June 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. has commenced negotiations with the Taliban. The Afghan government is excluded from the talks, which I consider a disgrace. The U.S. has proved to be a worse than feckless partner. Why any state or group would ever again cast its lot with America, where there are other options, is beyond me. Quite apart from the exclusion of the Afghan government, the negotiations strike me as a classic case
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June 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Subcommittee on the Middle East and Northern Africa) held a hearing yesterday on the Iranian elections. Wanting to know more about the subject, and to see our friend Tom Cotton in action, I attended. Tom delivered a strong opening statement in which he made it clear that in order to justify any change in U.S. policy toward Iran, the regime must do more than
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June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I suggested that the most plausible scenario under which Congress enacts Schumer-Rubio style amnesty legislation is one in which: (1) the House passes very different legislation, but (2) relents in conference with the Senate, and (3) adopts the conference version with near unanimous Democrat support and a few dozen Republican votes. One way to avoid this scenario is for the House to pass no immigration reform legislation at all,
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June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I hear that at the weekly House GOP conference, Speaker Boehner firmly committed to the Hastert rule on immigration reform legislation, with no wiggle room. Boehner explained that he, Pelosi, and Hastert have violated the rule when they had no leverage and other options were worse, e.g., with fiscal-cliff legislation. But this is not the case with immigration reform, he said. Boehner’s view, from what I’m hearing, is that President
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June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
We have written about the lengths to which Tom Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, went to induce the City of St. Paul into withdrawing its appeal of a fair housing lawsuit that raised the viability of claims based on disparate impact. In exchange for dropping its case, the U.S. government, spurred by Perez, agreed not to intervene in an unrelated False Claims Act case that had the
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June 18, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, it was revealed that an aide to Sen. Rubio made the following statement to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: There are American workers who, for lack of a better term, can’t cut it. There shouldn’t be a presumption that every American worker is a star performer. There are people who just can’t get it, can’t do it, don’t want to do it. And so you can’t obviously discuss
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June 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier today, I discussed a way in which the House leadership could bring a comprehensive, amnesty-style immigration reform bill up for a vote without clearly violating the Hastert Rule (under which only legislation supported by half of the Republican caucus comes to a vote). The House leadership could accomplish this, I speculated, if the House passes its own, significantly different immigration reform measure and then, in conference, accedes to a
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June 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama’s approval rating is down to 45 percent, according to a CNN/ORC poll of 1,014 adult Americans. 54 percent disapprove of his job performance. A month ago, the same pollsters found that 53 percent approved of the Obama presidency while 45 percent disapproved. Thus, his numbers have, in essence, flipped — a turnaround of 8 points if one focuses on the “approval” side. Although the decline in Obama’s approval
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June 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Examiner reports that Speaker Boehner will not bring a comprehensive immigration-reform plan to the floor if a majority of Republicans don’t support it. This is normal Republican policy in the House (it’s known as the Hastert Rule). I had speculated, however, that Boehner might waive the rule in the case of immigration reform legislation by applying a lower threshold, say one-third support. The Examiner reporter, David Drucker, cites
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June 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
In a recent post about the prospects of passing amnesty legislation in the House, I referred to the Majority Leader as Eric “Wall Street” Cantor. Some readers probably wondered where I was coming from. This article in Politico may help explain. Politico reports that Diana Cantor, the wife of the Majority Leader, has joined the board of Revlon, the cosmetic giant. You may recall Revlon’s role in the Monica Lewinsky
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June 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Judith Levy of Ricochet takes a look at the newly elected Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani. Here are my takeaways from her analysis of the man I call “Sh*t Squared” (so as to distinguish him from his election rivals, Sh*t to the third and fourth power): 1. Rouhani is a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini. He stayed close to Khomeini while in exile and then moved up the political system once Khomeini
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June 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The U.S. reportedly has decided to send small arms to Syrian rebels and is preparing to deliver these arms through bases in Turkey and Jordan that have been used to provide non-lethal assistance. According to the Washington Post the decision to supply arms predates the CIA’s conclusion with “high certainty” that regime forces have used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels. The decision is said to have been clinched not by
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June 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The AP reports that Hasan Rowhani has declared the winner of Iran’s presidential vote. Rowhani reportedly gained 50.7 percent of the vote, thereby avoiding a run-off. AP describes Rowhani as a “moderate cleric.” But I prefer the description provided by an Iranian friend of my wife. She calls Rowhani “sh*t, power two” (i.e. squared) as opposed to his opponents who are sh*t, power three or four.
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June 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
A few days ago, I noted that the Democrats probably need only about two dozen Republican votes to pass Schumer-Rubio style amnesty legislation in the House. As a practical matter, though, two dozen isn’t the magic number because it’s highly unlikely that the Republican leadership would permit a vote on legislation supported by that few Republican members. So what is the magic number of House Republicans needed to pass amnesty/path
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June 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Over the years, I’ve read plenty of claims that we’re witnessing a “crackup” of liberals or conservatives (or sometimes both at the same time). Normally, I react by rolling my eyes. For me, “crackup” claims are a almost always hack way of expressing unjustified triumphalism. But now I think I see a crackup. Given the scandal-a-week Obama administration, you might think that the crackup, if any, is looming on the
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June 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Irving Kristol said that a neoconservative is “a liberal who was mugged by reality.” If so, then Abe Drexler — the lefty new-journalist in “Mad Men” — must have gone on to become one of Kristol’s prime neocon disciples.
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June 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama has drawn plenty of criticism for his position on aiding Syrian rebels in light of his acknowledgement that the Assad regime has crossed his “red line” by using chemical weapons. Here is the key part of the administration’s response to that development: [T]he President has augmented the provision of non-lethal assistance to the civilian opposition, and also authorized the expansion of our assistance to the Supreme Military Council
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