Democrats Happy To Have Boxed In Nunes But May Regret What They Accomplished In The End. Kim Pursues Comey!

Skidaway Island Republican Club

Presents:

True Perspectives 

Tuesday, April 18

Ron Stevens of the Georgia General Assembly

Dean of the Chatham County Delegation and co-sponsor of the initiative for the Legislature to study Consolidation of the City of Savannah and Chatham County

Learn the Pros and Cons of Consolidation

Clarify the Mechanics of Consolidation (can we be gobbled up?)

Plantation Club

Cocktails/Cash bar : 4:30 PM

Presentation 5:00 to 6:00

Sustaining members – Free

Regular members - $5

Non-Members - $10

All Welcome

Be In a position to compare and contrast Consolidation with the Incorporation of Skidaway Island

For reservations:

Contact Jack Sherrill at jack@sherrillandcompany.com

Or call 629-7313

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No sooner had I written about Trump's necessity to respond after he made his comment regarding Assad,  he acted. This should send a meaningful message to Russia, China, N Korea, ISIS and Iran, that Trump may, in fact, not be an Obama.  That is a healthy change of shirts.  Now let's see how Trump responds to future gauntlets thrown down from them.

Most rational people understand weakness invites more problems whereas, strength sends a different message. Feed a bully you increase his appetite. Obama probably understood this but either purposely intended to project weakness or lamentably weakness is truly part of his character and  DNA.

Threats from these renegades remain but perhaps a message unlike Obama's fecklessness will make somewhat of a difference..  Are we prepared to attack N Korea if they undertake more provocations?

Trump has a full plate of rancid food to masticate and no doubt every bite he takes Democrats will be prepared to criticize and attack him as dangerous and unhinged and they will be supported in this by the mass media.

I am wiling to give some credence to the argument that quick reversals on the part of Trump, after seeing tragic pictures of gassing, can leave one wondering whether our foreign policy is based on whims or do we have a concrete one.

Meanwhile, Obama, the president who helped create the mess Trump is left to deal with is beaching it and writing his book and his wife, I understand, received an enormous (50 plus million) fee for writing her future book. And so it goes!
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Gowdy is now the point man. He did not accomplish what he wished in the Benghazi investigation because the mass media were busy protecting Obama, Hillary and Rice and the common man could not be heard but things may have changed.  Stay tuned. (See 1 and 1a below.)
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Kim continues to explore why Comey is reluctant to come clean.

I personally believe it is because he is not. (See 2 below.)
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Back from celebrating with family. 

Daughter in town today for week followed by Grndson, Kevein, and his wife Andy.  Memo will be erratic for next week..
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Dick
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1)

Democrats Get Their Wish As Nunes Steps Aside But Be Careful What You Wish For As A Pit-Bull Steps Up! 

Devin Nunes’ decision came in light of desperate liberals filing false “ethics” allegations against him.  Nunes correctly stated the charges were false, but it was in the best interest of the probe to have someone else take over.

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy will now be one of the top Republicans leading the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russia.

“I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Representative Mike Conaway, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the Committee’s Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter,” Nunes said in a statement Thursday morning. “I will continue to fulfill all my other responsibilities as Committee Chairman, and I am requesting to speak to the Ethics Committee at the earliest possible opportunity in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims.”

1a)

Democrats Sweating Over Trey Gowdy’s Role In Russia Probe ‘The Benghazi Guy!’… And Who Can Blame Them? 

While discussing House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes’ recusal from the Russia probe on MSNBC Thursday, Zerlina Maxwell cast doubt over Trey Gowdy’s ability to conduct the investigation in a “completely transparent,” bipartisan fashion.

Gowdy, along with Mike Conaway and Thomas Rooney, were announced Thursday morning as the three committee members now heading the probe, to which guest Kristin Tate said she was “happy to hear.”

“The Benghazi guy,” Maxwell, who previously served as Hillary Clinton’s director of progressive media, incredulously responded to Tate. “The Benghazi guy is taking over, so that’s not necessarily something that Democrats will appreciate that much.”

“I think it’s important that [Nunes] is stepping aside because we need a bipartisan, completely transparent investigation into what happened because it’s not really a partisan issue,” she continued. “The fact that a foreign government interfered in our election should matter to Republicans and Democrats.”

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2) The Conflicts of J. Edgar Comey

The FBI chief refuses to tell Congress who requested to ‘unmask’ Mike Flynn’s name.

By Kimberley A. Strassel

We interrupt the Russia-scandal program to ask two simple questions of one of the nation’s top law-enforcement officers: What exactly is FBI Director Jim Comey doing about the only crime that has so far been revealed in this Russia probe? And is he too conflicted even to be doing it?

That crime is of course the leaking that toppled Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn. The media and Democrats have done their best to avoid covering this, for the simple reason that some of them were complicit. Yet in the entire speculative drama over Russian interference in American elections, so far this is the only crime that is beyond any doubt.

It’s a serious crime, too. Someone in the U.S. government obtained highly classified information about a conversation between an incoming presidential adviser and a foreign official. Someone then leaked Mr. Flynn’s name and the contents of that conversation to the press, resulting in his resignation. As even Mr. Comey recently confirmed, the leaking of such material is an “extraordinarily unusual event.” It is also a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.

Why? Because such leaks expose American intelligence sources and methods, putting national security at risk. Moreover, leaking the names of private citizens under surveillance (with the express intent to cause harm) is among the grossest violations of civil liberties. It is what police states do.

The Washington Post story about Mr. Flynn’s conversation cited as its sources “nine current and former officials” who “had access to reports from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.” That means at least nine current or former Obama administration officials or bureaucrats should be looking at criminal charges.

Which brings us to Mr. Comey. Leaks are in the FBI’s purview, and this case ought to be a slam dunk. Unlike in some leak investigations, Mr. Comey has a trail of bread loaves to follow. Someone in the U.S. government had to take the first step of “unmasking”—requesting the identity of—Mr. Flynn. There are records of such requests, easily accessible by the FBI.

The process is then straightforward: March the unmasker to the FBI and require that official—under oath—to confess if he or she passed Mr. Flynn’s name to the media. If not, demand to know to whom that person gave the information. Track down the leakers. Ask a grand jury to indict.

But there’s also the obvious fact that the FBI is one of only a few agencies with the power to grant an unmasking request. Mr. Comey may well have been involved in granting the request to unmask Mr. Flynn. It’s possible he has known the name of the unmasker for months.

Yet the incredibly political Mr. Comey came to Capitol Hill and refused even to confirm the existence of a leak investigation (in contrast to his eagerness to confirm a probe into possible Trump ties to Russia). Worse, sources tell me that Mr. Comey is willfully obstructing Congress’s own investigation into the leaks. He has refused requests for documents that would show who unmasked Mr. Flynn. He has refused to provide that name in a closed meeting to the speaker of the House or the leaders of intelligence committees.

This is enormously problematic, since Mr. Comey has glaring conflicts of interest here. After all, it is possible Mr. Comey’s staff are among the leakers. He has an interest in avoiding an agency scandal.

Mr. Comey is, in fact, obstructing oversight of his own agency. It is Congress’s duty to investigate failings in the intelligence system. It is Congress that authorizes surveillance programs in the first place. And one of its main jobs is to assure itself and the public that intelligence and law-enforcement agencies aren’t abusing surveillance, violating citizens’ privacy. Can anyone say J. Edgar Hoover ? Mr. Comey should not have the power to stymie an outside investigation into his own agency’s practices.

The obvious answer here is for Mr. Comey to start being transparent to congressional oversight. You’d think his fellow heads of intelligence agencies would be pressuring him to get straight, given the grave risk he’s posing to their own organizations. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, one the government’s most vital snooping tools, expires at the end of this year. I’m told that—given the appalling leak mess, and the Obama administration’s likely abuse of its spying authority—not a single Republican is yet committed to re-authorization.

If the FBI director won’t open up, maybe it’s time for a Justice Department attorney with the appropriate jurisdiction to start an investigation. Because no matter how much Mr. Comey acts the boy scout, he is not above supervision.

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