Tag: doug collins

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Why Doug Collins for Permanent DNI is a Genius Move – Ooops, Nevermind

Today’s Campaign Update, Part II (Because the Campaign Never Ends)

Thursday evening, President Trump issued the following tweet:

Earlier in the day, both the White House and Ambassador Grenell said that he would retain his key Ambassador’s post while he serves as Acting DNI. This naturally created speculation about how one man could do both jobs, a question that the President’s tweet clears up: Grenell will not be his nominee to take the DNI job permanently.
[EDIT: Wooops, and just like that, Doug Collins says he has no interest in the job. So, in my best Emily Latella voice, “Nevermind.”]

Speculation Friday morning centers around the President’s intention to nominate outgoing Georgia Congressman Doug Collins to the post. If true, this could be a stroke of Trumpian genius. Here’s why:

  • Collins recently announced he would leave his House seat in order to challenge incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler for her job;
  • Loeffler was appointed to that seat last year by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp when Johnny Isakson had to retire due to health reasons, even though President Trump had urged him to appoint Collins;
  • Mitch McConnell favored Loeffler for that seat, since she is more of an “establishment” Republican than Collins is;
  • McConnell was reportedly quite upset when Collins announced he would challenge Loeffler for the GOP nomination;
  • Trump has found it difficult – indeed, impossible – to obtain Senate approval for the appointment of someone truly loyal to him to the DNI position;
  • The Deep State skunks who infest the Senate Committee on Intelligence (SCI) want to see that post remain in the hands of Deep State flunkies like outgoing Acting DNI Joseph Maguire;
  • The only way around the SCI roadblock on this position is Cocaine Mitch, who has the personal power to manipulate his GOP majorities on the SCI and in the full Senate to approve any Trump nominee;
  • McConnell had no compelling interest in deploying his personal political capital to back Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe when the President nominated him for this key post last summer; thus, Ratcliffe could not obtain support from the SCI skunks;
  • On the other hand, McConnell DOES have a compelling interest to use that political capital to help Collins be confirmed, since he vastly prefers to deal with establishment, Chamber of Commerce-type Republicans like Loeffler than true conservatives like Collins;
  • Even better, the GOP skunks on the SCI also prefer dealing with a Kelly Loeffler over dealing with a Doug Collins.

Politics is a very interesting and complex game – the give and take of it, the never-ending machinations and skullduggery, the constant search for leveraging one player’s interests here in order to obtain their support over there, is infinitely fascinating.

It seems very likely to me that this is the President’s gambit in floating Collins’ name for this position. If so, it’s a brilliant one because it meets the wishes and needs of so many of the key players whose support will be necessary to see the nomination through to confirmation.

And if Collins is rejected by the SCI members due to his support of Trump, then the President would be well-justified to just keep rotating a procession of Acting DNIs into the post every 6 months for the duration of his presidency. There is no reason why any president should be forced to keep putting people he knows to be disloyal snakes into such a crucial job.

As the President loves to say, let’s see what happens.

That is all.

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.

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Why GOP Voters Should be Proud of Their House Members Today

Today’s Campaign Update
(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

During the lead-up to the 2016 elections, I repeatedly wrote that, as a class, Republicans in the House and Senate were the single most hated element of the DC Swamp. This was because of their repeated collective failures to live up to the promises they had made to voters in getting elected.

On the campaign trail, House and Senate Republicans sounded like Ronald Reagan, promising to go to Washington and beat up on those Democrats and President Obama, promising to get rid of the Obamacare atrocity, promising to rein in Obama’s regulatory reign of terror, promising to use the filibuster and the parliamentary process in the House to force Democrats to pass real budget bills instead of agreeing to just another continuing resolution, promising to rebuild the military and get our young men and women out of the myriad Middle East and African civil wars Presidents Bush and Obama had gotten them entangled in.

But once safely in office, all those promises and many, many more were quickly forgotten, as congressional Republicans immersed themselves in the corrupt ways of the Swamp and became utter cowards when it came to casting principled votes out of fear that they might get negative attention from the corrupt news media. But their disloyal, unprincipled and cowardly behavior brought them nothing but scorn and contempt from those they were trying to please: They became hated by the Democrats, hated by the corrupt news media, and yes, hated even by their own voters, voters who only continued voting for them because the alternative – voting for a Democrat – was too repugnant to contemplate. Better to vote for a coward than for a Marxist Alinskyite.

Ok, now that I’ve had the catharsis of getting all of that out my system, here’s why you Republican voters should be proud of your house members today: Because, to a man, and to a woman, they all did their damn jobs throughout throughout the Democrats’ Soviet-style impeachment clown show. Oh, Texas congressman Will Hurd had a shaky moment early on, but even he ended up coming around to realizing that Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi were abusing their power like no one in the nation’s capital had ever done before, and got with the program.

Hey, for once the Republicans actually had a program to get with. An aggressive, no-nonsense, call a clown a clown strategy for giving no ground to Schiff and his fraudulent, corrupt process. An aggressive, no-fear strategy of staying on-message with the corrupt Democrat media toadies and for pointedly calling them out when they lied in their reporting, which of course, happened constantly.

Devin Nunes and Doug Collins, as ranking GOP members on the House Intel and House Judiciary Committees, respectively, were stellar, scorching the earth and the hides of Schiff and Jabba the Nadler with every opening and closing statement. Both men managed their committee members and their questioning time perfectly throughout, and the results were spectacular.

Both Jim Jordan of Ohio and John Ratcliffe of Texas did double duty as members of both committees, and all conservatives should be incredibly grateful for those two men. Jordan was fantastic in capitalizing on the utter absurdities of the parade of hearsay gossips who showed up as “witnesses” before the committee, rendering them all human pin cushions by the time he was done with them. Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor himself, was more subdued but equally effective in consistently pinpointing the legal holes in the Democrats’ case and tying several of the witnesses up in knots of logic they could not untie.

Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz utterly and completely decimated the Democrats’ despicable Alinskyite Lawfare lawyer, Daniel Goldman, making him look like an 8 year-old being lectured in the Principal’s office for all to see on national television. It was a moment of TV beauty that deserves to be seen again here:

These guys were all members we expected to shine going in. But the hearings were filled with some new stars, too. Like Chris Stewart of Utah, one of the finest human beings serving in congress today, who time after time providing piercing and pointed questioning that brought Schiff’s array of haughty gossip witnesses crashing down to earth. Michael Turner of Ohio was another relatively unknown member who took apart several witnesses and battled fiercely with the imperious Schiff on several points of order. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Arizona’s Andy Biggs also had great moments in limited duty on the Judiciary Comittee.

And then there was Elise Stefanik, the 35 year-old who represents the 21st district of New York, who may have been the star of the show. Combative, pointed, smart, and fearless of the vicious attacks from the press that she surely knew would come, Stefanik emerged from this process as one of the true rising stars not just in the House, but in the Republican Party. Expect her to have a prominent speaking role at next year’s GOP National Convention.

Going into this impeachment farce, seasoned observers of House Republicans had every reason to be nervous, to expect them to be completely disorganized and ineffective. After all, under Boehner and Paul Ryan’s non-leadership, we had seen this story so many times before.

But they came in with a clear and highly-organized plan with two main objectives: 1) dismantle Schiff/Pelosi/Nadler’s fraudulent case, and 2) do so in a way that would hold the Trump support base together.

The fact that they were successful in achieving both objectives is a credit to the leadership of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. His leadership made success possible. Be thankful Paul Ryan is spending his time these days trying to screw up Fox News – had he still been Minority Leader there is no telling how badly this all would have gone.

So, I know it’s hard for many of us, but be happy, Republican voters. You finally have leadership in the House of Representatives you can be proud of. If things go half as well in the Senate, Election Day 2020 will be a great day for America indeed.

That is all.

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.

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