Free Republic

Jeff Zeleny. Q: Thank you, Mr. President. During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office? Enchanted you the most from serving in this office? Humbled you the most? And troubled you the most?

From the start, the orator who had reached the White House based in no small part on his eloquence made it clear that he would not necessarily be delivering the same soaring stuff as he did in his campaign. "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility," Barack Obama said in a conspicuously earthbound inaugural address. "A recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties . . . that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining...

Chris Matthews, along with Lois Romano of the Washington Post and David Corn of Mother Jones, devoted 10 minutes of last night’s “Hardball” to lamenting the religiosity of Republicans. “Why does everything sound like the 700 Club?” Matthews flippantly probed his like-minded panelists. The criticism came in response to recent sound bites from Sarah Palin and Michael Steele — two very popular go-to targets of the left. [snip] “Suspicious” is a good characterization of the liberal attitude toward Christianity. The media was “suspicious” of Palin throughout the campaign, accusing her of speaking in tongues, and admonishing her for her pro-life...

Is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - the former bodybuilder and action hero - getting ready for the next big starring role in his larger-than-life political career? For Californians who read political tea leaves, some signs are starting to emerge: A few months ago, the Republican was on the campaign trail for presidential candidate John McCain, lambasting Barack Obama as a guy with "skinny legs," "scrawny little arms" and socialist ideas. On Thursday, there he was standing next to President Obama - hugging him and praising him as the nation's economic savior and reformer. The governor regularly dismisses talk of another political...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - As the stimulus plan goes into effect, Sen. Lindsey Graham has some concerns and hopes he and the president can find some common ground. Graham says things are still going to get worse. He supports spending for bridges, roads and infrastructure, but says with other spending measure the stimulus bill missed the mark. "If we would have spent some of this money or half of this money on banking and housing, we'd a had a better result in my opinion," Graham said. Graham highlighted his own bi-partisan spirit. "I think I've had a reputation for reaching...

GOP Sen. John McCain is positioning himself to be one of President Barack Obama’s strongest supporters, effectively giving Democrats the votes they need to override any GOP attempt to block the new administration’s legislative agenda. Obama heaped warm praise on his GOP rival during a dinner held in McCain’s honor the day before the inauguration, calling him a hero. Insiders duly noted McCain was granted a prime spot on the dais at the inauguration, sandwiched in a seat between White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The day after the inauguration, Obama and...

The photo-op after his meeting with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Sen. Lindsey Graham was yet another bipartisan boon for President-elect Barack Obama. And the man who stole the show was none other than Graham – one of John McCain’s closest friends in the U.S. Senate. Seated next to the South Carolina Republican, Obama nodded pensively as Graham explained that he looks forward to working with Obama to win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – even if he would have preferred a different outcome in November. Graham then offered support for the president-elect’s beleaguered Treasury pick and even gave...

Ben Smith: Perhaps the best way to see him is as a neutral in the (lopsided) battle between machine and reformers in Illinois. That's the stance he took in a defining battle, the 2006 contest for the presidency of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Reformers fault him for failing to support their champion; but he didn't endorse the machine favorite either. He stayed on the sidelines, and kept his focus on the White House. You can accuse him of cowardice for that, or you can grant him that he had decided to devote himself to larger causes and ambitions...

Reporting from Washington -- The Northeast's dwindling cast of Senate Republicans has Democrats circling Arlen Specter's seat in Pennsylvania, convinced the party is well-positioned to make a competitive race out of the 2010 election. Leading the pack of prospects -- at least in celebrity -- is Chris Matthews, the MSNBC "Hardball" host and a former Capitol Hill Democratic staffer. The Philadelphia native has been toying with a run for months, and this week he sat down with state Democrats to discuss the prospect of taking on the five-term GOP senator. Others considered in the mix include Rep. Joe Sestak, who...

This brief history, based on authoritative published sources, is intended to provide readers with an objective and reasonably concise history of the hundreds of years of struggle between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo. Interested readers are strongly encouraged to consult the sources cited for a much fuller treatment of the subject. At the end of the historical summary implications of what is happening in Kosovo for the global jihad and the eventual Islamization of Europe are considered. History Prior to 19th Century The earliest known inhabitants of Kosovo were called Illyrians by both Greeks and Romans. Albanians today claim to...

Having legs like Lindsay Lohan's is not something all girls can achieve, however, what they can easily get is her leggings and that too at a store nearby. Come August and Lohan's leggings will hit Fred Segal stores under the actress' 6126 fashion line, named after her heroine Marilyn Monroe's birthday. The 21-year-old star created her own fashion line with design partner Kristi Kaylor.

Irate parents said a religious education teacher at the Alsager High School in England told students to wear Muslim headgear during a lesson on Tuesday. "But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion, there would be war," the grandfather of one of the students said.

Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos," the effort to urge conservatives and Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in order to prolong the Democratic nomination battle, certainly annoys MSNBC's Chris Matthews who, during primary coverage Tuesday night, denounced the "mischief-making" by "a talk jock." In the 11:30 PM EDT half hour, Matthews offered a "Keith [Olbermann]-style special comment" about how "anyone who voted to screw up the political system of this country with the purpose of mischief should carry that with them the rest their lives." He called it "a ridiculous way to use the vote for which people fought and died,"...

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that NATO's willingness to enlarge eastward had 'nothing positive' about it and followed 'a Cold War logic.' Lavrov had tough words for the alliance's decision last week to keep its doors open to former Soviet states wishing to join. 'We will do everything in our power to prevent Georgia and Ukraine's acceptance into NATO,' Lavrov was quoted as saying Tuesday in an interview with radio station Ekho Moskvy. Russia views NATO's expansion eastward as a betrayal and an effort by Western states to persevere in the Cold War policy of containment....

MOSCOW, April 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russia does not see any sense in sending troops to Kosovo, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with the Echo of Moscow radio. He indicated that the situation around the UN mission in the breakaway Serbian province has not witnessed any dramatic changes compared with the period several years ago when Russia decided to pull its military contingent out of there. "We took this decision because we were unwilling to get associated with the policies conducted by KFOR, which could be described as 'the reverted ethnic cleansing'," Lavrov said.

Specialist Robert Terrio and his wife, Kary, thought they had avoided a dangerous deployment a few months ago when he learned that his Missouri National Guard unit would do a tour in Kosovo instead of Iraq or Afghanistan. "There's a certain amount of relief that we weren't being deployed to an active war zone,'' Robert Terrio said. Then, last month, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a move Serbia refused to recognize. Suddenly, Kosovo started to look a little more dicey. Demonstrators torched the U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, mobs attacked several United Nations border posts, and gun...

Another humerous one liner from Fred Thompson. A nice quip after Matthews says his answer should have just “stopped at no.” He responded, “Well thats your opinion, Christopher.” Its all in the tone. Watch the video.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) dodged a curveball thrown at her by moderator Tim Russert in tonight’s debate after she disavowed the use of torture against terrorists, even in extreme circumstances, only to be told her husband took the opposite position on Russert’s Meet the Press. “Well, he’s not standing here right now,” Clinton responded. The moment brought her huge applause, and her campaign promoted the clip as “Tonight’s Video Moment.” Bill Clinton came up at other moments in the debate as well, with Clinton acknowledging that her husband would likely place a role in her decision-making process if she...

Chris Matthews Endorses Hillary For...Majority Leader Posted by Geoffrey Dickens on November 13, 2006 - 17:02. On this weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews show, the host of MSNBC's Hardball endorsed Hillary Clinton for...Majority Leader. In his final commentary Matthews said the election afforded Clinton "a great new career option," that she was "a natural," and leading the Senate would prove, she has the "necessary ability to bring us together." Matthews puffed up the Senator from New York as an expert on health, education, the economy and even defense issues: "Not only does Hillary Clinton know her stuff, she cares about it,...

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Popovi? says Ahtisaari’s postponement of Kosovo status due to Serbia’s elections is an excuse. “Ahtisaari’s plan to secretly, working behind our backs, draft a paper on Kosovo’s independence fell through. The real reason why it fell through is Russia’s firm and principled position that UN Charter cannot be breached, and it would appear Ahtisaari understood the Russian ‘no’ quite clearly”, science minister Aleksandar Popovi? says. Popovi?, of prime minister Koštunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), believes that the best option Martti Ahtisaari has at this time is to step down and let an impartial and objective international...