LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Comey, ABC News Join Forces for Infomercial and Much, Much More. “ABC News hosted an hour-long infomercial on Sunday night as part of a larger marketing strategy for the hyper-emotional, former Director of the FBI. James Comey, who regularly dispenses his wisdom and bon mots on Twitter, was ‘interviewed’ by Clinton foundation donor George Stephanopoulos.”
I don’t call major news outlets the “infotainment industry” for nothing, you know.
ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Jonathan Turley: After The Inspector General Report, Questions Grow Over The Lack Of A Criminal Referral For McCabe.
REMINDER: WITH ALL THE SPECIAL-PROSECUTOR STUFF, my Ham Sandwich Nation piece on prosecutorial overreach and lack of accountability is more relevant than ever.
WAIT, WHAT ABOUT THE NARRATIVE? Michael Anton Addresses His Critics, Affirms Support for Trump.
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: Reince Priebus: GOP will revert to old ways after Trump.
UNDER THE BUS: Loretta Lynch drops the hammer on James Comey. “I have known James Comey almost 30 years. Throughout his time as Director we spoke regularly about some of the most sensitive issue in law enforcement and national security. If he had any concerns regarding the email investigation, classified or not, he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings. He never did.”
WHERE IS SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST? ‘Bipartisan’ Arizona Teacher Protest is Led by Democratic Operative. “Face of #RedforEd fight worked for Bernie alum data collection group, Clinton campaign aide’s Dem recruitment group.”
Questions were raised last week regarding the background of Noah Karvelis, a teacher who has been the face of the highly visible #RedforEd push for increased teacher salaries, after Arizona governor Doug Ducey (R.) labeled him a political operative and chose to keep him out of talks on education spending.
“What I don’t want to do is get into these political operatives’ political circus,” Ducey said, calling into question the political motives of Karvelis’s group, which says it is nonpartisan. He said he would work with “decision makers” and separate out “political activists.”
The Democratic Governors Association criticized Ducey for mislabeling the “organic, bipartisan movement” as a “political movement,” but it failed to mention the ties Karvelis has established to Democratic groups in the last two years alone.
It never fails to amaze me how much growth the Left can nurture out of Astroturf.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT REPUBLICANS DO: Showdown in November: Fearsome Blue Wave or Flaccid Democrat Failure? If GOP voters stay home, it’s fearsome blue wave. If they show up, it’s flaccid failure.
LANNY DAVIS: Admit it, James Comey: You’ve been lying all along.
AT AMAZON, AmazonBasics 3-Outlet Surge Protector with 2 USB Ports.
Plus, Lightning Deal, Pasow 50pcs Cable Ties Reusable Fastening Wire Organizer Cord Rope Holder 7 Inch.
GET WOKE, GO BROKE: The Wax Wars Rage On At Penn Law.
MORE NAILS IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT’S COFFIN?: Did you know that Congress claims its authority to ban hate crimes based on race or color from the 13th Amendment to the Constitution? That’s the amendment that bans slavery. It’s … well …. kind of a stretch, since, as you may have noticed, hate crimes aren’t slavery. And Congress wasn’t foolish enough even to claim it enacted the law to keep slavery from returning.
The Supreme Court will likely be asked to address the issue in Metcalf v. United States, a case recently before the U.S Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. It’s fair to say that these days the 13th amendment is one of the Left’s favorite vehicles for expanding governmental power.
BTW: No, I don’t endorse hate crimes. Indeed, I endorse neither hatred nor crime. But advocates of limited government under the Constitution do not always get to choose their allies.
Also: Congress claims its authority to ban other kinds of hate crimes on the Commerce Clause.
SPACE: NASA’s TESS Satellite Will Supercharge Search for Nearby, Earth-Like Worlds.
TESS is designed to find planets orbiting nearby stars spread across the sky, astrophysicist and pioneering exoplanet researcher Sara Seager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told Space.com. The satellite is not specifically intended to look for planets that can support life, but it can find planets orbiting in the habitable zone of small stars, said Seager, who serves as a deputy science director on TESS.
TESS will find signals of planet candidates, Seager said. A lot of follow-up work will go into determining whether these candidates are truly planets, rather than binary stars, artifacts in the data or something else. Once this is accomplished, deeper investigation can begin. Unlike with Kepler, the stars TESS examines will be bright enough and close enough to allow detailed follow-up studies with large ground telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.
It’s scheduled to go up today on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and you can watch the launch live here.
IT’S COLLUSION, I TELL YOU: Trump to Impose New Sanctions on Russia Over Support for Syria.
The Trump administration plans to impose new sanctions against Russia on Monday to punish it for enabling the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons in its civil war, the latest in a series of actions by both sides underscoring the deterioration in relations between Moscow and the West.
The sanctions, coming shortly after American-led airstrikes against facilities linked to Syria’s chemical weapons, are meant to signal that the United States holds responsible not just the government of President Bashar al-Assad but also his patrons in Russia and Iran. President Trump has vowed that Syria’s allies will pay a “big price” for facilitating the suspected use of poison gas.
At this point, the strongest argument that could be offered by anyone still holding on to the “Russia! Russia! Russia!” narrative is that Trump wasn’t an honest enough politician to stay bought — and that’s pretty weak tea.
FAREWELL: Barbara Bush to Stop Medical Treatment, Focus on Comfort Care.
Mrs. Bush, 92 years old, has had a recent series of hospitalizations, spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement Sunday. He said that after consulting with her family and doctors, she decided to not seek additional medical treatment and instead will focus on “comfort care.”
“It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself—thanks to her abiding faith—but for others,” Mr. McGrath stated. “She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving.”
What a lady.
CARL CANNON: Special Prosecutorial Abuse.
We’re supposed to be reassured that the FBI agents who raided the offices and home of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael A. Cohen, were, in Cohen’s words, “courteous” and “respectful.”
The president’s attorney was understandably grateful that the agents didn’t replicate the FBI’s tactics at the home of Paul Manafort, Trump’s onetime campaign manager. Busting in before dawn, guns drawn, with a “no knock” warrant while Manafort and his wife were in bed, the agents frisked Mrs. Manafort while she was still in her nightclothes.
Perhaps Cohen thinks if he sounds reasonable, he can appease Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who ordered Manafort’s arrest, or his other federal prosecutors behind this raid. Or maybe Cohen simply developed the quickest case of Stockholm syndrome in history. Whatever his reasons, a line has been violated. The government is going after lawyers now, as part of an investigation that feels as though policy differences and partisan politics have been criminalized.
Since the day Trump entered political life, liberals, Democratic activists, and media pundits have issued ominous warnings about the coming authoritarianism. When Trump shocked his critics by winning the presidency, this alarm became a crescendo. The “f” word was bandied about: Fascism, we were admonished, was in our future if we didn’t “resist” this presidency.
The resistance has taken many forms: marches and school walkouts; myriad lawsuits against the president; the refusal by Senate Democrats to vote in favor of administration Cabinet nominees; sustained attacks on those appointees who were confirmed; national ad campaigns demanding impeachment; showy resignations from career foreign service officers; leaks of national security information by Obama administration officials; and the suspension of journalistic objectivity by entire news organizations.
It’s as if these people don’t believe in democracy.
Plus:
The Palmer Raids, as they were known, begat the ACLU. I grew up in a family where that organization was respected and where Gene Debs was a household name. My mother once described Debs to me matter-of-factly as a political prisoner. Today’s ACLU doesn’t defend Donald Trump from prosecutorial overreach. It’s now a partisan organization unconcerned with due process. On its website, you’ll be met with a solicitation: “Donate monthly to fight Trump’s attacks on people’s rights.”
Okay, but what about the FBI’s attacks on Trump’s right to legal counsel — and, by implication, the rights of the rest of us? Because if they can do it to his lawyer, they can do it to yours. Do the ends justify the means? Or do we live by rule of law? Choose one.
Oh, the ACLU has chosen.
BLUE WAVE? 2018 vote margin narrows as Democratic engagement slips.
A 10-point Democratic lead among all adults narrows to 4 points among registered voters and 5 points among those who say they’re both registered and certain to vote; neither of those is statistically significant. In January, by contrast, Democrats held similar margins in all three groups – 13, 12 and 15 points, respectively.
Factors at play include a slide in self-reported registration among Democrats, which is a sign of waning engagement; consolidation among Republicans of their base; and better results for the GOP among less-educated Americans generally, and non-college-educated white women in particular.
Among other results, the poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, finds more than three-quarters of Americans looking for a congressional candidate who agrees with them on gun policy.
Somewhere, Bill Clinton shakes his head at today’s Democrats.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: For ACLU, getting Trump trumps civil liberties. It’s as if the ACLU is just a lefty Democrat front group and not a nonpartisan civil-liberties organization at all.
MARK PENN IN THE HILL: Comey’s Last Stand For The Deep State.
They were among the most powerful men of the last decade. They commanded armies of armed agents, had the ability to bug and wiretap almost anyone, and had virtually unlimited budgets. They were the leadership of the FBI, the CIA and the director of national intelligence under President Obama. Each day, it becomes clearer that they are the real abusers of power in this drama.
The book by former FBI Director James Comey and the daily hyperbolic John Brennan sound bites are perhaps the final reveal of just how much hubris and vitriol they had. Comey’s book, according to reports, contains nothing new of legal consequence to Trump (while suggesting that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch has something to worry about), but it unmasks the hatred that Comey had for Donald Trump from the beginning. It impeaches Comey’s fitness to have ever held high, nonpartisan office.
Whether you are a Democrat who can’t stand Trump, a Hillary Clinton supporter who feels robbed by Comey, or a Trump supporter, any use of wiretapping and vast prosecutorial machinery against our political campaigns and sitting presidents always has to be viewed skeptically and should meet the highest standards of conduct and impartiality. The post-election actions of these former officials makes suspect their actions as officials.
Yes, they’ve called into question the very legitimacy of government as it operates nowadays.
IT’S TERRIFYING IN THERE. ALSO, REALLY, REALLY DIM: Thank God You Don’t Live in the Mind of a Journalist!
SINCE THE CONSTITUTION MENTIONS NO TRANSGENDER ISSUES, BEYOND GRANTING THEM THE SAME UNALIENABLE RIGHTS AS THE REST OF US, I FAIL TO SEE WHAT THE PRESIDENT SHOULD DO. ISN’T YOUR COURAGE AWARD VALIDATION ENOUGH, MS. JENNER? YOU REQUIRE THE PRESIDENT TO TELL YOU HOW WONDERFUL YOU ARE, TOO? Caitlyn Jenner: Trump Performance Good in ‘Certain Areas’ but ‘Horrible’ on Transgender Issues.Well, at least she’s proven she’s a famous woman of a certain age. Desperate for attention.
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: James Comey Says ‘Yes,’ He Shifted ‘to Collecting Evidence of a Crime’ in His Trump Notes.
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