Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy!, was fired after Hillary Clinton accused him of being a Russian asset. Well, no, not really. But, hey, the day is not over yet!

Of course, I’m referring to Hillary Clinton’s bizarre accusation that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is being groomed by Russia. This is a particularly despicable smear against someone who serves in the U.S. military. As you may recall, Gabbard had to leave the campaign trail for two weeks this summer because she serves as a major in the Army National Guard.

Gabbard hit back hard, calling Clinton “the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long.”

It is extraordinarily disturbing that the default position of some major figures on the progressive left is to accuse anyone they don’t like of being a Russian asset. 

They came up with an elaborate Russian-collusion conspiracy theory to smear Donald Trump. But now they don’t even need the conspiracy theory.  If someone crosses Hillary Clinton, they must be working for the Russians.

The irony is that decades ago, Sen. Joseph McCarthy started identifying real communists in America. Unfortunately, he became reckless and started throwing the accusation at all kinds of people. In the process, he destroyed himself, and “McCarthyism” became a war cry that the left used against anyone who attacked liberals for being soft on communism. 

By the way, a progressive hero, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, actually tried to get the Soviets to intervene in the 1984 election.

But today, the progressive movement is the only political force in America engaged in raw McCarthyism.

“Bernie’s Back”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders drew 25,000 people to a rally in New York over the weekend. The aging socialist received the endorsement of the rising socialist, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, much to the delight of the crowd. 

I doubt if anyone of them saw the irony of this rally, which took place very near the site where Amazon had planned to open a new facility that coincidentally would have created 25,000 new jobs. But AOC blew it up.

State’s Hate

Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has been bringing a lot of witnesses from the State Department up to Capitol Hill to testify behind closed doors in Nancy Pelosi’s fake impeachment proceeding. Afterward, cherry-picked portions of their testimonies have been leaked to left-wing media outlets in a steady drip, drip, drip of news reports that are damaging to the president.

Allow me to make a personal observation. The State Department is well-known in Washington as a bastion of left-wing progressives. It went to the mat to prevent the Trump administration from moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. It is also likely the source of many leaks regarding the president’s previous calls with foreign leaders.  

No one will be surprised to learn that government employees overwhelmingly preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. But it may surprise some to learn that nearly all — 99% — of 2016 political donations from State Department employees went to Hillary Clinton. That speaks volumes about the mindset at Foggy Bottom and the challenge any conservative administration faces.

But let me offer this personal vignette. Last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the first annual Ministerial on Religious Freedom. I was invited to attend with several hundred other people and multiple heads of state from other countries. 

As you can imagine, security was tight. Even State Department employees had to go through the extra security precautions during the ministerial in order to get into the building where they regularly worked. That meant I was standing in line with hundreds of those employees, and I could hear their conversations as we were all waiting to get into the building. 

What I heard was raw, obsessive hatred for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. I heard one bureaucrat referring to Pence, who was speaking that day, say, “I can’t believe we’re allowing that bigot into the building!" 

These are public servants paid by you. But they hate and despise any conservative administration that takes office.

Gantz Gets His Chance

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today reportedly informed Israeli President Reuven Rivlin that he is unable to form a government. Rivlin is expected to give the mandate to form a coalition government to Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz later this week. 

According to the Jerusalem Post, Gantz will have 28 days to try to form a government. If he cannot, there will be a 21-day period in which any member of the Knesset can attempt to cobble together a coalition of 61 votes. If no one succeeds at the end of that 21-day period, then new elections will be called.