House Democrats, led by James Clyburn, seized the floor in a sit-down in violation of the rules to demand votes on proposed gun control legislation that is clearly unconstitutional. Similar legislation has already gone down to defeat in the Senate demonstrating that the latest temper tantrum is merely a stunt for the base. Representative Clyburn used to be known for his courage in fighting for civil rights before he started sitting down to crush them.
Donald Trump gave a speech from one of his buildings in Soho, New York yesterday in which, reading from a teleprompter, he called Hillary Clinton a “world class liar”. The fact that he used a teleprompter to deliver the speech is taken by some to mean that he is “Presidential”, and by others as evidence that he can read after all.
Meanwhile Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano, who was responsible for setting up and maintaining Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail server, took the 5th amendment 125 times yesterday during a court-ordered deposition conducted by Judicial Watch.
The drums are beating more loudly calling on Republican delegates to revolt at the Cleveland Convention, less than a month away.
Mike Murphy describes the political malpractice that is the Trump campaign and suggests it is symptomatic of Trump’s managerial incompetence in general. He then goes on to point out that Republican convention delegates have the power under the rules to jettison Trump and select another nominee.
George Will, asking donors to snap their wallets shut, quotes Martha Bayles in the Claremont Review of Books. “There’s an old adage about a vat of wine standing next to a vat of sewage. Add a cup of wine to the sewage, and it is still sewage. But add a cup of sewage to the wine, and it is no longer wine but sewage. Is this what Donald Trump has done to our politics?”
Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, writes that a delegate revolt has become the Republicans’ only option.
JFB
