Commentary

The headlines alone give you a feel for topics currently on the media agenda, but I’ll give you a little back up to go with them.

The story behind The Spectator headline, “Are Kamala Harris’s days as VP numbered?” delves into the Washington whispers of a cunning plan to shunt Kamala on to the Supreme Court in order to bring in a more popular vice president, someone better prepared to take over should Biden win in 2024. “Biden wouldn’t do that, would he?” asks deputy editor Freddy Gray.

Meanwhile, talk of possible Court nominees circulate in the nation’s capital. One candidate getting special attention is Judge J. Michelle Childs, because Rep. James Clyburn is backing her for the nomination.  It was Clyburn who gets credit for Biden’s presidential win in South Carolina.

The choice of Childs would be strange considering the left’s thinking, and it is captured in Red State’s headline, “Biden’s Possible SCOTUS Nomination Has a Curious Past, and Curious Advocates.”

Bloomberg Law has 25 cases registered in which Childs participated during her time at the firm; 23 of those involve alleged employment discrimination or other employment-related civil rights violations.  Surprisingly, she represented the defendants, rather than the plaintiffs in these suits.

As a lawyer, Childs served as an associate and then partner at Nexsen Pruet Jacobs & Pollard from 1992-2000, she worked primarily in labor and employment law, principally working on behalf of employers against allegations of racial discrimination, civil right violations, and unionization drives.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, appearing on a Sunday news program, supported Childs’ nomination, saying that a number of Republicans could support her.

THERE WERE TWO ARTICLES on Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan – “Leaked document reveals Biden’s Afghan failures,” in AXIOS, and “4 Reasons why Biden failed in Afghanistan pullout,” in a Yahoo News interview with well-known political scientist Ian Bremmer.

Both point to Biden’s failures, but Bremmer’s comment that the withdrawal was a “an extraordinary foreign policy crisis – by far the most important of the Biden administration – and largely self-imposed.”

Candace Rondeaux, in her earlier piece for the World Politics Review, wrote “the Biden administration’s mishandling of the pullout was above all a failure of leadership.”

FROM THE DURHAM INVESTIGATION we learn in a piece published in The Epoch Times, “Durham Court Filing Reveals DOJ Inspector General Horowitz Withheld Key Evidence from Special Counsel,” the DOJ IG Michael Horowitz concealed crucial information in connection with the ongoing prosecution of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

Horowitz failed to disclose that his office was in possession of two cell phones used by former FBI general counsel James Baker, phones that may contain information important to the Sussmann case, as well as the criminal leak investigation of Baker.

Stay tuned.

WHERE IS XAVIER? – Under the headline “Hmmm: Becerra first Cabinet secretary under the bus?” in Hot Air, Ed Morrissey writes of the White House frustration and dissatisfaction over HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s handing of pandemic communications and controversial policies.

Is it any wonder?  Becerra was another of Biden’s diversity picks, a political hack with no background in health care matters.

Becerra may not be the first to go, as earlier rumors put Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the “to go” list.

You may recall that Biden screwed up his nomination of Becerra in December 2020 when he referred to him as Xavier Bacheria, who would be his secretary of Health and Education Services, rather than Health and Human Services.

THE LONG HEADLINE “Only 4 States Have Regained All the Jobs Lost Since the Pandemic.  They’re all Run by Republicans,” says it all in a piece from Base Politics by Brad Polumbo.

Reportedly, we are still roughly 3.6 million jobs short of our pre-pandemic employment levels nationally.  Texas, Arizona, Utah and Idaho have all regained February 2020 levels.

PONDER THIS – FBI Director Christopher Wray announced that the bureau is opening new cases to counter Chinese intelligence operations.  Do you suppose this is cover for what Peter Schweizer has written in his new book, “Red Handed: How American Elites get Rich Helping China Win?

FINALLY, the headline, “Why Did Joe Biden Build His Hollywood Oval Office Set?” An Answer Emerges,” over a PJ Media piece by Victoria Taft, blew the cover off a fake Oval Office constructed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street.  It was apparently constructed to make it easier for President Biden to make his teleprompter-aided speeches, and was kept hush by the media – nothing to see here.  They even failed to mention it when Biden had his Covid booster shot there.

However, when digitally placed images of the Rose Garden appeared at the window on snowy days, and the staff thought it would be cute to reproduce theme words on the window, it became evident the president wasn’t in the Oval Office.

How embarrassing.  We have a president who is unable to speak from the revered Oval Office.

Now, more than ever … may God continue to bless the United States of America.