May 21-22, 2018
May 21 09:13 2018, RNC factor edition May 21 09:26 Councilman Jeff Johnson, persistent problem solver May 21 10:14 Is the Mueller dam breaking? May 21 11:01 Is the Mueller dam breaking? Part II May 21 19:54 Swamp critters will drain swamp? May 22 02:33 Official announcement: Jeff Johnson won't seek re-election May 22 03:39 Gov. Dayton's MNLARS failure May 22 08:44 Style critique without the substance
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
2018, RNC factor edition
Ronna McDaniel's op-ed is today's must reading for people that've written off the GOP majority in the House. Personally, I've written more than a couple posts expressing my disbelief in that 'conventional wisdom'. Let's be clear abut this. Historically speaking, this should be a difficult year for Republicans. President Trump's approval rating isn't that high. Democrats are definitely energized.
That being said, Republicans are energized, too. We've got some great candidates running in the Senate. There's a backlash against sanctuary city/state laws started in California. While Democrats will hold the governor's chair in California, don't be surprised if Republicans do much better than expected in California's congressional races.
Chairwoman McDaniel's op-ed highlights what the RNC is doing that isn't getting much press. For instance, she wrote "Our permanent presence in dozens of states across the country will propel us to defy history come November. Six months out from Election Day, we have more than 300 permanent staff members organized and in place. They are helping us tap into the enthusiasm of grassroots supporters, all of whom are just as excited about President Trump as they were when they first elected him to office."
This is the nuts-and-bolts part of campaigns that consultants rarely talk about but that makes huge differences in tight races. Don't be surprised if the RNC's ground game makes the difference between the GOP losing5-10 seats and Republicans breaking even in the House.
To ensure we defy history, the Republican National Committee is investing $250 million in our midterm election strategy. This is the largest ground game investment we've ever made in any cycle. Our field teams are recruiting new and enthusiastic volunteers for our Republican Leadership Initiative program, a competitive six-week program that trains the next generation of Republican grassroots leaders. These leadership fellows are our on the ground, helping us expand our party's engagement in communities across the country.
Here's what's happened as a result of that investment:
To date, we've trained over 13,000 leadership fellows this cycle, far surpassing records we set even during presidential years, and we've made over 15 million voter contacts . These numbers speak for themselves, and it's our permanent infrastructure that has enabled us to capitalize on excitement for President Trump and the Republican Party's agenda.
The other component that Republicans have going for them that the Democrats don't is the fact that Republicans have an appealing message and a list of accomplishments. Because the Democrats spent all their time resisting, they don't have any accomplishments to brag about. When the campaigns begin in earnest, this election cycle will look a lot more like 2014 than anything else.
Don't think that President Trump won't highlight the Democrats' lack of accomplishments on the campaign trail. I'm betting the proverbial ranch that he'll torment Democrats for voting unanimously against the now-popular Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This won't be fun for Democrats to endure.
Posted Monday, May 21, 2018 9:13 AM
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Councilman Jeff Johnson, persistent problem solver
The St. Cloud Times has written some unfair things about Councilman Jeff Johnson, especially in their Our View editorials. This article , written by Jenny Berg, at least gives Johnson's side of the story.
It isn't overstating things to say that Councilman Johnson has been vilified by the others on the City Council. In this article, they're still vilifying him. In some instances, they're lying about him. John Libert is a perfect example of this. According to Ms. Berg's article, Councilman Libert said "Johnson is surrounding himself by a reasonably small group of people, the anti-immigration people, so that's all he's listening to. He's not listening to the public."
First of all, I don't think a man who just silenced a citizen who wanted to speak should be taken seriously. This past Monday, that's what Libert did when he objected to Johnson recognizing John Palmer to speak. That's something a tyrant does. There's few things more disgusting in a constitutional republic than having a member of government silence a citizen. That's what Libert did. But I digress.
Libert continued:
The people that are pushing this thing are anti-immigration people," he said. "They want numbers, they want something to show them that we shouldn't have immigrants here." Libert said he is also disappointed Johnson used his title as City Council member at the Washington, D.C., panel, because Libert said it "gave the impression that the city council is supporting his actions, which we aren't."
I know many of the people that Libert is referring to. He couldn't be more wrong than when he calls them "anti-immigration people." The people that disagree with Libert just believe strongly that Gasp! the laws on the books should enforced.
Right now, the federal government isn't enforcing its laws. What's worse is that the city that's getting trampled by this unfunded mandate won't push the federal government to live up to its obligations. When the Refugee Act of 1980 was first passed, the federal government paid the cities and school boards enough money to cover the refugees' expenses. A short 38 years later, the federal government pays a Volag $1,000 per person to find that family a home, then essentially tells the city and the school board 'from this point forward, you're on your own.'
Masters and Goerger both said they stand by the "welcoming" resolution. "The support I got from that resolution that I brought forward outweighed the negative comments probably 10 to one," Goerger said. "I'm still confident I did the right thing there. As far as where we are today, well there is still that opposition," Goerger added. "They show up at our council meetings every Monday night. They do come. It's generally the same four or five people. They wait patiently until the end of the meeting and then they spew their hate."
Jeff Goerger is a spit-for-brains lefty. What's worse is that he doesn't like listening to people he disagrees with. That's something he has in common with Libert and Lewis. This line is telling:
Libert agreed Johnson's proposed refugee moratorium has fostered an "atmosphere of hate and bigotry" that works against the city. "I think as a council member our job is to promote St. Cloud as a very viable, living, healthy community. If you Google St. Cloud and all that comes up is immigrants and hate and bigotry, it's not good," he said.
Here's a bit of advice for Mr. Libert. The job of city council members is to put in place smart policies to make the community attractive and to put in place a budget that funds public safety, transportation and other important core functions.
St. Cloud is heading in the wrong direction. Businesspeople know this. They won't admit it in public but they know it's heading in the wrong direction. Businesses are shutting down or leaving. Unemployment is solid but wealth keeps leaving. Crime is rising.
Mr. Libert, how can you promote a city with those problems festering? If you're saying 'things are wonderful' while these other things are falling apart, people will eventually conclude that you aren't honest. That's the point at which they tune you out, then vote you out.
Councilman Johnson doesn't sweep St. Cloud's problems under the rug. He tries solving them. I can't say that about Goerger, Masters, Laraway, Lewis or Libert. As problem solvers, they're next-to-worthless. Finally, this statement is telling:
Laraway, who is a member of the CentraCare Health Board of Directors, said the company has more than 700 open positions and that he's worried the negativity surrounding immigration issues could hamper attempts for companies such as CentraCare to attract workers.
Hint to Laraway: pretending that everything is fine won't fix the refugee problem. People aren't moving to St. Cloud because they don't picture it as a nice place to live. If you continue burying your head in the sand on these issues, CentraCare's problem will only get worse. If you won't fix these problems, step aside and let someone who's serious be part of the solution.
Posted Monday, May 21, 2018 9:26 AM
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Is the Mueller dam breaking?
In the past, politicians, mostly senators, have warned President Trump not to fire Robert Mueller. This morning, a legal heavyweight wrote this op-ed offering a different opinion. Michael Mukasey's opinion isn't coming from a politically-motivated standpoint. It's coming from a legal standpoint.
He wrote "Recall that the investigation was begun to learn whether the Trump campaign had gotten help unlawfully from Russia. Justice Department regulations permit appointment of a special counsel only if (i) there is reason to think that a federal crime has been committed, and (ii) investigating it would present a conflict of interest for the Justice Department or there is another overriding public reason to take the investigation outside DOJ." In other words, based on DOJ guidelines, there wasn't a legitimate basis for launching this investigation.
Judge Mukasey continued, saying "Although Rosenstein apparently tried to correct his mistake in a new appointment memo, he has thus far refused to disclose, even to a federal judge, a complete copy of it. In other investigations supposedly implicating a president, Watergate and Whitewater come to mind, we were told what the crime was and what facts justified the investigation. Not here. Nor have any of the charges filed in the Mueller investigation disclosed the Trump campaign's criminal acceptance or solicitation of help from the Russians. The one indictment that relates to Russian criminality charges that the Russians hacked Democratic Party computers and committed other social media abuse, but says specifically that if the Trump campaign got the benefit of it, that was 'unwitting' - i.e., without criminal intent."
The harm this fishing expedition is doing is to the Intelligence Community's reputation. The Deep Staters have tarnished the FBI's and the DOJ's reputations. Who knows how long it will take to repair that damage? The political heat is increasing on Mueller to wrap things up. First, it was Judge T.S. Ellis III who questioned the Mueller investigation's scope. Now, it's former Attorney General Michael Mukasey questioning Rod Rosenstein's appointment of a special council.
Sprinkle in Sen. Chuck Grassley's letter demanding production of Rosenstein's scope memo. Combine these things and you have pressure building from people who aren't seen as overtly partisan. That, more than anything, will hurt Mueller's credibility.
Posted Monday, May 21, 2018 10:14 AM
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Is the Mueller dam breaking? Part II
Judge Mukasey's op-ed helped open the floodgates questioning the Mueller investigation. Mark Penn's op-ed is actually more damning because Penn is a Democrat. Penn's op-ed connects lots of dots that Mueller, Comey and Rosenstein don't want connected.
For instance, Penn wrote "At this point, there is little doubt that the highest echelons of the FBI and the Justice Department broke their own rules to end the Hillary Clinton 'matter,' but we can expect the inspector general to document what was done or, more pointedly, not done. It is hard to see how a yearlong investigation of this won't come down hard on former FBI Director James Comey and perhaps even former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who definitely wasn't playing mahjong in a secret 'no aides allowed' meeting with former President Clinton on a Phoenix airport tarmac. With this report on the way and congressional investigators beginning to zero in on the lack of hard, verified evidence for starting the Trump probe, current and former intelligence and Justice Department officials are dumping everything they can think of to save their reputations."
This isn't the outcome they were hoping for. They were hoping to take down a president they thought wasn't qualified. Instead, Mueller, Lynch, Rosenstein and Comey have ruined their reputations and their legacies. Straight shooters like Judge Mukasey and Mark Penn are asking all the right questions and making the right observations while putting this puzzle together.
But it is backfiring. They started by telling the story of Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat, as having remembered a bar conversation with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. But how did the FBI know they should talk to him? That's left out of their narrative. Downer's signature appears on a $25 million contribution to the Clinton Foundation. You don't need much imagination to figure that he was close with Clinton Foundation operatives who relayed information to the State Department, which then called the FBI to complete the loop. This wasn't intelligence. It was likely opposition research from the start.
Contributing to the Clinton Foundation isn't illegal by itself. It's just convenient for this contributor to point the finger at Mr. Papadopoulos. With the Clintons, it isn't wise to think that coincidences are truly coincidental. More often than not, these 'coincidences' are manufactured with precise intent.
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This isn't flattering to Mueller:
Flush with 16 prosecutors, including a former lawyer for the Clinton Foundation, and an undisclosed budget, the Mueller investigation has been a scorched-earth effort to investigate the entirety of the Trump campaign, Trump business dealings, the entire administration and now, if it was not Russia, maybe it's some other country.
I'll put this simply. It's time to wrap this fishing expedition up. It's been spinning its wheels for over a year.
Posted Monday, May 21, 2018 11:01 AM
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Swamp critters will drain swamp?
Caitlin Huey-Burns' article suffers from a credibility problem. Let's be clear. Caitlin Huey-Burns doesn't have a credibility crisis. It's that Democrats have a credibility crisis.
Burns' article opens by saying "As part of their midterm pitch to voters, congressional Democrats are unveiling a series of policy proposals Monday aimed at cleaning up a 'culture of corruption' in Washington. In other words: Drain the swamp. The party says it isn't stealing the slogan and sentiment that helped propel Donald Trump to the White House. Instead, Democrats are returning to an anti-corruption message that helped win back the House of Representatives in 2006 against the backdrop of scandals involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and lawmakers Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. A decade later, Trump seized on a similar theme, directing voter ire at Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton along with lawmakers of both parties in the nation's capital. And now, with Michael Cohen, Scott Pruitt and others in Trump's orbit under scrutiny, Democrats believe they have a compelling case to make against the current administration and Republicans in Congress."
First, this won't take the place of an optimistic economic message. Next, it's important to notice this doesn't have that much impact on voters. I haven't seen a poll on this recently but I suspect that people are more worried that Jim Comey, Loretta Lynch and Robert Mueller are the least trustworthy people in DC. While I'm at it, I'd better include James Clapper and John Brennan aren't high on the public's credibility and integrity ratings.
The Democrats' strategy will fail. This memo proves how misguided Democrats are:
"The American people are sick of getting a raw deal from Washington and they're tired of broken promises to 'drain the swamp,'" reads a memo from Democratic leaders outlining various government reform proposals. "It's an endless cycle taken to a completely unprecedented level under President Trump, demonstrating a blatant disregard for the laws and norms in place to prevent public corruption."
Informed voters have noticed that big government is pretty corrupt, too. It isn't like people think John Brennan and Jim Clapper are saints. It isn't like people suddenly think the FBI is the honorable agency it once was. It isn't like the people haven't formed the opinion that Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch and Jim Comey didn't politicize the DOJ and the FBI. After watching this video, why would anyone think that the FBI wasn't corrupted during the Obama administration?
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There's no chance Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will "drain the swamp." They both live in mansions in the fanciest neighborhoods of the Swamp. Now I'm supposed to believe that they're intent on draining the Swamp? I might've been born at night but it wasn't last night.
Posted Monday, May 21, 2018 7:54 PM
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Official announcement: Jeff Johnson won't seek re-election
This evening, I received this email from Councilman Jeff Johnson:
I'm sure some of the city council members will enjoy not having to deal with Jeff Johnson. Unfortunately, the city of St. Cloud lost a true leader and a man of impeccable integrity. In the interest of full disclosure, Jeff has been my friend for 12+ years. I doubt that that's a surprise to those who've read LFR throughout the years.
The thing Councilman Johnson's supporters, myself included, appreciated most about him was his willingness to listen to opposing points of view. If you were his constituent (and sometimes if you weren't), he made time to listen. That's something that most of the council doesn't do.
Another thing that people appreciated about Councilman Johnson was his insistence on following City Council rules consistently. That's another thing that isn't a priority for Council President Carol Lewis and councilmembers like Steve Laraway, John Libert, Dave Masters and Jeff Goerger.
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2018 2:33 AM
Comment 1 by Dave Steckling at 22-May-18 09:38 AM
Jeff was a true pioneer for haulting the resettlement program and requesting studies be initiated. The time and energy he expended could not have been greater. I'm sure he will
continue to be a vocal until his term expires. We will all miss you Jeff; the road you carved out for us will always be remembered. God bless.
Comment 2 by Liz at 22-May-18 09:42 AM
"Impeccable integrity" is 100% true. Thank you Jeff Johnson for all your hard work.
Comment 3 by Larry at 22-May-18 10:13 AM
As a former St. Cloud resident, I've been watching your immigrant problems with great interest. I hope and pray that a concerned and learned citizen will step up to fill the rather enormous shoes left by Councilman Jeff Johnson.
Comment 4 by Mary Lenk at 22-May-18 11:03 AM
Jeff, thank you for all the intensive labor you have put in trying to help the city of St. Cloud. We commend you for all your time and effort and wish you the best. Some people will not listen no matter how hard you try.
May God Bless you
Comment 5 by Judy Rossel at 22-May-18 10:28 PM
Jeff, it is with sadness that I hear of your not seeking re-election; however, I am so proud of your staying in and supporting those you care about, this long, without any support from the rest of the council. You have "run the race" and now we must leave the rest up to our Father, to finish what He has started.
God bless you for all you have given to our community!
Comment 6 by John Palmer at 23-May-18 09:02 PM
I guess Jeff has more than 5 or six people he received input from in his efforts to represent the people of Ward 4 and St. Cloud. He will be missed, but he has set a wonderful example of a citizen leader and not a career politician. Eight years is long enough for any councilman or mayor. Voluntary term limits reflect what our founders desired for elective leaders. When politicians stay to long it is up to the citizens to impose a term limit.
Gov. Dayton's MNLARS failure
Saying that Gov. Dayton failed deputy registrars is extreme understatement. Nonetheless, he's already started blaming Republican politicians for his failures. Dave Orrick's reporting lays things out nicely by saying "It's all the result of the faulty launch of MNLARS, a new computer system launched over the summer to handle vehicle title and tab transactions. It was a mess and largely still is, say deputy registrars, as well as car dealers, insurance agents and untold numbers of regular folks who waited in long lines or ran up against any number of roadblocks in their attempts to transfer a title or some other previously routine transaction."
Don Davis's article highlighted how the DFL abandoned the registrars:
The Minnesota House has failed to override Gov. Mark Dayton's veto of funding to reimburse local offices who struggled with the state's new driver registration system.
It's just the second attempted override in Dayton's tenure. With just 79 House members voting to override Dayton on Sunday, it fell short of the required 90-vote margin. Most Democrats voted against overriding Dayton's veto.
Dayton struck down the bill Saturday, saying lawmakers should have paired it with funding to fix MNLARS. That money is in a separate bill passed by the Legislature. MNLARS was plagued by problems since its summer launch. GOP Rep. Dave Baker says lawmakers owe it to deputy registrars to reimburse them for their extra costs due to problems with the system.
DFL members who voted for the bill initially voted to sustain Gov. Dayton's veto. That means that they put Gov. Dayton's vanity ahead of the registrar's financial needs. Saying that Speaker Daudt was upset with Gov. Dayton is understatement. Watch Speaker Daudt's body language during this press availability:
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About 12:25 into the press availability, Speaker Daudt spoke to the registrars bill, saying "Well, the deputy registrar bill, we are extremely disappointed that the Governor vetoed that bill. Even in his veto letter, he said that "I support this money for the deputy registrars. Confusing. Again, he keeps saying 'send me a bill -- an individual bill all by itself -- a standalone bill' and he vetoes it anyway. In reality, this bill had 101 votes going out of the House. I think we're going to find out tonight if Democrats stand behind making these deputy registrars whole for the losses that have been incurred by the disaster called MNLARS and I hope that Democrats will stand with Republicans tonight behind these deputy registrars instead of standing behind this governor who has literally gone back on his word to these people."
In his own press availability, Gov. Dayton said that he'd only sign the deputy registrars' bill if it included 'the other $33,000,000' needed to fix MNLARS. Republicans told him consistently that they weren't willing to write him a blank check, then hope that his IT team would fix MNLARS over the summer. Writing this incompetent governor a blank check with the belief that he'd fix that system isn't just insane. It's stupid. Why trust a governor with Gov. Dayton's legacy of mishaps and mistakes and who can't be held accountable now that he's officially a lame duck?
When some of these deputy registrars go out of business or lose their homes, I hope they remember who stood with them and who abandoned them. Gov. Dayton vetoed the bill but DFL legislators abandoned them. DFL legislators supported their governor rather than supporting their constituents.
I hope these deputy registrars and their families remember that the DFL preached that they're for the little guy -- until their governor needs their votes. When they walk into the voting booth, I hope they feel like this:
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Then I hope they vote for the people who will support them when it matters. They're known as Republicans.
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2018 3:39 AM
Comment 1 by Rex Newman at 24-May-18 08:06 PM
Pop Quiz: who is Dawn Olson? Arguably the person most responsible for this mess.
Answer: Director of DVS since 2006, entire 10 year MN-LARS project under her watch. She shouldn't need Governor, Legislative Auditor, press to keep her on task.
Style critique without the substance
CNN's article about President Trump starts off by reading like a fashion critique rather than like a serious news article.
Early in the article, it says "This may be the first Department of Justice criminal investigation ordered via Twitter feed. Given the importance of a presidential decision regarding a possible criminal investigation, the use of Twitter was completely inappropriate. It trivializes the entire process. What's next in the presidential communication arsenal, the use of Facebook and Instagram with photos?"
The message from that paragraph seems to be 'how dare he use Twitter to express his opinion'. That's kind of disappointing considering the fact that the investigation President Trump ordered was about determining whether the Obama Justice Department or the Obama FBI sought to infiltrate the Republicans' presidential campaign for strictly partisan reasons. At a time when people get their news from social media, why wouldn't President Trump use Twitter to put pressure on the Deep State? Why wouldn't President Trump use Twitter to put John Brennan, Jim Comey and Jim Clapper on notice that they'd better hire a good lawyer?
The CNN article also treats this situation like it was normal:
In modern times, though, most presidents have taken a hands-off approach with respect to specific criminal investigations in a deliberate effort to keep them out of partisan politics and to preserve public respect for the integrity of federal law enforcement authorities.
This investigation is totally about partisanship. The fact that the NYTimes and the Washington Post tried spinning it as the Obama administration's attempt to protect the Trump campaign is laughable. It's disgusting that CNN tries peddling that same line in their article:
Part of the DOJ and the FBI 's job is after all the conduct of counterintelligence investigations and, if warranted by the evidence, the warning of presidential candidates that the Russians might try to infiltrate their campaigns to influence the American election. One would think that Trump would be grateful rather than suspicious about the warning.
Apparently, CNN didn't notice that the DOJ and FBI didn't warn the campaign. Rather, when then-President-Elect Trump insisted that his campaign had been surveilled, people openly ridiculed him, saying that couldn't happen in America. Now they're peddling this infiltration of the Trump campaign like it's a public service? Seriously?
In the end, Trump's attempt to embarrass his own Department of Justice and FBI is likely to wound only his own presidency. If Inspector General Horowitz makes the highly unlikely finding that the DOJ and the FBI acted criminally in their conduct of a counterintelligence operation related to the Trump campaign, a criminal referral will be necessary.
I'm almost to the end of the article and the 'reporter' still hasn't told us what the investigation is about. I've heard about burying the lede but this is ridiculous.
The lede should be that Obama DOJ or FBI political appointees might have tried interfering in a presidential election. While the article hints at that, it certainly doesn't lead with that.
Sunday's Twitter order to commence a new investigation to smear the Obama administration is likely to backfire and extend the Mueller investigation. It may also cause Mueller to look at an interesting new idea -- was the presidential order to commence such a frivolous investigation itself really an attempt to block the progress of the Mueller investigation and obstruct justice?
What would a CNN article be without them defending either Hillary or the Obama administration? Here's something for CNN to think about. The thought of a presidential administration of one political party using its intelligence services to gather information on the presidential campaign of the other political party is a true threat to our system of government. There's nothing trivial about such an investigation. Watching Kimberley Strassel lay this out is what real journalism looks like:
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Unlike this CNN 'article', Kim Strassel's articles have been the work product of a professional journalist.
Posted Tuesday, May 22, 2018 8:44 AM
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