RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/405774-booker-places-staffers-in-iowa-report
Booker placing staffers in Iowa: report By Megan Keller

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has sent four staffers to Iowa to help Democratic candidates campaigning in the state, multiple sources told The Guardian.

The move may well be part of Booker’s groundwork for a 2020 presidential run, according to the news outlet, as the senator is widely speculated to be building up for such a campaign.

The new report comes one day after the Iowa Democratic Party announced that Booker will be headlining a gala in Iowa next month.
Booker gained the national spotlight and some scorn last Thursday when he dared the Senate Judiciary Committee to punish him for releasing “committee confidential documents” related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, referring to himself as “Spartacus.”

A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said later, however, that Booker’s actions did not break any confidentiality rules.

“Restrictions were waived before 4:00 a.m. this morning and made ready for release,” the spokesman said.

“Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate or of confidentiality of the documents that we are privy to,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said during the hearing.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-senate-barnburner-in-farm-country-1536356011
A Senate Barnburner in Farm Country North Dakota’s tossup election may turn on trade, conservative values, and how much the state wants to embrace Donald Trump. By Kyle Peterson

Standing on a shop floor between two 1,000-barrel steel tanks destined for the oil fields out west, Rep. Kevin Cramer insists that President Trump cares about North Dakota. “This is no longer flyover country, if you hadn’t noticed,” he tells a group of steelworkers in coveralls and hard hats on a late-August morning. “The secretary of transportation has been here twice. The secretary of homeland security. The secretary of energy. The secretary of agriculture. Of course, the president himself twice, and the vice president three times, just since they took office.”

For a red-state Republican in a tight election, these rolling visits are the arrival of the cavalry. Mr. Cramer is asking voters to promote him to the Senate this fall, and his success will be pivotal if the GOP is to keep majority control. The incumbent Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp, is so personally popular that Mr. Cramer confesses in one TV ad that “we all like Heidi.”

Yet North Dakotans also backed Mr. Trump in 2016 by nearly 36 points. “They are very supportive of this president,” Mr. Cramer tells me. He tilts his head and grins a little: “I mean very supportive.” Hence, Mr. Trump’s third official visit to the state, touching down Air Force One in Fargo this Friday to talk up Mr. Cramer at a $500-a-person fundraiser. “He’s gonna vote with me. He’s going to vote on Making America Great Again,” Mr. Trump told the crowd. If that doesn’t convince, the president is expected back in North Dakota for another rally before the election, and there’s Donald Trump Jr.’s planned speech on Sept. 25, not to mention . . .

One potential hang-up is Mr. Trump’s trade war, which could soon cost North Dakota farmers hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2012 Ms. Heitkamp won election by 0.9 percentage point, or 2,936 votes. Since the state has 30,000 farms, even a small tariff revolt could swing the balance. So far there hasn’t been much reliable polling. A June 13-15 survey gave Mr. Cramer a 4-point lead, within the margin of error, but that was before China put a 25% tariff on U.S. soybeans.

Typically, more than two-thirds of North Dakota’s soybean crop goes to China, shipped via ports in the Pacific Northwest: 60 pounds a bushel; 400,000 bushels carried by a 110-car train; just over five trainloads to fill a Panamax bulk ship. But since July there have been zero orders from the Pacific Northwest, industry data show. Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade have fallen 20%, from highs near $10.50 a bushel to below $8.50. Meanwhile, the bite taken at the local elevator, which reflects demand and shipping costs, has grown. Instead of something like 85 cents, it’s hitting $1.50, as the market contemplates the difficulty of having to send soybeans east to St. Louis or Duluth, Minn.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/blumenthal_whitehouse_harris_and_booker_the_four_horsemen_of_the_democrat_apocalypse.html

The Senate Kavanaugh hearings have been instructive, to say the least. The four names above were the most tellingly obnoxious Democrats at the event, the worst offenders. To name the others would be redundant.

The Democratic Party’s left – what amounts to a far left these days – cares about nothing beyond ending the Trump presidency, by any means necessary. These people have sold their souls to accomplish this feat. That was on display for all to see these past few days. They set out to destroy Judge Brett Kavanaugh with all sorts of accusations, innuendo, and insults, but they didn’t lay a hand on him, not one of them, no matter how malicious their interrogation.

Not one of these Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee showed the judge an iota of respect. They did expose for all to see their contempt for the president and all things conservative. They apply very different rules to those nominated to the SCOTUS by Republicans from what they apply to those nominated by Democrats. Non-answers by Democrat-nominated candidates are heralded for their evasion of how-would-you-rule questions. This is not allowed for those nominated by Republican presidents. Supreme Court justice nominees such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, etc. were celebrated for their refusal to answer certain questions. Kavanaugh, more judicious and more experienced than Ginsburg or Kagan ever were, has been eviscerated by these same Democrats and the press for his handling of the questions asked.

The left is behaving as if its members’ very lives depend on defeating Kavanaugh’s nomination to the court. Republicans have never resisted a Democrat-nominated justice so vehemently. Most of them have been confirmed almost unanimously. Yet Democrats do not grant a sitting Republican his choice. Why?

It’s because they count on the SCOTUS to advance the far-left agenda they cannot get done legislatively. They view the Court as their ace in the hole, their way to achieve their ends. It has worked through the years. When they are foiled, they become very, very angry. Think Citizens United.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/09/07/stakes_are_high_in_new_york_attorney_general_race_138019.html

Elections for state attorney general seldom make national news, but this one should. The Sept. 13 Democratic primary for New York state’s attorney general is hotly contested, and the unusually powerful position will have broad implications for Wall Street and President Trump. The state’s unique Martin Act gives the AG sweeping powers to investigate and extract billions in fines from Wall Street banks, insurance companies and energy firms, often without going to court or relying on a “preponderance of evidence.”

For these reasons, New York’s AG has been a high-profile political platform, boosting the gubernatorial campaigns of current Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer. In May, the position unexpectedly opened up when Eric Schneiderman resigned after allegations of sexual and physical abuse were reported in the New Yorker.

Three well-funded Democrats are vying in next week’s primary, with the endorsement game dominating local news. New York City pubic advocate Letitia James has been winning this battle by getting the endorsements of Cuomo, EMILY’s List, several unions, the Democratic Party, and a long roster of elected officials.

The most progressive of the candidates, Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham law school professor and leftist activist, has won the endorsements of the New York Times, the New York Daily News and newly influential Democratic socialist Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/09/naomi_levin_takes_on_the_ny_democratic_cartel.html
Naomi Levin takes on the NY Democratic cartelBy Seth Ian

Entrenched Democrat establishment career politician Jerrold Nadler may have met his match in Naomi Levin. Her campaign website sums it up well: “growing up she was keenly aware that entitlement is not an American value hard work is.” Running as a Republican in the Tenth Congressional District, she seems the perfect foil to Congressman Nadler, a man who supported Obama’s disastrous Iran deal and has made resisting the duly elected President Trump his chief goal.

Levin, the daughter of immigrants from the former USSR, has been interviewed on Fox and Friends. In that interview she contrasts her capitalist views with another NY millennial turned politician. Unlike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Naomi does not believe in socialism but rather believes in making America great and that it doesn’t need what Obama referred to as a fundamental transformation. Instead, Naomi appreciates this country and wants to cut taxes, which in NY are extremely high.

Naomi Levin is the perfect foil for her opponent. She wants to go to Washington “to influence a system overhaul.” Contrast that with Nadler, a pillar of the Washington establishment since 1993. Her opponent represents the epitome of an establishment which is seeing its political clout fading. Unlike Nadler and the open borders Democrat NY establishment, Naomi Levin supports law enforcement and believes in enforcing immigration law, saying “We also need to control who can cross our border and support our efforts to do that.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/democratic-activist-ousts-incumbent-massachusetts-congressman-in-primary-1536111132?mod=hp_lead_pos4

In the latest upset among Democrats, Ayanna Pressley, a Boston city councilor who ran as a progressive activist, beat 10-term Democratic Rep. Michael Capuano on Tuesday in a Massachusetts House primary.

Ms. Pressley becomes the second Democrat to defeat an incumbent House member in a 2018 primary. She rode energy from the party’s resistance to President Trump to topple Mr. Capuano, who Federal Election Commission records show raised about twice as much money as she did.

Ms. Pressley’s victory instantly thrusts her into the ranks of the new Democratic stars of 2018, alongside New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the only other Democrat to oust an incumbent member of Congress this year, and Andrew Gillum, who last week won an upset victory to become the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida.
CONTINUE AT SITE

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/former-senator-jon-kyl-will-succeed-john-mccain/

Former U.S. senator Jon Kyl will succeed former senator John McCain, the Arizona Republic reported on Tuesday.

Arizona governor Doug Ducey announced Kyl’s appointment at the Arizona capitol on Tuesday morning. Kyl, who represented Arizona in the Senate for 18 years before he retired in 2013, has reportedly agreed to serve through the end of the year at a minimum.

Kyl shares McCain’s conservative bona fides and is viewed by the Ducey administration as the obvious choice to complete McCain’s unfinished business due to his years of Senate experience.

“There is no one in Arizona more prepared to represent our state in the U.S. Senate than Jon Kyl,” Ducey said in a statement. “He understands how the Senate functions and will make an immediate and positive impact benefiting all Arizonans. I am deeply grateful to Senator Kyl for agreeing to succeed his friend and colleague of so many years.”

Kyl, who could be sworn in as soon as Tuesday night, was asked to consider succeeding his longtime friend and colleague just hours after McCain passed away on Saturday night, following a battle with brain cancer.

Cindy McCain, who was reportedly consulted during the search process, celebrated Kyl’s appointment in a statement on Tuesday morning.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271218/democratic-socialists-america-have-anti-semitism-daniel-greenfield

“Like most American Jews, I was raised with the delusion that Israel was a safe haven for me,” Julia Salazar wrote on Mondoweiss, an anti-Semitic hate site, while denouncing the Jewish State.

Salazar’s rant had appeared on a racist site whose creator had complained that his publication had been banned from DailyKos because of “my repeated insistence on talking about the large Jewish presence in the American establishment and the importance of Jewish money in the political process” and one of whose editors had declared, “I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, but I can understand why some are.”

In reality, Salazar had been baptized as a Catholic, her uncle was a Jesuit priest, and her brother made it clear that no one in the family was Jewish. The Jewish part of her past was as fake as the rest.

And it was this biography that the Democratic Socialists of America candidate was running on. The DSA had been hoping to turn Salazar into the next Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with the support of radical lefties like Cortez, Cynthia Nixon and Zephyr Teachout by playing up her imaginary biography.

But Salazar, a socialist candidate running for the State Senate in New York, had lied about that, and nearly everything else. Caught on video, claiming, “I immigrated to this country when I was little,” she had actually been born in Miami to an Italian-American mother and a Columbian immigrant father. Despite growing up in a mansion, she claimed to have a working class background. Her mother and her brother between them tore up most of her fake biography of a hardscrabble, immigrant life.