The status quo Bush’s … why Erie went red … the FBI … lobbyists against the middle class … who is Papadopolous? … and MSNBC can’t win

Here are my observations on some of the things in the news.

THE BUSH’S NO LONGER SILENT – Through the eight miserable years of the Barack Obama presidency, there wasn’t a word of criticism out of George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush. The word was that they choose not to criticize the sitting president.

It was probably a wise decision for George W. Bush, because he had a 25 percent approval rating at the close of his second term. The media was highly critical of his performance, and the Obama administration blamed him for everything that was wrong in America.

So, why are they speaking up against President Trump now? I’m sure they didn’t like the way he soundly eliminated Jeb Bush from the race, but the voters saw him for what he was – another Bush, with tired ideas.

During a recent speech, the younger Bush said “bigotry seems emboldened” in the United States, and warned that Americans need to reject “white supremacy,” but coyly didn’t mention Trump by name. How courageous.

Commenting on the release of the book, “The Last Republicans,” which explores the connection between the elder Bush and his son, George H. W. said he didn’t like Trump, and called him a “blowhard,” while admitting he voted for Hillary Clinton. According to the New York Times, George W. voted for “none of the above.”

THE BUSHES SHOULD READ Salena Zito’s latest grass roots reporting piece out of Erie, Pennsylvania, “Trump has made many Americans feel connected again,” to discover why those “last Republicans” are indeed the last of their political persuasion.

Zito writes of two brothers who voted for Trump and moved back to Erie to invest and be part of its renewal. They are still strong supporters of Trump.

Erie County was once Democrat land. They voted for Obama twice, unanimously. Then voted for John Kerry over George W. Bush. They voted for Al Gore over Bush, and for Bill Clinton over both Bob Dole and George W. Bush.

“People were tired of establishment politics, on both sides of the aisle,” writes Zito, “they were tired of being ignored, they were tired of their communities falling into deep despair and on one listening, and they were tired of not feeling part of something bigger than themselves, of no one offering an aspirational message or fighting for them.”

They were also tired of reporters and Democrat Party hacks telling them that their values were out of whack because they were pro-life, or dangerous because they owned a gun or were racist, even though they voted for Obama twice.

“The people in the Great Lakes Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin still view Trump essentially as this figure not attached to the trappings of the Republican or Democrat Party,” writes Zito, “they liked him last November, they still like him today.

That should tell the Bush family something.

MORE FROM THE ROGUE AGENCY known as the FBI. Thanks to the persistent efforts of Tom Fitton at Judicial Watch, we have learned that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe did not recuse himself from the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unsecure, non-government e-mail server until November 1, 2016, one week before the presidential election. McCabe controlled resources supporting the investigation.

Five days after the news of Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server broke on March 2, 2015, former Clinton Foundation board member and Democrat Party fundraiser, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe met with the McCabe’s to recruit Jill McCabe for a state Senate run. She announced her candidacy on March 12, and soon afterward, McAuliffe’s machine donated $700,000 for her campaign.

Though McCabe stated that he played no role in his wife’s campaign – “attended no events and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind,” social media photos showed him wearing a T-shirt supporting his wife’s campaign during a public event and then posting a photo on social media urging voters to join him in vote for his wife.

“The FBI is compromised,” said Fitton, “Mr. McCabe should have been nowhere near the Hillary Clinton investigations,” referring to them a “a sham.”

BEWARE THE LOBBYIST who claims to be working for the middle-class. The Wall Street Journal reported that “For years, the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders were strong supports of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-backed mortgage companies, because (they argued) the government subsidies these firms received would create affordable housing for the middle class.” In fact, however, their policies drove up housing prices, thereby increasing their members’ profits.

When the recently released Republican plan made them choose between helping the middle class to buy homes and reducing their members’ profits, they chose profits.

WHO IS GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS? – Supposedly he was a foreign policy advisor during Donald Trump’s early campaign days, but a number of early campaign people claim they never heard of him. His efforts to engineer a meeting between Donald Trump and Russians were rebuffed, but Special Counsel Robert Mueller seems to think he’s a “smoking gun.” While it appeared to me that he was a low-level campaign volunteer with “wannabe” ambitions, perhaps Karl Rove’s reference to him as a “flim-flam artist” is pretty accurate.

POOR MSNBC – THEY CAN’T WIN even when they invite a Wall Street Journal reporter to appear on a panel. When President Trump called for the death penalty for the Uzbek immigrant who killed or injured people when he mowed them down with a rental truck, WSJ reporter Eli Stokols criticized the president because “He did not react this way when a white person shot dozens of people in Las Vegas.” Well, duh … that white person killed himself, Mr. Stokols.

And, get this … two other MSNBC panel members failed to catch his stupidity, while one agreed with him. You just cannot make this stuff up.