Here are my observations on the news of the day.
SCHUMER SURRENDERS and his shutdown came to abrupt end Monday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to shut down the government over issues – immigration and the “dreamers” – that weren’t even up for a vote, while his party supported the content of the vote to extend the CR. “The American public didn’t understand that,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
LOOKING AHEAD – I have written before of the frustration President Trump is experiencing in learning the slogging ways of government compared to his being the sole man in charge in business.
In his first year in office, the president has admirably invited members of both parties to meet and discuss issues, as well as to attend White House social functions, including golf outings, in an effort to get past the personal animosity many have for him.
He’s learning that only goes so far. Many Democrats will meet with him, but make no mistake, it is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who controls them, including their committee assignments.
The president has invited Schumer to the Oval Office a number of times, including a 90-minute session last Friday, during which the senator unloaded with a long “want list” that had absolutely nothing to do with the CR vote.
Schumer left the meeting and promptly went to a microphone to insult the president’s reputation as the great deal-maker and negotiator. To the president’s credit, he avoided Tweeting a response, and he won.
WARNING – By most reports, the GOP won this standoff, but The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board opined that “This is what Mr. Trump’s life will be like, times about 10, if Democrats retake the House and Senate in November. They’re going to torture him like a dancing bear.”
“I doubted it was possible, but Dems have actually lost a shutdown fight. Schumer has agreed to end the filibuster in exchange for practically nothing. Make no mistake: Schumer & Dems caved. What a political fiasco.” – Brit Hume
PERHAPS THE BIGGEST LOSER during the shutdown wasn’t Schumer or any other Democrat. It was Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who is obviously still stinging over being rebuked by the president when he and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) went to the White House last Thursday with his warmed-over immigration proposal. The president stuck to his guns and refused to permit the CR to get bogged-down with immigration. Graham insists that the president’s senior policy advisor Stephen Miller stands in the way of immigration policy going forward. Meanwhile, the president has stated that he will do what’s best for the country when considering immigration legislation.
GRAHAM WANTS AMNESTY for all undocumented immigrants, according to an article in The Hill. “Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said the Republican-led Congress should offer a path to citizenship for Dreamers now and pass a bill that deals with border security and ‘chain migration later’ in exchange for granting ‘amnesty’ to all undocumented immigrants,” read the story lead.
Graham has said that he believes that President Trump wants to ultimately achieve comprehensive immigration reform and that his the “only guy” who make it happen, compared with past presidents.
He’s right about that. The difference is that those past presidents didn’t want it bad enough. It would be a major achievement; almost akin to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. But it has to be a deal that Americans want, and “amnesty” is not in their vocabulary
BILL KRISTOL is digging a deeper hole in “old Washington’s” cemetery of has-beens. Kristol, a former conservative who hangs out at the American Spectator magazine, tweeted “Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.”
“To speak of a ‘deep state’ in an American context is to say that the United States is turning into a banana republic,” responds David Goldman, “This is no joking matter. I am confident that President Trump and the tough guys in his cabinet will root out the saboteurs, leakers, manipulators, and liars who infest the intelligence services and who conspire with the liberal media to invent fake news charges against a duly-elected administration.
“His (Kristol’s) hatred for Donald Trump has unhinged him.
JOSEPH DIGENOVA, a former U. S. Attorney, during an interview with Ginni Thomas of the Daily Caller, said the truth is starting to seep out about the Obama administration’s “brazen plot to exonerate Hillary Clinton” and “frame an incoming president with a false Russian conspiracy.”
“Law enforcement is being corrupted and media is being bought,” portends badly he says. Noting the elite media’s supposed outrage about governmental power and institutions during Watergate, DiGenova says, “the only thing the American journalism community seems to care about now is destroying Donald Trump.”
THE DAILY CALLER’S Chuck Ross reports that the FBI “failed to preserve” five months-worth of text messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the two FBI agents who made pro-Clinton and anti-Trump comments while working on the Clinton e-mail and the Russia collusion investigations. A “technical system” for retaining text messages sent and received on FBI mobile devices was blamed for the failure to preserve the Strzok-Page messages from December 14, 2016 to approximately May 17, 2017.
NEW DOCUMENTS reveal that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch already knew that former FBI Director James Comey would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton when she announced she would accept any FBI recommendation.
“Was Lynch coordinating with the Comey in the Clinton investigation?” asks Sharyl Attkisson in her investigative piece in The Hill. “On July 1, 2016, as the Lynch announcement became public, Page texted Strzok: ‘And yeah, it’s a real profile in couragw (sic), since she knows no charges will be brought.’
“Other texts suggest Strzok and Page intended to subvert rules governing preservation of their discussions about FBI matters,” wrote Attkisson, who noted another Page text: ‘so look, you say we text on that phone when we talk about Hillary because it can’t be traced.’”
Talk about collusion.
THE DOJ IG REPORT ON THE FBI cannot be released soon enough. Lois Lerner IRS e-mails – missing; Hillary Clinton e-mails – missing; and now Strzok-Page texts – missing. Give me a break.
IS THIS THE “EQUALITY” those people in the women’s march were marching for this weekend? Oxford University has extended times for march and computer science exams in a bid to help women get better grades. The proposal was made to reduce the “undue effects of time pressure” which the prestigious university believe affects women more than men. Ah, yes, equality.
RIGGING THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS – In California, a law goes into effect on April 1, 2018 that will automatically register people to vote, when they apply for a new driver’s license or new state ID at the DMV. The act is expected to add more than two million new voter registrants in the first year.
