Free Republic

Were We Warned? By Rich Lowry September 13, 2012 11:37 P.M. Comments3 From the Independent (prominently featured on Drudge): According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.

President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, communicated with the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois about potential candidates for Mr. Obama’s Senate seat and provided a list of names, according to two Obama associates briefed on the matter. The Obama associates said the interactions concerned several people who might fill the seat. Such contacts are common among party officials when a political vacancy is to be filled. It was not clear whether the communication was via direct telephone calls. The Chicago Tribune reported that communications between Mr. Emanuel and the governor, both Democrats, had been captured...

When it comes to being the guy behind the guy, there is no one more conspicuous than Rahm Emanuel. As chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, he's usually at Obama's news conferences, standing off to the side, glowering like some fiercely loyal mini-me.

WASHINGTON (AP) - People who have been briefed on the Illinois governor corruption investigation say Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is not a target of the probe. Emanuel, a Chicago congressman who would have been a likely contact between the Obama transition office and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been a focus of media attention since Obama said Thursday he has asked for an internal review of contacts between his staff and Blagojevich. Emanuel has been refusing to answer questions about whether he's the "president-elect adviser" referred to in the criminal complaint that accuses Blagojevich of putting Obama's Senate...

EDITORIAL: Sen. Reid on the hot seat It didn't quite have the legs to knock the overhyped Foley scandal off the front pages, but another Washington controversy this week at least momentarily threatened the credibility of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. The Associated Press on Wednesday reported that our own Sen. Reid may have violated Senate rules by failing to report the 2001 transfer of land he owned "to a partnership in which he maintained a personal stake." Advertisement Three years later, Sen. Reid made $700,000 when the partnership sold the real estate. To make matters worse for the senator,...

A lucrative land deal benefiting U.S. Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) deserves full scrutiny by the Senate ethics committee. In 1998, Reid purchased undeveloped residential property on the outskirts of Las Vegas for $400,000. He bought one lot outright, and a second lot with a partner, Jay Brown. In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a corporation created by Brown. Reid retained an ownership stake in the corporation and continued to pay taxes on the property. There was no written agreement; Brown told the Associated Press that the two had been friends for 35...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina threw out the disappointing results of a statewide writing test for schoolchildren Thursday, in part because the exam wasn't written clearly enough. The 9-1 vote by the state Board of Education will ensure that teachers and schools are not penalized for the bad marks. The state has the authority to clean house at schools that get low ratings. The test was given to more than 200,000 fourth-graders and seventh-graders. Only 47 percent of fourth-graders passed the single-essay test, down from 69 percent the previous year; 63 percent of seventh-graders received passing scores, a decline...