Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are thrilled to see a Delta Force team capture a key suspect form the 1998 terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies. They also groan as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew refuses to say how many people enrolled in the Obamacare exchanges but refers instead to number of hits on the website. And they slam Florida Rep. Alan Grayson for saying the problem with the GOP is “religious fanatics” and “freedom fiends”.
Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely says the United States is making a major mistake by cutting off military assistance to Egypt in the wake of the military’s removal of Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power and the decision to reverse our policy is another devastating blow to America’s reputation in the region.
Vallely was a key participant in a Westminster Institute delegation that visited Egypt at the end of September and met with key officials ranging from the head of the new constitutional committee to the commander of the Egyptian military to the head of the Coptic Christian Church.
American military assistance to Egypt was at least temporarily cut off following the military’s removal of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in July. Vallely says the United States was wrong to back the Muslim Brotherhood in the first place and removing military aid is hurting our ally at a critical time.
“It’s a great impact. Number one, they’re very disgusted, very disturbed at being an ally with the United States over 40 years and basically have Ambassador Jane Patterson completely misread what was going on in Egypt and outright support the Muslim Brotherhood. She works for Obama and Obama ended up supporting the Muslim Brotherhood against the wishes and desires of the vast majority of the Egyptian people,” said Vallely.
“We held up aid in their modernization program and why that’s critical (is) they have to keep that Suez Canal open. They need spare parts for their aircraft. They need the new Apaches that were promised them in order to be able to take on any actions, the surveillance as well as direct actions against Al Qaeda that are building up in the Sinai Peninsula,” said Vallely. “So when you look at the Mediterranean, you look at southern Libya with training camps for Al Qaeda, shipping of arms and Al Qaeda up to Syria now, Egypt is not only faced with an external threat but internal threats as well. That’s why the military assistance program is very important to them.”
According to Vallely, the stopping of U.S. military assistance serves as another major blow to America’s reputation in the region.
“We need to work out a strategy to support this long-existing ally, but we seem to be so incompetent in Washington now. I’m not optimistic about this government doing anything right when it comes to international affairs,” said Vallely.
“I was over in Syria and Turkey six weeks ago. We have no respect anymore, no credibility. That is a tremendous setback for us throughout the world and particularly in the Middle East. We need new leadership in Washington across the board. There’s no doubt about that,” he said.
The United States has rarely been very popular in the Middle East, but Vallely says our reputation has diminished greatly there during the Obama presidency.
“Oh, a tremendous drop-off (in) the lack of leadership, the lack of a forward strategy of dealing with the countries over there. They see Putin in Russia and Iran completely out-maneuvering the United States diplomatically. We’re known as a declining superpower over there that can’t come to the aid or support of allies or future democratic processes. And they see Obama basically supporting terrorists in the Muslim Brotherhood. That’s through their eyes,” said Vallely.
One of the reasons for the suspension of U.S. military assistance to Egypt is because of a law that automatically stop funds to any nation that undergoes a coup. But the number one conclusion of the Westminster Institute delegation is that the military ouster of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood did not constitute a coup because the the military was clearly carrying out the will of the people.
“I think the Egyptian people got hoodwinked by the Muslim Brotherhood portraying themselves as just a political party, when in fact there are three legs to the Muslim Brotherhood and the population finally found that out, as Dr. Morsi tried to take away their civil rights, support Al Qaeda in the Sinai and support Al Qaeda and their military arm in Egypt. And the third was to very openly discuss the global caliphate ,” said Vallely.
The Egyptian people rejected the authoritarian tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood and passes a referendum ordering Morsi to rule under the existing constitution. When he refused to respond to those demands within the 30 days provided, the military asked the people what the next step should be. Tens of thousands took to the streets to demand the ouster of Morsi and the military complied in order to prevent a civil war. Vallely says the will of the people is critical in defining what the military did and he says the actions taken since then are also very telling.
“The military junta or military takeover would usually be in place as the leadership, but they didn’t. They stood back, put in an interim civilian leadership and continued to work out a road map for a new constitution. So it was not a military coup. It was a classic change of government because they didn’t have impeachment as part of their constitution so they had to use the military to prevent civil war and replace the government,” said Vallely.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to an unnamed Obama administration official saying it doesn’t matter how long a government shutdown lasts because it believes it is “winning”. They also shake their heads after Vice President Biden says he is proud of the National Park Service worker who blocked veterans from the World War II Memorial. And they discuss online security expert John McAfee’s contention that hackers can run wild and steal the identities of millions of people.
A government shutdown nearly prevented World War II veterans from visiting the Washington memorial built in their honor, but Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo and several of his colleagues removed the barricades. Their actions allowed the veterans to experience the memorial and instantly made the site a focal point of the shutdown debate.
Palazzo became a leading figure in this debate because an Honor Flight from his home state happened to be planning a visit to the World War II Memorial the morning of October 1. Palazzo says he and the rest of the Mississippi delegation routinely meet Honor Flight passengers from their state when they come to Washington. He says it was clear ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled visit that there could be a problem if a government funding compromise could not be reached.
“The concern was will the memorial be open and we couldn’t answer that. So we reached out to the Park Service and Interior. They said, ‘If there’s a shutdown, they will be barricaded and there will be no admittance. So of course the government went into a shutdown. We contacted the Park Service again and said, ‘Can you not make an exception for members of the Greatest Generation, our World War II heroes?’ They said, government is shut down,barricades will be up, no admittance,” said Palazzo.
“We then wrote a letter to the president, asking him to make an exception for these World War II men and women, many who have waited 50-60 years to see this memorial that was erected in their honor for their courage, for their sacrifices, their commitment and their patriotism to this country. The White House liaison was not cooperative and pretty much stuck to the guns, ‘Hey, what do you expect in a government shutdown?'” he said.
When he learned the Honor Flight had landed and the veterans would not be granted access to the memorial, Palazzo rallied the rest of the Mississippi delegation and recruited other House members to head down the National Mall to meet the vets and thank them for their service to the nation. After arriving, however, it was clear that wouldn’t be enough.
“It was a heartbreaking feeling when these veterans were lined up and what they saw was a steel barricade with a yellow ribbon that said, ‘Police Line Do Not Cross.’ We huddled together and we just decided to take the matters into our own hands. We physically pushed the barricades back and we allowed the veterans to march in and enjoy their memorial,” said Palazzo.
The congressman says, regardless of the shutdown, open-air memorials that usually remain open to the public at all hours should not be blocked off since no government personnel are needed for people to experience them. Palazzo says he eventually concluded this challenge was purely political.
“At first, I thought this was a bureaucratic oversight. Someone’s not reading the shutdown memo correctly. The more that we worked with these federal agencies, the more we felt like there was definitely petty politics involved in their decision to barricade our veterans from entering their memorial,” said Palazzo.
On Wednesday, the same scenario played out with Palazzo playing a supporting role as an Honor Flight from a different state came to see the memorial and even more barricades were in place. This time he watched as lawmakers from the same state as the second group of veterans moved the barriers.
The congressman says the National Park Service will now allow all World War II veterans to see the memorial. The rest of the public will not be given permission to enter. Palazzo says that’s a step in the right direction but not good enough.
“What about our Vietnam Veterans? What about our Korean Veterans? Are they going to barricade them out as well?” asked Palazzo, noting that the monuments were never blocked off during the 1995 government shutdown.
Some critics of the GOP suggest members like Palazzo only leaped into action to score political points, but he strongly rejects that allegation.
“This is all about the veterans. It’s not about us. It’s not about the president. It’s showing our appreciation for them,” said Palazzo. “We tried to bring as little attention to what we were there for, but typically we’re there anyway – when there’s no cameras, there’s no lights – thanking our veterans for their sacrifice, their courage and their service.”
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are shocked to see whole states and locales where not a single person enrolled on the Obamacare exchanges. They also slam President Obama for telling Wall St. it needs to be much more worried about the possibility of default. And they shred Harry Reid on multiple fronts for his reasons to deny funding for juvenile cancer treatments.
Longtime Middle East expert Dr. Mike Evans says Iran is not directing a charm offense at President Obama, but the U.S. is deliberately making nice with Iran in a move that will only assure the mullahs there that the U.S. has no intention of doing anything to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons.
New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani uses much less incendiary language than former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The change in tone even prompted the Obama administration to seek a public handshake at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly last week. The Iranians refused, but Obama subsequently spoke by phone with Rouhani.
Most experts see all this as an effort by the Iranians to convince the U.S. and other critics of its nuclear program that it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons and get the western powers to lift crippling economic sanctions. Evans says that conventional wisdom is wrong.
“I don’t really see this as a charm offensive by Iran. I see this is a charm offensive by President Obama,” said Evans, a longtime personal friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He believes Obama never had any intention of attacking Syria over allegedly using chemical weapons.
“Obama did this to try to send a signal to Iran that he was serious and also to send a signal to Netanyahu to get Netanyahu to back down from attacking Iran. He knew Netanyahu was ready. He knew the window was open and he didn’t want him to do it. So this was more saber-rattling for Iran and Netanyahu’s benefit than for the Syrians,” he said.
“President Obama’s not going to do a thing against Iran. He’s going to let Iran go nuclear. The reason he’s going to let them is he wants a quid pro quo. He wants to be an anti-war president. He wants to get out of the Middle East. In order to do it, he needs the world’s largest terrorist organization to give him a free pass to quit attacking in Iraq, to quit attacking in Afghanistan and back off a little bit. That’s what he’s going for. Nothing else. He could care less if Iran goes nuclear or not,” said Evans.
Evans met with Iranian diplomats last week while they were at the United Nations. Those diplomats reportedly divulged a two-headed diplomatic strategy of the Iranian regime.
“They said they propose to the president that they be the intermediary between the U.S. and Syria. I’m thinking, ‘What did you just say? You want to be the mediator to solve the Syrian crisis?’ That’s the fox solving the crisis with the chickens. That’s number one,” said Evans.
“Number two, they told me that they anticipate to begin negotiations (over the nuclear program) in three to six months with Obama. Well why three to six months? In three to six months, Iran will pass the threshold if they continue with enough enriched uranium to build a bomb,” said Evans. “Their plan is to stall and delay this thing and try to checkmate Netanyahu so he can’t do anything. Listen it worked.”
Evans says the softer diplomatic tone from Iran succeeded in attracting all the coverage at the UN and Netanyahu’s address was ignored by the media as a result of the Iran angle and coverage of the partial government shutdown in the U.S. He also says Israeli officials are very concerned about America’s apparent unwillingness to confront Iran and intent to prevent an Israeli strike.
“They’re absolutely horrified. I just came from Israel. They know what’s going on. They know the game they’re playing,” said Evans. “They’re not going to have a partner with Obama. Obama’s got his eyes on being a historical anti-war president. He’s never going to confront Iran. It’s just never going to happen. Period.”
“Israel is alone right now. They’re alone and they know it. Netanyahu knows it too. I don’t believe Netanyahu’s message that he gave at the UN was to the Iranians, to the world or to the American people. I believe his message was to the Israelis. He was speaking to his base, supporting and strengthening his base for what he’s staring squarely in the face and knows he has to do,” said Evans.
Much attention was given to last week’s offer from the Obama administration for a public handshake between Obama and Rouhani at the UN. Iran rejected the offer and Obama later called Rouhani for a brief phone conversation. Evans says those gestures were very telling and emboldened Iranian leaders.
“What they saw is the president bowing down. By the president calling Iran’s new (president), the former head of security that was over the Khobar Towers bombing and the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center bombing, by calling this mad mullah and congratulating him on his fraudulent election and all the other stuff he said was basically showing the weakness of the American president and empowering them and letting them know they have another Jimmy Carter in office on steroids,” said Evans.
“When Jimmy Carter was in office, he wire-transferred $7.9 billion from the Federal Reserve with 20 cooperating banks to the Bank of England to buy back the hostages. So why should Iran do anything except be rewarded for misbehavior. That’s what happened the last time,” he said.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer the World War II vets who trumped efforts by the Obama administration to deny them access to the World War II Memorial due to the partial government shutdown. They also rip congressional Democrats for refusing to fund veterans programs, national parks and other priorities because they demand a clean continuing resolution. And they unload on the federal government for spending $100,000 on one outhouse in Alaska.
House Republicans and Senate Democrats remain at an impasse over government funding as Democrats refuse to consider any conditions for funding the government for the next several weeks and Republicans insist on changes to what they see as a deeply flawed health bill.
Thus far, House Republicans have put forward multiple bills calling for a complete funding of the federal government at existing rates. In exchange, the various plans have also demanded a complete defunding of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), a one-year delay in implementation of Obamacare, a one-year delay for the individual mandate, a repeal of the medical device tax and a demand that members of Congress and their staffers follow the same rules as everyone else with respect to the new health laws. The final offer, passed early Tuesday morning, would have created a House-Senate Conference Committee to hammer out an agreement. All of those bills passed the House but all have died in the Senate along party line votes.
“We worked late into the morning trying to come up with something that would be suitable for Harry Reid and the Senate Dems and unfortunately they didn’t want to negotiate so we’re in the situation we find ourselves in,” said Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and a key player in the GOP strategy.
“The responsible thing for the Senate to do is to appoint conferees who will negotiate and come up with ideas. I think John Kennedy was the one who said compromise is the concrete of democracy and here we have a president who was playing golf on Saturday and a Senate that adjourned and then they come back to say, ‘We’re not compromising. We’re not going to negotiate’. I think it’s a very irresponsible decision,” said Kingston.
Democrats in the Senate are insisting that House Republicans only pass a continuing resolution at existing spending rates through mid-November. Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski insists that would pass the House of Republican leaders would simply allow a vote on the “clean” resolution.
“That’s not accurate because if that was the case, then these other three versions of compromises would’ve been voted down and people would have said, ‘We want to have that’. She’s not a member of the House. She’s not on the whip team. She basically doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” said Kingston.
Kingston says the Hastert Rule is largely in effect as the House GOP plots strategy. The Hastert Rule refers to a practice generally followed by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert that requires a majority of Republicans to support legislation before moving forward.
“I’d say yes and no. It’s not necessarily a rule as much as it is a practice and a political courtesy because what the Speaker wants to do is make sure he has a unified Republican conference,” said Kingston. “We’ve been meeting every day, hammering out all kinds of ideas that we think could be acceptable to Democrats. We’ve stayed unified. Certainly there are degrees of unity. Not everyone likes everything.
“The reality is we are largely unified and what we are unified about is the national debt being 100 percent of the GDP and for every dollar we spend 42 cents is borrowed. And we’re unified by the fact that Obamacare is a disaster. It was supposed to bring down the cost of health care and it has not. It was supposed to increase the access and it has not. This is a principles argument based on the fact that America is going broke and the fact that this president wants to add to that a $1.7 trillion piece of legislation called Obamacare that socializes one-sixth of the economy,” said Kingston. “These are not small issues. This is deep philosophical division.”
While Kingston is not happy to see a partial government shutdown, he says the last time this happened the result was ultimately very good for the nation because Congress and President Clinton worked to balance the budget and put the nation on a path to major economic growth.
The need for a continuing resolution reveals the fact Congress failed to pass the 13 individual appropriations bills in the normal process. In fact, none of them were passed, but Kingston says that’s not because Republicans didn’t do their jobs.
“We actually have them all ready to go to the floor, but we had passed five on the floor and the Senate had not passed a single one. We were just letting it pile up on the Senate steps so we quit. Last year, we passed seven and the Senate only passed one,” said Kingston. “I am a firm believer in regular order. I’ve worked on a bill for 10 months that I’m not allowed to introduce right now and this is a bill that defunds Obamacare and brings spending levels back to 2002.”
“The leadership is saying if the Senate isn’t going to pass a bill, do we really need to bring it to the floor and spend all that time and put our members through very tough votes that are just academic. That’s a breakdown in the system. I really strongly believe that these fiscal cliffs should not be the way to do business,” he said.
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of Radio America are not at all stunned to see widespread glitches as the Obama health care exchanges open. They also rip President Obama for his divisive rhetoric hours before shutdown and slam Democrats and Republicans for failing to pass a single appropriations bill. And they discuss how West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin proved himself a liar in less than a week.
