Monthly Archives: January 2016
January 31, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Nebraska attorney David Begley has been our intrepid and prolific reporter covering the appearances of the presidential candidates in Iowa in advance of the caucuses tomorrow night. When Donald Trump visited Council Bluffs this afternoon, Dave was on hand. C-SPAN was too; I’ve embedded the C-SPAN video below. Given the iron law of time and the calendar, I’m guessing this will be Dave’s final report from Iowa for us this
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January 31, 2016 — John Hinderaker
We wrote here that the sickness afflicting American universities apparently had spread to England, citing among other incidents a group of students at Oxford who, chanting the mantra “Rhodes must fall,” have demanded that the university erase all traces of Cecil Rhodes, one of Oxford’s most generous benefactors. This story has a happy ending, for now, at least, due to a rebellion on behalf of common sense by Oxford’s alumni.
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January 31, 2016 — John Hinderaker
As regular readers know, I retired from the practice of law at the end of 2015 and, on January 1, 2016, became President of the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based think tank. Both Scott and I have long been associated with the Center. We wrote some of our early papers for the Center and its founder and long-time President, Mitch Pearlstein. Both of us have served on the
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January 31, 2016 — Steven Hayward
The leftist hive is in a tizzy about the water supply screw up in Flint, Michigan, because it offers the opportunity to attack a Republican governor, which is the main thing to do in life. (I don’t recall a similar outrage over high arsenic levels in the public water supply in Albuquerque, New Mexico, several years back, but Albuquerque is run by Democrats, so no opportunity there.) Meanwhile, the environmental
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January 31, 2016 — Scott Johnson
We may as well add to the mix this BITE DU JOUR from Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook newsletter. Allen features this quote from New York Times White House (soon to be Jerusalem) correspondent Peter Baker to John King on CNN’s Inside Politics regarding the Clinton email scandal (video below): “Her problem at this point is NOT the Republicans. Her problem is the FBI and the Obama Justice Department. And what
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January 31, 2016 — Steven Hayward
There are some days I wonder whether the editorial page of the New York Times is really just a training ground for deadpan comedy writers. Surely Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges at their faux-serious best in Airplane! can’t match the ironic hilarity of the Times editorial endorsements yesterday of Hillary Clinton and John Kasich. Of Hillary Clinton, for example, the Times tells us: Democratic primary voters, on the other hand,
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January 31, 2016 — Scott Johnson
In an interesting New York Post column, Paul Sperry quotes former State Department Inspector General Howard Krongard (2005-2008) on the course of proceedings. Krongard adds this dose of reality to the discussion of the legal jeopardy facing Clinton and her senior aides in the ongoing email investigation: “It will never get to an indictment,” Krongard said. For one, he says, any criminal referral to the Justice Department from the FBI
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January 31, 2016 — Scott Johnson
Nebraska attorney David Begley continues to file his reports on the appearances of the presidential candidates in Iowa as tomorrow night’s caucuses approach. Yesterday he caught up with Marco Rubio in Council Bluffs. This is Dave’s report: Marco Rubio appears to be gaining in Iowa right now. I saw it in the standing room only audience in Council Bluffs: lots of wild applause, a few laughs, and a big crowd
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January 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Let’s take one last look back at the controversy surrounding the Fox News debate, and consider the left’s reaction to it. The reaction can best be described as gleeful. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple relished the spectacle, celebrating it with over-the-top imagry: The right-wing penchant for nonstop media criticism is swerving across the median, zigzagging around the road, about to wrap itself around that oak tree around the curve. Like
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January 30, 2016 — John Hinderaker
In Gaza, Hamas members were repairing a tunnel into Israel a few days ago when it collapsed and killed seven of them. These are the cross-border tunnels that Hamas terrorists use to enter Israel to commit murder or, better yet, try to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Thirty or more of these tunnels were destroyed by Israeli forces in the most recent conflict, and Hamas is now rebuilding them so they can
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January 30, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
Sarah Rumpf reports that Ted Cruz’s campaign has sent certain Iowa voters a large card printed to look like a manila envelope on one side and labeled: “ELECTION ALERT,” “VOTER VIOLATION,” “PUBLIC RECORD,” and “FURTHER ACTION NEEDED.” The text of the mailing stated: You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record.
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January 30, 2016 — Steven Hayward
I think Power Line was among the very first outfits (after Mark Hemingway at the Weekly Standard) to take note of Ben Sasse of Nebraska back in 2013, when he was still in academia and a run for U.S. Senate was notional, but by now people are starting to wake up to the fact that he’s the real deal. In this 90-second clip, NBC’s Chuck Todd asks Senator Sasse to
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January 30, 2016 — Scott Johnson
We’re in New York for 48 hours to celebrate an anniversary (late) and see a couple of Broadway shows. Speaking of New York values, as we were in what already seems like the ancient past, I came across a sidewalk pushcart at 47th and Lexington in midtown Manhattan, a block from where we are happily staying (photo below). No animals were harmed! I thought it might bring a smile or
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January 30, 2016 — John Hinderaker
We wrote here about the refugee crisis in Europe, including the fact that hundreds of Moroccan “youths” have taken over Stockholm’s central train station, stealing, assaulting women and attacking security guards. Last night, fifty or more Swedish men, described in some accounts as suspected soccer fans, decided they had had enough and swept through the train station, attacking and driving out the Moroccans who were living there. The Daily Mail
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January 30, 2016 — Scott Johnson
It has been frustrating to watch the chummy and inept questions directed to Hillary Clinton by mainstream media types such as Chuck Todd and Lester Holt regarding the unsecured private email server Hillary Clinton used for official State Department business. At yesterday’s State Department briefing, Catherine Herridge sought to pierce the fog emitted by the Clinton campaign through a few questions to State Department spokesman John Kirby. Herridge shows how
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January 30, 2016 — Scott Johnson
The State Department has now withheld from production 22 emails housed on Hillary Ciinton’s unsecured private server. The emails were to be produced under the Freedom of Information Act; they were withheld on grounds of national security because the emails include information classified Top Secret. The intelligence community deems release of any part of the emails “too damaging” to release under any circumstances. The State Department announced this latest development
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January 30, 2016 — Steven Hayward
I have to say, the GOP debate Thursday night just wasn’t the same without The Donald. I had to treat it like an old Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode, supplying my own taunts in place of the insults and grandiosities that Trump would have provided. (And suddenly Bernie is reluctant to debate? What’s that about?) Meanwhile, just as we might be on the cusp of having a president with a
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