Commenting on three subjects when each deserves pages and pages of analysis is chutzpah. But here goes. The issues addressed today are the government shutdown; Attorney General nominee William Barr’s finding one hundred ways to say “maybe” about his release of a report (if any) by Robert Mueller; and the challenges faced by women seeking the presidency in 2020.
Nobody cares about the shutdown.
Well, not “nobody.” Obviously the affected employees and their families care; and those needing unavailable government action certainly care.
But when you see entrenched adversaries hiding behind “principle” to close the government and no concerted citizen effort to force compromise between the warrior opponents, that reflects an aloof population. No marches. No “hell no.”
Opposition to the fighters is coming from journalists and opinion bloviators. Typical of these is the Peggy Noonan piece last week in the Wall Street Journal.
In high knock-it-off mode, with a touch of her renowned baby talk, Ms. Noonan’s column was titled “End This Stupid Shutdown.” You didn’t have to read beyond the headline to get the point. She called Trump, Leader Charles E. Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi “unserious,” a word that I suggest did not appear in any of the Ronald Reagan speeches Noonan wrote. Not a ripple did Noonan make, nor, in fairness, did any others of the journalist or opinion tribes.
The most informed, enlightened and serious analysis of border security by a legislator comes from Rep. Will Hurd (R. Texas), the only Republican border Congressman. It does not support a physical barrier. It endorses “fiber optic cables, sensors, radar, drones, increased staffing…” according to the New York Times. Even though he is right, Mr. Hurd is making no ripples either.
William Barr, our next Attorney General, won’t say if he will make any Mueller report public but he hopes to.
At his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, Barr took us to the Land Of Maybe when he said he was unprepared to definitively state that any Mueller report would become public. He said that any such report will go to the Attorney General. Thereafter, there will be an Attorney General’s report to the Congress that may or may not be the same as, similar to or dissimilar from a Mueller report and that may or not be made available to the public.
All this lawyerese arises from the excess of the Starr investigation of President Clinton and Starr’s public report detailing the date, time and specific sexual activity of Clinton and Monica Lewinsky (thanks, now-Justice Brett Kavanagh, then a Starr staffer and proponent of publicizing every sexual detail).
This Kavanagh- supervised Starr report and its unnecessary detail was so revolting that it caused Congress to let the independent counsel law expire and to place future special counsel within the Justice Department under regulations designed to reign in excess. The heart of the new regulations places special counsel under the supervision of the Attorney General.
So Barr, when confirmed, will decide what the rest of us get to know. That doesn’t work for me. No matter how much goody-goody Barr displays, he is appointed by Trump and may not be able to resist Trump’s use of invective, accusation and lies that may be directed at Barr. (Why is he taking this job? He doesn’t look or sound like a jerk.)
Women run for President.
Qualified women who are hoping to run in Democratic presidential primaries in 2020 face a wall of misogyny. This is reflected in weak popularity ratings in the polls that place women well below men even when they are equally qualified. Although several countries now have or have had women as their chief executives, ours has not.
The anomaly here is that the 2018 midterms properly saw the election to Congress of the largest number of women in history. Is the reason for the gulf between accepting women as legislators but not as President found in the notion that a woman can legislate but not be an executive?
As much as women have advanced in every sector of society, something about their gender makes them less acceptable when they seek to be the nation’s (as opposed to corporate) boss, even among women.
This is not to prejudge the outcome of the 2020 primaries where a woman may well succeed.
But the question of gender differences in this sphere needs a lot of study and debate and must not be swept under the carpet. And attitudes must change.
The leading political woman in our nation is second-in-line Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has guts, experience and strategic smarts even though she suffers a dearth of popularity just as other political women do.
As part of the shutdown drama, Ms. Pelosi suggested earlier this week that shutdown factors made a State of the Union address by the President inappropriate. He can do it at a later date, she told him.
Trump responded with his own drama by nixing her use of military aircraft for her (until now undisclosed for security reasons) upcoming trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan.
What move will she come up with to counter Trump’s counter?