The Patriot Post® · Wednesday Short Cuts

A blind squirrel finds a nut: “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly.” —Barack Obama

The bottom line: “The flaws in the president’s negotiations with Ukraine are worthy of criticism, but they do not rise to the level of an impeachable offense under the circumstances.” —Andrew McCarthy

Political theater: “It seems the full House will now vote to authorize the next steps in [an] impeachment inquiry it never voted to start in the first place.” —Brit Hume

Procedural gymnastics: “Democrats can’t up and authorize a real investigation now, because that would be an admission that previous demands were unauthorized, nuking their current case. So they’re left to play cutesy games where they reference a non-existent investigation and hope nobody will notice.” —Sean Davis

Friendly fire: “The big difference [with regard to Watergate] is … [Democrats] still don’t have what you call ‘the goods’ on this president in terms of breaking the law and being an impeachable target for them. They’re going to start the process but they don’t have the same kind of clarity that the people who were opposed to Richard Nixon had because it was so clear that these were criminal acts he was involved in.” —Tom Brokaw

Deflecting: “You’re asking me to come up with an exact detailed plan of how every American — how much you’re going to pay more in taxes, how much I’m going to pay. I don’t think I have to do that right now.” —Bernie Sanders avoiding a question on funding Medicare for All

Race bait: “I can’t make people not afraid of black people. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t explain what’s happening in your head.” —Michelle Obama

D'oh! “I think we can win North Carolina. Barack and I won it. Barack won it twice in a row.” —Joe Biden (North Carolina went to Mitt Romney in 2012.)

Quid pro quo: “I would use the leverage. $3.8 billion is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government or for that matter to any government at all. We have a right to demand respect for human rights and democracy.” —Bernie Sanders

Village idiots: “I don’t feel it was the right move [for Rep. Katie Hill to resign]. I feel that there is incredible hypocrisy that goes on and if Katie Hill were a man who was in a consensual relationship with another man and a woman that this would be a very different outcome.” —Alyssa Milano

Dezinformatsiya: “Revenge porn drove Katie Hill out of Congress. Would that have happened to a man?” —The Washington Post’s Caroline Kitchener (“If RedState hadn’t published that photo, all the people now screaming about ‘revenge porn’ would be demanding evidence.” —Jim Treacher)

And last… “Katie Hill resigned because she violated House ethics rules by engaging in a sexual affair with a staffer. It wasn’t because of naked pics. It wasn’t because she posted pics on wife-sharing sites. It wasn’t a GOP-led coup. It’s not sexist. She broke the rules. Period.” —Liz Wheeler