Law and Order?

...and the gaffes are over Governor Perry?

In a bid to rebuild confidence in a possible campaign for President, Rick Perry has once again stepped in it.  This time his campaign tweeted out a photo of his nemesis Rosemary Lehmberg as being the most drunk Democrat in Texas.

While his campaign has since deleted the tweet my question is has the staffer in question been fired?  If the tweet was as offensive and unauthorized as you claim Governor, why not fire the staff member for the total lack of judgement?  You are Mr. Law and Order, right?

Perry who is in legal trouble - not because of Democrat Lehmberg - but because of a Republican appointed special prosecutor should understand that this is the type of thing that is umimpressive to the voters that will win or lose an election for you.

While his current situation supposedly surrounds the question of whether or not Lehmberg should have resigned after his suggestion and whether she could run her office and the Public Integrity Unit after her own arrest for DWI, I do not remember Perry calling for the resignation of Kaufman County District Attorney Rick Harrison or Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern.

Harrison was arrested in Seagoville after driving the wrong way down a street and hitting another car. That was his second conviction for DUI.

In November 2002, Swisher County District Attorney Terry McEachern was arrested in New Mexico after failing a field sobriety test and refusing a breath test. He was found guilty of aggravated DWI in June the next year.


The problem in both of those cases was they were Republican office holders.  So much for law and order.

Welcome To Waffle House

In perhaps the clearest indication that Marco Rubio is running for President in 2016, he has recently sent a letter to President Obama explaining why the border need be secured before new measures are discussed to provide a pathway to citizenship.

Is this the same Rubio who was championing comprehensive immigration reform...last year?  You know before walking away from it.

Look, I get it.  Signing onto a bill with Chuck Shumer because the Chamber of Commerce or someone told you to is easy to do.  They throw easy smiles, warm hand shakes, and the promises of lots of campaign cash for future...aspirations.  However, you may want to dial 804 real quick and check in with Eric Cantor because being unsure about immigration reform is perhaps more deadly than being pro-immigration.

Instead of having a principled approach that says "immigrants have always been a part of our country and I have no problem with that" you appear to have a nasty political disease called poll-itis.  I realize that for many in the Republican Party immigration is a hard issue.  I understand that allowing in millions more workers will dampen wages for the same working class that should be in our camp, but historically this really isn't any different than times before.

We had immigrants with crazy religious ideas who thankfully mostly settled in Pennsylvania.  You know...the Quakers.  We had thugs of all kinds come over from Ireland and Italy and if this offends you take a look at your own history and the crime we brought over.  It is what it is and like now, all the new folks...dampened wages for those who were already here.

I am not nearly as scared of immigration as some of my colleagues are.  After all, Jesus was an illegal immigrant, running from the persecution of King Herod.  Was he as bad as the folks crossing the Texas border?  Was he any different?  I know, I know...now the Evangelical Christians will be mad too, but I will find solace in Bishop Olsen's commentary on the immigration question.

However, regardless of my personal opinion on the issue, one thing I know is that serving up policy at the waffle house of believing this, that, or the other thing based on the poll of the day is a turn off with both regular and primary voters.  It is not leadership.  It isn't Presidential.

If Senator Rubio is serious about being the Savior of the Republican Party that Time magazine declares him to be he might want to figure out issues before polling and/or move the polls in the direction he leads on, rather than holding his finger to the wind.

Unexceptional Leadership...Isn't

"Good" news for President Obama.  Recent polling indicates his foreign policy approval rating is only four points worse than his approval rating for how he handles the economy.

The bad news is his approval rating on the economy is at 39.4%.  Ouch!  Foreign policy approval is 35.3%.  That isn't an approval...that is the percentage likelihood that Tony Romo makes it through all sixteen games of the season.  These numbers are not even anemic because they represent the fact that at least some Democrats now realize that President Obama is wrong on issues affecting two core issues to every American: our world standing and our pocketbook.

At the same time his best friends for the past six years, the Washington Post, admits that the recent gaffe at his press conference stings because it fits into people's preexisting suspicions.  I remember Lyn Nofziger referred to the Reagan administration as not amateurs, but novice amateurs.  Well if Ronald Reagan and Company were novice amateurs who the Hell are these kids?

I am not sure, but even the Washington Post Editorial Board took the President to task for the whiplash he must be causing foreign leaders when they hear one thing from his United Nations Ambassador and then hear him contradict her.

The Editorial Board remarks about his comments on both Ukraine and ISIS as well as the abosolute lack of exceptionalism shown by this administration.  This is the bad parent who continually says no instead of offering options.  Instead of speaking about America's greatness and ability to do things, the world seems to have escaped his charm.

Barak Obama keeps talking about American shortcomings.  He has encourages the fires around the world that now burn and no one is to blame for this but himself.  Finally, the media seems willing to explain to this President that unexceptional leadership...isn't leadership at all.  Unfortunately the message will not get out until the next President arrives to put out the fires this guy started.

Rick Perry: Forgetful Or Felon?

I am not sure even where to go with this, but I do have to ask, how far has the Republican Party fallen that an indicted sitting Governor of Texas can run for President with any credibility.

As the video notes the mugshot was a "smirking sitting Governor of Texas."  While I get the legal strategy of smiling for the camera so you can now sell campaign t-shirts I am disappointed he takes these charges so cavalierly.

Again, as Stewart's clip notes this isn't a political hit job except that it was a Republican judge who appointed the Republican special prosecutor.  That's right.  The special prosecutor in this case is Michael McCrum was appointed Assistant US Attorney by George H.W. Bush.  In every situation related to this case I can find, Democrats have recused themselves from the case.

I am not a lawyer and to date have not played one on TV or in the movies, but this is the same Governor who couldn't even remember which agencies he wanted to eliminate in a debate a few years ago.  Rick Perry likes to talk about Texas being open for jobs, but he fails to mention the repeated implication of crony capitalism that stains his administration again and again.

This might be an interesting case to see go forward as Mr. Perry always shoos away questions about Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.  We also get to find out if Mr. Stewart is right.  Is Rick Perry re-branding and going from "forgetful doof to felon."  In the meantime, the Republican Party needs to admit we have better options than this guy or we are all losers.

Dreams Of Our Fathers, Hopes Of Our Egos, Or...

Finally!  The news we have all been waiting for...

Chris Christie still plans to do his 2016 thing.  The Bridgegate story be damned.  After all, he had "nothing to do with it." I don't know if he remembers from his time as a US Attorney or not, but you start low and work your way up.  The investigation that is going on so far hasn't even scratched the surface as near as I can tell, unless you count his own internal document, which shockingly enough cleared him of all wrong doing.

 

I apologize for the sidebar, but it is not clear to me why he feels so entitled, but if he hasn't noticed, Americans first off are pretty quickly getting fed up with bullys who do things the way they want, without regard to what the rest of us want.  Second, the Republican Party has gone moderate with each of its last two nominees.  I would argue longer than that as we are seeing the results of George Bush's term as President where he spent money recklessly to win elections and fight wars that were less than necessary, not to mention the civil liberties questions that continually pop their heads up under Barak Obama, but which clearly started post-9/11.  Nonetheless, the politics are simple.  If the talking heads nominate another moderate, I suspect the Tea Party folks walk and either go third party or sit on their hands.

All of that though flows back into Chris Christie.  Christie has governed as a tough in your face prosecutor, but Democrats are not the accused, they are merely another political party with ideas different than your own.  He talks about building consensus, but it sounds like from the stories on Bridgegate, his staff built consensus through political pain.

I am amazed by the brazenness of his staff, which again, makes me think somewhere along the line he nodded his head.  His Deputy Chief of Staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, did not get to her position by being stupid.  Somewhere along the line she should have realized these emails might end up in the public domain, or did she think her boss was the head of a crime family and simply wouldn't allow these emails to see the light of day?  The same with his old high school buddy David Wildstein.  These two make kid running for high school class President look smart, but if they were this brazen, why not believe they had the authority from Papa Bear?

I know I am blogging a lot about Chris Christie, but the hubris astounds me of some of the brightest GOP "stars."  If this is the best we have, I think we are in serious trouble.

To me, this looks like someone's dreams are going to come crashing down because of the weight of his ego.

Yawn

Is anyone still listening to the President?  Perhaps they should with his call for executive action without Congess, but in reality is anyone still paying attention to this dilettante?  President Obama seems far too happy with plaudits and rose colored glasses and the main stream media seems ready to help him along here.

What is worse, Obama continues to play the game of do as I say, not as I do.  (This unfortunately is not much different than most politicians, but he is President now.)

For instance, when President Obama talks about equal pay for equal work in the country, why is it that his idea only applies outside the walls of The White House?  According to a 2011 report The White House average salary for a male was $71,000 per year; for females $60,000.  I wonder why the discrepancy in equal pay for equal work in his own shop.

Next, the President refers to job growth of eight million new private sector jobs, but notice in his speech, he was referring to jobs after 2010.  The net growth rate of jobs since Obama took office is only 3.2 million - a paltry number during any administration - and a reason for the growing dissatisfaction of youth voters towards Obama.  His job numbers do not include the layoffs at the state and local level or the nearly 4.2 million private sector jobs that were lost during his administration prior to 2010.

Finally, the President's prized piece of legislation...the Affordable Care Act - which has proven thus far to be anything but affordable.  The President claims 9 million new sign ups for his signature legislation.  Nine million!  Wow.

Unfortunately, once again, this is campaign talk and bluster.

First, we know that millions were told if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, which has turned out not to be true as millions were dropped from existing coverage they had.  Second though, millions signed up for the ACA (or Medicare)...because they were newly eligible.  That is not the same as they signed up because of.  While I will not attempt to teach the President about cause and effect, his own administration does not back up his claim and we know that many of the "uninsured" who are now covered, did have insurance, but changed policies under the new exchange system.

I guess President Obama is no worse on his numbers game than most politicians, but the question for me is anyone still listening?  He continues to talk the talk, but his administration doesn't walk the walk...or it does so with disastrous results.

I saw President Obama in New Hampshire, when he was the junior US Senator from Illinois, and I saw the Bobby Kennedy-like charisma that I had heard older generations speak of, but he is still in campaign mode.  After five years he still can tell me who is to blame for a malady, but he has no fixes, only that someone else is responsible for it.  Meanwhile, under the management (I won't use the term leadership) of Speaker Boehner, Republicans have no new ideas and look lost in a wilderness that have self created.

Is anyone listening?  I am ready to go back to sleep which doesn't seem that different than the three in the picture above.

Beware of Political Kingmaking

So when I look up political anointing for the Presidency, the dictionary says to look up Christie, Chris.

Governor Christie of New Jersey is currently hiding from the storm clouds that gathered over his presumed Presidential aspirations after it was revealed that his Deputy Chief of Staff ordered lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in an effort to snarl traffic for the local Fort Lee,  New Jersey community where the Mayor Mark Sokolich refused to endorse his re-election.  (The mayor by the way is from the opposite party.)

Moreover, rumor has it that the US Attorney is looking into the issue as well.  Disrupting traffic patterns for political purposes seems beyond corrupt and worse, there was a death in the community that may have been caused by a delay in EMS arrival due to bridge traffic.  At least one State Senator is already calling for a grand jury investigation into this situation.

Unfortunately this is classic Chris Christie.  If you don't do what he wants, you get paid pack, and you get the same Sopranos payback as Obama has been famous for in Chicago.  Erick Erickson stated last year that his staff "operate as divas."  While Christie speaks in his press conference that he is not a bully, this is just not accurate according to history.

The worst part of this situation is it distracts from issues like Benghazi, Obamacare's continued problems, and the utter lack of job growth in the US economy.  This gives the media a chance to attack Republicans instead of asking questions about if the economy is so great, why aren't the unemployed finding jobs?  This episode allows Obamacare to continue to run its course without attention.  Finally, it allows Hillary Clinton to continue to campaign for President having provided no substantive answers to questions about Benghazi. 

The warning here should be perhaps we should let things play out before we make them the Republican standard bearer in 2016 or any other year, especially when the player in question may not best represent the standards of the party.