Update on Operation Drain the Swamp

It looks like Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) will become the third Republican Congressman to leave office before his term expires.  This number does not include the people who resigned to take positions in the Trump Administration.  Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) resigned in June, expressing disgust with “The Swamp.”  “Pro-life” Congressman Tim Murphy (R-PA) resigned from Congress on Saturday after committing political suicide by asking his mistress to abort their unborn child.  All of the resignations have caused special elections, which Democrats have poured millions of dollars into.  Their efforts backfired as the Democrats failed to pick up any of the four House vacancies where Republicans resigned to take posts in the Trump cabinet; including the seat formerly held by Tom Price, whose district President Trump carried by only one point.  Chaffetz, Tiberi, and Murphy all represent districts that President Trump carried by double-digit margins; which makes Democratic victories very unlikely.

   

 

Chaffetz, who previously served as the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, expressed disgust that the new Department of Justice, led by Jeff Sessions, has not cooperated with the Committee’s ongoing investigations including Fast and Furious and the IRS scandal.  He even told Sharyl Attkisson in regards to Jeff Sessions that “I find him to be worse than what I saw with Loretta Lynch in terms of releasing documents and making things available.”  Since Americans can’t trust the media to hold the Democrats accountable for any wrongdoing that took place on their watch, they must instead rely on Congress instead.  It appears as if many in the Trump Administration lack the appetite to prosecute anyone from the Obama Administration perhaps because of fear that the media will say that only in authoritarian regimes do politicians prosecute their political opponents.       

 

 

So now, both parties hope to recruit candidates for the special elections.  The candidates for Jason Chaffetz’s old House seat have already been chosen; voters in Utah’s 3^rd Congressional District will go to the polls on November 7 at the same time most other state and local elections happening this year will take place.  I have no idea why anyone would want to join a group that has abysmally low approval ratings.  Then again, the job has its perks; such as a six-figure salary at the taxpayer’s expense, exemption from Obamacare and a French work week.  While many people arrive in the beltway with good intentions, they cannot resist the advances of the swamp, which seduces them like the sirens in The Odyssey.  As the Governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio have yet to announce the dates for the special elections that will soon take place in their states, patriots who want to try and fix our broken bureaucracy still have time to sign up.       

 

While people generally think “The Swamp” in Congress consists of geriatric bureaucrats who have served since the Stone Age, the numbers tell a slightly different story.  More than half of all Current Members of the United States House of Representatives have only served since 2011.  That includes more than half of House Republicans, many of whom have sailed into office since the passage of Obamacare by promising to repeal and replace it.  More than half of the House Democrats, supposedly the party of the youth, have served since 2009 or earlier.  The longest-serving member of the House, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), has represented his Detroit-area district for close to 60 years.  Almost everyone outside of the Swamp agrees that term limits might solve some of the gridlock in Washington.     

 

During a recent interview with “Full Measure” host Sharyl Attkisson, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) shined a light on some of the behavior of the Swamp.  According to Congressman Buck, who authored the book Drain the Swamp: How Washington Corruption is Worse than You Think, you have to pay your way to get powerful positions. All members of Congress have to raise dues for their respective Congressional Committees.  Freshmen Republicans have to raise at least $200,000.  No wonder they can’t accomplish anything; they have to spend all of their time raising money.

 

As a relative newcomer to politics, President Trump has attacked members of the Swamp sitting on both sides of the aisle; most recently targeting Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN).  Corker, once a rumored Vice Presidential Pick, has recently become one of President Trump’s most vocal critics in the Republican Party.  He compared The White House to an adult day care center shortly after deciding not to run for re-election to a third term.  Rep. Wilson took the President’s comments in a phone call to a Gold Star widow out of context, making the comments sound insensitive.  When Chief of Staff John Kelly referred to her as an “empty barrel” while defending the President’s remarks, she used the oldest trick in the book of Swamp creatures and called him a racist.  Members of the media swamp piled on the criticism of Kelly, himself a Gold Star father, attacking him for his upbringing in “segregated” Boston.  As Howie Carr pointed out, Kelly attended St. Mary’s Catholic High School with Massachusetts’ Democratic Secretary of State William Galvin.  Yet no one ever calls Galvin a racist.   The same media that relentlessly attacked President Trump for going after Gold Star father Khizr Khan has no problem attacking John Kelly.  Then again, double standards reign supreme in The Swamp.            

 

It looks like after nine months of the Trump Presidency have passed, the swamp may finally have a sense of urgency.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has announced that the Senate will expand its workweek from three days a week to five days a week in order to speed up the confirmation process for President Trump’s cabinet nominees, which the Democrats have done everything in their power to slow down; despite the fact that the full Senate often confirms them with overwhelming majorities.  The Senate passed a budget this week; with all Republicans except Rand Paul voting in favor and all Democrats voting against it.  While the budget is far from ideal, its passage paves the way for Congress to pass tax reform with a simple majority.   The White House has said that it hopes to see tax reform passed into law by Christmas time, giving the American people a well-deserved Christmas present.

 

Meanwhile, the swamp on the other side of the country continues to deal with the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal.  Weinstein now faces allegations of rape from actress Rose McGowan and five other women.  Actress Molly Ringwald, popular for her roles in several of the so-called “brat pack” movies from the 1980s such as “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club”, described her experiences suffering sexual harassment at the hands of several directors and crew members throughout the course of her career in a recent op-ed in the New Yorker, the publication which produced a damning audiotape of Harvey Weinstein’s inappropriate interaction with Italian model Ambra Gutierrez.  While Hollywood likes to talk about the systemic sexism of America, it might want to look in the mirror before it passes judgment on the rest of the country.

 

As of right now, 28 members of the House and only one member of the Senate have announced that they do not plan to seek re-election in next year’s midterm election.  Three of the vacancies come in Democrat-held districts that voted for President Trump, which should make them easy targets for Republicans.  Hopefully all of the fresh faces that will fill these vacancies will share the determination to Drain the Swamp and Make America Great Again.