Romney, the weathervane

Pierre Delecto would like you to know how important he is On impeachment, Mitt Romney has thrown a spanner in the works.  What looked like a speedy scrapping of the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, premised on Democrats beclowning themselves, is now on hold.
 . . . "It's nothing but a bid to Get Trump, on the Democrats' terms, an ego trip, from the big wounded ego of Pierre Delecto, no less, and look big and powerful doing it.

"Romney seems to be banking on the idea that if he can just knock out Trump and stick to it, he'll somehow be the big dog on the block." . . .

Club for Growth accuses Romney of siding with Democrats in new ad  "The conservative Club for Growth is going after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) in a new television ad, accusing the first-term senator and former GOP presidential nominee of siding with Democrats in President Trump’s impeachment proceedings.
“ 'There’s Mitt Romney threatening to vote with Democrats again to trot out spotlight-seeking blowhards who will trash President Trump on the witness stand,” a narrator says in the 30-second spot, which is set to begin airing on Fox News on Thursday in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.
"The ad also accuses Romney of ignoring alleged wrongdoing by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter." . . .

Fight over Bolton gives Romney a chance for Senate clout  . . . "Utah is polarized over Trump, but not between Republicans and Democrats. Even as “Never Trumpers” have faded nationally, a strong current of discomfort with the president remains in polite, immigrant-welcoming Utah." . . .

Sen. Mitt Romney Says ‘Very Likely’ He’ll Favor Calling Witnesses in Impeachment 
Trial

In 2011 Huntsman calls Romney a “perfectly lubricated weather vane” on important daily issues

. . . WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Let’s first of all talk about Mitt Romney a little bit. George Will, the conservative columnist, writing in an upcoming edition of “The Washington Post,” says this about Mitt Romney. He says: “Romney, supposedly the Republican most electable next November, is a recidivist reviser of his principles who is not only becoming less electable, he might endanger GOP chances of capturing the Senate. Republicans may have found their Michael Dukakis, a technocratic Massachusetts governor who takes his bearings from data.”
You agree with — with George Will on that?
JON HUNTSMAN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, those are — those are pretty tough words, Wolf. All I can say is this is a time when this nation wants leadership. We’ve — we — we’ve been — we’ve been looking for leadership for some time in — in the White House. We haven’t found it. This is when the candidates need to show — stand up and show a little bit of leadership. You can’t be a perfectly lubricated weathervane on the important issues of the day, whether it’s Libya, whether it’s the debt ceiling, whether it’s the discussion around the Kasich bill in Ohio, where Governor Romney has been missing in action in terms of showing any kind of leadership.  . . .

Don Lemon Did Trump a Huge Favor

Katherine Timpf at National Review

“Just to make it perfectly clear,” he added. “I was laughing at the joke and not at any group of people.”

His performance in that segment is going to be a way bigger help to the incumbent president than anything that Trump could ever do for himself.

"A  video of CNN news anchor Don Lemon laughing hysterically as his guests mocked Donald Trump’s supporters went viral this week — and it couldn’t have been a more effective campaign ad for the president.

"In the video, which was clipped from a live broadcast that aired on Saturday night, Lemon can be seen crying tears of laughter, and at one point even slamming his head on his desk, because he’s apparently so overwhelmed with joy and amusement.

"It all started after one guest, ex-GOP strategist Rick Wilson, joked that Trump would be too stupid to find Ukraine on a map, before calling Trump’s supporters the “credulous boomer rube demo.”

"Lemon laughed heartily, and so Wilson continued his mocking:

“‘Donald Trump’s the smart one — and y’all elitists are dumb!’” Wilson said in a heavy, stereotypical southern accent." . . .

CNN Panel Mocking Trump Supporters Now an RNC Ad

Legal Insurrection

“They think you’re a joke.”

"Tuesday, Professor Jacobson blogged about one of THE most tone-deaf cable news segments I’ve ever seen. (See the CNN video)  A CNN panel hosted by Don Lemon, billing Rick Wilson, (a former Republican political consultant who sold his soul to the NeverTrump brigade and now poses as a token “Republican” on CNN and MSNBC to trash actual Republicans and right-leaning folk) were overcome with fits of laughter while mocking Trump and Trump supporters as bassackwards hillbillies, ignoramuses, and simpletons.

"They still don’t get it. Clearly." . . .

"It also perfectly captures the microcosm of coastal media and Trump Derangement Syndrome who have learned nothing, nada, zip from 2016.

"Anyway, shortly thereafter the good folks manning the RNC digital front cut the segment, spliced it with the Democrat presidential candidates saying similarly disparaging nonsense, and outside of dramatic intros and outros, added one pithy little statement — “They think you’re a joke.' ”

100%FedUp: Priceless Republican Ad Blasts CNN’s Don Lemon for Mocking Trump Supporters: “Prove them wrong in November”

What that CNN clip of Don Lemon, Rick Wilson, and Wajahat Ali tells us about the election ahead

Don Lemon is actually the stupidest man on television, as Mark Levin often remarks, so no one expects anything other than rank infantile behavior from him.  He is a child in an adult body and fortunately has no children.

When it comes to the self-styled Democrat 'elite,' they hate you, they really hate you

. . . "College also used to teach people how to be "ladies" and "gentlemen."  This was a set of skills that envisioned good manners and decency.  When was the last time you saw a Leftist media figure display either?  Heck, even Marie Antoinette was reputed to have said, "Let them eat cake" rather than "They're too stupid to eat cake."

"So no, we're not offended by the video.  We're impressed by the arrogance and ignorance it displays.  And to paraphrase Liberace, we'll be laughing all the way to the polls."

With several Republicans apparently succumbing on impeachment witnesses, Mitch McConnell may need to go ‘nuclear’

Legal Insurrection

McConnell needs to go nuclear. Mutually Assured Destruction nuclear on witnesses — the Bidens or bust.

"The Wall Street Journal reports that Mitch McConnell has told Republican Senators that he does not have the votes to block witnesses:

… at a meeting of all Republican senators late Tuesday, GOP leaders told their conference that they don’t currently have the votes to prevent witnesses from being called, people familiar with the matter said. Republicans had hoped to wrap up the trial with an acquittal of the president by this week, but Democrats have said he should appear under oath to offer a firsthand account of the president’s motivations for freezing aid to Ukraine—a matter at the heart of the impeachment case.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the vote total wasn’t where it needed to be on blocking witnesses or documents, these people said. He had a card with “yes,” “no,” and “maybes” marked on it, apparently a whip count, but he didn’t show it to senators.

"As detailed many times, the entire Democrat strategy has been to Kavanaugh the hearings, to call witnesses the House never called in order to turn the trial into a circus in which the process becomes the punishment.

"The House impeachment was in bad faith, and the Kavanaughing of the hearings also is bad faith. That four Republican Senators may succumb to these tactics speaks volumes about the weakness of Republicans.

"We knew it would be close, but it looks like there may be only one choice for McConnell.

Even Mitt Romney, the first link to break, has said that he thinks calling witnesses should be reciprocal. That means Joe and Hunter Biden, at minimum. But calling the Bidens in exchange for calling John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney has been rejected by Democrats.

"So McConnell’s way out it to force Democrats to reject a witness deal. That way, "Democrats are the ones responsible for no new witnesses. It provides cover to people like Susan Collins who may be concerned how voting against witnesses my impact their reelection chances.

"McConnell needs to go nuclear. Mutually Assured Destruction nuclear on witnesses — the Bidens or bust."

 

White House Counsel Concludes Argument By Playing Video of Democrats Attacking Impeachment

Breitbart  White House Counsel Pat Cipollone concluded opening arguments in the president’s defense in the Senate impeachment trial on Tuesday afternoon by playing video clips of Democrats arguing against President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.
"Some of those Democrats — such as Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) — are among the House managers urging the Senate to remove Trump from office. Others — such as then-Rep. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) — are now in the Senate themselves.
"Cipollone focused on excerpts from congressional speeches in which Democrats denounced the idea of a partisan impeachment, likening it to a “coup d’état,” and warning that it would lead them to impeach a Republican president when they were in office.

"The White House counsel concluded: “You were right.” The Senators laughed. He then continued: “[B]ut I’m sorry to say you were also prophetic.”
"Cipollone concluded:
“ 'I have every confidence in your wisdom, you will do the only thing you can do, what you must do, what the Constitution compels you to do: Reject these articles of impeachment.”
"The White House then ended its opening arguments — having only used half of its allotted time, with 12 hours to spare.
"The next two days will involve eight hours of written questions submitted by Senators to the Chief Justice, with oral answers by lawyers for both sides, restricted to five minutes each."

Undoing the Dis-Education of Millennials

 Boston Post

"I teach in a law school. For several years now my students have been mostly Millennials. Contrary to stereotype, I have found that the vast majority of them want to learn. But true to stereotype, I increasingly find that most of them cannot think, don’t know very much, and are enslaved to their appetites and feelings. Their minds are held hostage in a prison fashioned by elite culture and their undergraduate professors.
"They cannot learn until their minds are freed from that prison. This year in my Foundations of Law course for first-year law students, I found my students especially impervious to the ancient wisdom of foundational texts, such as Plato’s Crito and the Code of Hammurabi. Many of them were quick to dismiss unfamiliar ideas as “classist” and “racist,” and thus unable to engage with those ideas on the merits. So, a couple of weeks into the semester, I decided to lay down some ground rules. I gave them these rules just before beginning our annual unit on legal reasoning.
"Here is the speech I gave them.
********************************
"Before I can teach you how to reason, I must first teach you how to rid yourself of unreason. For many of you have not yet been educated. You have been dis-educated. To put it bluntly, you have been indoctrinated. Before you learn how to think you must first learn how to stop unthinking.
"Reasoning requires you to understand truth claims, even truth claims that you think are false or bad or just icky. Most of you have been taught to label things with various “isms” which prevent you from understanding claims you find uncomfortable or difficult.
"Reasoning requires correct judgment. Judgment involves making distinctions, discriminating. Most of you have been taught how to avoid critical, evaluative judgments by appealing to simplistic terms such as “diversity” and “equality.' ” . . .

Dan Gainor: CNN panel mocks Trump supporters – Anchor who whines about 'toxicity' delivers just that

Dan Gainor  "Three years into President Donald Trump’s first term and the news media still don’t understand how we got here.

"Saturday, CNN Anchor Don Lemon show blasted Trump, his administration and his supporters. It was almost like CNN was trying its best to create a clip Trump could use in an ad to win his second term.
"That meant Lemon, who last June said he might have to leave TV because of “toxicity,” laughed uproariously at his own toxic TV show. And the network that regularly complains about “hateful speech” by the administration, actually promoted the incident.

CNN Don Lemon panel faces intense backlash for mocking Trump supporters as illiterate 'credulous rubes'

Don Lemon's assault accuser says CNN anchor a 'liar and hypocrite' with #MeToo coverage  . . . " '[Lemon] put his hand down the front of his own shorts, and vigorously rubbed his genitalia, removed his hand and shoved his index and middle fingers into Plaintiff's mustache and under Plaintiff's nose," according to the lawsuit, filed Aug. 11, 2019 in Suffolk County Court.
"Lemon offered a six-figure settlement before talks broke down and the formal complaint was filed, according to Hice." . . .

Dana Perino: CNN segment mocking Trump supporters was 'really offensive'

Where would Communists be without their gulags

Sanders Staffer Calls for 'F**king Revolution'    . . . "the undercover video captures paid Sanders staffer Martin Weissgerber saying: "I'll straight up get armed ... I'm ready for the "f**king revolution"; "Guillotine the rich"; "Send Republicans to re-education camps," adding, "Can you imagine [Republican Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell? [South Carolina Senator] Lindsey Graham [in the camps]?" 

"This is the second Sanders campaign staffer Project Veritas has exposed in the last week calling for violence against Sanders' political enemies." . . .

This is a dangerous time for this Republic, with Communist clones on one side and Democrats establishing impeachment as a recurring "vote of confidence" on the other.

Image by Dianny of Patriot Retort

Bombshell! After two days of defense, Schiff's impeachment ploy is becoming clear

Is anyone beside me sick of years spent daily watching Chuck Schumer glowering over his little glasses, faux anger dripping from his lips? The Tunnel Dweller

Rich Terrell

Patricia McCarthy  "The President's lawyers finally got the chance to present their case in defense of him on Saturday.  They did not take much time, but their first few hours virtually destroyed the Schiff/Nadler/Pelosi fiction on which they have based their articles of impeachment.  After a second, longer and more intense day of the defense delivering their side of the story, what actually has transpired has become clearer and clearer.  

"The irrationally obsessed Schiff had a plan, as surely as the Crossfire Hurricane cabal had a plan, to take Trump down by hook or by crook.  The Mueller Report failed to deliver so he sought a new and fabricated reason to impeach. 

"Now that we see and hear Schiff's case be completely devastated by Trump's defense team, one has to wonder how the House managers had the gall to stand up and spew the lies each of them put forth over twenty-three hours.   It is probably safe to assume that they did none of their own research nor did they write their own presentations.  Most likely Schiff directed his own staff to prepare their carefully constructed speeches which they came to the podium to read. " . . .  

"To be known to history as the "Walk of Shame"?"

. . . "They, the left media, speak with one voice, same words, same phrases. "Bombshell" is the word of the day... again.  It's as though they are all ventriloquist dummies.  Someone sends them a list of words and they all dutifully repeat them ad nauseam.  This will all soon be over.  Schiff and his cohorts will have well and truly demeaned themselves for all time. " . . .

Shut Down This Tiring Farce

Democrats want to change the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College and turn it into a "woke" document, then make impeachment into a regular political tactic where the President becomes subject to the will of the legislature. Can we keep this republic? TD

Conrad Black

The high court of the whole enfranchised nation will determine whether the president retains his office, in nine months, and this kind of unfounded assault must be discouraged, lest it become routine.

"The next step in the impeachment of the president needs to be considered in both its legal and political aspects.

"The legal issue is easily determined, is evident from the first few days of proceedings, and remains a foregone conclusion. It was obvious from the endlessly repetitive and absurdly overstated arguments of the House managers, Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in particular, that they had no legal case. There was no evidence that the president committed a high crime or misdemeanor as the Constitution requires for a president to be removed from office in such a proceeding. 
"What was alleged was not anything that could be so described, and they fell far short of proof that what they alleged even occurred. They tried to mislead the Senate and the public by splicing quotes, quoting previous witnesses out of context, and immersing their turgid presentation in a vast, confected odium that they try to spread over the president and his reputation like a lethal gas.     
"Underscoring their incandescent hatred of the president, Schiff acknowledged that Trump must be removed now to prevent his reelection, that an unnamed source had been cited by CBS who alleged Trump had told Republican senators that if they deserted him their heads would be put on pikes. Nadler accused any Republican voting to acquit the president of “treachery” and of participation in the (inevitable) “cover-up” of Trump’s crimes: again, no evidence of any probative value was adduced that he had committed the acts objected to, which were, in any case, not illegal. 
"Chief Justice John Roberts reminded Nadler of where he was, though dutifully equivocal as he is, he addressed the admonition to both sides. In two hours on Saturday morning, the president’s counsel, Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, reduced the interminable malign verbosity of Schiff and Nadler to rubble. " . . .

"Why I haven’t said anything about Holocaust Remembrance Day", Bookworm

Bookworm Room

Holocaust Remembrance Day has become a meaningless ritual that the Western world engages in to cover for its virulent and rising anti-Semitism.

"I remember the Holocaust every day. It’s written into my DNA. 

"Every morning, when I put on my glasses or creak out of bed on my arthritic knees, I know that I would have been at the front of the line for the gas chambers.

"Every day that I whine about this little thing or that little thing, I feel guilty because I was lucky enough to be born in America and to have been born after the Holocaust.

"I am always aware of the dozens of family members who died in the camps, whether because they were Jewish or because (on the Christian side) they suffered from mental illness or were homosexuals.

"For me, every day is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"As for the world, it’s like that line about the weather: Everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it. The same is true for the Holocaust in 2020.

"In too many parts of the Muslim world, for too many people, every day is Holocaust Rejoicing Day.

"In Europe, the grim binding together of socialism and Islam is recreating that 1930s mindset of Hitler: a socialist country with a deep, passionate, and overwhelming Jew-hatred.

"It feels as if, when many Europeans say “Never again,” they’re thinking, “If we play our cards right, never again will we have to live in a world with Jews, either in Europe or on land that the Palestinians should occupy, not the Jews.”

"The fact that the Jews have had a continuous, provable connection to the land for 3,000 years, and the fact that the so-called Palestinians are carpetbaggers and squatters with a connection to the land going back 150 years or so is irrelevant to those steeped in anti-Semitism.

"Here in America, our Democrat party is becoming a home for virulent anti-Semitism. The most celebrated women in Congress are open anti-Semites and open about their hatred for Israel. In the face of Ilhan Omar’s awful words, the most that the House could come up with was a weak statement that it hates hate. The scourge of anti-Semitism has moved from hard-left American campuses to Congress.

"So no, I don’t want to write about Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s becoming more farcical by the minute. Talk, talk, talk, while the hatred flows in like a relentless tide."

Is the Bolton book bombshell a boom or a bust?

Ian Macfarlane

Rep. Meadows Says NYT Bolton Leak Was 'Coordinated' in Order to 'Change the Narrative'  . . . "Meadows is one of the president's staunchest allies in Congress, and on Monday he took a few shots at the suspicious timing of all of this, both on social media and directly to the press. Meadows rallied the Trump faithful with this exhortation: "Don’t buy the spin. Don’t buy the misinformed leaks. Don’t buy the predetermined narrative.' "
. . . "Later, during a press conference after the trial proceedings in the Senate had wrapped for the day, Meadows said, "This leak was designed for one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to try to manipulate the thinking of my Republican colleagues in the Senate to encourage them to open it up and provide for more witnesses...." and then went on to talk about the recent history of Democrats leaking to the press. Meadows added, "My hypothesis is that this is part of a coordinated leak in order to change the narrative.' "

Where the Moderate Senators Stand on Bolton Testimony After the Book Leak
"The Senate needs to make a decision on whether or not former national security adviser John Bolton should testify in the impeachment trial against President Trump. In his new book, Bolton reportedly claims that Trump did tie the withholding of military aid to Ukraine to an investigation of the Bidens. The book leak has especially alarmed some of the more moderate Republican jurors." . . .

Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler Goes Off On Romney For Being Open To Witnesses, Says He ‘Wants To Appease The Left’  "Georgia Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler took to Twitter on Monday to criticize Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney’s recent comments on the impeachment trial in which he expressed that he’s open to calling Bolton to testify in front of the Senate.

"Loeffler sounded off on Romney, saying that he “wants to appease the left by calling witnesses,” while adding,”The circus is over. It’s time to move on!' ” . . .

Having read the report, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) believes that the jurors should be given the chance to hear from Bolton himself.   . . . "Before she was sworn in to the Senate, President Trump shared his concerns about Loeffler and reportedly wanted Rep. Doug Collins to fill the vacant seat instead. Yet, Loeffler has been squarely on the president's side during the trial, telling the Democrats last week that they already lost their case in the House." . . .

Wonder How the NYT Got the Leak From Bolton's Unpublished Book? Look Who's Reportedly Vetting It.  . . . "But now a Breitbart News report may shed some light on where the leak from the unpublished book came from.
"A source in the White House told Breitbart that Lt. Colonel Yevgeny Vindman is a senior ethics lawyer who vets materials for classified information, such as books and articles, before they're allowed to be published. Breitbart reports that Vindman vetted Bolton's book in December."
"Vindman ... Vindman... why does that name seem so familiar?
"The last time you heard of a guy named Vindman he was testifying against the president of the United States at the House impeachment inquiry. His beef? He didn't like President Trump's Ukraine policy." . . .