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January 2020

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AOC Takes Aim at Party Leadership for Indulging Moderates: ‘Democrats Can Be Too Big of a Tent’ By Tobias Hoonhout

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/aoc-takes-aim-at-party-leadership-for-tolerating-moderates-democrats-can-be-too-big-of-a-tent/

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) criticized the Democratic party for its tolerance of relative moderates, saying her own party has become “too big of a tent” in an interview published Monday.

“For so long, when I first got in, people were like, ‘Oh, are you going to basically be a tea party of the left?’ And what people don’t realize is that there is a tea party of the left, but it’s on the right edges, the most conservative parts of the Democratic Party,” Ocasio-Cortez told New York Magazine. “So the Democratic Party has a role to play in this problem, and it’s like we’re not allowed to talk about it.”

The freshman lawmaker also lashed out at party leadership for their intolerance of internal criticism, saying “we’re not allowed to talk about anything wrong the Democratic Party does.”

Ocasio-Cortez pointed to the reaction elicited by her 2018 election as proof that Democrats cater too often to conservative interests, and that the party’s progressive shift was helping Democrats learn “to stretch our wings a little bit on the left.”

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NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Hawley Introduces Resolution to Dismiss Impeachment Charges against Trump By Tobias Hoonhout

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/hawley-introduces-resolution-to-dismiss-impeachment-charges-against-trump/

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) on Monday introduced a resolution to update Senate rules and dismiss the “bogus impeachment” against President Trump if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to delay in sending impeachment articles to the Senate for a trial.

“Speaker Pelosi started this bogus impeachment by claiming President Trump was an urgent ‘threat to democracy’ who had to be removed now,” Hawley said in a press release. “But after a bipartisan vote against the articles in the House, and with the public opposed to the Democrats’ partisan games, Pelosi has changed her tune.”

“ . . . If Speaker Pelosi is afraid to try her case, the articles should be dismissed for failure to prosecute and Congress should get back to doing the people’s business,” he added.

Hawley, who last month called the impeachment process a “kangaroo court” and said “it’s time to get the president exonerated,” was joined by ten other Republican senators in sponsoring the resolution, which allows the Senate to vote on dismissing articles of impeachment if they are delayed for 25 days or more by the House.

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FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Soleimani Strike: The President Has the Constitution and Precedent on His Side By John Yoo

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/01/qasem-soleimani-strike-president-trump-has-constitution-precedent-on-his-side/

It’s legal to kill an enemy in combat, and Soleimani was clearly escalating his attacks on U.S. forces.

In ordering a strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, President Donald Trump re-opened questions about targeting those abroad who would harm Americans. “No one should shed a tear,” in Senator Chuck Schumer’s words, over the death of the Qods Force leader, who was responsible for the killing of hundreds of American soldiers in Iraq. Nevertheless, critics worry that the killing of Soleimani, one of the military leaders closest to Iran’s religious leaders, could spark an escalatory spiral of attacks and lead to a broader war in the Middle East.

Putting aside the policy of the attacks, Trump critics have raised doubts about the legality of the strike. Shortly after news broke on Thursday night of the attack, Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), while conceding that Soleimani was “an enemy of the United States,” tweeted: “The question is this — as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?”

Killing Soleimani without “involving Congress raises serious legal problems and is an affront to Congress’s powers as a coequal branch of government,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D., N.Y.). “The law requires notification so the President can’t plunge the United States into ill-considered wars.”

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POLITICS Comments turned off

Buttigieg’s War and ‘The Shortest Way Home’ Arriving in Afghanistan, he thought of John Kerry. It’s a telling comparison, and an unflattering one.Greg Kelly and  Katie Horgan 

By on January 7th, 2020

https://www.wsj.com/articles/buttigiegs-war-and-the-shortest-way-home-11578355312

“Seriously? This failed small town mayor who trades off of essentially non-existent military experience has people who want him to be President?” D.P.S.

When Mayor Pete Buttigieg talks about his military service, his opponents fall silent, the media fall in love, and his political prospects soar. Veterans roll their eyes.

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Mr. Buttigieg Sunday if President Trump “deserves some credit” for the strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. “No,” the candidate replied, “not until we know whether this was a good decision and how this decision was made.” He questioned whether “it was the right strategic move” and said his own judgment “is informed by the experience of having been on one of those planes headed into a war zone.”

But Mr. Buttigieg’s stint in the Navy isn’t as impressive as he makes it out to be. His 2019 memoir is called “Shortest Way Home,” an apt description of his military service. He entered the military through a little-used shortcut: direct commission in the reserves. The usual route to an officer’s commission includes four years at Annapolis or another military academy or months of intense training at Officer Candidate School. ROTC programs send prospective officers to far-flung summer training programs and require military drills during the academic year. Mr. Buttigieg skipped all that—no obstacle courses, no weapons training, no evaluation of his ability or willingness to lead. Paperwork, a health exam and a background check were all it took to make him a naval officer.

He writes that his reserve service “will always be one of the highlights of my life, but the price of admission was an ongoing flow of administrativia.” That’s not how it’s supposed to work. The paperwork isn’t the price of admission but the start of a long, grueling test.

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