Free Republic

On today's Morning Joe, ardent Hillary Clinton fan Howard Dean ran into a buzzsaw when he tried to defend her against serious charges of conflict of interest by going after the authors of the stories rather than the substance of the allegations. Joe Scarborough ripped Dean's "comic-book politics" and called his conduct "unbecoming." New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters accused Dean of maligning his fellow reporters, and Mika Brzezinski taunted Dean, saying "you can go on your little jihad against the author, but it's not going to change the facts." View the video here.

(AP) Ever since taking office last year as the nation's first Hispanic female governor, New Mexico's Susana Martinez found her family tree scrutinized over whether her grandfather was an illegal immigrant. Documents obtained by AP, however, show that he was lawfully admitted to the U.S. as a permanent resident in 1918 and became a citizen in 1942, something not even Martinez knew and a discovery that removes a potential trouble spot for someone talked about as an attractive Republican vice presidential prospect for Mitt Romney. Martinez was surprised at the news, ... The first-term governor insists she's not interested in...

Republicans are increasingly falling in behind Mitt Romney's White House run, but they haven't got a clue who he should add to the ticket, a CNN/ORC International survey says. Condoleezza Rice tops the vice presidential wish list among Republicans and right-leaning independents, according to the poll Wednesday. Twenty-six percent of those polled backed the former national security adviser and secretary of state under George W. Bush as Romney's No. 2.

PBS has a short video on Sarah Palin on their website. Also included is a poll that asks: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be VP? I logged on a couple hours ago and 33% percent had voted YES, 67% NO. It appears you can vote multiple times so I just voted again and it's now YES, 52%, and NO 47%. Here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/now/polls/poll-435.html

ABC Radio news just announced Sen. John Edwards will admit to the affair with Rielle Hunter in an interview with the network, but insists the child is not his. We return you to your regularly-scheduled FReeping.

This morning at 11:45 a.m. ET, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner will deliver a luncheon speech to the Democratic Leadership Council in Washington, speaking mostly about his successful effort to get the commonwealth's GOP-led legislature to pass his $1.4 billion tax increase. But, of course, he'll also talk about Kerry. "Three and one-half years ago, Republicans promised they could cut taxes, eliminate the national debt and keep the economy booming. Instead, our country lost jobs, and we turned a $236 billion surplus into a deficit that now approaches $500 billion," Warner will say, according to an advance copy of his speech...