Monthly Archives: May 2017

legal news, national news, political news

Listen to your fellow GOPers, Mr. President

Lindsey Graham isn’t exactly a huge fan of Donald J. Trump.

He ran against him for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Trump hurled a few insults at him. Graham said some unkind things in return.

But the U.S. senator from South Carolina is trying to implore the president to do the right thing — and avoid naming a politician to become the next director of the FBI.

Sen. Graham is talking specifically about Texas Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who has emerged as one of the favorites to succeed James Comey at the FBI, whom Trump fired this past week.

Cornyn could face stiff resistance in the Senate if Trump selects him, even though Cornyn has been part of the “world’s greatest deliberative body” for some time now. He’s known to have friends on both sides of the aisle.

But the FBI needs a decidedly non-political director in this difficult time, Graham said. “I think it’s now time to pick somebody that comes from within the ranks or is such a reputation that has no political background at all,” he said. “John Cornyn is a wonderful man. Under normal circumstances, he would be a superb choice to be FBI director. But these are not normal circumstances. We’ve got a chance to reset here as a nation.”

“Reset” is a mild term. I prefer to think the FBI leadership needs a major overhaul.

It’s not that Comey was a bad director, despite what the president said about him. Word filtering out of Washington by those who know Comey well say the president’s description of him as a “showboat” just doesn’t square with the man’s reputation.

Sen. Graham’s assessment of a successor, though, is on target. The FBI needs to be led by someone who knows how to pursue an investigation to a comprehensive conclusion. I would have thought Comey is capable of doing that, which likely got him in trouble with Trump.

Cornyn may have great political skill. The agency needs someone who would cooperate fully with a special prosecutor — whom the Justice Department should name to handle this probe.

Sen. Cornyn’s political background is precisely the wrong fit for this job — at this time.

political news

GOP changes rules for the president

Oh, how the rules have changed for presidential behavior.

The New York Times has published a fascinating list of do’s and don’ts that have been tossed asunder by Donald John Trump and his band of Trumpkins.

I think my favorite item now allowed for the president, but which would have been grounds for impeachment by any predecessor is the shortest one: lie.

Yet that’s what we’re getting from the 45th president of the United States. An endless string of lies.

The GOP changes the playbook

Take a moment to scan them on the link I’ve just posted.

I hope you’re as amazed as I am.

As the Times notes: “It wasn’t so long ago that Republicans in Congress cared about how a president comported himself in office. They cared a lot! The president is, after all, commander in chief of the armed forces, steward of the most powerful nation on earth, role model for America’s children — and he should act at all times with the dignity his station demands. It’s not O.K. to behave in a manner that demeans the office and embarrasses the country.”

But, hey, he “tells it like it is.”

legal news, national news, political news

Now it’s the Democrats’ turn to play hardball

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer laid it on the line.

There shouldn’t be a Senate vote on the next FBI director until we get a special prosecutor appointed to continue the investigation into whether Donald John Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russians who sought to swing the 2016 election in Trump’s favor.

Sounds pretty straightforward, yes? Of course it does. I get it. I’ll bet the president gets it, too.

The president fired the former FBI director, James Comey, in a stunning personnel move that has confounded even the FBI and White House staffs. The message over why Trump acted has been muddled and uncertain; it remains so to this very day!

Democrats want a special prosecutor named; so do a growing number of Senate Republicans. I reckon that’s the hand Schumer is playing now as he threatens to hold up a vote on anyone nominated to lead the FBI.

My own bias and political leaning allows me to suggest that Schumer is on to something with this demand.

FBI must bow out of this probe

As Schumer noted to CNN, the FBI is linked to the Department of Justice, which is led by an attorney general who has recused himself from any Russia dealings. At least that Jeff Sessions has said, despite his reported involvement in recommending that Trump fire Comey … which the president said he decided to do before getting the recommendation. Do you see what I mean about muddled messages?

The point, though, is that we need to get a special prosecutor appointed and that person needs to get his or her feet planted firmly before we move ahead with a new FBI director.

Look at it this way: If the Republican leadership can block a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court for no other reason than to play politics with the federal court system, it seems to me that Senate Democrats are standing on pretty firm ground in demanding a special prosecutor before considering an FBI appointment.

media news

Still waiting for the anti-cyberbullying campaign to begin

I don’t intend to beat up on Melania Trump, given all the grief that has fallen on her husband, the president of the United States.

My hope for the first lady is that she’s going to start delivering on her campaign pledge to call attention to cyberbullying, particularly where it involves children.

I figured that Mother’s Day was as good a day as any to mention the first lady’s pledge to put cyberbullying in front of the national consciousness. She is, after all, Mom to a young boy … although it’s highly unlikely that Barron is going to be subject to much — if any — of the behavior that drew Melania Trump’s attention during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Yes, I know about the criticism that came her way from those who said she needed to start at home, by getting Donald Trump to lay off the Twitter tirades. I was one of those critics.

In reality, her cause is a good one. It’s a noble initiative.

If only she could wrestle some of the attention away from her husband and start organizing the effort to end what she referred to correctly as a “scourge” inflicted on our young people.

local news, Sports news

How about that MPEV? Any news … at all?

Amarillo’s new City Council will take office very soon with a heaping plate of unfinished business.

Downtown revival is proceeding nicely. But the city has this big ol’ vacant lot across Seventh Avenue from City Hall that it’s got to fill with something. They knocked down the old Coca Cola distribution plant and relocated it to a business park near Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

That something happens to be a ballpark/multipurpose event venue. You remember it, right?

Amarillo voters in November 2015 approved a “non-binding referendum” that authorized the city to spend $32 million on the MPEV. The cost of the structure has escalated a bit since then, to around $45 million.

But the city has assured residents it will be built. Some things must happen before we start busting up pavement. First and foremost is that the city needs a commitment from a minor-league baseball franchise to come to Amarillo. The council formed a Local Government Corporation to lead the negotiation with owners of the San Antonio Missions, which is looking — one still hopes — for a new place to play some hardball. San Antonio wants a AAA franchise; the Missions are a AA outfit.

Meanwhile, Amarillo is without baseball of any kind since that joke of a team vacated the city to relocate in Grand Prairie. Why did the team bolt? They didn’t have an adequate place to play ball.

The MPEV is supposed to solve that issue. It will be a shiny new venue that will serve many purposes in addition to being the home field for an affiliated minor-league baseball team; the Missions are part of the National League San Diego Padres organization.

City Hall has been quiet about the MPEV negotiations, which might be a good thing. Lame-duck Councilman Randy Burkett popped off a few months ago about a deal he said was on the verge of being struck, but LGC chairman (and former mayor) Jerry Hodge quashed any hope of an imminent deal; he said the LGC was still working on it and said he was “ashamed” of Burkett’s big mouth.

We’ve got five newbies coming aboard at City Hall. Let us hope they can nudge the negotiation along, with the help of City Manager Jared Miller. My faith in the LGC’s ability to finalize a deal remains fairly strong.

The MPEV issue, though, has tested many residents’ confidence that the city can deliver on its promise to bring minor-league baseball back to Amarillo — and to put it downtown.

Welcome to the thick of the fray, City Council.

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

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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.”