Tag Archives: US Senate

national news

Yep, it’s harder to come down on those you respect

It’s time for an admission.

I am admitting that it is easy for me to criticize politicians I dislike, or even detest and that it’s harder to go negative against those I respect.

Thus, I am having a conflict of sorts as I watch this story about Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken play out. Franken has apologized for groping a woman in 2006 while the two of them were on a USO tour; it was before Franken became a member of the Senate. He was a mere comedian at the time of the incident.

The woman, TV news anchor Leann Tweeden, produced a picture of him groping her while she apparently was asleep. She didn’t consent to the groping or to the kiss that Franken reportedly laid on her. Tweeden has accepted Franken’s apology to her.

What gives me grief is that I grew to respect Franken’s performance as a senator. I agree with his politics and thought he had a bright future in politics.

I am now left to use past-tense verbs when talking about Franken. I no longer respect him or admire him. I don’t know how much of a future he now has in politics. Yes, it pains me to say all this.

Unlike the scandal that’s swallowing up Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for the Senate from Alabama, this Franken story is giving me grief. I find myself writing critically of him while my teeth are clenched. I have no such difficulty while criticizing the likes of Donald J. Trump, or Roy Moore, or Newt Gingrich (when he was fooling around on his then-wife in the 1990s).

This time, I suppose that because the latest bomb to detonate involves a politician I formerly admired, that I should really drop the hammer on him … rhetorically, of course.

I am more than merely disappointed in Al Franken. I am outraged that he would betray those of us who once thought so highly of him.

International news, military news, national news

Senators concerned about POTUS and the nukes

More than 40 years ago, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked some tough questions about the president of the United States’ fitness to be in command of the nuclear launch codes.

President Richard Nixon was being swallowed up by the Watergate crisis. Questions arose about whether the president would do something foolish in a moment of intense political anguish.

Concerns arise once again

Flash forward. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee of today is now concerned, apparently, with the current president’s ability to handle this awesome responsibility. Senators didn’t come to any conclusions or seek any substantial change in the policy, but they got to air their concerns on the record about Donald John Trump.

As Politico reports: “We are concerned that the president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic that he might order a nuclear weapons strike that is wildly out of step with U.S. national security interests,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing that yielded few clear answers about checks on the commander in chief’s power. “Let’s just recognize the exceptional nature of this moment.”

Though Republicans were not as vocal about their concern, some did express worry that one person alone can make the decision to launch a nuclear war.

The president hasn’t yet demonstrated the complete understanding of command and control. He keeps popping off via Twitter, threatening North Korea with destruction.

And oh yes, the president has virtually sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. The policy was designed during the Cold War when the United States need a quick response in case the Soviet Union decided to launch missiles against us.

The Cold War is over, although the peril of a nuclear strike remains acute, given the enormous number of nuclear-armed nations around the world.

Which requires a U.S. president to be of sound temperament and judgment. The Senate panel today sought to explore those issues today as it relates to the current commander in chief.

Given the president’s behavior and the goofiness of his public pronouncements, senators have ample reason to wonder out loud about the commander in chief’s ability to keep us safe.

medical news

Senate GOP makes yet another run at the ACA

Here we go … again!

U.S. Senate Republicans have come up with a scheme to pay for the big tax cut they’re trying to enact that involves the Affordable Care Act. They want to repeal the individual mandate portion of the ACA, which they say will save more than $300 billion over the next decade.

The savings would be used to pay for the tax cuts being pitched for many wealthy Americans.

This is so very maddening, in my ever-so-humble view.

Congress trying again to repeal ACA

Congress has been unable to repeal the ACA and replace it. The president has been unable push his Republican pals across the finish line. They have tried and failed since long before Donald Trump took office as president of the United States.

Now comes this bit of Senate trickery: attach the individual mandate repeal to a tax cut they say would jumpstart the economy. Moreover, is anyone on Capitol Hill or the White House worried any longer about the national debt and our annual budget deficit, which economists say are going to explode under the GOP tax cut?

I want to make a couple of points.

One is that the economy is rocking along just fine. The U.S. Labor Department announced earlier this month that non-farm payrolls jumped by 260,000 jobs in October; the unemployment rate is at its lowest rate in 17 years. Not bad, man!

Two, enrollment for the ACA is moving along at a brisk pace. Hundreds of thousands more Americans signed up for insurance when open enrollment began at the beginning of the month, despite the president’s efforts to undermine the ACA.

I remain totally opposed to any wholesale repeal of the ACA. I continue to insist that it can be improved. It can be made more affordable. 

Removing the individual mandate — which requires Americans to purchase health insurance or face a penalty — is certain to do one thing: It will toss millions of Americans off the rolls of the insured.

How is that supposed to help?

national news, political news

How can this guy possibly serve?

Texas’ two U.S. senators, both Republicans, have turned their backs on a GOP candidate who wants to join their august body.

John Cornyn has joined Ted Cruz in saying that Roy Moore of Alabama is not fit to serve in the Senate. They say the accusations against him by women who accuse him of improper sexual advances when they were girls are deal breakers.

Senate support vanishes

Get out of the race, Roy Moore! they are saying. Moore is having none of it. He continues to stand his ground. He says the women are liars. He blames Democrats and the liberal “fake media” for making these stories up. He says he “generally” didn’t date teenage girls when he was a 30-something lawyer; that is some denial, eh?

Senate leaders are bailing left and right from Moore. They don’t want him in the Senate. One Republican senator, Jeff Flake of Arizona, now supports Moore’s Democratic opponent, Alabama lawyer and former federal prosecutor Doug Jones.

This arcs back to my fundamental question: How in the world can this clown possibly serve in the Senate?

Moore is in it for the duration, or so he says. Time will tell. The Alabama special election is still about a month away.

Maybe this individual might realize what the rest of us already know: There is no way he can serve the people back home if he manages to get elected to the U.S. Senate.

national news

Moore scandal threatens to blow up GOP

The Roy Moore scandal is the gift that keeps on giving … for bloggers such as yours truly.

Moore well might get elected to the U.S. Senate — despite being accused of making improper sexual advances on several underage girls. His opponent is Democrat Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney in Alabama; Moore is the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Here’s the latest and the greatest: Moore’s possible election could result in his being expelled by the Senate. Republicans don’t want anything to do with a guy who would take office under a sinister cloud of seedy suspicion.

Several GOP senators are calling for Moore to step down. They want him out of the campaign. The Senate’s main Republican, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, believes the accusers and says Moore needs to go … away!

Others are suggesting that the battle between McConnell and Moore symbolizes the ideological rift that is dividing the Republican Party. It’s the Establishment vs. the Outliers.

Expulsion is fraught with peril

Some GOP senators want to expel Moore. Others aren’t so sure that’s a good idea. Some are suggesting that any effort to expel Moore could energize his support in Alabama and propel him to victory over Jones.

I know I don’t have a vote, but I’ll just reiterate that Roy Moore shouldn’t be elected to the Senate, the accusations notwithstanding. He’s a crackpot religious zealot who doesn’t respect the secular nature of the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, Moore’s constant reciting of his “Christian values” on the campaign stump makes the accusations against him so damning and potentially damaging.

Moore insists he is staying in the race for the duration. It that’s the way it is going to be, then we’ll just have to let the battle continue — and let the gift just keep on giving.

national news, political news

Roy Moore’s non-denial adds to suspicion

Roy Moore is getting buried under a pile of political doo-doo.

The Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Alabama is trying to fend off accusations that he made an improper and illegal sexual advance on a 14-year-old girl in 1979; Moore was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney at the time of the alleged incident.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate are calling for Moore to quit the campaign. Democrats, too, but that’s no surprise.

Now comes this strange non-denial from Moore, a champion of the morally strict wing of the GOP. Questions have arisen in the past two days or so that Moore was fond of dating high school students when he was a grown man, a 30-something lawyer. How did Moore respond to that accusation?

By saying that he didn’t date those young girls “as a general rule.”

Huh? What the hey? As a general rule? What in the world does that mean? Did he date the girls on occasion?

I believe therein might lie the problem with Moore’s response to these allegations. Congressional Republicans are placing greater value in the accusations that have come from several women who’ve backed the initial allegation leveled by Leigh Corfman, who’s now 53 years of age. Those accusations are more credible, they say, than Moore’s strange denial.

For the life of me I don’t know how this guy can serve in the Senate if he manages to win the election on Dec. 12 against Democratic opponent Doug Jones.

Republican leaders in the Senate don’t want anything to do with this guy.

But he’s hanging on. He’s planning to finish this campaign. He calls the allegations a hit job by Democrats and the “fake news” media that are reporting it.

I believe he should quit the campaign.

Then he should disappear from public life.

national news

What might happen if Roy Moore actually wins?

It’s quite possible — if not probable — that Alabama voters next month are going to send an accused pedophile to the U.S. Senate.

Democrats are all a-flutter because their candidate, state Attorney General Doug Jones, has pulled even — and actually leads in some polls — in his race against Roy Moore, the guy who’s been accused of making sexual advances on underage girls back in the late 1970s.

But we’re talking about blood-red Alabama, where Republicans seemingly have to drool on themselves in public to get rejected by that state’s voters.

The question: What kind of reception would a Sen.-elect Moore get on Capitol Hill?

Many of his fellow Republicans are pulling their endorsement of him. Others have said that “if the allegations are true” he should pull out of the race. Even other GOP senators, such as Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, say Moore should quit the race now.

The Republican Party doesn’t want to be associated with someone operating under such a sinister, seedy and sordid cloud. Believe me when I say that. It’s a given as well that Democrats detest this guy.

Moreover, I am not sure how Moore plans to stay in this race for the duration if more of his possible GOP colleagues keep bailing on him.

So, what if he wins on Dec. 12? My sense is that he’ll be the loneliest Senate freshman perhaps in the history of the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.” He’ll get crappy committee assignments. He won’t be invited to cloak room get-togethers. Senators won’t want to be seen in public with one of their own who has stands accused of some pretty vile behavior.

There’s also the possibility that he won’t be allowed to take the oath of office. The Senate has a provision that could call for his removal before he even takes the oath. That, of course, requires maximum courage by the Senate leadership. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called the allegations deeply disturbing. He is one of those who said Moore should quit the race if the allegations are true.

I don’t get a vote in this race, of course. I’m only allowed to spout off from my perch out here in Texas, several hundred miles away from Alabama. You know my thoughts already on Roy Moore.

I’m just saying that if Alabama voters are foolish enough to elect this clown, they’re going to send someone to Washington who very likely won’t be able to do a single thing on their behalf.

national news

GOP Senate candidate turns toxic

They’re now starting to cut ties with one of their own.

Republican U.S. senators who once backed the candidacy of Alabama GOP nominee Roy Moore are bailing on a guy they once hoped would join their ranks.

Moore is accused of having making improper sexual advances on a 14-year-old girl nearly 40 years ago. Moore was 32 years of age when he allegedly made the advance on Leigh Corfman, who’s now 53 and has come forward with the scathing accusation. Other women have told essentially the same type of story about Moore.

Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana have rescinded their endorsements of Moore. They haven’t exactly declared him guilty as charged. They are concerned about what they believe are the veracity of the allegations made.

Indeed, they are seeking to cut their own political losses by severing ties with Moore. There well might be more defections as the Alabama special election set for Dec. 12 draws closer.

As for Moore, he is denying it all. He says he doesn’t know Leigh Corfman. He calls it a conspiracy cooked up by Democrats. He calls the allegation the work of the “forces of evil.”

Well, let’s just wait and see how this plays out. Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Doug Jones might be the immediate beneficiary of the troubles that now are threatening to swallow Roy Moore whole.

We have entered an entirely new political environment fueled by he “Me Too” movement that has swelled in the wake of sexual abuse/assault/harassment allegations that have all but destroyed the careers of Hollywood titans.

It isn’t pretty. It is, however, a significant part of a brand new political reality.

national news, political news

Moore vs. Jones taking a weird turn

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Roy Moore is unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate for a lot of reasons.

He doesn’t respect the Constitution’s provision that declares there is no “religious test” for serving in elective office; he wants to bar Muslims from serving in Congress.

Moore, a former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice, doesn’t respect the oath he took to obey the law of the land and to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Moore told county clerks they didn’t have to obey a U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage across the land.

He continues to defame Barack Obama by suggesting he wasn’t constitutionally qualified to serve as president.

And I haven’t even mentioned — until right now — the allegations of sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl in 1979.

Former Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney tweeted today that Moore doesn’t deserve the same presumption of innocence that goes to criminal suspects. I disagree with Mitt — to a point.

I intend to give Moore some presumption of innocence if charges ever are brought against him. Politically, though, I have to wonder just how Alabama voters can possibly support someone who would take office under such a sinister cloud of suspicion.

Moore is running for the U.S. Senate seat from Alabama against Democratic nominee Doug Jones. Polls show the race now a dead heat. Republican congressional leaders say Moore should pull out of the race if the allegations are true.

I can speak only for myself, but I wouldn’t vote for Moore for anything, notwithstanding the new allegations from a woman who’s now 53 years of age. Moore — not surprisingly — denies all the allegations; he calls them “completely false.”

I dare not predict what Alabama voters will do next month when they vote for their next U.S. senator. My hope is that they turn away from a suspected sexual assailant.

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Will this Senate race really become a contest?

My wife and I sat across a restaurant dinner table recently with friends in Colorado when the question came from one of them.

“Do you think Ted Cruz is going to get beat next year by that guy from El Paso?” our friend asked.

I had to answer honestly. “No. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” I said.

Cruz is the first-term Republican U.S. senator I have labeled as the Cruz Missile. The guy from El Paso is a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives named Beto O’Rourke.

Both are young men. Both are dynamic in their respective ways. Cruz, though, holds all the cards in this year’s election cycle. Why? The answer is clear cut: He is a Republican running for re-election in what clearly is among the most Republican-friendly states in the United States of America.

O’Rourke is seeking to mine what Democrats believe is the changing demographic makeup of Texas. They are hoping that with more Latino residents who tend to vote for Democrats that O’Rourke will be able to knock Cruz out of the Senate.

I am no fan of Ted Cruz. He has shown himself to be a blowhard and showboat since taking office in 2013.

I believe I am a realist, though, in trying to assess the political landscape in Texas.

Voters here seem obsessed with voting for Republicans. I see no change in the state’s GOP-leaning pattern in 2018. It seems the only thing that can derail a Cruz re-election would be a scandal of monumental proportions.

I don’t see it happening.

Beto O’Rourke might be the perfect candidate for the U.S. Senate. Except that he’s running in Texas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. The losing streak isn’t about to end.

Sad.