Presumptuous Politics

Monday, June 6, 2016

Newt Gingrich Cartoons

National Review staff writer David French won't mount independent presidential bid

National Review staff writer and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran David French said Sunday he will not mount an independent presidential run.
French made the announcement in an article posted on the National Review's website Sunday evening, saying that while he opposes both presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, he determined after "serious study" that he is "not the right person for this effort."
"I gave it serious thought — as a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran — only because we live in historic times," he wrote. "Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world."
"Given the timing, the best chance for success goes to a person who either is extraordinarily wealthy (or has immediate access to extraordinary wealth) or is a transformational political talent," French wrote. "I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my country, and I thank God for the successes I’ve had as a lawyer and a writer, but it is plain to me that I’m not the right person for this effort."
French's name was first brought into the political conversation when Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol kicked off the speculation, and the backlash, when he claimed over the Memorial Day Weekend: “There will be an independent candidate -- an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.”
Sources told Fox News that Kristol was looking to recruit the constitutional lawyer and Bronze Star recipient.
Kristol, along with other conservative pundits, long has been working to attract an independent candidate to run in November amid lingering concerns in some wings of the Republican Party about Trump’s conservative credentials. This effort to date has struggled to recruit a willing candidate, while running into logistical hurdles -- including the rules and deadlines for getting new names on the ballot.

'Experts' agree: Trump is a dangerous threat to the legal system

The anti-Trump headlines practically leap off the page.
The New York Times went with this: “Trump Could Threaten U.S. Rule of Law, Scholars Say.”
The Washington Post online version: “Trump’s Personal, Racially Tinged Attacks on Federal Judge Alarm Legal Experts.”
Now it’s important to stress that the billionaire’s personal attacks on the judge hearing the Trump University lawsuit are indeed troubling. The fact that he’s tripled down in telling the Wall Street Journal and CNN that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has an “inherent conflict of interest” in the case because he’s of Mexican heritage—the guy is from Indiana—is rather stunning coming from a presidential candidate.
But as with all things Trump, his confrontational style sometimes causes a blurring of the lines between straight news coverage and commentary.
What the Times and Post stories have in common is that they hang their hat on legal “experts.” This allows the papers to seem above the fray, because after all, they’re just quoting other people.
But the experts here are a vehicle, in my view. The headlines could just as well read “Attacks Alarm Media Experts.”
The experts didn’t spontaneously form a PAC and issue a press release. Reporters set out to round them up to flesh out stories that essentially say Trump is out of control.
The way these stories are framed is an editorial judgment.
The Post story is milder and more narrowly focused, saying Trump’s bashing of Curiel has “set off a wave of alarm among legal experts, who worry that the -Republican presidential candidate’s vendetta signals a remarkable disregard for judicial independence. That attitude, many argue, could carry constitutional implications if Trump becomes president.”
The Times piece is more sweeping and alarmist:
“Donald J. Trump’s blustery attacks on the press, complaints about the judicial system and bold claims of presidential power collectively sketch out a constitutional worldview that shows contempt for the First Amendment, the separation of powers and the rule of law, legal experts across the political spectrum say.”
And it says that even scholars on the right “warn that electing Mr. Trump is a recipe for a constitutional crisis.”
Keep in mind that many experts have strong political opinions. They are not denizens of some ivory tower of neutrality. The Times quotes people from places like the libertarian Cato Institute who may have a dim view of Trump.
Take this quote from David Post, who writes for the Volokh Conspiracy, a conservative legal blog. He said of Trump: “This is how authoritarianism starts, with a president who does not respect the judiciary.”
So now we have a presidency based on authoritarianism and a recipe for a constitutional crisis.
Deep in the piece, the Times gets around to acknowledging that there’s another president who has been accused of lawlessness:
“Republican officials have criticized Mr. Obama for what they have called his unconstitutional expansion of executive power.”
Now I always give reporters credit for going out and interviewing people on the record. But is there no lawyer on the planet (other than Alberto Gonzalez) who could be found to take a less alarmist view of Trump’s remarks?
In this case, at least, the experts do seem to match the media mindset on the danger of Donald Trump.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.

Sanders campaign reportedly divided over whether to take fight to Democratic convention

Sanders supporters to bring havoc to Democratic convention?

A split is emerging inside the Bernie Sanders campaign over whether the senator should stand down after Tuesday’s election contests and unite behind Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, or take the fight all the way to the July party convention and try to pry the nomination from her.
One camp might be dubbed the Sandersistas, the loyalists who helped guide Sanders’s political ascent in Vermont and the U.S. Congress and are loath to give up a fight that has far surpassed expectations. Another has ties not only to Sanders but to the broader interests of a Democratic Party pining to beat back the challenge from Republican Donald Trump and make gains in congressional elections.
Sanders in recent weeks has made clear he aims to take his candidacy past the elections on Tuesday, when California, New Jersey and four other states vote. But the debate within the campaign indicates that Sanders’s next move isn’t settled.
For now, Democratic officials, fund-raisers and operatives are getting impatient, calling on Sanders to quit the race and begin the work of unifying the party for the showdown with the Republican presumptive nominee.
Orin Kramer, a New York hedge-fund manager who has raised campaign funds for both President Barack Obama and Clinton, said with respect to Sanders’s future plans: “I would hope people would understand what a Trump presidency would mean and act accordingly—and ‘accordingly’ means quickly."

Hillary Clinton wins Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico

Hillary Clinton on Sunday won the Puerto Rico Democratic Primary, inching closer to getting enough delegates to clinch the party’s presidential nomination.
After a blowout victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands and a decisive win in the U.S. territory, Clinton is now 28 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press count.
The results were slow to arrive on Sunday, as officials counted ballots by hand and focused first on releasing results tied to the island's local primary elections, said Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rico's former Democratic National Committeeman.
"We just won Puerto Rico! ¡Gracias a la Isla del Encanto por esta victoria!" tweeted Clinton. As the race was called, Clinton was on stage on Sacramento, rallying voters in California.
With 53 percent of precincts reporting early Monday, Clinton had garnered 62 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Sanders
Clinton had captured at least 31 of the 60 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico. Sanders garnered at least 16, with 13 outstanding. Clinton has 1,807 pledged delegates won in primaries and caucuses; Sanders has 1,517. When including superdelegates, her lead over Sanders is substantial -- 2,355 to 1,563.
The former New York senator and secretary of state is all but certain to secure the Democratic nomination Tuesday, when six states hold primaries in which a total of 694 delegates are available.
While Puerto Rican residents cannot vote in the general election, the island's politics could reverberate into the fall campaign. Tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans have left the island to escape a dismal economy, with many resettling in the key electoral battleground of Florida.
Though Clinton did not spend much time campaigning in Puerto Rico, the victory is fraught with symbolism for her campaign.Eight years ago, with the presidential nomination slipping from her grasp, she rolled through the streets of San Juan on the back of a flat-bed truck, wooing voters to a soundtrack of blasting Latin music.
She beat then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama with nearly 68 percent of the vote.

"I'm for Hillary, girl," said 83-year-old Candida Dones on Sunday as she cast her ballot. "I can't wait for a female president. She's one of us. She wears the pants. If we don't look out for our own interests, who will?"

Both Clinton and Sanders spent Sunday in California, the biggest prize among the six states voting on Tuesday. Sanders shook hands and stopped for photos during a stroll of more than an hour along the shops, restaurants and amusement park rides of the Santa Monica Pier.

That included a stop at a charity "Pedal on the Pier" fundraiser, telling people riding on stationary bikes that the U.S. should have "an economy that works for all people, not just the one percent."

Like Clinton, Sanders made little mention of the outcome in Puerto Rico's primary. He said during an evening rally in San Diego that Democratic leaders should take notice that the "energy and grassroots activism" that will be crucial to the party in the fall "is with us, not Hillary Clinton."

He pointed to polls showing him faring better than Clinton in head-to-head matchups with Trump and his strength among Democratic voters under the age of 45.

"If the Democratic leadership wants a campaign that will not only retain the White House but regain the Senate and win governors' chairs all across this country, we are that campaign," he said.

While those watching the results in Puerto Rico focused on their impact on the race for the Democratic nomination, the focus of many voters on the island was its ongoing economic crisis.

Both Sanders and Clinton had pledged to help as the island's government tries to restructure $70 billion worth of public debt the governor has said is unpayable.

"This is one of the most important political moments for Puerto Rico," said Emanuel Rosado, a 29-year-old Clinton supporter. "I'm taking action as a result of the economic crisis."

Two weeks before the primary, Sanders criticized a rescue deal negotiated by U.S. House leaders and the Obama administration as having colonial overtones. In a letter to fellow Senate Democrats, Sanders said the House bill to create a federal control board and allow some restructuring of the territory's $70 billion debt would make "a terrible situation even worse."

He later promised to introduce his own legislation to help the island. Campaigning on the island last month, Sanders promised to fight against "vulture funds" on Wall Street that he said would profit off the fiscal crisis.

"That bill is anti-democratic and it's not in the best interest of Puerto Rico," said Jorge Gaskins, a 67-year-old farmer who supports Sanders and opposes a control board.

Clinton has said she has serious concerns about the board's powers, but believes the legislation should move forward, or "too many Puerto Ricans will continue to suffer."

Among those voting Sunday was Democratic Party superdelegate Andres Lopez, one of the party insiders who can vote for the candidate of their choice at the summer convention. He had remained uncommitted, but said Sunday he will support Clinton.

With Lopez's endorsement, all seven of Puerto Rico's superdelegates have pledged their support for Clinton.

"It is time to focus on squashing `El Trumpo,"' he said, referring to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Time Warner Cable Cartoons

Former Marine fired from job for lowering flag on Memorial Day

A former U.S. Marine said Friday he was fired from his contract job with Time Warner Cable in Charlotte after he lowered the American flag to half-staff on Memorial Day.
Allen Thornwell, 29, was thinking about his best friend, a former Marine who he said killed himself two years ago when he returned to the U.S., the Charlotte Observer reported.
The paper reported that Thornwell was fired Tuesday. The service that arranged the job for Thornwell said Time Warner told them they were disturbed by what was termed as “passion for the flag and (his) political affiliation.”
Thornwell said he remains in shock over his firing. Murphy Archibald, Thornwell’s attorney, said his client should have never lost his job.
“It’s disgraceful,” Archibald, who is a Vietnam vet, told the Observer. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a veteran working on Memorial Day who corrected what he thought was a disrespectful flying of the American flag ... I would have taken it down myself.”
Thornwell, who was discharged in 2014, knew the U.S. Flag Code policy which states that the banner should be half-staff until noon on Memorial Day. Thornwell said the incident happened at around 2:30 p.m. He said he wishes now he had permission.
“I didn’t think of it as the property of Time Warner Cable,” he said. “It’s everybody’s flag.”
A Time Warner spokesman confirmed to the Charlotte Observer Friday that the former Marine “was no longer under contract” with the company but declined to provide further comment.

Making nice, Donald Trump to meet with N.M. Gov. Susana Martinez ‘in near future’

These two never seem to get their timing right.
Just when New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez appears to be warming, somewhat, to the idea of Donald Trump being the presumptive Republican nominee, he goes and starts bashing the job she’s doing while campaigning in Albuquerque.
But in the last week, Trump has made overtures toward Martinez, telling the Santa Fe New Mexican

on Thursday that he likes and respects Martinez and would like to get her endorsement.
Now CNN is reporting

that Martinez and Trump will meet “in the near future,” according to a spokesman for the governor.
"Gov. Martinez is encouraged by Mr. Trump's commitment to protect New Mexico's labs and bases, which are not only important to our state but also our national defense," spokesman Mike Lonergan said. "The governor hopes to visit with Mr. Trump in the near future to discuss this issue and others that affect New Mexicans. As she has said, this has never been about her -- it's about the issues that impact New Mexico."
For these two, those are remarkably non-fighting words.
Martinez, the head of the Republican Governors' Association and the first Latina to be chief executive of any U.S. state, has been critical of the real estate tycoon a number of times in the past, including when he first brought up the issue of immigration and building a border wall last summer. His description of Mexicans as criminals was “completely and unequivocally wrong,” Martinez, who is of Mexican descent, said at the time.
According to the Washington Post

, she told a group of 60 Republican donors in April that she felt insulted by Trump’s comments about Mexicans, and that his plan to get Mexico to pay for the border wall was “unrealistic and irresponsible,” according to people at the gathering.
Trump, for his part, called out Martinez while campaigning in New Mexico in May, telling supporters that she “has got to do a better job. She’s not doing the job.”
Then he added, "Hey! Maybe I'll run for governor of New Mexico. I'll get this place going ... She's not doing the job. We've got to get her going."
Lonergan attributed his remarks to bitterness over the fact that Martinez had not endorsed the mogul and had chosen not to attend the rally.
The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act on Trump’s part may be attributable to pressure from the GOP leadership to make nice with Martinez, who embodies two groups of voters Trump is believed to need to win over, Latinos and women.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has endorsed Trump, told CNN, "I think the attacks that he's routinely engaged in, for example, going after Susana Martinez, the Republican governor of New Mexico, the chairman of the Republican Governors' Association, I think, was a big mistake."

Clinton inches closer to nomination with seven-delegate sweep in Virgin Islands

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton scored a sweeping win in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday, picking up all seven pledged delegates at stake as she inched tantalizingly close to the Democratic nomination.
She is now just 60 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to advance to the November general election.
The party said Clinton won 84.2 percent of the vote, while Bernie Sanders earned 12.2 percent. Under Democratic National Committee rules, a candidate must win at least 15 percent of the vote to be eligible to receive delegates.
It was almost as big a margin as Barack Obama had in 2008, when he beat Clinton by 90 percent to 8 percent.
The Virgin Islands is one of five U.S. territories that casts votes in primaries and caucuses to decide the nominee, even though those residents aren't eligible to vote in November. While its pool of delegates is small, the island chain took on more importance as Clinton gets closer to clinching the nomination.
Earlier this month, former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife in the Virgin Islands while Sanders opted to focus more on neighboring Puerto Rico, which has 60 delegates at stake in a primary Sunday.
"People were excited and overjoyed when Bill Clinton came to visit," said Cecil R. Benjamin, who chairs the party there. He noted that in addition to the seven pledged delegates, all four of the Virgin Islands' superdelegates are now backing Clinton. Superedelegates are party officials who can back any candidate.
"We are the only state or U.S. territory where she got 100 percent of the delegates," he said, citing in part the large voter turnout. "It was great, and we are ready for the national convention."
Clinton now has 1,776 delegates to Sanders' 1,501, based on primaries and caucuses.
When including superdelegates, her lead is substantial — 2,323 to Sanders' 1,547. It takes 2,383 to win.
In the final stretch of the primary season, six states including New Jersey and California will vote on Tuesday, with 694 delegates up for grabs. The District of Columbia is the last to vote on June 14.

Sanders, Clinton talk immigration, battle for Hispanic vote before big California primary

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are spending their final weekend in California, before the state’s big primary Tuesday, rallying voters over immigration issues and warning the state’s diverse electorate about the perils of electing Republican Donald Trump.
On Saturday, Sanders expressed confidence that he could win a majority of votes next week in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and North Dakota.
However, the Vermont senator acknowledged that he’ll need a high voter turnout, like those that have helped him win previous state contests.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle” Sanders said a press conference in Los Angeles, repeating what he has said many times recently.
Still, a report Friday by the state that a record 17.9 million Californians, or 72 percent of eligible state voters, are registered to vote in the primaries could help Sanders.
Sanders on Saturday also repeated that the front-running Clinton will not have enough pledged delegates after polls close Tuesday to secure the nomination.
He said she will have to instead rely on super-delegates, or those who have previously committed to Clinton, to claim the nomination and that he will continue to try to win over those delegates to take the nomination at the party’s convention in July.
“We look forward on Tuesday to doing very well,” Sanders said. “There will be a contested convention. … Super delegates can and have changed their candidate choice in the past.”
He also focused on the issue of immigration, as Clinton did earlier in the day in California, a state that borders Mexico and where Hispanics will be a key voting bloc.
Sanders argued that Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, should not be elected because his “bigotry” against Mexicans, Muslims, African-Americans and others “cannot be tolerated.”
“Donald Trump cannot be elected president,” Sanders said. He also spoke Saturday to supporters at his campaign headquarters in Los Angeles.
Clinton, in a panel discussion in Slymar, Calif., expressed optimism about passing legislation to overhaul federal immigration law.
Clinton argued that as U.S. senators she supported bipartisan Senate reform legislation while Sanders did not.
“It was heartbreaking,” she said. “There were people from every part of the planet who were so hopeful. … I believe that after this election, if all goes well, we will have a chance to pass immigration reform.”
She also said Trump plans to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, calling such talk “the most unfair and dangerous kind of conversation” that has veered off “toward anger and fear.”
Other scheduled events for Clinton this weekend included a stop Saturday in Oxnard, Calif.
Trump campaigned this week in California, despite having enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination, but held no events Saturday.
Some of those events brought violent protests outside the venues.
One of California’s most influential daily newspapers, The San Francisco Chronicle, this weekend endorsed neither Clinton, Sanders nor Trump.
That the Chronicle wouldn’t endorse Trump was not surprising, consider the editorial board for the paper, in liberal-leaning Northern California, had previously expressed its distaste for what it calls his “low-substance, high-insult candidacy.”
The paper was also highly critical of the front-running Clinton, pointing out her refusal to meet with the board and her many fundraising forays in the state.
However, the Chronicle declined to back Sanders in the neck-and-neck primary Tuesday, suggesting his “aggressively progressive promises” can never be realized with so many Republicans ruling Congress.
Two other major California dailies -- The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union Tribune -- have endorsed Clinton. The Tribune this weekend sarcastically endorsed Ronald Reagan over Trump.