James Baker

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Obama Crows Over Own Lack of Indictments in Interview

'Nobody in my administration got indicted,' he tells gala crowd

(Newser) - Former President Obama got in a dig at the Trump administration at a Rice University gala on Tuesday without even mentioning the president's name. Obama's 50-minute interview with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III—the namesake of the nonpartisan Baker Institute for Public Policy, which was...

Romney Needs a New Boss
 Romney Needs a New Boss 
Peggy Noonan
Sep 21, 2012 8:44 AM CDT

Romney Needs a New Boss

Peggy Noonan thinks candidate needs to 'get his head screwed on right'

(Newser) - Peggy Noonan raised some eyebrows earlier this week when she called Romney's campaign incompetent . "I was being polite," she writes in today's Wall Street Journal . "I really meant 'rolling calamity.'" Noonan says almost everyone agreed with her dire outlook, including some midlevel...

Kissenger, Powell, et al: Ratify New START
 Kissinger, 
 Powell, et Al.: 
 Ratify New START 
GOP SECRETARIES OF STATE
Dec 2, 2010 12:15 PM CST

Kissinger, Powell, et Al.: Ratify New START

Kissinger, Powell, Baker call on Senate for 'essential' vote

(Newser) - The New START treaty got some serious firepower behind it this morning, with the past five Republican secretaries of state writing a Washington Post op-ed in its support. "Although each of us had initial questions about New START," write Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger...

Top GOP Fundraiser Mosbacher Dead at 82

Bush 41's commerce secretary helped grease the skids for NAFTA

(Newser) - Robert Mosbacher, a legendary GOP fundraiser who served as George HW Bush's commerce secretary, died of cancer today in Houston. The multimillionaire oilman was 82. Mosbacher, an influential NAFTA proponent, was "the shrewdest dealmaker I ever knew," Bush, a friend of half a century, said in a statement....

Wiretapping Memos Drafted in 'Inappropriate' Secrecy: Report

Only 3 Justice officials knew of program

(Newser) - The legal justification for the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program was handled with unprecedented secrecy that sidestepped usual Justice Department procedure, the Washington Post reports. Only three Justice officials—John Ashcroft, John Yoo, and staff attorney James Baker—were made aware of the program and participated in drafting memos...

US Risks 'Lost Decade' With Zombie Banks
US Risks 'Lost Decade' With Zombie Banks
OPINION
Mar 2, 2009 2:52 PM CST

US Risks 'Lost Decade' With Zombie Banks

Japan's mistake of liquidity vs. solvency being repeated: Baker

(Newser) - Japan’s economic troubles in the 1990s—the so-called “lost decade”—provides a cautionary tale for America’s current problems, writes James Baker, a Reagan Treasury Secretary, in the Financial Times. Japan used piecemeal bailouts and implicit guarantees to insolvent banks rather than swift action. So the “...

Powell Sticks to Fence in Prez Race

Former secretary of state still undecided

(Newser) - Colin Powell has yet to make up his mind which way he'll vote in November, MSNBC reports. Speaking at a forum with four other former secretaries of state yesterday, the Republican said he would let neither his quarter-century friendship with John McCain—nor the "electrifying" prospect of the first...

War Power Must Be Jointly Held
War Power Must Be Jointly Held
OPINION
Jul 8, 2008 12:05 PM CDT

War Power Must Be Jointly Held

Ex-State chiefs propose bill requiring Congress, prez to have defined, cooperative roles

(Newser) - Calling the current system “ineffective at best and unconstitutional at worst,” two former Secretaries of State propose a sweeping update of law governing powers to declare war—whereby the president would be required to seek permission from Congress for “significant armed conflict” (lasting more than a week)....

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