Free Republic

Is retired four-star Gen. Colin Powell, a Republican, getting close to a presidential endorsement of his former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton? Betting? Well, Sneed hears it’s a good bet to hit the “Yes” button. Slap shot: Although Powell has tried to stay out of politics and has jokingly claimed he remains a Republican “because it annoys them,” an endorsement would not be a surprise.

Lone voice of Churchill resonates today March 23, 2003 BY MICHAEL SNEED SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST I was born in the center of our country in the middle of a war. My father was a war hero; my mother a war widow; a young wife wed shortly after Pearl Harbor who trekked daily to the post office in Mandan, N.D., awaiting the mail from my father, which she read while drinking a chocolate milkshake at the Mandan drugstore. The drugstore is still there. And they still make chocolate milkshakes. But the conversation at the soda fountain is now about Iraq. I grew...

Sneed hears rumbles Leon Panetta, former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff, will be named to the U.S. Conference of Bishops review board charged with studying the root of the priest sexual abuse scandal. Word is Panetta, a former U.S. representative from California and former director of the Office of Management and Budget during the incoming Clinton administration, was chosen for his ability to take a stand and not be intimidated by the bishops' conference.