Tag Archives: GOP

national news

Moore scandal still lacks presidential comment

Roy Moore is in trouble … politically.

The Alabama Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate has been accused of having an improper sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl when he was a 32-year-old lawyer.

It hasn’t been proven yet. It’s still an allegation and Moore is now facing troubling questions about his fitness for the Senate seat. He is running against Democratic nominee Doug Jones who, I believe, has remained essentially silent about the accusation.

I’m waiting, though, to hear from the president of the United States.

Moore is a Republican, as is Donald John Trump Sr. The president has been none too bashful about tweeting his view about his fellow GOP pols who suddenly find themselves in serious trouble.

This time? He’s quiet. Sure, the president has been in Asia visiting several countries and involving himself in foreign policy matters.

It’s fair to wonder aloud, though: Is the president going to speak out on a matter involving alleged improper sexual conduct? Dare he speak out? 

Trump, you see, has a load of his own baggage he’s lugging around. Much of it involves questions about his own sexual conduct. Indeed, a good bit of it comes from his own mouth. The “Access Hollywood” recording of him admitting to groping women, grabbing them by their genitals, is Exhibit A. He also has boasted about his own marital infidelity involving his first and second wives.

I also get that there’s a political component that might cause the president some grief. He didn’t endorse Moore in the GOP primary; he backed instead the appointed U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, who lost to Moore in the primary;  Strange occupies the seat once held by Jeff Sessions, whom Trump appointed to become attorney general. Trump did endorse Moore, though, after the balloting was completed.

The question of the moment is this: Does the president come to his ostensible political ally’s defense and risk doing more damage simply because he lacks the moral authority to speak out on anything involving sex and the law?

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.

military news, national news

Vets are bound together by common experience

I heard an interesting analysis on National Public Radio about the dysfunction that has troubled the U.S. Congress in recent years.

It is that so few members of Congress — House members and senators — are veterans. The analyst noted that today, about 20 percent of congressmen and women are veterans; that total used to be around 70 percent.

Do you see where this is going?

We’re about to celebrate Veterans Day and I thought that observation was worth noting as a way to suggest that military service has contributed to a better-functioning Congress than what we have today.

I think of the World War II veterans who came home from completing their mission to save the world from tyranny. They went about rebuilding their lives. Some of them chose careers in public service. The ran for the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. They won and were thrown together on Capitol Hill.

They forged partnerships and friendships. They had a common bond. Their friendship crossed the partisan divide. Democrats and Republicans all had been to battle. They all had fought a common enemy.

Congressional lore is full of legendary friendships that bridged that partisan divide: Republican Bob Dole and Democrat Daniel Inouye; Republican Richard Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy; Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat George McGovern. These men were political opponents, but they each respected each other. They had earned their mutual respect because of their service in defense of the nation they all loved.

The Vietnam War produced a similar bond among brothers. Republican John McCain and Democrat John Kerry became good friends during their time in the U.S. Senate. They worked together to craft a normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam. Republican Chuck Hagel returned from ‘Nam to serve in the Senate, along with Democrat Bob Kerrey.

The Vietnam War generation, along with the World War II and the Korean War generation, contributed mightily to a government that actually worked.

That kind of camaraderie appears to be missing today. Yes, Congress is sprinkled with vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. They, too, belong to both major political parties. I don’t sense that they have yet made their mark on the larger governing body. Perhaps it will come in due course.

The veterans who have served first in the military and then in both chambers of Congress have done demonstrated the value of common experience. It translates into political comity and collegiality … a lot more of which we can use today.

national news

Now, let’s wait for Alabama to tell us more

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Before Democrats and Republicans draw too many conclusions about what the Virginia and New Jersey races for governor tell us about the state of play in American politics, let’s cast our gaze down yonder to Alabama.

Republican nominee Roy Moore is running against Democratic nominee Doug Jones for the U.S. Senate seat left open when Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.

Moore is drawing the bulk of national attention. Why? Because he’s built a controversial career as an Alabama Supreme Court chief justice. He was ousted not once, but twice from the bench for failing to follow the rules. He refused to follow an order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from public property; then he said county clerks didn’t have to obey the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage throughout the nation.

Judge Moore has been called the “Ayatollah of Alabama.” Nice nickname, eh?

Jones is the state’s attorney general. To be honest, I know damn little about Jones, other than he’s running as the non-Roy Moore. He is a former U.S. attorney who has prosecuted KKK members and has fought to enforce civil rights laws. He lacks the, um, color of Roy Moore. He also lacks Moore’s nutty views about whether Barack Obama was constitutionally qualified to serve as president and whether Muslims should be barred from serving in public office.

I am going to pull for Jones to win the Senate election next month.

If he does and the Republicans’ vise grip on this seat is pried loose, then I believe the Grand Old Party should start sweating bullets.

political news

Is a political wave developing out there?

What do we make of the Democrats’ big wins for governor in New Jersey in Virginia?

OK, I’ll now lay out for you my extreme bias on the matter … as if you’re going to be surprised.

Phil Murphy’s win in New Jersey and Ralph Northam’s victory in Virginia sang to me. I was happy to see what I believe might be a wholesale rejection of Donald J. Trump’s effort to remake the Republican Party in his own seedy, isolationist, nativist image.

The president has hijacked the Republican Party. A man with zero political activity in his professional background ascended to the world’s most exalted office in 2016.

Republicans are reeling

Republicans now have to deal with the president’s lack of accomplishment as his first year in office approaches. GOP prospects for enacting “tax reform” now appear to be in serious jeopardy.

What’s more, Republicans now are beginning to lament out loud that the 2018 midterm election for both houses of Congress bodes grimly for their chances of retaining control of the legislative branch of government.

To which I say … cry me a river.

I am not the least bit concerned about Republicans’ political prospects. Given that we all have our bias, I’ll lay out my own.

I want Democrats to do well next year to rein in the Republican-led stampede to undo what Donald Trump’s immediate predecessor as president, Barack Obama, sought to implement.

The Affordable Care Act needs refinement and improvement, not repeal; the nation needs to do more, not less, to protect our environment; America must remain engaged in world affairs, working closely with our allies.

Trump’s agenda seeks to divide Americans and seeks to separate the world’s greatest nation from the rest of the planet. He has vowed to “put America first,” and pledged to “make America great again.”

Democrats have been handed a tailor-made theme on which to campaign against those who are running under the banner of the party that is led by the most unqualified, untruthful and unfit man elected to the presidency in the nation’s history.

Don’t hate me just because I have declared my bias. Those on the other side of the divide have their own bias, too.

Let’s have this debate … beginning right this minute.

political news

Trump won’t own this failure, either

Donald Trump is mistaken.

Imagine that. I’m saying the president is wrong in assessing a political outcome.

Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam is going to become Virginia’s next governor; he defeated Republican nominee Ed Gillespie in one of the hottest, most bitter races in that state’s recent memory.

Northam shackled Gillespie to Trump, joined them at the hip. He ran hard. He fought hard. Northam won.

How did the president take the news way over yonder in South Korea, where he is visiting as part of his five-nation Asia trip? He said Gillespie “worked hard” but failed to endorse the Trump agenda. He said Gillespie didn’t run — and this really kills me — as a “Trump Republican.”

I am not yet persuaded that Trump even is a Republican as I understand the philosophy of a once-great political party. He has hijacked it, turned into something most long-standing Republicans no longer recognize.

The president’s cult of personality has overpowered the Republican Party and, thus, in my view has turned off many voters.

Ed Gillespie paid the price for belonging to the same party as president of the United States.

Trump did seek to put some sort of positive spin on the political lay of the land. He tweeted: “Don’t forget, Republicans won 4 out of 4 House seats, and with the economy doing record numbers, we will continue to win, even bigger than before!”

Time will tell on that one, Mr. President.

Oh … and don’t forget: the Republican candidate today also lost the governor’s race in New Jersey, which now flips to Democratic control. Another “win,” Mr. President?

national news, political news

POTUSes 41 and 43 ‘tell it like it is’

Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush are pulling no punches as it regards one of their successors, Donald John Trump.

Bush 41 calls Trump a “blowhard”; Bush 43 says Trump doesn’t understand the impact of occupying the world’s most powerful public office.

They are actual Republicans. Trump, as I understand their interpretation, is a quintessential Republican In Name Only, a RINO. The former presidents believe the GOP is in trouble with Trump as its titular party leader.

A new book, “The Last Republicans” by Mark Updegrove, details the views of the former presidents regarding the current Oval Office occupant. It’s rare, indeed, to hear ex-presidents comment at all on their successors, but this is no ordinary time in American politics.

I mean, the country elected someone to the presidency in 2016 with no prior public service. None! He came from the world of big business, beauty pageants and reality TV. His entire professional career was aimed at self-enrichment and self-promotion.

And that gets to the heart of Bush 43’s critique of Trump as someone who doesn’t understand what it means to be president. Trump spoke during the campaign of being his own best adviser, as he touted his intelligence and steel-trap memory. President Bush 43 sees that as a serious indicator of Trump’s lack of understanding of the office he occupies.

The interviews were conducted before Trump even became the Republican nominee for president. Bush 41 was leery of Trump from the beginning and has said in blunt terms that “I don’t like him.”

The White House, of course, has returned the volley, saying that the Bushes’ concern about the future of the GOP is more of an indictment on their leadership than it is about Donald Trump.

Sure thing. Except that the guy in the White House ran as a Republican only because he saw it as providing the path of least resistance to his form of populism/nativism/isolationism.

The guy who was elected because he “tells it like it is” is now getting a serious dose of his own rhetorical medicine by two seasoned Republicans who know the ropes, know about the office they held between them for 12 years and who understand the consequences of electing someone with no knowledge of how to govern.

national news, political news

Let the Mueller probe proceed

Good news — if you want to call it that — is coming from U.S. Senate Republicans.

Senior GOP lawmakers are pledging to allow special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into that “Russia thing” proceed to its conclusion. I’ll presume they intend to let it go wherever it leads.

Mueller delivered three indictments this week. They likely are the first of more to follow. The big fish Mueller reeled in is Paul Manafort, Donald J. Trump’s one-time presidential campaign chairman, who stands accused of money laundering and “conspiracy against the United States.”

Mueller’s probe seeks to determine — among other matters — whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian hackers seeking to influence the 2016 presidential election outcome.

According to The Washington Post: “My basic philosophy is, once you have an independent counsel, you ought to give him a chance to follow the facts,” said Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the chairman of the subcommittee that handles the Justice Department’s funding. “If somebody’s doing a job, you don’t want to cut it off.”

Senators issue warning

This might be where the legislative branch of government collides with the executive branch, notably if the president decides to curtail Mueller’s probe — one way or another.

My own hope is that Senate Republicans stand shoulder to shoulder with their Democratic colleagues in ensuring that this probe proceed.

I also hope the president does the same. My fear that Donald Trump will do something foolish and stupid, though, threatens to overpower my hope.

legal news

Trump facing serious trouble

This probe into the “Russia thing” has taken a stern turn for the worse … if you’re the president of the United States of America.

Robert Mueller, the meticulous special counsel, has indicted two key Donald J. Trump presidential campaign aides on money laundering charges. The indictment against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort includes a charge of conspiracy against the United States — which makes me say “whoa!”

Now that Mueller has struck, the talk has surfaced yet again about what the president might do. The Hill reports that GOP senators are resisting calls from Democrats to protect Mueller from a possible firing by the president.

Senate grapples over indictments

Will he pardon Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates? Will he pardon George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia connection?

Ah, but will he actually fire Mueller?

I keep circling back to this notion that if the president is as innocent of colluding with Russian hackers as he insists he is, why would he do anything?

However, I am left to say “holy crap-ola!” If the president is going to do anything that smacks of obstruction — such as, oh, firing FBI director James Comey over that “Russia thing” — then he exposes himself to the full wrath of Congress.

You see, the president has developed universal loathing among Senate and House Democrats. His Republican alliance in both legislative chambers is showing serious cracks, too.

I am left, therefore — as an avid anti-Trumpster — with terribly mixed feelings about what I think the president should do. Does he take the foolish course and do something he will regret? Or does he just shut the hell up — for once in his adult life — and let the process run its course?

OK, here’s my preference.

Keep your big trap shut, Mr. President, and just let the special counsel — who was appointed by the Justice Department because you followed the voice of foolishness with the Comey firing — do what he’s been charged to do.

national news

Call out POTUS … by name!

Republicans and assorted political conservatives got all over President Barack H. Obama for his refusal to refer to “radical Islamic terrorists” by that name.

They berated him. They badgered him. They called him a coward.

So … what is going on these days in Washington, D.C.? Republican lawmakers are quitting the game. They are chastising the leadership at the very top of their political party. U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake goes to the Senate floor and delivers a stirring speech against the “debasement” of American principles. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker quits, too, with a scathing statement against the tone and tenor of politics.

U.S. Sen. John McCain chides those who managed to get draft deferments during the Vietnam War because of “bone spurs.”

Former President George W. Bush delivers a blistering speech about the nature of current political discourse.

There was no mistaking to whom all of them are referring.

Any mention of its cause? Anyone willing to call out the president by name?

Not even a former president — as steady and strong a Republican as there is — has been willing to take that leap.

If these GOP leaders are going to pile on to a Democratic president for refusing to single out by name those who are creating havoc through terrorist acts, why won’t they follow suit when it regards the president of the United States?