The Trump-Pence team made a major announcement [Wednesday]. After it was discovered that lobbyists had been brought into the transition team, Vice President-elect Mike Pence moved quickly to remove them.

In addition, it was also announced that anyone planning to serve in the Trump administration will be banned from lobbying the government for five years.

Fair reporting of these events should have most talking heads saying: “Wow! These guys are serious. Trump announced that he won’t take a salary, Pence is kicking lobbyists out of the transition team and now they are preventing staffers from getting rich off their public service, like Bill and Hillary Clinton did. They really are draining the DC swamp!”

If this had been Obama, the commentary would be glowing. Instead, we are getting stories about chaos and disarray.

“Buckle Up”

Vice President-elect Mike Pence was on Capitol Hill [yesterday], meeting with House Republicans. He reportedly told them to “buckle up” because “Donald Trump is a man of action and we’re counting on you.” Pence told House Republicans that the new administration was determined “to move an agenda.”

Sources in the meeting said Pence promised that the new administration would act quickly to repeal many of Obama’s executive orders. Just rolling back regulations would be a huge boost to the economy.

Vice President-elect Pence ended his remarks to House Republicans by asking for their prayers, saying, “Pray for the president, pray for his family, pray for our conference and pray for the country.”

I believe this last election was a big answer to prayer. And I know millions of Americans will continue to pray for God’s protection in the days ahead, that He would bless America as we honor Him.

Rediscovering Federalism

The separation of powers between the states and the federal government is one of the central checks and balances of our republic. In fact, the founding fathers felt so strongly about it that they wrote it into the Constitution in the Tenth Amendment.

But Democrats and their left-wing allies have been waging war against the concept of federalism for decades. The left has repeatedly assaulted this concept, using the brute force of the federal government to force every state in the country to legalize abortion, redefine marriage or upend common sense when it comes to school bathrooms.

Suddenly, with the election of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, many Democrats are declaring themselves champions of states’ rights, telling the federal government to butt out.

[Wednesday], New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stopped by Trump Tower and met with President-elect Donald Trump for more than hour. Speaking to reporters afterwards, de Blasio said he told Trump that “so many New Yorkers [i.e., illegal immigrants] were fearful.” De Blasio added, “I would be swift to react anytime an action is taken that will undermine the people of New York City.”

De Blasio is a radical leftist. He was a staunch admirer of the communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua and he even honeymooned in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

Other left-wing Democrats around the country have echoed similar comments in recent days, vowing to maintain “sanctuary policies” that hide illegal immigrants from law enforcement.

Now just imagine if this situation were reversed. Imagine a Republican governor from a conservative state saying to President-elect Clinton, “We will protect all of our people in Idaho, including defenseless unborn children. We will react any time an action is taken that undermines the rights of unborn children in Idaho.”

Every liberal reporter would make sure we understood that threat, and every Republican around the country would be forced to condemn or defend that statement on the record.

Republicans should not be afraid of a fight over sanctuary cities. A poll last year found that 62% of voters favored penalizing cities that refused to cooperate with federal immigration policies. Only 26% of voters opposed penalizing sanctuary cities.

Left Coast Insanity

A San Francisco teacher has decided to do her part to promote healing and understanding in the wake of the election. Well, not exactly.

Fakrah Shah has developed a lesson plan that tells students who may be upset by the election results that they are right to be outraged. In Shah’s view, America elected a racist and sexist president because Trump succeeded in “pandering to a huge racist and sexist base.”

Among other things, her lesson plan encourages children to “speak your truth,” as if truth were relative, and suggests to teachers that “you can ask for them to limit or not use profanity here as well if that is important to you.” When did profanity in the classroom become optional?

Needless to say, there is some pushback. Shah was confronted with the obvious fact that her lesson plan condemns half the country as “deplorable” and “irredeemable.”

It was also noted that she is humiliating a lot of kids whose parents voted for Trump. But Shah was completely oblivious, responding, “They absolutely will be given safe space … they will be asked to explain how [Trump] is not racist.” In other words, her idea of a “safe space” is put those kids “on the spot.”

So far, Shah’s curriculum is voluntary, but it may be coming to a school near you. A local CBS affiliate reports that it “has been published in the San Francisco teachers’ union newsletter and on the National Education Association website.”

Hillary Speaks

Hillary Clinton made her first public appearance [Wednesday] since her post-election concession speech on November 9th. She spoke at a gala for the Children’s Defense Fund. The group also presented Clinton with an award for her “lifetime of service.”

During her remarks, Hillary acknowledged that her defeat was hard to take, and that there were plenty of times when she wanted to do nothing more than curl up with a good book or the dogs.

Wow! I guess we know where Bill stands. If the dogs are in the house with her, perhaps Bill is in the dog house!