Free Republic

The leaders of the State Department’s Benghazi probe defended their inquiry into the 2012 attack, but they acknowledged to Congress on Thursday that their mission was limited in scope and faced questions over why they gave Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton an advance look at their findings. Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, vice chairman of the accountability review board, also acknowledged that he had warned Mrs. Clinton’s chief of staff not to send a particular official to Congress because he thought “she would be a weak witness” who might have hurt the State Department’s stance. Republicans said those moves called...

A prominent Muslim scholar banned from the United States for six years returned Wednesday for visits to four cities... "In the name of your fear or mistrust of Muslim-majority countries, you may end up betraying your own values," Tariq Ramadan ... Ramadan said he was happy to be in the U.S. ...to speak on a panel Thursday at The Cooper Union college. "My name has been cleared," he said. The 47-year-old professor at Oxford University in England was permitted to return to the United States after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in January signed orders enabling re-entry for him...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A judge on Friday sentenced disgraced political donor Norman Hsu to three years in state prison after rejecting the one-time Democratic rainmaker's bid to throw out a 16-year-old fraud conviction. Hsu's lawyers had asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall to dismiss his 1992 no contest plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argued, at one of the fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians. Hsu also faces federal fraud charges in...

The race between Democratic presidential front-runners in the early state contests has tightened in the past month, defying national polls that show Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton with a sizable lead. Despite the New York senator's substantial lead in nationwide surveys, pollsters and Democratic strategists say the race between the former first lady and her strongest rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, has grown much more competitive in New Hampshire. A recent poll in the state, which holds the first primary, shows the two in a dead heat. Democratic campaign advisers in the state, which has a history of upsetting front-runners,...

Memorandum to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton It is now widely expected that you will run for President in 2008, after successfully standing for reelection next year. By all accounts, you will enjoy the strong support of your party's generally left-of-center primary voters. But to win the Oval Office, you will have to overcome a very different challenge — persuading sufficient numbers of independents and perhaps even Republicans that you are the first Democrat in two generations who can safely be entrusted with the presidency in time of active, global hostilities. "Mr. Bolton is greatly admired by Jewish voters and other...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge dismissed a criminal charge against the former finance director of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 election campaign who is charged with filing false campaign statements. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dropped one of four charges in an indictment against David Rosen, ruling Wednesday that prosecutors used an invoice from a Hollywood gala as the basis for two counts. In January, Rosen pleaded innocent to charges of filing fictitious campaign reports with the Federal Election Commission that understated contributions for an August 2000 fund-raiser that honored then-President Bill Clinton. Prosecutors said the event...

CLINTON: 'FIX IT, DON'T NIX IT' 2 hours, 53 minutes ago President Bush hit the road for his Social Security overhaul in New Jersey yesterday — while in New York, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton painted Bush as a threat to the retirement program. "I'm going to keep telling people we've got a problem until it sinks in, because we've got one," Bush said in Westfield. "The safety net has got a hole in it." At Pace University, Clinton ran a "fix it, don't nix it" rally where Schumer told of a time before Social Security when seniors...

President Vladimir Putin is using the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe not to help Russians confront the Stalinist past but rather to engage in mythmaking that will only add to their difficulties in dealing with that past and building a democratic future, according to a French specialist on how societies cope with traumatic pasts. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin and some of his henchmen, arguing that the crimes of that era were the responsibility of only a few but not of the Communist Party or Soviet people as a whole. His successor, Leonid...

A small coterie of aging Harlem powerbrokers gathered in a secret hideaway this week and cut a deal that will send reverberations throughout New York City. According to sources, Sen. Charles Schumer has agreed to vacate his office prior to the next election to run for governor in 2006. Though Schumer has consistently denied having any gubernatorial ambitions, the source says he is stepping down because "he is miserable being senator and hates playing second fiddle to Hillary Clinton." Schumer has agreed to pick former State Comptroller Carl McCall to fill his vacancy. McCall was defeated by Gov. Pataki in...

This is a reminder to all South Florida FREEPers that Hillary will be at Books & Books in Coral Gables on the 16th at 4 PM. My attempts to get in touch with the University of Miami College Republicans to organize an event were unsuccessful, and I have a feeling most of them have left for the holidays, anyway. So, I'm encouraging everyone who can make it to come to this event. Arrive early. Be peaceful and legal. Stand in groups of 15 or less, just in case. Hold up signs. Some suggestions: 1. "DON'T BUY 'LYING HISTORY'" 2. "LIVING...

<p>BATON ROUGE - Spouses can become an issue in politics.</p> <p>Just look at Hillary Rodham Clinton.</p> <p>"Rarely does a spouse make a difference," said LSU political scientist Wayne Parent. "But if an issue is made of the spouse, it can."</p>

excerpt - [snip] Everyone I talked to yesterday agrees Giuliani has his sights on resuming a political life. Giuliani says yes, that's right. When the time comes he'll make his move. Where? "The presidency!" says a political insider. "People say that he doesn't have a base but the fact is that he does have a base. It's 9/11." [snip] More than once I heard the pols lick their chops at one possibility. Giuliani versus Hillary Rodham Clinton. Not the Senate fight they almost had, but a fight for the presidency in 2008, the year most pols expect Clinton to run....