The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
An unfond farewell to un-statesman Orrin Hatch
by MICHELLE MALKIN
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Trump plan would allow drilling
in almost all U.S. waters
by Josh Siegel
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ The Trump administration proposed Thursday opening up almost all U.S. federal waters for oil and natural gas drilling... offering a record number of offshore lease sales. The draft proposal would allow offshore drilling for crude oil and natural gas on the Atlantic Coast and in the Arctic, reversing the liar-nObama’s administration’s block in those areas. It also permits drilling along the Pacific Coast as well as more possibilities in the Gulf of Mexico. “We are embarking on a new path committed to energy dominance in America,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters Thursday. “This is a clear difference between energy weakness and energy dominance. We are going to become the strongest energy superpower.”... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-plan-would-allow-drilling-in-almost-all-us-waters/article/2644975?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert%20-%2001/04/18&utm_medium=email.
Iran is propping up Hamas’ terror
capabilities – they must be stopped
by Kanisorn Pringthongfoo
{conservativeinstitute.org} ~ A top Israeli official warned on Monday that Iran is boosting Hamas’s terror campaign in the Gaza Strip... Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the rogue regime, which is facing its biggest challenge from protesters since 2009, is directly involved in supporting terror threats from Hamas. Hezbollah, which is also backed by Iran, poses a further threat. Israel must consider the threats and work to “change the situation,” with cooperation from the U.S, Saudi Arabia, and other Sunni states if possible, he said. “In recent days, while we face the known threat from Gaza, there is a direct Iranian intervention. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are involved in operative preparations to upgrade the threat to Israel from the direction of Gaza,” Katz stated... https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/foreign-policy/iran/iran-propping-up-hamas.htm?bt_alias=eyJ1c2VySWQiOiAiYzM2M2U0NGMtNjcxZS00YzJlLWJkYjktYzRiZjI3OGZmOGFkIn0%3D&utm_source=boomtrain&utm_medium=automated&utm_campaign=dynamic_campaign.
Reps. Meadows, Jordan: It's
Time for a New Attorney General
by Susan Jone
{cnsnews.com} ~ Two members of the House Freedom Caucus say it's time for Jeff Sessions to leave his job as attorney general... In an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner on Thursday, Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted that the "manufactured hysteria" over Russian collusion has "masked the substantial accomplishments of President Trump's administration." Among other things, they complain about the FBI refusing to answer critical questions that Congress repeatedly has asked regarding the Trump-Russia investigation; and they also condemn the many apparent FBI leaks to reporters, most recently the New York Times... https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/reps-meadows-jordan-its-time-new-attorney-general?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1dOaVltTTVaRFUxT1RjNSIsInQiOiJzdzkzYWowcWxhVExYQTRuRTVsMzVFNzN6cXNMSjRJMGNMUEtjNm5EbURIZGh0bHB4ZzloVFd3V0JcL29DQ1JTUUplbmJDUTNcL0xiNmdGcTFYWWNGRlwvNkVndUFHcVl4Y1luSllBbHFIWmpcL2g4OTFNbmhXZWdGdDF2NUVyT0ptWjcifQ%3D%3D.
Cory Gardner vows to hold Trump's judicial
nominees until marijuana decision is reversed
by Pete Kasperowicz
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ Republican Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado said Thursday he would block all of President Trump's judicial nominees... until the administration reverses its decision to rescind a policy that de-prioritized the enforcement of federal marijuana laws. Gardner, whose home state legalized the use and possession of marijuana in the wake of that federal policy, said on the Senate floor he was not happy with the surprise decision, especially after both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and candidate Donald Trump said they would not interfere with states on this issue. "And that's why I will be putting today a hold on every single nomination from the Department of Justice until Attorney General Jeff Sessions lives up to the commitment that he made to me in my pre-confirmation meeting with him," Gardner said... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cory-gardner-vows-to-hold-trumps-judicial-nominees-until-marijuana-decision-is-reversed/article/2644989?utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert&utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20News%20Alert%20-%2001/04/18&utm_medium=email.
Trump Cuts Refugee Resettlement by 70%
{totalconservative.com} ~ According to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies, President Trump’s administration has put a significant crater in the number of refugees allowed into the United States... Taking over for President liar-nObama, whose refugee policy could best be described as “the more, the merrier,” Trump managed to slice our admissions by nearly 70% in his first year in the White House. Researcher Nayla Rush of CIS released the study, which compares refugee admissions from January to December 2017 with the same period of time in 2016, when liar-nObama was calling the shots. The difference is like night and day. Rush found that Trump admitted only 28.875 refugees into the country during the first eleven months of his presidency, quite the downturn compared to the 93,668 that came into the country under liar-nObama’s watch the year before. Furthermore, Trump has placed a refugee cap of 45,000 for the 2018 fiscal year, which brings it to its lowest point in nearly 40 years. Of course, if the administration continues to exercise the kind of restraint we’ve seen thus far, that cap will remain entirely theoretical. And when you look at what refugees have done to the state of affairs in Europe, it’s hard to see that as anything but excellent news for the U.S... http://totalconservative.com/slashed-trump-cuts-refugee-resettlement-70/
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An unfond farewell to un-statesman Orrin Hatch
by MICHELLE MALKIN
{wnd.com} ~ The longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history announced this week that he will finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally retire.
That’s seven “finallys” – one for each of the consecutive six-year terms Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, served. He begin his occupancy in 1976, when all phones were dumb, the 5.25-inch floppy disk was cutting-edge, the very first Apple computer went on sale for $666.66, the Concorde was flying high, O.J. Simpson was a hero, Blake Shelton was a newborn, the first MRI was still a blueprint, and I was a gap-toothed first-grader wearing corduroy bell-bottoms and crushing on Davy Jones.
This encrusted longevity will be marketed by Hatch, 83, and his supporters as proof of his “statesmanship.” Indeed, The Atlantic magazine described him this week as “an elder-statesman figure in the GOP.” Newsweek likewise reported on the farewell announcement of the “elder statesman.” And Hatch’s own press minions have disseminated press releases quoting other entrenched politicians such as Sen. Chuck clown-Schumer, D-N.Y., hailing their boss’s “reputation as a statesman.”
But that word doesn’t mean what Beltway barnacles think it means.
Merriam-Webster defines a “statesman” as a “wise, skillful, and respected political leader.” Earning the approbation of other office-clinging politicians doesn’t make you a “respected political leader.” It makes you an echo-chamber chump.
Wise? Skillful? Hatch was a Big Government business-as-usual dealmaker. His wisdom was of the wet-finger-in-the-wind variety, claiming a Reagan conservative mantle during election cycles and then throwing constitutional conservatives under the bus once comfortably back in his well-worn Senate committee seats.
Hatch joined with his old pal Teddy Kennedy to create the $6 billion national service boondoggle and the $8 billion-a-year CHIP health insurance entitlement.
He preached about the “rule of law,” but was an original sponsor of the open-borders DREAM Act illegal alien student bailout, and, despite claiming to oppose it, he voted to fully fund the unconstitutional liar-nObama amnesty during the lame-duck session.
He crusaded for “fiscal conservatism,” yet voted for massive Wall Street bailouts, 16 debt ceiling increases totaling $7.5 trillion, and scores of earmarks totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for porky projects. He ends his four-decade reign as the Senate’s top recipient of lobbyist cash.
And for the past two years, Team Hatch allies have spearheaded a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign, squeezing donations from corporate donors and pharma and tech lobbyists to subsidize a “Hatch Foundation” and “Hatch Center” to commemorate the Hatch legacy.
“Statesman” isn’t a titled earned by mere length of service. It’s not a cheap status conferred like an AARP card or IHOP senior discount. A politician who notches decades of frequent flyer miles back and forth between Washington and his “home” state, enjoying the endless perks of incumbency, does not acquire statesmanship by perpetual re-election and political self-aggrandizement.
The idea of amassing $4 million to $6 million campaign war chests, as Hatch did the past two election cycles, is antithetical to the ideal of statesmanship. In the days of Cincinnatus and George Washington, self-sacrifice and civic virtue marked true statesmen. Affability, which Hatch is credited with possessing by his backroom Democratic chums, was no substitute for the humility exhibited by statesmen who volunteered to relinquish power at the very height of it – not in its waning twilight.
So: Call Hatch a clock-puncher. Time-bider. Log-roller. Deal-cutter. Back-slapper. Call him most anything else now that he’s finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally called it a day.
Just please don’t call him “statesman.”
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