by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Mitt Romney, a former villain in the private equity industry and a bishop ("stake president") in the Mormon Church, tried and failed to become President of the United States back in 2012 when he faced off against incumbent President Barack Obama - and lost decisively. But now, six years later, the seventy-one -year-old Romney is finally headed to the show.
Romney, a former one-term governor of Massachusetts and who famously owns a beach home with a car elevator in southern California, was easily elected this past Tuesday to fill the Senate seat of Utah's Orin Hatch, a man who has served in the U.S. Senate longer than most of that institution's furniture.
And Romney, the son of a former Republican governor of Michigan, appears to not totally be in the thrall of Donald John Trump, an independent position that many other Republicans in Congress are unable or unwilling to assume.
Yesterday, just as the dust began settling from Tuesday's election, Donald Trump did two things of note. First, he got into a yelling match with two national journalists at a rare Trump press conference and suffered what appeared to be a near-total meltdown - and second, he fired his attorney general, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, and ordered him to vacate his office that day.
(One of the best internet memes of the day said that Trump had finally found a Confederate monument that he did not mind pulling down!)
Well, Trump actually took one other very critical action yesterday. He replaced Sessions - not with his assistant, Rod Rosenstein, the man who got the ball rolling on the Mueller investigation (which Trump constantly refers to as a "witch hunt") - but with the chief of staff to the attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. Attorney from Iowa who has a bit of a shady business past and has previously spoken out against the Mueller investigation.
Some fear that Trump is moving quickly to set up his own Saturday Night Massacre and rid himself of the Mueller probe.
But then here comes Senator-elect Romney, and he is saying "not so fast!"
Yesterday in a statement that undoubtedly sent White House staffers scurrying to find the emperor's anti-acid tablets, Mitt Romney threw this gem into the national discourse:
And by now somebody has probably explained the big words in that statement to Trump, and he is busy banging out some fifth-grade-level tweets to put that uppity Mormon in his place. "Vengeance is mine!" roareth The Donald.
Good luck with the rage and bluster, Donald. Mitt Romney is not your typical Republican sycophant. He is independently wealthy and has enough backbone to withstand a Force-Five Windbag! You can huff and puff all you want, but don't expect an intelligent senator who is at the front end of a six-year term to be easily blown away!
The downfall of Donald John Trump may have started from within his own political party. Wouldn't that be delicious!
Citizen Journalist
Mitt Romney, a former villain in the private equity industry and a bishop ("stake president") in the Mormon Church, tried and failed to become President of the United States back in 2012 when he faced off against incumbent President Barack Obama - and lost decisively. But now, six years later, the seventy-one -year-old Romney is finally headed to the show.
Romney, a former one-term governor of Massachusetts and who famously owns a beach home with a car elevator in southern California, was easily elected this past Tuesday to fill the Senate seat of Utah's Orin Hatch, a man who has served in the U.S. Senate longer than most of that institution's furniture.
And Romney, the son of a former Republican governor of Michigan, appears to not totally be in the thrall of Donald John Trump, an independent position that many other Republicans in Congress are unable or unwilling to assume.
Yesterday, just as the dust began settling from Tuesday's election, Donald Trump did two things of note. First, he got into a yelling match with two national journalists at a rare Trump press conference and suffered what appeared to be a near-total meltdown - and second, he fired his attorney general, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, and ordered him to vacate his office that day.
(One of the best internet memes of the day said that Trump had finally found a Confederate monument that he did not mind pulling down!)
Well, Trump actually took one other very critical action yesterday. He replaced Sessions - not with his assistant, Rod Rosenstein, the man who got the ball rolling on the Mueller investigation (which Trump constantly refers to as a "witch hunt") - but with the chief of staff to the attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, a former U.S. Attorney from Iowa who has a bit of a shady business past and has previously spoken out against the Mueller investigation.
Some fear that Trump is moving quickly to set up his own Saturday Night Massacre and rid himself of the Mueller probe.
But then here comes Senator-elect Romney, and he is saying "not so fast!"
Yesterday in a statement that undoubtedly sent White House staffers scurrying to find the emperor's anti-acid tablets, Mitt Romney threw this gem into the national discourse:
"It is imperative that the important work of the Justice Department continues, and that the Mueller investigation proceeds to its conclusion unimpeded."
And by now somebody has probably explained the big words in that statement to Trump, and he is busy banging out some fifth-grade-level tweets to put that uppity Mormon in his place. "Vengeance is mine!" roareth The Donald.
Good luck with the rage and bluster, Donald. Mitt Romney is not your typical Republican sycophant. He is independently wealthy and has enough backbone to withstand a Force-Five Windbag! You can huff and puff all you want, but don't expect an intelligent senator who is at the front end of a six-year term to be easily blown away!
The downfall of Donald John Trump may have started from within his own political party. Wouldn't that be delicious!
1 comment:
Trump lacks the legal authority to impose a puppet as “Acting Attorney General” to be the head of the Justice Department. The Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, allows a President to appoint high level officers only with the advice and consent of the Senate. The schmuck has the votes in the Senate but lacks the synapses in his grey matter to legally execute his plan.
In Raymond James Lucia v. SEC, U.S. Supreme Court Docket No. 17–130( Argued April 23, 2018—Decided June 21, 2018), the Appointments Clause was given its most recent judicial interpretation. Kagan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C. J., and Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Gorsuch, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which Ginsburg and Sotomayor, JJ., joined as to Part III. Sotomayor, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Ginsburg, J., joined.
Justice Thomas wrote, in pertinent part:
"The Appointments Clause provides the exclusive process for appointing “Officers of the United States.” See SW General, supra, at ___ (opinion of Thomas, J.) (slip op.,at 1). While principal officers must be nominated by thePresident and confirmed by the Senate, Congress can authorize the appointment of “inferior Officers” by “the President alone,” “the Courts of Law,” or “the Heads of Departments.” Art. II, §2, cl. 2.
"This alternative process for appointing inferior officers strikes a balance between efficiency and accountability. Given the sheer number of inferior officers, it would be too burdensome to require each of them to run the gauntlet of Senate confirmation. See United States v. Germaine, 99 U. S. 508, 509–510 (1879); 2 Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, pp. 627–628 (M. Farrand ed. 1911). But, by specifying only a limited number of actors who can appoint inferior officers without Senate confirmation, the Appointments Clause maintains clear lines of accountability—encouraging good appointments and giving the public someone to blame for bad ones. See The Federalist No. 76, p. 455 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) (A. Hamilton); Wilson, Lectures on Law: Government, in 1 The Works of James Wilson 343, 359–361 (J. Andrews ed., 1896)."
The office of Attorney General is not an inferior office. There is zero statutory authority for the President to appoint an "Acting" Attorney General.
Under this ruling it is clear that Trump’s ersatz “Acting Attorney General” is merely usurping the powers of the office of Attorney General. Any United States Senator has standing to challenge Trump’s marionette. Expect legal action to be taken sooner rather than later.
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