Here are my observations and opinions on selected news of the day.

HOW SHAMEFUL – The Deep State now has its own Deep Throat, an anonymous person who claims to be a senior administrator in the Trump White House, who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times designed to bring down the presidency.

REFLECTIONS ON MCCAIN’S PASSING continue and I want to share with you a bit of Ben Shapiro’s insight from his National Review column, “The Faux Bipartisan Unity at John McCain’s Funeral,” because he refutes the belief of others, including Henry Kissinger, who believe that we lived in some golden age of civility and bipartisanship, before Trump came on the scene.

Shapiro, in referring to the mythology of the “Good Old Days” of Bush and Obama in American politics “represents revisionist history at its finest. Trump is a symptom of our broken politics; he is not, in fact, its progenitor.”

Citing the words “America is better than this,” used by Bush and Obama, Shapiro said George W. Bush should know better than anyone as he endured eight years of being crudely labeled.

Like Shapiro, I have frequently commented on the phoniness of “old Washington;” and the insincere references to “my good friend.”

“The hobnobbing and backslapping of these supposed representatives of sharply varying philosophies – the notion that an elite class of political actors were playacting their conflict in public, but smoking cigars together in private – led to the rise of an outsider such as Trump,” wrote Shapiro.

“Trump has seriously degraded the public discourse; but unlike his predecessors, he doesn’t hide his personal animus behind a veneer of niceness,” says Shapiro, but explains that Obama and Bush are calling for an ideological unity that no longer exists, and everyone knows it.

What better example than to see Bill Clinton sitting with anti-Semites Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.

Shapiro suggests that if these political actors want to criticize Trump’s philosophy or his character, they should “have at it,” but to attempt to revise history over a false façade of unity where none has existed for decades only leads Americans to believe that the political elites are united by their elite status. “And ironically, that plays directly into Trump’s populist hands.”

I FOUND IT INTERESTING that William Lehman, writing in Hashtag Media: Burn the Boats, noted in President Obama’s eulogy for John McCain that “We never doubted we were on the same team.”

Lehman writes that McCain, who I often referred to as a RINO, was one of five Republicans most likely to support Obama’s position. He voted with Obama more than half of the time, according to Senate Roll Call 2013.

Lehman wrote of McCain’s frequent changes of position, while his fans explain that “he became enlightened.”

Obviously disappointed with “The idea that he, in death, can be used as a stick to beat on Trump,” referring to McCain’s disallowing President Trump and former running mate Sarah Palin from attending his funeral, it was clear that Lehman was upset with the Trump attacks within the eulogies of Obama, Bush and daughter Meghan McCain.

“OK,” he concludes, despite the cheap shots, “literally, it’s your funeral.”

CONTRIBUTING TO JOURNALISM’S DEMISE – The editorial board of the failing Arizona Republic has again revealed its inability to take a mature, responsible position. Under the opinion page headline, “Did governor act wisely with Senate pick?” they commented on Gov. Doug Ducey’s naming of former senator Jon Kyl to fill the vacancy of the late John McCain.

When you read their responses, I believe you, too, will ask ‘just who are these lightweights, who hold themselves up as insightful thought leaders capable of second-guessing the governor.’

“I don’t like the pick, and I like Jon Kyl. I trust him, I admire him I feel confident knowing he is in Washington,” Phil Boas opens, but quickly pivots with “Nonetheless, I think Ducey has missed the opportunity, a rare one, to go against form, to kick against his own ferocious timidity and do something bold.

“Alas, we’re stuck with Kyl, which is to say we’re stuck with the gold standard.”

I can just imagine the second-guessing that would come from the keyboard of Boas if the governor had taken his advice by going “bold by appointing someone young with a high ceiling; someone with the smarts and the capacity to achieve one day the same stature of a John McCain and Jon Kyl.”

Then there was this, from board member Elvia Diaz, who opened with “What’s not to like about Jon Kyl,” but then absurdly suggests that “Kyl may bolt after the Supreme Court vote, giving the Republican governor another chance to appoint somebody else by the end of the year. Brilliant political move.”

It’s clear, she doesn’t know Jon Kyl.

No surprise … the Arizona Republic Is not known as a bastion of objective political journalism. We know they lean left and we know they are not fans of Governor Ducey.

On Thursday, Republic columnist E. J. Montini – not an attorney – wrote that Kyl should recuse himself from the vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation because of a conflict of interest he (Montini) fabricated over Kyl’s role in accompanying the nominee on his Senate visits. How foolish.

FOX’S DANA PERINO, no sports fan, came up with the best sports metaphor Thursday when she said Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) fumbled the ball in the end zone, when he threatened to release classified documents related to Brett Kavanaugh during Thursday’s hearing. Revealing that those documents had been declassified the night before, Perino said, if you’re going to run for president you want to be remembered for getting something right. He didn’t.

THE KAVANAUGH HEARINGS – Need I comment that the Democrats are pathetic? Rasmussen reports that a plurality (45 percent) believe the opposition to Kavanaugh is due to partisan politics while likely U.S. voters (33 percent) think the opposition is honest differences of opinion. Twenty two percent are undecided.

WOMEN’S MARCH, writing @womensmarch stated “We’re disrupting the Kavanaugh hearings every few minutes, with hundreds of women prepared to get arrested to prevent these moving from moving forward.”

The unprofessional women of the Women’s March issued a statement with this opening sentence:

“In response to Donald Trump’s nomination of XX to the Supreme Court of the United States … “ It was a fill-in-the-blanks statement for whomever the president nominated. Oops.

Subsequently, they referred to Judge Brett Kavanaugh as “Cavenaugh.” Oops.

HOW REFRESHING it was, in these days of nuisance robocalls and glossy mailers, to receive a creative card in the mail from Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) with a pop-up replica of an A-10 Warthog, which she flew as the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat in U.S. Air Force history.

McSally was instrumental in saving the A-10 as a critical element in close air support for our troops. Some missions call for it to fly low before “popping up” over a hill to strike the enemy in a valley below.

While she has been a firm supporter of President Trump’s border security effort, with the uncertainties facing us in North Korea, China, Russia and the continuing effort in Afghanistan, I know McSally will support the president’s national security strategy of projecting peace through strength.

For those unfamiliar with Arizona politics, McSally is our choice to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, who thankfully has decided not to run for reelection.

          May God bless the United States of America.