Tag Archives: Paul Ryan

legal news, national news, political news

Clinton need not be shut out of classified access

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Let’s settle down just a bit, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan.

The Wisconsin Republican said Wednesday that Hillary Rodham Clinton should be denied access to “classified material” after she becomes the Democratic Party’s nominee for president of the United States.

Why? Because of her handling of the e-mails while she was secretary of state and because, according to the speaker, it “looks like” the FBI gave her preferential treatment in its yearlong investigation into her use of a personal e-mail server while she led the State Department.

It’s been customary for decades to allow presidential and vice-presidential nominees access to national security briefings while they campaign for the White House. Ryan got it when he ran for VP four years ago along with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

I thought the best response to this statement of outrage from Ryan came from famed defense lawyer and constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz. He said on CNN Wednesday that — in light of FBI Director James Comey’s stern tongue-lashing in announcing he would recommend no criminal charges be brought against Clinton — that the former secretary of state would be careful in the extreme in reviewing this classified material.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ryan-block-clintons-access-to-classified-materials/ar-BBu0Vt8?li=BBmkt5R

Ryan, of course, won’t be called off. Quite naturally — and expectedly — he’s angry that the FBI and the Justice Department have decided that Clinton didn’t commit any crimes. He’s going to proceed with a Republican investigation into the FBI probe to determine whether Comey and his staff of career prosecutors did their job fairly, without bias and without outside influence.

It’s quite obvious to me that Ryan’s mind is made up, that the FBI was in the tank for the Democratic presidential candidate. This GOP investigation won’t answer any questions.

For her part, Clinton needs to face the partisan outrage head-on. I hope she does so. Will she be able to quell the partisan anger? No.

In the meantime, Clinton she should be able — as a candidate for president — to receive the national security briefings that has gone to previous nominees.

national news, political news

Here’s a fantasy for the political ages

donald-trump

Someone once told me that if you reveal your dreams they won’t come true.

I don’t really and truly believe that, but it sounds logical. I wonder, though, if the same thing applies to fantasies that race through one’s mind.

Well, in this political season — and given that I’m something of a political junkie — I’ve been having this recurring fantasy about Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Will it come true if I disclose it here? Aww, what the hey. I’ll do it anyway and hope for the best, whatever that turns out to be.

The fantasy goes something like this:

Trump is going to limp into the GOP convention in a couple of weeks. He’ll have named his vice-presidential running mate. They will have made a few campaign stops together, hoisting each other’s arms in the air and proclaiming their desire to beat the daylights out of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.

Then it dawns on Trump: His poll numbers stink. He can’t keep any senior campaign staffers. No one with any standing wants to speak at his convention. Many of the party luminaries are staying away. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus cannot stand him. Neither can House Speaker Paul Ryan. Or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

He’s out of money. The big donors are keeping their hands on their wallets. Hillary Clinton has tons of cash in the bank and she’s savaging this guy like he’s never been savaged in his life.

Trump is facing the prospect of losing big this fall.

Then he decides, why do I want to plunder what’s left of my reputation?

He bails out. He quits.

He says, “I’ve had enough of this betrayal. I’ve tried to take the Republican Party into a new direction, but the ‘special interests’ are having none of it. And I get it: They run the show.”

Once you stop laughing at this scenario, I shall remind you that this campaign — particularly on the Republican side — has defied every logical theory imaginable. Trump never should have been a serious candidate, let alone the frontrunner and now presumptive nominee. But here he is — on the cusp of a major-party presidential nomination.

He brings not a scintilla of public service experience to this campaign.

What’s more, Trump is about to get trounced by a woman, of all people, in the race for the presidency. We know pretty well — yes? — what he thinks of women.

Will any of this happen? Oh, probably not.

Then again …

national news, political news

Is Trump’s campaign unraveling

donald-trump-angry-caricature-flickr-cc

So, where do we stand on the eve of the Republican National Convention that is set to nominate Donald J. Trump for president?

* The presumptive nominee has about 1/40th of the money on hand that his Democratic opponent has.

* He is losing senior staff members.

* Trump’s “short list” of prospective vice-presidential picks hasn’t been winnowed much from anything resembling a long list.

* Key congressional Republicans are still declining to sing the nominee’s virtues.

* The five previous Republican presidential nominees are not going to attend the convention.

Hmmm. How’s it going for the nominee? Not good.

I’m having difficulty grasping how this major-party presidential nominee is going to keep his campaign from unraveling.

Who’s going to give the keynote speech at the GOP convention? That’s the speech that’s supposed to set the tone for the campaign to follow. These assignments usually go to up-and-coming political stars. Sometimes a shining-light governor gets to deliver the speech.

Who’s lining up for that task in Cleveland?

With so few actual GOP luminaries even committing to being present at the convention, I am left to wonder: How in the world is this event going to unfold?

The guy with the toughest job of all surely has to be House Speaker Paul Ryan, the convention chairman who has to figure out a way to manage the mayhem that seems set to ensue.

Ryan cannot even bring himself to speak with any sort of enthusiasm about the nominee he has “endorsed.” And to my ears, his “endorsement” is one of those you hear from politicians giving it through gritted teeth.

I’ve seen the polling that puts Trump within striking distance of Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. I’ve seen the surveys that suggest Clinton has a much broader path toward election than Trump, but with Trump still being able to trumpet some success.

But the GOP nominee has little campaign money, virtually no organization, no apparent strategy to win those so-called “battleground states.”

Trump has promised an unconventional campaign for the presidency.

Boy howdy! He’s delivering on that promise.

In spades.

national news, political news

Sit-in reminds us of the old days

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Democrats are still protesting on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans, meanwhile, have recessed the chamber and have gone home for the next couple of weeks.

What happens now?

I’ve managed to take away a few thoughts from this extraordinary event.

First, we’ve never seen anything like it in Congress, so we have nothing with which to compare it. Democrats decided to put their collective feet down and demand a vote on gun legislation.

They are led by one of the more iconic figures of this country’s civil-rights movement, U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who knows a thing or three about sit-ins, civil disobedience and seeking redress of his grievances against the government.

He also knows a thing or three about getting beaten to within an inch of his life by ham-handed cops intent on putting down these protests.

It’s good that nothing like that has happened on the floor of the House. In some government chambers, such a dispute might result in fists and furniture flying. Have you ever seen how, for example, it has gone in Taipei, where the Taiwanese parliament meets?

Also, House Speaker Paul Ryan shouldn’t have shut down the House while the demonstration was occurring. He ordered the cameras turned off, creating a situation where someone on the House floor violated the rules of the body by photographing the protest through ill-gotten means.

It has prompted some in the media to wonder what might be frightening to the speaker, forcing him to seek to silence the debate. Check this out from the Boston Globe:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/06/22/paul-ryan-what-are-you-afraid/E5U98g15gZJ21ma03MfzMN/story.html

Lewis and his fellow demonstrators want a vote on whether to enact gun legislation in the wake of the Orlando, Fla., slaughter of 49 people.

They are demanding a vote! Up or down!

House Republicans — failing to follow the lead of their Senate brethren — are refusing to allow a vote.

From where I sit, the seriously outnumbered Democratic congressional minority is making a reasonable request.

Let’s get that vote — and then carry the debate over gun legislation forward!

national news, political news

Trump to ‘allies’: Stand with me or ‘be quiet’

donald-trump-angry-caricature-flickr-cc

Donald J. Trump is asking his fellow Republican politicians to do the utterly impossible.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee wants Republican leaders in Congress to stand with him or “be quiet.”

Think about that for a moment.

Politicians who see their calling as requiring them to speak out are being asked to zip their lips. Trump said that he’ll do well “on my own” campaigning against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

This is yet another example of Trump showing an utter lack of understanding of the political process in which he is an active participant.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he is distressed at what he calls Trump’s “racist” comments about a federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been vocal as well in criticizing Trump’s string of harsh pronouncements.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has criticized Trump’s proposal to an Muslims from entering the country.

Earth to Trump: You need these people in your corner if you are going to have even a prayer of defeating Clinton this fall.

And you’re telling ’em to “be quiet”?

No … can … do.

 

national news, political news

Speaker: ‘That’s not my plan’ to pull endorsement … yet?

How many times have you heard a politician say he or she has “no intention” to seek higher office? Or that he or she has “no plan” to do this or that, only to change his or her mind and do what was disavowed earlier?

That’s more or less what I’m hearing House Speaker Paul Ryan say as he is peppered with questions about his endorsement of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump.

“That’s not my plan,” Ryan said to questions about whether he would rescind the endorsement.

Meanwhile, Trump continues to hurtle out of control all along the campaign trail. He recently accused President Obama — and this is utterly outrageous — of seeming to favor the terrorists over the protection of American lives.

Ryan keeps condemning Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. He said he’d never heard of a presidential candidate pulling press credentials for a major media outlet, which Trump did to the Washington Post.

Now comes Trump’s campaign’s assertion that congressional GOP leaders need to support him all the way or “be quiet.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/paul-ryan-still-endorses-trump-224439

Is there a breaking point? Is there a line that Trump can cross that would cause the speaker to take it all back?

I’m betting it’s out there. It also might not be as far in the distance as the speaker would have us believe.

Plans, after all, do have a way of changing.

national news, political news

Can Donald Trump really ‘change’ his ways?

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I’m trying to understand an admonition that’s coming from leading Republican officeholders, strategists and assorted loyalist as it pertains to the party’s presumed presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.

They want him to “change.” They dislike the name-calling, the insults, the innuendo, the reckless riffs that pour forth whenever he takes the podium as he campaigns for the presidency.

If he changes, they say, they might be able to endorse him. They might actually campaign for him. They’ll support the candidate more than in name only.

I keep wondering: How does a man who’s nearly 70 years of age do that?

What’s more, how do Americans who’ve heard the astonishing things that he’s said ignore them if — and this remains a y-u-u-u-u-g-e stretch — Trump actually becomes a more presentable candidate for president?

It’s like the judge in a trial who tells a jury to “disregard what you’ve just heard” from a criminal defendant or from a prosecuting attorney. Sure thing, Your Honor. We’ll just blot that out of our memory.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has endorsed Trump, but with reservations. He dislikes intensely the candidate’s racist views on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel and his assertion that Curiel’s heritage disqualifies him from presiding over a lawsuit brought against Trump over his defunct “university.”

Ryan has called Trump’s assertions “racist” in nature, but he’s going to support him.

A lot of Americans — millions of them, in fact — aren’t going to forget those comments. They won’t forget the insults Trump has hurled at women, or his mocking of a reporter’s physical disability, or his assertion that Sen. John McCain is a war hero “because he got captured” by the North Vietnamese.

They won’t forget his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, or his claim that illegal immigrants are coming here to commit crimes.

And then we have the lies, such as when he said he witnessed “thousands upon thousands of Muslims” cheering when the Twin Towers tumbled down on 9/11.

So, he’s supposed to “change” the way he campaigns to make himself more suitable to voters.

How does that happen?

national news, political news

Speaker Ryan’s endorsement seems a bit tenuous

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U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has “endorsed” Donald J. Trump’s candidacy for president of the United States.

Will it put the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s bid over the top? Will it ensure victory in November?

Consider just how Ryan framed his endorsement.

Ryan acknowledged many differences with Trump on policy; he said he wants Trump to change his campaign tone; he didn’t vow to campaign with Trump; he acknowledged that friends encouraged him to withhold his support.

The speaker is going to vote for Trump. So, the combative GOP nominee-to-be will have Ryan’s ballot box endorsement.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/speaker-paul-ryans-trump-endorsement-comes-with-caveats/ar-BBtOuVh?li=BBnb7Kz

Trump and Ryan have said they barely know each other. They’ve met and had what was called a “cordial” discussion about policy and other political matters.

It’s interesting, though, that Trump’s bluster and bravado seems to at odds with the kind of policy discussion that Ryan seems to want from his party’s presumed presidential nominee.

Do you remember how Trump all but threatened the speaker if Ryan doesn’t treat Trump the right way? I guess no one had yet told Trump that the speaker of the House packs way more political punch than a presidential nominee.

But, hey, shouldn’t the Republicans’ leading candidate for president have known that already?

The Ryan endorsement wasn’t a surprise.

The biggest calculation, though, might be in whether the speaker now will be able to deliver his home state of Wisconsin to the Republican nominee this fall.

Hmmm. Well, Ryan himself — as the party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2012 — couldn’t deliver Wisconsin to the GOP ticket led by Mitt Romney.

This much now appears certain: Ryan endorsement of the GOP nominee likely has sounded the death knell for the “never Trump” movement.

Oh, and what about Mitt Romney? He’s not supporting Trump.

Let’s get on with this campaign.

national news, political news

Trump, GOP draw closer … still have a long way to go

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Now we hear that Donald J. Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have closed the rift between them.

Fine, if you’re a Republican. I guess.

Are they anywhere near closing the deal in the wake of their 45-minute meeting in Washington, D.C.?

Let’s see:

— Trump won’t touch entitlement spending, but he vows to erase the budget deficit quickly.

— Trump opposes trade agreements that allow for freer trade between the United States and our international partners.

— Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

— Trump says he’s fine with Japan and South Korea developing nuclear arsenals.

— Trump says President Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in a deliberate deception to start a war with Iraq.

— Trump wants foreign governments to pay us back for the assistance we give them.

— Trump is open to the United States withdrawing from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

— Trump says rich people should pay more in taxes.

I’m pretty sure that Speaker Ryan disagrees fundamentally with all those views. The presumptive presidential nominee’s view on tax policy and trade run completely counter to standard conservative Republican orthodoxy.

I know I’m missing a few examples. Those are the ones that come to mind immediately.

Trump has said “party unity” is overrated. Now he’s all in favor of it.

I will await the outcome of this run-up to the GOP convention in Cleveland along with the rest of the nation.

If Trump caves in to GOP policy, he risks ticking off his ardent followers.

If the “GOP establishment” surrenders to Trump, then the true-blue Republican faithful will be left standing in the rain.

Ryan today talked about standing firm on “core principles,” which I believe he possesses. Trump’s principles? I’m still waiting for him to reveal them.

 

national news, political news

Unity? It’s not necessary, according to Trump

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There once was a time when political unity spelled success for candidates who traded on it.

In 1968 and again in 1972, Democrats nominated candidates for president who sought to win with their party in shambles.

In 1976, Republicans nominated an incumbent president who had to fight for his political survival against an insurgent.

In every case mentioned here, the disunited party lost the election.

Is that going to happen in 2016? Those of us who’ve been proven wrong at almost every turn about the Republican primary campaign should hold our thoughts to ourselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/us/politics/donald-trump-campaign.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Donald J. Trump says unity isn’t a prerequisite for him winning the election this fall. The Republican Party is ripping itself into pieces over this individual’s pending nomination for president.

Big deal, says Trump. He has a “mandate” to keep doing what he’s been doing, Trump says. According to the New York Times:

“Mr. Trump, in a telephone interview, compared his candidacy to hit Broadway shows and championship baseball teams, saying that success begot success and that he would be foolish to change his behavior now.

“’You win the pennant and now you’re in the World Series — you gonna change?’ Mr. Trump said. ‘People like the way I’m doing.’”

Still, he’s going to meet Thursday with House Speaker Paul Ryan and some other leading Republicans to talk about, oh, unifying the party.

I’ve become more of a political traditionalist as I’ve gotten older. I once worked real hard to elect the late Sen. George McGovern in 1972. It didn’t work out for us.

I now believe unity is better for the candidate than disunity.

Trump needs virtually all Republicans — and a lot of Democrats and independents — to vote for him if he intends to take the presidential oath next January. My own sense is that he’s still got a gigantic hill ahead of him.

Far more women view him unfavorably than favorably; same with Hispanics and African-Americans. He’ll need far more of them if he has a prayer against the Democratic nominee, who likely will be Hillary Clinton.

Does he obtain majorities with those key voting blocs by leading a divided, disjointed and dysfunctional Republican Party?

For the life of me, I don’t know how he does that.

Then again, I don’t know how this clown finds himself on the doorstep of a major-party presidential nomination.