The GOP Is Awake and Ready to Support Trump, and the Democrats Are Readying Political Kamakaze Tactics

FINALLY -- the Republican Party has wakened up and understood that the Progressive Democrats are waging war and that extraordinary measures are needed to counter it. • • • SENATE GOP LEADERSHIP GOES INTO ACTION. The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, in a day of rapid-fire movements for the GOP-controlled Senate that also defeated Prog-Dem resistance to advance three other President Trump Cabinet picks to the Senate floor for a final vote. • The vote to confirm the former ExxonMobil executive as Secretary of State was 56-43. • Earlier in the day, Senate Republicans, frustrated by Democrats’ attempts to delay other Cabinet confirmations, moved swiftly to advance three nominees to a final vote. The most contentious GOP move was made by the Senate Judiciary Committee that voted along party lines, 11-to-9, to approve Senator Jeff Sessions for US Attorney General. The move came after Democrats dragged out proceedings on Tuesday. The committee advanced Sessions to the floor for a final confirmation vote. Senator Mike Lee said after the Sessions report out of committee : “No doubt we have the votes to confirm Sessions. It’s going to get done.” • Senate Democrats have attempted to hold up several of Trump’s Cabinet picks over concerns about their records, boycotting the Senate Finance Committee to avoid a vote on two Trump Cabinet picks. But on Wednesday, the Republican-led Senate Finance Committee sidestepped Senate Democrats' efforts to use a boycott to prevent Trump’s picks for Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services from getting to the Senate floor for a vote. Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch suspended committee rules that require at least one Democrat be present for a vote. With the rules lifted, the committee advanced to the Senate floor the nominations of Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary and Representative Tom Price to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the Finance Committee’s senior Democrat, argued to Fox News that Hatch broke the rules : “What you had was a rump group that met in violation of democratic values to confirm two ethically-challenged nominees. There’s no question about that.” Hatch called the Democrats’ decision to boycott the vote : “the most pathetic thing. We took some unprecedented actions today due to the unprecedented obstruction on the part of our colleagues. They should be ashamed. The only thing missing was a member from the minority side. But, as I noted, they, on their own accord, refused to participate in this exercise." Hatch said he made the move after getting an OK from the Senate Parliamentarian Office and that every Republican member of the committee was present and voting, exceeding the one-third requirement for a so-called “quorum.” • Sessions, Mnuchin and Price will almost certainly get the required simple majority needed for confirmation because Republicans have 52 Senators and Democrats have 48. Nevertheless, Democrats temporarily stopped a Senate confirmation vote on Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, by again boycotting a key committee meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, whose rules require at least two members of the minority party be present for a vote to be held. Committee Chairman John Barrasso called the move “political theatre” and vowed to "do what is necessary" to advance Pruitt's nomination, raising the possibility the GOP majority may seek a committee rules change like the one Hatch got to push a vote before the full Senate. • • • THE SUPREME COURT NOMINEE CONFIRMATION BATTLE. Senator Ted Cruz said in an interview Tuesday that “all procedural options are on the table” when it comes to confirming a strong conservative to replace Justice Scalia on the Supreme Court. President Trump nominated federal Judge Neil Gorsuch of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, choosing a jurist widely seen by conservatives, as well as by some Democrats and mainstream media, as a fitting successor to the late Justice Scalia, touching off what is sure to be a fierce confirmation battle with Senate Democrats vowing resistance. Senator Cruz told Politico : “The Democrats are not going to succeed in filibustering the Supreme Court nominee. All procedural options are on the table. The bottom line is we will confirm a strong conservative to replace Justice Scalia.” But, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will oppose any nominee outside the mainstream. He will likely decide whether to try to lead an effort to block, or filibuster, based on Gorsuch's performance in confirmation hearings and feedback from his Democrat caucus, including the 10 Senators who are up for re-election in states that Trump won last year. The advantages of trying a filibuster are clear. It would make Republicans work to find the 60 votes needed to end it, including at least eight Democrats, and as a result, delay or block the nomination. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority. But there are also downsides to a Democrat filibuster. Democrats running for re-election next year in states Trump won in 2016 could face political consequences for their party's attempted obstruction. And if Republicans change the rules and eliminate the filibuster altogether, a result not easily undone, Democrats would have lost their most powerful weapon in future Supreme Court fights. • Republicans did not try to filibuster either of former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees. The only filibuster attempt in the past few decades was by Democrats against Justice Samuel Alito, nominated by former President George W. Bush. The effort, in which then-Senator Barack Obama participated, failed and Alito was confirmed. • But, if Republicans are unable to secure enough Democratic votes for Trump’s pick, they can change the rules and curb the filibuster. Former Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did that for lower court nominees and other nominations in 2013. Trump has called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to kill the filibuster if Democrats resist his pick, but McConnell said the decision is not up to Trump : "That’s not a presidential decision. That’s a Senate decision," McConnell told Politico. But, when asked by Fox News' Bret Baier whether he would use the so-called "nuclear option" to force Judge Neil Gorsuch's confirmation by a simple majority vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said : "I'm not going to answer that. Let me just tell you, we're going to get this judge confirmed." • • • PROG-DEM UGLY BEHAVIOR AT DOJ. When Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch accused Democrats of "a lack of desire to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities," he was right. But, when he said : "They ought to stop posturing and acting like idiots," he was off the mark. The Prog-Dems are not just acting like children, they are trying to bring down the Trump presidency -- and with it the last chance for constitutional government in America. That is not "acting like idiots," although Hatch was undoubtedly just too careful to call it by its real name : Insurrection. The Prog-Dem insurrection was visible on Monday night when Trump fired Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for her act of stunning insubordination in announcing publicly that the Justice Department would not defend President Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees. Yates sent a letter late on Monday to DOJ lawyers telling them to let challenges to the White House order go unanswered, writing : “At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities, nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful.” • The letter was extraordinary. Not since 1973 has the head of the Justice Department defied the President in such clear and unambiguous terms. In 1973, Attorney General Elliot Richardson refused to obey President Richard Nixon’s order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox and was asked to resign as a result. The circumstances in 2017 are different, but Yates’s fate was the same as Richardson’s. Only hours after Yates denounced Trump’s order, when it was clear that she would not resign, she was given a handwritten note: “The President has removed you from the office of Deputy Attorney General of the United States.” Trump replaced Yates with US Attorney Dana Boente, who said he would defend the President’s executive order banning immigrants from seven dangerous countries for 90 days. Boente has now been nominated to be Deputy Attorney General. After the Yates firing, the White House issued a statement saying that Yates had “betrayed” the Justice Department with a politically-motivated objection to the President’s order : “Ms. Yates is an Obama administration appointee who is weak on borders and very weak on illegal immigration.” • Democrats quickly portrayed Trump’s decision to fire Yates as a “chilling” triumph of politics over the law -- wrong. What happened was that Yates acted to ignore her own DOJ Office of Legal Counsel that had already approved the executive order with respect to its legality. It was Yates’s defiance that was purely political. She made this clear in her letter, which made reference to earlier statements the White House had made and expressed consternation over whether or not the order was “wise or just.” This wasn’t about the law; this was about Yates’s personal beliefs and her allegiance to Barack Obama, who appointed her. It is true that the Justice Department must have a degree of independence and autonomy, but that doesn’t mean the President should sit idly by and watch his Attorney General undermine his authority in the absence of legitimate cause. There was no such cause in this case, and Yates deserved to be fired. • The office of Attorney General was established by Congress by the Judiciary Act of 1789. The original duties of this officer were "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his or her advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments." In 1870, the Department of Justice was established to support the attorney general. The Attorney General serves "at the pleasure of the President." • So, in the Yates matter, the Prog-Dems jettisoned the Constitution in order to paint over their insubordination to both the President and the rule of law. • • • DEAR READERS, the Yates firing bought her a few hours of fame, and it was fame certainly fomented and orchestrated by the Democrat leadership, undoubtedly with the help of Barak Obama -- although there is no proof of this, it rings true to the effort of the Prog-Dems to destroy Donald Trump and the conservative political movement that put him in the White House. • These Progressive Democrats are dangerous. Their actions are ugly reminders that mob rule is never far away from even the most seemingly secure democracy. New York, California, Hollywood actors -- they are all Progressive Democrats and they are determined to oust Donald Trump from the presidency he legally won and replace him with another Prog-Dem like the President Obama we just got rid of. They call for their followers to defy President Trump’s executive actions to close the nation’s borders and make America safer from terrorists by proper vetting of immigrants and visa applicants. Making America safer is exactly what they oppose -- they call for assault on police; they applaud sanctuary cities where the Constitution is ignored in favor of harboring illegal immigrant criminals; they are now suggesting that they will withhold taxes from the federal government in order to shut down Trump's government by means of a lack of funding. Will they soon announce a call to arms? The day that Trump was inaugurated, violence erupted. Prog-Dems, furious that Trump beat their Hillary and was now President, took to the streets, hurling rocks, talking about burning down the White House, and paying professional protesters to trash major US cities. These acts should horrify Americans. Calls or suggestions of violence haven’t yet shown up among Democrat leaders.But defiance among Prog-Dems is escalating and becoming strident. California Democrats are mulling withholding taxes. Grant Stern at the leftist “Occupy Democrats” thinks California has the upper hand in a showdown with Washington. Stern wrote: "California’s government has plenty of avenues to explore cutting funds to federal programs which get state funding because a non-partisan ranking says that the state is 46th most dependent on the federal government already. In fact, a 2014 study by The Atlantic found that California is one of the few states to get a negative return on investment by actually paying more federal taxes than receiving benefits in return....If California succeeds in legislating a reversal of Trump’s federal funding mandates, it will mirror Mexico’s legislative efforts to fight Washington DC’s Trump driven, suddenly bottomless desire to enact harmful policies." If California were to choose insurrection against the Constitution, as the Confederacy did, would the President be forced to act to impose sanctions on the state? The sanctions could be more than financial. In September 2016, the Los Angeles Times wrote : "This year, state employee pensions will cost taxpayers $5.4 billion, according to the Department of Finance. That’s more than the state will spend on environmental protection, fighting wildfires and the emergency response to the drought combined." California can’t legally print money, but to inflate away its obligations, some California Democrats have talked about secession. And in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said this about Trump’s executive order on immigration vetting : "I never thought I'd see the day when refugees, who have fled war-torn countries in search of a better life, would be turned away at our doorstep. We are a nation of bridges, not walls, and a great many of us still believe in the words 'give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...' " But in 2014, Cuomo tried to exclude conservatives from his state, branding them “extreme” because they “are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay.” Those are Prog-Dem anathemas, but in reality they mean that conservatives support the unborn, believe in the Second Amendment, and advocate for traditional marriage. When Texas governor Greg Abbott sent National Guard troops to the Mexican border to better secure it in 2015, he was roundly criticized by Democrats. Then-President Barack Obama never vigorously enforced border security. Borders are not convenient in Progressive Globalist ideology. All those illegal Mexican kids flooding across the Texas border were future Democrat voters and future cheap labor and immediate welfare state justifications. Yet Abbott’s actions were right. A governor’s top duty, like a President’s, is to safeguard citizens. Abbott didn’t defy President Obama. Instead, he performed his constitutional obligation to Texans, and more broadly to his fellow Americans. And, clearly, the prime objective of President Trump’s executive orders is to make the nation safer. But if Trump can successfully secure US borders, oust dangerous illegals, and keep terrorists at bay, it’s a big political setback for Prog-Dems. Americans are already saying that they feel safer -- because they are safer. And that means more votes for Donald Trump and the conservative GOP, if only they are bright enough to heed the call to constitutional duty that Trump is sounding. On Wednesday, the GOP leadership in Congress gave the first broad indication that they are ready to heed the call. That is what makes Democrats worry. It is what makes their protesters become more violent. Democrat politicians are increasingly defiant, ready to break more laws to preserve policies that are politically self-serving and rejected by a growing majority of Americans. Will this lead to widening civil unrest? Will they damage the constitutional compact among the states that makes America a great nation? Stay tuned.