Thursday, November 16, 2017

Hypocrisy and Hubris.

Hypocrisy first.  Every man or woman is supposed to be presumed innocent prior to trial.  Alabama Republican and Senatorial nominee Moore’s escapade is no different.   However, when numerous complainants come forward with some of the specifics that we are seeing in their accusations, there certainly seems to be the real possibility of fire down inside that smoke.  At the very least, Moore should back out of this campaign and deal with his personal issues.  It certainly seems like an effort that might require his full attention.  As an aside, how fascinating it is to see the way liberals have been reacting to the rash of articles comparing Moore’s issues with those of Bill Clinton, the fat Hollywood director/producer, and some various Kennedys.  There has never been equal justice in American courts, either the judicial ones or the ones that deal with public opinion.  In America, one gets as much justice as they can afford.  We should not expect saints in our Congress; that quest would never be fulfilled.  Who wants a saint making all the rules anyway?  On the other hand, there are certain moral and ethical standards that we can reasonably expect to be met by Senators and Representatives.  It is one of those deals where we might not be able to put the list down in black and white, but I think we all know the “pass or fail” grade when we encounter it.  Until proven otherwise…Moore has failed.

And speaking of hypocrisy…have you read Hillary’s latest comments about the possibility of a special counsel to look into her Uranium One deal?  If you want to get the real and honest scoop on Trump Investigations versus Clinton Investigations, go to McCarthy @

Special counsels are a bad idea, whether they are investigating Republicans or Democrats.  It is an open invitation to political skulduggery and mission creep.  If our Department of Justice and other related government law enforcement agencies cannot be trusted to conduct transparent, non-biased, and competent investigations of politically-tinged issues, then we need some wholesale changes in civil service personnel.  Mueller is a joke, a farce, and the biggest bamboozle ever perpetrated on the American taxpayer.  The sooner he can complete this circus he is conducting, the better.  Appointing another Special Counsel to look into Democratic Russian monkey business would be “oh so satisfying” to many Republicans in a tit for tat fashion; but it would be a terrible idea, a colossal waste of time and money, and would only serve to further devolve the poisonous political environment that currently exists in WDC.  Civil servants, especially high ranking civil servants, are very well paid.  They need to step up, make the hard decisions they are paid to make, do their jobs, and quit passing the buck and ducking their obligations.

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Now, about that hubris…in the U.S. Senate.  Mitch McConnell, my home state Senator, drives me nuts sometimes with his total allegiance to Senate traditions and decorum.  Most times these days, I just want him to throw down and play hardball with the majority advantages that he holds.  On the other hand, I suppose for the Senate to survive in some type of semi-civil state, there must be McConnells on both sides of the political aisle.  They are likely the closest thing we have to statesmen these days.  But this absurd expectation of each U.S. Senator that has become so prevalent over the last decade of demanding legislation that is precisely according to their liking is becoming very tiresome.  We saw it most recently in the Senate Republican’s effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.  The pathetic drama inflicted upon us by McCain, Collins, and Murkowski borders on the unbearable.  And now we have Obamacare, the Sequel: Republican Tax Reform; more of the same drama and grandstanding, beginning with Senator Ron Johnson.   These people know the legislative process and they know what is doable and what is not.  They know when the process will allow for changes in the legislative product and when it is simply designed to move the bill forward to a later reckoning.  History has taught us that pushing legislation in the House is like herding cats; a frustrating and nebulous process.  But so far in the Trump Administration, the House has been the mature body with members serving their paltry two-year terms while the hubris of the “Senate elites” has exposed them to be the preening, shallow, unprincipled politicians we all suspected.  Love him or hate him, we must give a tip of the hat to Paul Ryan for moving actual legislation through the sausage factory that is the U.S. House in an impressive and meaningful way.  Unfortunately, once it has achieved House passage, said legislation heads over to the Senate graveyard to serve as a pretense for grandstanding.  Six years is waaaaay tooooo looooong for some of these dudes (and dudesses) to be serving in office.  Term limits cannot come soon enough to our nation’s government.  For the time being in WDC, we are seeing the triumph of House citizenry government over the arrogance of Senate vanity. 

Anyone who has ever been to WDC and Capitol Hill can’t help but be struck by the obvious grandeur that surrounds everything Senatorial in nature.  When you walk through a Senate office building, you can’t help but notice that the doors are little bit higher and wider, the ceilings are a little bit taller, the offices are a good bit larger, the furnishings a bit more plush, and the people are a damn sight more pompous.  It is no wonder that in this environment, Senators form their sense of entitlement and privilege.  And as we have done so many times in the past, when we graduate one of these prima donnas to the White House, the club only deepens its hold on all things civic.  Be they Democrat or Republican, there is much to be said for sending an outsider to WDC as President.  On the one hand, the established rule of order is threatened and that new outsider has a difficult time getting any cooperation out of the old heads.  But on the positive side, an outsider brings a stark contrast to the front that reminds us of how far removed our elected officials are from living in the real world. 


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