Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are actually pleased to see Hillary Clinton hop on the “businesses don’t create jobs” bandwagon since it will make it much harder for her to claim the center in the 2016 campaign. They also groan as a Politico Magazine piece says the Obama national security team a “bumbling” mess, with cabinet secretaries not even consulted before policies are announced and the White House leaping from issue to issue with no cohesive strategy. And they sigh as talk of Jeb Bush running for president ramps up again.
Archives for October 2014
‘This Is Where the Real Story Actually Begins’
A federal judge has dismissed two lawsuits filed against the Internal Revenue Service and Lois Lerner by forty conservative organizations that claim they were harassed by the government over applications for tax-exempt status because of their political leanings, but one leader of this legal fight says the battle is really just beginning and it may not even be fought in a courtroom.
On Thursday, federal District Judge Reggie Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, dismissed suits suing the IRS for improper intrusion into the sensitive donor information and private communications within the groups. Walton also rejected efforts to collect damages from the IRS for all the legal and accounting fees piled up by the organizations as they tried to comply with the unlawful scrutiny. In the end, Walton concluded there was “no harm done” since the groups ultimately received their tax-exempt status.
One of the groups leading the charge against the IRS is True the Vote, an organization dedicated to clean elections through updating voter rolls and tougher voter identification laws. True the Vote Communications Director Logan Churchwell says that logic was new to his group.
“It’s a fascinating sign of the times when you see that because the judge can reason and he can justify that the ultimate remedy that the court could have offered under the law itself would have been our tax status, which they gave us only after we decided to sue them. A question we’ll never know is if we hadn’t filed a lawsuit and we just sat there and took it, would we have actually gotten this tax status?” said Churchwell, who says the fate of the tax-exempt application is not the biggest issue in this case.
“Anyone that’s ever dealt with the IRS or any federal agency knows that the process is worse than the actual outcome. It doesn’t matter whether you have a fine or any kind of penalty at the end. It’s dealing with the process. It’s having to lawyer up, get more accountants, collect all of your receipts, whatever is required of that. That can really cause problems,” said Churchwell.
“In our case, we had trouble fundraising. We had trouble organizing and gathering volunteers because every time we felt like we were getting something going when it came to our actual mission statement, we were having to go and find more Washington attorneys to help us defend ourselves against the IRS,” he said.
Churchwell says as aggravating as the process was for True the Vote, it could muster the resources to fight back while others could not.
“True the Vote was fortunate. We had enough support. We had the wherewithal to actually bring the fight to the IRS and force our application to be approved. There are dozens if not hundreds of other little tea party groups or any other group that decided, ‘Hey, we just want to organize. We want to do so legitimately under the tax code. If we can’t afford to fight this battle to use our first amendment rights, we’re going to mail it in. We’re done,'” Churchwell explained.
True the Vote acknowledges Judge Walton’s decision but strongly disagrees with the logic behind it given the questionable revelations that have unfolded since the story first came to light a year-and-a-half ago. At that time, the IRS apologized for the targeting, blamed low-level staffers in Cincinnati for the improper actions and vowed it would never happen again. Churchwell says a lot has happened since then to throw cold water on that narrative.
“To get from there to where we are today with lost emails and learned to what extent people were targeted and how wide of a scheme this really was, all to find out that you had to have an internal report to force the story into the open. Otherwise it probably never would have seen the light of day and anyone that said otherwise would probably be called a crackpot for even thinking the IRS would do such a thing,” said Churchwell.
“Today, we learned just how wide of a scandal this turned out to be and every avenue that’s been taken to try to seek justice ends in this same place. ‘Well, the IRS admitted their wrongdoing. They’ve said they’ve changed their ways. Let’s just move on,'” he said.
For True the Vote, Thursday was not a good day but it’s far from the end of this saga.
“It’s a setback. Based on how we’ve seen the IRS play out, we’ve come to expect the unexpected. But we continue to look at all of our options. This isn’t where the story ends. You might even say this is where the true story actually begins,” he said.
But what exactly is beginning?
“We’re coming to a breaking point in this country, True the Vote believes, where American citizens just aren’t going to put up with it anymore. Our founder, Catherine Englebrecht, put out a statement that said if citizens really want to make a difference on this, then we need to stop relying on the inspector generals of the bureaucratic departments of the executive branch and we need to start doing some of their work for them,” said Churchwell.
“We need to be building a resource where, if you have a problem with a federal bureaucracy or you feel you were being treated unfairly, then citizens need a resource to call upon and have a variety of options available to them. True the Vote’s founding leadership is more than happy to help see that kind of movement grow up out of this news and offer any insight that it can,” he said.
Three Martini Lunch 10/24/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are encouraged by new research showing candidates with small leads two weeks before the election win the vast majority of the time and are excited about the chance to witness a major Martha Coakley collapse in Massachusetts. They also groan as a new Ebola case emerges in New York City. And they have fun as Michelle Obama tells Colorado voters they should vote for Mark Udall because he’s a fifth-generation Coloradan, because Udall is not but his GOP opponent is.
‘This White House Has Got to Stop Lying’
New reporting shows the Obama administration released illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes including murder despite various officials repeatedly insisting only those with very minor infractions were set free while they waited for deportation or for their cases to be resolved in court, and Rep. Louie Gohmert says it’s time for the president to tell the truth and for Americans to be protected.
The congressman is also seething over reports from earlier this week that the administration seems to be ramping up to legalize a massive number of people in the U.S. unlawfully.
Obama administration officials ranging from former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton to former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney assured lawmakers, reporters and the public that the 2,200 illegal immigrants released from detention last year either had no other crimes on their records or were extremely minor. On Thursday, USA Today reported on records it discovered showing illegal immigrants accused of kidnapping, sexual assault, drug trafficking and even homicide
“It is the first obligation of the federal government to provide for the common defense, and that’s against all enemies foreign and domestic. If everybody in the world loved Americans, we’d be great. If everybody in America loved America, we’d be great. But that’s not the case. We owe the American people better and this administration and this White House has got to stop lying,” said Gohmert.
According to Gohmert, officials in Texas long disputed the official immigration numbers offered by the federal government. He says this latest revelation is more proof that suspicion is well-founded.
“We’ve been reporting for months now, just based on Texas numbers, that the federal immigration numbers were a lie. They were just absolutely a lie. We knew in Texas there were tens of thousands more than [Citizenship and Immigration Services] was admitting. So this really documents that Texas was right all along and that the American public had been lied to,” he said, asserting that repeated lies from the government greatly damage the foundation of a country.
“Unfortunately, when you have an administration who’s been caught in one lie after another, it just destroys the faith that people might have in the government,” said Gohmert.
While deeply disappointed, Gohmert says he is not at all surprised because the forces tasked with holding the administration accountable refuse to do their jobs.
“This is what happens when you have a Congress that protects the president from being questioned about lies, protection from being brought and made accountable for lost lives and lies about those lost lives,” said Gohmert.
“That’s what we’ve had in (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid. No matter what we’ve demanded, what we’ve voted for, what we’ve passed in the House, Harry Reid has stood in defiance and protected the president. Then we have a Supreme Court that has a majority that really doesn’t want to deal with the president when it comes to things he’s been dishonest about,” he said.
However, Gohmert says stories like these also put the burden on the American people to demand better of their government.
“I keep bringing up the old age that is eminently true that democracy ensures a people are governed no better than they deserve. So if people in the United States want better government, they have got to get Harry Reid out of the way as majority leader. You do that by going and voting and get Republicans in the Senate, give us more authority, get us people that will elect strong leaders in the House and Senate. Then we can use the Constitution to stop the illegality that’s going on in the executive branch,” said Gohmert.
According to the USA Today story, government officials contend they never intended to allow illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes to walk free. They say much of it happened because of funding issues that were largely out of their control.
Gohmert strongly denounces the idea that more money was all that was needed to stop dangerous people from being released. He says it is factually and politically disingenuous.
“They have not wanted a lot of money to spend on deporting people because they don’t want to deport them. They’ve got plenty of money to do their job,” he said, pointing out how the administration has defied the clear demands of Congress when it comes to spending on immigration enforcement.
“Under the Bush administration, there was four billion dollars appropriated for part of the fence (real and virtual) and (former Homeland Security Secretary) Janet Napolitano said, ‘You know what, we’ve decided we don’t want to do that. We’ll use the money somewhere else,'” said Gohmert, noting again that key allies of Obama stand in the way of true accountability.
“They refuse to follow the law. They refuse to spend money where it’s dictated. They do what they want and with Harry Reid standing in the way of enforcing the law and Eric Holder providing the president the biggest criminal defense firm in America, he’s been able to get away with it. This administration has. It’s got to stop,” he said.
The news on illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes being released from detention follows on the heels of reports earlier in the week, suggesting the president is preparing for a massive extension of work permits to people in the U.S. illegally. Breitbart.com reports that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are bracing for a “surge scenario” of up to nine million work visas in a year. The total contract could possibly legalize anywhere from four to thirty-four million people in the near future.
“I think when we see this kind of request, despite the dishonesty of (White House Press Secretary) Josh Earnest on behalf of the president that obviously this is what they planned to do. They planned to legalize millions of people that are here illegally. They are going to turn this country inside out,” said Gohmert, who believes the administration is orchestrating much of what we have seen this year, including the massive influx of illegal immigrants, including many minors across our southern border this past summer.
“At the first of this year, this administration sent out for contracts for people who would be able to transport thousands and thousands of people from the Texas border. Low and behold, it turned out that’s exactly what happened in the months ahead. The administration said, ‘Gee, we didn’t really anticipate this.’ Yes they did. It was in their initial request,” he said.
Especially galling to Gohmert is what he sees as the president’s unconstitutional attempts to unilaterally change immigration policy because Congress won’t give him the legislative changes he wants.
“He continues to refuse to do his job (of securing the border) and says, ‘Not only am I not going to do my job that’s legally required, I’m going to start legislating, which is not my job,” he said.
If Republicans gain control of the House and Senate and Obama goes through with executive action on immigration, Gohmert says the Congress will hit the administration hard in the wallet.
“If he does that, we have got to cut off massive billions and billions of dollars to the White House and the executive branch. That is the power of the purse. When the executive branch is acting illegally, then you quit providing any money whatsoever to allow them to continue their illegality,” said Gohmert.
Three Martini Lunch 10/23/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review discuss Charles Krauthammer’s assertion that Obama called red state Democrats his allies and votes he could count on because it’s very hard for him to handle going from mass adoration to a parish within parts of his own party within six years. They also discuss the latest Islamic radical terrorism – this time in Canada. And they rip the Obama administration for releasing illegal immigrants accused of murder, kidnapping, sexual assault and more.
‘We’ll Change the Direction of the Country’
Recent polls suggest former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land is trailing Democratic Rep. Gary Peters in the state’s open U.S. Senate race, but Land says she will close the small gap and win because intrusive government is crippling her state and her opponent is nothing more than a “rubber stamp” for Harry Reid and the Obama agenda.
“It’s going to go down to Election Day. We always knew that. This is a very close race. This is a close state. We’re working hard to talk to the voters, ask for their vote and tell them we’ll change the direction of the country,” said Land.
Land describes Michigan as a purple state, although voters there have elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate only once since 1972.
The seat is up for grabs in Michigan since six-term Democrat Carl Levin announced he would not seek re-election this year. Land served as a Republican secretary of state from 2003-2011, while Democrats controlled the governor’s office and the state legislature. Peters is a three-term congressman from the Detroit suburbs.
If elected, Land says her experience of working with people in both parties would be a benefit to Michigan and to the nation. She says one immediate benefit of her election would be to improve the odds that Republican ideas see the light of day on the Senate floor.
“The biggest hindrance to all of this is Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada). He has not allowed over 400 bills to come up from [the House of Representatives] to vote on in the Senate, everything from energy security and the economy to jobs and all of that. We need to change the direction of the Senate, so that we can vote on these bills up or down and send them to the president,” said Land.
She says electing Peters would result in more of the same in Washington.
“Gary Peters would just be another rubber stamp for Sen. Harry Reid. We’d be in the same situation we are today. We need to change the direction of this country. He does not support balancing the budget and cutting and making sure the government works for the people. He’s had a history of voting for taxes. He talks about that he supports women but yet he pays women in his office 67 cents on the dollar,” said Land, who also accuses Peters of supporting the outsourcing of American jobs through various votes in Congress.
According to Land, the Obama presidency has been bad for Michigan for a number of reasons, but she says the state is especially wounded by a flood of environmental regulations.
“In our state, we have the manufacturing industry, farming and tourism. Now we’ve got the [Environmental Protection Agency] putting in new regulations that put the pedal to the metal on greenhouse gases and making utility companies up costs. It’s going to increase costs for not only manufacturers but also for individuals with their home utilities,” said Land.
The GOP nominee also says she is committed to getting the nation’s fiscal house in order and says step one in congressional accountability is make members feel the pinch if they don’t get their jobs done.
“We need to balance the budget. I propose that if we don’t pass a budget that’s balanced that you don’t get paid in the Senate until you do,” said Land, who says eight years in statewide elected office prepared her for the task.
“As secretary of state, we went through the dark days of Michigan, where Gov. (Jennifer) Granholm and Congressman Peters’ (an official in the Granholm administration) policies lost over 800,000 jobs in our state. We said we need to reduce and consolidate every program that we have. So we looked at literally every program, eliminated programs, looked at positions when they came open when people retired or left and went from 2,100 employees down to 1,500 without any layoffs. We reduced our whole operation by over 20 percent and kept out costs down,” said Land.
When asked where she would start trimming at the federal level, Land believes there is an obvious candidate for cutting a lot of spending.
“Obviously, the biggest thing is Obamacare. That is a huge cost and it doesn’t work. It’s been a disaster and that would be the first place to go,” she said.
“We need a health care system that works for Michigan and our country, one that’s portable and that you can buy with pre-tax dollars, one where the costs are competitive because you can purchase it across state lines and making sure you can keep that doctor-patient relationship,” said Land.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls suggests Peters leads by nine points, but pollsters are also stunned by the huge number of still-undecided voters less than two weeks before voters go to the polls. Land says the choice of direction for Michigan couldn’t be clearer.
“Whether it’s outsourcing, raising taxes or not balancing the budget, that is not good for Michigan and would not put Michigan first. I’m going to go down there and put Michigan first,” said Land.
Three Martini Lunch 10/22/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review enjoy New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s awkward dodge of a debate question about whether she approves of President Obama’s job performance. They also react to ISIS intercepting weapons the U.S. was trying to drop to Kurdish forces. They laugh and cry as a new report on government waste highlights tax dollars being spent on Swedish massages for rabbits, teaching monkeys to gamble and other gems. And they celebrate four years of the Three Martini Lunch with a look back at a classic moment from three years ago.
Gay Marriage Forces Coming for Churches Next
Idaho State Sen. Steve Vick says one city’s efforts to force a Christian wedding chapel to perform same-sex marriages in his state is a blatant violation of the Constitution and he is seriously considering legislation to get the state government out of marriage entirely because he fears churches will be the next target in the aggressive homosexual agenda.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled Idaho’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman was unconstitutional. While that decision was placed on hold during the appeals process, officials in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, informed Hitching Post wedding chapel owners Donald and Evelyn Knapp that they would be required to perform same-sex ceremonies or face jail time and fines if the court’s decision stood. Last week, the Supreme Court allowed same-sex marriages to go forward in the state.
The Knapps have operated the Hitching Post since 1989. They are bible-believing Christians who refuse to participate in ceremonies they believe are clearly condemned in scripture. A legal fight is already underway, but Sen. Vick says he and the local community are outraged by the Coeur d’Alene’s treatment of the Knapps and anyone else seeking the free exercise of their faith.
“It’s very disappointing to me that they would require a Christian business owner to do something that violates their religious convictions, which I believe are protected by the first amendment to the United States Constitution,” said Vick. “Most of the reaction that I incurred has been from disappointment to shock that [the city] would do that.”
Vick has plans to meet with the Knapps later this week to discuss their ordeal. In the meantime, he expects the state legislature to address the issue. Vick admits there is no concrete legislation in place yet but many lawmakers strongly believe the state needs to take action. The senator is personally investigating two approaches, the second of which may come as a major surprise to other conservatives.
“One is to try to re-establish the standing of those who have deeply-held religious convictions,” said Vick. “Another potential avenue that I’m exploring is just eliminating marriage licenses in Idaho.”
Vick admits eliminating state sanctioning of marriage would be a big step and he is only beginning to explore that option. Still, he says the response so far is very positive.
“I have discussed it with just a few people. I don’t have a bill drafted or anything. I have discussed it at some of the town halls I’ve been at. It actually seems to be fairly well-received. In my opinion, if we’re not allowed to determine the standards for a marriage license, then maybe we should just not issue them,” said Vick.
The senator says these are the kind of things states must consider since the will of the voters are being rejected in the federal courts.
“I believe the only way the Supreme Court will hear it is if a different circuit court rules differently. I haven’t seen that yet, but if another circuit ruled that a state could keep on their books a constitutional amendment or a statute that says marriage should be between one man and one woman, then I think the Supreme Court would have to hear it. Other than that, I think these rulings will probably stand,” said Vick, referring to the high court refusing to hear appeals from multiple states after judges struck down voter-approved constitutional amendments establishing traditional marriage as law.
While Vick remains concerned for Christian business owners like the Knapps, he believes efforts to force believers into approving and participating in same-sex weddings are already targeting the church itself.
“I believe the next step will be to say that churches themselves cannot discriminate. They cannot discriminate and the church will have to marry same-sex couples and not be allowed to say anything. Clearly they’re going after the freedom of the church’s speech through the hate speech statutes,” said Vick.
For Vick, officials in Coeur d’Alene and elsewhere are guilty of assaulting freedoms that are the cornerstone of our nation.
“I still believe [they] are requiring someone to violate a long-held and well-established religious conviction. It’s not like somebody established a new religious conviction to discriminate. This is a well-established belief that’s been held by most of the people in the Christian church for over 2,000 years. So, I don’t know that the state should be involved in choosing who’s rights to violate,” said Vick.
Three Martini Lunch 10/21/14
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Andrew Johnson of National Review gleefully appreciate President Obama saying embattled Democratic senators in red states are reliable allies and supporters who always vote with him when it matters. They also groan as reports suggest Obama is preparing to grant legal status to between four million and thirty-four million illegal immigrants after the midterm elections. And they discuss the latest reappearance of Monica Lewinsky, her admission that she loved President Clinton and her contention that she was ‘patient zero’ in cyber bullying.
Why Klain Can’t Be Trusted
President Obama’s new Ebola czar was hired for the purpose of “massaging news” for political purposes much more than he was to coordinate the federal response to the disease appearing on American soil and his involvement in the Solyndra mess is proof, according to former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy.
“It’s not a good sign when they bring somebody in to coordinate an effort whose chief talent is massaging bad news for political purposes. Klain, from all accounts, is a very bright guy and he’s probably very good at his job. But I don’t know that when what the country’s worried about is an Ebola outbreak, his particular skill set is what people were looking for in a coordinator,” said McCarthy, a New York Times bestselling author, who recently released “Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment.”
Since the White House announced Klain as the Ebola response coordinator on Friday, plenty of critics have pointed to Klain’s lack of medical experience and his partisan history on matters ranging from the 2000 Florida recount to the Democratic strategy against the Supreme Court nomination of Clarence Thomas in 1991. However, McCarthy believes another illuminating chapter of Klain’s time in Washington was his handling of the Solyndra controversy in the early years of the Obama administration.
In a piece for National Review Online, McCarthy revisits the story of Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer based in California and he says there are some eerie similarities between Klain’s actions as Solyndra was imploding just before the 2010 midterms and what he is likely to do in response to Ebola coming to the U.S.
In October 2010, despite the infusion of $535 million in taxpayer assistance, the company was about to go under. Solyndra officials told the Obama administration it was about to go public about it’s financial woes and the need to cut jobs. Klain, serving as chief staff for Vice President Joe Biden, was having none of that just days before the midterm elections.
“It was reported to Klain and Valerie Jarrett among others that around October 28 they were letting 20 percent of their workforce go and closing one of their big plants. The next thing you know, the Department of Energy ends up putting a lot of pressure on Solyndra and they delay the announcement until the day after the election,” said McCarthy.
So what is the parallel to Klain’s appointment to lead the Ebola response effort?
“I think it’s a cautionary tale about what Mr. Klain’s real job is here, which is basically to massage news, particularly with a new round of midterm elections on the horizon, to manage when news gets disclosed so it will have the least damaging political impact,” said McCarthy.
However, the former prosecutor says the whole Solyndra tale reveals far more than that about Klain and the Obama administration as a whole.
In 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act. Among other things, the law allowed the federal government to engage in venture capitalism with taxpayer dollars with the goal of boosting green energy businesses. Solyndra applied for federal assistance then but was denied.
“Even though the administration was anxious to get on that bandwagon, it shunned Solyndra. The main reason was it’s business model was, as one analyst put it, a complete and total disaster. It was hemorrhaging money. It really didn’t have any prospects of becoming viable, much less profitable,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy says the federal government’s attitude toward Solyndra changed drastically in January 2009.
“Within a week of Obama taking office, their application was back in business again. One has to conclude that has something to do with the fact that the backer of Solyndra was the family foundation of a major Obama donor,” he said, referring to the family foundation of Obama donor George Kaiser.
This time, with environmental advocates in power and Klain serving as Biden’s chief of staff, Solyndra’s application was speedily approved, but it didn’t change the financial outlook for the company.
“It’s business model was such that it couldn’t compete with Chinese companies that were able to deliver solar energy with much more efficiency and for much less money. As a result, this company continued to hemorrhage money,” said McCarthy.
When hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars failed to stabilize Solyndra, the next step was to seek market financing by going public and selling shares of the company. That never happened, however, because a legally-mandated audit revealed a fiscal mess that accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers described as a “going concern”.
Even with that backdrop, the Obama administration continued to publicly highlight Solyndra as a model for robust American economic growth.
“[The audit] happened a couple of months before President Obama famously came to Solyndra and touted it as a great company that was going to have these wonderful ramifications throughout the economy,” said McCarthy.
This is also the time, emails show, that Klain became directly involved in advancing the glowing Solyndra narrative despite the mounting evidence that it was a house of cards. Prior to the speech, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett saw the financial state of the company and sought counsel from Klain as to whether Obama should still go there.
“Basically, Klain said, ‘Look, I’m comfortable with it. The president touted ten of these companies. Chances are a couple of them might go belly-up. That’s just what you have to do. You have to take these risks.’ It seems to me, when you read the email about it, he was sort of cavalier about the fact you could have massive, catastrophic failures of these companies that are flush with taxpayer funds,” said McCarthy.
But the worst part of the story the taxpayers getting shortchanged upon Solyndra’s implosion. The Energy Policy Act mandates that if a company receiving taxpayer funds goes under, the taxpayers (the U.S. Treasury) were to be first in line for reimbursements when a company’s assets were sold.
“In this instance, what the Obama administration did was to allow that part of the law to be essentially waived. They restructured the deal so that Solyndra backers were able to get priority over the taxpayers,” said McCarthy, noting well-connected donors got in line ahead of the public for at least the first $75 million of the reimbursement.
That, says McCarthy, is criminal.
“They went out of their way and beyond the parameters of what federal law wants done in order to protect the backers from the consequences of their horrific investments,” he said.