Presumptuous Politics

Monday, March 7, 2016

CPAC Cartoon

CPAC Accomplishment 2012

Money Pours In as Move to Stop Donald Trump Expands

A Bunch of Idiots?

Republicans hoping to halt Donald J. Trump’s march to their party’s presidential nomination emerged from the weekend’s voting contests newly emboldened by Mr. Trump’s uneven electoral performance and by some nascent signs that he may be peaking with voters.

Outside groups are moving to deploy more than $10 million in new attack ads across Florida and millions more in Illinois, casting Mr. Trump as a liberal, a huckster and a draft dodger. Mr. Trump’s reed-thin organization appears to be catching up with him, suggesting he could be at a disadvantage if he is forced into a protracted slog for delegates.

And vote tallies on Saturday made clear that Mr. Trump has had at least some trouble building upon his intensely loyal following, leaving him increasingly dependent upon landslides in early voting.

In Louisiana, where Mr. Trump amassed a lead of more than 20 percentage points among those who cast votes before Saturday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas effectively tied him among voters who cast their ballots on Saturday.

Marco Rubio in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, on Saturday, a day before winning the primary there. Credit Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The New York Times

“Trump has to worry about the consistent late-voter rejection of his candidacy,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and Republican presidential candidate.

Mr. Trump’s losses to Mr. Cruz in Kansas and Maine on Saturday, coupled with closer-than-expected victories in Louisiana and Kentucky, have heightened the prospects for a two-man race, though many Republican leaders eye Mr. Cruz warily.

As his rivals have despaired over the race’s vulgar turn, Mr. Trump struck a subdued tone, by his standards, as returns came in late Saturday night. He aborted his first attempt to take the stage and left the room after asking reporters if the race in Kentucky had been called.

When he finally did speak, some of his usual bombast was missing, even as he insisted that it was time for Senator Marco Rubio to quit the race and that Mr. Cruz cannot win more moderate northeastern or coastal states.

“Donald Trump was uncharacteristically low energy,” Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012, said in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” taunting Mr. Trump with the insult Mr. Trump had employed against Jeb Bush. Yet despite the renewed optimism of his opponents, the path to deny Mr. Trump the nomination remains narrow and arduous.

Mr. Cruz’s emergence as the most credible alternative to Mr. Trump has proved both a boost and a complication for those seeking to derail the New Yorker. Mr. Cruz has tried to undercut calls for a contested convention to deny Mr. Trump the nomination, which Mr. Cruz says would yield a “manifest revolt” among voters. But Mr. Cruz has done little so far to threaten Mr. Trump’s lead in the delegate race.

Much of Mr. Cruz’s late-breaking support on Saturday seemed to come at the expense of Mr. Rubio, not Mr. Trump. And the Cruz campaign’s message of ideological purity and religious faith is a less natural fit for many of the delegate-rich Midwestern and coastal states that remain on the map.

“Saturday proved that Trump can be contained and even beaten,” said Scott Jennings, a longtime Republican strategist, who looked ahead to this summer’s Republican convention in Cleveland. “The question is whether the field is going to allow for it moving forward. The most likely scenarios remain that Trump gets enough before Cleveland, or nobody does. The latter moved a little closer to realistic Saturday.”

Mr. Rubio’s path is much less certain, despite his lopsided victory in Puerto Rico on Sunday. Even his supporters said that the results on Saturday seriously undercut the premise of his bid: that he is the only candidate who can unify the Republican Party and defeat Mr. Trump.

“Look, I’m supportive of Marco; I’m very hopeful,” said Mel Martinez, the former senator from Florida, who had supported Mr. Bush. “But it’s a great concern that time has kind of caught up with this whole thing.”

The Stop Trump forces are beginning to pour money into television ads, with a particular focus on the big states voting on March 15. Four different groups have reserved at least $10 million in airtime in Florida so far, according to trackers of media spending. That number is expected to grow, but television stations in Florida are already awash in such ads.

Two from the American Future Fund, which has spent $2 million so far in Florida and Illinois, show decorated veterans assailing Mr. Trump as a poseur on military matters. Michael Waltz, a retired Special Forces colonel, blisteringly calls Mr. Trump a draft dodger and, effectively, a coward. “Donald Trump hasn’t served this country a day in his life,” he says. “Don’t let Trump fool you.”

And a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, Tom Hanton, bluntly questions Mr. Trump’s toughness: “Trump would not have survived the P.O.W. experience. He would have been probably the first one to fold.”

Separately, Club for Growth Action, an arm of the anti-tax group that was the first to run ads in Iowa against Mr. Trump, has placed $2 million in commercials attacking him in Illinois on top of $1 million in Florida.

A third group, Our Principles PAC, which was created to defeat Mr. Trump, has reserved $3.5 million in Illinois and Florida and is also sending direct mail to voters’ homes in Florida. A group supporting Mr. Rubio, Conservative Solutions, is spending several million dollars in Florida as well.

The deluge of negative messages from a patchwork of groups — highlighting claims by angry customers of Mr. Trump’s defunct educational company and his history of shape-shifting positions — already appears to have hurt Mr. Trump’s cause.

In conversations with some of his allies, who insisted on anonymity to relay those private talks, Trump campaign aides have expressed concern about the money being spent against him on television. The Trump campaign has no pollster, so it is governed by public polling and what the candidate himself observes while watching cable news.

This off-the-cuff approach, and a string of self-inflicted wounds — refusing to clearly and immediately reject the support of the white supremacist David Duke, boasting about his sexual endowment on the debate stage and withdrawing from the Conservative Political Action Committee’s conference over the weekend — have fueled days of unfavorable coverage of Mr. Trump’s candidacy.

“Trump has total disdain for the professional political class,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist. “He thinks they’re all about making money. Pollsters are hacks. Organization doesn’t matter. Their idea of a political organization is taking phone calls from some elected officials who wanted to endorse and making it work in the schedule. And that’ll catch up with you eventually.”

Still, members of the Republican establishment have been left to grapple with what was once unthinkable: rallying around Mr. Cruz, a senator who built his reputation bashing them.

“Some hope with Ted, no hope with Donald,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on “Meet the Press,” summarizing the party’s dim view of its remaining options. Neither, he suggested, would be likely to expand the Republican tent: “We’re in a demographic death spiral.”

Less than two weeks ago, Mr. Graham joked about murdering Mr. Cruz on the Senate floor.

And yet, Mr. Graham said, he received a phone call from Mr. Cruz after Super Tuesday — part of efforts by the Cruz campaign to reach out, discreetly, to donors and party officials who might be interested in rallying around him.

With Mr. Rubio faltering badly across the board on Saturday, Mr. Cruz is moving to compete aggressively in Florida. He has also weighed the merits of a significant push in Ohio, the home state of Gov. John Kasich.

Both states are winner-take-all, and the Cruz campaign insists it would only dedicate substantial resources if it thought it could win outright. But the effort is risky: It could boost Mr. Trump, if Mr. Cruz diminishes his non-Trump rivals without a victory.

The Cruz campaign says it can reach the requisite delegate threshold of 1,237 without winning Florida or Ohio, thanks to its superior organization in later-voting states, many of which are closed to non-Republicans.

But several party strategists have disputed this math, even if the contests on March 15 force some of Mr. Cruz’s competitors from the race.

A moment of reckoning for Mr. Rubio will come Tuesday in Michigan, a state that has concentrations of the kinds of voters he performs well with: professional, younger, highly educated and upper-income. But a poll released on Sunday by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal showed Mr. Rubio trailing Mr. Cruz and Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump received 41 percent, followed by Mr. Cruz at 22 percent, Mr. Rubio at 17 percent and Mr. Kasich at 13 percent.

Despite this, some Michigan Republicans say that Mr. Kasich may emerge as the state’s establishment choice. And in a race that has often felt like a reality television show, Mr. Kasich secured an apt endorsement on Sunday: that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will replace Mr. Trump as the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

Correction: March 6, 2016
An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the location of a Conservative Political Action Committee conference. It was in National Harbor, Md., not Alexandria, Va.

Romney touts Cruz wins over Trump, will not reject GOP nod if drafted at convention

Choker?

Mitt Romney said Sunday that GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz winning two primary states this weekend proves the Texas senator can stop front-runner Donald Trump, but declined to rule out his own White House scenario.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the Republicans' 2012 presidential nominee, repeated remarks from last week, telling “Fox News Sunday” that he wouldn’t launch an eleventh-hour campaign for president. But he declined to reject being “drafted” at the GOP convention in July to be the party’s general election candidate.
“It would be absurd to say that if I were drafted I’d say no,” Romney said. “We have four strong people running for the nomination. One of them will be the nominee.”
Romney has occasionally weighed in on the 2016 GOP race. But he emerged in full force Thursday when he gave a speech in which he called Trump a “phony” and urged voters to instead back an establishment candidate like Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio or Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
“It was a big night for Ted Cruz,” Romney said Sunday about the Texas senator's Saturday wins in the Maine and Kansas caucuses. “That’s because people are starting to take a better look at Donald Trump.”
Romney returned to his argument that Trump touts being a successful New York real estate magnate and billionaire businessman. However, he has a long list of businesses failures including a commercial airline and his Trump University real estate school, Romney said.
“He’s not the real deal,” Romney told Fox. “He’s a phony.”
Still, Romney was pressed to explain why he accepted Trump’s 2012 endorsement and acknowledge that all of Trump’s business flops didn’t happen after 2012.
“Sixty-one million people voted for me,” Romney said. “I don’t think all 61 million should be president of the United States.”

Rubio wins Puerto Rico GOP primary

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday won the Republican primary in Puerto Rico, his second victory in the 2016 race, according to the Associated Press.
Rubio won the Minnesota GOP Caucus on Super Tuesday and is struggling to keep his campaign alive through March 15, when his home state holds a primary in which the winner takes all 99 delegates.
Twenty-three delegates were up for grabs in Puerto Rico. Rubio was the only candidate in the four-man GOP field to campaign on the island, whose residents cannot vote in the general election.
The first-term senator trails front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in the 2016 GOP race.
Rubio had at least 70 percent of the vote with most precincts reporting, followed by Trump, Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Florida is widely considered a must-win for Rubo, considering that losing one's home state could be debilitating for a presidential campaign.
The Puerto Rico win should help Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, rally South Florida's big Latino voting bloc.

Sanders turns up attacks on Clinton at feisty debate, Dem front-runner fights back

Fresh off a series of weekend victories in state caucuses, Bernie Sanders turned up the heat on Hillary Clinton at Sunday’s debate in Flint, Mich., sharply challenging her economic credentials and suggesting her gun control stand would ban guns in America. But the Democratic front-runner fought back, blasting him for voting against the auto bailout, dismissing him as a “one-issue candidate” and hitting him once again for his stance on guns.
The Vermont senator reached back to the 1990s as he went after Clinton’s support for “disastrous trade agreements” like NAFTA. His rhetoric was notably more pointed and, reflecting the tension in the race, Sanders even cut her off at times as she tried to speak over him.
“Excuse me, I’m talking,” Sanders snapped, during one feisty exchange on the economy.
But Clinton pushed back, and defended the country’s economic progress during her husband’s administration.
“If we’re going to argue about the ‘90s, let’s try to get the facts straight,” she said, touting the jobs and income growth that came with the era.
Sanders also tried to cast Clinton as soft on climate change, while declaring he unequivocally does not support fracking. Clinton maintained she has the “most comprehensive plan to combat climate change.”
The clashes came after Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses, adding to wins the night before in Nebraska and Kansas — by far the most successful two days of his campaign.
But Sanders remains significantly behind in the race for delegates, with Clinton having won more – and more valuable – state contests, as well as enjoying the overwhelming support of so-called “superdelegates.” Sanders is looking for a game-changer as the race heads next to states like Michigan this coming Tuesday, and Ohio and Florida the week after that.
Sanders cited his most recent wins at the end of Sunday’s debate, in arguing he would be the better candidate to go up against Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
He began to joke he’d give his “right arm” to run against the billionaire businessman and then cited polls saying, “Sanders versus Trump does a lot better than Clinton versus Trump.”
But while Sanders said he’s “exciting” working-class and young voters, Clinton pointed to the raw numbers.
“There’s only one candidate [in either primary campaign] who has more votes than [Trump], and that’s me,” Clinton said. “I will look forward to engaging him.”
With the CNN-hosted debate held in Michigan, the state’s economic and crime problems were front and center.
On gun control, the two candidates sparred sharply, with Clinton using the Sandy Hook massacre to make a point about holding gun makers responsible for crimes – and Sanders arguing that position would effectively mean an America without guns.
The dispute started when Sanders defended his past support for a bill to help protect gun manufacturers and sellers from lawsuits. He said if gun sellers and makers are held liable in many of these cases, “What you’re really talking about is ending gun manufacturing in America.”
Clinton countered that no other industry in America has “absolute immunity,” and invoked the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
The Democratic rivals were most heated when talking about their respective records on the economy. Sanders went after Clinton over what he called “disastrous trade agreements” like NAFTA.
She countered by pointing out he opposed the auto industry bailout. He tried to describe it as the Wall Street bailout, and got a little feisty when she started to speak over him.
“Excuse me, I’m talking,” he said. “Your story is for voting for every disastrous trade agreement.”
Clinton then called him a “one-issue candidate.” And on the auto bailout, she said, “If everybody had voted the way he did, I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking 4 million jobs with it.”
“My one issue is trying to rebuild a disappearing middle class. That’s my one issue,” Sanders said.
Meanwhile, at the top of the debate, Clinton and Sanders momentarily set aside their differences, to lament the plight of the people in the host city of Flint, and call for the governor’s resignation over the toxic water crisis.
Sanders said there’s “blame to go around” but Republican Gov. Rick Snyder should resign.
Clinton echoed the remarks, saying, “Amen to that.”
“The governor should resign or be recalled,” she said, while also calling on the federal and state governments to send more money to the city.
The city’s water crisis started when the city switched to the Flint River in 2014 while under a state-appointed emergency manager. While the state has taken much of the blame, officials with the city and federal government – as well as the state – have also resigned.
Clinton faced Sanders on the debate stage as she fights to shake her lone primary rival, who keeps notching just enough primary and caucus wins to keep his campaign alive, and a threat to her bid.
Sanders rode to victory in Maine in part on a huge turnout — Sanders beat Clinton by a ratio of nearly 2-to-1. The turnout was so big Sunday that some voters had to wait in line for more than four hours in Portland.
The victory gives Sanders a total of three victories over the weekend to Clinton’s one, in the Louisiana primary.
The results from Maine Sunday aren't binding, but will be used to select a slate of delegates to the state convention, where national delegates will be elected. Maine will send 25 delegates and 30 superdelegates.
On Super Tuesday last week, Clinton won seven states to Sanders’ four. She maintains a sizeable delegate lead – which before the Maine contest stood at 1,121 to 481. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
But Sanders, even by winning lower-profile contests, has managed to at least demonstrate lingering weaknesses in the front-runner’s campaign as he draws an enthusiastic response in the grassroots-driven caucus states. Sanders sees upcoming Midwestern primaries as a crucial opportunity to slow her momentum by highlighting his trade policies – though Clinton has led in the polls in Michigan.
“Geographically, we’re looking good,” Sanders said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We have a path.”
Sanders acknowledged his campaign has yet to connect with African-American voters, which hurt him badly in his South Carolina loss last month to Clinton.
However, he told ABC, “I think you’re going to see those numbers change.”

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Republican Leaderboard

Delegates Leaderboard

See how many delegates each candidate has racked up thus far

Collapse / Expand

Republican

1,237 needed

378

Donald Trump
295

Ted Cruz
123

Marco Rubio
34

John Kasich

Capitol Hill Cartoon

Lousy food, low pay ... lawmakers testify (gripe) about working on Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is a terrible place to work -- That’s the lasting impression one might have after listening to lawmakers this week discussed the budget for Congress at a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.
Here are some of complaint and concerns the lawmakers debated at the session:
-- Low wages for aides
-- How crummy and expensive the food is in the cafeterias.
-- The vulnerability of House garages to a terrorism attack.
- How security precautions make it a pain for staff to navigate the workplace.
-- The need to update the electronic voting system in the House chamber (Keep in mind that an accurate tabulation of voting on the House is the quintessence of the entire enterprise).
-- Nobody knowing how many lawmakers carry firearms into the Capitol complex, perhaps increasing safety risks.
-- The convenience store in the Longworth House Office Building and in women’s restrooms.
-- Whether women should be charged for the aforementioned feminine hygiene products in the House.
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch Appropriations panel and chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, posed multiple questions to acting House Chief Administrative Officer Bill Plaster at the hearing about the availability of tampons and sanitary napkins.
“When you need a feminine hygiene product, you need one. Immediately,” lectured Wasserman Schultz. “For the convenience store to stop stocking products like that is really inconvenient. It’s the opposite of the purpose of a convenience store.”
She even showed Plaster a photo of out-of-order signs slung across feminine hygiene dispensaries around the Capitol.
Multiple (female) congressional sources indicated that many of the machines hadn’t carried the appropriate products in about a year. And when supply was on hand, the product was described as outdated.
Moreover, Wasserman Schultz groused that women shouldn’t have to pay the required 25 cents when in need.
“It’s like charging for toilet paper,” she protested, then she didn’t “want to go into too much detail” about the issue.
Plaster responded that the vendor “has responded with additional stock,” Wasserman Schultz pointedly retorted the new supply was “insufficient.”
Still, Capitol Hill, with its marble floors and magnificently landscaped grounds, is for many a desirable place to work.
The time-off, include long winter and summer recesses, for example, help compensate for the wages. And for many, the opportunity to work in arguably the world’s most powerful legislative body is a huge stepping stone for future endeavors.
A few years ago, Congress trimmed the overall spending it allocates for itself. This was an effort to “lead by example.” Plus, it looked like good politics back home -- even if constituents received less from the members they elected.
The cuts hit Capitol Hill hard -- putting a squeeze on congressional salaries and the ability to retain good people. The total reductions only amounted to $362 million. That’s a big impact internally but barely a dent when the federal government inches close to spending $4 trillion annually and runs a $19 trillion debt.
Legislative branch spending climbed to $4.36 billion in the latest spending measure. That’s a $1.5 billion increase over the previous year but still below what Congress allocated for Capitol Hill operations seven years ago.
“It means having to let people go,” said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif.,
Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., told Plaster that “any restoration” of money to the accounts lawmakers use to pay staff and run their offices “would be helpful.”
Last year, the House switched vendors for dining services in its cafeterias. The old vendor, Restaurant Associates, still runs Senate eateries as well as those in the Capitol Visitor’s Center.
French food services provider Sodexo succeeded Restaurant Associates in the House. That sparked an immediate outcry from the Capitol Hill community. The food wasn’t as good. Prices were higher. There wasn’t as much variety.
Wasserman Schultz said it was “pretty bad” when the dining discord prompted an article late last year in the New York Times. She also questioned how some lower-rung aides could survive while paying them such paltry salaries.
“After paying for rent and eating in the House cafeteria, we’re lucky we can keep anyone on staff,” she complained. “It’s costing them an arm and a leg to eat.”
Clerk of the House Karen Haas told lawmakers the electronic voting cards lawmakers use during roll call votes are so outdated that an outside company makes them specifically for Congress.
She added that the voting system in the House chamber needs rewiring soon -- a project which involves digging under the floor of the chamber. Moreover, Haas said Braille type must be added to voting stations sprinkled around the chamber for visually impaired lawmakers.
Security has long been paramount on Capitol Hill.
But a lingering problem involves the risks terrorists could pose to congressional garages across the street from the Capitol beneath the House office buildings.
The garages are not what is known as “clean,” meaning aides and lawmakers can drive in, then move into the office buildings without ever clearing security.
Individuals entering on foot pass through magnetometers. Inspecting every car and screening workers offsite would create catastrophic delays and traffic jams around Capitol Hill.
So, the U.S. Capitol Police operates with a lower level of security in the House office buildings. Persons going through the underground tunnels to the Capitol itself from the office complex are screened at checkpoints located there.
Of late, magnetometers recently showed up in the Longworth garage in an effort to bolster security. But the Rayburn garage still lacks the equipment.
At the hearing, Wasserman Schultz later took aim at House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving. She suggested the appropriations committee never signed off on implementing the additional security measures. Other lawmakers see it differently, adding that the Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings, in fact allocated funds properly.
Wasserman Schultz hectored Irving with queries about who gave him the go-ahead to install the magnetometers. Irving said he took “responsibility,” later adding he did so in concert with the Speaker’s Office and House Administration Committee.
“I don’t think I’m getting responses to my questions,” Wasserman Schultz protested, in apparent exasperation.
Irving said the House garages carry “tremendous vulnerabilities to us.”
Wasserman Schultz responded by saying that terrorists weren’t stupid since the magnetometers were installed in only one garage. She said terrorists would simply “go to the garage that’s not secure.”
Sam Farr piped up. He suggested the extra screening was “an affront to staff.”
“We’re building an empire on the Hill,” he said.
The California Democrat then asked if Irving knew how many lawmakers arm themselves when they walk through the Capitol. By statute, lawmakers are allowed to pack heat at the Capitol and are not required to go through security screening.
Staff and visitors cannot carry firearms at the Capitol complex.
“We don’t know that number,” Irving replied.
Farr argued it was a fairness issue and that lawmakers shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns at work -- especially if they were trying to “lead by example.”
There also concern the Capitol could join the long list of venues that have experienced deadly, workplace violence -- just like Fort Hood, the Washington Navy Yard and San Bernardino.
Under such a nightmare scenario, there are questions as to whether lawmakers carrying their own guns could make a nightmarish shootout even more volatile if they started to fire their own weapons -- in addition to U.S. Capitol Police officers. Would extra firepower help neutralize a situation or contribute to “friendly fire” injuries or deaths?
Physical security isn’t the only concern at the Capitol. So too is cybersecurity.
Plaster told lawmakers that hackers pose a constant threat.
“They’re not knocking at the front door anymore,” he said.
Plaster says that the House has about 12,000 people on its network, receiving some 200 million emails a year. He estimates that about one-third of all email traffic received is an effort to bore into the House computer system.
And with so many emails and so many users, it’s challenging to harden those defenses.
So if you want to understand Congress and its internal operations, look at Legislative Branch appropriations. That could shed light into how lawmakers tackle issues ranging from ISIS to health care to the economy. It also says a lot about what it’s like to work on Capitol Hill.
Hardly a week goes by without a report demonstrating that Congressional approval ratings are in the tank.
Those are polls that study the performance of lawmakers. And one wonders if aides who toil on Capitol Hill would rate Congress much higher.

Bergdahl defense team wants to meet with Trump over statements

Court hearing set for accused Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl

Attorneys for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl said Saturday they may seek a deposition from presidential contender Donald Trump or call him as a witness at a legal proceeding, saying they fear his comments could affect their client's right to a fair trial.
Bergdahl's attorney Army Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt asked Trump in a letter dated Saturday for an interview to discuss the Republican's comments about Bergdahl, who faces military charges after walking off a post in Afghanistan in 2009. The letter sent to Trump's New York office by registered mail says the interview would determine whether they will seek to have him give a deposition or appear as a witness at a legal hearing.
"I request to interview you as soon as possible about your comments about Sergeant Bergdahl during frequent appearances in front of large audiences in advance of his court-martial," Rosenblatt wrote in the letter on U.S. Army letterhead.
Defense attorney Eugene Fidell said Trump's statements could affect Bergahl's right to a fair trial. He added in an email to The Associated Press that the statements "raise a serious question as to whether he has compromised Sgt. Bergdahl's right to a fair trial."
A spokeswoman for Trump's campaign didn't immediately respond to an email and a phone call seeking comment.
Fidell had previously asked publicly that Trump cease making comments about Bergdahl such as Trump's comment in October that the soldier was a "traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed." Fidell has also said previously that Trump gave incorrect information about rescue efforts for Bergdahl during public speeches.
Bergdahl faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, a relatively rare charge that carries a punishment of up to life in prison. His trial had been tentatively scheduled for the summer, but legal wrangling over access to classified documents has caused delays.
Bergdahl, of Hailey, Idaho, walked off his post in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and was released in late May 2014 as part of a prisoner swap, in exchange for five detainees in Guantanamo Bay. The move prompted harsh criticism, with some in Congress accusing President Barack Obama of jeopardizing the safety of the country.
He was arraigned in December but has yet to enter a plea.

Cruz wins CPAC presidential straw poll

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz on Saturday won the annual CPAC presidential straw poll, a gauge of where conservative voters stand.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio came in second and billionaire businessman Donald Trump came in third.
Cruz got 40 percent of the informal vote, followed by Rubio with 30 percent, Trump with 15 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 8 percent.
Trump at the last minute cancelled his appearance at the four-day CPAC event. Cruz and Rubio spoke at the event.
Last year, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the informal poll with 25.7 of the vote, followed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Cruz, Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Rubio and Trump.
In 2012, the last CPAC straw poll in a presidential year, the winner was Mitt Romney, the eventual GOP nominee. He was followed by Santorum and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Cruz, Trump grab two wins; Dems divided as candidates look ahead to Michigan, Florida contests

Donald Trump renewed calls Saturday night for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to drop out of the Republican race, saying he wants to take on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in a two-man GOP showdown for the 2016 party nomination.
“Marco has to get out of the race. He has to,” Trump said. “Man, do I want to run against just Ted.”
Trump and Cruz were Saturday’s big winners, claiming two victories each in four Republican state contests. Trump won the Kentucky caucus and Louisiana primary while Cruz claimed caucus wins in Kansas and Maine.
Cruz attributed his strong showing to conservatives coalescing behind his candidacy, calling it “a manifestation of a real shift in momentum.”
He suggested it was time for Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to call it quits.
“As long as the field remains divided, it gives Donald an advantage,” Cruz said.
Despite the support of many elected officials, Rubio’s lackluster performance Saturday raises serious questions about his viability in the race. He finished in third place in every state that voted Saturday except Maine, where The Associated Press projected him to finish behind Kasich.
Rubio said the upcoming schedule of primaries would be "better for us," and renewed his vow to win his home state of Florida, claiming all 99 delegates there on March 15.
Saturday’s races saw high voter turnout in several states. Turnout in Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas exceeded the party's most optimistic predictions.
State GOP Executive Director Clay Barker said at least 73,000 people cast ballots in Saturday's caucuses. He said there are another 6,000 provisional ballots and 1,000 absentee ballots sent to voters but not yet collected.
That compares to about 30,000 people voting in the state's GOP caucuses in 2012 and about 20,000 voting in 2008.
The party had 60,000 ballots printed this year and then warned caucus sites to be prepared to print more.
With the GOP race in chaos, establishment figures are looking for any way to derail Trump, perhaps at a contested convention if no candidate can get enough delegates to lock up the nomination in advance.
Party leaders -- including 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and 2008 nominee Sen. John McCain -- are fearful a Trump victory would lead to a disastrous November election, with losses up and down the GOP ticket.
"Everyone's trying to figure out how to stop Trump," Trump marveled about himself at an afternoon rally in Orlando, Florida. At the rally, the billionaire businessman had supporters raise their hands and swear to vote for him.
On the Democratic side, there was another divided verdict from voters. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders notched wins in the Nebraska and Kansas caucuses, while front-runner Hillary Clinton snagged a win in the Louisiana primary.
"No matter who wins this Democratic nomination, I have not the slightest doubt that on our worst day we will be infinitely better than the Republicans on their best day,” Clinton said.
She also said she was thrilled to add to her delegate count and expected to do well in Michigan’s primary on Tuesday. But before that, she and Sanders will go head-to-head Sunday in Maine’s Democratic caucus where 30 delegates are up for grabs. Republicans will battle it out in Puerto Rico’s GOP caucus for 23 delegates.
Despite Clinton’s commanding lead in the delegate count, Sanders vowed to keep fighting until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia this summer.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Donald Trump pulled out of CPAC forum

Huma Abedin Cartoon

Carson suspends presidential campaign

Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson dropped out the 2016 presidential race Friday, days after declaring there was “no political path forward” for his campaign.
In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Carson said “I am leaving the campaign trail,” but promised he would remain heavily involved “in saving our nation.”
The announcement was widely expected. On Wednesday Carson sent a message to supporters saying, “I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results” and he did not attend Thursday’s Fox News debate in Detroit.
In Friday's wide-ranging speech, Carson warned against a growing debt, overreaching government social programs and a general breakdown of morals in the country.
“Our pillars of strength are faith and family,” Carson said. “As those things are being eroded, you see what is happening to our nation.”
Carson also announced Friday that he is taking up the role of chairman of “My Faith Votes,” a nonpartisan organization to “inspire and motivate” Christians to vote.
The consummate outsider, Carson enjoyed a surge in the polls last year, at one point becoming competitive with Donald Trump. But his numbers later plunged, and he has not won a single contest; he was solidly in last place in the delegate count following Super Tuesday.
Known for his affable, soft-spoken, and sometimes awkward speaking style, he was an unpredictable presence on the debate stage and at rallies.
Carson entered the political spotlight in 2013 when at the National Prayer Breakfast he tore into the Affordable Care Act just feet away from President Obama, gaining fame among conservatives in the process.
He announced his decision to run for the White House in May from his hometown of Detroit.

Cruz blasts Trump as phony conservative in front of CPAC crowd

Republican presidential candidate Sen.Ted Cruz blasted Donald Trump Friday as a phony conservative who must be stopped before he wins the presidential nomination.
In a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Cruz said, “It’s easy to talk about making America great again -- you can even put that on a baseball cap.
“But do you understand the principles that make America great in the first place?”
Cruz said Trump was in no position to answer that question.
Fresh from a bitter Super Tuesday battle and rancorous debate Thursday night, Cruz appeared relaxed in jeans. He took full advantage of Trump’s announcement earlier in the day that he would be skipping the event, which is typically considered a required stop for Republican candidates seeking to woo the conservative base.
Dr. Ben Carson, who spoke after Cruz on Friday, announced he was formally leaving the race. Sen. Marco Rubio was expected to appear on Saturday, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich spoke earlier on Friday.
Citing rallies in Kansas and Florida, where there are upcoming primary battles, Trump demurred, leaving a hole in the CPAC schedule.
“I think someone told him (Fox News host) Megyn Kelly was going to be here,” Cruz said, joking. “But worse, he was told conservatives were going to be here. Even worse, he was told there would be libertarians here. Even worse, young people were going to be here.”
“I hope none of you have a degree from Trump University,” he said, referring to the lawsuits against Trump’s now defunct online school.
Cruz was only interrupted once by audience members chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” The audience applause was otherwise enthusiastic as Cruz revived a key charge against Trump from Thursday night - that he has been funding and cozying up to Democrats for years.
Referring to the loss of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, Cruz warned that the court is now “one justice away” from the loss of religious liberty and the second amendment right to bear arms.
“Let me be very clear to every man and woman here at CPAC, I will not compromise away your religious liberty. I will not compromise away your second amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Cruz said.
He also poked at Trump, whom he said suggested in a previous debate that the U.S. should be neutral in order to negotiate in the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. “As president I have no intention of being neutral. America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel.”
Joking on stage with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Cruz also suggested Hillary Clinton should get used to “orange pant suits” in case she's indicted in the ongoing email controversy and that for the first time, a general election debate may be “convened in Leavenworth.”

Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC Donald Trump Cancels Speech at Conservative Conference

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC; /ˈsiːpæk/ SEE-pak) is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States.

Organizers of a high-profile conservative conference in Washington DC say that Donald Trump has abruptly cancelled his planned appearance tomorrow.
Trump was scheduled to address activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) early Saturday morning.
In a statement, Trump's campaign said he would be campaigning in Kansas Saturday in advance of that state's caucuses.
"The Donald J. Trump for President Campaign has just announced it will be in Witchita, Kanasas for a major rally on Saturday prior to Caucus," the statement read, misspelling the name of both the city and the state where he will appear. "He will also be speaking at the Kansas Caucus and then departing for Orlando, Florida and a crowd of approximately 20,000 people or more. Because of this, he will not be able to speak at CPAC as he has done for many consecutive years."

The conference has long been a destination for Republican presidential candidates as well as other conservative lawmakers and media stars. Presidential hopefuls John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are all slated to participate, and Ben Carson is expected to use his address Friday to speak about his "political future."
The crowd at CPAC may not have been a uniformly friendly one for Trump. The conference this year has already featured appearances by some of the GOP figures with whom Trump has warred, including RNC chairman Reince Priebus and Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse.
The abrupt cancellation is not the first time Trump has dropped out of a conservative cattle call at the last minute.
He also cancelled a Heritage Action event in South Carolina earlier this cycle, citing a last minute business deal that needed his attention. He was also uninvited from Erick Erickson's Red State Gathering in August.

Harvard Law School might remove official seal over links to slavery More Political Correct Crap.

A committee recommended Harvard Law School remove its official seal Friday, following months of scrutiny surrounding the symbol that has ties to an 18th-century slave owner.
The committee’s 10-2 recommendation was backed by Dean Martha Minow, but it wasn’t immediately clear when Harvard Corp., one of the university’s governing boards, will make its final decision.
“We believe that if the Law School is to have an official symbol, it must more closely represent the values of the Law School, which the current shield does not," the committee made up of professors, alumni, students and staff wrote in its recommendation.
The shield's meaning has changed over time, said Bruce Mann, committee chairman and Harvard Law professor.
"Too many people think the shield has become an impediment," he said. "Too many people see the association with slavery."
The shield, officially adopted in 1937, depicts three bundles of wheat, an image borrowed from the family crest of Isaac Royall Jr., under the university's motto "Veritas."
Royall donated his estate to create the first law professorship at Harvard University. His father, Isaac Royall Sr., made much of the family wealth on the backs of slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations and Massachusetts farms.
Minow created the committee after some law school students formed a group called Royall Must Fall to denounce the shield.
"I endorse the recommendation to retire the shield because its association with slavery does not represent the values and aspirations of the Harvard Law School and because it has become a source of division rather than commonality in our community," she wrote to students and alumni.
However, not everyone is agreeing with the decision. One professor on the committee, joined by a student, said keeping the current shield was a way to honor the slaves whose sacrifice provided the Royall family with its wealth.
They said the current shield should be tied "to a historically sound interpretative narrative about it" and suggested adding the word "Iustitia" — justice in Latin — below the word "Veritas."
According to The Guardian, the decision to remove the shields comes after Harvard University announced it would chance the title “house master,” used to describe the Ivy League’s residential administrators,” and use the term “faculty dean” instead.

GOP, Dem candidates gear up for weekend of primaries, caucuses

Can be Bought :-)

Challengers to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are gearing up for another full weekend of primaries and caucuses across the country.
Saturday caucuses will be held in Kansas, Kentucky, Maine and Nebraska along with a primary in Louisiana. On Sunday, Maine holds a caucus for Democrats, while Republicans duke it out in a primary in Puerto Rico.
On Friday, Trump pulled out of the annual D.C. conservative confab CPAC. Trump had been scheduled to speak at the four-day gathering but said he would be campaigning instead in Kansas and Florida. Florida holds its primaries on March 15.
"Because of this, he will not be able to speak at CPAC as he has done for many consecutive years," the campaign said. "Mr. Trump would like to thank Matt Schlapp and all of the executives at CPAC and looks forward to returning to next year, hopefully as president of the United States."
Schlapp seemed to challenge Trump’s excuse on Friday, telling Fox News that Trump was “uncomfortable” with the format at CPAC.
The CPAC controversy follows a raucous Fox News Republican debate Thursday night in Detroit, where Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich teamed up against Trump in a concerted effort to cast him as a political salesman willing to say anything and take any position to win the nomination.
They hammered him on alleged inconsistences on his policy details and business dealings, including the now-defunct Trump University, which is being sued for scamming students out of thousands of dollars.
Over on the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders is shaping up to be the weekend’s big winner.
Sanders is favored to win the Kansas and Nebraska caucuses.
Clinton’s campaign manager braced supporters for the potential setback in a Wednesday memo that predicted the former secretary of state may lose the caucus states this weekend.
“Sen. Sanders has clear advantages and is investing heavily in two upcoming caucuses (Kansas and Nebraska),” Robby Mook wrote in a memo.
Kansas will hold caucuses for both parties Saturday. Also on Saturday, Kentucky and Maine will hold their Republican caucuses while Nebraska holds its Democratic caucus. Louisiana holds primaries for both parties.
On Sunday, Maine holds its Democratic caucus, while Puerto Rico has its Republican caucus.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Abedin Clinton Cartoon

FBI investigating if Clinton aides shared passwords to access classified info

EXCLUSIVE: The FBI is investigating whether computer passwords were shared among Hillary Clinton's close aides to determine how sensitive intelligence "jumped the gap" between the classified systems and Clinton's unsecured personal server, according to an intelligence source familiar with the probe.
The source emphasized to Fox News that “if [Clinton] was allowing other people to use her passwords, that is a big problem.” The Foreign Service Officers Manual prohibits the sharing of passwords.
Such passwords are required to access each State Department network. This includes the network for highly classified intelligence -- known as SCI or Sensitive Compartmented Information -- and the unclassified system, known as SBU or Sensitive But Unclassified, according to former State Department employees.
Fox News was told there are several potential scenarios for how classified information got onto Clinton’s server:

Reading intelligence reports or briefings, and then summarizing the findings in emails sent on Clinton's unsecured personal server.
Accessing the classified intelligence computer network, and then lifting sections by typing them verbatim into a device such as an iPad or BlackBerry.
Taking pictures of a computer screen to capture the intelligence.
Using a thumb drive or disk to physically move the intelligence, but this would require access to a data center. It’s unclear whether Clinton’s former IT specialist Bryan Pagliano, who as first reported by The Washington Post has reached an immunity deal with the Justice Department, or others had sufficient administrator privileges to physically transfer data.

Most of these scenarios would require a password. And all of these practices would be strictly prohibited under non-disclosure agreements signed by Clinton and others, and federal law.
It remains unclear who had access to which computers and devices used by Clinton while she was secretary of state and where exactly they were located at the time of the email correspondence. Clinton signed her NDA agreement on Jan. 22, 2009 shortly before she was sworn in as secretary of state.
The intelligence source said the ongoing FBI investigation is progressing in "fits and starts" but bureau agents have refined a list of individuals who will be questioned about their direct handling of the emails, with a focus on how classified information jumped the gap between classified systems and briefings to Clinton's unsecured personal email account used for government business.
Fox News was told the agents involved are “not political appointees but top notch agents with decades of experience.”
A separate source said the list of individuals is relatively small -- about a dozen, among them Clinton aide Jake Sullivan, who was described as "pivotal" because he forwarded so many emails to Clinton. His exchanges, now deemed to contain highly classified information, included one email which referred to human spying, or "HCS-O," and included former Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
As Fox News first reported last year, two emails -- one sent by Abedin that included classified information about the 2011 movement of Libyan troops during the revolution, and a second sent by Sullivan that contained law enforcement information about the FBI investigation in the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack – kick-started the FBI probe.
Testifying to Congress Tuesday about encryption, FBI Director James Comey also was asked about the Clinton investigation. He responded that he is “very close personally” to the case “to ensure that we have the resources we need including people and technology and that it's done the way the FBI tries to do all of its work: independently, competently and promptly. That's our goal and I'm confident it's being done that way."
Earlier this week when she was asked if Clinton has been interviewed by the FBI, Attorney General Loretta Lynch insisted to Fox News’ Bret Baier “that no one outside of DOJ has been briefed on this or any other case. That’s not our policy and it has not happened in this matter.”
Fox News also has learned the State Department cannot touch the security clearance of top aides connected to the case without contacting the FBI, because agents plan to directly question individuals about their handling of the emails containing classified information, and they will need active clearances to be questioned.
While it is standard practice to suspend a security clearance pending the outcome of an investigation, Fox News reported Monday that Clinton’s chief of staff at State, Cheryl Mills, who is also an attorney, maintains her top secret clearance. Mills was involved in the decisions as to which emails to keep and which to delete from the server.
At a press briefing Monday, Fox News pressed the State Department on whether this represented a double standard, or whether the clearances are in place at the direction of the FBI.
“This issue is under several reviews and investigations. I won't speak for other agencies that may be involved in reviews and investigations,” spokesman John Kirby said. “Clearly we are going to cooperate to the degree that we need to."
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.