national news, political news

Trump launches potential war of attrition

I long have thought that every human being has a limit to the amount of emotional baggage he or she can lug around.

Accordingly, it’s fair to wonder just how much bedlam Donald John Trump can endure as he continues — in some form or fashion — to govern the United States as its president.

His first 100-plus days as president have been a stunning exercise in chaos, controversy and confusion.

It’s making me wonder — and I’m quite serious about this — whether Trump has the stamina to continue to function in this manner. My memory of presidential transition goes back to when John Kennedy took over from Dwight Eisenhower in 1961. No one has managed to create the number of firestorms so early in their presidency as the 45th man to hold that office. Not even Lyndon Johnson, who became president in 1963 in the midst of a horrifying national tragedy; or Gerald Ford, who ascended to the presidency in 1974 in the wake of a crippling constitutional crisis and scandal.

In a related matter, it’s also fair to ask just how much of this the public can withstand.

Just in the past week, we’ve seen the president fire the FBI director and ignite a political wildfire that continues to rage out of control. Trump cannot formulate a cogent message. His White House communications team is flummoxed hourly it seems by contradictory statements pouring out of the president’s pie hole.

How do they handle it? How can they withstand this level of chaos?

And I haven’t even mentioned what seems like an increasingly real possibility that we might have an impeachment process starting to take shape in the U.S. House of Representatives.

There might be an obstruction of justice charge leveled at the president over the threat he leveled at James Comey two days after he fired the FBI boss; Trump well might have sought to bully the FBI into backing off its investigation of the president’s campaign and whether it colluded with Russians seeking to sway the 2016 election.

Then we have the Emoluments Clause issue, and questions about whether Trump’s businesses have been enriched by contracts with foreign governments. The U.S. Constitution prohibits presidents from obtaining any such financial gain, yet the president continues to hold onto his worldwide business interests.

I suppose I could mention the continuing string of lies and defamatory statements he makes about his predecessor as president, the woman he defeated in 2016 and any number of individuals and organizations opposing him.

What happens, too, if he crosses yet another “red line” by restricting the media from doing their job, which the Constitution guarantees them the right to do without government interference?

Ladies and gents, we have elected someone who continues to demonstrate every single day that he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. He is unfit for the office he holds. He is making a mockery of the presidency and, sad to say, of the greatest nation on Earth.

His legislative agenda — whatever it is! — is going nowhere. Jobs bill? The wall? Tax reform? Health care overhaul? How does he do any of it while the tempest over what the Trump calls “the Russia thing” continues to boil over?

Are you frightened yet? I damn sure am.

legal news, national news, political news

Don’t pick Sen. Cornyn to lead FBI, Mr. POTUS

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has shown up on Donald J. Trump’s short list of possible nominees to become FBI director.

In the name of non-bias, non-political leanings and law enforcement professionalism, I am hoping that the president does not pick Sen. Cornyn to lead the FBI in this critical time.

James Comey got the boot from the FBI’s top job because — if we are to believe anything that comes out of the president’s mouth — he was spending too much time and energy on the “Russia thing.”

Truth be told, in my view, the next FBI director needs to spend a whole lot more time on Russia and related matters. Is John Cornyn the man to do the job? No way, dude!

Cornyn may get a good look

I’ve known Cornyn for a number of years in my capacity as a journalist first in Beaumont and then in Amarillo. We have had a nice professional relationship during those years. I’ve known him as a Texas Supreme Court justice, as a state attorney general and as a U.S. senator. I disagree with him politically, but he’s a gentleman.

Over the years, as my hair got grayer, Sen. Cornyn would needle me that I eventually would get as gray as he has been for decades. I’m still not there yet, although I’m close.

All that said, he is as wrong for the job of FBI director as anyone being considered. Why? He is a partisan hatchet man for the Senate’s Republican caucus. He’s the No. 2 man in the Senate GOP hierarchy and his main task in recent Senate sessions has been to ensure the election of more Republicans. I understand that’s part of his job and I respect that someone has to do it, that they need to fill the ranks with partisans on both sides of the aisle.

Cornyn’s highly political profile, though, makes him a terrible fit for the FBI director’s job. Comey was in the middle of an investigation that was looking into allegations that the Trump campaign was complicit in efforts by the Russian government to influence the 2016 election — seeking to help Trump get elected president.

Are we to believe that a member of the president’s own party who would get the task of leading the FBI and, presumably, continue that investigation will shed his partisan leanings?

The president needs to look within the law enforcement community to find a new FBI director. He needs to find someone who has no political axe to grind. He needs to nominate someone with zero political ties to the White House, or to the Congress.

John Cornyn is not the man for this job.

national news, political news

On the hunt for millions of illegal votes? Good luck with that

Donald John Trump has made a number of scurrilous accusations since entering political life.

One of them involves an allegation that “millions of illegal aliens” cast votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016, which gave her the 3 million popular vote “victory” over the president.

What has the president done to bolster that accusation? He has appointed a voter-fraud conspiracy theorist to lead an investigation.

Welcome to center stage, Kris Kobach.

The Kansas secretary of state has been one of the leaders in this movement that impugns the integrity of the nation’s electoral system. He has contended there are incidents of massive voter fraud, with non-citizens casting ballots in races in Kansas and Missouri. Now he gets to prove it’s all true in a national level.

What utter crap!

This has the earmarks of a witch hunt and is the kind of thing that in the end only will further erode the credibility of a president who’s prone to fabricate conspiracies and “fake news.”

Record is full of fabrications

Trump has done so repeatedly since he rode down that escalator to announce his presidential candidacy in the summer of 2015. Barack Obama wasn’t qualified to run for president because he wasn’t a “natural born U.S. citizen”? Thousands of Muslims cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11? Ted Cruz’s father’s alleged complicity in President Kennedy’s murder? Those millions of illegal votes cast for Hillary in 2016? President Barack Obama wiretapping the Trump campaign office?

Now he has selected a fellow conspiracy nut to get to the bottom of a problem that does not exist.

Give me a break.

national news

Do you remember past Trump absurdities?

It occurs to me as the nation wallows in this latest Donald J. Trump immersion that we’ve all but stopped talking about some of the president’s previous absurd assertions.

For example:

* Do you recall how the president accused his predecessor, Barack H. Obama, of wiretapping his campaign offices in New York City’s Trump Tower? Trump produced no evidence of it but in the process essentially defamed President Obama.

* How about the allegation that “millions of illegal aliens” voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton, giving her the nearly 3 million popular vote margin over Trump? Again, this clownish president never offered a hint of proof for the allegation. He also managed to defame the reputations of local elections officials who work diligently to protect the integrity of our electoral process.

* Then there was the interview Trump gave to former Fox News talk-show host Bill O’Reilly, who questioned why the president was so kind to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “He’s a killer,” O’Reilly said, to which Trump responded, “There are a lot of killers. Do you think the United States is so innocent?”

These previous controversies have been buried now the latest avalanche dealing with Trump’s firing of James Comey as head of the FBI. We have the possibility of obstruction of justice. There are the many contradictory statements and the chaos that has erupted in the West Wing of the White House.

Our attention span is getting tested terribly by this guy, the president of the United States.

My head is spinning.

national news, political news

POTUS isn’t mad, but his actions are, um, maddening

3 Comments

I do not believe Donald John Trump is clinically insane.

His actions in light of his firing of FBI Director James Comey, however, seem to foster a sense of insanity in the White House.

The president is contradicting the vice president; he is backtracking on his own statements; he has acknowledged meddling in an ongoing investigation by the FBI; he has issued a bald-faced threat to Comey; the White House press secretary has refused to decline the existence of recording devices inside the Oval Office.

The FBI director’s dismissal has begun to swallow the Trump administration whole. It is vanishing before our eyes.

Oh, and get this: Two of the four men being considered for FBI director are partisan politicians, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.

The stage is being set for a drama that well could play out in the worst way possible for the president.

I believe I now will mention “impeachment.” Betting houses are shortening the odds of an impeachment of the president. On what grounds? The conflict of interest that occurred when Trump quizzed Comey about whether the FBI is investigating the president.

There also could be a cover-up in process as Trump seeks to put distance between himself and the FBI’s investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign was in cahoots with Russian government hackers who sought to influence the 2016 election.

It seems that every time the president opens his mouth, he ignites another firestorm.

Every single day that passes produces more controversy. It comes in the form of those idiotic tweets that Trump fires off; it boils up when he utters absolute falsehoods; it happens when he fails to back up the statements made by senior White House aides.

The attorney general pledged to recuse himself from anything to do with the Russia investigation. What does Jeff Sessions do? He offers a recommendation that Trump fire Comey. Then the president said he had made up his mind before hearing from the AG.

Now we have questions about obstruction of justice. The president told NBC News that he fired Comey because the FBI director was devoting too much time and effort to the “Russia thing.”

Is that an obstruction? Is the president meddling directly in an FBI probe? Isn’t that a direct violation of the oath of office the man took?

I keep getting this feeling that this drama is going to end badly for the president of the United States.

All of this, dear reader, is a consequence of electing someone who “tells it like it is.”

national news, political news

POTUS keeps ’em hopping at White House

It’s tempting to feel a bit of sympathy for the White House media machine, and for the vice president, and for the senior West Wing advisers.

Why? They are working for someone who doesn’t have a clue on how to “control a message,” or even how to conduct the business of being president of the United States.

Donald J. Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Mike Pence, the vice president, said he acted on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Assistant AG Rod Rosenstein. But wait! Trump then said he decided before consulting with Sessions and Rosenstein to fire Comey.

Pence also said that the FBI probe into the Russia hacking matter had “nothing to do” with Trump’s decision to fire Comey. Then, what do you know? The president contradicted the VP directly by saying, yep, Comey was spending too much time on the “Russia thing.”

White House press flack Sean Spicer has been keeping a low profile since the stuff hit the fan. Deputy flack Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been back-filling like crazy, trying to provide some semblance of sense to the chaos that has enveloped the Trump administration. She’s not succeeding, though.

In the midst of all this the president is tweeting himself silly with threats to Comey about possible recordings of conversations. He’s continued his attack on the media, threatening to suspend the daily press briefings.

And the media haven’t yet asked him directly about whether he committed a conflict of interest violation by asking Comey directly if the FBI was investigating the president. Trump had the power all along to fire the FBI boss and he shouldn’t have even thought about meddling directly in an ongoing investigation. Holy cow, man!

It’s tempting, yes, to feel sympathy for the president’s senior staff.

I’m managing to resist falling for it, though. They all ought to have known what they were getting into when they signed on.

national news

Bluff or no bluff about those recordings?

Donald John Trump might be trying to pull of the costliest bluff in U.S. political history.

He has mentioned the word “tape recordings” relating to his conversation with former FBI Director James Comey. The nation’s capital is now buzzing with reports about whether the president actually recorded the conversation he had with Comey.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer has declined to answer directly the question about the existence of recording devices.

So … has the president recorded conversations in the Oval Office or not? If he has, then is there more to learn?

Those of us of a certain age remember a fellow named Alexander Butterfield. He worked in the White House during the Nixon administration. The Watergate scandal was beginning to overtake President Nixon in 1973-74. Butterfield, in testimony before the Senate Select Watergate Committee, blabbed to the world about the existence of Oval Office recording devices.

What did they reveal? Oh, all kinds of things that revealed that the president was using the power of his office to obstruct justice.

The rest is history, you know?

What has the current president done to preserve his comings and goings for posterity? What on Earth might such recordings — if they exist — reveal about his alleged connection to, oh, Russian government officials?

Yet another question for the president to answer. If only he would.

local news, political news

Make way for the ladies at Amarillo City Hall

Amarillo’s history is layered with tales of the exploits of men.

They were involved with cattle, the railroad, oil and natural gas. They formed civic clubs, became active in politics and in government. They built banks and other businesses throughout the city.

It was a man’s world around Amarillo. A good ol’ boys club. Men ran the show.

Well, an election just occurred in Amarillo and — presto! — just like that the City Council has an entirely new look. We have three women comprising a majority on the five-member governing board.

I once lamented the loss in 2015 of two women who had served on the council. They got beat by two men whose election created an all-male City Council. I wanted Ellen Robertson Green and Lilia Escajeda to be been re-elected two years ago, but then they got beat by Elisha Demerson and Randy Burkett, respectively, in the contests for Places 1 and 3.

Burkett didn’t seek a second term, and his seat will be taken by Eddy Sauer. However, Demerson lost to Elaine Hays; meanwhile, Freda Powell defeated a male candidate in the race for Place 2, which had been occupied by Lisa Blake, who decided against seeking election to the seat to which she was appointed after Brian Eades resigned from the council.

The third woman on the council is none other than the new mayor, Ginger Pearson Nelson, who defeated two opponents handily to win the right to succeed Paul Harpole, who decided to bow out after three terms as mayor.

What, precisely, does a female-majority City Council mean for Amarillo? I haven’t a clue. Indeed, the entire council has been turned over, with Howard Smith becoming the fifth member of the body after defeating incumbent Mark Nair in the race for Place 4.

It really shouldn’t matter a great deal that we have a majority City Council comprising women. Except you might recall the big deal that was made in 2007 when Debra McCartt was elected the city’s first female mayor.

She became a marvelous spokeswoman for the city and it was on her watch that the city took the bold step of installing automated surveillance equipment at troublesome intersections to catch motorists running through red lights. McCartt stood firm in her support of the red-light cameras in spite of sometimes blistering criticism that some had directed at the City Council.

There well might be some more bold initiatives undertaken by this new council. Is it an inherent fearlessness that enables female politicians to do things their male counterparts cannot do? Beats me.

I also must note as well that Potter County’s Commissioners Court is being led by the county’s first female judge, Nancy Tanner, who was elected to the post in 2014.

There simply is something appealing to me now as the city awaits the transition to this new governing council about the prospect of a female-majority body making critical policy decisions.

Take it away, ladies. I’m pulling for you.

national news

How far can Trump go with this senseless combat?

Words are failing me. I am running out of ways to express my utter outrage at the conduct of the president of the United States.

Donald John Trump is ramping up his war with the FBI director he fired and against the media that are covering this drama for the public that they — and the president — are supposed to serve.

Trump went on another Twitter rampage, warning former FBI boss James Comey about the danger of leaking information to the media. He said something about Comey hoping there are no audio recordings of the men’s conversations.

Then he went after the media — again! There are reports that Trump might cancel the daily press briefings.

Some members of Congress — mostly Democrats, of course — who are using the word “unhinged” to describe the president’s behavior. The continued tweet tirades would be enough to wonder aloud about the president’s mental health.

I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone, let alone those of us who expect bipartisan outrage, to learn that Republicans in Congress continue to give Trump pretty much a pass on his strange behavior. It baffles me in the extreme.

The fight goes on

Think about, for instance, what Trump told NBC News anchor Lester Holt, that he actually asked Comey whether the FBI was investigating the president; Comey reportedly said “no.”

How does the president get away with committing an act that reeks of an egregious conflict of interest? He has the authority to fire the FBI director and he asks him to comment on an active investigation? There are damn near too many ethical violations to count on that one.

My friends and family members think I’m supposed to always have something cogent to say about these matters. I am sorry to disappoint them all. I am absolutely dumbstruck by this president’s lack of knowledge about any aspect of the high office to which he was elected.

For that matter, I am just as baffled that Donald Trump got elected in the first place.

national news, political news

No, Rep. Thornberry, it won’t go away easily

This is what U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry told a TV station about the upcoming selection of a new FBI director: “It needs to be somebody with impeccable credentials,” Thornberry told local affiliate KCIT about his ideal FBI replacement. “It needs to be somebody who has trust across the aisle, widespread trust who is a professional and with that I think largely this controversy will die down.”

Hmm. Well, I believe I’ll disagree with the Republican lawmaker, who happens also to represent yours truly in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The selection of an FBI director to succeed James Comey won’t by itself allow “this controversy” to wither away and die.

There needs to be a lot of investigating completed before we start to put this matter in our rearview mirror. The president cannot appoint a yes man, a lackey, a hack. He needs a tough prosecutor, someone who is independent and fearless.

Thornberry is right about the need for someone with “trust across the aisle.” How does an FBI director gain that trust? By demonstrating resistance against the White House and from the president.

Texans in Congress mostly silent

The FBI boss needs to continue the search for the whole truth into whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russian hackers who every intelligence expert in American has concluded tried to influence the 2016 election.

If a vigorous and thorough search clears the president, only then will it “die down.”

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience