Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Bring senators back now, Mr. Majority Leader

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We have 10 days to go before President Biden takes office.

Donald Trump will be gone from the White House. The House of Representatives might impeach the current president a second time, say, by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. House members will consider at least one impeachment article: incitement of insurrection, which to many folks’ view is as impeachable an offense as one can imagine.

If the House impeaches Trump, then the Senate — led at the moment by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — would conduct a trial. However, McConnell said the Senate won’t convene until the day before Biden takes office.

Whoa! Hold on! The Senate majority leader can summon senators back to office immediately, declaring a national emergency. He can seek to suspend the rules and then fast-track the vote of senators to determine whether Trump stays in office for the remainder of his term.

I believe it is imperative for the Senate to act quickly, just as it acted to confirm Supreme Court justice after the Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death 11 days before the presidential election.

All of this presumes that Trump won’t quit, or that the Cabinet won’t invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment and remove him from office.

It can be done. It should be done. Majority Leader McConnell must not sit idly while Donald Trump — who incited the rioters to storm Capitol Hill this past Wednesday — to walk away from the presidency on his own terms. The riot, as if McConnell and other GOP members of Congress need reminding, put their own lives in peril had the rioters been able to storm the House and Senate while our legislators were doing their constitutional duty in ratifying Biden’s victory over Trump.

Time isn’t on the side of those who want Donald Trump to be held accountable. However, the Senate has the mechanism to move rapidly … which it must do.

national news

GOP needs serious soul-searching

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Lisa Murkowski’s days as a Republican might be dwindling.

The U.S. senator from Alaska said so herself this week while she and the rest of us watched Donald Trump fire up the rioters who stormed Capitol Hill while seeking to stop Congress from ratifying Joe Biden’s election as the next president of the United States.

I don’t particularly care what Sen. Murkowski does, or how she plans to chart her political future. She said the GOP must not remain “the party of Trump.” If it does, then she well might turn away from the party that used to welcome her.

What does concern me about the Republican Party is that it has been hijacked by Trump, whose believers have taken to calling non-Trump-supporting Republicans “RINO,” or Republicans In Name Only. Let’s ponder that for just a moment.

Donald Trump had zero party involvement prior to declaring his presidential candidacy in the summer of 2015. He chose to run as an “R” because it presented the easiest path for him; goodness, he even said as much himself.

He has not governed as a Republican. He has no philosophical mooring. Trump’s guiding principle is welded to his personal brand and so the party leadership in Congress has hitched itself to Trump’s world view — whatever that is — while seeking to preserve leaders’ own political standing.

Sen. Murkowski’s decision to leave the GOP well might spur the party leadership to finally — finally! — do the kind of soul-searching it vowed to do after Mitt Romney lost to President Obama in 2012. It should commence that search even if Murkowski remains a member of the GOP.

A gentleman who has frequent disagreements with this blog’s view of Trump suggested to me recently that the two-party system we once knew is dead. “They both have moved so far right and left they are unrecognizable,” he wrote to me.

I believe we still have a two-party system. I disagree, though, on its configuration. There remains a mainstream Democratic Party comprising moderates and center-left thinkers. From my vantage point — and I acknowledge my own bias — the Republican Party’s heart and soul has been co-opted by the radical Trumpkin Corps that professes fealty to an individual … and has tossed party principles into the crapper.

I want a healthy debate on issues that matter. Thus, I want a return to a two-party system that we used to have in this country. That system cannot function as long as one of those two parties remains loyal to a con man/phony baloney carnival barker/seditionist who has disguised himself as a Republican.

national news

Yes, there’s good news from Capitol Hill riot!

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The drama we saw unfold this week on Capitol Hill as Congress sought to ratify the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States is a long way from its conclusion.

There will be more chapters to add to the tragedy we witnessed as Donald Trump incited a riot that threatened the men and women who sought to do their constitutional duty.

I am happy to provide what I hope is a glimmer of good news from the travesty. It is that any thought Donald Trump might have about running for the presidency in 2024 has vanished. Donald Trump’s political future is gone. Finished. He is toast. Stick a fork in him; he’s done.

Oh, I am sure there remains a radical fringe of Trumpkins who want Trump to seek the presidency in four years. They are beyond redemption, beyond hope, beyond any sort of revival.

There well might be a second impeachment in Trump’s immediate future. Or, he could be removed from office before his term ends in just 13 days if a majority of the Cabinet, along with Vice President Pence,  goes along with invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment. If either event occurs, that would end Trump’s political life.

However, if Trump manages to serve out the remainder of his term — which I venture to say is likely — he can kiss goodbye any thought he might harbor of trying to reclaim the office that President-elect Biden tore from his tiny hands on Nov. 3, 2020.

To be honest, I have sought to find signs of hope from the melee that erupted Wednesday. That is the best I can find at this moment. The rest of that drama has depressed me beyond all measure.

Donald Trump will continue to bloviate and bluster long after he leaves office. That’s fine. Let him bellow. He won’t matter to me or to anyone who takes seriously the future that awaits him.

He is finished.

national news

Cornyn stays sane

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s kind of a mixed bag for Texans who are interested in the political process and waiting for that process  to play out in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

The Senate and the House will meet jointly to ratify the Electoral College vote that will select Joe Biden as the nation’s next president.

One of our great state’s senators, Republican Ted Cruz, is leading the Sedition Caucus in the Senate to challenge the free and fair election results. He wants Congress to flip those votes in favor of Donald “Seditionist in Chief” Trump.

Good news: Texas’s senior U.S. senator, Republican John Cornyn, won’t join the wacko corps; he will not contest Biden’s clear victory over Trump.

More good news: My congressman, Van Taylor, a Republican from Plano, won’t sign on to the insurrection, either.

So, there you have it. A number of Texans are going to resist Congress doing what it will do, which is ratify the Electoral College result.

They are to be shamed.

national news

GOP exhibits stunning duplicity

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The hypocrisy and duplicity among congressional Republicans as they prepare to challenge an electoral result is simply breathtaking in its scope.

Consider what Republicans were saying during the Donald J. Trump impeachment inquiry in 2019. They opposed impeaching Trump because, they said, the people deserve the right to be heard. Let the people decide at the ballot box whether Trump is worthy of staying in office.

Well, voters made their decision in 2020. They elected Joseph R. Biden Jr. president of the United States. He corralled more than 7 million votes than Trump. He collected well more than enough Electoral College votes to secure the election.

The GOP stance now? They don’t trust the vote. The election was rigged. Democrats stole the election from Trump. Widespread voter fraud erupted all across the nation. Now a handful of these nimrods want to challenge the Electoral College results on Wednesday when the House and Senate meet jointly to canvass the votes and ratify the result: that Joe Biden will take office on Jan. 20 as the 46th president of the United States.

What in the name of electoral integrity are these clowns trying to do? Whatever their aim, it will fail. GOP opposition to this insurrection is building, with key Republican senators voicing their intention to endorse Biden’s election when they get the chance.

Still, I am trying to catch my breath while watching the GOP congressional caucus wring its hands over what constitutionally is set up as a mere formality.

The moron cabal of the GOP is being led by a man — Donald Trump — who is totally ignorant of what the Constitution allows. They all deserve each other.

national news

Loony bin adds 11 GOP senators

(Photo by Bryan Thomas/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The Republican congressional cabal of kooks today grew by 11 members.

I cannot believe these once-serious-minded individuals have done this, but they have declared their intention to object to President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory when the Senate and the House of Representatives meet Wednesday to, um, certify the results.

They have joined their moronic Missouri colleague, Josh Hawley, in filing some sort of empty-headed protest over Biden’s victory, citing “widespread voter fraud” for which no one on Earth has presented a shred of evidence even existed.

Here’s the best part: One of the Gang of 11 dipshi** is none other than Sen. Ted Cruz, the Houston Republican whom I long ago dubbed the Cruz Missile.

To his credit, John Cornyn, Texas’s senior U.S. Republican senator, didn’t sign on to this idiotic ploy.

What these clowns/morons/know-nothings/idiots are seeking to do is commit what I consider an act of sedition. They are staging an open rebellion against our democratic process. They have joined 140 of their House GOP colleagues in contesting an election that Joe Biden won — and Donald J. Trump — lost in what election officials have declared to be the most secure election in U.S. history.

The 11 GOP Senate nimrods want to delay the outcome for 10 days while they conduct an audit of the process. Good ever-lovin’ grief, dudes! The courts have tossed out every one of Trump’s own challenges to the veracity of the election. The Electoral College has met as prescribed by the Constitution and declared that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take office on Jan. 20.

11 Senate Republicans say they will oppose Electoral College results Wednesday | TheHill

We have a bizarre drama playing out on the world stage. Republican members of Congress want to make some kind of show about their resistance to a Democrat winning election over one of their guys. What they are revealing to the world is an absolute disregard for the democratic process, which until this election cycle was thought to be an impenetrable barrier against the kind of dangerous insurrection that appears to be taking shape.

Finally, think also of this reality: The individual for whom they are embarking on this moronic mission, Donald J. Trump, is encouraging them to commit what I consider to be a subversion of the electoral process we all should honor.

This is as reprehensible as it can get.

national news

Trump seeking to stay in the game? Oh, my … no!

REUTERS/James Glover II

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump reportedly wants to remain a player in Republican Party politics once he’s shown the door out of the White House.

My goodness. I don’t whether to laugh or spit!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has posited a notion that the most damning part of Trump’s legacy is the 46.8 percent of Americans — that’s 74 million of them — who voted for his re-election despite the damage he delivered to the presidency and possibly to democracy itself during his term in office.

They stand behind this clown’s attempts to cling to power despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden, who hauled in 81.2 million votes. They endorse his phony allegations of voter fraud. They applaud his effort to subvert democracy by challenging the certified results delivered by the Electoral College.

If this is the future of a once-great Grand Old Party, then so be it. Frankly, it portends a long, dark winter in the wilderness for the GOP if it continues to hang onto the fraudulent “ideology” for which Trump supposedly stands.

That presents a sad era in this country, which has flourished with healthy and constructive debate between two viable political parties. Indeed, President-elect Biden’s task as he takes over the executive branch is made all the more formidable with Trump continuing to bloviate from the peanut gallery. The aim appears clear: It is to “freeze” other potential presidential contenders who might consider making a White House run in 2024.

Donald Trump presided over a failed presidency. It is that clear to me and to most Americans who cast their votes in record numbers.

If he wants to remain a player, well, that falls squarely on the Republicans who have endorsed this venal individual’s quest for absolute power.

national news

How does GOP stand for this?

(Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This question demands an answer.

How in the name of good government do congressional Republicans and party members across the board justify their allegiance to a president who knifed them in the back over a COVID relief bill that he eventually signed into law?

Donald Trump called the COVID package a “disgrace” after GOP members of Congress joined their Democratic colleagues in embracing a bill that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

Then the POTUS tossed them all under that big ol’ bus and threatened to veto it. He said the relief bill doesn’t give enough money to Americans; he blasted it for the “waste” it contains that he wants removed.

Where in the hell was he during the negotiations? Don’t answer that. I know where he was. He was on the golf course and was using his Twitter account to blast the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly conspiring to “rig” the 2020 election against him.

Trump took no active part in any element of this wheeling and dealing. He sat on the sidelines and then rammed the knife deeply into the back of his GOP “friends” and “allies” by describing the bill they endorsed is the worst piece of legislation ever enacted … or words to that effect.

And yet …

The GOP remains loyal to this clown? The party leaders in both congressional chambers won’t condemn him in the strongest language they can muster up?

Republicans in Congress will not go along with the $2,000 payment that Trump insists on giving out. Sure, it’s more generous than the $600 payments that have been approved — and now signed by Trump.

Still, it boggles my noodle to understand the point of all these machinations by a guy with no knowledge of the legislative process or understanding of how government works.

What’s more, my brain is trying to comprehend how the folks who do know these things — particularly those on the Republican side of the great divide — continue to support this clown’s feckless and futile bid to overturn a democratically run presidential election.

Go … figure, man!

Uncategorized

Sanity rules in Senate District 30

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Texas Senate District 30 voters seem to have retained some sanity in what otherwise is a largely insane political climate.

They chose over the weekend to send someone to the Texas Senate with actual government experience rather than select a candidate who was running for office – and this is just my humble opinion – for the purpose of making a spectacle of herself.

The senator-elect is state Rep. Drew Springer, who will succeed U.S. Rep.-elect Pat Fallon. Indeed, it’s been a bit of a musical chairs game in these two Northeast Texas political jurisdictions. Fallon got elected to the Fourth Congressional District seat vacated by John Ratcliffe, who was appointed director of national intelligence by Donald J. Trump. Ratcliffe’s tenure as DNI, of course, is about to end the day that Trump leaves office on Jan. 20; Trump lost the election in November, but I guess you knew that already.

Fallon moves on to Washington, D.C., while Springer moves down the hall in the State Capitol into Fallon’s old seat in the Texas Senate.

Let me be abundantly clear: I am not terribly fond of Drew Springer’s politics. He tilts a bit too far to the right to suit my taste. However, he does bring some political experience and seasoning to his new legislative assignment, unlike the candidate he defeated in the runoff. That would be Dallas salon owner Shelly Luther, who this past summer decided to make a name for herself by defying an order by Gov. Greg Abbott to close her business in the wake of the COVID-19 virus that is still killing Texans at an alarming rate.

No can do, Luther said. She opened her business despite the order … and then got arrested and tossed into jail. Why? Well, because she broke the law, which I figure is enough of a reason to spend a little time in the slammer.

She got out of jail right away and then announced she would run for the Senate. Her platform? It was to send some sort of message that business owners such as herself wouldn’t be pushed around by “tyrants” who are elected to state office. She did concede to Springer but then vowed to keep fighting against that so-called tyrant Gov. Abbott, who to my way of reasoning is trying to save Texans’ lives.

There you have it.

Springer managed to defeat Luther fairly handily, although I hate to acknowledge that Collin County, where my wife and I live, cast most of its votes for Luther. As they might say … “no place is perfect.”

We surely do live in strange political times. I am heartened to see evidence of some semblance of sanity presenting itself in at least one Texas Senate district.

Note: This blog was published initially on KETR-FM radio’s website. 

national news

Stop the phony outrage!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The phony outrage and astonishing hypocrisy of Donald Trump’s sycophant brigade just take my breath away.

Here’s the latest.

President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, referred to Trump’s voter base as a “bunch of fu**ers.” Yep, she dropped an f-bomb on ’em.

Now, is that the way anyone should speak of a political opponent? I don’t like it. Then again, nor do I like the response that has emanated from the righteous right wing of the Republican Party that has turned the other way while Donald Trump has done the following:

Admitted to grabbing women by their genitals; mocked people with disabilities; downplayed a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 Americans; ignored a cyber attack that threatens our national security; laid waste to the rule of law; damaged our international alliances … and what else? You get the point.

So now some of Trump’s followers are just enraged that a Biden campaign guru dropped an f-bomb?

Steve Schmidt is a former Republican political operative who went on to co-found the Lincoln Project, a political action committee dedicated to defeating Donald Trump’s re-election effort. I will leave it to Schmidt to offer his response to the faux outrage that’s making the rounds.

Steve Schmidt Tells Rubio to F Himself (maxnewstoday.com)

I cannot say it any better.