Here are my observations on items in the news.

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF SHAME – Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) saw it as her 15 minutes of fame. She has referred to President Trump as mentally ill and has called for his impeachment. This was her opportunity to make the president look bad.

The president was in the process of telephoning the next of kin of four Army warriors killed in Niger when he reached the wife of La David Johnson, while she waited in a limousine with her two young children for the plane carrying her husband’s body. She was accompanied by Representative Wilson.

Taking the president’s words of comfort out of context, Wilson soon was arranging appearances on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, ABC’s The View and other left-leaning outlets in an effort to embarrass the president.

President Trump’s chief of staff Gen. John Kelly (Ret.), appearing at the White House press conference today to review the calls contemplated by the president, said he was “stunned” to hear Wilson’s account, purposely not mentioning her by name, but simply congresswoman. He relived the day he was informed that his son had been killed in Afghanistan and how he had advised the president on the calls.

Without mentioning Wilson by name, Kelly recounted a memorial service for FBI agents killed several years ago in Miami, during which time she chose that solemn occasion to boast that she was responsible for appropriating funds for the FBI building there.

Wilson has since doubled down on her account and has said that Kelly was just trying to save his job.

MCCAIN CRITICIZES THE PRESIDENT – While Secretary of Defense James Mattis was making a statement regarding the losses by ambush and an impending investigation in Niger, Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, felt obligated to again torpedo President Trump, criticizing him for not being forthcoming in explaining our mission in Niger. Poor John.

MORE BIG MONEY FOR THE LEFT – In my October 17, 2017 post, “Obama wrong again,” I cited Floyd Abrams’ Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he revealed that the majority of the top 20 political donors were Democrats. George Soros, ranked 19^th on the list, again made news in a Media Research Center report when he shifted an additional $18 billion (yes, billion) in assets to his Open Society Foundation, bringing the assets up to $23.5 billion.

Records show that Soros has donated more than $14 billion to promote a radical leftist agenda on abortion, immigration, environmentalism, “hate” speech, and the Women’s March. In addition, he has donated more than $100 million to support the liberal media and $10.5 million to Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.

AND ON THE RIGHT, the Koch Brothers, who frequently drew the ire of President Obama and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (even on the floor of the U.S. Senate) for the brothers’ support of Republicans, rank 59^th on the list of top political donors.

SEN. RAND PAUL MAY BE PRINCIPLED, BUT what he’s doing to block party advances in health insurance and tax reform is disappointing … McCain-like. He opposed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s block grant proposal for health insurance, and now he standing in the way of the GOP budget. “The budget vote to me is a symbol and a guidepost as to what we are as a party and what we stand for,” said Paul. He opposes the $43 billion in military funding, being supported by Graham, a “false conservative,” according to Paul.

I admire Senator Paul’s conservative principles, but I agree with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board in its assessment that Paul is “willing to kill tax reform so he can make a futile political gesture.” Reminds me of Maine’s Senator Susan Collins.

“Mr. Paul,” the Journal points out, “is deceiving voters and perhaps even himself by pretending that limiting defense spending will balance the budget. This will require faster growth that requires tax reform. Who is the real political phony?”

IOWA’S TURN TO THE RIGHT has been a topic of discussion among pundits lately. Once a reliable Democrat stronghold in races on the national level, President Trump easily carried Clinton County, and Iowa as a whole in the 2016 election.

Trump won Iowa by a larger margin than he won Texas, and now Republicans control the governor’s office, the legislature, both Senate seats and three of four in the House.

“What’s the matter with Iowa?” says Michael Walsh, writing for PJ Media, adding “The New York Times thinks it has the answer. The explanation, according to the Times, is that Iowa simply isn’t retaining enough of its college graduates. The state’s industrial base has cratered, forcing the smart kids to seek their fortunes elsewhere, and leaving the dumb ones without degrees at home to vote Republican. No … seriously.”

To be specific, “many towns in Iowa, they have been losing more college-educated voters that they retain, leaving a less educated and less mobile group of voters more likely to vote for Republicans, whom they see as more in touch with their lives and beliefs.”

Incidentally, Clinton won those university towns.

UNDER THE RADAR AT THE WHITE HOUSE – Although the president mentioned his judicial nominations during a recent speech, the media didn’t see it as red meat. Further proof that journalism is dead. For the most part, reporters lack the knowledge and curiosity to research subject matter that is of little appeal to them. Not sexy.

One exception is Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel, who fully understood the significance of the story. She remarked how the president will keep baiting the media with shiny topics, while under the radar, government is being redone.

“Mr. Trump has now nominated nearly 60 judges,” she wrote, “filling more vacancies than Barack Obama did in his entire first year. There are 160 court openings, allowing Mr. Trump to flip or further consolidate conservative majorities on the circuit courts that have the final say on 99 percent of federal legal disputes.”

No administration in memory has approached court appointments with more purpose than this team, according to Strassel.