Category Archives: political news

national news, political news

FLOTUS gives ’em some tough love at DNC

FILE -- In a Nov. 12, 2011 file photo first lady Michelle Obama listens during a visit to MA’O Organic Farms in Waianae, Hawaii. Michelle Obama cajoled Jay Leno into nibbling on apples, sweet potato fries and a pizza made with eggplant, green peppers and zucchini on the "Tonight Show," Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh/file)

Did you hear what I heard first lady Michelle Obama say to the Democratic National Convention delegates?

I’m pretty sure I heard her deliver a tough-love lecture to the Bernie Sanders supporters who earlier in the day were booing the sound of the name “Hillary Clinton.”

The first lady had the courage to inform them that Clinton did not walk away and sulk after losing the Democratic presidential primary in 2008 to Sen. Barack Obama. She informed them that Clinton joined the team that helped elect the young senator as president.

My hunch as I listened to her speech tonight was that the message was not lost on the Sanders legions who stood in front of her on the convention floor — let alone those at home who might be feeling a bit down and out.

Her message? Get over it.

national news, political news

Schultz gets tossed; the recriminations continue

dem chair

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has violated one of the fundamental tents of running a major political party.

You’re supposed to be neutral while your party seeks to nominate candidates for high office.

She wasn’t. Schultz, as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, has the bad taste to say negative things about Bernie Sanders as he battled Hillary Rodham Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.

What’s been the impact of that revelation as Democrats have convened their gathering in Philadelphia? It has energized the Sanders supporters. They’ve been booing any mention of Clinton’s name. Even their guy — Bernie himself — has been booed and jeered for encouraging his delegates to rally behind Clinton … as he has done himself.

Then came the amazing mea culpa from the DNC. It has apologized publicly to Sanders, effectively tossing Schultz under the proverbial bus.

She has earned the hoots and jeers she is getting at this convention. Schultz this morning got the bum’s rush from her own home-state delegates in Florida.

Did she rig the primary campaign, greasing it for her friend Clinton? It is beginning to feel that way.

Schultz, though, is gone. Her resignation from the chairmanship is effective at the end of the convention. The reality, though, is that she’s done.

The task for Clinton’s team — and for Sanders — is to bring the delegates together. We’ll see if Schultz’s resignation and the apology from the DNC will be enough to calm the storm.

national news, political news

Let’s toss ‘boring’ out of describing Democrats’ convention

democratic-national-convention

It seems as though Democrats’ wish for a “boring” national presidential nominating convention has been flushed away.

It remains an open question, though, whether the lack of boredom bodes ill for the Democrats as they battle Donald J. Trump and the Republicans for the presidency of the United States.

The raucousness of the GOP convention last week now seems a bit quaint.

Democrats have convened their gathering amid a lot of tumult over some e-mails that included unflattering language from DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her open disdain for Bernie Sanders and his insurgent candidacy for the party nomination.

Someone, I suppose, needed to remind Schultz that party chairs are supposed to at least put on the appearance of neutrality. Not so with the chairwoman, who has quit her job.

Hillary Clinton is going to be nominated this week as the Democratic presidential candidate. Tonight, Sen. Sanders will speak to the delegates. Yeah, he’ll get a lot of cheers. He’ll get some boos, too, when he tells his supporters he intends to back Clinton and will work hard to get her elected.

He’ll endorse Clinton — again tonight. It’s a certainty he won’t draw the kind of boos and jeers that Ted Cruz did when he declined to endorse Trump during his big night at the GOP convention.

This convention, though, won’t be boring.

national news, political news

‘Damn e-mails’ plaguing Clinton once more

Cassidy-Bernie-Sanders-Loud-and-Clear-1200

Do you remember when Sen. Bernie Sanders told Hillary Clinton he was “tired of hearing about those damn e-mails”?

He said so during a Democratic Party primary debate. It drew big laughs and applause as he sought to put to rest  the hubbub over Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail server during her time as secretary of state.

Well, it turns out that “damn e-mails” of quite another variety are rising up to nip at Clinton as she prepares to become the Democrats’ presidential nominee.

This time they involve Sanders himself. They also involve communication from lame-duck Democratic Party chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz, who apparently really and truly didn’t want Sanders to be nominated by her party.

The e-mails appear to paint a picture of a conspiracy to deny Sanders the nomination. Schultz, after all, is a good friend of Clinton. So, she wanted her pal nominated, as the e-mails suggest.

The chairwoman has tendered her resignation. She won’t gavel the convention open this evening. She’s going to be keeping the lowest of profiles possible for the next four days.

That’s probably a good thing.

But oh brother, the chatter has begun about the “rigged system” that’s going to nominate Clinton. The chatterer in chief is none other than Republican nominee Donald J. Trump, who had his own political rigging to deal with as he sought his party’s nomination.

I’m not going to take the Hillary-colluded-with-Debbie bait. No one has offered any proof that the Clinton campaign was party to what Schultz sought to do, which allegedly was to use skullduggery to deny Sanders the nomination.

Still, Clinton’s got another e-mail matter she must clear up.

I don’t know how she does that. She’s pretty damn smart. My advice to her is to get busy and find a way to get this mess cleaned up.

legal news, national news, political news

Tim Kaine: serious about the oath he takes

24KAINE1-master768

Tim Kaine’s selection as Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate is bringing forth the expected public vetting of the U.S. senator’s public policy record.

One item that’s been drawing some attention has involved capital punishment.

A New York Times story Sunday notes that although Kaine is vehemently opposed to executing people for capital crimes he was able to carry out executions while serving as governor of Virginia.

My reaction: Well, duuuhhh?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/us/politics/tim-kaine-death-penalty.html?rref=collection%2Fnewseventcollection%2Felection-2016&action=click&contentCollection=politics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=14&pgtype=collection&_r=0

Kaine has moved on to the Senate, where he gets to vote on laws that affect all Americans. But while serving as governor, he took a solemn oath to do one thing essentially: to follow the law as prescribed and written by the legislative assembly of his state.

Governors really have little leeway as it regards capital punishment. Sure, they can commute sentences, which Kaine did while serving as Virginia governor, and which he was empowered to do under the state constitution.

However, if the state executed someone who had been sentenced to death by a jury, then it follows that the governor — barring some extraordinary circumstance — is obligated to do what the law tells him to do.

Virginia is No.2 in the nation in executing capital criminals. No. 1? Oh, yeah … that would be Texas!

The two hats Kaine wears — as one who opposes certain public policy but who must adhere to the law –aren’t the least bit confusing, to me at least.

He struggles as well with abortion. Kaine is a devoted Catholic who believes in the doctrine of his church, which opposes abortion for any reason. However, abortion is legal in this country and, therefore, Kaine must follow the law.

Indeed, he also remains pro-choice on that issue, regardless of his personal opposition to the practice based on his own moral compass and the teachings of his church — believing, apparently, that the government should allow women to make that gut-wrenching decision for themselves.

Sen. Kaine is a serious man who now has been given a serious task, which is to run alongside the Democrats’ presidential candidate. His executive government experience owing to his days as a governor demonstrates he also is a serious public servant.

 

national news, political news

Party ‘disunity’ surfaces … within the Democrats!

dem chair

It appears that party unity is as elusive a commodity among Democrats as it is among Republicans.

Just as the Democratic Party is set to convene its presidential nominating convention in Philadelphia, the party chair — Debbie Wasserman Schultz — submitted her resignation effective at the end of the convention.

Eh? What? You mean … ?

Schultz, it turned out, doesn’t think much of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief primary foe, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Some e-mails got leaked in which she refers to Sanders as an “ASS” and not a real Democrat.

As they say … oops!

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/wasserman-schultz-wont-preside-over-dnc-convention-226088

Will this blow over? I reckon so — to the extent that Republicans led by GOP nominee Donald J. Trump will allow it.

I’m quite sure Trump and his followers will take to social media to let us all know about the “rigged” system that allowed Clinton to be nominated this week for president. They’ll remind us that Sanders got the shaft. They will possibly concoct conspiracies where none exist.

Party chairs don’t usually resign on the eve of these big events. Thus, the timing of Schultz’s resignation all by itself makes it a big story.

It was so interesting to me that during his acceptance speech the other night, Trump took a few moments to extol the virtues of part of Sanders’s message, the part about income inequality and Wall Street influence.

So, in that moment, “the enemy of my enemy” became “my friend,” in Trump’s view.

Donna Brazile will take over the party chairmanship; she’ll have to give up her gig as a CNN “contributor.” But, as a one-time Republican operative who “contributes” to ABC News, Matthew Dowd, noted this morning, Republicans might rue the day they wished for Schultz’s resignation. Brazile will take charge — immediately! — and will reorganize the party apparatus quickly.

In the meantime, the hunt for “party unity” will continue. So, you see, Democrats and Republicans have something in common after all.

political news

Getting by in a ‘hostile environment’

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obama

My friends on both sides of the political divide ask me on occasion: How do you cope with living in an area where you are part of a distinct political minority?

It’s easy. I am comfortable in my own skin.

My wife and I moved here in 1995 understanding that we were about to take up residence in what one might consider hostile territory. I knew of the Texas Panhandle’s John Birch Society heritage and of the ardently conservative politics that drove the region upon our arrival and which continues to this very day.

I knew immediately I wasn’t about to change anyone’s mind.

I trust my neighbors understood as well they weren’t about to change mine.

With all that laid out there, I remain perplexed, to say the least, at the “anger” of many Americans at the direction the country is heading.

A blog post notes that the writer of the essay is offering thanks to President Obama “on behalf of an ungrateful nation” for the job he has done for nearly eight years. Here’s the post:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/decodedc/mr-president-on-behalf-of-an-ungrateful-nation-thank-you

That’s what I’m feeling today as I watch individuals such as Donald J. Trump painting this dark and forbidding picture of the state of play these days.

Perhaps the most fascinating public opinion survey statistic out there is that so-called “right track/wrong track” question pollsters keep asking Americans. They get a 70 percent “wrong track” response.

What does that mean?

I keep wondering if it includes those who think the country hasn’t veered far enough to the left along with those who want it to lean hard in the other direction.

We keep hearing those on the right — now led by GOP presidential nominee Trump — repeating the mantra that America is hurtling along on the “wrong track.”

Let me be as clear as I can be: I don’t believe it.

I remember as clearly as everyone else where we were headed when Barack Obama took office in 2009. He decided to take some bold steps to end the economic free fall.

Spoiler alert: They worked!

Have they worked as well as everyone would want? No. Those on the fringes of the spectrum say (a) too many Americans aren’t yet earning enough money or (b) the national debt has ballooned too rapidly.

Yes, we live in a dangerous world. It’s always been a dangerous world.

I’ll continue to see this world through my own prism. It’s different than the one used by so many of my neighbors here in the Heart of Republicanism. I get it.

Just as my neighbors are comfortable in their own skin, though, I am comfortable in mine.

As the essayist writes in the blog attached to this message, thank you, Mr. President, for doing your job well.

 

national news, political news

VP picks really do matter

Garner

John Nance Garner once famously described the vice presidency of the United States using language that has become legendary.

He said — and I’ll use his actual verbiage here — that the vice presidency “isn’t worth a bucket of warm piss.”

The prickly Texan wasn’t called “Cactus Jack” for nothing.

Well, the office has become something a bit more significant since the time Cactus Jack served with  Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Which brings us to the present day.

Republican nominee Donald J. Trump picked Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to run with him this fall. Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton selected Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia to run with her.

Both men are good picks, given the constituencies to which they appeal. My hope, though, is that the office they seek becomes worth the effort they both plan to expend to attain it.

I guess the modern vice presidency can be defined by the role that Walter Mondale assumed when he became VP during the Carter administration. It’s become an office of actual substance. Mondale showed that a vice president can serve as a key adviser to the president who selects him.

George H.W. Bush’s relationship with Ronald Reagan wasn’t particularly close. Dan Quayle brought youthful enthusiasm to the administration led by Bush. Al Gore and Bill Clinton worked closely together for eight years. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush had an extraordinarily close relationship. And Joe Biden and Barack Obama’s tenure has produced a close personal and professional relationship.

Has the office become worth more than a certain bodily fluid?

Absolutely!

Does it matter, though, in the selection of the next president? More than likely … no.

But anyone who’s “a heartbeat away from the presidency” needs to be taken seriously.

national news, political news

Only now, Kaine opposes TPP

clinton-appears-alongside-safe-vp-pick-sen-tim-kaine-at-virginia-campaign-stop_1

This is an element of this vice-presidential selection process I find distasteful.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has been a strong supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal favored by President Obama and others within the Democratic Party.

Now, though, Kaine is about to perform a 180-degree switcheroo and will oppose the TPP as a sop to Democratic Party progressives who might be unhappy with Hillary Clinton’s selection of Kaine as her running mate.

So, which is it, Sen. Kaine? Are you for the deal or against it … on principle?

What changed in the TPP treaty that caused him to turn himself inside out?

Oh, nothing! Politics got in the way.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/288971-kaine-will-come-out-against-tpp-report

Politicians do this kind of so-called “pivot” all the time. My favorite example has been George H.W. Bush flipping from pro-choice on abortion to pro-life the instant he agreed to run in 1980 with Ronald Reagan.

Kaine is about to become another politician who seems willing to demonstrate that principle — on many issues — matters less than political expediency.

national news, political news

Welcome to the circus, Sen. Kaine

547384532-democratic-presidential-candidate-hillary-clinton-and.jpg.CROP.promo-xlarge2

Hillary Rodham Clinton laid down an important marker just before announcing her vice-presidential pick.

The Democratic presidential candidate said the person she would select first and foremost needed to be able to step into the presidency immediately if something would prevent her from continuing in the office.

Fine. Fair enough, Mme. Secretary.

Then she selected U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Did politics have anything at all to do with the selection?

Let’s see. Clinton had several other names on her short list. They included Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. All of them would fit that qualification. Oh, except for this: They all come from states governed by Republicans, which means that the GOP governor would fill their Senate seats with Republicans, thus putting in jeopardy the Democrats’ hopes of reclaiming the Senate majority.

Virginia’s governor is a Democrat, good Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe. He poses no such dilemma for the Democrats if they win the election this fall.

There were others as well: Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, retired Admiral James Stavridis.

Indeed, Republican nominee Donald J. Trump surely needed someone to run with him who is capable of becoming president. He turned to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate. Pence clearly fills the presidential qualification need for the GOP, given his executive and legislative government experience.

Clinton and Kaine are going to make their first joint appearance today in Miami. Kaine, incidentally, is fluent in Spanish; gosh, do you think he’ll get to say a few words — in Spanish — to his south Florida audience that might include something like, “We won’t build a wall to keep others out!”?

So, the tickets are set. Democrats are getting ready to convene their four-day event in Philadelphia.

Compared to what transpired at the GOP convention in Cleveland, the nominating event coming up is going to look utterly boring.

But in this case — if you’re a dedicated Democrat — boring will be a good thing.