Master Baiter

The war of words between President Trump and Rev. Al Sharptongue began a week ago after the President sent a series of tweets critical of House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings’ combative rant against Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over conditions at detention facilities that house illegals entering the country.

“Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA.”

“...As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cummings’ District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.”

It was on like a pot of neckbones after that.  Miraculously materializing at the first whiff of racial trouble, The Right Reverend Al Sharptongue joined Democrats and others who loathe Trump to condemn the President’s remarks about Congressman Cummings and the city of Baltimore blustering, “[Trump] is never shy about insulting cities and countries that disagree with him politically, but he reserves particular insult for black and brown cities.”

Presidential candidates Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris tweeted their praise of The Reverend.

On Monday, Sharptongue held a news conference alongside former RNC Chairman Michael Steele to address what he called “Trump's racist remarks." 

“Little did I know that Mr. Trump was going to, on the eve of this, attack the congressman from this city. But not only the congressman but the people of this city, in the most bigoted and racist way."

Last year, USA TODAY reported that “Baltimore is the nation's most dangerous big city.” 

The poverty rate is over 22%, and the population is shrinking. The city’s politics are riven with endemic corruption — former Mayor Catherine Pugh resigned in disgrace this May. She's the third Baltimore mayor in a row to leave in the wake of intense scandal. Baltimore is dotted with thousands of vacant buildings, and as for rodents, exterminator Orkin listed Baltimore in the top 10 of its annual survey of “rattiest cities”.

Seth Mandel, Executive Editor of the Washington Examiner penned an Op-Ed in the Washington Post delivering a lengthy argument of why Sharptongue is “unworthy of such praise” due to his “history of race-baiting and deadly anti-Semitic incitement.”

Glenn Loury, Economic Professor at Brown University opined in The New York Times, Democrats “have yoked themselves to a genuine bigot.  The problem for them is “Al Sharpton actually is, as Mr. Trump put it on Twitter, a ‘con man’.  And not just a con man:  Mr. Sharpton is an ambulance-chasing, anti-Semitic, anti-white race hustler.”

Professor Loury concluded, “If Democrats cannot distinguish between Mr. Sharpton’s hucksterism and genuine moral leadership on race and justice in America, I assure you many moderate voters in Battleground States will have no trouble doing so.”

On the same day Sharpton held his news conference in Baltimore, 44 miles to the southwest, Alveda King, niece of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., joined 20 other inner city faith leaders at the White House.

King said the meeting focused on urban affairs, “things that many of us around the table were concerned about” including the sanctity of life, urban development, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, prison reform, jobs and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

King told Sheila Poole, reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she doesn’t think [President] Trump is racist or that his words and actions have emboldened white supremacists.

“I don’t believe white supremacists need anyone to embolden them, they’re bold enough all on their own and they are in great need of prayer,” she said.

“I have a picture of Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton with Donald Trump, he wasn’t President then, and they were friends.  They were all supposed to be friends and look where we are now. It’s time for us as a nation to reconcile as one blood, one human race and work things out together.”

Another Presidential Profanity-Laced Tirade And Gnashing Of Teeth?

By now we’ve all become familiar with retired ABC News journalist Ann Compton’s interview on C-SPAN wherein she revealed The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer launched into profanity-laced tirades over what he perceived as the press making too much of “scandals that he did not think were scandals.”

Yesterday MIT professor Jonathan Gruber was on the Hill for a hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to explain his involvement in Obamacare and more specifically how and why he bragged about deceiving the American people about the law.

Gruber apologized.  He noted that over the past weeks a number of videos have emerged showing him “making a series of glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting comments.”

The committee’s ranking member, Elijah Cummings (D-MD) deliberately threw the professor to the wolves:

“As far as I can tell we are here today to beat up on Jonathan Gruber for stupid, I mean absolutely stupid, comments he made over the past few years and then grill and grill Administrator Tavenner about what appears to be an inadvertent mistake in reporting ACA enrollment numbers.”

“This may be good political theater, but it will not help a single American get health insurance.  It will not help a single person get well.  It will not help a single person get the help that they need.  Let me clear, I am extremely frustrated with Dr. Gruber’s statements.  They were irresponsible, incredibly disrespectful and did not reflect reality.  They were indeed insulting.“ 

“I was in Congress when this law was debated and Dr. Gruber does not speak for me or the chairmen of the other committees who worked tirelessly on this bill.  We debated this legislation for nearly a year before it was finally passed and signed by the president.  We held 79 hearings and mark-ups in the House of Representatives alone.  Never once did I believe or did anyone suggest that we were somehow hiding our goals from the American people.  But worst of all, Dr. Gruber’s statements gave Republicans a public relations gift in their relentless political campaign to tear down the ACA and eliminate health care for millions of Americans.  You did a pretty good job.  You wrapped it up with a bow.”

The damage done to the regime cannot be undone.  His unguarded comments are counter to the White House’s bogus line on how the 2,700-page-long law, which is steeped in lies, came together.  Democrats, who are in deep trouble since losing the 2014 mid-terms, are strategically professing to accept Gruber’s new lies in order to shield Obamacare.  King v. Burwell may well be in jeopardy when the Supreme Court takes up the case.

I think it is a foregone conclusion that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer launched a few more “profanity-laced tirades” following the hearing.

There Is Nothing More Frightful Than Ignorance In Action

On Friday July 25, 2014 the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a resolution to reject White House assertions of “absolute immunity” for David Simas, who has failed to appear under subpoena before the Committee on two separate occasions.

Simas, who is currently Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, was previously Director of Opinion Research for Obama for America and served as an aide to Senior Advisors David Plouffe and David Axelrod.

Why is the committee so interested in Simas’ testimony?  The White House reopened the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach in January.  It must be noted that the Bush Administration repeatedly violated the Hatch Act.  The Hatch Act prohibits most high-level executive branch officials from engaging in partisan political activities in their official capacities.

Following Simas’ failure to appear under subpoena before the committee, Chairman Issa played an audio tape of former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis making illegal campaign solicitations.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel believes Simas is immune from congressional compulsion to testify on matters relating to his official duties but Issa has rejected that assertion by jogging the memory of Democrats serving on the committee that a 2008 federal court case, Judiciary v. Miers, found that senior advisors are “not absolutely immune from congressional process.”  The case was brought by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).  Although Issa hasn’t alleged any actual misconduct by Simas, that particular office has a history of Hatch Act violations.

During Friday’s hearings, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-District of Columbia) demonstrated her adroit unawareness lack of knowledge ignorance of Supreme Court rulings on the subject of Congressional investigatory power.

In Watkins v. United States, 354 U.S. 178, 187 (1957), Chief Justice Warren did not question the basic power. “The power of the Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process. That power is broad. It encompasses inquiries concerning the administration of existing laws as well as proposed or possibly needed statutes. It includes surveys of defects in our social, economic or political system for the purpose of enabling the Congress to remedy them. It comprehends probes into departments of the Federal Government to expose corruption, inefficiency or waste.”

She called Issa's subpoena a "showcase fishing expedition."  She went on to argue "You don't have a right to know everything in a separation-of-powers government, my friend. That is the difference between a parliamentary government and a separation-of-powers government.”

After showcasing her anger and her stupidity, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said, “I associate myself with your comments.”

Those two made it clear they believe the American public has no right whatsover to know what’s going on inside the White House.  Hmmm.