Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced Thursday that he would temporarily recuse himself from investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Nunes is stepping aside because left-wing groups have filed ethics charges against him. Liberals are upset because Nunes says he has seen documents revealing evidence that Obama administration officials may have unfairly unmasked members of President Trump’s transition team.

In a statement Thursday morning, Nunes said:

Several left-wing 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 U.S. citizens and other abuses of power.

This is a prime example of why Republicans tried to reform the House ethics office. Under current rules, any outside group can file an ethics complaint, which the office is required to investigate. I fully expect that Nunes will be exonerated and return to lead the investigation. But don’t miss the larger point here: that the Left is prepared to do anything it can to bring down this administration.

Mainstream Media Mum About Unmasking

The “unmasking” scandal seems to be growing by the day, but you wouldn’t know it unless you’re following a handful of conservative news outlets. Big Media continues to do everything they can to spike the story.

To review: Former Obama administration national security advisor Susan Rice is under fire for mining intelligence reports to spy on President Trump’s campaign and transition teams. But the liberal media have mostly ignored the story because it’s not about Trump but his predecessor.

The Washington Post ran a front-page story this week about Rice, but it was about her denying the allegations that she leaked the names of Trump officials concealed in intelligence reports. No doubt many Post readers are confused, as the paper didn’t print a story about the initial allegations, only the denial of those allegations. The story may soon get enough traction that Big Media simply cannot ignore it anymore.

In new developments:

New York Rep. Peter King said that from what he has seen of the intelligence reports, the monitoring of Trump’s associates was so extensive that it intruded into their personal lives “sort of like in a divorce case where lawyers are hired, investigators are hired just to find out what the other person is doing from morning until night and then you try to piece it together later on.” It looks like it was a big fishing expedition using the blunt force of the federal government.

There are reports that Fox News host Sean Hannity and businessman Erik Prince were also monitored. Hannity said, “I will sue the living pants off of anybody who did it — I promise you that.”

Capitol Hill sources are charging that U.S. national security agencies, including the National Security Council and Federal Bureau of Investigation, are stonewalling efforts to find out who revealed names and leaked information to the media.

Perhaps the most intriguing and chilling suggestion of all is outlined in an article in The Tablet. Author Lee Smith suggests that the unmasking tactic used against the Trump campaign had been used previously in the Obama administration’s efforts to ram through the Iran nuclear deal over significant opposition in Congress.

Gorsuch on the Brink

In all likelihood, Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the end of the week. Democrats filibustered Gorsuch’s nomination Thursday, which forced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans to break the filibuster and allow Gorsuch to be confirmed with a simple majority vote. The vote was 52 to 48.

Despite what you hear in the liberal media, and even from some Republicans, this move is not extraordinary. It’s a precedent then-Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democrats set four years ago on Obama’s lower-court nominees. For most of American history, the filibuster was never used to stop votes on appointees, cabinet nominees or judges. It was employed by political minorities only in extraordinary circumstances to stop certain legislation.

It’s only in the last couple decades that the filibuster has been used to try to stop judicial appointments. It was Reid who changed the rule to allow a simple majority of senators to confirm judicial nominees. So Republicans’ move to do the same thing for a Supreme Court judicial nomination is the natural next step in that evolution — nobody doubts Democrats would be taking if they controlled the presidency and the Senate.

Congress Reviews Obama Regs

I’m sure it seems to most Americans that very little is getting done in Washington. Well, perhaps not as much as we would like, but good things are getting done. For example, this president and this Congress are making good use of the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

Passed in 1996 as part of Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America, the law allows Congress to review and overturn regulations. Moreover, it prohibits federal agencies from issuing similar rules in the future unless they are authorized by Congress. In short, the law is a powerful tool for reasserting Congress’ authority as a co-equal branch of government against executive abuses.

As you know, Barack Obama worked his pen and phone overtime in the waning days of his administration, enacting via regulation as much of his radical agenda as he possibly could. I am pleased to report that President Trump, Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell are busy undoing it all via the Congressional Review Act.

Prior to this year, the CRA had been used only once. But so far this year, Congress has passed resolutions striking down at least 14 Obama-era rules and President Trump has signed seven of them. Several have targeted Obama’s radical job-killing climate change regulations. One targeting Planned Parenthood passed recently as well.

As you may recall, Obama issued an order late last year essentially requiring states to fund Planned Parenthood. In February, the House passed a resolution disapproving Obama’s Planned Parenthood regulation by a vote of 230-to-188. And last week, the Senate passed the resolution 51-to-50 after a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.