Back in December 2005, John Yoo was asked if any law or treaty could prevent the President of the United States from torturing someone, "including by crushing the testicles of the person's child." Yoo, then head of President Bush's Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice, responded, "I think it depends on why […]

As a quick glance at his record shows, no American political figure has been as consistently and catastrophically wrong on matters of national security than John McCain. (Worse still, McCain's out-of-control temper and erratic judgment led many of his Republican colleagues like Thad Cochran to worry that "the thought of his being President sends a […]

With today's elections in Israel and the upcoming confirmation hearings for Obama Pentagon nominee Chuck Hagel, U.S.-Israeli relations will be very much in the news. For Republicans continuing their perpetual campaign to whittle away at the overwhelming Jewish support for Democrats, the response will be predictable. One of the many GOP leaders accusing President Obama […]

This weekend, Republicans led by Senator John McCain stepped up their withering criticism of President Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel. In a new line of attack, Tennessee Senator Bob Corker questioned Hagel's "overall temperament." As it turns out, Corker's choice of words was more than a little ironic. After all, back in 2008 […]

The Republican opposed the Iraq surge and favored regional negotiations with Iran and Syria. The GOP luminary has cautioned against pre-emptive strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities. He publicly criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. He advised the presidential campaigns of both John McCain and Mitt Romney on national security policy, and in 2000 […]

As President Obama and Congressional leaders negotiate in Washington, the American people need to keep a couple of things in mind about the looming "fiscal cliff." For starters, the issue is not that the national debt will go up (which roughly half of those in one poll believe to be the case), but that it […]

Having succeeded in his smear campaign against UN Ambassador Susan Rice, John McCain has launched a second pre-emptive strike against another would-be Obama cabinet member, former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. But this time McCain's petty payback against a GOP colleague who supported Barack Obama for President in 2008 may run into tougher sledding. After […]

As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised in September, the State Department Accountability Review Board on Wednesday delivered its report on the Benghazi consulate assault which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The findings are sharply critical of the State Department, calling security at the Libyan outpost "grossly inadequate," a […]

Last week, UN Ambassador Susan Rice took herself out of the running to become the next Secretary of State, apparently clearing the way for Senator John Kerry. But whether or not Rice was the best choice--or even President Obama's first choice--for the position is largely beside the point. History will mark this episode as just […]

During a heated exchange on the Senate floor back in June 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney famously told Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy, "f**k yourself." Looking back on the episode six years later, Cheney told Fox News that he had no "qualms, second thoughts, or embarrassment" about his Leahy outburst, because "I thought he merited it […]