November 8-11, 2019
Nov 08 01:24 MN DHS crisis continues Nov 08 02:15 Widespread DHS corruption Nov 08 07:17 Democrats' impeachment: sturdiest house of cards ever built Nov 09 09:07 The Democrats' flawed logic Nov 09 20:09 Gophers improve to 9-0 Nov 10 11:30 The Democrats' verdict is written Nov 11 03:52 How big is the DHS mess? Nov 11 15:14 The Democrats' defense strategy
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MN DHS crisis continues
After last week's articles and statements about the difficulties identified within the Department of Human Services, Minnesotans didn't expect to get blasted wit more graft, corruption and unauthorized payments. After reading this statement , though, it's looking like reports like those will become relatively routine.
First, it's totally legitimate to call some of what's happening graft :
the acquisition of money, gain, or advantage by dishonest, unfair, or illegal means, especially through the abuse of one's position or influence in politics, business, etc.
Let's look at what's been identified:
Senate Republican leaders announced a Senate Finance Committee hearing next week to examine the use of illegal contract and spending practices in state agencies. Based on recent reporting of brazen use by DHS employees of the 16A/16C forms that approve spending on services and purchases without a signed contract, a request has been made to the Department of Administration for their 16A and 16C forms across state government.
" This agency is the fastest growing part of our budget ," said Senator Julie Rosen, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. " We've heard about the fraud in childcare assistance, we've seen the waste in overpayments to the tribes, and now we have abuse by agency staff spending money without approval and filing a 'get out of jail free' form each time. "
With the biennial budget signed, it's time that Gov. Walz focused on fixing DHS. It's the fastest-growing department in the budget. It's filled with fraud, corruption or people who simply don't give a damn:
Senator Michelle Benson, Chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, said "Commissioner Harpstead has been given an impossible task. The CFO at DHS has been trying to fix this problem, but the entrenched bureaucracy is preventing meaningful change. The governor needs to stop the ribbon cuttings and dig into fixing DHS," Benson concluded.
It's time for heads to roll. It's foolish to argue that the inmates aren't running the prison within DHS. At this point, there's too much proof that what few guidelines and safeguards exist aren't taken seriously. Major departments can't function without systems that are well thought out and taken seriously. Departments that 'operate' without well thought out guidelines are profiles in anarchy and chaos.
The 16A/16C form expressly states: A payment made in violation of this chapter is illegal. : the violation is just cause for the employee's removal by the appointing authority or by the governor if an appointing authority other than the governor fails to do so. (Emphasis added.)
If Gov. Walz won't take this crisis seriously, then he should get defeated in 2022 in a landslide. Wasting 100s of millions of dollars without legitimate oversight is certainly despicable, if not outright corrupt.
The frightening part of this is that it isn't limited to a rogue agency. To use Jim Nobles' characterization, this situation is "pervasive." More on that in the next article.
Posted Friday, November 8, 2019 1:34 AM
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Widespread DHS corruption
According to this article from CBS Boston , the problems in the Minnesota Department of Human Services are widespread. To quote the article, " DHS lost track of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money in just the last five years . That's according to numerous investigations, reviews and outside independent analysis of one of Minnesota's largest and most important agencies."
Check this out:
Here's a partial list in one place:
DHS Fraud/Waste
- 2016: $271 million to MNsure.
- 2017: $7.7 million to Medicaid.
- 2018: $30 million to MNCare.
- 2019: $72 million in child care .
- 2019: $3.7 million to dead people.
- 2019: $30 million in opioid overpayments.
That list alone comes to $414,400,000. That's almost half a billion dollars spent on people who allegedly didn't qualify for their various programs. That's quite stunning in light of this fact:
Minnesota's sprawling DHS occupies a full city block in downtown St. Paul , with 16,000 employees and a budget of $17.5 billion.
That's before learning this:
DHS manages thousands of programs for Minnesota's most vulnerable poor, disabled, seniors and children. Those programs include food stamps and housing, health care, refugee resettlement, sex offender treatment, gambling, drug addiction and mental health, and much more.
Then there's this:
That statement is from 2011. The statement said that oversight was weak even then. Think about that a minute. Things didn't change in almost a decade. Then think about this frightening thought: Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders want this to be the blueprint for health care 'reform'. You can virtually hear people saying 'Over my dead body'. The frightening thought about that battle cry in Minnesota is that those dead people might get a check from Human Services.
Trusting DHS isn't a worthwhile effort.
Posted Friday, November 8, 2019 2:15 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 08-Nov-19 09:42 AM
Is incompetence or indifference the same as corruption? If not, the difference would be motive. Insufficient talent, or laziness, neither has a hostile intent, a will to do wrong in a way recognized as wrong.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 08-Nov-19 02:29 PM
Nobody is that indifferent for years at a time. I suspect that this was a way to shovel extra money to the tribes, etc. That's corruption.
Comment 2 by Gretchen L Leisen at 08-Nov-19 03:28 PM
To Eric Z - so in other words, 'ignorance is bliss". That old saying still holds a lot of weight, especially when it concerns today's Democrats. It gives cover to funneling lots of cash to their favorite voter groups.
Comment 3 by Chad Q at 08-Nov-19 05:52 PM
If this were to have happened under GOP control, people like Eric would be asking "how could they be this incompetent" and all the good little socialists would be demanding heads roll. But since it's socialists wasting $500 million of taxpayer money, no harm, no foul.
Response 3.1 by Gary Gross at 09-Nov-19 12:16 AM
It's worth noting that this upcoming election is about keeping the No-Oversight DFL in control so more taxpayers get ripped off & more special interest groups get money illegally transferred to them.
If the DFL maintains control of the House, rest assured that oversight will become a 4-letter word in 2021.
Democrats' impeachment: sturdiest house of cards ever built
Each day, Democrats insist that today's testimony damaged the White House to the point that the damage is virtually irreparable. Now that we're finally getting the transcripts, we're finding out that Democrats have built the sturdiest house of cards ever built. This article highlights the flimsiness of the Democrats' case:
William Taylor, the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, told lawmakers in secret testimony two weeks ago that his opinions about an alleged quid pro quo demanded by Trump were formed largely from conversations with anti-Trump staffers within the diplomatic bureaucracy.
'[Y]ou've never spoken to Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani?' Taylor was asked.
'No, no,' he replied.
'Has anyone ever asked you to speak to Mr. Giuliani?'
'No,' Taylor said.
'And if I may, have you spoken to the president of the United States?' Taylor was asked.
'I have not,' he said.
'You had no communications with the president of the United States?'
'Correct,' Taylor said.
That's what's known as hearsay. It isn't admissible in criminal courts in most instances. Certainly, it wouldn't be accepted if it's from someone who heard it third- or fourth-hand. Despite that fact, House Democrats keep insisting that their impeachment case is sturdy. That's why the public hearings will be crucial in one respect. When John Ratcliffe, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows or Devin Nunes get 45 minutes to cross-examine next week's witnesses, they'll expose the Democrats' witnesses' vulnerabilities. At this point, I'd consider Taylor to be damaged goods.
Despite Taylor's statements, though, Schiff and other Democrats will insist that Taylor has damaged President Trump. Don't be surprised if a gap opens between Democrats and the public. Here's why Taylor is damaged goods:
"And this isn't firsthand. It's not secondhand. It's not thirdhand," Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said to Taylor. "But if I understand this correctly, you're telling us that Tim Morrison told you that Ambassador Sondland told him that the president told Ambassador Sondland that Zelensky would have to open an investigation into Biden?" "That's correct," Taylor admitted.
"So do you have any other source that the president's goal in making this request was anything other than The New York Times?" Zeldin asked. "I have not talked to the president," Taylor said. "I have no other information from what the president was thinking."
As damaging as that is, it isn't the only vulnerability. Here's another vulnerability:
"So, if nobody in the Ukrainian government is aware of a military hold at the time of the Trump-Zelensky call, then, as a matter of law and as a matter of fact, there can be no quid pro quo, based on military aid," Ratcliffe, a former federal prosecutor, said. "I just want to be real clear that, again, as of July 25th, you have no knowledge of a quid pro quo involving military aid."
"July 25th is a week after the hold was put on the security assistance,' Taylor testified. "And July 25th, they had a conversation between the two presidents, where it was not discussed." "And to your knowledge, nobody in the Ukrainian government was aware of the hold?' Ratcliffe asked. "That is correct," Taylor responded.
This is the Democrats' defense of Taylor's testimony:
[Video no longer available]
I won't belittle Taylor's service to the nation through the military. What he did was commendable. With that said, I don't have any difficulty saying that I'm capable of saying that Taylor's testimony is filled with holes simply because he didn't participate in the phone call. What Taylor did, though, was verify that Ukraine didn't know that the military aid was being withheld. If Zelensky didn't know the aid was being withheld, that means that a quid pro quo couldn't have been proposed.
Posted Friday, November 8, 2019 7:17 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 08-Nov-19 09:49 AM
It seems that the Trump defense narrative now needs to move from no quid pro quo, to yes there was a quid-pro-quo intent, so what - nothing wrong was done. That Trump was conditioning release of already allocated money upon three words, investigation, Biden and Clinton is widely reported, and most testimony supports it - without Rudy on record about his shenanigans. Drop back to the auxiliary trenches, the main trench is lost to the opposition having taken the day. And, yes, the Senate nose count stands as it does so that Pence will not get his "place" in the top seat, that being a blessing beyond measure.
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 09-Nov-19 08:07 AM
No first hand testimony supports anything the democrats are saying. The opposition, a bunch of lying and scheming people who can't believe they got beat 3 years ago, have won nothing and with each day that passes with tweets from Zaid coming out showing this was set up from day one and that the so called witnesses have been working with opposition since day one, the American people grow more and more weary of the sham and Trumps support grows.
The Democrats' flawed logic
At the heart of the Democrats' impeachment drive is the Democrats' contention that President Trump asked Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden. That's a theory that the media, myself included, hasn't examined, at least not seriously. The thought that President Trump is worried about Joe Biden, especially at a time when Biden's fundraising is struggling and his cash on hand balance is low, is misguided thinking.
President Trump understands that he's a force of nature, politically speaking, and that there isn't a candidate at the Democrats' debates that's clicking with the voters. Sleepy Joe Biden doesn't excite anyone. Elizabeth Warren just blew up her candidacy with her Medicare-for-All tax increase. Bernie Sanders' campaign just died at the hands of Crazy Bernie. Check out Crazy Bernie's immigration proposal :
Key Points
- Institute a moratorium on deportations until a thorough audit of past practices and policies is complete.
- Reinstate and expand DACA and develop a humane policy for those seeking asylum.
- Completely reshape and reform our immigration enforcement system, including breaking up ICE and CBP and redistributing their functions to their proper authorities.
- Dismantle cruel and inhumane deportation programs and detention centers and reunite families who have been separated.
- Live up to our ideals as a nation and welcome refugees and those seeking asylum, including those displaced by climate change.
To use an old carpenter's saying, Crazy Bernie's plan is a full bubble off center. But I digress. The subject was Biden.
Supposedly, Joe is the champion of blue collar workers everywhere. There's a flaw with that logic, though, which I've written about frequently. Sleepy Joe wants to ban fossil fuels. This video is from the Greenpeace USA Youtube channel:
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The Obama-Biden administration also prevented the building of the Keystone XL pipeline. It didn't take long for President Trump to reverse that.
These are the policies and candidacies that Democrats think are winners in 2020? There's nothing to think these policies will connect with blue collar voters in Rust Belt states that Democrats need to flip. If Biden doesn't flip 'Blue Firewall' states like Pennsylvania and Michigan back into the Democrats' column, Democrats can kiss this election goodbye. Check this article out:
The battle is a microcosm of what is happening nationally: Big-city Democratic mayors are aligning themselves with leftist local officials and environmental activists to renounce disfavored industries. It also exposes the Democrats' deep challenges with blue-collar voters. In both Western Pennsylvania and the Scranton area, the shale industry is opening up prosperity not seen for two generations - and inflaming climate zealots. "A Democrat can't win Pennsylvania without voter support from those two regions," said Mike Mikus, a strategist who consulted for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's re-election campaign last year. "And you can't win the presidency as a Democrat if you lose Pennsylvania."
The point of this is that Biden is a fatally flawed presidential candidate. President Trump didn't need Ukraine's help to defeat Biden. Further, President Trump ran on draining the Swamp. If anyone personifies the Swamp better than Joe and Hunter Biden, it'd be the Podesta brothers.
Unlike other presidents, President Trump has made a habit of keeping his promise. He doesn't have a perfect record but it's better than any recent president.
- He's building the wall, despite the Democrats obstructionism.
- President Trump moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
- President Trump signed the biggest tax cuts in US history.
- He promised small-town workers that they wouldn't be forgotten. Thanks to the booming energy industry, he's more than kept that promise.
Democrats whine about President Trump going after Joe and Hunter Biden because they aren't used to a president actually getting serious about corruption. Joe and Hunter Biden are government corruption personified. They aren't at John Murtha's level but they're still in the Swamp Hall of Fame.
Posted Saturday, November 9, 2019 9:07 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 10-Nov-19 07:07 AM
I don't know if it's flawed logic or just pandering to the lowest common denominator in the party which is to tell them they are going to give them everything for free, only tax the rich, and make everyone equally miserable. They know the only thing they will be able to do is make everyone miserable.
Gophers improve to 9-0
Gopher football fans should start their prayers by saying 'As long as I'm up here already' because the team and the fans should be excited. For the first time since 1904, the Gophers have started 9=0.In 1904, there were 5 fewer states in the nation than there are now. 19 1904, Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma were still territories.
The stars of today's game against the Nittany Lions were Tanner Morgan, Antoine Winfield Jr., Rashod Bateman, Tyler Johnson and the offensive line as a unit. Tanner Morgan was the star of the game, completing 18 of 20 passes for 339 yards, 3 touchdowns, no interceptions for a passer rating of 281.9 (That isn't a typo. Check it out for yourself .)
Rashod Bateman was targeted 7 times. He caught all 7 passes while finishing with 203 yards. That's a 29.0 yard average per catch. Bateman's partner in crime today was Tyler Johnson. Johnson caught 7 passes, too, for 104 yards. Antoine Winfield Jr., the son of NFL great Antoine Winfield, intercepted 2 passes today, which Minnesota turned into a pair of touchdowns. Here's a good highlight tape of today's game:
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Give Penn State tons of credit, too. Trailing 24-13 at the half, Penn State held the Gophers to 7 points in the second half while scoring 13 points themselves. In the end, the Gophers' defense finished off the victory by intercepting the ball in the end zone.
While the Gophers' offensive line didn't open up big holes for the runners, they kept quarterback Tanner Morgan clean in the pocket pretty much all day. How pressured can the QB be when he completes 18 of 20 passes for 339 yards? Remember, too, this was against a pretty talented Penn State defense.
Before today, the analysts praised PJ Fleck's team right up until they'd say something like 'but we don't know how good they are because they haven't beaten a great team.' After today, the experts can say that the Gophers deserve their high ranking because they beat a very good Penn State team.
Posted Saturday, November 9, 2019 8:09 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 10-Nov-19 07:00 AM
This team is really surprising me that they are for real. I thought they'd finally come down to earth when they actually played a real team (all the other wins were against some of the worst teams in Div 1) but they proved me wrong. I still don't think they are of the caliber of an Alabama, LSU, or Ohio state but they're pretty good.
Comment 2 by eric z at 11-Nov-19 12:45 PM
Fleck's "Row the Boat" BS is very vexing, but the coaching and recruitment have been solid. While unlikely to complete a season unbeaten, it's good while it lasts, and some variant of a quality bowl invitation should result unless things crater in remaining games. The system is working, but will Fleck be a long-term winner, here or if moving elsewhere where the money and status are upgrades? For now, enjoy. As with this season's Vikings, the ability to run the ball on opponents is important, and the Gophers have an outdoor venue where ability to run the ball gains importance with bad weather.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 11-Nov-19 03:28 PM
Eric, I think Fleck will stick around awhile. He just signed a 7 year extension worth more than $4,000,000 a year. I also agree that the Gophers can run the ball & that that matters when you're playing Wisconsin in the last game of the regular season, especially if the Gophers are leading by 5 with 7 minutes left in regulation. Being able to eat half the time, then pin the other team at their own 10 with 2 minutes left is a winning strategy.
It's worth noting that the Gophers have a pretty explosive passing game, too. Tanner Morgan completed 18 of 20 for 339 yards, 3 TDs & 0 INTs. That's better than acceptable.
The Democrats' verdict is written
In case nobody's noticed, Democrats have written their verdict on President Trump. Adam Schiff, the Democrats' Impeachment Committee Chairman, isn't into nuance. He's been clear for years that he's certain President Trump should be impeached in the House, then convicted in the Senate. He's also made it clear that he plans on protecting the Biden family. After Republicans submitted their list of witnesses that they'd like to cross-examine, it didn't take long for Schiff to protect the Biden family :
"This inquiry is not, and will not serve : as a vehicle to undertake the same sham investigations into the Bidens or 2016 that the President pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit, or to facilitate the President's effort to threaten, intimidate, and retaliate against the whistleblower who courageously raised the initial alarm," Schiff said in a statement.
That sounds fair -- if you're living in the Soviet Union, Iran or North Korea. If you're living in the United States and you're passionate about civil rights, though, it sounds like a railroad job.
Let's dig into the so-called whistleblower that Schiff and the Democrats are thoughtlessly protecting. Let's have a discussion on whether he/she should have their anonymity protected at all costs. The faux whistleblower's attorneys insist on preserving the whistleblower's anonymity. That's understandable because lawyers are paid to protect their clients.
What society must ask is whether we can tolerate a society where a sitting president can be impeached with accusations made by an anonymous person. The men who wrote the Constitution thought about that 2+ centuries ago. They rejected that proposition when they wrote the Sixth Amendment. This is the text of the Sixth Amendment :
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Democrats have said that the time to call the faux whistleblower is during the Senate trial. That's illogical from the standpoint that impeaching a president is a more grievous matter than a criminal trial. The impact of impeachment doesn't just impact the president. It impacts the entire nation. The sooner this is behind us, the better off we'll be.
That doesn't mean that #Resistance Democrats will stop resisting. The odds of that happening are slim to nonexistent. It's that it's important to put this partisan impeachment behind us ASAP. The faux whistleblower's attorney is clearly a card-carrying member of the #Resistance. Adam Schiff, as noted earlier, has rendered his verdict in terms of impeachment. The Democrats' unquestioned leader on impeachment, Schiff has insisted for years that he had proof that President Trump had colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election:
[Video no longer available]
It's noteworthy that Mueller's hyperpartisan lawyers didn't find that proof. But I digress. The truth is that the faux whistleblower's job should be protected but his identity shouldn't be protected. Our society can't tolerate a system of justice that lets anonymous snitches take down a US president.
Our society should only impeach people who commit impeachment-worthy offenses. The fact that a pair of Democrats voted against impeachment but no Republicans voted for impeachment signals that this is a partisan exercise. This isn't anything other than the Democrats' attempt to use impeachment as a way of defeating President Trump. The notion that our society should tolerate partisan snitches is frightening. Democrats supporting this partisan snitch should be punished at the ballot box next November.
The Democrats' Impeachment Committee Chairman, Mr. Schiff, has already stated that he thinks that investigating the Biden family is a sham. Considering the fact that Vice President Biden bragged about getting a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma fired, I'd argue that Hunter Biden is worthy of deposing. Schiff can't afford that because if Hunter Biden says something, then that undermines Schiff's case. What if we find out that Biden is corrupt? Wouldn't that justify President Trump's inquiry?
Posted Sunday, November 10, 2019 11:30 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 10-Nov-19 04:11 PM
No proof there was any quid pro quo but there's plenty of proof the faux whistleblower and a bunch of other so called witnesses work with the democrats and planned this sham years ago.
Comment 2 by eric z at 11-Nov-19 12:36 PM
Not agreeing with Chad, hey, until the Dunce in Chief shot his own foot trying to get dirt on Biden, the will to remove bloviation and defective judgment existed, but not enough of the means. Trump has proven to be his own worse enemy with his unneeded Biden bugaboo. What is vexing is that Biden clearly is damaged goods but with the mainstream media set to want to force a Trump vs. Biden thing which would be a reflection of 2016 when the two least appealing candidates of all time faced off. Dump Biden, let the Senate acquit, and move on to the primaries, please. And keep Pence at a distance from that for which he is undeniably unqualified. He's Trump's anti-impeachment insurance. A Doug Wardlow kind of guy.
How big is the DHS mess?
Despite all of the hearings into Minnesota's Department of Human Services, this article hints that what's been discovered thus far is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The article starts by saying "A top official at the Minnesota Department of Human Services has told Legislative Auditor James Nobles that recent overpayments to two Indian bands represented just 'one example' of wider dysfunction in the agency's oversight of millions of dollars in state and federal money." That isn't difficult to believe.
Later in the article, it states "In an interview Friday, Human Services Commissioner Jodi Harpstead said she is on track to release a promised plan to address the agency's problems in early December. She also is interviewing candidates with management experience to fill two assistant commissioner jobs, including one overseeing health care. We are working to be tough on the process and supportive and encouraging of our people, and trying to get that into the culture here."
The people that are currently part of DHS are the problem. If they hadn't screwed things up with program after program, Minnesota wouldn't be in this fiasco. Minnesota isn't alone in terms of Medicaid fraud but Minnesota is a leader in the worst way. This is frightening:
"No single person knows everything that is going on in DHS related to Medicaid" is what Marquardt, the assistant Medicaid director, told the Office of the Legislative Auditor, according to a summary of her comments obtained by the Star Tribune. Marquardt also described frosty relationships between Medicaid and other DHS divisions. "Our presence was not always welcomed," Marquardt told the auditor's office. " There is a culture of keeping HCA out of the business of the other divisions ," according to the summary.
Throw into this hot mess the fact that the DFL has a problem with Legislative Auditor Jim Nobles:
[Video no longer available]
Thankfully, Mr. Nobles set the record straight on why he made the statements and characterizations that he did. It's difficult to picture a department that's been more mismanaged than DHS. Thank God Mr. Nobles editorialized a little so that it got people's attention. It might make people uncomfortable but it got their attention. When a house is on fire, it's ok to blast the sirens because you aren't worried about waking up the neighbors.
Posted Monday, November 11, 2019 3:52 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 11-Nov-19 12:25 PM
Big already. More shoes to drop? They should treat the spending as if it were their money, not public funds. It is a shameful situation which did not simply get bad overnight. There was top-down neglect, but the systemic problem seems bottom-up in the main - but with a failure to recognize ossified ways and means being insufficient. Heads should roll.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 11-Nov-19 03:23 PM
I agree, Eric. This was bottom-up mostly.
The Democrats' defense strategy
The Democrats' defense strategy isn't a mystery. Adam Schiff, the Democrats' chairman of the House Impeachment Committee, is rigging the process so only Democrat-approved witnesses can testify or be cross-examined. Schiff is preventing the Republicans from presenting an alternative explanation for what happened in Ukraine.
By preventing Hunter Biden from testifying, Schiff will prevent Republicans from asking legitimate questions about corruption. That's important because the Democrats' spin is that President Trump asked President Zelenskiy to interfere with the 2020 election. If Republicans can prove that Ukraine had corruption problems (it does) and that Hunter Biden had corruption issues or even had a whiff of corruption, then that justifies President Trump's asking President Zelenskiy to look into the Bidens.
Democrats can't afford the introduction of an alternative theory of what happened in Ukraine. Also, Democrats can't let the whistleblower testify because he'd certainly be asked if he'd been coached by Schiff's staff. If the faux whistleblower admits that he's talked with Schiff's staff, that will open the floodgates for the Republicans' questions.
Democrats can't let Mark Zaid, the faux whistleblower's attorney, become part of the story, either. That's because Zaid is a card-carrying member of the #Resist movement. He's proudly tweeted that a "coup" had started:
#coup has started. First of many steps. #rebellion. #impeachment will follow ultimately. #lawyers https://t.co/FiNBQo6v0S
- Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) January 31, 2017
Zaid also said that CNN would play a major role in President Trump not serving his full term. The more that Republicans can highlight the Democrats' hyperpartisanship, the weaker the Democrats' case becomes.
The Democrats' credibility would get shattered if President Trump was justified in calling for Hunter Biden's investigation. This article highlights the fact that Hunter Biden will play a major role in the hearings whether he's there or not:
Kent also told congressional investigators that he had repeatedly raised concerns with the Obama administration about Burisma, and also discussed the administration's efforts to remove Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin from his post. At the time, Shokin was investigating Mykola Zlochevsky, the former minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine - also the founder of Burisma.
Shokin was fired in April 2016, and his case was closed by the prosecutor who replaced him, Yuriy Lutsenko (though Ukraine is now reviewing such cases). Biden once famously boasted on camera that when he was vice president and leading the Obama administration's Ukraine policy, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin.
Schiff is trying his best to keep Hunter Biden off the stand:
Schiff said the inquiry "is a solemn undertaking, enshrined by the Founders in the Constitution" and that the hearings "will not serve as vehicles for any Member to carry out the same sham investigations into the Bidens or debunked conspiracies about 2016 U.S. election interference that President Trump pressed Ukraine to conduct for his personal political benefit."
That isn't the sound of impartiality. That's what partisanship sounds like. This week, expect Democrats to sound like partisans. Expect Democrats to be on the defensive.
Posted Monday, November 11, 2019 3:14 PM
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