Free Republic

In common parlance, the phrase “political general” is an epithet, the inverse of the warrior or frontline soldier. In any serious war, with big issues at stake, to assign command to a political general is to court disaster—so at least most Americans believe. But in fact, at the highest levels, successful command requires a sophisticated grasp of politics. At the summit, war and politics merge and become inextricably intertwined. A general in chief not fully attuned to the latter will not master the former. George Washington, U.S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all “political generals” in the very best...

Last Friday, Barbara Walters embarrassed herself conducting a fawning interview with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's Marxist budding dictator. This is a more serious mortification than Rosie O'Donnell spouting nonsense on ABC's The View, which Walters hosts and partly owns. Not since Herbert Matthews of the New York Times wrote about the Fidel Castro the humanitarian, just as his fortunes were flagging in the late 1950s, have we seen a major American journalist go so gaga over a would-be Latin dictator. Walters' offering on Hugo Chavez on ABC's 20/20 went far beyond the garden-variety media bias seen so abundantly in print news...

Anna Nicole Smith collapsed in her hotel room at the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., and was rushed to a hospital on Thursday. A Hollywood, Fla., fire department spokesman told MSNBC TV that the actress was unresponsive when the rescue unit arrived on the scene. Sources confirmed to Access Hollywood that Smith was transported to Memorial Regional Hospital shortly after 2 p.m. EST on Thursday. Access Hollywood also is reporting that Smith was intubated at the scene. Officials told the Miami Herald, "it does not look good."

  THE (oops!) INADVERTENT ADMISSIONS OF BILL + HILLARY CLINTON part one FROM WHENCE COMES THEIR REPUTATION FOR BRILLIANCE, ANYWAY? AND WAS THEIR FAILURE TO TAKE OUT BIN LADEN WILLFUL?   by Mia T, 02.08.06 "You know... the job which we should have done 1... which should have been our primary focus, to find [you know] bin Laden and eliminate al Qaeda." hillary clintonSaturday, Jan. 28, 2006 Chitchat with Jane Pauley San Francisco, CA "Mr. bin Laden used to live in Sudan. He was expelled from Saudi Arabia in '91 and he went to the Sudan. We'd been hearing...

The Wellstone Memorial and Historic Site opened to the public Sunday, drawing an appreciative crowd of supporters -- and the late senator's famous green bus, of course -- to a remote, wooded area near Eveleth where the plane carrying the senator and seven others crashed in October 2002. For most of the crowd Sunday, it was their first glimpse of the area where Sen. Paul Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; their daughter, Marcia Markuson; three campaign staffers, and two pilots died. They read the markers and walked the grounds with a mix of sadness and smiles. "I didn't know how I'd...

SAINT-ETIENNE, France (AP) -- Sen. John Kerry thinks Lance Armstrong would make a terrific politician -- but fears he'd be running for the other party. Watching Armstrong during his warmup for Saturday's time trial, the Democrat from Massachusetts listed the Texan's winning qualities. Kerry rode in the team car, following Armstrong.

If the loving heart of the Great Emancipator found its natural amorous passions overwhelmingly directed toward those of his own sex, it would certainly be a stunning rebuke to the Republican Party’s scapegoating of same-sex love for electoral purposes. And a forthcoming book by the late Dr. C.A. Tripp — The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, to be published in the new year by Free Press — makes a powerful case that Lincoln was a lover of men.Tripp, who worked closely in the 1940s and 1950s with the groundbreaking sexologist Alfred Kinsey, was a clinical psychologist, university professor and author...

Perhaps most other Americans are more rational than I am. You see, I tend to take most things personally, even the musty, abstract philosophical ideas, such as eschatology and positivism, that I studied in college. So, then, although I am not gay and cannot imagine myself engaging in a homosexual act, I am personally, along with intellectually, offended by the current outbreak of homophobia surrounding the gay marriage issue. This outbreak is driven by, among other things, raw hatred, ignorance, illogicality, irrational fear and, alas, crass election-year politics. While an undergraduate at two historically black colleges, I had my first...

Former White House Drug Spokesman Bob Weiner Blasts John Stossel ABC 20-20 Report as 'Distorted, Inaccurate Excuse for Legalization' Former White House drug policy spokesman Bob Weiner is blasting last night's ABC 20-20 drug piece by John Stossel: "It was a distorted and inaccurate excuse for drug legalization. It blows off the successes and real reductions in use generated both by government drug policy and efforts by parents, teachers, coaches, businesses, community coalitions, religious leaders, and law enforcement." Weiner, who was Director of Public Affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Policy May 1995-August 2001 under Drug Czars...