McConnell's Nuclear Victory Should Spur GOP to Fight the War Progressive Democrats Are Waging against America

THURSDAY BREAKING NEWS : House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Thursday said he will temporarily step aside in his House Intelligence Committee's investigation into the Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Nunes said in a statement he thinks it is in the "best interests" of the committee and the Congress for Texas GOP Representative Mike Conaway to temporarily take over the committee's investigation into the Russian meddling, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney. Nunez said he will continue to fulfill his other duties as chairman. Nunes said in a statement : "Several leftwing activist groups have filed accusations against me with the Office of Congressional Ethics. The charges are entirely false and politically motivated, and are being leveled just as the American people are beginning to learn the truth about the improper unmasking of the identities of US citizens and other abuses of power. I am requesting to speak to the Ethics Committee at the earliest possible opportunity in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims.” • If any conservative / Republican has had thoughts about getting along with the Democrats in Congress if only there were enough effort put into negotiation and compromise, this is the final answer. The Progressive Democrat leadership and their serf-minions elected in the "hinterland" to do their "two-coast" bidding are at war with America and the Republican Party that represents America and its Constitution. There is no reason for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Deven Nunes to recuse himself from the Russian investigation. He is being hounded out by Democrat operatives following Party orders to get rid of him because he has finally -- despite all Democrat and mainstream media efforts to prevent it -- found the smoking gun that points to monumental abuse of power by President Obama and his White House in the form of using legal but highly regulated surveillance authorizations for foreign persons as a way of tapping into and using the information gleaned, illegally for political purposes, against the Trump team -- understand, the Dems are after Trump and the GOP, too. The war is in full battle formation. Why would the Republicans, who control the House and Senate, and therefore the Office of Congressional Ethics, roll over one more time and let the Democrats and their MSM lapdogs build a fake news story that accuses Nunes and the GOP and Trump of inventing the abuse of power that leaps from the Trump team logs and spreadsheets requested, used and circulated by Susan Rice? WHY??? • • • McCONNELL HAS THE GUTSTO GET THE JOB DONE. Is Mitch McConnell the only Republican who understands that America is at war and so is ready to fight the marauding Democrats by enforcing GOP party unity? His comment that the Democrats in the Senate would filibuster Ruth Bader Ginsburg if Trump had named her to the Supreme Court provides a "Yes" answer. • But, more than that, Senate Majority Leader McConnell is following up his words with actions -- something sadly lacking in most other Republican leaders. Speaker Paul Ryan's seeming abandonment of Intelligence Committee Chairman Nunes and the rumor that Vice President Mike Pence is taking the lead over Speaker Ryan in pushing through the second attempt at repealing Obamacare are just two more indications that Congress is full of non-confrontational Republicans who would not fight the Mongol Horde if it was camped in the congressional parking lot. • • • THE NUCLEAR OPTION IS HERE. Lawmakers convened late Thursday morning to vote to end debate and advance to a final vote to confirm Federal Court of Appeals Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. The Democrats chose filibuster -- that is, fewer than 60 Senators agreed to proceed to the final vote -- and so McConnell, who voted against the cloture for the procedural reasons that it put him on the prevailing side, asked for a revote. Following the failed vote, the second cloture vote only required 51 yeas -- all provided by Republican Senators. After the cloture vote, the Senate Democrats could not extend matters by talking any more. At that point, McConnell "went nuclear," calling for the vote that changed Senate procedure to require only 51 votes for the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice, instead of 60. These changes to Senate procedure can be done by a simple majority vote. McConnell initiated the rules change by raising a point of order asserting that simple-majority votes should advance Supreme Court nominees to final confirmation votes. Democrats tried to delay it by offering motions to postpone a vote and to adjourn the chamber, but both fell short as Republicans stayed remarkably unified. Earlier on Thursday, McConnell said the rules change would restore the Senate’s tradition of considering a Supreme Court nominee based on credentials instead of ideology. He called the Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch “a radical move” and something “completely unprecedented in the history of the Senate : "This threatened filibuster cannot be allowed to succeed or to continue for the sake of the Senate, for the sake of the Court and for the sake our country,” he said. A final vote on Gorsuch is expected on Friday. • • • THE ORIGINAL NUCLEAR OPTION WAS A HARRY REID TRICK USED ON THE GOP. National Review's Ed Whelan reminds us that : "Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer shrugged in 2013, after nuking the filibuster for non-Supreme Court nominees, when asked whether they had concerns that Republicans could someday eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. 'Let ’em do it,' Reid said. 'Why in the world would we care?...If they want simple majority, fine.' " • One reason it’s worthwhile to tune in to the MSM and leftist publications occasionally is they reveal the thinking of ProgDems. Mother Jones offers a fascinating look at how Democratic strategists think triggering the nuking of the filibuster is a loss, whereas the activists are convinced it’s a long-term win. Given the possibly terrifying likelihood that awaits Progressives if they lose the filibuster -- not just with Trump’s Supreme Court nominee this time, but also with future fights -- what’s the upside? Some fear there is none, and that the Democrat Party is rushing toward a decision it will likely regret, at the behest of the party’s increasingly powerful Progressive base. A filibuster “prevents a revolt by the base -- it’s the base here that’s not being smart,” said a political consultant who asked not to be named because of a client list that includes Democrat Senators. The small donor base and activist core of the party “have boxed these folks in to a position that is not the wisest one.” The decision to oppose Gorsuch, and to let Republicans put an end to the filibuster entirely, the consultant said, is more about survival today than long-term planning...it’s not hard to find Progressive activists convinced this is a winning issue for them in next year’s elections. Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy in America, agrees with Mother Jones : “This is an exercise of a raw political power grab, and the hope is that the American people see that for what it is in coming elections.” Note that Democracy for America is a Progressive group that supports the Democrats strategy of threatening to filibuster Gorsuch. This is a position echoed by Schumer himself. When asked at a press conference on Tuesday what would happen if Republicans ended the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, he responded, “They will lose if they do it.” That’s because Schumer and all ProgDems believe the voters will see that McConnell “will do anything to get his way,” and Republicans will not be seen as acting in a reasonable or bipartisan fashion. Democrat Minority Leader Senator Schumer said on Thursday morning on the Senate floor : “We believe the Republican Party has been far more aggressive in the escalation of tactics and in the selection of extreme judicial candidates, while Democrats have tended to select judges closer to the middle. “We believe the Republican Party has been far more aggressive in the escalation of tactics and in the selection of extreme judicial candidates, while Democrats have tended to select judges closer to the middle." That, dear readers, may qualify as The Whopper of the Week. • As Ed Whelan points out, Democrats believe the filibuster "is already dead." Undoubtedly true. But, now the Progressive Democrat strategy will be to pin the death on Republicans and McConnell, when it was really killed by the former and current Senate Democrat leaders Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer. • Any Republican will recall the dispicable treatment of Judge Bork, the filibuster of Miguel Estrada (“because he is Latino” as a Democratic memo put it), the attempted filibuster of Samuel Alito, Harry Reid nuking the filibuster for non-Supreme Court nominees -- and all the while the Progressive Democrats are blaming Republicans for being partisan about the filibuster. It’s all Republicans’ fault. We get it. That, friends, is the war we are fighting. Deal with it. • • • DO PROGDEMS REALLY THINK THE GORSUCH CONFIRMATION WILL HELP THEM WIN IN 2018? That is what they say -- the nuked filibuster is a winning issue in 2018. This was the ProgDem plan in 2016, too, when Democrats said the failure to confirm Merrick Garland was going to really hurt Republicans on the campaign trail. Right. Trump won and took with him the House and Senate. No Democratic Senate candidate ran a TV commercial on the issue of Garland’s nomination. No major Democratic figure mentioned his nomination during the Democrat Convention in Philadelphia. Neither Garland nor the Supreme Court even came up in the first presidential debate. Hillary Clinton barely mentioned Garland on the campaign trail, and indicated that she might nominate someone else if elected. Paul Waldman said during the presidential campaign : “Not only are Republicans losing on this issue, they can’t even keep their own voters in line. I think the vast number of voters in states with vulnerable Republicans are expressing disapproval over the failure of the Senate to treat Garland fairly and my sense is this expression will only grow over the next several weeks and months.” Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, said in 2016 : “[Senate Republicans] have this death wish, and that’s what it is. They are going to end up losing really, really big.” Then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said the same thing. Nobody knows how 2018 will shake out, but clearly Republicans didn’t get punished by voters for allegedly “defying any sense of decorum in their treatment of Barack Obama” in 2016. • It is another aspect of the war we conservatives and Republicans are in -- Democrats do whatever they think will help them win elections and then blame Republicans for their loss and tell Americans to vote for ProgDems as a punishment for the GOP. We get that, too. The ProgDem strategists seem to have forgotten that one of the key reasons for the election of Donald Trump was to be able to have a Republican President name the conservative replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia. Moving right along... • • • HOW THE PROGDEMS HOPE TO SPIN THE GORSUCH CONFIRMATION. Progressive Democrats are already declaring victory over Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination. Oh sure, they know Gorsuch will be confirmed because they have no procedural tool to stop it, but they're claiming victory anyway. ProgDems see their "victory" not just in winning congressional seats away from Republicans in 2108, they see Republicans facing a voter backlash over changing the Senate’s rules -- thinking the rule changes will force Republicans to own any controversial decisions handed down by the Supreme Court heading into the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election. • We know what the ProgDems are talking about here -- a pro-life vote; a confirmation of the right of Christians to practice their faith; a reaffirmation of the right of Americans to own and carry firearms; and, a Court decision to allow President Trump to control immigration. • • • DEAR READERS, it is just as difficult now as it was in 2016 to see how the ProgDems can rachet a GOP elimination of the Senate filibuster rule that will confirm a conservative Supreme Court Justices into electoral success in 2018. American voters are tired of, and frightened by, the Progressive Democrat congressional leadership that was instrumental in protecting President Obama and his insiders from the scrutiny of Congress as they went about ignoring the Constitution -- governing by executive order. Only the Supreme Court -- at that time with a 5-4 conservative majority led by Justice Scalia -- rebuffed Obama, several times rejecting his argument that his executive branch overreaching to enact laws without going to Congress where lawmaking power resides was consitutional. The United States will, as of Friday, we are told, once again have a 5-4 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. That is the real fear of the Progressive Democrats -- that the Court will re-instate constitutional rule of law and eliminate much of the Progressive anti-constitutional acts of Obama and his Progressive Democrat Congress. • We can only hope that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's bold step in eliminating the Senate filibuster will spark the desire in other Republican leaders to take up the cudgel against these ProgDems who are determined to ignore the will of the American people and make of the United States a carbon copy of Europe -- globalist, open border, bowing to the undemocratic tendencies of the United Nations, and eager to undercut the Western tradition of independent nation states for a one-size-fits-all vision of the world where culture, religion and civil liberties are sacrificed for the elitist goals of unelected autocrats. • Bravo Mitch !!! Keep up the good and vital work. We will win this war !!!