Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Profiles in cowardice

(Photo by Michael Kovac/WireImage)

Watching the congressional Republican leadership tie itself into knots over how to handle its relationship with the immediate past POTUS makes me wonder how on this good Earth these individuals can live with themselves.

I want to single out two of them: one from the Senate and one from the House.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina once declared that he was done with Donald Trump. “Enough is enough,” he said immediately after the 1/6 riot. “Count me out,” he added. He couldn’t stand the thought — allegedly — of associating himself with a president who had incited the riot that stormed onto Capitol Hill.

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California once stood on the House floor and declared that Trump was singularly responsible for the attack on our democracy and demanded he be held accountable. He pleaded with Donald Trump during the riot to get the mob to stop inflicting damage on the Capitol, receiving the hideous response from the POTUS that “I guess, Kevin, they care more about the election than you do.”

Both men have turned tail from those remarks.

Graham has all but threatened other GOP senators with retribution if they don’t climb aboard the Trump clown car and back the former Liar in Chief. McCarthy has declared that he won’t submit to questions from the 1/6 House committee seeking answers to the riot and has said he intends to boot Democrats off key committees if he becomes speaker after this year’s midterm election.

Gutlessness, anyone? There it is in full view.

They aren’t the only exhibits of profiles in cowardice. They’re just two of the more notable examples of how members of Congress who swear to protect the Constitution now are pledging craven fealty to a twice-impeached individual.

Cowards. Every damn one of them!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Don’t apologize, doc

The ol’ “hot mic” caught another public official speaking the truth about a political adversary.

The “victim” this time was Dr. Anthony Fauci, who muttered “what a moron” after being berated by U.S. Sen. Roger Franklin, a Kansas Republican, about Fauci’s personal financial disclosure. The exchange took place Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing.

My request to the doc is this: Don’t apologize!

Franklin was berating Dr. Fauci over financial disclosures that Fauci said are a matter of public record. All anyone has to do is look them up on the Internet. Franklin wasn’t buying it. He didn’t know what he was talking about, Fauci said.

So, then he muttered the “moron” crack.

Hey, he was speaking the proverbial truth to power in that instance.

To my way of thinking, Fauci should say out loud and on the record that other GOP critics of his are “morons” for spreading lies and exposing the doctor’s family to threats of physical harm.

Are you listening, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Can Paxton get beat?

If I had to choose one contest in this primary season coming up in Texas that interests me the most it would have to be the Republican contest for attorney general.

And for the life of me I cannot understand the notion being kicked around that the incumbent — Ken Paxton — might be in position to fend off the challenge that is coming from within his own Republican Party.

Good ever-lovin’ grief!

Paxton has been under felony indictment since the first year of his time as AG. A Collin County grand jury indicted him on a charge of securities fraud. The AG hasn’t yet stood trial.

He is facing three GOP challengers: Land Commissioner George P. Bush, former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert. They’re all well-known within GOP circles.

Then there’s Paxton. The man is an embarrassment. In addition to the securities fraud indictment and pending trial, seven former top legal assistants quit the AG’s office and filed a whistleblower complaint alleging that Paxton has committed illegal acts while serving as attorney general; the FBI is looking at those complaints, too.

I want Paxton to get drummed out in the primary. If he manages to hold on and win the GOP primary, then he’s a seeming cinch to win re-election — again! — this coming fall.

The whole notion of Paxton winning a third term as attorney general makes me want to pull my hair out.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Cruz: pitiful apologist

Ted Cruz once again has demonstrated a remarkably clumsy aspect of his public persona, how he can say something, get pounded for it and then try to walk it back … all the while tripping and stumbling over his own words.

The Texas Republican senator told a Senate committee this week that “terrorists” attacked the Capitol on 1/6. He then heaped high praise on law enforcement officers on duty that day for the job they did to protect members of Congress (including himself, naturally).

What happened next brought us a demonstration from the junior senator on how not to take something back.

The right wing of his party was outraged that Cruz would speak the truth about the mob that stormed Capitol Hill. So was their cult leader, the 45th president, who incited the mob to “fight like hell.”

Cruz then went on Tucker Carlson’s TV show to take it back. Carlson wasn’t buying it, saying he has known Cruz “a long time” and believes Cruz meant what he said about the terrorists attacking the Capitol.

I watched Cruz try to take back the truth-telling statement. It was a pitiful exhibition of rhetorical clumsiness. I also watched Cruz make his initial statement. It rang true!

Cruz then tried to suggest that critics of the 45th POTUS’s cult suggest they all are terrorists. No, senator! We are not saying that! For crying out loud, stop putting words in people’s mouths while you try to wash out your own pie hole.

The mob that smashed through windows, beat up police officers, shouted “Hang Mike Pence!”, sh** on the floor of the Senate, threatened the life of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and sought to block the certification of the 2020 presidential election presented a clear and present danger to our democracy.

By any definition, the insurrectionists in that mob were “terrorists.” Cruz had it right the first time. He had it wrong when he tried to walk back what he said in that hideous interview with Tucker Carlson.

I mean, yumpin’ yiminy, dude. It reminded of the time Cruz sought to blame his daughter for talking him into flying off to Cancun nearly a year ago while Texans were freezing to death in that killer ice storm.

What makes this so damn hard for me to watch is realizing that this dipsh** represents the state of my residence in the U.S. Senate. I will never, ever cast a vote for this clown. Still, he holds a powerful office and represents my interests in a branch of government designed to write laws that affect my family and me.

He embarrasses me and the state he represents.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Cheney seeks redemption?

Richard Bruce Cheney has done the virtually impossible; he has ingratiated himself to Democrats across the nation simply by doing something that damn few Republicans are able to do in this terrible, divided political climate.

The former vice president stood with his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, on the floor of the U.S. House this week and participated in a moment of silence to honor the brave men and women who fought with the 1/6 rioters.

Think for a moment about this. Dick Cheney once was considered the most loathsome politician in the nation, according to Democratic partisans. The VP in the George W. Bush administration was seen as the shadow architect of our foolish Iraq War. Indeed, he was thought by many critics to be a “shadow president” who called the shots in secret.

However, Dick Cheney today stands on the right side of history. He has condemned the disgraceful conduct of the current Republican congressional leadership and its handling of the 1/6 riot and its aftermath. He told reporters this week that Congress doesn’t “resemble the place” he knew during his service in the House before becoming defense secretary and then vice president.

I won’t forgive Cheney for what I consider to be some horrible decisions he made. However, I want to applaud the former vice president for participating with Democrats in a solemn ceremony to honor the police officers who fought to defend members of Congress and the Constitution of the United States.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

I’m proud of you, too, Rep. Kinzinger

I saw an item on NBCNews.com that I want to share on this blog. It’s a brief item.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Thursday he has no regrets about how he has approached the aftermath of Jan. 6.

“How does it feel to be a pariah within your own party?” Fox News host Neil Cavuto asked Kinzinger.

“You know, I don’t like the feeling,” Kinzinger responded. “But I would not change a thing that I’ve done particularly in the last year.”

“Because I know — I’ve got a son being born imminently, that’s why I’m in Illinois — I know that he’ll be proud of me someday, and I know he’ll be able to look and say I stood up in a tough time. And if it’s just me and Liz doing it, it’s just me and Liz. That’s fine. I wish it was more people, though,” he said, referring to Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

Kinzinger and Cheney are the only Republicans serving on the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Both have been critical of former President Donald Trump’s role in the riot and of Republicans who have downplayed the events that unfolded on Jan. 6. Trump celebrated news earlier this year that Kinzinger will retire from his House seat at the end of his term.

Well, for the record, Kinzinger’s baby boy isn’t the only person who would be proud of him for standing up to the lies, deceit and dangerous treachery being exhibited by the former POTUS.

I am proud of him, too.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Liz Cheney gives him hell

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Donald Trump deserves every single hit he should be receiving from his fellow Republicans. The only issue, though, is that so damn few of them are willing to say the things that came from U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney this morning.

What in the world is happening to me in this crazy political world? I am in a state of unadulterated admiration for a conservative Republican member of Congress who is speaking the unvarnished truth about a twice-impeached carnival barker who once masqueraded as a single-term president of the United States.

Cheney, one of two GOP members of the U.S. House committee examining the events of 1/6, said this among other things this morning: “He crossed lines no American president has ever crossed before,” she said in an interview with “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. “When a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”

She also said that said Trump is “clearly unfit for future office [and] clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again.”

The mob attacked Capitol Hill at Trump’s urging. Trump then said silently by, watching the mayhem overwhelm the Capitol building without ever telling the rioters to stand down, to go home, to cease the violence.

Holy crap, congresswoman!

As Trump weighs 2024 bid, top Republican calls him ‘clearly unfit for future office’ (msn.com)

She knows she is right. I know she is right. The crisis facing the Republican Party, though, is that most of its members believe Cheney is a loon and that Trump is a hero to some movement followers who adhere to that Deep State/QAnon/Big Lie horsepucky that keeps flowing from Trump’s overfed pie hole.

Cheney also said today that all 535 members of Congress — House members and senators — take the same oath of office, which is to “protect the Constitution” and follow the law. That oath, she said, makes no provision for following the dictates of a single individual.

If only others within her party would listen to the wisdom Liz Cheney delivers.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Kinzinger calls out Trump lies

Adam Kinzinger’s lame-duck status in the U.S. House of Representatives gives him a shield against the attacks that are sure to come at him from Donald Trump and his cabal of cultists.

Why would they attack the Illinois Republican lawmaker? Because he is calling Trump out for what he is: a liar.

Kinzinger is one of two GOP members of a House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection. He said recently he wouldn’t run for re-election in 2022. So he is in his final term in the House. That means Trump cannot do him any political harm.

Trump recently blasted the 1/6 committee, declaring it is intent on “smearing him.” Kinzinger is having none of it. Nor should he.

If only other Republicans in Congress would grow the stones they shouldn’t have to grow simply to speak the truth about the former Liar in Chief, who is trying to prevent the select committee from obtaining White House documents it needs to get to the truth behind the 1/6 insurrection.

Let us keep in mind: Donald Trump fomented that riot.

Thus, the House panel needs to know the truth behind what happened on 1/6.

Adam Kinzinger is speaking the truth by calling out Trump’s lies.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Two parties morph into four

It occurred to my wife and me today as we were looking at the growing clutter of political campaign signs springing up in North Texas that we no longer have just “two political parties.”

Yeah, we still have Democrats and Republicans. The two parties have morphed into four of them. Or at least two of them have become variations of the formal parties.

We have Democrats, Republicans … and progressives and (for lack of a better description) Donald Trump cultists.

To be clear, we don’t see many Democrats in North Texas bellowing their “progressive” credentials, given that there are few progressives among the rank-and-file voters. We do see on the other side a good number of Republicans advertising their “conservative” leanings. Collin County Judge Chris Hill, for instance, calls himself a “Texas conservative.”

Still, as I look at the bigger picture, I perceive an expanding of the two-party base, that the political battlefield is sprinkled with “troops” from the progressive and conservative wings within both major political parties.

For those who wish we could expand our political lineup beyond just Democrat and Republican, they might be getting their wish.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

national news

No more denials, please, about 1/6

It is becoming abundantly clear that what happened on 1/6 was a direct, full- frontal assault on our cherished democracy.

It was not, as more than a few GOP members of Congress have suggested, “a peaceful protest” over the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Thus, the sooner that the House select committee examining the 1/6 insurrection can complete its work, the sooner that opponents of those members of Congress can assemble their campaign strategies to attack them for their foolish trash-talk.

Before you attack me for reminding of the obvious — that no one has been charged formally with an “insurrection” — I want to stipulate that I know what the criminal defendants have been accused of committing. It runs the range of criminal charges: aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, vandalism.

There well might be insurrection charges forthcoming. I would most assuredly support such an allegation being leveled.

What needs to happen foremost, though, is for the individuals at the top of the government in that moment to face criminal prosecution, too. That includes the man who was the POTUS on 1/6, Donald J. Trump.

I cannot predict what the House panel will decide. However, I can offer a request, or call it a suggestion.

Which is that Donald Trump’s rhetoric, spewed on the Ellipse on the morning of 1/6, incited the mob to attack Capitol Hill and the men and women inside who were doing their job, which was to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

There must be some accountability for that action.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com