Pondering the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from> around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Pondering the Pundits”.
Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt
USA Today Editorial Board: Smearing Robert Mueller
When Robert Mueller was appointed in May to oversee the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, he was universally praised as the perfect choice. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a vocal supporter of President Trump, tweeted that Mueller‘s “reputation is impeccable for honesty and integrity.”
And so it is. Amid the contemptible efforts to discredit Mueller’s investigation, let’s pause for a moment to remember who he is: A Republican. A Marine Corps veteran who earned a Bronze Star for valor and Purple Heart for a gunshot wound to his thigh during combat in Vietnam. A longtime federal prosecutor before President George W. Bush nominated him to direct the FBI in 2001 and the Senate unanimously confirmed him.
Mueller took office a week before Sept. 11 and led the bureau during the height of the war on terrorism, his agents tirelessly circumventing additional attacks. Mueller was so highly respected that he was asked to stay on under President Obama.
Yet as the Russia investigation gathered steam with charges brought against four former Trump campaign officials in recent months, a coterie of Republican congressmen, joined by commentators on Fox News and other Trump-friendly media outlets, have started calling for Mueller’s head. Rarely has the American public been suddenly asked to revile a public figure once so widely revered.
William Barber II: Trump’s Terrible Choice for Judge
Among President Trump’s worrisome nominees to the judiciary, perhaps none is as alarming as Thomas Alvin Farr, a protégé of Jesse Helms, the former North Carolina senator, and a product of the modern white supremacist machine that Mr. Helms pioneered.
Mr. Farr, nominated to serve on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, began his career as counsel for Mr. Helms’s Senate campaigns, where he participated in racist tactics to intimidate African-American voters. This alone is reason to reject his nomination, as is his apparent lying on the topic to the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Mr. Farr’s connections to Mr. Helms’s white supremacist causes and political network go much deeper. [..]
African-Americans seeking to have their rights protected under federal law have much to fear if Mr. Farr takes the bench. This is particularly the case in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which covers an area where about half of the state’s African-American residents live and is often referred to as its Black Belt. The Eastern District has not had a black judge in its 145-year history. President Barack Obama’s attempts to desegregate this federal bench were obstructed by Senator Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, who blocked the vote on two highly qualified female African-American nominees and who now supports Mr. Farr’s nomination to the Eastern District.
Senators from both sides of the aisle must condemn the experience Mr. Farr brings with him. Having practiced white supremacy for decades, Mr. Farr is not likely to withdraw. Every senator who condemned the racism on display in Charlottesville must vote to prevent it from having power in the federal judiciary.
Barbara Boxer: Republicans Win, America Loses
Can You Believe?
Can you believe Rep. Mimi Walters claiming she improved the GOP tax bill? The bill cut her constituents off at the knees with its frontal assault on state and local tax deductions. Walters got the leadership to provide “minuscule” relief to only about half of the people in her district, then declared victory and voted for this heinous bill. To see how her constituents might feel, check out my “Scrooge” ad here.
Can you believe the Trump administration nominating such grossly unqualified, unprepared people to the federal bench? You’d think they could find a few more right-wing ideologues with trial court experience! As Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) said after one nominee’s appalling Judiciary Committee hearing, “Just because you’ve seen My Cousin Vinny doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.” [..]
Finally…
Today’s Republican party exists for two principal reasons: to cut taxes on the rich and shred the social safety net. The tax bill does both with cruel efficiency. The tax cut part is clear: 83% of the bill’s benefits go to the top 1% of taxpayers. As for the safety net, we already see Trump crowing about destroying Obamacare, and we know the GOP wants to make huge cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to narrow the massive deficits they just created.
Josh Marshall: The Trump-True GOP
Note that the calls for a “purge” of the FBI and DOJ are becoming more explicit, actually using the word “purge” and moving from the right-wing publications to sitting members of Congress. A small part of this is simple partisanship, what threatens the leader of your political party is bad and needs to be attacked. But what we’re seeing goes far, far beyond that and can only be explained by the Republican right’s broader embrace of authoritarianism, which both predates Trump, accounts for his rise and has in turn been accelerated by his presidency.
This point is critical to remember. Trump’s flouting of democratic norms during the campaign was a core element, perhaps the core element, of his appeal. Support for Trump certainly wasn’t in spite of this. Nor was it incidental. We focus on Trump’s antics. They remain erratic and unbridled. But equally important, probably more important, is the absence of any overriding respect for the rule of law or democratic norms among his supporters. Functionally that means the entire Republican party, even if individual Republican officeholders may express a muted displeasure.
Gabriel Schoenfeld: Look to Defense Secretary James Mattis to see strength in refusing to grovel before President Trump
When historians turn to Year One of the Reign of Trump, a first-order question they will take up is the degree of individual culpability for the degradation of American democracy and the damage to American institutions our 45th President has already managed to bring about.
The list of the complicit is lengthy and those on it can be found in different quadrants: in the conservative media; among Trump campaign surrogates and aides; in the Vichy wing of the Republican party; and among those who signed up for posts in the administration.
However, in that latter category of public service, good and bad motives — like patriotism and personal aggrandizement — will inevitably be mixed.
At one end of the spectrum is a figure like James Mattis, who out of a sense of duty and love of country agreed to serve as Secretary of Defense and whose stellar reputation, almost a year in to the Trump presidency, remains intact. Mattis has never for a moment chosen to genuflect before the president. That forms quite a contrast with almost all his colleagues.
Recent Comments