Tag: US Senate

Hypocritic Oath of the Senate

 

Imagine that deep in the bowels of the Senate building, a group of Democrat Senators has ensconced itself quietly around a well-worn, chipped oak table. They speak in whispers, even though they are certain that no one can hear them. And they pledge themselves by a “hypocritic” oath that they will do everything in their power to discredit, disempower and defame the Supreme Court of the United States. Quiet snickers ensue, as someone mutters that they are fortunate no one is studying their ethical records. They stand up, scraping their chairs across the hardwood floor. There are no friendly good-byes as they leave, only the clearing of throats and downcast eyes.

At some level, they know that the Supreme Court Justices are not the people who are threatening our democracy.

The hypocrisy of the Democrat Senators to stand in judgment of the conservative members of the Supreme Court is ludicrous. Questionable if not outright illegal activities by some Senators, including Dick Durbin, head of the Judiciary Committee, Sheldon Whitehouse, Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blumenthal are ignored. In fact, there have been no disciplinary sanctions from the Senate Select Committee on Ethics since 2007. Senators lack any credibility to sit in judgment of the Supreme Court.

The Media’s Fetterman Fail

 

Like most people, even Pennsylvanians, I didn’t watch Tuesday night’s lone debate between the Keystone State’s two major party nominees for US Senate. More important than the debates themselves is what people and the press say about them afterward – the “echo chamber.” That’s what people see and hear, and it drives polling numbers and final momentum.

And what’s being said about Tuesday’s debate is incredible. There’s never been a debate like this, at least in modern political history.

What is clear: John Fetterman, his campaign, and his political party covered up – lied – about the true nature of his mental, if not his physical, condition after a debilitating stroke on May 13, just days before the Democratic primary. Here’s what his campaign said two days after his stroke:

Still on Team Herschel

 

My Philly friend Christine Flowers has penned an excellent and insightful Substack post about the single-anonymous-sourced hit piece on Georgia Republican US Senate candidate and football legend Herschel Walker. He has repeatedly and clearly denied these most recent charges, which I won’t repeat here since Christine has mentioned them. Read and subscribe to her work.

I would simply add two points. First, this is not the Daily Beast’s first rodeo at scurrilous tabloid journalism. I respect no one employed there, including the once-respected Matt Lewis. It is a bad place that harms journalism and the body politic.

Second, it is increasingly clear that “October surprises” don’t work as they used to. The Gore campaign and their allies’ dump of an alleged DUI by GOP nominee George W. Bush in late October 2000 suppressed some votes, but the more devastating “Hollywood Access” tape from October 2016 didn’t work against Donald Trump.

Ben, We Hardly Knew Ye

 

I remember the first time I met Ben Sasse, sitting and chatting next to him at a GOP fundraising breakfast in Virginia in June 2014. My former boss, retiring US Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), introduced us. “He’s the real deal,” Kyl said. Coming from the highly respected Assistant GOP Leader, that meant something. I’ve long held Kyl in high regard as one of the most effective and intelligent Senators I’ve worked with.

The Harvard and St. John’s educated Sasse was the favorite of National Review magazine among US Senate candidates that fall, winning a cover photo. Then-42 years old, the bright, brash young conservative was seen as a potential presidential candidate.

The Ph.D. historian (Yale University) and, in his 30s, a successful college President (he turned around Midland University in Nebraska) immediately impressed. He homeschooled his children and wrote about their education, including detasseling corn. “Ben is focused on the future of work, the future of war, and the First Amendment,” his official website states. “He worries that the Senate lacks urgency about cyber and about the nation’s generational debt crisis. An opponent of perpetual incumbency, he has no intention of spending his life in the Senate.”

Member Post

 

When teaching a college class or giving a talk about the history and organization of the US Senate, I always include this: When Congress enacted the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946, it created six “leadership” positions within each political party’s caucus or conference. They are, in descending order: Floor (majority or minority) Leader; Assistant Leader […]

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Member Post

 

I am pleased to share that I am speaking today at Constitution week festivities in the beautiful western slope community of Grand Lake, Colorado. I’ll be discussing that other Article I branch of government, the United States Senate. It begins at 11 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time, 1 p.m. Eastern, at the Zoom address linked below.  […]

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Member Post

 

Republicans are often accused of initiating war on cultural issues and “taking away rights.” But it’s congressional Democrats who are using issues like abortion and same-sex marriage for purely political purposes and, in effect, attacking religious liberty. The latest is an effort by Senate Democratic Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) to bring legislation to the […]

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Orwellian Boondoggles in Congress. Again.

 

The nation’s oldest polling company, Gallup, periodically tests Americans’ confidence in our institutions. On July 5, they published their latest. I bet the numbers won’t surprise you. While Americans continue to hold small businesses, our military, and the police in high esteem, Congress is ranked dead last.

Americans despise Congress more than Jar Jar Binks.

Even nine of ten Democrats polled don’t have much confidence in an institution their party controls.

Member Post

 

The juxtaposition of two major spending bills in US Senate within hours of each other Thursday was not lost on the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). President Biden signed into law Saturday legislation providing $40 billion in aid related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, $7 billion more than he requested. Only 11 Senate Republicans and 57 […]

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Manage Your Expectations, GOP Voters

 

The cake is in the oven and is baking nicely. The cake will serve up a hearty GOP majority in the US House and possibly the US Senate when the election rolls around in almost seven months.

Lots can happen between now and then, of course. But Democrats have shown no proclivity, even interest, in doing anything to soften the coming blow, with weakness abroad, an open southern border, and raging inflation at home “baked in” to voters’ equation. Democrats seem content to lead with their chins. Maybe it’s a “long game” thing, where progressive Democrats think they can purge their non-woke brethren this fall and, while a minority in the 118th Congress, entice voters to pine for their socialist schemes as a harsh and angry GOP majority overplays their “authoritarian” hand.

Perhaps Democrats dream that AOC, who turns the constitutionally required 35 years of age on October 13, 2024, to qualify as President before the Fall election, will ascend from the hearts of Americans to the Capitol’s west front on January 20, 2025. Dr. Jill Biden will guide her doddering husband to their seats to facilitate the transfer of “the football” to the former Brooklyn bartender.

Member Post

 

The Wall Street Journal and other media reported Thursday that James Mountain Inhofe, 87, is retiring from the United States Senate by the end of 2022, well before his 6th six-year term ends in early 2027. This November, a special election coinciding with the general election will determine who fills his substantial shoes. Senator Inhofe […]

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Business Insider an online subscription news service that has been making a name for itself recently with reporting on stock trading by Members of Congress, including their spouses and dependent children. Especially trades that are belatedly reported as required by law. Their extensive coverage resulted from a five-month review of financial disclosures, which uncovered apparent violations of the STOCK […]

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Senate Democrats’ Latest Filibuster Idea: An Update

 

Yesterday, I opined on the latest idea percolating among US Senate Democrats to get their partisan power grab on steroids – federalizing election rules in apparent violation of the US Constitution – through the Senate and on the President’s desk.

They focused on what Senate insiders call the “two-speech rule,” limiting every Senator to speaking twice on any question during a legislative day.

Senate Democrats’ Latest Crazy Filibuster Idea

 

While you’ve been busy watching football or digging out of snowstorms, both House and Senate Democrats have been working overtime to find a way of enacting a partisan federal takeover of America’s elections. They are desperate to get a bill to the president’s desk.

And they are almost there. But that last hurdle is a doozy.

Life Lessons from Bob Dole’s Memorial Service

 

Services for departed legends convey lessons on life and service. Even silly media distractions.

As a former US Secretary of the Senate, I’m honored to have joined current and former Senators for two notable funerals of historic public servants in recent years. The late Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who died at age 100 in 2003, and Bob Dole (R-KS), who passed last Sunday at age 98, whose memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, my wife and I attended last Friday. I served as Dole’s third and final Secretary of the Senate over his years in the 1980s and mid-’90s as Senate Majority Leader.

Celebrating a Remarkable Life – Robert J. Dole

 

It came as a shock. It shouldn’t have, the news that former US Senator and 1996 GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, 98, passed away on Sunday. It falls on the same day three years ago that he famously but painfully stood in the Capitol Rotunda and saluted the casket of his former political competitor and close friend, George H. W. Bush.

Brilliant and touching prose from prominent people who knew him well or shared parts of his incredible journey and life story are rolling in. Of course, it will be positive, even glowing, and deservedly so. I can imagine Senator Dole, with his famous humor and dry wit, asking “Where were you in 1996?” That’s when he unsuccessfully sought the presidency as the GOP’s nominee, losing to incumbent Bill Clinton. Tributes are already pouring in from his friends, former colleagues, ex-staff, and the beneficiaries of his legendary military, legislative, and public service record. Mine is but a small addition, but we all have our stories and desire to honor his towering legacy. Together, they present a glowing mosaic of courage, determination, compassion, humility, and service.

And yes, humor. He could have easily succeeded as a stand-up comic. As one of a few senior GOP staff would attend occasions closed-door meetings of the Senate Republican Conference, he would often lighten the mood with endless quips, delivered within his famous deadpan style and impeccable timing. Celebrating US Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) on his 93rd birthday, he quipped, “I watch what Strom eats. If he eats a banana, I eat a banana.” Thurmond would live to be 100, six months after retiring from the US Senate in early 2003. He was succeeded by Lindsey Graham.

Member Post

 

Television celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz announced this week unconventionally that he’s running for US Senate in Pennsylvania, where incumbent Republican Pat Toomey is retiring. It’s a wide-open race with multiple candidates in both parties. Hedge fund CEO David McCormick, a southwest Pennsylvania native, Bush 43 Treasury official, and Gulf War veteran quickly followed the Oz […]

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Senate’s Parliamentarian Back Under the Klieg Lights

 

Klieg lights, Wikipedia tells us, were intensely bright “carbon arc” lights used in filmmaking. They were so bright that they allowed Hollywood directors to film daytime scenes at night. They were also so bright as to cause inflammation of the eye, known as “Klieg eye.”

Let’s hope the Senate’s Parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough suffers no such injury. Or worse. Few people like the spotlight less than the Senate’s Parliamentarian, a senior staff member and legal expert who reports to the Secretary of the Senate, the chamber’s senior officer. And now, she has won a new Twitter hashtag, #FireTheParliamentarian.