Category Archives: Politics
President Obama Legacy
Aside from ObamaCare, most of President Obama’s legacy was achieved through executive fiat.
Except for the Nobel Peace Prize. And even the guy responsible for that has had second thoughts.
The Iran Nuclear deal would have had staying power as a treaty with two thirds U.S. Senate approval. But Obama couldn’t get that. So he settled for the authority of a narrative by aspiring novelist Ben Rhodes.
Here’s Dan Henninger in the WSJ:
The Iran nuclear deal is just that—a deal Mr. Obama did with the mullahs, Russia, Germany, France, the U.K. and China, with no formal instrument of ratification.
And the same goes for the Paris Climate Accord:
The Paris climate agreement is an “accord” with so little domestic support that even some Democrats would have voted “no” if Mr. Obama had submitted it to the Senate for approval.
President Obama Legacy
Not that Trump has any better luck getting the approval of Congress. But then, he doesn’t need it. He’s unraveling the Obama Legacy with the same pen and phone Obama used to create it.
American Credibility Erosion
President Obama accused President Trump of eroding American credibility by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. But his views on eroding credibility must have evolved.
American Credibility
In 2009 Obama wanted to reset relations with Russia. So he pulled out of Bush’s missile defense deal with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Mueller’s Boundaries
Federal Judge T.S. Ellis said on Friday that Robert Mueller has exceeded his boundaries.
He also gave the Justice Department two weeks to come up with an unredacted copy of Deputy AG Rosenstein’s memos authorizing the special counsel. So far the Justice Department has kept most of the memo explaining the boundaries of Mueller’s investigation under wraps.
Boundaries
The Daily Caller thinks this could be a nightmare for Mueller.
Or not so much says Judge Napolitano.
Rocky Rudy Defense
In a kind of weird series of events Rudy Giuliani took over President Trump’s legal defense. And he allowed that Trump knew Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to Stormy Daniels. Not only that, Trump paid him back.
Rocky Rudy Defense
Rudy apparently was attempting to show the payment was personal and not a campaign contribution. But yesterday Trump tried to walk back his comments.
Rosenstein Extortion
Deputy A.G. Rosenstein is finally getting tough about the Mueller investigation. He’s not going to let the House Intelligence Committee extort him. Here’s how he responded when the committee’s demands for more information this week:
“There have been people making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time,” Mr. Rosenstein said. “They should know by now the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted, and that any kind of threats that anybody makes are not going to affect the way we do our job.”
Rosenstein Extortion
So here’s what former Bill Clinton advisor Mark Penn has to say about that:
I suppose he meant to say, “Only we here at the Justice Department do the extorting, with special counsels, daylight raids of people’s attorneys, bankrupting people with legal fees, threats to prosecute family members, and questionable wiretapping of Americans.”
Finally, the WSJ’s Kimberly Strassel wants Paul Ryan to get tough with kingpin Rosenstein:
Mr. Ryan’s committee chairmen have done remarkable work exposing FBI behavior, and they deserve backup. The quickest way to get Justice and FBI to comply with these legitimate requests is for Mr. Ryan to state strongly and publicly that he has zero qualms about proceeding down the road of contempt or impeachment if House demands are not met. This is the people’s government, not the Justice Department’s.
