Tag: Speaker of the House

A Letter From The Edge

Or….My Baby Wrote Me A Letter!  (sorry had to channel my 60s experience)……

The news has been full of the report that Trump has written (?) a letter to Pelosi ahead of the impeachment vote…..

Trump rattled on…the same song that his Tweets reflect…..

Nancy Pelosi was on the receiving end of what the Washington Post calls an “extraordinary letter” written by President Trump. Over six pages that you can read in full here, he voices his “strongest and most powerful protest” against impeachment, writing that “this impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.” The AP reports that the “fiery” letter, which comes a day before his expected impeachment, voices Trump’s displeasure at how the House inquiry was handled, alleging “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”

Trump writes that the Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee has come up with “include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!” He addresses the claims of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress at length, then goes on to tout a long list of successes that have occurred in his term, writing, “you and your party are desperate to distract” from them. He expresses that he doesn’t believe his letter will change anything, but that he wanted to record his objections “for the purpose of history. … One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.”

I really would like to hear what my readers think about this letter…it is not a long read….only about 6 pages……

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Speaker:

I write to express my strongest and most powerful protest against the partisan impeachment crusade being pursued by the Democrats in the House of Representatives. This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history.

The Articles of Impeachment introduced by the House Judiciary Committee are not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory, interpretation, or jurisprudence. They include no crimes, no misdemeanors, and no offenses whatsoever. You have cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!

…Read On….

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/letter-president-donald-j-trump-speaker-house-representatives/

Did you read?

Whatcha think?

My thoughts is it should have been left un-mailed…..it makes the president look like a childish d/bag….it is a rambling piece of manure that would be better on the rally trail and not in the House.

It sounds more like someone afraid their “brand” will be tainted….he keeps thinking that his legacy will always have a stigma about it with a asterisk after his name….a stain on his person.

But that is just me.

I Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Onward To Impeachment

Surprise!  No need for a second day of the Judiciary hearings….Pelosi told the Dems to move on to impeachment….apparently she wants to get on with it before the Christmas break….my question is what is the rush?

The evidence is available……I post this knowing that many have already made up their minds and will not bother to check the evidence before they comment…..to include some senators…..be thankful that is NOT the way a jury acts in the public domain.

I. The President’s Misconduct: The President Conditioned a White House Meeting and Military Aid to Ukraine on a Public Announcement of Investigations Beneficial to his Reelection Campaign

The President’s Request for a Political Favor | The President Removed Anti-Corruption Champion Ambassador Yovanovitch | The President’s Hand-picked Agents Begin the Scheme | President Trump Froze Vital Military Assistance | The President Conditioned a White House Meeting on Investigations | The President’s Agents Pursued a “Drug Deal” | President Trump Pressed President Zelensky to Do a Political Favor | The President’s Representatives Ratcheted up Pressure on the Ukrainian President | Ukrainians Inquired about the President’s Hold on Security Assistance | The President’s Security Assistance Hold Became Public | The President’s Scheme Unraveled | The President’s Chief of Staff Confirmed Aid was Conditioned on Investigations

II. The President’s Obstruction of the House of Representatives’ Impeachment Inquiry: The President Obstructed the Impeachment Inquiry by Instructing Witnesses and Agencies to Ignore Subpoenas for Documents and Testimony

An Unprecedented Effort to Obstruct an Impeachment Inquiry | Constitutional Authority for Congressional Oversight and Impeachment | The President’s Categorical Refusal to Comply | The President’s Refusal to Produce Any and All Subpoenaed Documents | The President’s Refusal to Allow Top Aides to Testify | The President’s Unsuccessful Attempts to Block Other Key Witnesses | The President’s Intimidation of Witnesses

Speaker of the House Pelosi has made her thoughts known and the faithful will follow…..

The House is formally moving ahead with impeachment—and that timeline is just fine with President Trump. Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced that the House will draft articles of impeachment against the president. “The facts are uncontested,” she said, per CBS News. “The president abused his power for his own personal political benefit at the expense of our national security by withholding military aid and [a] crucial Oval Office meeting in exchange for an announcement of an investigation into his political rival.” In doing so, “the president leaves us no choice but to act.” And so “sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders, and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.”

The exact timeline remains unclear, though Politico expects a House vote before the end of the month. Pelosi’s comments come a day after the House Judiciary panel had its first impeachment hearing. Also on Wednesday, Pelosi met behind closed doors with the Democratic caucus and asked, “Are you ready?” reports the AP. Those in the room responded with what the AP characterizes as a “resounding yes.” A speedy vote is OK with Trump. On Thursday, he tweeted that if House Democrats “are going to impeach me, do it now, fast,” because he is confident he will be cleared in a Senate trial.

Now we wait for the articles of impeachment and the counts…..and we wait….which is good for it gives the slower thinkers time to write their stuff.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

SOTU-2019

As we approach the day that the president would stroll over to the Capital and give his SOTU speech before Congress has been “postponed”…..

You see Pelosi sent a letter to Trump about the SOTU……

On Jan. 3 she formally invited him to deliver the State of the Union address on Jan. 29; just shy of two weeks later, Nancy Pelosi wants it rescheduled until after the shutdown ends—or just delivered in writing. In a letter sent to President Trump, Pelosi cited security concerns, noting that in September Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen designated the address as a “National Special Security Event.” That puts it in a category that demands “weeks of detailed planning with dozens of agencies,” in an effort led by the Secret Service.

Except, she writes, the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security have gone 26 days without funding, creating the “security concerns” fueling her request. Barring an end to the shutdown this week, Pelosi asks that the president work with her “to determine another suitable date” to deliver it or just deliver it in writing, as was the practice during the 19th century and up until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.

Trump got butt hurt and cancelled a scheduled trip by the Speaker to speak to our soldiers serving overseas…..

…Thursday letter announcing he’d cancelled a military flight meant to carry Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers to Brussels and Afghanistan, President Trump noted that the House Speaker was still free to fly commercial. But on Friday, Pelosi shot back that the White House made that impossible, too. “We had the prerogative to travel commercially, and we made plans to do that until the administration then leaked that we were traveling commercially,” Pelosi said, per the Washington Post. “You never give advance notice of going into a battle area—you just never do it,” she said. The White House, however, denied that it leaked any information about a potential commercial flight and called Pelosi’s accusation a “flat-out lie,” reports the Hill. The president, meanwhile, doubled down on his move to cancel the military flight in a Friday morning tweet

What a juvenile bunch of manure!

Trump has threatened to take his SOTU on the road and give it to his supporters in a campaign-esque setting…..

The last time one of his speeches were televised it was a racist rant about the border and not enough people condemned the MSM for carrying it…

After President Donald Trump exploited the enormous free platform he was needlessly granted by America’s major television networks Tuesday night to deliver an immigration address replete with the same disinformation and dehumanizing rhetoric he has deployed since stepping foot on the campaign trail, critics denounced the corporate media’s continued role in amplifying Trump’s speeches despite knowing they will be full of harmful lies.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/09/corporate-media-condemned-handing-trump-megaphone-spout-racist-stream-lies

Hopefully the MSM will not make that mistake again!

I am a political wonk so I will keep an eye on the SOTU if he indeed takes it on the road……but that would just be another rally and would not hold the prestige of an actual SOTU.

For now the rest of the SOTU story…..

Sources say Trump is currently planning to be at the Capitol on the 29th to give the speech. However, contingency plans (including other venues, possibly even outside Washington) and alternatives (a rally, for instance) are also being considered, and all the details remain unclear at this point. “We are still in a holding pattern,” one senior source says. In fact, ABC’s sources say Trump is preparing two different speeches: One for members of Congress, as originally planned, if the speech is given in DC; the other for a rally audience if the speech is given outside DC. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Tuesday during an appearance on Fox that if Pelosi ultimately blocks Trump from delivering the address on the House floor, “there are many ways he can” still deliver it.

Breaking News:  After I wrote this draft post word has come out the Pelosi has won the war of wills…..

Unless lawmakers strike a deal to reopen the government by next Tuesday, President Trump’s second State of the Union address will be the first in history to be delayed by a shutdown. The president was the first to blink in his SOTU standoff with Nancy Pelosi Wednesday, the BBC reports. After the House speaker told Trump that he would not be invited to deliver the address in the House chamber until the shutdown was resolved, he announced late Wednesday that he would postpone the speech. “As the Shutdown was going on, Nancy Pelosi asked me to give the State of the Union Address. I agreed,” Trump tweeted. “She then changed her mind because of the Shutdown, suggesting a later date. This is her prerogative – I will do the Address when the Shutdown is over.”

Turn The Page!

The New House Begins Work

Let me say in the offset that these women that are new to the House are showing balls……something even the men could not accomplish.  Rashida Tlaid and AOC are showing spine and not shrinking from opposition by the old farts that cannot understand progressivism…..thumbs up…I love these women!

On to their, the House, getting to work…….

Some of the first order of business….debt and ethics……

When a new Congress convenes every two years, the majority party must approve a resolution outlining House rules, the intricate parliamentary procedures that govern the chamber. Two notable changes in the Democrats’ package are aimed at avoiding certain confrontations that became commonplace during the Republican majority from 2011 through 2019, after the rout of the party in the 2018 midterms.

Democrats will revive the “Gephardt Rule,” introduced in the late 1970s by Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., that automatically raises the debt ceiling — the nation’s borrowing limit — once the House passes a budget.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/02/681547346/democrats-announce-major-changes-to-u-s-house-rules

Then the debates on economic policies…….

Okay, it’s that time of year when we are all supposed to commit ourselves to performing nearly impossible tasks over the next twelve months. I will play the game. Here is the list of areas where I will try to bring economics into economic policy debates in 2019.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/01/03/resolutions-to-improve-debates-on-economic-policy-in-2019/

The Dems in the House are trying desperately to return democracy to the system……

In a major step toward fixing our broken system of elections, House Democratic lawmakers introduced a comprehensive democracy reform bill Thursday, the first day of the 116th Congress.

The bill, which is known as H.R. 1, or the For The People Act, and was sponsored by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), would create a more responsive and representative government by making it easier for voters to cast a ballot and harder for lawmakers to gerrymander, by transforming how campaigns are funded to amplify the voices

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/04/historic-bill-strengthen-democracy-introduced-congress

I know some of these are redundant but I am proud of the direction the House is taking….sadly they will need the Senate to make these things law…..will they get it?

The new members of the House are showing spine….hopefully the old farts of the House do not crap on the progress these women can lead the country into…..Centrists are the cowards of the country.  Remember I said That!

My guess is NO…for they are trying very hard to protect Trump at all costs…….

Some members of the Republican National Committee and grassroots Republicans are backing an effort to block potential primary challengers to President Trump, even though party insiders are insisting it is too late to change the rules for the 2020 campaign.

The push to rally GOP support around the president early comes as freshman Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah published a Washington Post op-ed arguing that on issues of character, “the president has not risen to the mantle of the office.” The 2012 GOP nominee also said he would not run himself in 2020 and declined to endorse Trump, in an interview with CNN.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/681987077/rnc-members-want-to-block-a-primary-challenge-to-trump-but-the-rules-may-stop-th

The Senate is old angry white men without a spines.

Paul Ryan–A Tragedy

Soon Ryan will “retire” from Congress…..he will depart with a legislative branch in disarray and impotent.

Like a Greek play…our protagonist has gone through a change that has changed him completely.

Paul Ryan from Janesville, Wisconsin came to Washington as a Jack Kemp Republican….these days being such does not mean much because most people have no idea what that means…..Kemp thought that the GOP should, and could, once again be the “party of Lincoln.” Being pro-civil rights was only part of it. It was famously said that Kemp, as a football player, had showered with more African-Americans than most Republicans had ever met. But Kemp also shared Lincoln’s other big idea, that the essence of America was the “right to rise”—for everybody—through talent and effort. Neither Lincoln nor Kemp favored income redistribution, but they both thought government had a role in helping people climb the ladder. Lincoln favored public investment in infrastructure and education. Kemp wanted lower tax rates.

Ryan came to Washington as a young idealist and he will leave a spineless Trump toady….

Paul Ryan came to Congress as a Jack Kemp conservative and will depart as a Donald Trump Republican.

It’s more complicated than that, certainly. History requires nuance and texture. But legacies are reductive by nature. The House speaker announced his retirement Wednesday, closing a messy and mesmerizing chapter in the history of the Republican Party. And for the affable Wisconsin kid who moved to Washington a quarter-century ago, eager to make his mark on fiscal policy, the harsh reality is that he might be remembered more for accommodating the impulses of the 45th president than for crafting a generational overhaul of the tax code.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/12/how-donald-trump-upended-paul-ryans-plans-217989

Kemp and Ryan have on thing in common….neither became president.  Kemp left Congress with a sterling reputation…..Ryan will depart with a reputation that he will be ashamed of for the rest of his life.

Paul Ryan when discussing the House made a statement……”I am very proud of what this Congress has accomplished”……

Seriously?  And what would that be?  What are the accomplishments?

Congress did not accomplish anything on immigration, screwed millions out of health care, nothing on infrastructure, tried to destroy the FBI and CIA, afraid to vote on authority to kill internationally, permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, threat of attacks on Social Security and Medicare……now just what did they accomplish again?

Apparently Ryan has a low bar for the Congress.

Another Congressperson Packs It In

As the 2018 mid term election gets closer the more Congresspeople are packing it in for most know they will lose…..well the latest to say bye is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

Wednesday’s buzziest political development comes from Axios, which broke the news that Paul Ryan has decided not to run for re-election. The House Speaker’s office made that official with a statement explaining “this morning Speaker Ryan shared with his colleagues that this will be his last year as a member of the House. He will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January. After nearly twenty years in the House, the speaker is proud of all that has been accomplished and is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father. While he did not seek the position, he told his colleagues that serving as speaker has been the professional honor of his life, and he thanked them for the trust they placed in him.”

As for what fueled the decision, which has been rumored for some time, satisfaction is reportedly one: Tax reform had long been Ryan’s goal, and now that he achieved it, he’s ready to bow out, Axios’ Jonathan Swan told MSNBC. Another potential factor, per Swan: He’s “staring down the barrel frankly of potentially losing the House in November. I don’t know that Paul Ryan, minority leader, is a particularly appealing title.” President Trump had this to say in a tweet: “Speaker Paul Ryan is a truly good man, and while he will not be seeking re-election, he will leave a legacy of achievement that nobody can question. We are with you Paul!”

Of course he regurgitated the same reason as most of the others…”my kids are not getting any younger and I do not want to be a weekend father”…..really?  Apparently the kids were not important when they were younger…..it is a lame excuse….tell the truth…you now that you will have a hard time with re-election so why not quit and void the embarrassment of losing an election.

The Speaker Speaks–Dec. 2017

Some may say that I am a prick.  And they are probably right.  Why would I say this?

The tax bill that passed in Dec 2017 is nothing but a boost for the wealthy….the middle class gets a boost for a couple of years then it disappears but the wealthy gets to keep all their benefits….it will create jobs…horseshit!

All that aside….I have the Speakers words and his promises on vid and in print and I will be sure to play this for the conservs whenever they try to run in my district…..

https://www.speaker.gov/press-release/speaker-ryans-floor-remarks-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act

The “Swamp” just got richer…..

Boehner Unloads

Former House Speaker John Boehner has been silent since he left Congress thanx to the dickheads in the “Tea Party”……since his departure he has been pretty quiet but then along came new FOX News commentator, Jason Chavitz…..

Former House Speaker John Boehner called his former colleague Jason Chaffetz an “asshole” and “total phony” during a lengthy feature interview with Politico Magazine.

The profile, released on Sunday, promised an “unchained” Boehner in his most revealing and candid interview since retiring from Congress in 2015. While discussing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) taking over the House Oversight Committee following Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R-Utah) June resignation from Congress, Boehner let loose.

In addition to calling Chaffetz a “total phony” who was more concerned with self-promotion than legislation, Boehner ripped Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the founding chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, calling him a “legislative terrorist.” Some Republicans wanted Jordan to take over the committee after Chaffetz’s resignation. Boehner added,

Source: John Boehner Rips ‘A**hole’ Jason Chaffetz In Scorching Interview | HuffPost

Let’s say Boehner pulled no punches and now we know what he thought of the idiots he served with in the House. All I can add in closing is….You Go Boy!

I was never a fan on Boehner when in office but I like his outspoken way and in so he has a new fan….ME!

I Knew There Was Humor In the Ryan Story….

It is official….Paul Ryan has a new job….Speaker of the House of Representatives….(let the peasants rejoice)……

House Republicans officially nominated Paul Ryan as speaker Wednesday, CNN reports. Er, excuse us, Paul D. Ryan. Also Wednesday, the congressman asked the Clerk of the House to formally change his name on all official documents and offices to Paul D. Ryan, Politico reports. His full name is Paul Davis Ryan. The full House is expected to approve Ryan’s nomination Thursday morning.

This just wasn’t his day…….as exciting as the news is that Ryan will be the next Speaker…..there was something that crapped all over his day…..

A runaway blimp!

Ryan’s big moment was overshadowed on all cable news channels by the daring escape of the military blimp……

A 243-foot military blimp called a JLENS has come free of its tether in Maryland and is now floating out of control somewhere in Pennsylvania.

The JLENS slipped out of Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, an hour outside Baltimore, at 11:54 am Eastern. It is still in the air, trailing 6,700 feet of cable across the Pennsylvania sky. The US military has dispatched two jets from Atlantic City Air Force Base to follow it.

The blimp may be armed and dangerous…..nothing is more dangerous than a blimp on the run!

According to the Baltimore Sun, “Authorities warned anyone who sees the blimp to keep a safe distance and dial 911.”

The Air Force has scrambled two F-16s from the Atlantic City Air National Guard base to track the blimp, which officials say is holding at 16,000 feet. The blimp broke free at 12:20 eastern time. “NORAD officials are working closely with the FAA to ensure air traffic safety, as well as with our other interagency partners to address the safe recovery of the aerostat,” NORAD said in a statement.

An unmanned Army surveillance blimp broke loose from its moorings in Maryland and floated over Pennsylvania for hours Wednesday with two US fighter jets on its tail, triggering blackouts across the countryside as it dragged its cable across power lines. The bulbous, 240-foot helium-filled blimp finally came down near Muncy, a small town about 80 miles north of Harrisburg. The North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado said the blimp detached from its station at the military’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland at about 12:20pm and drifted northward, climbing to about 16,000 feet.

The F-16s were scrambled from a National Guard base at Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to NORAD. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Ash Carter did not say what the two fighter jets might be asked to do or whether he considered it a threat to aviation. Witnesses reported seeing the blimp drifting in a sparsely populated area. Its tether was snapping power lines. The local electric utility, PPL, reported about 20,000 customers without power in the area, and Bloomsburg University canceled classes because of the outage. It was not immediately clear how the blimp came loose.

Sorry, my eyes have not been dry since I saw the daring escape……and Ryan is sitting in his office muttering to himself….”I can’t catch a break”….”who do I have to blow to get some press?”

Now I wonder how much this will cost the taxpayer?  To pay for it we will have nix the catheter program…..

Some news is just too good to pass up….and this is just such a story…..

 

 

Why, Big Mac, Why?

Okay…one more for the road…….

Let’s be honest shall we?  The contest for Speaker is about as interesting as watching flies mate……but the people that are dashing in the other direction….now that is a story.

By now we all know that the GOP front runner for Speaker has put his tail between his legs and bowed out of the race for the speakership……which is great….for it gives the media something to do trying to explain his decision…..I mean ….come on!

But why would he give up such a prestigious position?

There might be somebody out there who can unite all 247 House Republicans, but Kevin McCarthy says it definitely isn’t him. The House majority leader tells Politico that his shock decision not to seek the nomination for speaker came after friends said to him: “Why do you want to do it during this time? This time will be the worst time. They’re going to eat you and chew you up.” He says that while he could have won the speakership with around 220 votes, he “was never going to be able to get 247,” which would have left him unable to pass crucial measures like the debt ceiling increase. A big factor was the decision of the House Freedom Caucus to back Rep. Daniel Webster for the job, which could have left McCarthy without enough votes, reports the Washington Post.

There could be murkier factors involved: On Wednesday, Rep. Walter Jones called for candidates who’ve committed “misdeeds” to withdraw from the race, and rumors are circulating that he was referring to an alleged affair between McCarthy and fellow GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers, Gawker reports. Her Wikipedia page was edited on Thursday to say she has allegedly been having an affair since 2011. The edit, which came from a Department of Homeland Security IP address, was quickly reversed to remove the claim, Mediaite reports. Jones says he doesn’t have any proof of misconduct involving McCarthy or any other candidates, the Post reports. (McCarthy’s Benghazi comments didn’t help his cause.)

He bowed out because he was thinking of his next election (nothing else)….I mean how would it look to the voters back home if he could not get the required votes to become Speaker?

Back in the day he was one of the “Young Guns” of the GOP….they all had bright futures with the party and slowly but slowly they became persona non grata……first it was cantor….got his ass handed to him in an election.  Next was McCarthy….do I need to say more?  And last was past VP candidate Ryan who is still in the House but trying to keep a low profile….

But speaking of Ryan……

Senior Republicans are trying to draft Paul Ryan for the job that John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy don’t want. Ryan has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to be House speaker, either—he announced, “I will not be a candidate” within minutes of McCarthy’s bombshell announcement yesterday, reports the Washington Post—but he’s coming under a lot of pressure from fellow Republicans who see him as the only man left for the job, Politico reports. The House Ways and Means Committee chairman may be starting to crack: Toward the end of Thursday, he went from total denial to telling reporters that he had no comment, reports the Post, which notes that the one-on-one pleas included two calls from Boehner.

Another call came from Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. “I have spent more time trying to talk him into running than I did my wife into marrying me,” Gowdy tells the New York Times. “Twenty-six years later, she’s still with me. I am just asking Paul for 14 months.” But Ryan, who was Mitt Romney’s running mate in 2012, has a long-term plan that does not involve moving up in the House, insiders tell the Post, and taking the speaker job now could end up killing off those ambitions. According to the Post, the last person to retire from the role in “good standing” was Tip O’Neill in 1986.

Ryan is also running scared…..I mean this dude wants to be prez and with the chaos in the House….it would play hard on his chances.

Another coward that is more concerned about image than duty…..