Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review shake their heads as America flips out over the death of a lion but yawns at the butchery of Planned Parenthood. They also discuss former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore becoming the 17th Republican presidential hopeful. And they slam Hillary Clinton for saying she won’t take a position on the Keystone pipeline until she gets in the White House.
‘They Are Destroying This Party from the Top’
Congressional Republicans are headed towards summer recess in turmoil and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says it’s because Republican leaders are acting like big-spending liberals and conservatives have had enough of it.
The House of Representatives is the scene of the latest unrest, as Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, filed a motion to remove House Speaker John Boehner from his leadership position. Boehner says he will not allow a vote before recess.
Things are just as intense in the Senate. Last Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a liar on the Senate floor for allegedly insisting to GOP colleagues that there was no deal with Democrats to add an amendment to the highway funding bill that would re-authorize the Export-Import Bank. That amendment was easily approved, while McConnell refused to consider amendments to defund Planned Parenthood of withhold homeland security funds from sanctuary cities.
McConnell vows to hold a separate vote to defund Planned Parenthood and the process is being fast-tracked. Nonetheless, conservatives are fed up with what they see as a GOP leadership abandoning the conservative principles they espoused last year to win the majority.
“Mitch McConnell is now an affliction upon America as majority leader,” said Cuccinelli, who is now president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which has contributed to numerous challengers to moderate or liberal incumbent Republicans.
He says the difference between the campaign rhetoric and the legislative record is as different as night and day.
“The simple measure is have they passed anything that is helpful from a conservative standpoint. Sadly, in the U.S. Senate, the answer is no,” said Cuccinelli. “You literally cannot name, here at the end of July headed into the August recess, one thing that has come out of the United States Senate that conservatives can be proud of. Not one thing.”
In denouncing the GOP leader, Sen. Cruz also asserted that a Senate run by McConnell is largely identical to the one run for eight years by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev. Many on the right have suggested that statement is an exaggeration. Cuccinelli doesn’t think so.
“If you just close your eyes and look at what’s come out of the Senate, it wouldn’t surprise you at all to learn that Harry Reid was the majority leader. If you just look at what’s coming out of the Senate, President Obama, for his ranting and raving at times, has every reason to be very happy with it all,” said Cuccinelli.
Not only does Cuccinelli see McConnell and other Republican leaders squandering the power they won in the midterm elections, but he says the past six months have greatly dispirited the base.
“When Republicans govern like big government Democrats, and they squash conservatives and they squash any sense of fiscal responsibility, Republican grassroots voters abandon them and get fed up and furious. They are destroying this party from the top of it,” said Cuccinelli.
“As you’ve seen from polling, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner together are driving Republicans’ view of Republican leadership into the dirt, face first, no hands to catch yourself,” he added.
Cuccinelli says the proof is not only in the lack of conservative accomplishments but in the backlash aimed at those who mention it. He says Cruz was never rebutted on the facts of his allegation against McConnell but was admonished for going public.
“When did telling the truth become beneath the decorum of the Senate?” he asked.
Another concerning moment for Cuccinelli centered on McConnell attaching an amendment to the highway bill to defund Obamacare. He says it quickly became clear this wasn’t a serious effort.
“Mitch McConnell said he was going to fight to pull out Obamacare root and branch. He abandoned Mike Lee’s effort to support Mitch McConnell’s own amendment to do that,” said Cuccinelli. “He became horrified when Lee figured out a way to actually get the amendment considered as opposed to just giving Mitch McConnell credit for submitting it. So then Mitch McConnell was whipping votes against his own amendment,” said Cuccinelli.
He says the conservative members are now getting hammered for trying to advance the party’s stated priorities.
“They’re beating up Ted Cruz for simply telling the truth. They’re beating up Mike Lee for actually trying to keep promises that all of them made. God forbid we do what we said we were going to do,” said Cuccinelli.
Three Martini Lunch 7/29/15
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review welcome the possibility that Taliban leader Mullah Omar may be dead. They also slam Secretary of State John Kerry for refusing to say the Obama administration would honor existing law if Congress rejects the Iran nuclear deal. And they slam many media outlets for refusing to cover the Planned Parenthood videos because Planned Parenthood asked them not to.
Obama Readies ‘Pen and Phone’ on Iran
Secretary of State John Kerry refused to tell lawmakers Tuesday that the Obama administration would abide by existing laws on Iran sanctions if Congress were to successfully torpedo the agreement.
In a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Brad Sherman, D. Calif., pointedly asked Kerry if the administration would follow the current law if Congress were to find the two-thirds majority necessary to reject the plan.
“I can’t begin to answer that at this point without consulting with the president and determining what the circumstances are,” said Kerry, according to a report from National Review.
When Sherman followed up, Kerry said his previous response simply indicated that he would not engage in hypotheticals.
Rep. Ted Yoho, R. Fla., was alarmed by the exchange.
“I think Mr. Sherman was right on. To see the secretary of state skirting around this instead of backing up America and saying, ‘Absolutely, we are going to follow the rule of law. We are going to hold Iran’s feet to the fire,'” said Yoho.
The congressman says the president is clearly emboldened and has even reason to expect he can flout the law and get away with it.
“As has happened so may times in this administration, the president’s got a pen and he’s got a phone. He has audaciously talked about that,” said Yoho.
“Why would he not do that? We in the House have never held him accountable for any of that,” he added.
Yoho is also frustrated by Kerry’s contention to lawmakers and in the press that Congress must approve the deal to preserve America’s standing in the world.
“That’s a very cheap shot. Sitting on Foreign Affairs and having the ability to talk to dignitaries and ambassadors from all over the world, we’ve already lost our credibility in the world,” said Yoho. I’ve talked to people from a lot of different countries. The credibility of the United States is at the lowest point they’ve ever seen it. Our allies don’t know if they can trust us and our enemies don’t really fear or respect us.”
Tuesday’s hearing also focused on recently revealed side deals that the Obama administration did not reveal to Congress. Last week, Sen. Tom Cotton, R. Ark., and Rep. Mike Pompeo, R. Kansas, reported the deal gives the International Atomic Energy Agency latitude to negotiate with Iran for the right to inspect suspected nuclear facilities without Congress having the opportunity to review the concessions made by inspectors.
Yoho says the explanations from Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz were less than satisfactory to him.
“When they were asked about that they first disputed them. Now they’re owning up that there are some side deals. [Rep. Ron] DeSantis asked if we were going to get the information. John Kerry said, ‘We’ll give you a briefing on it.’ I don’t want a briefing. I want the information that’s in the deal so that we can make an intelligent decision on whether or not this a bad deal,” said Yoho.
To be sure, Yoho is already convinced this is a terrible deal.
“I don’t need that information to tell me it’s a bad deal because with what I know now, it is a bad deal other than for Iran,” said Yoho, who says a country music song sums up this deal.
“It reminds me of that country song by Jerry Reed, ‘She Got the Gold Mine (I Got the Shaft).’ They get to export their oil. They get to export their gold. They’re paving a road to nuclear weapons. In economic development, they’re getting released of $100-$115 billion in sanctions, which equates to about $60-$70 billion that they get to use now. We get to import Persian rugs, dates and nuts,” said Yoho.
As bad as the terms of the deal look to Yoho, he says the most offensive part of the deal is that the United States considered the terrorism-sponsoring regime in Iran worthy of serious negotiations.
“Guess who you’re dealing with? You’re dealing with a country that, since 1979, has got a lot of American blood on their hands. If you look at all the soldiers that were killed or harmed in Afghanistan or Iraq, seventy percent of those came from IED’s. Ninety percent of those were manufactured by Iran,” said Yoho.
As the vote on the Iran draws closer, the congressman says lawmakers of all political persuasions would be wise to heed the words of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as commander-in-chief near the dawn of the nuclear age.
“President Eisenhower said back in the ’50s that if a country’s nuclear intentions are peaceful, they’re out in the open and everybody knows about it. If they’re in secrecy and done in the heat of the night and hidden, those are only done for producing weapons,” he said.
Three Martini Lunch 7/28/15
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer a new CNN poll showing Americans opposed to the Iran nuclear deal but they wonder if it’s enough to pressure enough votes against the plan in Congress. They also express disgust at the Senate leadership’s inability to advance any meaningful conservative goals in it’s first six months in control. And they relish learning that Jon Stewart has been nothing more than a tool of the Obama White House public relations team.
Three Martini Lunch 7/27/15
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Rich McFadden of Radio America in for Greg Corombos applaud Meet the Press host, Chuck Todd for the way he describes the Clinton campaign ratings. They also question Huckabee’s comparison of the Iran deal to the Holocaust. Finally, they laugh about Hillary’s attempt to reach the young Americans in New Hampshire.
Three Martini Lunch 7/22/15
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review cheer Carly Fiorina for her strong denunciation of Hillary Clinton’s extreme position on abortion and the practices of Planned Parenthood. They also slam the Obama administration for trying to hide at least two aspects of the Iran nuclear deal from Congress. And we rip the network news for airing frivolous stories while ignoring the testimony of Kate Steinle’s father on the issue of sanctuary cities.
‘Absurd’ Federal Ruling Ties Employers’ Hands
A key government agency says the landmark Civil Rights Act forbids employers from firing or refusing to hire people based on their sexual orientation, a ruling critics say has no basis in law and threatens to erode our most basic liberties.
On July 16, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on biological sex, also ought to apply to sexual orientation. The decision follows a 2012 ruling that extended similar protections to transgender employees and applicants. The only exception is extended to business with fifteen or fewer employees.
“This ruling is absolutely absurd,” said Liberty Counsel Chairman Mathew Staver. “It’s certainly not based upon the statute and so this is lawlessness in the process. This is an activist agency dominated by appointments from President Barack Obama that has a homosexual agenda that trumps not only Title VII and any other statutory law but even the first amendment.”
Staver says there is no rational way to conclude members of Congress in 1964 intended the Civil Rights Act to cover sexual orientation.
“Title VII is what Congress said it is and what Congress said it is is very specific. It’s about sex discrimination. That’s whether you’re male or female, not whether you’re engaging in a certain kind of sexual behavior,” he said.
“They’re not trying to protect a pedophile or a homosexual or a transsexual or a pederast or someone else that has some other sexual fetish or abnormal activity. They’re trying to deal with the difference between a male and a female,” said Staver, who says the EEOC is ignoring the law to advance its agenda.
“This is just three people pretending to have authority which they don’t. Their authority has to interpret the federal Title VII. Title VII does not include homosexuality or any other kind of sexually aberrant behavior,” he said.
What will be the impact on the workplace? Staver contends that if employees keep their sex lives to themselves, most working environments would remain much as they are today.
“Most people are not going to tell someone that they can’t work for them if they’re doing the job and they’re not pushing their sexual activity into the face of other individuals. They’re not going to inquire about what they do when they’re not at the workplace in most situations,” he said.
The problem, says Staver, is that homosexuals often call attention to themselves because their sexual orientation is critical to their overall identity.
“They’re not content just having this as something that they do outside of the workplace. No, this is part of who they want you to understand they are. It is front and center. It is a very sexualized culture,” said Staver. “They bring that sexualized culture into the workplace. They talk about it. They put it into your face,” said Staver.
There are no exceptions in the EEOC decision for churches or faith-based organizations and Staver complaints based on religious freedom will fall on deaf ears.
“If you’re relying upon the EEOC, there is no religious freedom protection. In fact the the head of the EEOC appointed by President Obama, Chai Feldblum, says that if there is a collision between homosexual rights and the first amendment free exercise of religion, you would think that the first amendment wins. She says no. Homosexual rights win,” said Staver.
What options does this leave employers seeking greater freedom in their hiring? Staver says the time for civil disobedience is here.
“We’re entering into a lawless phase. The 3-2 decision by the EEOC is an example. The 5-4 opinion by the Supreme Court on marriage is another example. When we come to a lawless phase, at some point in time we just have to resist and say, ‘We’re not going to allow three people on the EEOC or five people on the Supreme Court to destroy this religious mission and ministry. We’re not going to allow it and we’ve got to push back,” said Staver.
In fact, Staver believes the failure to push back now and over the long haul will put our our most cherished liberties in peril.
“We’ve come to a different place in our history. We’ve come to a place of revolution, where we need to revolt against this tyranny of a few people who, despite what the Constitution and the courts’ precedents say and despite what natural law and the Bible says, they come out with this opinion,” he said.
“They expect 320 million Americans to walk like the Pied Piper and follow them over the cliff. If that’s what happens, then God help us, because we’ve lost our country. We’ve lost our liberty,” said Staver.
Three Martini Lunch 7/21/15
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review welcome the latest video from the Center for Medical Progress that exposes the callous nature of the abortion industry, this time featuring a haggling session over aborted baby parts and an admission that Planned Parenthood sometimes violates its promises to women to harvest intact baby organs. They also slam the Obama administration’s plan to target the second amendment rights of Social Security recipients if they are unable to manage their own affairs. And they shake their heads as Martin O’Malley is forced to apologize for telling liberal activists that “all lives matter”.
‘Dozens and Dozens of Hours’
Undercover video of a high-ranking Planned Parenthood official casually discussing the graphic dismemberment of the unborn rocked the abortion debate last week, and the head of the group behind the video says there’s much more to come.
The initial video focused on Planned Parenthood conducting abortions in a manner that would preserve fetal organs intact. The Human Capital Project of the Center for Medical Progress produced the video, alleging Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted babies for profit. That is a violation of federal law punishable by imprisonment and hefty fines. Planned Parenthood says it donates fetal tissue for medical research and only charges for the amount needed to be reimbursed for its efforts to donate the specimens.
Reaction to the both the content of the video and the casual manner in which Planned Parenthood Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola describes such grisly actions elicited a swift response. Five states and three congressional committees are launching investigations.
Center for Medical Progress President David Deleiden says this video was part of a 30-month undercover operation at Planned Parenthood. He says what we’ve seen thus far is just the tip of the iceberg.
“We have dozens and dozens of hours of very shocking, troubling footage and admissions from within the top levels of the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood, coming straight from the words of top level Planned Parenthood executives and officials and medical directors and abortion doctors,” said Deleiden.
And it doesn’t stop there.
“We have probably 100-200 pages of Planned Parenthood body parts purchases, internal documents about the practice,” he said.
Several of those documents have already been posted to the group’s website.
Deleiden says other compelling video will emerge as well.
“We also have very compelling eyewitness testimony from people who were actually in real life involved in the harvesting of aborted baby parts at Planned Parenthood clinics,” he said.
The roll-out of the videos and documents will come over the coming days and weeks. Deleiden says there are good reasons for this to come out in stages.
“The whole issue of Planned Parenthood’s baby parts sales is such a complex and multi-layered phenomenon that it’s really important, especially in out 24-hour news cycle, that each piece of evidence gets a fair hearing and gets all the attention that is due to it, so that you don’t actually lose the audience as you’re trying to move forward and educate the public about everything that’s going on,” he said.
How did the harvesting and alleged selling of unborn baby body parts become the focal point of this probe? Deleiden says he and his allies did not know much about the issue when the undercover work started because no one had aggressively investigated it in the past 15 years.
“There’s sort of been a renaissance of fetal tissue harvesting at Planned Parenthood Clinics in the past five years. That was the extent of our knowledge getting into this whole project. Really, everything we’ve learned we’ve learned from the mouths of the abortion doctors and the Planned Parenthood leaders themselves. So we just listened and continued to add to the pile of evidence for two-and-a-half years,” said Deleiden.
On Thursday, Planned Parenthood President Cecille Richards released a video statement to respond to the allegations from the Center for Medical Progress. Richards vehemently denies selling aborted baby parts for profit but admits to donating fetal tissue for research if the families wish to do so. She denounced the Center for Medical Progress but did apologize for the tone of Dr. Nucatola’s comments as lacking compassion.
Deleiden is not impressed.
“It’s a pretty belated apology, coming three days late from Planned Parenthood. I’m also curious what they think is compassionate about saving a baby’s head for laughs or making sure that you don’t crush a certain part so you can sell it later. It seems to me like it’s less of an apology and more of a cynical, last-minute excuse,” he said, noting the tone doesn’t change in the videos still to be released.
“The kind of conversation that our investigators had with Planned Parenthood’s new director of medical services was pretty much mirrored in every other conversation that we had with their abortion doctors. There were many statements made over the past two-and-a-half years that were even more shocking than what was said at that lunch meeting,” said Deleiden.
He says Nucatola’s comments also give lie to Planned Parenthood’s insistence that patient safety is always the top priority.
“If Planned Parenthood is really a legitimate medical provider, you’re expecting them to put the interests of the patient first. As the Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services says in the video, when they are manipulating the abortion procedure and changing things about their technique with the goal of getting better body parts for sale, they’re not putting the interests of the patient first,” said Deleiden.
As for the long-term impact on the abortion debate, Deleiden says these videos will demonstrate how illogical abortion laws really are.
“According to our laws, an unborn child is not considered fully human enough to be fully protected by the law. They’re not protected from being killed by abortion. At the same time, it’s precisely because of their humanity that their body parts are so valuable for sale to biotech companies and for scientific experimentation. That’s why researchers hunt after their body parts like buried treasure,” he said.
“It’s a really disturbing paradox to a lot of people, where we’re saying children are more valuable dead than alive,” said Deleiden.