Here are my observations and opinions on some of the news.
COREY BOOKER REVISITED – Last week I wrote how Corey Booker, the black senator from New Jersey, made a fool of himself during the confirmation hearing for Secretary of State Nominee Mike Pompeo with his unrelenting questioning of Pompeo’s position on gays; hardly the appropriate line of questioning for the position at state.
Although Pompeo stated that he treats everyone with dignity and respect under the law and did so during tenure at the CIA, that wasn’t enough for Booker, who continued his radical line of inquiry.
Since then, I have learned that Booker is one of the senators holding up the confirmation of Ric Grenell, an openly gay Trump appointee as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Booker voted against Grenell in October and again in January, despite overwhelming support for Grenell by gay rights groups.
Hypocrisy or simply more anti-Trump stonewalling?
LOOKING BACK AT HILLARY ON SYRIA’S ASSAD – Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation on March 27, 2011, Hillary Clinton said, “There’s a different leader in Syria now. Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he (Bashar al-Assad) is a reformer.”
When that provocative statement generated a firestorm, she tried to walk it back two days later by saying, “I referenced the opinions of others. That was not speaking either for myself or the administration.” When she made her initial statement, however, she didn’t qualify it by adding her opinion if it differed.
Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), who visited Syria earlier in March as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, “So my judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it and the participation that come with it.”
Despite Clinton’s effort to spin her way out of the controversy, The Washington Post gave her three Pinocchio’s.
CONTINUING DOWN MEMORY LANE – While many have challenged the president’s decision to attack Syria’s chemical weapon research and production facilities, they need to be reminded of the left’s failure to verify the promised removal of chemical weapons by the Russians during the Obama administration.
In July 2014, John Kerry said, “We struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out.” (Remember, Kerry is the same Kerry that struck the nuclear deal with Iran.)
On January 6, 2015, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest praised Russia for its role in destroying the chemical weapons stockpile of the Assad regime. “That was an important step, because it reduced, or essentially eliminated, the proliferation risk … and ensure that terrorists would not be able to get their hands on them and use them in other places.”
In January 2017, Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice said, “We were able to find a solution that didn’t necessitate the use of force that actually removed the chemical weapons that were known from Syria, in a way that the use of force would never have been accomplished. We were able to get the Syrian government to voluntarily and verifiably give up its chemical weapons stockpile.”
“Either the Russians are complicit or incompetent,” was then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s comment regarding its promise to remove chemical weapons from Syria.
TRANSGENDERS IN THE MILITARY – “I Became Transgender in The Military. That’s How I Know People Shouldn’t,” is the personal story of Jamie Shupe in The Federalist. Shupe retired as a decorated sergeant first class from the U.S. Army. After retiring, Shupe lived as a transgender woman for nearly four years before desisting from living as a female.
While my primary concern about transgenders in the military has been one of the high cost to taxpayers of sex change surgery and the loss of the service member’s time on duty due to complications, Shupe’s story reveals the many problems associated with transformations. Click here to read Shupe’s story.
SHAMEFUL– With House Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision to leave at the end of his term, a number of people are taking the opportunity to trash him despite the passage of the historic tax cut bill. Ryan was able to pass 60 percent of President Trump’s agenda, and he has engineered the passage of some 400 bills that now sit on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk. Incidentally, it is on McConnell’s desk that all of those pending Trump nominees languish awaiting confirmation hearings.
