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The Screaming Moderate

All the news doesn't fit

4/30/2020

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So many important and interesting news stories lately but all are outweighed by developments in the coronavirus. The news flies past us each day. Let’s take a breath and review some.

Biden sexual harassment allegations. This is a story that in the minds of Trump supporters never caught fire. Still The New York Times and The Washington Post have both done deep dives on it. The former VP though has not commented on it. His campaign has denied the allegations. Pressure though is building for Biden to personally comment. Fair is fair and the former vice president needs to respond, himself, to these allegations. Trump had to four years ago (well, he lied but he responded). A quick summary: a woman who worked for Biden many years ago claims he put his hands where they don’t belong and were not wanted. She has a couple of verifying friends, who didn’t witness the incident but say she told them about it at the time. In any such incident it’s hard to prove either side right. Still, the #metoo movement has taught politicians and many of the rest of us that we need to listen sincerely to any woman’s story in this area.  Many of us don’t believe he would do what the woman alleges but we all have witnessed his proclivity for invading another’s space by rubbing women’s shoulders and necks. Bottom line, Biden needs to address the allegations, personally. As a supporter of women’s rights he needs to and as a political decision he needs to. Hypocrisy is among the worst sins a politician can commit.

Vice President Pence unmasked. The Veep visited the Mayo Clinic this week and despite a clinic policy that every patient and visitor must wear a face mask on the premises, Pence chose not to. Why we don’t really know. He said it’s because he is tested all the time for the coronavirus and all test have been negative, but as we all know that test is good for the minute it’s given. Not the next minute. He also said he wanted to look front-line health workers in the eyes as he thanked them for their brave work. It’s too easy to say that he wasn’t asked to wear a blindfold, just a mask to cover his nose and mouth so I won’t say that (oops). It was odd enough that President Trump said wearing a mask wouldn’t be appropriate for him because he, too, is regularly tested and it wouldn’t be appropriate as he greets heads of state “and dictators” in the Oval Office. Role models though are important and with Trump choosing not to wear one and Pence chair of the White House Task Force on the virus, choosing not too something seems wrong.  They both not only are role models they both are supposed to be key knights in the battle against the virus and thus are exposing others to their not likely but possible infection.

A potential third-party presidential candidate emerged when Cong. Justin Amash of Michigan said he’ll seek the Libertarian Party nomination. Amash, you’ll recall, was a Tea Party Republican until he left the party over issues with Trump not long ago. While Amash contends he can win the November election analysts are arguing over whether he’ll be a spoiler in the election and, if he is, for whom. My guess is he won’t have much effect because voters, on both sides, are hell bent on electing their candidate like in no other election. And, for those who oppose Trump and/but didn’t vote for  him or Hillary Clinton four years ago, my guess is they learned their lesson that a vote not for the Democrat was a vote for Trump. They won’t make the same mistake twice. Still the state of Michigan went for Trump by just over 10,000 votes in 2016 and the third-party candidate got more than 100,000 votes there. Even if he runs a bad campaign, Amash could amass enough votes in his home state to spoil the election, the way Biden folks look at it anyway.

Coronavirus death count. There is a lot of debate over what comparison to use to highlight the virus’ unfortunate death count. Many reporters are comparing it to the loss of men and women in the Vietnam War, my guess because that is the primary low-light it hit this week – that the virus passed the deaths in that war. Seems an odd comparison since the threats are entirely different – for one thing we chose to go one and not the other. To me, saying that we crossed the horrible number of 60,000 deaths in just two months due to the virus is a terrible enough thing without comparing it to other terrible things that aren’t comparable.

Jared Kushner, who is Trump’s go-to son-in-law and senior advisor for everything from criminal justice reform to his reelection campaign to his failed attempts at Middle East Peace, this week began creating a new “narrative” for Trump when he said the Administration has done "brilliant" work containing the virus, the country is on the downward slope of cases and the economic rebound should be in bloom in August. This in spite of the fact that the President denied the virus was a threat until long after it was a threat. Kushner is wrong on all three counts but it won’t matter because he’ll just move on to a new “narrative” when this one goes down the tubes because it just doesn’t match the facts.

And if you don’t believe that, I have a Middle East peace plan to sell you.

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I'm no rhetorical expert but...

4/7/2020

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President Trump often uses what I call “cover your ass” rhetoric when he states what he views as a fact but leaves himself an out if he's proven wrong. For example, “I’m no doctor...but...it may work, it may not.” He says this in connection with a laboratory-untested drug that some (including Trump) think could be a “game changer” in the coronavirus pandemic. 

What a great rhetorical gimmick! Thought I’d give it a go. 

I’m no judge) but...I think what’s going on in Wisconsin is a farce. The (Republican-appointed majority) U.S. Supreme Court last night ruled, on a “party line” vote, that the Wisconsin primary should go on today, with voters coming to the polls to vote. The (Democratic) governor had ordered that with the pandemic, the voting by mail deadline should be extended so people didn’t have to gather at the polls. Clearly it is more likely that going to a poll would expose you to the virus and would violate the physical distancing guidance and the even more implicit counsel from Dr. Tony Fauchi and Dr. Deborah Brix that you shouldn’t leave your home even for groceries for the next two weeks. 

So, a Wisconsin voter is left with the choice: Do I stay home and protect myself and others from a potential exposure to the virus or do I exercise my right to vote the only way the courts will allow? I know which way I’d decide. Now the Democratic presidential primary ballot is less important to me (no matter who wins, former Vice President Joe Biden is all but assured the nomination) but there also is a vote for the Wisconsin Supreme Court with a conservative judge versus a more progressive candidate. President Trump this morning re-upped his endorsement of the (Republican) candidate for the court. 

I’m no President but if I were in his chair, I would have tweeted instead that the court was endangering the lives of thousands of Wisconsin voters especially since Wisconsin could be a deciding state in the November elections. With deaths mounting daily from the virus, I'd be on the side of protecting citizens from the virus than making a political move.

I’ve never been in the Navy but...I think the Acting Navy Secretary relieving the captain of the U.S. Teddy Roosevelt for demanding the sailors on his ship be protected from the coronavirus; which had broken out among the men and women, is a bad decision.

Now, I know Navy veterans will argue that the captain was wrong in going around the command structure and that relieving him of duty doesn’t affect his pay, pension, rank or other things but seems to me there were other ways to work this out without him being fired which allowed him to walk the plank (figuratively) and be enthusiastically cheered by his crew as he left his command. The Acting Navy Secretary later talked to the Roosevelt crew saying the captain was out of line for his actions and was either "stupid or naive." The Acting Secretary told the
Washington Post that he “fired” the captain before Trump ordered him fired (that wasn’t threatened but the Acting Secretary presumed that would be the case). He later apologized saying he didn't think the captain was stupid or naive.


I’m no Acting Navy Secretary but seems to me the captain was carrying out one of his primary duties – protecting his sailors – and didn’t deserve the public embarrassment and there must have been a more  judicious way to make his point.

I’m not the President but...firing the Inspector General who passed to Congress the whistleblower’s letter claiming Trump strong-armed the Ukranian president for help in Trump’s reelection, was wrong. Yes, it is in within the President’s rights to fire the guy. But Trump said he fired him because he “lost confidence” in him. Trump didn’t like and never liked the IG passing along the letter, which he was bound by law to do. That’s the loss in confidence – the IG didn’t protect the President and bury the letter. The IG, Michael Atkinson, Trump complained, also never came to talk to the President before he sent the letter to the Congress.  

I’m not the President, but seems to me Atkinson did exactly his job. And it isn’t required (nor ethically wise, in my view) for the IG to go to the accused to talk to see if he agrees with the whistleblower. As required, the IG deemed the letter had sufficient foundation for it to be passed to Congress, under the law. 

I’m not the President but seems me the IG did his job. He didn’t assess the President guilty or not guilty. He assessed the letter as having sufficient foundation to fall under the law and send it to Congress for review and possible action. The letter, of course, led to Trump being impeached not that that had anything to do with Trump’s “loss of confidence.” 

I’m (still) not the President but... I’m guessing the Department of Health and Human Service IG did not act for political purposes when she corroborated projections from governors about dramatic shortages of medical supplies in the coronavirus pandemic. Apparently because Trump took the report to be a criticism of him, he called “politics.” The author of the report was appointed by President Clinton. This belittles a very important government position, again, in inspectors general who are the public’s protection against government misconduct. One more institution Trump has torn down to build himself up. I'd also be watching out for further action by the President. Just sayin'.

I’m (still) not the President and he has the right to say what he wants but to claim politics in this situation is ridiculous. Facts are facts. 

There is a common theme in most of these items. When I served in the government as a political appointee I, and my colleagues, knew we served “at the pleasure” of the President and could be removed anytime basically for any reason. 

This President doesn’t look at his appointees serving “at the pleasure” of the President but “for the pleasure” of the President.  
 

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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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