May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Key elements of the Republican establishment insist that Republicans must support amnesty and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in order to make major inroads with Hispanic voters. But an analysis of the Hispanic vote in the last nine presidential elections does not support this claim. It shows, instead, that other considerations help explain how Hispanics vote. Here is the Republican share of the Hispanic vote in those elections:
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May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
For me, the IRS scandal, though certainly a big deal, currently ranks behind two bigger deal stories — immigration reform and Benghazi. I view the Schumer-Rubio bill as a long-term political game-changer and, indeed, nation-changer. And Benghazigate implicates the president, high ranking administration officials, and the president’s likely successor as standard bearer of the Democratic Party. By contrast, we do not know that the president had anything to with the
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May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Josh Gerstein at Politico reports that the same Internal Revenue Service office that singled out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny also challenged Israel-related organizations, at least one of which filed suit over the agency’s handling of its application for tax-exempt status. The group in question is called Z Street. It alleges that one of its attorneys was told that its application for tax exemption was delayed and sent to
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May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I agree with Steve Hayward that the Heritage Foundation was wrong to sack Jason Richwine because he wrote a PhD thesis examining the relationship between IQ and immigration. In fact, I find it appalling that Heritage did so. The relationship between IQ and immigration isn’t a burning question for me. The answer, if it can be determined, wouldn’t affect my view on immigration policy. But the question isn’t illegitimate. And
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May 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama tried today to catch up with the IRS scandal, condemning the IRS officials who targeted conservatives. Obama clearly perceives the threat this scandal poses to trust in government, and hence to his project of vast expansion of governmental power. It’s possible too that he feels genuine outrage about the IRS’s targeting of conservatives. But neither presidential outrage nor condemnation can mitigate the central concern that this scandal reinforces
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May 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post editorial board falls well short of its usual standards in this superficial and intellectually dishonest piece of partisanship attacking Republicans for opposing Tom Perez’s nomination for Secretary of Labor. The Post characterizes Republican opposition as driven purely by policy disagreements: Democrats highly regard Mr. Perez, a former secretary of labor in Maryland, for his aggressive action on voting rights, police abuse and fair lending cases. Republicans dislike
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May 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Eliana Johnson reports on Rand Paul’s visit to Iowa, which soon will be followed by visits to New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. As Eliana’s report makes clear, outreach to social conservatives was a main purpose of Paul’s trip to Iowa. The front page of today’s Washington Post also contains a story, albeit less insightful, about Paul’s outreach efforts. Paul exaggerates, but is on to something, when he says “politics
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May 13, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Victor Davis Hanson makes a point that I forgot to include in my most recent post about Hillary Clinton’s “what difference does it make” rant. Clinton testified: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it
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May 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
England’s FA Cup — the oldest soccer competition in the world and open to something like 700 teams — gains its romance from victories by “minnows” over footballing powerhouses. This occurs a time or two almost every year in the early rounds. But in these days of vast financial disparities between clubs, it almost never happens in the Cup final. Indeed, from 1996 until this year, only Portsmouth had broken
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May 12, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
At a Senate hearing in January, Hillary Clinton responded to questioning from Sen. Ron Johnson about the nature of the Benghazi attack with this rant: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? Given
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May 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
On May 12, 1963, Mickey Lolich made his major league debut for the Detroit Tigers. He pitched two scoreless, hitless innings of mop-up relief against Cleveland Indians, striking out the first two batters he faced — Max Alvis and Sam McDowell. He was 22 years old. Lolich went on to win 217 games, 207 of them for Detroit. And in 1968, he won three World Series contests. Nineteen sixty-three was
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May 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Team Obama has come up with its excuse for converting the Benghazi talking points into a false narrative. It was a purely bureaucratic matter, you see. The CIA and the State Department disagreed about what happened, and the White House simply wanted to make sure the talking points represented all viewpoints. The White House has been suggesting this excuse for a few days. Today, the Washington Post’s “fact-checker,” Glenn Kessler,
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May 11, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
This week, Sir Alex Ferguson surprised the soccer world by resigning as the head man at Manchester United. During his remarkable 26 years at Man U, he led the club to 13 English championships and two European ones. At age 71 Ferguson was known to be close to retirement. But few expected he would retire this year. Almost immediately, Man U ended speculation over his replacement by naming David Moyes,
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May 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Steve Hayes takes a detailed look at the scenario that led to the scrubbing of the CIA’s Benghazi talking points to delete terrorism references and focus on the “non-event” video. Hayes’ rendition is consistent with what we’ve been saying for some time now — the State Department pushed for the talking points to be changed to cover up its pre-Benghazi malfeasance and the White House concurred, presumably to help re-elect
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May 10, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
On May 10, 1963, Tony LaRussa made his major league debut at the age of 18. Playing for the Kansas City Athletics, LaRussa appeared as a pinch-runner for Chuck Essegian. Pinch-running would be LaRussa’s role for the next three months. It wasn’t until August 15 that he recorded his first plate appearance, after coming on as a “caddy” for Jerry Lumpe in a rout of the A’s by Detroit. He
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May 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Raymond Maxwell was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Maghreb (North Africa) Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs from 2011-2012. He also one of the three Deputy Assistant Secretaries removed due the fallout over Benghazi. Maxwell has written the following poem about his experience at the hands of “the Queen’s Henchmen”: The Queen’s Henchmen request the pleasure of your company at a Lynching – to be held
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May 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Mark Sanford apparently was outspent three or four to one and, of course, carried considerable baggage. But, as this memo from Sanford’s pollster explains (full disclosure, my daughter works for him) good campaigners tend to beat not-so-good campaigners and genuine fiscal conservatives tend to beat fake fiscal conservatives in conservative districts. Oh, and debating a cardboard cut-out of Nancy Pelosi helped change a conversation that needed to be changed.
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