On Republican "Obstruction"

One of the pieces of tripe I expect the Democrats to push at their convention is the canard that the mean Republicans have obstructed our poor little manchild President.  Bull-crap.  Except for cap-and-trade (*), Barack Obama has gotten every major legislative priority he set.

• Barack Obama got his $800 billion stimulus.

• Barack Obama got Cash for Clunkers.

• Barack Obama got Sonia Sotomayor confirmed to the Supreme Court.

• Barack Obama got his corrupt, destructive, Health Care law.

• Barack Obama got Elena Kagan confirmed to the Supreme Court.

• Barack Obama got his Financial reform law that doesn't do squat to end 'too big to fail'

• Barack Obama got his disastrous arms control treaty with Vladimir Putin.

• Barack Obama got his debt ceiling increase.

• Barack Obama didn't have his war in Libya defunded.

• Barack Obama got his indefinite detention law.

• Barack Obama got his payroll "tax cut" extension.

Republicans haven't obstructed squat.  Obama has accomplished his entire legislative agenda (except cap-and-trade).  The results speak for themselves.

* Even cap-and-trade was killed by Democrats.

Emerging Corruption in Obama's Campaign

"The thirteenth rule: pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

- Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, p. 130

This past week, three major stories highlighted corruption on the campaign side of team Obama.  Handled properly, these three scandals will devastate Obama's re-election effort.  Consider the following:

• In 2009, Jim Messina, who was Deputy White House Chief of Staff at the time, negotiated a corrupt bargain with the Pharmaceutical Industry to secure their support for Obama's Health Insurance Protection Racket.  That corrupt bargain has lead to drug shortages, but protected PhRMA's profits.  Jim Messina is currently Obama's 2012 Campaign Manager.

• David Plouffe, who managed Obama's 2008 campaign, got paid $100,000 to give a speech in 2010 to a company that does business with the Iranian Military.  This probably isn't illegal, but it stinks to high heck.  David Plouffe is currently the White House liaison to the re-election campaign.

• Stephanie Cutter, currently Jim Messina's deputy, helped the official Obama 2012 campaign coordinate an attack with a pro-Obama SuperPAC.  This is illegal.  Stephanie Cutter should be prosecuted.

The corruption in Obama's campaign is an allegory for the corruption in Obama's White House.  If they're smart, Team Mitt will demand Obama fire these people from his political team, then relentlessly tie them to Obama if he doesn't.  If Obama continues to employ these people, it will speak volumes about his character.

The corruption among policy-makers in the Obama White House is staggering.  Rooting it out will be a difficult, long-term, process.  Thus, we won't achieve much before election day.

Going after corruption on the Obama political team is easier.  Firing a political staffer, even one on the government payroll, is simple. Cabinet members and policy makers are entitled to certain due process that political staffers are not.  Forcing the Obama operation to jettison these staffers (or endure the bad publicity of keeping them on) will also throw the campaign into greater chaos.  If we can collect the scalps of Jim Messina, David Plouffe, and Stephanie Cutter now, then it will make it MUCH easier to collect the scalps of Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Janet Napoletano, Elena Kagan, and Tim Geithner over time.

Update (8/16/2012):  American Spectator has MUCH more.

A Note on Accountability and Writing History

The past few days, I've been neck deep reading about corruption in the Obama administration.  From Hillary Clinton, to Eric Holder, to Janet Napoletano, to Elena Kagan, to Tim Geithner, to countless others, the level of corruption, sleaze, and outright treason in this administration boggles the mind.  Unfortunately, we're not going to get to the bottom of the Obama administration's malfeasance before Mitt takes over next year.  That's why Citizen Journalists and Tea Partiers need to continue investigating this administration after they leave office.  History will thank us.

In his speech at FreePAC last month, John Fund explained that the easiest way to prevent future acts of voter fraud is to prosecute the acts of voter fraud that have already occured.  The more I think about it, the more that statement applies in general.  The best was to prevent future corruption is to prosecute the corruption that has occured in the Obama and late Bush administrations.

When Mitt assumes office next year, there is going to be tremendous pressure to 'Move On' from the late Bush/Obama years.  Citizen Journalists and Tea Partiers need to resist this pressure.  Fortunately, Citizen Journalists and Tea Partiers have gotten really good at resisting pressure.

In my interview last June, Ted Cruz said accountability for Eric Holder and Elena Kagan "certainly could" extend past January 2013.  I also spoke privately with a Republican U.S. Congressman last month who actually expressed stronger sentiments than Ted Cruz did in the interview.  That's good, but we can't rely on elected officials to do our job for us.

We're in the final six months of Barack Obama's administration.  At this point, it's obvious that they're running out the clock and hoping that we'll forget about their malfeasance.  If we want to prevent the corruption of the past 5 years from happening again, we can't let that happen.  We need to maintain long memories.  History will thank us.

EXCLUSIVE: Ted Cruz on Elena Kagan, Eric Holder, the Federal Administrative State, and Energy Development

Today, I had an interview with Texas U.S. Senate Candidate, Ted Cruz.  Audio here:



I'll (hopefully) do a detailed write up over the next few days, but here are the highlights:

• Ted Cruz wants to serve on the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees.
• We discussed Justice Elena Kagan and questions surrounding the propriety of her hearing the Obamacare case.
• We discussed the ongoing Fast and Furious scandal, for which his campaign has produced this video:

• The bottom line for Ted Cruz on both Elena Kagan and Eric Holder is that all administrations need to be held accountable for their actions and that accountability 'certainly could' extend past January 20th of next year.
• We discussed the growth of the administrative state and what Ted Cruz intends to do about it.  Ted Cruz supports legislation called the REINS Act that will require an affirmative vote of Congress before any Federal Regulation with an economic impact over $100 million goes into effect.
• Finally, we discussed energy development and the controversy over fracking.  Ted believes that, in the unlikely event Barack Obama is re-elected, he will actively seek to ban fracking.  Being from New York originally, this issue hits home for me.

I'll (hopefully) get to do a longer write-up in the next few days, but in the meantime enjoy and share at will!!!

The Case Against Elena Kagan

I'm prepping for an interview tomorrow that should be up here in about 24 hours.  For that, I've focused on Elena Kagan's participation in the Obamacare case before the Supreme Court.  While I'm not a lawyer, to my (admittedly amateur) reading of the evidence and the law, Elena Kagan had no business hearing that case in the first place.  In not recusing herself in this case, Elena Kagan broke federal law.  Elena Kagan needs to be impeached; whether this actually happens is a political question, not a legal one.

According to this report from the Judicial Crisis network Elena Kagan:

- Personally got the Office of the Solicitor General involved early in the process

- Made Key Staffing Decisions

- Was part of the early planning for the Obamacare defense.

- She was clearly required to recuse herself under 28 U.S.C. 455 (b) (3) and (a)

- She didn't recuse herself.

According to my reading of just these facts, Elena Kagan broke the law by hearing the Obamacare case in the first place.  Article III, Section one clearly states federal judges "shall hold their Offices during good Behavior."  Thus, at least to me, it seems that Elena Kagan has clearly committed an impeachable offense.

This is now a political question, not a legal one.  I'm not suggesting impeaching Elena Kagan will be easy or fun.  Impeaching Elena Kagan will unleash a firestorm on anyone who pursues it.  Unfortunately, it's necessary.  Elena Kagan's willingness to hear a case where she had previously served as an advocate calls into question her impartiality in all future cases.

With political courage, this is both a necessary and a winnable fight.

Am I missing anything?!?