May 16, 2013 — Scott Johnson

P.S. on the AP

Featured image According to Eric Holder, Eric Holder is no more responsible for the investigation of the Associated Press than Barack Obama is for events in Benghazi according to Barack Obama. That was Holder’s theme in his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, which I first read about yesterday in a post by Allahpundit at Hot Air. Looking around for a narrative account of Holder’s testimony this morning, I find the liberal »
May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

This month in civil rights history

Featured image50 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 »
May 15, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Benghazi Emails: What Do They Show?

Featured imageThis afternoon the White House released 100 pages of emails that trace the development of the talking points about Benghazi that Susan Rice eventually used on her notorious tour of the Sunday morning news shows, and that formed the basis for much of what the Obama administration said about the attacks for weeks afterward. This is the original version of the talking points that came out of the CIA, with »
May 15, 2013 — Steven Hayward

This S— Just Got Real

Featured imageI’ve been skeptical if not dismissive of all the loose talk that the multiple scandals piling up around Obama would be sufficient to bring about his impeachment–until this afternoon.  Let’s remember that impeachment didn’t work out too well with Clinton, and the evidence of his bad behavior was a lot more direct than it is (so far) with Obama.  In the case of Nixon, it will be recalled, it required »
May 15, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Multiple Facets of the IRS Scandal

Featured imageWhat is commonly referred to as the IRS scandal consists of several distinct, although obviously related, elements. The scandal was brought to light by the revelation that the IRS, in evaluating nonprofits’ applications for 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) status, discriminated against Tea Party and other conservative groups. The IRS would routinely hold up such applications, sometimes for years, while often making irrelevant inquiries of the applicant, e.g., asking for the names »
May 15, 2013 — Steven Hayward

The Power Line 100: Hadley Arkes

Featured imageHadley Arkes of Amherst College (since 1966!) would make the top of the Power Line 100 Best Professors list if we went either by alphabetical order or any kind of semi-objective scoring system.  Hadley is the Edward Ney Professor of American Institutions at Amherst, and is also affiliated with our friends at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the Jurisprudence of the Natural Law, whose fine blog, right-reason.org, is worth bookmarking. »
May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Hispanic voting patterns don’t correlate to major immigration debates or legislation

Featured imageKey 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: »
May 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson

High tide of Obamaism

Featured imageIt may be too optimistic to wonder if commencement speech to the graduating students of Ohio State University (White House video here) might not have represented the high tide of Obamaism. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but I wonder if it might not be (bumpily, with the implementation of Obamacare before us) downhill from here: Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as »
May 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

The politics of the IRS scandal

Featured imageFor 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 »
May 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward

A New Wine for Our Times

Featured imageAs I mentioned here once before, the fad in California wines for more than a decade now has been the heavy emphasis on what I call MSG wines.  No, that’s not a designation of something to order in your favorite Chinese restaurant; rather, it refers to Rhone-style blends featuring Mourvedre-Syrah-Grenache.   Many of these blends are knockouts, and adjusting the blend allows winemakers to bob and weave depending on the weather »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Associated Press Phone Records: Is It a Scandal?

Featured imageScandals are besetting the Obama administration so rapidly that it is hard to keep track of them. So far, I don’t believe we have said anything about the revelation that the Department of Justice secretly accessed several months worth of Associated Press telephone records. The AP is on the warpath: Reporters across The Associated Press are outraged over the Justice Department’s sweeping seizure of staff phone records — and they »
May 15, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff

Marco Rubio ducks genuine debate over his amnesty legislation

Featured imageLast 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 »
May 15, 2013 — Scott Johnson

Adventures in administrative law

Featured imageObama presents himself as detached from the events giving rise to the controversies that now beset his administration. He’s just the president. Obama has found this a useful pose in the face of the exposure of the IRS as the handmaiden of his efforts to help friends and harm enemies. He has touted the IRS as an independent agency. How can he be responsible for the shenanigans of agents that »
May 14, 2013 — Scott Johnson

The politics of the IRS scandal: Another take [with comment by Paul]

Featured imageA political reporter whom I greatly respect, and who asks not to have the comment attributed to him, writes to comment on one possible side effect of the IRS scandal: “Not to be paranoid, but the IRS scandal may make it easier for the immigration-bill advocates to push their amazing bill through Congress while the public’s mind is elsewhere, if only because it gives the media another excuse not to »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

The Latest on the IRS Scandal

Featured imageThe Treasury Department Inspector General’s report on the IRS’s discriminatory treatment of applicants for 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) status has been released; you can read it here. In general, the report doesn’t add much to what has already been reported about its contents. This graphic shows the criteria that were being used to identify “potential political cases” as of June 2011: The report says, as has been reported, that the IRS »
May 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker

Is Anyone Home in the White House?

Featured imageOne striking feature of the multiple scandals in which the Obama administration is now enmeshed is how little responsibility President Obama takes for any of them. None, actually. Not only that, he professes to be entirely in the dark, to know only what he reads in the newspapers, and to have no control over his own cabinet officers and their departments. This was a major theme of Jay Carney’s press »
May 14, 2013 — Steven Hayward

Viognier Does Not Rhyme with Wagner

Featured imageAnd thank goodness it doesn’t.  Time for our monthly installment from the Paso Wine Guy, this month extolling the virtue of Viognier.  I heartily approve.  Can’t get enough good Viognier.  Just picked up the new 2012 Viognier from Denner Vineyards, but it needs a couple more months in the bottle before it’s ready to drink.  So I’ll be thirsty for a couple of months I guess. Anyway, here it is, »