Here are my observations and opinions on some items in the news.
SIMPLY UNAMERICAN – The mainly Democrat anti-Trump obstructionists are just that. Don’t quote me the First Amendment, and don’t remind me of Joe McCarthy. Plainly, the blatant attempt to stop the confirmation of Secretary of State Nominee Mike Pompeo is not because he is unqualified for the position.
Just last year, the Senate confirmed him to be director of the CIA. What has changed? I’ll tell you. Since then, the president announced that he would be meeting with North Korean President Kim Jung Un. He will be the first sitting president to meet with a North Korean leader.
Then we learned that Pompeo secretly met with the North Korean president over the Easter weekend presumably to work out details, while Congress was out on Easter break, what else. When word got out about the secret meeting, a number of Democrats got their feelings hurt. You see, Pompeo had not revealed the talks when he sat for his Senate confirmation hearing.
Democrats simply do not want President Trump to get credit for anything, especially for furthering discussion of denuclearizing the Korean peninsula; anything that may prevent him from Making American Great Again. Tell me they are true Americans.
As I write this, I understand that Pompeo has met with one Republican holdout, Sen. Rand Paul. Despite the fact that the president has selected him to lead our foreign policy, Paul claims that Pompeo and the president actually don’t see eye-to-eye on foreign policy. And, you, Senator Paul, have decided that you are willing to block the confirmation?
Paul’s vote might not matter. Sen. Heidi Heitcamp (D-ND) has made it known that she will vote with the GOP on Pompeo’s confirmation. As I have written here earlier, Heitkamp is up for reelection in November, and may be looking for a way to get the RNC to back off.
COMEY’S BOOK TOUR – “James Comey goes stale fast,” writes Monica Showalter in American Thinker, “it isn’t quite the bonanza he’s been touted as.”
There were more cameras than customers at Comey’s book launch at the prestigious Kramerbooks on Dupont Circle in the heart of Washington DC. (I have no connection with Kramerbooks.) Incidentally, this is more than just a bookstore, it is known as frequent place where the elite meet for fine cuisine and drink. The Weekly Standard said that the store only sold about a dozen books, mainly to reporters.
Comey opened his media tour with George Stephanopoulos on ABC, where the former Clinton advisor tossed Comey softball questions, but his appearances on MSNBC, NBC and CNN have not gone well.
During his ABC appearance, we learned that Comey’s wife, Patrice, who supported Hillary Clinton, was “devastated” when Donald Trump won. Comey also admitted that his wife and daughters participated in the Women’s March in response to Trump’s victory.
An unflattering review in the New York Times saying Comey made himself at home in the gutter, saying it could “hurt a carefully cultivated image” of purity as a lawman who stood above politics and politicians.
Accompanying my Comey piece is a memorable cartoon by Lisa Benson, who I introduced to you in my January 2, 2018 blog. The bookmark with the Hillary campaign logo is a priceless touch.
WHILE CONDOLENCES FOR BARBARA BUSH have been flowing in, even from those who didn’t share her views, since her death this week, a creative writing professor, Randa Jarrar, of California State University sent a cruel message referring to the former First Lady as “a racist, who along with her husband, raised a war criminal.” Jarrar’s future at the school is unknown. She is currently on leave of absence.
As predominantly radically liberal professors have our next generation of leaders in the palm of their hands on campuses that do not promote free speech – the views of conservatives – the Wall Street Journal reminded us today of Mrs. Bush’s 1990 commencement address at Wellesely College, where students whined that someone best known as a wife and mother was not their idea of a modern woman.
“Somewhere out in this audience,” she said, “may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the President’s spouse. And I wish him well.” Gracious and clever.
The Journal appropriately commented that “Barbara Bush was raised in a generation that could never think in terms of a divided red and blue America in terms of a red and blue. “She won and retained the affection of the American people for unselfish dedication to family and country.”
We will miss her very much.
