HOW MANY OF THE BELOW ARE LAWYERS?
If Joe Goes, What Next?
Everywhere other than in Big Media newsrooms, Americans speak openly of President Joe Biden's cognitive decline and wonder whether he can last out his four-year term. If he cannot last, there are certain things we can be confident will happen and other things about which we can only speculate. The latter will be much more intriguing.
Should Biden leave office, willingly or otherwise, Kamala Harris will become president. This is a given. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution makes clear that in "case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President."
The Constitution, as written, did not address what happens next. The 25th Amendment, adopted after the assassination of President Kennedy, answered that question, at least in principle. It reads, "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress."
In recent memory, there have been two precedents, both involving Richard Nixon. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to charges of tax evasion and money-laundering and resigned. Despite Nixon's landslide victory in 1972, Democrats retained firm control of Congress, with a 50-seat majority in the House and a 14-seat majority in the Senate. This mattered. The Democrats all but dictated Nixon's choice of the congenial, moderate House minority leader, Gerald Ford, to assume the vice presidency. Ford was nominated two days after Agnew stepped down and confirmed by overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Congress.
At the time of Ford's confirmation, Democrats had good reason to suspect that Nixon would soon be forced out himself. The coordinated Democrat-media plot to oust Nixon as a result of his presumed involvement in the Watergate affair was well underway. The plot climaxed on August 9, 1974, with Nixon's resignation. Ford was sworn in later that same day.
It now fell to Ford to choose his vice president. Given the composition of Congress, he excluded any conservatives from consideration and settled on the GOP's most prominent liberal, former New York State governor Nelson Rockefeller. For Rockefeller, the confirmation hearings were considerably rougher than they had been for Ford — less for ideological reasons than for personal ones — but he was eventually confirmed despite opposition from conservatives in both parties.
As history shows, the "when" of a vice presidential opening can determine the "who." Right now, Big Media remains deeply in denial that there will ever be a "when." In his well-sourced book on the 2020 campaign, Battle for the Soul, Edward-Isaac Dovere makes only one reference to Biden's mental state and suggests that the dementia rumor was a conspiracy theory cooked up somewhere deep in a Bernie Sanders soup kitchen.
Last week, White House physician turned Republican congressman Ronny Jackson forced the mental health issue into the news. He challenged Biden to undergo a cognitive assessment, much as President Trump had successfully done. Rushing to Biden's defense, the Washington Post recruited a professor of public health — his Ph.D. is in sociology — to assure Post readers, "With Biden, not only are there not warning signs, the signs that you see show he's in exceptional health." In truth, the warning signs for Hurricane Katrina were less obvious.
In the movie version, reporters with access to the White House would be showing their audiences evidence of Biden's mental meltdowns and probing their sources to find out what happens next. In real life, they take their own cultish vows of omertà more seriously than did the Corleones. Their emperor remains fully clothed.
Those insiders who do talk, like Dr. Jackson, get punished. The fact that President Obama appointed Jackson admiral for his service as White House physician won him no reprieve. Although entirely irrelevant to the state of Biden's mind, the Post reminded its readers that, according to the Defense Department, "[Jackson] had bullied and intimidated staff and made inappropriate sexual remarks."
Lacking access to the White House, I take my cues from presidential history and the extensive research I have done on Barack Obama, including his presumed third term through proxy Joe Biden. One historical given is that timing matters. During the 2020 campaign, having finessed Bernie Sanders out of the race, the Democrats' leaders knew they had to ride the seemingly moderate Biden as far as he could take them. With the help of the media, they were largely able to conceal the erosion of Biden's mental facilities. Unless the polls show an impending disaster, Democrats have no more motive to dump Biden before the 2022 election than they did in 2020.
After the election, party leaders will have a decision to make. If they hold majorities in both Houses, they can put that decision off indefinitely. If they lose control decisively in either House, they will be wise to give the media a prompt green light to highlight Biden's cognitive issues. Once the ground is softened, they can move to usher Biden out through the complex process described in the 25th Amendment. They will have to be quick. There are only two months between Election Day and the installment of a new Congress.
Until January 2023, the Democrats will control the House and share power in the Senate. In 1973 and 1974, Republican senators proved more pliable to Democrat wishes than did GOP House members. Little has changed. For a half-dozen GOP senators, pliability is their vocation. If Democrats wait until a new Congress is seated, they sacrifice much of their negotiating power. The Republicans will insist on an unelectable milquetoast of the Gerald Ford model.
If Biden leaves office when the Democrats still have leverage, that's when the fun begins. The competing power blocs within the party will stage a quietly vicious knife fight for that second spot. Knowing Harris's weaknesses, they understand its potential. Until six or so months ago, no one could have denied that spot to New York's rock star, Governor Andrew Cuomo. His stardom collapsed quicker than Milli Vanilli's. The Democrats' values being what they are, his lethal indifference to the fate of thousands of old women did not diminish his star nearly as much as his "unwanted advances" toward a handful of young ones.
Cuomo's fall had to surprise him. That's not supposed to happen to Democrats. Dovere speaks at some length about how the Democrat-media "ecosystem" managed to keep the charges of sexual assault leveled against Biden by Tara Reade — Tara who? — out of the news. Although Reade's accusation was more serious and substantial than any brought against Cuomo, the ecosystem encouraged Cuomo's accusers. Someone gave the media permission. Someone wanted Cuomo gone.
With Harris as president, this may be the last time in the foreseeable future that a white male will be the preferred Democrat nominee for anything. Although the pickings are slim, Ted Cruz spokeswoman Erin Perrine unwittingly summed up the qualifications of the one white man with a good shot at the job. Said Perrine, "Terry McAuliffe is a swampy career politician who sold his soul to Nancy Pelosi and the radical left to bankroll his fledgling campaign." Given those qualifications, if McAuliffe wins the Virginia governor's race in November 2021, he might even be the betting favorite for vice president.
If the party is willing to put two women at the top, the contest gets much more interesting. According to Dovere, the selection for Biden's VP came down to six women: Harris; Massachusetts's Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer; Biden's domestic policy council director, Susan Rice; California's Rep. Karen Bass; and Georgia's self-appointed governor in exile, Stacey Abrams. Other than Warren and Whitmer, all of these women were in the running to add literal color to a Biden ticket. With Harris as president, they are all redundant. Warren does not have friends enough to put her on an all-female White House team, and Whitmer will be lucky if she doesn't get recalled.
Only two women have friends enough and ambition enough to get the nod: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. Obama's friends are younger. Hillary's are crueler. May the best and baddest win.
Jack Cashill's latest book, Barack Obama's Promised Land: Deplorables Need Not Apply, is now on pre-sale. See www.cashill.com for more information.
Kamala lost in the West Texas town of El Paso
Many years ago, Marty Robbins sang about being in love with a Mexican girl in the West Texas town of El Paso. The next country song will be more like "clueless in El Paso."
At one point, things got so silly that Representative Veronica Escobar, the one who replaced Beto in the U.S. House, said that El Paso was the new Ellis Island. Did someone tell her that people were actually checked at Ellis Island before they came into the country?
It was a bad day because VP Harris, and President Biden, have no idea of the mess that they started.
First, she went to El Paso, 600 miles from where the damage is. This is like visiting the Canary Islands to talk about the "root causes" in Guatemala. Let me add that a lot of Democrats in South Texas were hoping for Harris to visit them in McAllen or Brownsville. Maybe Harris did not want to shake hands with Javier Villalobos, the new GOP mayor of McAllen.
The whole trip was counterproductive, as reported by the New York Post:
Harris claims “we’ve made progress” on the crisis. Which is true, we suppose, if you consider skyrocketing growth in illegal crossings “progress.” In May, detentions hit a 21-year monthly high of 180,000.
Biden backed his veep’s trip, saying she “set up the criteria” to “know what we need to do.” Yet his firing of Border Patrol chief Rodney Scott on Wednesday is more proof his team is clueless: Scott didn’t cause the surge; Biden’s reversal of his predecessor’s successful policies did -- halting border-wall construction, putting a moratorium on deportations and ending the Remain in Mexico policy that saw migrants awaiting their case results outside the country.
“Never listen to anyone who says you can’t do something,” Harris told a group of unaccompanied girls she met with. What bizarre advice to give to those sent alone as lawbreakers. Instead of announcing changes that would have a real effect, Harris’ office released flattering quotations from her meeting with the girls, with one reportedly telling her, “You’re an example to us.”
Never listen?
Well, I think that a lot of people in South Texas are saying never listen to someone who does not have a clue or who is putting a pretty face on an ugly problem.
Harris got back on the plane and left a lot of people down here wondering what in the world this trip was all about anyway. For sure, it was not about resolving the problem. Of course, maybe she had to get back on the jet because she's "Never been to Spain."
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).
Car Burglaries Rise 753% in San Francisco as City Reopens
The reopening of San Francisco,
California, means restaurants and
hotels are back in business, but
criminals have also stepped up their
activities, burglarizing cars at a 753
percent higher rate in June over last
month.
The fallout of the crime wave is reaching beyond the city as criminals find quieter streets to sort through stolen luggage for valuables, leaving behind stolen belongings.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the development:
Last month, the Police Department’s Central Station saw a 753 percent increase in auto burglaries compared to the previous May. But that was the height of lockdown restrictions. They are up only 75 percent compared to 2019.
The number of break-ins also increased 94 percent between April and May of this year, tracking with the city’s gradual reopening from the pandemic.
The most recent data for the Central District, through June 6, shows that 2,048 cars were looted so far this year, compared with 858 through the same period of 2020 — an increase of nearly 139 percent. Park District, home to part of Golden Gate Park, saw about a 3% increase. Every other district is still below its 2020 year-to-date total.
Police have responded by increasing the number of officers, including foot patrols, around the city.
“We have the city reopening, we know people are coming back and we want them to have a good experience,” Officer Adam Lobsinger, a police spokesman, said in the Chronicle report.
The Chronicle interviewed Kinga Sojka, who lives in Florida and came to visit California’s wine county.
Sojka parked her rental car in a garage near Pier 39 and set out on foot to explore Lombard Street, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the waterfront. When she returned she found the rear window smashed and her suitcase and a friend’s backpack, which was carrying the keys to her home, missing.
“It was pretty shocking because I don’t think of high crime in San Francisco, especially in a touristy area,” Sojka said. “It’s also so shocking how they basically dump it out on street in front of million-dollar homes and just leave it there if there’s nothing worth keeping.”
“Police and the Hotel Council advise tourists to leave nothing of value in their cars, even out of sight or for a short period of time, instead storing their luggage at hotels, even before or after their stays,” the Chronicle reported.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com
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