May 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Chuck Schumer easily makes my list of the ten politicians I dislike most. So my ears perked up when I heard that, in 2012, he signed a letter that, as it has been characterized, told the IRS to go after conservative groups. The other signers were Sens. Bennet, Whitehouse, Merkley, Udall, Shaheen, and Franken. The letter can be found on Schumer’s website. I don’t read it as calling on the
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May 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Eliana Johnson points out that the director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements, which oversees the determination of tax-exempt organizations, is a donor to Barack Obama. Holly Paz donated $2,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign, according to Open Secrets, which maintains a database of individual political donations. Liberal Democrats comprise the vast majority of federal bureaucrats. For example, in the past two presidential races, roughly 85 percent of the money
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May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
50 years ago, the nation witnessed seven dramatic days in May, as helmeted policemen used dogs and fire hoses against black children chanting freedom songs and hymns in Birmingham, Alabama. More than 3,000 peaceful demonstrators were arrested. The images from those days, including that of Birmingham police chief “Bull” Connor, are indelibly etched in the minds of those of us who saw them, and many of those who have seen
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May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Bret Baier’s Special Report program on Fox News featured interviews with Marco Rubio and Jeff Sessions about the Rubio-Schumer amnesty legislation. The interviews were given separately. Although Baier tried his best to make it into a point-counterpoint kind of affair, it couldn’t really be a debate because Rubio and Sessions didn’t appear together. I understand that Baier, naturally enough, would have preferred to have Sessions and Rubio on
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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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