Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Time for the GOP to Clean House (Senate)
It is well past time for one of the best symbols of the GOP’s decades-long failure to either defend or advance our liberty or the Constitution to actually act and let the nearest camera come to him afterward, if at all. Lindsey Graham has pronounced that the Senate Judiciary Committee under his straight-ahead leadership will probe deeply into the matter of the “Russian Probe” and the continuing injustice done to General Flynn. It is just not clear if this will be right after he finishes with the full exposure of Hunter Biden which he bravely promised not that long ago.
I may stand to be corrected, and if of another opinion please feel free to suggest another time, but these short few days we are seeing now contain the worst direct, clear, and internal threats to both our liberty and Constitution since 1861. And a virus is not among them.
Without bothering to actually count them, there might well half of our states’ governors showing a growing infection by the germ of tyranny. And they seem to be enjoying the flush of fever coming from it.
A federal judge stands ready to assume the role of both the Judicial and Executive branches in direct defiance of the Justice Department, federal statue, and his own past rulings.
The Speaker of House has (in practice) decided that she will rule by fiat, writing bills running hundreds of pages and costing trillions of dollars with the House members of both parties banished to their home states. The constitutional damage done by the contents of this bill alone requires more than my simple typing skills to list.
It is now evident without question that the past administration not just spied on the presidential campaign of the opposing party but worked to undermine the new administration after the election, almost all in violation of federal law.
And I could go on. We haven’t even gotten to the media yet. A complete list would not only exhaust my abilities but distract from the point that it is time for the GOP itself to step up a fight with the intensity it takes for a moment like this. This bundle of efforts are not just dramatic and dangerous; they are overt and blatant.
There are plenty of candidates, but GOP Senators may be the one group who have consistently let us down the most. It has been said that the Senate is a club. And it certainly has been since progressives convinced the nation to abandon the selection of senators by the states themselves. The “direct election” of senators has mostly allowed those sitting in the “upper chamber” to be good club members for roughly 5 ½ years and then campaign for six months on the values of their states. Go back and replay all of John McCain’s campaign ads dealing with the border and immigration and then follow the twisting path of what he actually did when he had to choose between those ads and playing to the media as just one example.
I probably could go on to a Majority Leader who has certainly done some things in regard to judicial appointments (which anyone in his position should have done anyway) but is a disaster in regard to fiscal policy in addition to undermining the more conservative of his party. But then that would lead to such discussion of such characters as Alexander and Romney…
Over the last thirty years or so the House has at times had its good moments. But the GOP Senate was not been a champion for Reagan nor any real conservative cause since. Despite the fraudulent title given to Ted Kennedy, there have been few “lions“ in the Senate since the 17th Amendment.
Richard Grenell has been DNI for three weeks However long it has been, he has done more to force protection of our rights and the protection of the constitutional process than several unnamed senators combined over the last decade. But it has been a simple act of moral courage without bluster and camera mugging. As far as I know, he has not appeared on but a fraction of the news shows that Graham has during that time.
I appreciate the times when ole Lindsey does speak out with some authority. And it is always well-timed. But I have seen little follow-through. In the real world (I have found) that sooner or later tough talk requires some action even if you hadn’t planned on it. Rarely in the Senate is that the case.
Our times require real, focused, and determined action now. The ball is now in Senator Graham’s court for his part of that action. For all our sakes, I hope he follows through this time.
Note: After writing this Graham did appear on Mark Levin’s radio program and made a good try at promising real results by sometime in October which is an aggressive schedule. I intent to contact Graham’s office about this as well as both Texas senators on the Judiciary Committee.
The Democratic senators on the Committee are Leahy (VT), Durbin (IL), Whitehouse (RI), Klobuchar (MN), Coons (DE), Blumenthal (CT), Hiroso (HI), Booker (NJ) and Harris (CA). Good luck with those if you are damned enough to be represented by them. But give it a try if you will.
The remaining GOP senators are Grassley and Kennedy (LA), Lee (UT), Sasse (NE), Hawley (MO), Tillis (NC), Crapo (ID) and Blackburn (TN).
If they truly do their work with some determination it will a small step toward restoring the rule of law that one former president seems so concerned about, at least in public leaks.
Published in General
Graham is facing a legitimate threat thanks to outside funding rolling in for a Democrat and simmering anger from Republicans because of his inaction. Dems see this as a seat they can pick off right now. It doesn’t take much to see the danger, with NC Burr being the latest Repub to prove to be dumber than a rock. Wouldn’t take much corruption for the Dems to win the White House, while retaining the House. Should they pull off the trifecta, the country is toast. If watching Dem governors for two months didn’t convince you, reality will. SC needs to be very careful.
If Graham follows your advice, the odds of him losing his re-election will go from 30% to 70%. People are exhausted by investigations.
He is in this pickle for following what would be your advice.
Consider the source, but Politico reports that Dems have created a Super-PAC to oust Lindsey Graham.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/14/democrat-super-pac-oust-lindsey-graham-259165?fbclid=IwAR2dXnXNAos5FYa-vdEIbwtP-Nk5uJWBUfSWUAY-CvZb-b5kZkgoGEjMLCM
Old news. They can run all the ads they want, but they can’t vote.
They are running against Graham, not really for Harrison. Try to find anything in this vanilla website to tell you anything. We all know he would merely be a Schumer patsy, just like the rest of the Dems. https://jaimeharrison.com/issues/
Lindsey Graham maybe should do a little less talking then. He’s a BIG talker on Fox News….big promises, hell to pay, etc. Then, crickets.
Trey Gowdy is a close second.
If Graham’s seat is lost, it will not be because outside money. It will be because of his record of inaction when it counts; his media show and no go ways. The election that counts the most will be the one for president because even if Lindsey is returned to the Senate if Trump is not the president it will be back to “normal”. Things rolled along for eight years with the most politically corrupt administration we have had while he was in the Senate.
He called to ask to be on Levin’s show yesterday because he wanted to sound off about Judge Sullivan and then had to answer also about what he said about the investigation of his committee. He had not responded to requests from Levin to come to the show for five years but wanted to sound off.
At least these investigations will involve actual evidence and actual crimes and misdeeds as opposed to the what we endured for the last two/three years.
Kind of makes you wonder about how much dirt was collected on the House and Senate between 2008 and 2016?
If they want to clean out the refuse, they should start with the Senior Senator from my home state of North Carolina. Richard Burr is a disgrace.
The way of defeating Graham in South Carolina is because he has been defending pay to play visas for Chinese Communist Party bigwigs.
It’s unbelievable that we are still hashing out the obvious – that the last administration sabotaged the new incoming administration, and had a well planned way to do it so that it would be ongoing. Now here we are in an election year, almost four years, still unraveling this ugly snapshot in our country’s history. Attorney General William Barr and the leader of the FBI, Wrey just gave a press conference giving a few details about the attack on the Pensacola Naval Base. The perpetrator was clearly Al-Qaeda and had been a part of a larger network who had planned the attack for years. They say this is going back to 2015. Who was president? Where was the last administration’s priorities? The threats to our country didn’t end there. Yet here we are still unraveling the fake Russian narrative – If we don’t pull ourselves back together as a country united, we are in deep doodoo – and then throw in a pandemic……….
Time for Miss Lindsey to put on his big boy’s dress.
Graham is going to win by 53 percent of the vote. A bunch of finger wagging on Ricochet wont change that.
The “direct election” of senators has mostly allowed those sitting in the “upper chamber” to be good club members for roughly 5 ½ years and then campaign for six months on the values of their states. Go back and replay all of John McCain’s campaign ads dealing with the border and immigration and then follow the twisting path of what he actually did when he had to choose between those ads and playing to the media as just one example.
Yes. This is exactly the problem with the Senate. Burr is close to treason but the whole institution is deadwood and has been since the “Progressives” gutted it. The farce in Alabama is another example.
Lindsey has been losing ground in every primary since his first one. However, I’m prepared to vote for him in the primary this time because too much is at stake. We lost the House in 2018 because too many male Republicans had an excess of X chromosomes and decided not to run for re-election. Losing the advantage of incumbancy meant the Dems had a great shot at capturing those seats, especially in an off-year election.
Graham is a Republican who checks which way the wind is blowing before doing anything. The weather has turned. The days of wet turds like Romney and McCain are quickly blowing away. If conservatives continue to re-take the platfoem, Graham will be fine and be an asset.
Before the direct election of senators, US Senators never served more than two terms. the state legislatures term limited them.