Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Corruptocrat Eric Holder's GOP Enablers
While calls for U.S. Attorney General Eric "Stonewall" Holder's resignation grow and the House GOP gears up for a contempt vote next week, it's worth remembering how we got into this mess. In two words: feckless bipartisanship. "I like Barack Obama and want to help him if I can." That was Utah GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch in January 2009, just weeks before the Senate voted on President Obama's attorney general nominee, Eric Holder. Right out of the gate, upon Obama's election in November 2008, Hatch signaled that he would greenlight the administration's top law enforcer. "I start with the premise that the president deserves the benefit of the doubt," the six-term incumbent Hatch told The Hill newspaper. "I don't think politics should be played with the attorney general." Utah voters, mark those words. Bending to bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake -- and ignoring the obvious consequences -- is playing politics.
We Need More Highly Skilled Workers
Can the federal government adequately predict exactly how many mathematicians, engineers, biochemists, and inventors the United States will need twenty years in the future? I doubt many of us would answer yes. Yet, federal immigration policy does exactly that in allotting work visas for highly skilled employees. Most of the debate over immigration has centered on low-skilled workers, especially the large population of illegal immigrants who have entered the country over the last two decades. But our legal immigration system is dysfunctional as well. The system primarily focuses on re-uniting foreign-born relatives with family members who are already here, paying little attention to what's good for our economy and what will benefit Americans by creating more jobs and wealth for all of us.
Liberal Nostalgia for the Good ol' Days of Conservatism
My daughter learned a neat rhetorical trick to avoid eating things she doesn't like. "Daddy, I actually really like spinach, it's just that this spinach tastes different." Democrats and the journalists who love them play a similar game with Republicans and conservatives. "Oh, I have lots of respect for conservatives," goes the typical line, "but the conservatives we're being served today are just so different. Why can't we have Republicans and conservatives like we used to?" Q: What kind of Republicans are extremists, racists, ideologues, pyschopaths, radicals, weirdos, hicks, idiots, elitists, prudes, potato chip double-dippers and meanies? A: Today's Republicans. "The Republican Party got into its time machine and took a giant leap back into the '50s. The party left moderation and tolerance of dissent behind." So reported the Washington Post's Judy Mann -- in July of 1980.
Silly Season, 2012
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama is not exactly Jefferson-Adams or Lincoln-Douglas. No Harry Truman or Bill Clinton here, let alone FDR or Reagan. Indeed, it's arguable that neither party is fielding its strongest candidate. Hillary Clinton would run far better than Obama. True, her secretaryship of state may not remotely qualify as Kissingerian or Achesonian, but she's not Obama. She carries none of his economic baggage. She's unsullied by the last three and a half years. Similarly, the Republican bench had several candidates stronger than Romney, but they chose not to run. Indeed, one measure of the weakness of the two finalists is this: The more each disappears from view, the better he fares. Obama prospered when he was below radar during the Republican primaries. Now that they're over and he's back out front, his fortunes have receded. He is constantly on the campaign trail. His frantic fundraising -- 160 events to date -- alternates with swing-state rallies where the long-gone charisma of 2008 has been replaced by systematic special-interest pandering, from cut-rate loans for indentured students to free contraceptives for women (the denial of which constitutes a "war" on same).
Obama's Ludicrous Self-Portrait as a Budget Hawk
I saw it with my own eyes on a video clip that Sean Hannity played. At a speech in Baltimore, President Obama laughingly dismissed the notion that he is responsible for our nation's current spending orgy. Seriously. Sporting a wide grin, Obama said, "I love listening to these guys give us lectures about debt and deficits." He must think this subject is a real knee-slapper. He continued: "I inherited a trillion-dollar deficit. We had a surplus; they turned it into a deficit, built in a structural deficit that extends for decades. ... We signed $2 trillion in spending cuts into law. I laid out a detailed plan for a total of $4 trillion in deficit reduction. ... But even when you account for the steps we took to prevent a depression and jump-start the economy ... spending under my administration has grown more slowly than under any president in 60 years." A fascinating question is whether Obama actually believes this fantasy or he and his disciples are laughing at us, as well.
Are Gay Parents Worse Parents?
As the nation debates whether to institutionalize same-sex marriage, social scientists have been weighing in -- often with a heavy hand. As Mark Regnerus, author of a new study examining outcomes for children in a variety of home environments, notes social science regarding gay and lesbian parenting has swung from "presents challenges," to "no difference" to "superior" in the space of one decade. The American Psychological Association declared flatly in 2005 that, "Not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents." That prompted skepticism from Regnerus and agreement to undertake a large study, funded by conservative-leaning foundations, to examine the evidence. Regnerus's results, published in the journal Social Science Research, cast doubt on the "no difference" claim and have subjected Regnerus, a professor at the University of Texas, to personal vilification. His results have been denounced as "junk science" and "pseudo-scientific misinformation" by the leading gay advocacy groups, prompting even Will Saletan, a liberal writer for Slate, which published an explanatory piece by Regnerus about his results, to caution " ... before we all go get our stones, pitchforks, and kerosene ... trust science ... Yes, Regnerus is socially conservative. But he's reflective, open-minded, and reality-based."
The New American Helots
Ancient Sparta turned its conquered neighbors into indentured serfs -- half free, half slave. The resulting Helot underclass produced the food of the Spartan state, freeing Sparta's elite males to train for war and the duties of citizenship. Over the last few decades, we've created our modern version of these Helots -- millions of indebted young Americans with little prospect of finding permanent well-paying work, servicing their enormous college debts or reaping commensurate financial returns on their costly educations. Student-loan debts now average about $25,000 per graduating senior. But the percentage of youths 16 to 24 who are working (about 49 percent) is the lowest since records have been kept. The cost of a four-year college education can range between $100,000 and $200,000 depending on whether the institution is public or private. Only 53 percent of today's college students graduate within six years. Student time spent writing and reading in college has plummeted.
The Designated Leaker
Everyone in the Washington-New York Axis of Evil knows that's why there has been a string of White House national security leaks. Each of the leaks has been a transparent attempt to pump up President Obama as a tough warrior who deserves re-election because he's been intimately involved in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the cyber-sabotage of Iran's nuclear program, and choosing which specific terrorist gets blasted to heaven by a U.S. drone. Everyone also knows the leaks have damaged our ability to operate our future military and counter-terror operations, and they put our intelligence agents and commandos at risk. And everyone but Obama press spokesman Jay Carney knows exactly where the leaks were authorized -- the White House. The only big mystery left to solve is who the happy leaker is.
Eric Holder's Corrupt Agenda
Why all of the Department of Justice's efforts are aimed at getting Barack Obama re-elected.
Economy: Obama Brags About Treading Water
After President Barack Obama said, "The private sector is doing fine," he later quickly regrouped. "The economy is not doing fine (emphasis added). That's the reason I had the press conference." But Obama said he was particularly concerned about losses in the public sector. The cluelessness is absolutely stunning. Obama is wrong about both the private and public sector. Obama's assessment of the economy reminds many of 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain's characterization of the economy. In September 2008, the investment firm Lehman Brothers was collapsing. Wall Street was shaking as the yet-to-be-declared recession deepened, but McCain said: "I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult times." The reaction to McCain was harsh. His opponent, then-Sen. Obama, pounced: "We just woke up to news of financial disaster, and this morning he said that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong? Sen. McCain, what economy are you talking about?"
Obama's Public Sector Full Employment Plan
Last week, President Obama said "the private sector is doing fine." This was not reassuring to those of us who suspect the Democrats haven't the first idea what "private sector" means. He did not help matters by becoming lachrymose over the suffering of public sector employees: "Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. ... And so, if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is, how do we help state and local governments ..." When Democrats say the public sector is suffering, they mean public sector employees have half the unemployment rate of the rest of the country -- 4.2 percent compared to 8.2 percent. Obama's monumentally idiotic statement has led his media defenders to recycle Mitt Romney's alleged "gaffe" from several months ago, when he said: "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."
A Perfect World - It's Elementary
WASHINGTON -- Montgomery County, Md., on the District of Columbia's northern border, is a dormitory for the nation's government, where federal workers' sleep is disturbed only by dreams of new ways to improve us. The county's population of almost 1 million includes many political staffers and consultants, lawyers, lobbyists and others whose common profession is to cause political power to flow to Washington. Montgomery County also is -- this could be just a coincidence -- a laboratory of liberalism. Cross Western Avenue on Wisconsin Avenue, leaving Washington and entering Montgomery County, and you immediately pass Ralph Lauren, Cartier, Bulgari, Christian Dior, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany and Saks Fifth Avenue. For those who toil in the ambit of the federal government, virtue may be its own reward, but Louis Vuitton luggage is not to be sneezed at. Washington and its environs are doing well by doing good for -- or at any rate to -- the rest of America. Four of America's five wealthiest counties, and nine of the richest 15, are in the D.C. area. Joel Kotkin, the demographer, notes that median household income in the nine is more than $100,000, twice the national average. Washington, Kotkin notes, is not a center of real commerce, "where people make things or risk their livelihoods on ideas," but it thrives on rent-seeking transactions between economic factions and "the collusional capitalist state." This area is notable not only for its opulence but also -- this could be just a coincidence -- for industrious regulating to bring everyone into compliance with the right rules.
Obama Listens to Rich Liberals, at His Own Peril
Who does Barack Obama listen to? Not Republican politicians. Evidently weeks go by between his conversations with Speaker John Boehner, who determines what legislation comes to the House floor. Not Democratic politicians. We have it on good authority that he seldom talks to Democratic members of Congress. Lyndon Johnson used to be on the phone constantly, cajoling and inveigling but also on the alert for shifts in opinion. Speaker Tip O'Neill walked around the Capitol, asking member after member, "What do you hear?" In contrast, Obama, a former adviser told Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum, "is a total introvert. He doesn't need people." But there is one group of people Obama has to listen to: the people who give him large sums of money. He recently attended his 150th fundraiser. That's more than the number attended by the last four presidents put together.
Nixon V. Johnson
WASHINGTON -- One of my favorite controversialists is back, Bob Woodward, with his sidekick Carl Bernstein. Sunday in "The Washington Post," they wrote that Richard Nixon was more hideous than we have heretofore known. The 37th president conducted five wars while in office, according to the boys, and those do not even include his minor fracases, the Cold War against the Soviet Union and the Vietnam War. I say Woodward is a controversialist. You might recall his controversial "interview" with CIA Director Bill Casey conducted on Bill's deathbed when no one was watching. It made it into Woodward's book "Veil," saving its author from the embarrassment of admitting that Bill had kept Woodward utterly in the dark about Iran-Contra and so much else during their more conventional interviews earlier. This time, Woodward somehow circumvented Bill's CIA guards, his doctors and nurses, his wife and daughter -- one of whom was in the hospital room at all times -- to get his incomparable interview. Moreover, Bill had completely lost the power of speech, his face being a mask of terrible deformity, as his friend Bert Jolis reported within days of the so-called interview. Woodward overcame every hurdle to extract from the dying man a confession of involvement in Iran-Contra about which Woodward knew nothing while writing the book. Possibly, he had disguised himself in Bill's hospital room as a cockroach.
Who Are You Calling 'Extreme'?
Don't you find it odd that the word extremism seems to apply only to conservative Republicans? Terminology often drives political discourse and those who control the terms often determine the outcome. Establishment Republicans have too often been uncomfortable in their own skin. When they win elections, they sometimes seem unsure of what to do next. Democrats never seem to have this problem. They operate according to their core convictions and are never considered extreme. Instead, they are moderate, even normal. When Republicans stick to their convictions, they are branded with a scarlet "E." Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush raised the extremist issue last Monday in New York at a breakfast for reporters sponsored by Bloomberg View. As reported by Jim Rutenberg in The New York Times, Bush said Ronald Reagan and Bush's father, the former president, would have a "hard time" fitting in with a GOP led by the tea party movement. Bush said George H.W. Bush and Reagan would struggle with "an orthodoxy that doesn't allow for disagreement." Bush's father agreed with Democrats on raising taxes, breaking his pledge not to, and was defeated for re-election. Is this the path Jeb Bush recommends for Republicans: agree with Democrats and lose elections?
The Elephant and the Jackass
Some people insist that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans. It is true that in some basic ways, all politicians are alike. After all, they all want to get re-elected, so they have to spend an inordinate amount of time diving into various pockets seeking campaign contributions. They also have to compromise unless they have overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress, as Obama did from 2009-2011, and even he had to finally use bribery and intimidation in order to get ObamaCare, his signature piece of legislation, passed. It's among civilians that one sees the greatest differences between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives, as you'd know if you've ever attended a Tea Party gathering, tend to be civil, respectful of opposing points of view, religious and in awe of the Founding Fathers. Liberals, on the other hand, enjoy behaving like barbarians, whether it's at Wisconsin's state capitol, on Wall Street or in Watts; do everything they can to deprive conservatives of free speech; oppose all religious symbols and ceremonies, while pretending that's the intention of the 1st Amendment; and regularly demonstrate their contempt of people like Washington, Madison and Jefferson, whom they dismiss as slave-owning white guys.
The S.S. Obama Is Leaking
The holes in the Obama Administration continue to show the greatest inherent problem to the President's re-election: These people are incompetent. At almost every level, in almost every issue the Obama Administration is barely keeping afloat. The recent leaks that Obama himself approves using drones to kill specific targets was first brought light in a New York Times piece: "Mr. Obama is the liberal law professor who campaigned against the Iraq war and torture, and then insisted on approving every new name on an expanding 'kill list,' poring over terrorist suspects' biographies on what one official calls the macabre 'baseball cards' of an unconventional war." Imagine the apoplexy among the studio hosts on MSNBC if George W. Bush had been found riffling "baseball cards" deciding who should live, who should die and in which order.
Planned Parenthood Displaces Parents (Again)
Parenting is tougher than it used to be. And if California is any indication, parents may soon have to fight for the right to exercise any influence -- not to mention authority -- over their children's sexual behaviors. Last week news spread of a unique partnership between Planned Parenthood and the Los Angeles Unified School District -- Planned Parenthood now runs a "health" clinic on the school grounds of Roosevelt High School, serving mostly teens from low-income, Latino families. Most of the teen visits to the Planned Parenthood health clinic last year were for, you guessed it, "reproductive services" paid for by a government program, of course. While the Planned Parenthood clinic apparently doesn't do abortions on school premises, it takes little imagination to envision the direction their supposedly non-judgmental counseling will take for girls who do become pregnant.
Shorten the School Year
Vincent Gray, who is the mayor of Washington, D.C., which has some of the worst public schools in America, has an idea he believes will improve them: Keep children there longer. "It is time for us to get rid of what I think is an agrarian concept," Gray told a Washington radio station this spring, "and that is the days, in the 19th century, when it was thought that children had to get home early to help out with the chores, when they had to get out of school in June and go back at the end of the summer to help out with the farming. "Well, we are long past that era at this stage, and I think we can improve outcomes for children by expanding that," said Gray. "So, my first step is to look: Can we take a few schools, extend the day. Take a few schools, extend the year." "We have found that school ending at 3 p.m. does not work for anyone," Gray said elsewhere, according to the Washington Informer. He would like to see kids stuck at school as late as 5:00 p.m. -- and not so they can practice basketball or the spring play.
Partisanship Reigns at CBS
Les Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS, took his wife, the former CBS news anchor Julie Chen, on a date on June 6 -- to a star-studded Beverly Hills Democratic Party fundraiser starring President Obama. He told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times of his respect for Obama, who he said "has shown great leadership" -- by bringing his support for gay marriage out of the closet. Did I mention he runs CBS News? Moonves tried to say, "I run a news division. I've given no money to any candidate." No, of course not. He merely donated between $2,500 and $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee's LGBT Leadership Council, which will helpfully pass it along to the candidates of their choosing. Then he acknowledged what many have worked decades to emphasize and which the likes of Moonves have steadfastly denied all along: "Ultimately, journalism has changed ... partisanship is very much a part of journalism now." Byron York of the Washington Examiner asked CBS spokesman Dana McClintock whether Moonves was referring to CBS News. McClintock sent back a four-word response: "No he was not." Of course not.