Free Republic

If the media is looking for a symbol of 'deviancy' in our politics that only '[makes] things worse,' they should stop looking at the press secretary and instead look in the mirror. New White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany isn’t letting so-called journalists get away with inane questions in the briefing room at the expense of real news, and the media don’t like it.This was on full display over the weekend during the latest media-Trump administration go-around, when McEnany sparred with reporters over the Obama administration’s malfeasance with regard to former national security adviser Michael Flynn.After a contentious exchange about...

Kenneth Timmerman has reported from the Middle East for 35 years. He was one of the first journalists on the scene after Iranian terrorists bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. When the 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi left four Americans dead, Timmerman recognized the pathetically inadequate coverage. “Iranians have been killing us for the past 30 plus years and the U.S. government has never done a thing,” Timmerman told Townhall. “I think it’s about time we stood up to the Islamic fascist government in Iran and made it clear that their continued murder...

Last week, I spoke about how President Barack Obama justified his prisoner swap of five senior Taliban leaders for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by saying former military leaders and presidents, including George Washington, have engaged in prisoner of war exchange, too. Obama's exact words were: "This is what happens at the end of wars. That was true for George Washington; that was true for Abraham Lincoln; that was true for FDR; that's been true of every combat situation -- that at some point, you make sure that you try to get your folks back. And that's the right thing...

President Obama evidently was caught by surprise by the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs. So, apparently, was VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who evidently took at face value the corrupt VA statistics -- and who, after a distinguished military career, resigned last week. One who was probably not taken by surprise is longtime Yale Law Professor Peter Schuck, who identified the problems at the VA before the scandal broke in his recently published book, "Why Government Fails So Often and How It Can Do Better." Schuck is no libertarian who wants to do away with government altogether. He says...

It is easy to conclude that President Obama’s release of five hardened terrorists from Guantanamo in exchange for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was just another sharp stick in the eye of the American people. There have been many. A major campaign contributor was appointed to lead the investigation of the IRS after an Inspector General report showed that IRS employees routinely abuse confidential IRS information for political purposes. The Department of Justice sued states to stop them from requiring a photo ID to vote while the EPA requires a photo ID for anyone wishing to attend Climate Change hearings this summer....

When George W. Bush was president, a week didn't go by when the press wasn't dismissing his intelligence and proclaiming his administration's incompetence. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the troops in Afghanistan. Someone on his staff demonstrated truly jaw-dropping incompetence by accidentally releasing to 6,000 journalists the name of the CIA station chief in Afghanistan as part of Obama's welcoming delegation. That is a death sentence, not just for the agent but for all those around him. Try to imagine the media firestorm this would have created had the transgression occurred during the W...

The problem with the U.S. Veterans Affairs giving inferior and delayed care to veterans is a good window into the future of Obamacare. Both the VA and Obamacare suffer the endemic problems of a government-run single-payer system (aka socialism) -- no choice of doctors or hospitals, no insurance companies, broken promises, lengthy waits and bureaucratic cover-ups. Before President Barack Obama was elected, we were assured by experts writing in the mainstream media that the VA was a U.S. health care leader and a model for the country. The New York Times oracle Paul Krugman wrote in 2011, "Yes, this is...

resident Obama held a press conference last week to express his outrage over reports that the Veterans Administration was routinely delaying treatment to veterans, with some veterans even dying while on alleged secret waiting lists. The president said that, "if these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and I will not tolerate it, period." He vowed that, together with Congress, he would "make sure we're doing right by our veterans across the board." The president is right to be upset over the mistreatment of US military veterans, especially those who return home with so many...

resident Obama is “madder than hell” about the scandal at the Veterans Administration. How do we know? Dennis McDonough, Obama’s chief of staff, told us so. Between fundraisers and golf outings, the president took time from his “busy” schedule to inform his chief of staff aside how angry he was that his administration was, in effect, issuing death sentences to veterans by hiding them on secret wait lists so as not to endanger performance bonuses bureaucrats receive for ensuring those vets did not, in fact, die. The president must be so angry he’s lost the ability to speak – at...

Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki cannot get a handle on the recent scandalous treatment of veterans in VA hospitals, where more than 40 sick men were allowed to die without proper follow-up treatment. A cover-up allegedly followed. When the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal broke under the George W. Bush administration, heads rolled. So far, Shinseki seems immune from similar accountability. Almost nothing that former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius promised before, during or after the implementation of the ill-starred Affordable Care Act came true. She was also cited by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel...

Some people on the left have a moral and mental flexibility that would put Lilia Stepanova’s actual flexibility to shame. (Did you just google that name? Kinda cool, huh?) Eleanor Clift, columnist at the Daily Beast, is still blaming some obscure YouTube video for the terrorist attack on America’s consulate in Benghazi. But, that’s not the audacious comments that have sparked outrage. Clift, in her clinically psychopathic ways (seriously… Google the definition – I’m not making this up) declared that the American Ambassador, Chris Stevens, was not murdered… He “died of smoke inhalation”. This is like saying the people who...

I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed. – Jonathan Swift Even Illinoisans are ashamed. The wickedness has become so obvious, so entrenched and so brazen, that the state that used to take pride in their corruption, because it “worked,” now understands the Faustian bargain they've made. A Gallup poll reveals that by a wide margin Illinoisans trust their government less than any other state in the union. According to Gallup only 28% of people from Illinois have a great deal of trust in their government. The Land of Lincoln is followed...

Our country has been blessed to be led by great men of intelligence, strategy and ethics. However, our country has also suffered during administrations that were plagued by poor decisions and scandal. Buchanan’s pre-Civil War inactivity, Harding’s Tea Pot Dome scandal, Grant’s bought-off administration, and Johnson’s escalation of the Vietnam War are just a few examples of presidents whose action or inaction in office were harmful for the country they were supposed to be leading. This Presidents Day, is it fair for Americans to celebrate all of our nation’s presidents the same? Does every president deserve a party or...

The talking heads love presidential analogies. Is Obamacare's rollout Obama's Hurricane Katrina or his Iraq? Is Obama's false promise that you could keep your health care plan like George H. W. Bush's "read my lips" pledge, or is it like Bill Clinton's "I did not have sexual relations with that woman"? Iran-Contra anyone? These comparisons don't take you far. The president's troubles are unique to his particular vanities and blind spots. Some of Obama's most devoted admirers are at pains to distinguish his current fall from grace from George W. Bush's. Chris Matthews, for example, argues: "The problem with Katrina...