Tag: bipartisan
Matt Gaetz

The 'Catastrophic' Legacy Of Matt Gaetz

What a Christmas present! In its report released last Monday, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee cited "substantial evidence" that from 2017 to 2020, former Rep. and would-be Attorney General Matt Gaetz "regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him," including an underage 17-year-old, and from 2017 to 2019, had in his possession illegal drugs including cocaine and ecstasy, on "multiple different occasions." Investigating a 2018 trip Gaetz made to the Bahamas, the committee found that he violated House rules by accepting transportation and lodging, which is not allowed. Summing up its conclusions, the committee found that Gaetz "violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress."

The House panel reported that Gaetz was "uncooperative" throughout its investigation and "knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee's investigation of his conduct." They also found that he used his former chief of staff to "assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent."

And he almost got away with all of it.

How? Why?

Those questions deserve answers.

This is the man who brought down Speaker Kevin McCarthy, twisting the House into knots and bringing about a dangerous stalemate in Congress.

This is the man who was Donald Trump's first choice to be attorney general of the United States.

The report was the product of a multiyear investigation of Gaetz that took place while he was taking a leading — and sometimes decisive — role in House deliberations and actively campaigning for the president-elect. Had Gaetz had his way, and some of his Republican colleagues had theirs, we would still not know the truth about him. Gaetz brought suit to attempt to block the committee's release of the report, in a complaint that reportedly requested a restraining order and injunction, claiming that the committee's action violated the Constitution in its effort to "exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations."

Gaetz resigned from Congress two days before the report was due to be issued, in an obvious attempt to block the report's release. It was the same day he was nominated for attorney general. Rep. Michael Guest, who chairs the Ethics Committee, opposed its actual release. While writing that he and other Republican members "do not challenge the Committee's findings," he argued that releasing a report about someone who is no longer a member of Congress, "an action the Committee has not taken since 2006," is "a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences."

The "catastrophic consequences" are that this criminal served in a leading capacity in the House of Representatives and almost became the attorney general of the United States. The "catastrophic consequences" are that he was nominated for that position by a president-elect who was — we have to presume — utterly ignorant of the fact that this man's peers had concluded that he was a serial felon who got away with it.

Why is a member of Congress free to not cooperate with a committee charged with ensuring that members of Congress act ethically? Why did they wait years while he actively obstructed their investigation before making that clear? Just a few weeks ago, he was talking about running for Marco Rubio's Senate seat in Florida. Didn't the citizens of Florida have a right to know what the House committee had concluded? How could the chair of the House Ethics Committee say no to that? Talk about dangerous precedents.

The Matt Gaetz debacle is proof positive that Americans have every reason to distrust Congress, which is a sad state of affairs in a democracy. Gaetz's legacy, if you can call it that, is that a president should not nominate anyone to high office without careful vetting, and that the public has a right to know about the integrity of the men and women we elect to serve us. The Ethics Committees of Congress should do more, do it publicly and be transparent about their work. Non-cooperation, active efforts to obstruct justice, should not be tolerated, and should be disclosed. Matt Gaetz had no business even being considered for attorney general when his only qualification was his loyalty to Donald Trump. The members of the committee knew that. Why didn't anyone tell Donald Trump? Or us? This is a story that should not go away.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Rep. Mike Johnson

Johnson Names Alleged Insurrectionist Perry To Intelligence Committee

During Sunday's episode of CBS' Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan spoke with House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-OH) about House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) newest committee appointments — which was met with "bipartisan uproar," according to Axios.

"I want to ask you about the Intelligence committee (IC)," Brennan said to the Ohio congressman. "You've tried to keep it nonpartisan, as you've said on this program. Speaker Johnson recently decided, as you know, to add two congressmen, Scott Perry (R-PA) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX), to your committee, reportedly at the behest of Donald Trump.

Axios notes, "Perry's phone was seized by the FBI as part of its Jan. 6 probe, while Jackson has faced allegations of drinking on duty and harassing staff when he was the White House physician."

Brennan noted, "Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) referred to Perry as a threat to oversight, saying, 'He will be on the very committee that oversees FBI while he is under direct investigation by this very agency. This, in and of itself, amounts to disqualifying conflicts of interest.'"

Turner replied, "Being concerned, obviously, about that issue, and being the chairman, to see whether or not there was an issue — in due diligence from our committee — that we needed to resolve or address — they indicated that there was not an ongoing or continuing issue, or even a current issue that we need to address."

Brennan asked, "The FBI told you that?"

Turner replied, "The IC told us that. I think what's very important here, is the speaker makes the appointment, and then what he's done since. The speaker has absolutely committed himself to these two individuals, following the rules — not only the laws. Both of them have military experience, both of them have had access to classified information before, and there's been no report of their handling or mishandling of classified information. The speaker has met with our committee — Republican members. We have had a meeting with Mr. Perry, myself and the speaker. The speaker has said this: He's going to continue to monitor the situation, if there's any indication of anything improper happening, that he will intervene. And I believe the speaker will assert leadership here."

"And withdraw...that nomination potentially?" Brennan asked, before saying "Scott Perry has come out, and took aim at you, as you know. Because he said if he gets on this committee, he'll conduct actual oversight, not blind obedience to some facets of our intelligence committee that he claimed are spying on the American people. How do you respond to that?"

The IC chair replied, "He has apologized, and certainly those are the types of words that you would not want from someone that is joining a committee that is obviously very dedicated to national security."

Watch the video below at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Nancy Jacobson No Labels

With No Candidate And No Campaign, No Labels Is Zeroed Out

Well, well, well. It seems that No Labels has no future. At least, not in the 2024 presidential election.

The supposedly centrist, supposedly bipartisan group that tried desperately to find someone—literally, anyone—to run on a “unity” ticket against President Joe Biden is admitting defeat, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down,” said Nancy Jacobson, founder and CEO of No Labels in a statement.

It’s not for lack of trying. Like, really trying—by basically begging everyone they could think of. As Daily Kos reported just a few weeks ago, the list of people who said no to No Labels was quite long:

  • Former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming
  • Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan
  • Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
  • Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
  • Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels
  • New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu
  • Failed Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley
  • Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick
  • Businessman Mark Cuban
  • Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven
  • Actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

You might notice that most of the people on that list are Republicans, though the group was apparently desperate enough to ask the Democratic former governor of Massachusetts if he’d be willing to give it a go.

But that’s no accident. In December, the group’s chief strategist admitted that the “unity” ticket didn’t need to have any Democrats on it. A Republican and an independent would do just fine!

Well, it turns out the No Labels ticket won’t have a Democrat on it after all. Or a Republican. Or anyone at all. Or an independent. What a shame.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Border Wall

How Trump Turned Republicans Into The 'Open Borders' Party

Donald Trump has called on Republicans to kill a bipartisan deal that would give the president emergency powers to shut down the border when illegal crossings get out of hand. He's thus helped President Joe Biden turn one of his political liabilities into a strength.

"If given that authority," Biden said without hesitation, "I would use it the day I sign the bill into law."

The bill has teeth. The border could be closed if illegal entries exceed 5,000 over a five-day average. Over the last four months, that number has been breached on all but seven days.

There's a lot more in this serious plan for ending the chaos at the border. Trump wants that chaos to continue as a campaign issue.

And the emasculated Republican-run House seems poised to obey Trump's command that the broken border stay broken.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah correctly labeled Trump's attempt to sabotage the bill as "appalling." Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, another Republican who supports the deal, would agree.

"This bill focuses on getting us to zero illegal crossings a day," Lankford said on Fox News. "There's no amnesty. It increases the number of Border Patrol agents, increases asylum officers. It increases detention beds so we can quickly detain and then deport individuals." The legislation also raises the number of deportation flights and makes asylum claims harder to get.

Republicans have for months refused to grant funding for Ukraine and Israel until security at the southern border was tightened. The negotiated package would include military aid for those two countries and Taiwan, plus humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.

Trump wants the border mess to continue so he can campaign on it. But while some brave Republicans are defying the ex-president for the good of the country, Trump continues to emasculate less courageous members of his party.

House Speaker Mike Johnson jumped at his orders, saying the proposal is "dead on arrival," though the bill was yet to be released. He also wrote in a letter to House Republicans that "public opinion polls show the country has overwhelmingly sided with us on this issue."

Well, that may have been true until last week, when Republicans seemed interested in restoring stability at the border. How things have changed.

If Republican lawmakers do kill the deal, the slim Republican House majority could soon turn into a Democratic majority. Trump has a proven record of helping Republicans lose elections.

No amount of demagoguery can cover what they're doing. The public is too highly engaged on this issue to not see the extraordinary game Trump is playing and the weakness of the Republican lawmakers. And, as it happens, Biden is better at politics than he is.

It looks as though Trump has three wishes come November. The first, already stated, is that the U.S. economy collapses. That's quite unlikely at this time of cooled inflation, full employment, and record stock prices.

The second wish, obviously, is for massive disorder at the border. That he would so openly call for developments that would hurt America is a wonder to behold. What Trump's third demonic wish will be remains to be revealed — perhaps the collapse of Ukraine as a carefully wrapped gift to Vladimir Putin.

As for immigration, America ultimately needs a fine-tuned program that recognizes the need for new workers — how many and with what skills — all the while protecting the pay and benefits of the native-born and immigrants here legally. But first the border must be secured.

Biden vows to do that if the political opposition doesn't stop him. The political opposition is throwing away one of its most potent issues. Republicans have turned themselves into the party of open borders.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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