit of Paul v Clinton et al which the California Supreme Court ordered to proceed against the Clintons, Grammys Producer Gary Smith and Clinton agent Jim Levin, will be set for trial and a discovery schedule at a special conference to be held in Los Angeles Superior Court on February 21, 2008. The first law suit in American history to bring a President and a Senator to court for defrauding the Senator’s...

A classic clip from Rush's old 1992-96 tv show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdEhmVBH4IA

In researching the April 1996 Croatian plane crash that killed former Clinton Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, I slowly but steadily moved to the conclusion that it was not an accident. The evidence strongly supports sabotage by Croatian intelligence. The evidence just as strongly argues that Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and his son Miroslav, the nation’s intelligence chief, had no reason to initiate such a plot. After Brown had a literal “come to Jesus” experience in early 1996, however, several parties did have reason to fear Brown in his increasingly apparent confessional mode. Chief among them were the Clinton White House...

Hillary Clinton's campaign, anticipating probable defeat here in New Hampshire on January 8, is gearing up for an extended trench-warfare battle against Barack Obama. The former First Lady is planning to fight Obama in South Carolina on January 26, and in the gargantuan nationwide primary on Tuesday, February 5 -- with contests in 19 states, including New York, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Colorado. If she remains competitive, Clinton's plan is to continue to compete in Louisiana on February 9, in Virginia and Maryland on February 12, in Wisconsin on February 19, in Ohio on March 4 --...

As the presidential candidates engage in furious pre-caucus spin, one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's most prominent Iowa supporters said Wednesday that she's already accomplished what she needs to in Iowa, and can declare success even if she finishes in third place. Asked if the order of finish matters, Former governor Tom Vilsack, D-Iowa, deflected the question. "She absolutely had to be competitive and she's accomplished that," he said. "Obviously everybody's interested in winning, and I think we're going to do well. It's tight. There's no question about that." In May, Vilsack was quoted in the Washington Post, saying, "There's...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was praised in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for demonstrating her command of the players and the issues at stake in Pakistan, even as another candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was criticized for stumbling over details. But in two confident television appearances, on CNN and ABC, Clinton made an elementary error about Pakistani politics: She described President Pervez Musharraf as a "candidate" who would be "on the ballot." In fact, Musharraf was reelected to the presidency in October. The upcoming elections are for parliament, and while Musharraf's party...

The Politico notes that Bill Clinton has fallen back on Bubbalistic campaigning in Iowa. The homespun wisdom of the former Rhodes scholar comes along with his wife's various regional accents, but as Ben Smith notes, usually much farther away from the press: Before he was a silver-haired elder statesman, ex-president, and globe-trotting do-gooder, Bill Clinton was Bubba. And out in rural Western Iowa, Bubba is back. ... While his speech differed little from the one he gives in upscale audiences, his presence there indicates both the potential his wife’s campaign sees in the West and the fact that the former...

<p>Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has revised its list of Tennessee supporters on its statewide steering committee to remove the names of two convicted felons.</p> <p>The original list of more than 100 committee members had included former state House Majority Leader Tommy Burnett and West Tennessee Democratic Party activist Gladys Crain.</p>

WHAT SHE’S GOT Cash and Bonds: $30.1 million Life Insurance: $140,000 Retirement Funds: $33,000 Alternative Investments: $248,000 Houses: $5.9 million Mortgages: $1.5 million WORTH: $39.9 MILLION 2006 Income: $12.1 million WHERE SHE GOT IT When Bill Clinton first ran for President in 1992, Hillary provided most of the couple’s income working for the Rose law firm in Little Rock; he earned only $35,000 a year as governor of Arkansas. Although she takes in $165,200 a year as a senator, these days Bill is breadwinner-in-chief. His presidential pension is $201,000 a year, and he grabbed a $12 million advance for his...

Clinton tries to extend Big Mo/turn-the-page storyline with Monday TV appearances on all six morning shows from Iowa.

I am just now getting around to reading this book and I have to wonder, based on what I have read thus far, what effect this book will have on Hilliary Clinton's run for the White House. Could some of you who have read the book share your thoughts?

Sen. Hillary Clinton, speaking at a ski lodge in New Hampshire, told voters she learned how to ski in the Granite State. "I would just get to the top and I would just go straight down. I never took a lesson. I thought I was a great skier because I was just rolling down that hill,"

Clinton Booed at Heartland Forum December 01, 2007 6:04 PM ABC News' Eloise Harper reports: A day after dealing with a hostage crisis, Sen. Hillary Clinton faced a tough crowd in Iowa. Clinton did not receive the warmest of welcomes at the Heartland Form in Des Moines, IA, and although the hostage scare was mentioned, the announcer brushed it off quickly in order to get to questions. Clinton, who was forced to call in to speak to the crowd of thousands because of weather difficulties, took questions on topics from healthcare to illegal immigration. The senator was asked if she...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton trails five top Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups, a drop in support from this summer, according to a poll released on Monday. Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, still lead Republicans in hypothetical match-ups ahead of the November 4, 2008, presidential election, the survey by Zogby Interactive showed. Clinton, a New York senator who has been at the top of the Democratic pack in national polls in the 2008 race, trails Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee by three to five...

Is Sen. Hillary Clinton feeling any doubts about winning the Democratic nomination for president? Not at all. "It will be me," Clinton tells Katie Couric in an interview to air Monday on the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric." The broadcast airs at 6:30 p.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. Couric also asked if Clinton is concerned that Oprah Winfrey could boost Sen. Barack Obama by campaigning for him in three key states. "No, at the end of the day," Clinton says. "I'm proud to have my husband support me ... with his knowledge, experience and incredible ability to vouch for me."

COURIC SCORES INTERVIEW WITH HILLARY FOR 'CBS EVENING NEWS'... DEVELOPING...

I've seen up close the two Clintons America knows. He's a big smile, hand locked on your arm and lots of charms. "Hey, come down and speak at my library. I'd like to talk some politics with you." And her? She tends to be, well, hard and brittle. I inherited her West Wing office. Shortly after the 2001 Inauguration, I made a little talk saying I appreciated having the office because it had the only full-length vanity mirror in the West Wing, which gave me a chance to improve my rumpled appearance. The senator from New York confronted me shortly...

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton stepped into the ring Thursday in this city known for prize fights, successfully beating back an onslaught of punches thrown from the left and right as her opponents sought to rattle the front-runner seven weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

The purpose of this post is to begin providing links, tools, and tactics which we can all use to educate the public, fellow citizens, and neighbors about Hillary Clinton.It is a work in progress- I have provided a starting point, but want others to chime in with more links, stories, and information.It is the product of conversations with a number of other members, from which several salient tactical points emerged:1- keep it as contemporary as possible- the old Whitewater and similar items are stale and dead to the public.2- keep it civil, please- within the board guidelines, or better. We...

Kathleen Willey to be interviewed on Hannity and Colmes shortly. ..... for those who are interested.

In a new book alleging a campaign of slander and intimidation orchestrated chiefly by Hillary Clinton, Kathleen Willey points a finger of suspicion at the former first couple for the death of her husband, who was believed to have killed himself. Willey, who claims she was groped by President Clinton in the White House, acknowledged in an interview with WND today that she stands by the speculation she poses about her husband's demise in "Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton," set for release this week by World Ahead Publishing, WND Books' partner. Asked if she suspects...

MIAMI - "A clean sweep" is needed at the White House because President Bush has fostered "a culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence," Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday. The Democratic presidential candidate told nearly 1,000 women at a fundraiser that she would have much work to do at the White House if she won election in 2008. "After eight years of the Bush administration, we are going to be shocked by what we find," the New York senator and former first lady said. "Somebody said to me the other day if there was ever a time for a woman president...

Barring the calamitous, former United States senator from Tennessee Fred Thompson will be the next president of the United States. Thompson's masterful use of the online interview – a vastly smarter and cheaper way of campaigning for those with something to say – has all but secured him the Republican nomination. In the general election, in a fair fight, either Obama or Hillary – or Gore for that matter–will have a hard time winning any five states against Thompson. But for Hillary at least, it is too late in the game to fight fair. Desperation will push her and her...

Why would anyone kill Brown? By Rev. Barbara Reynolds, NNPA Columnist April 9, 2007 April ought to be the month that we not only reflect upon the Crucifixion of Jesus but also the untimely deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, the man often suggested would become the nation's first black president. What's the connection? So glad you asked. If the reporter/witnesses, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, had stopped talking and writing about the Assassination of Jesus and his subsequent Resurrection, what Scriptures would Christians have to base their faith upon? The...

Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of “discrepancies” in her official story. Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past,” said Paul Bogaards,...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton views Barack Obama as her biggest obstacle to nomination, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report on Wednesday, but Clinton believes the threat of his candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs! MORE Editors have placed a story filed by reporter Adam Nagourney in Page One lead positions, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. Clinton has engaged in a series of nearly nonstop political consultations since Election Day, in what her advisers say are preparations for, in all likelihood, announcing her interest in running for president. Dining...

Appellate Court Upholds Nearly $900,000 Award in Attorney's Fees and Costs in Clinton Scandal FOIA Lawsuit Clinton Administration Destroyed Documents Involving Illegal Scheme to Sell Taxpayer-Funded Trade Missions for Campaign Contributions (Washington, DC) -Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. upheld the vast majority of a lower court award to Judicial Watch of nearly $900,000 in attorney's fees and costs in a lawsuit related to the Clinton fundraising scandals (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Commerce, Appeal No. 05-5366) The fees were awarded on December...

Hillary Clinton addressed a gathering Wednesday night organized by the Greater Voices Coalition of New York, a consortium of LGBT Democratic organizations, according to Gay City News. In her first statements following Wednesday's New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples must be afforded the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples, Clinton said that her position on LGBT issues "has certainly evolved" and added that were New York Gubernatorial hopeful Eliot Spitzer to introduce same-sex marriage legislation in the state as he has promised, she would support it: "My position is consistent. I support states making the decision. I think...

Bush's Anti-Terrorism Record (CBS/AP) SCHENECTADY, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008, on Monday criticized the Bush administration for failing to do enough to protect the country from terrorists. Clinton's comments came after authorities in the United Kingdom last week said they thwarted a terror plot involving airplanes bound from Britain to the United States. Conspirators allegedly planned to blow up as many as 10 planes flying from Britain to the United States using liquid explosives, which the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's security equipment cannot detect in carry-on luggage. "We've done...

HALIFAX - The United States and other western countries should be pushing hard for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, along with the insertion of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday. The Islamic group Hezbollah's tactics are at the root of the latest bloody conflict in the region, but Clinton also questioned the length to which Israel has gone to defend itself. "It's important for us to get some kind of ceasefire now," Clinton said. "I think this idea of an international force needs to be fleshed out." His position stands in...

A fate worse than death! Can there be such a thing? Is the death of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown on April 3, 1996 while on a trade mission to Croatia illustrative of his having avoided a fate worse than death? Brown was Under Investigation At the time of Secretary Brown's death while a passenger in an Air Force Boeing 737 which crashed into a mountainside while attempting to land at Croatia's Dubrovnik airport he was under intense investigation by independent counsel Daniel Pearson. Brown had been targeted by the probe on evidence that he had taken money improperly or even...

10 years after Ron Brown Sunday, April 9, 2006 WASHINGTON On April 3, 1996, 35 people died in the crash of a U.S. Air Force plane in Croatia. Among them was Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, whom then-President Bill Clinton claimed as a close and dear friend. There are many indications that could suggest Ron Brown was killed before or during the crash to protect not only the Clinton presidency but also Hillary Clinton's future. **SNIP** Let's start at the beginning, a decade ago. **SNIP** The meeting between two rogues took place in the White House family quarters and Ron Brown...

In Argentina, during the dark days, they called them "los desaparecidos," the disappeared. On April 10, 1996, Ron Brown was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery and then joined his fellow desaparecidos. So thoroughly has Brown disappeared from view that the only articles I could find on Google News about the 10th anniversary of his death were those that I had written myself. What follows, unless new information breaks, is my last article on the subject. In it, I attempt to find the one scenario that makes sense of all the existing evidence. Although speculative in part, it...

Watching Senator Hillary Clinton play to the media, in the controversy over an Arab company managing U.S. ports, provided another important lesson in how our reporters operate by a double standard. After a Senate hearing on the matter, during a "press availability," reporters were desperate to get Mrs. Clinton's views on the matter, as if she had any credentials in the area. She spouted forth like an expert, as if she has been on guard against foreign domination and had an established reputation as the high protector of U.S. sovereignty. It was a good performance, like so many she turned...

In April 1993, back before Democrats began to care about port security, first lady Hillary Clinton invited Commerce Secretary Ron Brown to a one-on-one lunch on the balcony of the White House. The given reason was to talk politics and thank him for his help "fixing" a near scandal that involved Chief of Staff Mack McLarty. But, in fact, Hillary wanted more. She was about to test Brown, to see whether or not he would be a "good soldier." According to Brown confidante Nolanda Butler Hill, who "debriefed" him after the balcony lunch, the Clintons had a mission for...

What is it that makes Democrats incapable of controlling their hostility, even during funerals? Especially during funerals. Rush Limbaugh just played a clip of today’s “Wellstone Funeral moment” from Rev. Joseph Lowry in which he raised the issue of weapons of mass destruction in the Coretta Scott King funeral, then talked about how not enough money is going to the poor. I know I have seen figures that indicate that Bush has spent more on some programs for the poor than Clinton did, but it wouldn’t matter if he had spent ten times more. Facts don’t matter. This is pure...

MISS HILLARY, 'PLANTATION QUEEN,' CANNOT DIS KING WITH IMPUNITY by Mia T, 01.24.06 (scoop by John Lenin, video capture by adamsjas ) "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."  Dr. Martin Luther King, JrTHE FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT?clinton legacy of lynching update by Mia T, 7.23.05 GONE WITH THE WIND(miss hillary's 'plantation' blunder)by Mia T, 01.18.06     Transcript of Fox News' Cavuto on Business show with Meredith Whitney and Herman Cain, January 21, 2006 NEIL CAVUTO (host): All right, we're...

The late Ron Brown was not particularly paranoid. In fact, for most of his career, he conducted his business dealings cavalierly, smug in the knowledge that as a splendidly well-connected, black Democrat he was all but immune to criticism from either the media or the law. That began to change when he assumed his job as Bill Clinton's secretary of commerce in early 1993, and it changed absolutely when he ran afoul of the Clintons nearly three years later. As Brown learned upon taking office, the Department of Commerce was home to the Office of Intelligence Liaison. This sub-department received...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is "The Most Influential Man in the World," according to Esquire magazine. The magazine has designated him as "the most powerful agent of change in the world" despite his lack of electoral standing and the fact he was laid low by a heart attack ahead of last year's presidential election. The magazine highlights Clinton's accomplishments in its December issue, which goes on newsstands on Thursday, profiling the world's "Best and Brightest" men and women. Since leaving office, Clinton has been so active that his post-presidency amounts to "a third term" for...