Congress
December 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
At FiveThirtyEight, Perry Bacon argues that President Trump completed his takeover of the Republican Party this year. I think that’s right. Trump’s control of congressional Republicans is exemplified by the fact that no GOP member of the House voted for his impeachment. Indeed, as far as I know, no GOP member acknowledged that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine for a time in order to induce the Ukrainian government to
»
November 26, 2019 — Scott Johnson
District of Columbia United States District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has upheld the subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee to former White House counsel Don McGahn in the nattering Nadler spinoff of the Mueller probe. Although obviously relevant to current issues in the Schiff show, the opinion already feels something like a walk down memory lane. The Dems nevertheless won’t let their dream of impeachment die. Judge Jackson
»
July 28, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Last week, Congress held two days of hearings on JUUL, the maker of a vaping product that can be, and very often is, used as an alternative to cigarettes. JUUL’s product provides the nicotine that attracts people to cigarettes (and addicts them), but not the tar and other carcinogens that kill them. Two well known House members offered clashing perspectives on vaping. The first came from Rashida Tlaib, the deranged,
»
May 11, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Andrew McCarthy explains the meaning of the “constitutional crisis” fomented by House Democrats against Attorney General Barr in the FOX News column “Politics is front and center for Russiagate probe — and the farce has reached new heights.” FOX News has posted it with the companion video below. As House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler natters on, Andy’s column leaves one question hanging: Can this episode of Russiagate starring the
»
May 1, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Attorney General William Barr is sticking to his guns. Earlier this week, as I noted here, Barr rejected the demand of the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee that, when he testifies about the Mueller report, he do so under extraordinary conditions. One of the conditions was that Barr be questioned by non-members of the Committee — namely, staff lawyers. According to the Washington Post, the last time committee lawyers questioned a
»
April 29, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding that, when Attorney General Barr testifies about the Mueller report, he do so under extraordinary conditions. They want to depart from the norm whereby committee members get five minutes each per questioning session and they want Barr to answer questions posed by committee attorneys (in addition to answering the ones committee attorneys will write for the members). Barr has balked at these
»
April 24, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee want to depose John Gore about his role in the Trump administration’s decision to add a question to the 2020 Census about citizenship. Gore was acting as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights when the decision was made. Gore is prepared to testify and the administration is fine with him doing so. Attorney General Barr insists only that Gore be accompanied by an attorney.
»
February 27, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The New York Times has posted the prepared testimony of Michael Cohen to the House Oversight Committee this morning. Cohen is of course the former Trump attorney, now disbarred and convicted of sundry crimes including lying to Congress. He is trying to make it up by testifying against Trump. Julian Assange and Wikileaks make a token appearance, as does Trump Tower Moscow. According to Cohen, Trump is a racist, conman
»
February 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
It has been interesting to watch liberals and Democrats respond to President Trump invoking the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to build his wall, now that he found out where President Obama hid his famous pen and phone. Instead of reflecting on—and then correcting—an overbroad and improvident congressional grant of power to the president, they are saying, “Just wait till we get back in power! Our gal [bet on a
»
January 4, 2019 — Scott Johnson
CNN posted a love letter to freshly sworn-in Rep. Rashida Tlaib by Claire Foran yesterday afternoon, a few hours before Tlaib celebrated with a not quite quotable quote (video below). Looking for a straightforward account of Tlaib talking trash, I find Mark Osborne’s ABC News story. Osborne reports: It didn’t take long for new Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to introduce herself to President Donald Trump and the nation. And she did
»
December 19, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey appeared on Monday for a second day of testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. The 173-page transcript was made public yesterday afternoon. I have embedded it below. I noted Comey’s first day of testimony last week in “Comey doesn’t know and can’t recall.” I made a related point in “A Comey contradiction.” The 2016 presidential election produced an unexpected outcome. In its aftermath
»
December 13, 2018 — Scott Johnson
In his terrific online WSJ Best of the Web column “Google visits the Resistance Factory” (accessible via Outline here), James Freeman homes in on a candid camera moment in which prospective House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler interrogated Google CEO Sundar Pichai at the House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week. Nadler sought to keep Democrats’ hope alive — hope in the Russia collusion hoax, or some version thereof,
»
November 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Ilhan Omar will be elected to succeed Keith Ellison representing Minnesota’s Fifth District. It appears increasingly likely that she married her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi for dishonest purposes in 2009 and didn’t get around to dissolving the marriage until 2017, all the while living with the man she advertised as her lawful husband and father of her children. You’d never know it, however, if you get your news from
»
October 27, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The name of the old Buddy Holly song is “Well…All Right” or “Well All Right,” but for purposes of clarity here, I’m alluding to it with the catchphrase “Well, alright.” That’s the Star Tribune’s approach to covering the omens of Omar in Stephen Montemayor’s Friday night special “On the edge of making history, Ilhan Omar confronts fresh wave of scrutiny*.” I’ve added the asterisk for a footnote: “*But not by
»
October 26, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Minnesota’s Fifth District voters are about to elect state representative Ilhan Omar to succeed Keith Ellison in Congress. Rep. Omar appears to have married her brother in 2009 for some dishonest purpose — not necessarily immigration fraud — and undertaken the redundant exercise of divorcing him late last year to keep up appearances. (Speaking to an ignorant if fawning City Pages reporter in November 2016, Omar falsely asserted: “There are
»
October 24, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Two years ago Ilhan Omar made headlines around the world when she was on the verge of election as the first Somali state legislator in the United States. She had defeated a 22-term incumbent in the DFL primary. She just needed to hang in there until election day in November to seal the deal, as she did. That August I got a tip that Omar had married her brother at
»
September 20, 2018 — Scott Johnson
On Monday President Trump ordered the declassification of 20 or 21 previously redacted pages from the Carter Page FISA applications. The declassification order also extends to the redactions made to text messages from senior Justice Department and FBI officials. Kelly Cohen covered the declassification order for the Washington Examiner here. Democrats find this a profoundly alarming development. On Tuesday Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff and Sens. Chuck Schumer and
»
