Commentary
The 51 to 47 Senate confirmation of Kash Patel to be FBI director brought out the worst in the Democrats on the Senate Judicial Committee.
In a speech on the Senate Floor just prior to the vote, Dick Durbin predicted Republicans “will come to regret their vote, probably sooner rather than later,” as he launched into a derogatory line stating that Patel “has neither the experience, the judgment, nor the temperament to lead this criminal investigative agency.
“Mr. Patel’s record demonstrates that he is dangerous, inexperienced, and dishonest, (who) will serve as a dangerous, influenceable lackey for President Trump and will tarnish the reputation of an independent FBI.”
The FBI’s reputation is already tarnished., Senator.,
With that, Durbin had the audacity to say, “Let me be clear. This is not a partisan issue.”
“He’s absolutely unqualified for this job, untrustworthy, an absolute disgrace to even consider an individual of this nature,” said, Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse. “So mark my words. This Patel guy will come back to haunt you.”
Then there were the remarks of California’s Adam Schiff, recipient of a Biden preemptive pardon, who claimed Patel “can’t do the job,” “won’t protect the public,” “will misuse the resources of the bureau,” and will “weaponize (the agency) against the president’s political opponents.”
In what I viewed as a party that refuses to concede that Trump won, who deserves to have the people he selected confirmed, Durbin, Whitehorse, and Schiff, pathetically stood at a microphone outside the FBI building, each repeating their floor remarks for a handful of media reps.
About those regrets … two Republican Senators, Collins and Murkowski, will have a different regret, a regret that they voted not to confirm Patel, and thus, will be unable to join their colleagues when they’re celebrating Patel’s success in restoring the reputation of the FBI.
Someone whose opinion I trust implicitly, Trey Gowdy, former federal prosecutor and South Carolina Representative in the House, who chaired the House Oversight Committee and headed the Select Committee investigating Hillary Clinton’s role during the attack on Benghazi, supported the confirmation of Patel.
Gowdy has repeatedly explained how we wouldn’t have known about the Steele Dossier if it wasn’t for Patel.
Civics Lesson
Regular readers may recall my disdain for unelected bureaucrats who decide how a policy handed to them by Congress will be administered. I recall citing examples at the EPA where decisions in connection with the Café standards are made.
Visiting the White House press room Thursday, Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, gave members of the media a two-minute civics lesson on the Constitution and democracy that they needed to hear.
When Gateway Pundit reporter Jordan Conradson asked him to comment on the president repeatedly labeled as a threat to democracy and Elon Musk called an unelected bureaucrat, Stephens saw it as an opportunity to give them the civics lesson.
He began by talking about the harsh things some of them have been saying, and the people in the room who, for four years, failed to cover the fact that Biden “was mentally incompetent and was not running the country.”
He mentioned how many of them have used the talking point that Musk was not elected and failed to understand how government works.
“A president is elected by the people, he is the only official in the entire government that is elected by the entire nation, right?” he began.
“Judges are appointed, members of Congress are elected at the district and state level.
“Just one man in the Constitution, Article II, has a clause that says the executive power shall be vested in a president. Singular. The whole will of democracy is imbued in the elected president. This president then appoints staff to then impose that democratic will on the government.
“The threat to democracy is the unelected bureaucracy of lifetime-tenured civil servants who believe they answer to no one and believe they can do whatever they want without consequence, who believe they can set their own agenda no matter what Americans voted for.
“So Americans voted for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say they don’t want to change. Or Americans vote for radical reform under energy policies that EPA bureaucrats say they want to change. And lawyers at the Department of Justice say they don’t want to change.
“What President Trump is doing is he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American people. Thank you.”
Trump Ends DEI
President Trump officially ended Biden’s all of government policy of adhering to DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – and it was met with a 53 percent approval by likely voters, a Rasmussen Reports poll revealed.
As I reported earlier, DEI policies that followed in corporations, small businesses, higher education and elsewhere are also rapidly being withdrawn. Trump has often stated that hiring and performance will be handled by merit.
You may recall stories of infrastructure delays due to the Biden administration’s requirement that contractors were required to have DEI programs in place. It’s one of the reasons that so few electric vehicle charging stations have been built.
In Memory
It’s ironic that I missed commenting on the four-year anniversary of the passing of radio talk show legend Rush Limbaugh because I placed the reminder published by his longtime producer, James Golden (Aka Bo Snerdley) in my Stack of Stuff.
Ironic because I “borrowed” the term: Stack of Stuff from Rush, who used it as I do as a means for setting aside material I may want to comment on in a future edition of my blog.
I admired Rush, and frequently pull the book,” Radio’s Greatest of All Time, Rush Limbaugh,” by his wife, Kathryn and his brother David, off the shelf when I am looking for a particular quote or a position he held on an issue. His use of “Words Mean Things,” is one of my favorites.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
