Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.
THE SCHOOL MARM (Courtesy Gary Varvel)
WARREN LOOKS FOR A PAYOFF – Since Elizabeth Warren pulled the plug on her campaign for president, she is, no doubt, being courted by the Sanders and Biden campaigns, and she’s asking, what’s in it for me? Both have made positive comments about her … naturally, but she is disturbed by social media attacks on her by Sanders supporters.
She has been campaigning as a bold-ideas progressive. Certainly, more along the lines of Sanders ideology, than Biden’s. I’m betting she’ll fold to the Democrat establishment crowd and fall in line behind Biden, but selection as his running mate is not in the cards. I’ve got to believe that will go to Klobuchar. If Biden would offer Warren something big, like a cabinet position, she just might ditch Bernie, and that would be the end of his campaign.
During a meeting with the media outside of her Massachusetts home Thursday, Warren was asked how she felt about two men remaining in the race. “I know,” she said, almost in tears, “I think of all those little girls …. they’re going to have to wait another four years,” dismissing Tulsi Gabbard, who is still in the race, though barely. Does that make her a quasi-misogynist?
SHAMEFUL SCHUMER – While we have become accustomed to Chuck Schumer’s frequent harangues on the floor of the Senate, where he shamed the most deliberative body in the world as the minority leader. He stood amongst pro-choice activists on the steps of the Supreme Court and threatened two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, saying:
“I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released a whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”
Schumer’s remark drew a sharp rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts, who said:
“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.”
You’ve probably heard that Schumer foolishly sent his spokesperson to respond with a feeble attempt to say that his remark was misinterpreted. Even though he clearly named the two justices, he said his remark was addressed to Senate Republicans,“ who will pay for putting these justices on the court.” As if that makes a difference.
“I count six “yous” in addition to the naming of the justices (in Schumer’s remarks), noted David Limbaugh in PJ Media, “and for Schumer to suggest that he meant them to be addressed to Republican lawmakers is laughable.”
Later, he tried to walk back his threat, saying, “In no way was I making a threat … it is a gross distortion to imply otherwise.”
There is nothing to call this except a threat, and there is absolutely no question to whom it was directed,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a Senate floor admonishment. “He literally directed the statement to the justices by name.”
McConnell likened Schumer’s remark to a gangster’s intimidation: “That’s some nice judicial independence you’ve got over there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), with 13 co-sponsors, introduced a resolution to censure Schumer. In stating the seriousness of the threat, Hawley noted that the U. S. Marshals Service investigated 4,542 threats and inappropriate communications against the judiciary in 2018 alone, and that four federal judges have been targeted and murdered since 1979.
(Courtesy Drew Shineman/The Star Ledger)
MICHIGAN’s DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR Gretchen Whitmer didn’t intend to endorse a presidential candidate in the primary, but seemingly under pressure from the establishment, she announced that Joe Biden’s “got my enthusiastic support,” saying “he is the best candidate to focus on getting things done … and the dinner table issues most important to her.”
I will be watching the turnout figures in Michigan’s March 10, 2020 primary. Gallup reports that 64 percent of GOP voters are excited about this election, as opposed to 58 percent of Democrats. President Trump is breaking records for an incumbent. Those young people, who Feel the Bern, don’t seem to have that fire in the belly to go to the polls.
DEMOCRAT VOTERS DON’T CARE where their candidates stand on the issues, they just want someone who can defeat President Trump and that seems to be Joe Biden, writes Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib.
“In Massachusetts, site of one of Mr. Biden’s most surprising victories, 65 percent of voters said backing a candidate who can beat Mr. Trump was more important than backing one whose views they shared,” writes Seib.
In Texas, the site of a more important Biden surprise, 34 percent of voters thought Mr. Biden had the best chance of beating Mr. Trump, and in California, where voters went for Sanders, voters by a 2-to-1 margin said beating Mr. Trump was more important than policy agreement.
Does that make Trump a Democrat unifier?
MEANWHILE, Friday was another busy day for President Trump, who began the day signing the $8.5 billion authorization to fight the outbreak of the Coronavirus, followed by a press conference in the White House. He then flew to Tennessee to walk the streets of the tornado ravaged communities, comforting families along the way. Before returning to Washington, he stopped in Atlanta to visit the labs and speak with the employees of the CDC on their effort to control the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
YOU JUST HAD TO KNOW that once Apology Joe Biden became a viable candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination, the media would be looking into his past, as they are also doing with Bernie Sanders. Note that Biden’s connection with Ukraine is still being investigated.
In his piece, “Joe Biden is a Nasty Piece of Work,” in PowerLine, Paul Mirengoff writes about Kevin Williamson’s research for “Joe Biden: Not a Socialist, Just a Scoundrel.”
“You may have heard that Biden lost his wife and daughter in a horrifying drunk-driving wreck, the fault of a monster of a man who irresponsibly ‘drank his lunch,’ as Biden puts it,” Williamson writes. “Never happened.”
“It is not true that the driver of the other car was drunk, that he had been drinking, or that there was any reason to believe he was drunk or had been drinking … or even that he was at fault.
“The late Mrs. Biden “drove into the path of (the) tractor trailer,” the police report says, yet “the driver of that truck went to his grave haunted by Biden’s lies, to the point where his children were forced to beg the vice president to stop defaming their late father.
JUDGE JAMES BOASBERG has ordered that “no DOJ or FBI personnel under disciplinary or criminal review relating to their work on FISA applications shall participate in drafting, verifying, or submitting such applications to the Court.”
It’s the result of DOJ IG Michael Horowitz’s scathing report on FISA abuses by the FBI lasts December, citing 17 “errors and omissions” on the part of officials involved in the Carter Page warrant application, including placing too much reliance on the spurious and unverified Steele dossier.
As you may be aware, Attorney General Bill Barr and Congress are seeking to reform the entire FISA process, due to expire March 15, 2020.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
