RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://freebeacon.com/columns/the-coming-democratic-disillusion/

On Thursday, after eight years in the minority, Nancy Pelosi returned to power as speaker of the House of Representatives. Her party controls 235 seats to the Republicans’ 199. One contest, in North Carolina, has yet to be decided. The Democratic majority is a couple seats larger than the one Pelosi led more than a decade ago. Back then a Republican resided in the White House as well. By the seventh year of his presidency, when some 100 U.S soldiers were killed in Iraq every month and gas on average cost $2.80 per gallon, George W. Bush was about as popular as Donald Trump is today. And in 2007, as we all remember, Pelosi’s Democrats set about enacting universal health care and ending the war in Iraq.

Fooled you! Actually, the victories of the 110th Congress were much more modest: a minimum wage increase, lobbying reform, and a ban of incandescent light bulbs. Health care had to wait for a subsequent Congress and a Democratic president. So did withdrawal from Iraq—though retreat didn’t work out as planned, and America returned, in much smaller numbers, in 2014. The history of Nancy Pelosi’s tenure as speaker is a reminder of the limitations and tenuousness of political victories (and defeats).

I suspect Pelosi is aware of this lesson. I doubt her caucus is. More than a quarter of them are freshmen, many are young, and two are self-avowed democratic socialists. They are inclined to believe history began when Barack Obama entered Mile High Stadium in Denver. It’s an impression encouraged by cable news, which spent the run up to Pelosi’s investiture celebrating the youth, diversity, and ambition of the House Democratic freshmen. And yet, for all the talk of Alison Spanberger and the “Badass Caucus,” of how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib “aren’t going to take no for an answer,” of grand plans for a Green New Deal and Medicare for All, there remains the inescapable reality of power. Democrats don’t really have it. Indeed, they have even less than the last time Pelosi became speaker.

Yes, they can fire their subpoena cannon at the White House. They can interrogate cabinet officials, subpoena Jared and Ivanka, leak scoops to reporters, maybe force a cabinet official or two to resign, if any are left. When Mueller delivers his findings, they could begin impeachment proceedings. But impeachment, like progressive legislation, won’t get far. A decade ago the House could pass bills and hope that Harry Reid would persuade his Democratic Senate majority to support them. All Pelosi had to worry about was President Bush’s veto. Now, Pelosi has to deal with Mitch McConnell’s Republican Senate even before her policies reach Donald Trump.

She’s in the same situation as John Boehner, who became speaker after the Tea Party election in 2010. No one envied Boehner.

The main product of the Tea Party Congress (2011-2013) was frustration. Votes to repeal Obamacare went nowhere. Negotiations over a rise in the debt ceiling produced a fiscal sequester that hardly anyone liked. Through it all, Boehner faced sniping from within his party by newcomers short on experience but long on ideological zeal. It so wore him down that he resigned his post in 2015. His replacement’s tenure was even briefer.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2019/01/03/wapo-reporter-lieawathas-2020-run-has-registered-a-whopping-zero-on-the-enthusiasm-scale-n2538368

So, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has announced she’s running for president. She’s a hard-core liberal. One of the faces of the progressive left in the Democratic Party. Maybe a tinge (using it very loosely here) more moderate than Bernie Sanders, but still pretty far left. So, there should be hyper-enthusiasm, right? She’s a Democrat, a liberal, and a woman, the three things that are defining the party right now. The future is female supporters must be flocking to her banner, right? Nope. The Warren wave is registering a whopping zero on the enthusiasm scale, and voters in Massachusetts who know her don’t like her compared to the other Democrats running. On CNN yesterday, host Alisyn Camerota asked Washington Postreporter if the Ready for Warren cohorts are jacked up—and no one is about Warren 2020. Umm…ouch (via NTK Network):

Camerota asked Linskey, who previously reported for Warren’s hometown Boston Globe, if she sensed the same hunger for Warren to run for president today as there was in 2016.

“I think that has changed a little bit. I think there is some truth to that,” Linskey said. “You look back to 2015 and the run-up to the 2016 election, and there was this organization, ‘Ready for Warren,’ really pushing her to run.”

Linskey noted that during many of Warren’s speeches in 2105, she was often interrupted by people urging her to run for president.

“That sort of enthusiasm…we haven’t detected it much yet,” Linskey said about Warren’s 2020 run.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/enter-the-house-of-pelosi-11546473467

Nancy Pelosi takes the oath as Speaker of the House for the third time Thursday, a suitable reward for gaining 40 seats. If you expect a new era of progress in Washington, however, fair warning. The main Democratic goal will be investigating, not legislating. Then again, the country could do worse than policy gridlock, and it probably will.

The new Democratic House is being compared with the first Pelosi majority of 2006, but there’s one big difference: The 2018 Democrats ran on no discernible agenda beyond rejecting Donald Trump and all his works. The animating purpose of Congress will be investigations to damage, and perhaps impeach, the President to tee up total Democratic control after 2020.

Mr. Trump’s tax returns and foreign business dealings will get frequent star turns. Democrats think they can prove Mr. Trump has exploited his office for personal enrichment, or in some way that matters to Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. If not, at least they’ll embarrass the Trump family. Ivanka and Jared should prepare for subpoenas and dives into their email habits and security clearances.

Democrats will also run investigations into payments to Stormy Daniels; the Administration’s policy of separating children at the border; and every consultation with a business about a deregulatory decision. House Democrats will trail every cabinet officer down to whether he ordered a cocktail on a commercial flight. This will present even greater problems in staffing federal agencies.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/03/nadler-trump_feud_to_resume_–_with_higher_stakes_139078.html

Old grudges die hard and Donald Trump and Rep. Jerry Nadler have been stoking theirs for decades. The two New Yorkers with a history of mutual dislike are preparing for another rumble in the new Congress, when Nadler takes the gavel as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. After years of back-and-forth, Nadler may get to land the ultimate punch on Trump by controlling the first step in an impeachment process.

Unlike other New York Democrats who have tried over the years to ingratiate themselves with Trump for campaign donations, Nadler has tried a different tack. For the last 30 years, he’s consistently attacked Trump, which has elevated the congressman’s profile among liberals in New York and Washington.

The two have been trading barbs since the late 1980s when Nadler was in the New York State Assembly and Trump was developing the Penn Rail Yards into an apartment complex and park in Nadler’s district on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Using his now-familiar rhetorical style, Trump called the project the “greatest ever” and the “most important project” needed for New York City. He wanted one of the buildings to be taller than Chicago’s Sears Tower so it would be the tallest building in the U.S., which he said was a distinction that should belong to Manhattan.

The original plans for “Trump City” included a television studio, shopping mall, massive parking structure, and private park — and it involved moving a highway. This would be a major change to the neighborhood. Nadler aligned with community groups who opposed the development, which they called “the phallic symbol,” “tacky” and “overbearing.” By the early 1990s, Trump was having financial difficulties and just wanted to get the project approved and built.

At one point, he wanted federal highway funds for the undertaking, which Nadler, who by then was serving in Congress, managed to kill. Nadler also convinced then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to stop Trump from getting a federal mortgage guarantee for his project, which the real estate mogul wanted to categorize as blighted land. “This was an area in the middle of some of the most expensive real estate in the country, which Trump was calling blighted in order to receive federal funds,” recalls Nadler spokesman Daniel Schwarz. “Donald Trump has a long history of trying to take advantage of the system to help himself. Congressman Nadler has always stood on the other side.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/cuomo-joe-biden-has-the-best-case-of-2020-dem-hopefuls/

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that Joe Biden has the most “credibility” of the many prospective candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I think of all the names that are out there, I think Joe Biden has the best case,” Cuomo told radio station WAMC. “I think Joe Biden has the best case because he brings the most of the secret ingredient you need to win for a Democrat, which is credibility.”

Cuomo, who himself was rumored to be exploring a presidential run until he ruled it out several weeks ago, also said he expected the primary field to be crowded.

“I think there’s going to be a big field,” Cuomo said in response to questions about the candidacy of Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, who announced that she was forming an exploratory committee earlier this week. Other possible Democratic candidates include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

“I think the problem for the Democrats is going to be this: It is going to be credibility,” Cuomo said. “I think that the main issue for the Democrats is not going to be the articulation of the negative. It is going to be the articulation of the positive.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/01/elizabeth_warren_dead_phony_walking.html

Elizabeth Warren obviously has no concept of the damage she already has done to her future in national politics by revealing her DNA test results showing that she has less Native America DNA than the average citizen of this country. How else could she have issued her bizarre Instagram video announcing her presidential campaign? The live-feed video she posted to Instagram (but did not archive) lives on and has made her into a national joke, confirming that deep down, the genuine, authentic Elizabeth Warren is a phony.

The estimable William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection dubs the video her “Dukakis Tank Moment,” a judgment shared by Boston Herald columnist Jaclyn Cashman.

Warren’s cringeworthy event – streamed on Instagram Live on New Year’s Eve – is a friendly chat with her followers.

“I’m here in my kitchen – and um – I thought maybe we’d just take some questions and I’d see what I can do,” Warren said.

At which point she not-so-casually said she would grab a beer. Seems innocuous enough. Beer has a time-honored place in presidential politics. But this resident of Cambridge’s la-di-dah Linnaean Street and erstwhile Harvard elitist is really an extra oaky chardonnay kind of lady. Her poor husband was so befuddled – apparently not fully clued in on the stunt – that when she offered him one he declined. More of a 20-year-old tawny port sipper, no doubt.

The most authentic thing about the video, in fact, was its bogusness: Warren once again trying to pretend she is something she is not.

It is widely believed that the stunt in which presidential candidate Dukakis rode in a tank with a tanker’s helmet on – an effort to prove his toughness on national security – backfired, as he looked completely unnatural.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mitt-romney-blasts-deep-descent-of-trump-presidency-11546399916

Shame on Mitt Romney who was stumped badly by Obama in the 2012 debates, and ultimately rejected by Donald Trump when he auditioned for a cabinet post. An incoming Senator should concentrate on the ways a GOP representative can bring prosperity to his state…..rsk

WASHINGTON—Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee who will be sworn in as senator for Utah on Thursday, delivered a withering attack on President Trump’s character in an op-ed article published Tuesday.

Mr. Romney wrote in the Washington Post that U.S. presidents are role models who should “unite and inspire” a nation and display “honesty and integrity.”

“And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring,” he wrote.

Mr. Romney’s article is an unusual attack from a member of the president’s own party. In the Senate, Republican criticism of Mr. Trump has been sparing, coming primarily from lawmakers who are on their way out of office, notably Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

By taking aim at Mr. Trump in so public a forum at the beginning of his term, Mr. Romney appears to be signaling that he will follow a more independent path when it comes to the president’s behavior. The piece inevitably will stoke speculation that Mr. Romney may want to challenge Mr. Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination. Polling shows, though, that Mr. Trump commands the loyalty of rank-and-file Republicans.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump is sensitive to attacks from prominent political figures, though, and typically uses his Twitter feed to respond.

In a tweet Tuesday night, Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, wrote: “The truth is @mittromney lacked the ability to save this nation. @realdonaldtrump has saved it. Jealously is a drink best served warm and Romney just proved it.”

Now comes word that Progressive-Fascist Elizabeth “I feel like I am a Native American Indian so I’ll just say that I am” Warren is seriously contemplating a run for President of the United States. I guess she embraces delusions of grandeur whether about ruling the teepee or the free world.

In her announcement, which didn’t take place in front of a crowd but in a YouTube video, the fraudulent wannabe-Cherokee said government “has been bought and paid for by a bunch of billionaires and giant corporations that think they get to dictate the rules that affect everyone…”

Evidently, Warren believes that the elitist and oligarchical powers that comprise the Fascist-Progressive faction that would see our country transform from a Constitutional Republic to Democratic Socialism would be more benevolent than the imperfect system we have today.

Does Capitalism have its flaws? Well, yes, but only when the pure Capitalist system is encroached upon by government regulations that seek to create opportunity for select groups. The flaws of Capitalism reside in an overreaching government, both at the Federal and State levels. When the free market is allowed to function without economic interference it serves the public like no other economic system. Capitalism is the only economic system that created a middle class and opportunity for all.

So, Warren, a woman who falsified her resume to land a six-figure teaching gig at Harvard, and who, as far as anyone can tell, wouldn’t know how to bag groceries at the local supermarket, is attempting to place herself back within the spotlight of relevancy by saying our economic system sucks and Socialism is superior.

I suppose we should ask Venezuelans about that.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/12/28/its-not-that-alexandria

Many on the right say she is a millennial know nothing. That’s not true. It’s just that everything she thinks she really knows is wrong.

As tragedy struck an acquaintance this week, I was reminded today of the fleeting nature of life. The Psalmist begged God, “O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” What can one say to that but, Amen! As important and precious as our lives are, they are fleeting, delicate, ephemeral.

But Christmas is a season when we pause to remember and to honor the advent of the Creator who took on human vesture, as the Liturgy of St. James so memorably puts it, and in doing so we catch a glimpse of the eternal. Politics, though important, gets put into perspective.

Yet Christmas was also the day I was reminded of how quickly and perversely even the highest things are misused for low purposes. I realized almost immediately that I had made a mistake when, out of sheer habit, I looked at Twitter on Christmas morning. Within moments I happened upon a tweet from the Bronx’s newest congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It began cheerfully enough: “Joy to the world.” Wonderful. “Merry Christmas everyone.” And a Merry Christmas to you, too! I thought. Look, per Rodney King, we can all just get along if only for a morning. The congresswoman-elect continued: “. . . here’s to a holiday filled with happiness, family, and love . . .” Lovely. Sounds like just the way to spend Christmas.