Hillary's War on Women

In late April, Vice President Joe Biden correctly condemned law enforcement or university and college officials that are accusatory of rape victims. It could very easily be aimed at former Secretary of State, former First Lady and former Arkansas public defender.

State.gov

And if Biden is really upset about it, it could be a great issue to take against Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical 2016 Democratic primary. In his April 29 speech, Biden was specifically talking about college age adults. So actions by Ms. Clinton as a young attorney were even worse – accusing a 12-year-old of bringing it upon herself.

From ABC News:

In 2008, during the height of her presidential primary campaign, Newsday published an in-depth story about Clinton's involvement with the trial. Newsday argued that Clinton's account in "Living History" left out "a significant aspect of her defense strategy - attempting to impugn the credibility of the victim." She reportedly sent an affidavit during the trial requesting the girl undergo a psychiatric examination at the university's clinic, and without offering any source, alleged that the victim had often sought older men. The case, Newsday claimed, "offers a glimpse into the way Clinton deals with crisis. Her approach, then and now, was to immerse herself in even unpleasant tasks with a will to win."

The victim, now 52, first believed Clinton was just doing her job as an attorney, but became enraged upon hearing that Clinton openly laughed about how clever she was as a lawyer in getting a light sentence for someone she knew was guilty.

"Hillary Clinton took me through hell," the victim told the Daily Beast in an emotional interview published today. The woman said that if she saw Clinton today she would say, "I realize the truth now, the heart of what you've done to me. And you are supposed to be for women? You call that [being] for women, what you done to me? And I heard you on tape laughing."

Don’t expect a court case from the 1970s to define a presidential contest. But, it should give Hillary – and her supporters – pause before presume she represents all women.

Death of the 'Tea Party is Dead' Narrative

Tea Party candidate Dave Brat trouncing of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is a great American story that shows elections and people matter. It was a low turnout in one Congressional District (Virginia-7), but it has national reach.

Eric Cantor (HouseMajorityLeader.gov)

This comes a week after Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel all but defeated the establishment Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi. 

This wipes away some of the so called "Empire Strikes Back" glee of establishment GOP victories across the country, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell destroying his Tea Party challenger in Kentucky.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

"I'm as stunned as anybody," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I've yet to find one person nationally or in the state outside the Brat circle who thought Cantor would be beaten." 

"This is one of the most stunning upsets in modern American political history," Sabato said. "This is the base rebelling against the GOP leadership in Washington as represented by Eric Cantor." 

"Everybody agrees that if immigration reform was on life support before, they're pulling out the plugs," because no other House Republican will want to end up like Cantor, Sabato said. 

"The Republican electorate has become very conservative and that was demonstrated in conventions like last year," and occasionally in primaries, Sabato said.

Komorowski: No Secondary NATO Members

President Komorowski reminded the world about the importance of Poland in the 20^th Century when he mentioned the Solidarity motto in a toast along with President Obama.

Photo Credit: ipdigital.usembassy.gov

“We were able to bring that wall down,” invoking Reagan. “We also totally destroyed it and we made it possible for Europe to be whole and free again.”

He then mentioned the Solidarity’s slogan: “There is no freedom without Solidarity.” And added, “There also is no freedom if there is no solidarity with nations who want have freedom but have not claimed it yet.”

Solidarity of nations is as important to Polish people and other nations of Eastern Europe now. And the strength of NATO is imperative.

“What is most important for us is to make sure that there are no second-category member states of NATO, that there are no countries about whom an external country, a third country like Russia can say whether or not American or other allied troops can be deployed to these countries,” Komorowski said. “ That is why the decision of the United States of America to deploy American troops to Poland is really very important for us, both as an element of deterrence, but also as a reconfirmation that we do not really accept any limitations concerning the deployment of NATO troops to Poland imposed for some time or suggested for some time by a country that is not a member of NATO.”

On the eve of June 4, the 25^th anniversary of Polish freedom, he said during a press conference with Obama that relations with Russia are important. Things have never been that smooth with Russia.

“NATO-Russia relations, I can tell you that the Western world -- including Poland, and I’m sure it goes for all other countries of NATO -- everyone is very much interested in developing as good relations with Russia as possible, and as good cooperation as possible,” he said. “Poland is also very much interested in the continuation of this uneasy process of the reconciliation beyond difficult history and painful history and bloody history.”

“A few years ago it was Georgia; now it is Ukraine, with a special focus on Crimea,” he later added. “President Putin didn’t hide -- he didn’t hide that these were elements of the Russian armed forces, and this is something that we have to acknowledge -- just the same way Russia never hid that for the last four years it has increased its defense budget twofold. We, ourselves, have to ask the question, why? For what purpose? And what does it have to mean for member states of NATO?”

“All of us are interested in Russia to get modernized so that it is possible to do not only good business modernizing Russia, but also develop relations of good neighborhood and cooperation in many dimensions, in many areas,” he continued. “But today we have to answer this situation that has come up by supporting independence of Ukraine and it tried to choose a pro-Western direction. We have to support the modernization of Ukraine, too.”

The Cold War is not returning because Russia is not yet a super power again. But it wants so badly to be again. That’s why it’s still a threat to its neighbors and potentially to the United States.

Obama’s Visit to Poland key to Affirming NATO’s Strength

I'm always interested when the leader of my current home and my former home meet. 

Polish President Komorowski and U.S. President Obama

Clearly President Obama's meeting this week with Polish President Bronisław Komorowski is among the most important post-Cold War meeting between leaders of the two countries.
 
It looks as though Vladimir Putin may have realized the gig is up and is yielding his expansionist ambitious. But as President Barack Obama is set to push Europe to be stand firm, it’s Poland that will push the U.S. president to stand even firmer against the Russian leader.

From the Associated Press:

 

President Barack Obama will press European leaders this week to keep up pressure on Russia over its threatening moves in Ukraine, while seeking to assuage fears from Poland and other NATO allies that the West could slip back into a business-as-usual relationship with Moscow. …

Yet those reassurances may be of little solace to NATO allies who sit near the Russian border, particularly Poland, where Obama will open his trip Tuesday. In April, the U.S. moved about 150 troops into Poland to try to ease its security concerns, but Obama is likely to get requests from Polish leaders for additional support.

"He's going to hear a very strong message from Polish officials that the mission has not been accomplished," said Heather Conley, a Europe scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "In fact, the work has only begun."

While in Warsaw, Obama will also meet with regional leaders who are in town to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland's first post-communist free elections. Among those leaders will be Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko, who won Ukraine's May 25 election and will hold his first bilateral meeting with Obama.

Walesa to Obama: ‘Give the Superpower to Poland and We Will Know What to do With It’

Lech Walesa was a better revolutionary than a president, but he did reflect the mood of Poland when he called on U.S. President Obama to be a little more assertive on the world stage.  

Former Polish President Lech Walesa (Defense.gov)

Obama will be visiting Poland to mark the 25^th anniversary since Poland emerged from the darkness of Communism to freedom. It’s a commendable visit particularly when Russia’s Putin is longing for the days of Soviet dominance. So putting aside my own heritage, it’s important to reassure any NATO allies.

Obama, will meet with Walesa – a Nobel Peace Prize winner (back when it still meant something), for successfully leading the Solidarity Movement against Soviet influence next month.

“I will say: Either you want to be a superpower and guide us, or you should give the superpower to Poland and we will know what to do with it. Amen,” Walesa said last week.

 

Perhaps Poland isn’t equipped now to be a superpower, but his point is that the U.S. has largely abandoned the role it has as the only remaining superpower in large part because of a president who doesn’t like being bothered by foreign policy.

"The world is disorganized and the superpower is not taking the lead. I am displeased,” Walesa said. "The point is not in having the States fix problems for us or fight somewhere, no. The States should organize us, encourage us and offer programs, while we, the world, should do the rest. This kind of leadership is needed.”

Communism took its toll on Poland, and the country is indebted to Walesa for leading Solidarity to victory on June 4, 1989, which was the beginning of the end of Communism in the country. He’s less beyond critique in Poland than much of the rest of the West. That’s a result of being president in a free society he helped restore.

Solidarity was successful in part because the U.S. had their back. Russia’s desired reemergence could be fleeting. But China is more than ready to claim superpower status. No matter who the U.S. president is, there is an urgent need to use the economic dominance as a superpower to shape world events

Countdown to Calling VA a Phony Scandal

Nobody wants to get to the bottom of the problems with Veterans Affairs more than the outraged President Barack Obama.

(WhiteHouse.gov)

When have we heard that before?

It might almost seem like a stretch to say Obama and his apologists will begin calling the VA waiting list debacle a “phony scandal.” But it will happen. Six months, possibly a year.

The pattern is already playing out like the past controversies. If anything, the President pro-actively responded more quickly to the previous controversies the White House now calls phony scandals.

In the case of tea party targeting for example, Obama personally announced he was replacing a guy who was already leaving his position at the IRS. VA announced in press releases, no Presidential address, that a guy who was already retiring was being ousted over the waiting list. In both cases, "firing" someone who was retiring anyway was how the administration showed accountability, while promising to leave no stone unturned going forward.

So now we have an investigation led by White House staffer Rob Nabors on top of the Inspector General probe. When the IG report is complete, the administration will either attack the IG; say they cannot comment because the White House-led investigation is still going on, or both.

The White House-led investigation will likely be ongoing, because it allows the administration keep saying: “It would be premature to comment on a pending investigation. But I can assure you nobody wants to get to the bottom of this more than the President.”

Keep saying that until the media hopefully loses interest.

Eventually, Congress will begin more aggressively investigating the VA matter and issuing subpoenas. This is where the administration – and probably much of the media – will call it a partisan investigation. Jay Carney will probably even say “it is shameful that Republicans would play politics with veterans’ health care.” Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, probably the New York Times and definitely MSNBC will all declare it’s time to shut down this witch hunt/conspiracy mongering and move on at long last.

At this point, it will officially be dismissed as a Phony Scandal, and anyone in the media, the government or the general public asking questions about it will be labeled a crackpot or a dupe, because all the questions have been answered – even if we don’t know anymore next year than now.

But wait. Won't it be tougher to be dismissive of this since people died? 

Well, people died in Benghazi and Fast and Furious. Both of which have mountains of unanswered questions that much of the public is bored with. The run-out-the-clock strategy has worked extremely well so far. So there’s no reason to think it won’t work again.

To be fair, Obama really did inherit some of this problem from the Bush administration. Bush inherited it from Clinton. Clinton inherited from … The point is that the VA is a bureaucracy that has never fully kept faith with our soldiers, sailors and airmen. 

But this is worse, with massive waiting lists potentially being to blame for the death of people who risked their life for this country, and government executives allegedly lying about it to secure taxpayer-funded bonuses.

Does Anyone Listen to Harry Reid?

Guess what? Most of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s constituents don’t listen to him. They at least don’t listen to his silly rants about how the Koch brothers control the universe.

Sen. Harry Reid (Reid.Senate.gov)

The Washington Post hit Las Vegas to do an informal survey, and found the vast majority never heard of David and Charles Koch, whose only crime is donating to causes that Reid doesn’t agree with.

  

It wasn’t Reid who led the charge but Common Cause, the left-wing group that calls itself non-partisan and for good government. Check out my piece on the group for the Capital Research Center.

 Common Cause is going after sitting Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, claiming their speeches to the Federalist Society somehow violate the Judicial Code of Ethics.
“Common Cause’s focus on the Supreme Court grew out of a landmark campaign finance case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that in early 2010 lifted the ban on corporate and union spending on political campaigns,” a Common Cause press release says. “The ruling sent a flood of corporate and undisclosed money into the mid-term elections, drowning out the voices of ordinary Americans.”
So how is a Justice’s speaking to a group of lawyers at the Federalist Society a scandal? Common Cause explains that by use of Sen. Harry Reid’s favorite bogeymen: “Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, who sided with the majority in that case, have ties to a major beneficiary of the decision, Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held corporations in the nation,” the release continues.
Common Cause consistently attacks the Koch brothers simply for contributing to pro-free enterprise causes that Common Cause doesn’t approve of. The traditional notion that the antidote to speech you don’t like is counter-speech in the public arena seems a foreign concept to Common Cause. If its view doesn’t win, that can only mean someone else must have had an unfair advantage.