Senator Cornyn Rightly Calls Out “Unhinged” Cory Booker over Judge Kavanaugh

Cory Booker called Facebook racist and in an unprecedented and repugnant moment in Senate history testified against then-colleague Senator Sessions when he was nominated to become Attorney General. Senator Booker has now taken his outlandish attacks one step further (emphasis added).

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said Tuesday that senators who don’t oppose President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are “complicit in the evil.”

Booker, speaking at a press conference with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and religious and moral leaders, said that Kavanaugh’s nomination “has nothing to do with politics” but with “who we are as moral beings.”

“I’m here to call on folks to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders,” he said. “You are either complicit in the evil, you are either contributing to the wrong, or you are fighting against it.”

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn has rightly called out Senator Booker for this (emphasis added):

Cornyn said remarks like Booker's were "unhinged" and "detached from any reality" during a Senate floor speech.

"My advice to some of our friends across the aisle who are engaged in this kind of superheated rhetoric, my advice is get a grip," he said. "Get a grip."

. . ."What in the world? [Booker] needs to get a grip," he said. "Everybody’s trying to outdo everybody else."

At this point no one should pay any attention to Senator Booker, who is ignoring his duties as a Senator to shrilly yell for the support of the far, far left in a desperate bid to be relevant in the 2020 Democrat Presidential primary.

Reactions to Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity: Part 1

This post is the first in a series, highlighting the left's odd reactions to President Trump's announcement yesterday, as part of the broader and pervasive effort to resist Trump.  Today, we focus on prominent Democrat elected officials.

Here is what the commission, the recommendations of which will have no binding authority, has been charged with studying:

The Commission shall, consistent with applicable law, study the registration and voting processes used in Federal elections.  The Commission shall be solely advisory and shall submit a report to the President that identifies the following: 

(a)  those laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that enhance the American people's confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections; 

(b)  those laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that undermine the American people's confidence in the integrity of the voting processes used in Federal elections; and 

(c)  those vulnerabilities in voting systems and practices used for Federal elections that could lead to improper voter registrations and improper voting, including fraudulent voter registrations and fraudulent voting. 

But apparently, studying what increases and decreases public confidence in election results and where there are vulnerabilities in the system is deeply offensive to Democrats, who see any effort to improve the integrity of election results as "voter suppression":

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes: While cloaked as an effort to protect the integrity of our elections, President Trump's voter fraud commission will be anything but. The cloak hiding its real mission is thin; indeed, it will no doubt serve as a tool to further real and serious Republican attacks on American voting rights and leave eligible voters disenfranchised.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy: This misbegotten Commission sadly is yet another malicious effort to undermine the voting rights of millions of Americans across the country.  The integrity of our elections is a foundational issue, but any commission led by an extremist like Kris Kobach – a ‘birther’ whose attempts to restrict voting rights have repeatedly been struck down in federal court – has zero credibility.  

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren: Today [Trump] signed an order launching a "Vote Fraud Commission," but it really should be called a "Vote Intimidation Commission." [Trump] picked Kris Kobach – architect of some of the most racist & anti-voter state laws – to lead this new conspiracy crusade. The GOP spent [years] gutting voting rights & suppressing black & Latino votes. We can’t allow [Trump] to turn the clocks back more. 

Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi: The President’s ‘Election Integrity’ Commission is purpose-built to encourage and enable voter suppression. . . . The President’s ‘Election Integrity’ Commission is clearly intended to accelerate the vile voter suppression efforts in states across the nation.The integrity of our elections has been undermined because of the disenfranchisement of American citizens, not the bigoted delusions of widespread voter fraud.  If President Trump cannot believe that the majority of Americans voted against him, he should review his own conduct instead of trying to steal the vote from millions of citizens.

According to Democrats, the only threats to the integrity of our elections we should be concerned about are Republicans, Russian hacking (though we should be more concerned about Obama administration hacking), and Republican efforts to protect the integrity of our elections.  I wish that were sarcasm, but according to Democrats' statements yesterday, that is what they actually believe.  Unfortunately for Democrats, the evidence of vote fraud and its effect on elections, and public confidence in election results, already exists, and the commission will likely uncover more.

Loss of Senate Decorum is Hurting America: Well-Qualified Candidates Opt-Out Instead

Late Wednesday night, Florida Senator Marco Rubio took to the Senate floor to deliver an impassioned speech about the need for civility and decorum to return to the Senate. Senator Rubio comments come on the heels of recent controversy stirred by Senator Elizabeth Warren when she imputed the reputation of fellow Senator Jeff Sessions on the Senate Floor just before his confirmation as Attorney General. 

Senator Rubio delivered a long overdue condemnation to his colleagues in the Senate regarding the recent state of politics in the Senate and behavior by Democrats:

One of the great traditions of our nation is the ability to come forward and have debates, but the founders and framers and those who established this institution and guided it for over two centuries understood that that debate was impossible if in fact the matter became of a personal nature. 

I want people to think about our politics here in America. I'm telling you guys I don't know a single nation in the history of the world that's been able to solve its problems, when half the people in the country absolutely hate the other half of the people in that country. This is the most important country in the world, and this body cannot function if people are offending one another, and that's why those rules are in place.

[T]urn on the news and watch these parliaments around the world where people throw chairs at each other and punches and ask yourself how does that make you feel about those countries? It doesn't give you a lot of confidence about those countries. I'm not arguing that we're anywhere near that here tonight, but we're flirting with it. We're flirting with it in this body and we are flirting with it in this country. We have become a society incapable of having debates anymore. In this country, if you watch the big policy debates that are going on in America, no one ever stops to say I think you're wrong, I understand your point of view, I get it. You have some valid points, but let me tell you why I think my view is better. I don't hear that anymore.

Senator Rubio highlighted that Republican Senators have long refrained from such unbecoming behavior out of respect for the institution and decorum of the Senate. He noted two recent, prominent examples of the confirmations of Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry:

Some very nasty things have been written and said about Secretary Clinton, and I think the Senate should be very proud that during her nomination to be secretary of state, despite the fact that I imagine many people were not excited about the fact that she would be secretary of state, to my recollection and perhaps I'm incorrect, not a single one of those horrible things that have been written or said about here, some of which actually did accuse her of wrongdoing were ever uttered on the floor of the Senate. 

Senator Rubio concluded with a warning of sorts and urged the Senate to return to the proper decorum owed to the institution and the nation:

The fundamental reality...is that this body cannot carry out its work if it is not able to conduct debates in a way that is respectful of one another, especially those of us who are in this chamber together…if this body loses the ability to have those sorts of debate, then where in this country is that going to happen? What other forum in this nation is that going to be possible? And so I would just hope everybody would stop and think about that…If this body isn't capable of having those debates, there will be no place in this country where those debates with occur. And I think every single one of us, to our great shame, will live to regret it.

Unfortunately, Senator Rubio's foreshadowing was all too right. Yesterday, Mr. Charles Cooper, a well-known and an extremely well-qualified Supreme Court litigator, withdrew his name from consideration to be Solicitor General of the United States. Mr. Cooper cited the current nature of Senate and the circus games the Senate Democrats are playing.

After witnessing the treatment that my friend Jeff Sessions, a decent and honorable man who bears only good will and good cheer to everyone he meets, had to endure at the hands of a partisan opposition that will say anything and do anything to advance their political interests, I am unwilling to subject myself, my family, and my friends to such a process.

The result: America is left caught in the middle. Senators Schumer and Warren and the rest of the Democrats are hurting America by not allowing a real, fair debate of President Trump's nominees. Rather, they just want to unnecessarily slow down the gears of government in an unprecedented way.