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Mike Pompeo’s NPR Tirade Shows How Trump Has Turned the GOP’s Rising Stars Into Politically Damaged Goods

Mike Pompeo’s NPR Tirade Shows How Trump Has Turned the GOP’s Rising Stars Into Politically Damaged Goods

By John R Guardiano on January 24, 2020

One of the saddest and most disappointing things about the Trump administration is how it has tainted some Republican officeholders who, by all accounts, should be the party’s rising stars and perhaps even its future presidents and vice presidents.

Case in point: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The former congressman from Kansas’s 4th Congressional District served three terms in the House of Representatives before Trump picked him to serve as his CIA Director and, subsequently, Secretary of State.

Pompeo graduated first in his class at West Point, served in West Germany as an armor officer with the 4th Infantry Division, and then graduated from Harvard Law School. Together with two West Point friends, he founded a successful aerospace manufacturing company before serving as president of Sentry International, an oil drilling manufacturing firm.

In Congress, Pompeo was a widely respected conservative legislator admired for his brains and insight on defense and foreign policy matters. But as Secretary of State, Pompeo has felt a palpable need to Trumpify himself, so to speak, by being angry and nasty toward journalists who ask him tough but fair questions.

Of course, as a congressman, Pompeo never seemed to vilify the media; but in Trump’s Washington, being a non-belligerent in the culture war against an independent and sometimes adversarial press is not an option.

Pompeo knows that one of the best ways to connect with his boss is to demonize the fourth estate and rail against so-called fake news. Thus he does so and in Trumpian fashion.

Pompeo also explains and defends Trump administration foreign policy by incessantly and gratuitously taking swipes at the Obama administration.

This is unseemly and unbecoming, and it has become tiresome; but Pompeo knows that the best and perhaps only way to persuade Trump to do anything is to convince him that Obama did the opposite. Hence the constant disparagement of all things Obama.

Still, despite his manifest efforts to ingratiate himself with his boss, Pompeo has been relatively constrained and contained. Until now that is, when he seems to have blown a gasket, so to speak.

Indeed, Pompeo quite literally blew up at National Public Radio (NPR) reporter Mary Louise Kelly after she had the effrontery to ask him a timely and topical question about Ukraine during an exclusive, one-on-one interview.

Specifically, Kelly asked Pompeo whether he owed former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, an apology for failing to defend Yovanovitch against attacks by Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and others. It was a completely fair and legitimate question that Pompeo should have anticipated, since his failure to defend Yovanovitch and other State Department officials caught up in the Trump impeachment has been in the news for months now.

But Pompeo clearly resented the question, refused to answer it, and cut the interview short. He then became angry and belligerent, while giving voice to his inner Trump. Kelly told Ari Shapiro, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered, what happened after the interview ended. MSNBC correspondent David Gura summarized Kelly’s exchange with Shapiro in a tweet:

Pompeo’s little tirade will no doubt earn him plaudits in the Oval Office; however, it reflects very poorly upon him and on President Trump. We expect, or at least should expect, a certain professional etiquette and decorum in our elected leaders. Indeed, as the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, well put it:

“I thought it was the responsibility of the Secretary of State to explain to Americans why they should care about Ukraine, not to berate a journalist asking legitimate questions about his lack of support for foreign service officers acting professionally.”

The Trump era, moreover, will soon end; and, when it does, voters will be looking for political leaders prepared to break from the buffoonery and incompetence of the present occupant of the Oval Office. By debasing himself in order to remain in Trump’s good graces, Pompeo is disqualifying himself in the eyes of many voters.

To paraphrase Barry Goldwater in a different context: Independent-mindedness in defense of decency is no vice, and servility in the pursuit of vulgarity is no virtue. That’s something our Secretary of State might wish to consider as he contemplates his own political future.

Feature photo/illustration credit: Paul Rogers/The New Yorker.

As the So-Called Public Option Shows, There Are No Moderate Democratic Presidential Candidates

As the So-Called Public Option Shows, There Are No Moderate Democratic Presidential Candidates

By John R Guardiano on January 23, 2020

The media typically portray the Democratic Party primary contest as a race between far-left “progressives,” such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and more “moderate” candidates such as Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, and Peter Buttigieg. But this divide reflects stylistic and personality differences more than it does genuine differences in politics and policy.

In truth, the Democratic presidential candidates are all frighteningly progressive or left-wing. They really don’t have any substantive disagreements.

In fact, the one big disagreement that they ostensibly do have—on health insurance, and whether to provide “Medicare for All”(Sanders and Warren) or just “Medicare for All Who Want It” via a “public option” (Biden, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg)—turns out to be a complete ruse.

A so-called public option “would increase the federal deficit dramatically and destabilize the market for private health insurance, threatening health-care quality and choice,” reports Lanhee Chen in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“Some 123 million people—roughly 1 in 3 Americans—he notes, would be enrolled in the public option by 2025, broadly displacing existing insurance.”

In other words, the “public option” is just a more politically palatable way of displacing private-sector health insurance with a “single-payer” government monopoly over time. Sanders and Warren would eliminate private-sector health insurance proudly and openly; Biden, Klobuchar, and Buttigieg would do so more discreetly and stealthily.

But the end result would be the same: a government monopoly on the health insurance market and the elimination of choice and competition in health care.

To progressives who distrust markets and love big government, this might sound good. What’s not to like?! they might say. The problem is that a government monopoly will result in skyrocketing and unsustainable costs and deteriorating healthcare for patients and consumers. Chen explains:

“Many health-care providers would suffer a dramatic drop in income, while at the same time experiencing greater demand for their services.

“Longer wait times and narrower provider networks would likely follow for those enrolled in the public option, harming patients’ health and reducing consumer choice.

“Declines in provider payments would also affect investment decisions by hospitals and may lead to fewer new doctors and other medical providers…

“We estimate that federal spending on the public option would exceed total military spending by 2042 and match combined spending on Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and ACA [the Affordable Care Act or ‘ObamaCare’] subsidies by 2049.

“In the latter year the public option would become the third most expensive government program, behind only Medicare and Social Security. The public option alone would raise the federal debt by 30% of gross domestic product over the next 30 years.”

And good luck with financing this disastrous scheme. Chen estimates that “if tax increases to pay for a politically realistic public option were limited to high-income filers, the top marginal rate would have to rise from the current 37% to 73% in 2049—a level not seen since the 1960s.

“Such large rate increases,” he observes, “would undoubtedly have [adverse] economic effects, causing revenue to fall short of our static estimates.”

In short, there is nothing “moderate” or reasonable about the so-called public option. It is a radical and dangerous idea that will wreak havoc in the health insurance market and lead to the elimination of private-sector health insurance.

America deserves better and American voters deserve the truth about the Democrats now running for president: There’s not a moderate in the bunch. They are all far-left progressives now.

Feature photo/illustration credit: Lydia Zuraw/California Healthline illustration; Getty Images, via California Healthline.

Senate Republicans Must Acknowledge Trump’s Wrongdoing—Even, If, and Especially If, They Don’t Convict Him

Senate Republicans Must Acknowledge Trump’s Wrongdoing—Even, If, and Especially If, They Don’t Convict Him

By John R Guardiano on January 22, 2020

Given that we’re less than 10 months out from the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, it is reasonable and legitimate to conclude that:

a) what President Trump did vis-a-vis Ukraine was wrong and perhaps even impeachable. However,

(b) because of the proximity to the election, he should not be convicted by the Senate and removed from office. Instead,

If Republicans were making that argument, there would be little to quarrel with.

Unfortunately, too many Republicans have insisted that Trump did nothing wrong: that he is the victim of a political witch-hunt and an ongoing political vendetta by angry Democrats who have never reconciled themselves to his election as president.

Trump himself, moreover, has never acknowledged any wrongdoing. To the contrary: he continues to insist that his phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was a “perfect conversation” and “totally appropriate.”

This is patently false and a complete denial of reality. In truth, as we now know beyond the shadow of a doubt, Trump abused his authority as president to try and secure personal political favors from a foreign government, and he tried to use Congressionally authorized aid to that government as leverage to secure these favors.

This is the very definition of an abuse of power and a violation of the public trust.

Now, whether this rises to the level of an impeachable offense is legitimately debatable. And whether the Senate should convict Trump for this offense and remove him from office is even more debatable. But there can be no debate about the underlying offense and wrongdoing by the president.

The facts don’t lie, but political partisans often do. And too many Republicans, in Congress and the media, are lying and spinning about what Trump did, why he was impeached, and why he is now being tried in the Senate.

In so doing, they are contributing mightily to a debilitating national cynicism that ascribes all political disputes to a raw lust for power and revenge.

To the cynics, and to the wild-eyed partisans, there can be no principled, good-faith disagreements, just high-pitched, life-and-death political struggles in which anything goes. Just win, baby. Truth, after all, is relative.

This, of course, does not serve our country and our politics well. It results in a hardening of the partisan arteries, political arteriosclerosis, and legislative paralysis. Nothing gets done because the two sides refuse even to communicate honestly, fight fairly, and legislate respectfully.

For Republicans eager to secure the border, check the regulatory state, reform entitlements, rebuild the military, and liberalize healthcare, this is an ominous and foreboding development.

Worse still, by failing to speak honestly and forthrightly about Trump’s wrongdoing, Republican officeholders are handicapping themselves when the next Democratic President abuses her power and authority to, say, ban and confiscate guns, grant amnesty and citizenship rights to illegal immigrants, limit options and choices in the health insurance marketplace, force local schools to accommodate transgender identity and “inclusion,” and make college “free.”

What standing, after all, will Republican congressman and senators have to oppose these naked power grabs after they spent the better part of a year rationalizing and excusing Trump’s abuse of power?

A republic if you can keep it, warned Benjamin Franklin. Let’s at least try to keep it by honestly calling out wrongdoing no matter where it occurs, and regardless of which side of the political aisle it originates. That may not mean convicting Trump and removing him from office; but it surely means leveling with the American people about his abuse of power and wrongdoing.

Note: Tim Carney and Quin Hillyer at the Washington Examiner, and the editors at National Review, share similar thoughts about the Senate Republicans vis-a-vis the Trump impeachment.

Feature photo/illustration credit: QuotesGram via Tunnel Wall.

Raheem Mostert’s Remarkable Story Shows Why We Love Professional Sports

Raheem Mostert’s Remarkable Story Shows Why We Love Professional Sports

By John R Guardiano on January 21, 2020

Adam Kilgore’s wonderful profile of San Francisco ’49er running back Raheem Mostert, published in today’s Washington Post, reminds us again why we love professional sports:

Because the stories of the athletes can be so inspiring. Because the trials and tribulations that they endure and overcome can be so compelling.

And because we know that professional sports is a hard-fought and hard-won meritocracy, where only the strong survive—and where unheralded and overlooked underdogs can and do defy the odds, through sheer grit, perseverance, and determination.

Consider, for instance, the remarkable story of one Raheem Mostert. He

“entered the league out of Purdue after every team passed on him in the draft, signing as a free agent with the Eagles in 2015. The Philadelphia Eagles cut him after training camp… and signed him to their practice squad.

“The Miami Dolphins signed him, only to cut him a month later. He spent two months with the Baltimore Ravens and finished the season with the Cleveland Browns, who would cut him a week before the start of the 2016 season.

“After his rookie year,” Kilgore reports, “Mostert was unsure he could withstand the psychic toll of getting cut again. He talked with his wife about leaving football behind.

“She told me, ‘If you truly love this game, you’re going to do what you need to do,’ ” Mostert said. “That’s what I needed.”

“But his second season unfolded like his first. The New York Jets picked him up, only to cut him a week later. The Chicago Bears signed him, and Mostert lasted about two months before Chicago released him.”

In all, Kilgore notes,”six franchises waived Mostert before he stuck with the San Francisco 49ers. On some of those days, he did not believe he would make it in the NFL. On others, he considered quitting football…

“Not everybody can deal with that type of stress and pain and agony that I went through,” Mostert told Kilgore. ” I kept the faith in not only myself, but whoever gave me the opportunity.”

Since joining the ’49ers in 2016, no one had ever heard of Mostert. He spent the entire 2016 season minus the final game on the practice squad. He was placed on injured reserve for much of the 2017 and 2018 seasons and contributed little to the team. He was consigned to special teams, where he reportedly played well, but was still a bit player.

However, all of that began to change this season, as Mostert broke out in a big way, rushing for 772 yards on 137 carries. And, in the ’49ers’ resounding victory over the Green Bay Packers in Sunday’s NFC championship game, Mostert had a game for the ages, rushing for an incredible 220 yards on 29 carries while scoring four touchdowns.

To put that into perspective, only one player in NFL history has ever rushed for more yardage in a playoff game, and that player’s name is Eric Dickerson, who now resides in the NFL Hall of Fame.

“While Jimmy Garoppolo passed only eight times,” reports Kilgore, “Mostert exploded through holes, sprinted away from defensive backs, and bowled over defenders. Teammates admire his style—’fearless,’ left tackle Joe Staley said—and his story…

“He’s just earned everything,” ’49ers’ head coat Kyle Shanahan told reporters after Sunday’s win. “He earned today. He’s such a good person. I can’t say enough good about Raheem.”

“Mostert,” writes Kilgore, “called Sunday the happiest day of his life behind his wedding and the [June 22] birth of his son,” Gunnar Grey. And Mostert is especially grateful that he was able to hold Gunnar close and in his arms after Sunday’s spectacular performance and glorious win.

“That’s a moment I’m going to cherish forever,” Mostert said. “For him to be able to have that opportunity, be onstage with me after what I accomplished, after what I done been through, I can’t put it into words how it feels.”

Fortunately for us, Washington Post reporter Adam Kilgore has a way with words and has given us a strong sense of how it must feel.

I know how I feel after reading Kilgore’s profile: elevated and inspired. Motivated. Raheem Mostert was knocked down repeatedly; yet he never gave up. And his spirit of determination and ultimate triumph over adversity is what sports fans love about sports.

It is why we watch the game. And it is why we will be watching Sun., Feb. 2, when Mostert and his fellow ’49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Mostert and his teammates are not yet done and neither are we.

Why, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Trump is Fighting for Black Votes and Dems Are Desperate to Stop Him

Why, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Trump is Fighting for Black Votes and Dems Are Desperate to Stop Him

By John R Guardiano on January 20, 2020

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s most significant political legacy, of course, is enfranchising millions of black voters in the South and raising the importance of the black vote there and, indeed, nationwide. Black voters before and since have voted overwhelmingly Democratic.

However, today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, 2020, we see clear indications that Democrats and Republicans alike are fighting hard, if not always scrupulously, for the votes of African Americans.

President Trump and Vice President Pence, for instance, both went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., to pay their respects to the slain civil rights leader. The White House made a video of their visit, which the President tweeted to his 71 million-plus followers.

Trump also issued a Presidential Proclamation commemorating Dr. King and pledging to ensure that all Americans, regardless of their race, class or gender, “have every opportunity to realize a better life for themselves and their families.”

Trump touted the nation’s historic economic growth, the creation of more than seven million new jobs, and record-high employment for backs and other minorities. “Economic opportunity,” he noted, “is the greatest engine for empowering individuals and families to overcome adversity, and we will continue to fight for opportunity for all Americans.”

And of course, Trump took to Twitter to underscore, in his own inimitable way, the good news for African Americans:

Trump and the GOP are wise to fight for black support. The President and his team have a very good story to tell and an impressive record of achievement that, arguably, has disproportionately benefited African Americans and other minorities.

Indeed, not only is the unemployment rate the lowest that it’s been in half a century, but wages are rising and the barriers to entrepreneurship and business formation are falling.

Trump and the GOP also can point to criminal justice reform, which disproportionately benefits African Americans and other minorities by allowing federal inmates early release opportunities and a second chance to find work.

Doubting Thomases complain that these efforts are all in vain because Democrats have a hard lock on the black vote. African Americans, after all, vote 90-percent+ for Dem presidential candidates and have been doing so now for decades.

History. This is true, but the past is not necessarily prologue. Recall that from the end of the Civil War in 1865 up until the New Deal in 1936, African Americans were a reliably Republican voting block. Voting patterns can and do change over time, but only when candidates and parties actively reach out to voters and seek their support.

So, it is good thing that Trump and the GOP are making a genuine, good-faith effort to reach out to black voters. It is not good for the country when one political party monopolizes a key voting demographic. Competition in the political marketplace, no less than competition in the economic marketplace, is beneficial because it spurs (policy) excellence and innovation.

As for the Democrats, they, too, recognize the importance of the black vote. Thus eight of the party’s presidential candidates locked arms today and marched together toward the state capital building in South Carolina to commemorate the King holiday.

Paradoxically, the Democrats’ utter dominance of the black vote may make them more vulnerable politically—if not in 2020, then certainly, in the years and decades to come. It would take just a small shift in the black vote, after all, to completely upend the Dems’ strategy for victory in presidential contests.

“Increase Trump’s share of the black vote to even as low as 15 percent, and Democratic chances of winning the electoral college become very low,” writes long-term political observer Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Dem Desperation. In short, the Democrats desperately need to retain their lock on the black vote and they know it. Which is why their default position every four years is to accuse GOP presidential candidates of racism and bigotry. Their intent is to scare black voters, so that they keep voting Democratic.

It was not surprising, then, that Joe Biden went to a black church in South Carolina Sunday and charged that Trump is allied with the Ku Klux Klan. Although ludicrous, outrageous, and clearly beyond the pale, such a charge is utterly unsurprising.

This is what Democrats running for president do: because they know that they can ill-afford to lose black voters, either now, in the primaries, or in the November presidential election. Just win, baby.

These vicious and unscrupulous race-baiting tactics are a stain on American politics. The good news, though, is that both political parties recognize the importance of black voters and are competing hard for their support, and that’s something to be thankful for on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Feature photo credit: The Valley City Times Record.