Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Where is the ‘high crime’?

Alejandro Mayorkas has made history in a fashion he likely never imagined.

He is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached since 1876 by the U.S. House of Representatives, which made another run at it and got the job done by a single vote.

Here’s the rub … and it’s a beaut. The House GOP caucus, led by the MAGA mob of malevolent misfits, cannot find a “high crime” or a “misdemeanor” to allege against the Homeland Security secretary. It states only that he is derelict in his duty to secure the southern border.

What utter, compete and nonsensical bullsh**!

The House GOP caucus is not interested in the least in governing. It wants to stick it to the Democrats whenever possible. Mayorkas has done his job, but it isn’t nearly good enough to satisfy the MAGA goons in charge of the House’s lower congressional chamber.

Good news can be found. The Senate won’t convict Mayorkas of any so-called crime. Why? Because there isn’t any. More good news: Democrats can use this sh** show as a campaign argument in their effort to solidify their Senate majority and the taking back of control in the House.

We are witnessing a disgraceful hijacking of a once-great political party. It sickens me to my core.

national news

Speaker In Name Only?

Mike Johnson is likely to have earned a title he wishes he could shed, which would be Speaker In Name Only.

The speaker of the U.S. House is a SINO, given the result last night in the New York special congressional election that saw voters flip that district from Republican to Democrat, as Tom Suozzi, a former three-term congressman won his old seat back.

Suozzi replaces the former congressman — and infamous lying sack of pig dookie — Republican George Santos, who had been expelled from the House in a landmark action.

That puts the Republican “majority” in the House at 218-213. Four seats are vacant. The scant majority status puts almost every piece of legislation pitched by the GOP in peril.

Oh, wait! The GOP-led House is more interested in impeaching Democratic members of President Biden’s Cabinet on made-up phony charges than in doing anything constructive for the nation … such as enacting stronger border enforcement.

This is the body over which the SINO, Mike Johnson, presides.

Nice …

national news

Missing the old GOP

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Never in a million years would I imagine saying what I am about to say … which is that what passes for today’s Republican Party makes me miss many GOP politicians who once played by a different set of rules.

What we have now competing for votes against Democrats is a party full of craven sycophants, loyal to a twice-impeached, four-times indicted and possibly soon to be felony-convicted former president.

I must stipulate that I do not consider myself to be a loyal Democrat. I am an independent fellow who’s cast over many years plenty of votes for Republicans; none of them have gone to GOP presidential candidates since I began voting in 1972.

If some of the former Republican presidential nominees were running today against the presumed GOP frontrunner in 2024, I surely would consider casting a vote for them. Mitt Romney, John McCain, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush come to mind immediately.

These men were of high honor and integrity. They knew government, understood its many complexities and worked with Democrats frequently to solve national problems.

Of the men I mentioned, I came closest in 1976 to voting for President Ford, who was running for election after having assumed the presidency in a time of national crisis. He was never elected VPOTUS or POTUS, but was the right man at the time to restore honor to a government torn asunder by what was the worst constitutional crisis in history. His pardon of President Nixon a month into his term was a deal-breaker … as I recall it; I since have changed my mind.

I just miss the era when Republicans weren’t so frozen in their loyalty to a single politician that they could suspend their rigidity to work out compromise solutions. I believe truly that is one of the tenets of good government.

Today, though, we see a party held captive by a megalomaniac. Senate Republicans hammered out an immigration deal that would strength border security. The former POTUS didn’t want President Biden to get any credit for solving the crisis, so he put the arm on senators to get ’em to back away. They did and to their everlasting shame, the border deal died a quick and unexpected death.

And why? Because Republicans in the Senate — and the House — lack the guts to do the right thing in spite of what their hero suggests.

I miss the old Republican Party.

local news, political news

Any other kind?

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Driving around North Texas as I do damn near daily, I see street corners and highway intersections festooned with campaign signs promoting candidates for this or that public office.

It’s election time, after all.

One mantra is part of almost all the signs I see crowing for the benefits of Republicans seeking election this year.

They call themselves, almost to a person, “conservative Republican.”

I am compelled to ask myself: Is there any other kind of Republican?

Suppose you happen to be a Republican who, say, is pro-choice on abortion. You believe a woman should be able to determine — with advice and counsel from her partner, her doctor, her clergy — whether she wants to carry a pregnancy to birth. Does that wipe away any other conservative views you might have on, say, taxation, or gun-owners’ rights or government spending? What about same-sex marriage or whether schools should be allowed to display the Ten Commandments?

In this day of political rigidity, any variation from every conservative tenet labels one, apparently, a “woke” liberal, a squishy progressive who secretly believes in socialist economic policy.

When I see these “conservative Republican” captions on campaign signs, I am left to presume the candidate also adheres to the MAGA dogma promoted by the most recent POTUS. My presumption, therefore, allows me to believe that to be a “conservative Republicans” means you endorse the idiocy preached by the former POTUS.

I recall when a Republican president, Richard Nixon, endorsed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Another Republican POTUS, George H.W. Bush, promoted the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1991. Still another Republican, President George W. Bush, invested more public money to fight HIV/AIDS than the rest of the world combined.

On the Democratic side, some of you might recall that U.S. Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson was a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War effort in the late 1960s. That didn’t make him less of a Democrat than any of his colleagues who opposed the war effort.

“Conservative Republican” these days looks for all the world to describe just about anyone willing to run on the GOP ticket for public office. In North Texas, the political playing field is swarming with them.

International news, national news

Cynicism runs deep in GOP

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Republican cynicism runs deep and it is perverse … and it sickens me to my core.

U.S. had senators agreed on a $118 billion border security bill that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel. It also helps stiffen our southern border by providing more help to embattled states — such as Texas — in their effort to stem the tide of illegal immigrants crossing into this country.

Oh, but wait! The former POTUS opposed it. He pressured Republicans in the Senate to oppose it. And why? Because any legislation that aids in curing the crisis at the border helps President Biden’s re-election effort. And, why, we just cannot have that, or so Republicans would tell you.

So, The Former Guy put the heat on and GOP senators now have pulled their support for the legislation … after Republican Senate leaders helped craft the bill in the first place.

Cynicism, anyone? There it is, front and center for you to consider.

Joe Biden implored Senate Republicans to “show some spine” in rejecting the leading GOP presidential contender’s demands to oppose the bill. The gutless wonders comprising the Senate Republican caucus only knuckled under to the threats and bullying of their hero.

Never mind the effort that actually takes steps to solving what we all recognize is a crisis on our border. Or that it also contains money to aid the valiant fight against Russian aggression against Ukraine. Or that it also provides aid to our most reliable ally in the Middle East.

The MAGA crowd got its wish … again!

The cause of good government once again only received the middle finger from the right-wing cult.

Disgraceful …

local news, political news

Party is battling itself

What in the name of political gamesmanship is happening to the North Texas version of the Republican Party?

U.S. Rep. Keith Self of McKinney is running for re-election to a second term representing the 3rd Congressional District. Should be a walk in the ol’ park, right? Self, a West Point graduate, is a retired Army colonel, a former Collin County judge, he’s a conservative’s conservative, opposing almost every idea put forth by his Democratic colleagues.

He has endorsed the former POTUS’s bid to get his office back. Rep. Self voted enthusiastically for the impeachment inquiry launched against President Biden.

What more can today’s GOP ask?

I guess it’s not enough to be as right-wing as Keith Self has been since taking office in January 2023.

Suzanne Harp is challenging Self in the GOP primary set for March. She is running as an “America First Conservative.” Her campaign signs are sprouting all over Collin County like weeds in the spring.

I had a chance this week to ask a Keith Self staffer whether the congressman considers himself to be an America First Conservative. The staffer answered, “I believe so.”

This challenge to a staunchly conservative member of Congress exemplifies, in my view, the internecine battle that’s occurring within the Republican Party. As near as I can tell, Self is all in on supporting The Former Guy’s effort to regain power. So does Harp. Where, then, is the fundamental difference between them?

Keith Self campaigned in 2022 as a conservative. He has voted as one. He extols the (alleged) virtues of the former POTUS’s record and stands firmly behind him.

How does a modern Republican — in this MAGA era — campaign against someone cut from the mold that presented Keith Self to the voters of the Third Congressional District?

I have no particular interest in this contest, given my own views opposing the MAGA agenda. It just makes my head spin.

local news, media news, national news

Heeding the critics

Taking heed of what passes for constructive criticism is a good thing, so I am going to listen to what some of my critics have said about the stern language I have been using to describe the ardent followers of the 45th POTUS.

They don’t like the m-word I have used to describe the MAGA adherents. It’s an alliterative term and I thought it sounded cool when I first used it.

Then I got a scolding from a longtime friend of mine in Amarillo, a fellow journalist — and a fellow I got to know after I left the newspaper in Amarillo more than a decade ago. He was disappointed that I would stoop to using such language to describe those with whom I disagreed politically. I don’t believe he is an adherent to the idiocy preached by the immediate past president, but his disappointment in me hit me where it hurts.

Then a family member chimed in later. Saying essentially the same thing. He thought it was “beneath” me to use such language. He took direct offense to my use of the descriptive word and said I also was denigrating another member of his immediate family who, I presume, also is part of the MAGA movement.

Others have chimed in, too.

I’m a grownup. I also am a decent human being … at least that’s what my friends and family members tell me.

I also am cognizant that not every follower of the former POTUS qualifies for the moronic description I ascribed to them. They’re smart and educated, but — shall we say — misguided.

Understand, too, that none of this lessens the visceral loathing I have for the MAGA Daddy. I’m just going to go a bit easier on those who follow his idiotic pronouncements.

So … there. Even bloggers can keep — more or less — an open mind.

national news

GOP rewrites rules of conduct

Here, apparently, is where we stand with what passes for a once-great American political party.

Republicans who once impeached a president of the U.S.A. for lying to a grand jury about an affair he had with a White House intern is now giving a pass to one of their own who has been convicted of sexual assault on a female author.

The GOP used to stand behind what they called “family values,” and their definition of “character.” No more. One of their guys has actually boasted about grabbing women by their genitals, acknowledged cheating on his wives, said he has never sought forgiveness for his sins.

None of that matters to contemporary Republicans. It damn sure mattered in the late 1990s when a special prosecutor — hired to examine a real estate deal called Whitewater — stumbled upon a relationship between a Democratic president and a young White House intern.

He summoned the POTUS to testify to a grand jury and when he was asked about the affair, he lied. That did it! We cannot have a president who breaks the law, perjures himself. So, they impeached him. The POTUS was acquitted in a Senate trial.

This time? A president has admitted to being a scumbag. He has admitted to philandering. He has admitted to violating his supposedly sacred oath of marriage.

No sweat, man. It doesn’t matter, because the most recently former POTUS is a conservative, or so he says. He appoints judges who will do the right wing’s bidding.

A politician’s character no longer matters. It no longer factors into whether a pol is fit for office.

Our sense of value has been upended completely. It’s all been turned upside-down.

It’s all so very sad … and disgraceful beyond description.

media news, national news, political news

Playing mind game with ex-POTUS

There might come a time when I’ll reverse course, but I hope it is no time soon.

The “course” to which I refer deals with my refusal to mention the name of the 45th president of the U.S. I am sick of him, sick of hearing his name, sick of reading his name, sick of his presence on the public stage.

For the foreseeable future you won’t see his name in print on High Plains Blogger. Hey, it’s my blog and I manage it anyway I see fit.

He was elected POTUS in 2016, at which time I declared my intention never to put the word “President” in front of his name. I recall one time doing so, but I was quoting another source to make a point about this fellow.

To be clear, I accepted his election in 2016 as being legally viable. I simply couldn’t — or wouldn’t — deliver him any measure of respect by attaching his name directly next to the term “President.” OK, it might have been small-minded of me. Some of my critics have said as much.

But you know what? I don’t give a rat’s rear end!

I am taking my visceral opposition to this guy to the next level. You won’t read his name on my blog. OK. I feel better now that I have explained myself.

national news, political news

This is it, Nikki Haley!

If I were a betting man — and I am not — I would suggest that Nikki Haley is facing the breaking point in her attempt to win the Republican presidential nomination.

She once served as governor of South Carolina. She was popular, too. It’s different these days. She is running for POTUS against a fellow Republican who once held the office. He’s favored to win the upcoming GOP primary contest.

Therefore, Haley is facing her Waterloo, her Little Big Horn, her Alamo. She’s got to win on Feb. 24 … or else.

The “or else” means she’s in a futile fight. The GOP frontrunner can all but cinch the nomination if his poll numbers hold up in the Palmetto State.

It galls me to say such a thing, given how much I detest the moron who’s on track for a third straight presidential run.

However, Nikki Haley must be realistic. It’s now or never!