Tag: 2020 Election
Swagger is not pride, humility, or professionalism
Secretary of State Pompeo tweeted yesterday:
The real definition is:
walk or behave in a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive way.
Oxford Languages
This pretty much sums up what is wrong with Pompeo: he lies incessantly, even about the well-established definition of words, and doesn’t know the difference between pride and humility, or for that matter anything about professionalism. Pompeo is well on his way to convincing most knowledgeable observers that he is the worst Secretary of State in history. He has had a lot of competition for the honor, including his egregious predecessor Rex Tillerson. I had my say on that yesterday.
In normal times, Pompeo’s comment would hardly be worth the electrons they are written with. But today eleven members of the Senate–seven sitting and four newly elected–have announced that they will challenge confirmation of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. That is swagger. It will cause a pointless debate that will end in confirmation of Joe Biden’s election and likely violence by President Trump’s supporters on the streets of Washington. He will of course blame disorder on the non-existent Antifa and may even call out his various Federal police forces to make as much a mess of things as possible.
The four newly elected members are objecting to the validity of elections in which they themselves were elected. Consistency would require that they not claim their seats and ask for a rerun of the elections in their own states. None of them have the dignity to do that. One of their colleagues in the House even filed a law suit asking that the Vice President, who will preside on Wednesday, be authorized to override the Electoral College. A Trump-appointed Federal judge tossed out the law suit within a few hours. Of course these miscreants are only asking for the election results to be overturned in states that Biden and Harris won.
The rebels in Congress know they aren’t going to win. What they want is credit with Trump and “his” base for their hard stand against the Democrats. This is the new Republican party, committed to lying to its constituency, keeping its followers as uninformed as possible, and preventing its opponents from voting and their votes from being counted. And its all wrapped up in white supremacist swagger. The two Republican candidates for Senate in Georgia, where a run-off election Tuesday will decide the new Senate’s majority, are exemplars of this ilk.
Of course there are Republicans who aren’t down with this. Senator Romney has distinguished himself in this respect, but he is pretty much a loner in speaking out forcefully and recognizing Biden as President-elect. It is high time for more Republicans to do so, risking a split in their party. There is no sign that they can win a leadership struggle with Trump, but they could at least lay the basis for their party’s eventual revival as a truly conservative political entity. If they don’t speak up, Trumpism will their fate. It is high time for a bit of humility, professionalism, and pride. Swagger isn’t it.
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Stevenson’s army, January 1
May your new year be happy.
WaPo notes that OMBs rescission requests will freeze foreign aid accounts for 45 days. Dana Milbank goes further in blasting the OMB director’s record.
Get ready for more of this: WSJ notes how SecState nominee Blinken made money in the private sector. WSJ says Treasury nominee Yellen also got rich.
WaPo says China and Germany are teaming up to dominate technical standards.
Cook Political Report has a list of 36 interesting facts about the elections.
And War on the Rocks lists its most-viewed articles in 2020.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, December 30
FP lists 10 conflicts to watch in 2021
NYT says Pompeo considers putting Cuba back on the terrorist list.
WSJ says military families may tip balance in Georgia Senate races. Here’s research on electoral shifts in various types of communities.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Genuine remorse would help, but is not in sight
Caveat emptor: I am not a lawyer.
President Trump is spending quality time in his last days in office considering pardons. He has already pardoned more than two dozen people, including war criminals, an abusive sheriff, a leaker of classified information, several political cronies, an extortionist, his own first National Security Adviser, and a few worthies to deflect criticism: suffragist Susan B. Anthony and pugilist Jack Johnson among them. Trump has also commuted 16 sentences, most notably that of his mendacious cheer leader Roger Stone for his efforts to coverup for the President in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The difference between a pardon and commutation is important. A pardon implies guilt that is wiped away. Someone pardoned cannot refuse to testify based on an allegation of self-incrimination (“plead the 5th” in American parlance). Commutation annuls a sentence, not the guilt, so Roger Stone will still be able to plead the 5th in connection with his actions during the Russia investigation. That’s clearly what Trump wanted.
We know a pardon can be non-specific to a particular crime and that a president can be pardoned, because both were done by Gerald Ford in his pardon of President Nixon. What we don’t know is whether a president can pardon himself. While the pardon power is not limited in the Constitution, a self-pardon would amount to an official act undertaken for private gain. In my book that is corruption, but who knows what a court would decide.
Even the fact that Trump is considering pardoning himself, as well as his friends and family members, is unprecedented and revealing. It implies he knows perfectly well that he has committed crimes, both before taking office and during his presidency. Certainly there is an ample docket of potential accusations. President-elect Biden has made it clear he is not interested in pursuing prosecution, but he also intends to delegate such decisions to the Justice Department and US Attorneys. It would be astounding if no one at Justice or among the US Attorneys had the evidence needed to convict and Trump knows it.
Even if he pardons himself, Trump could still face charges in state courts, especially New York’s. There the main issues are likely to be financial. Trump notoriously adjusted the valuations of his properties to suit his personal interests, not the legal requirements. Again it would be astonishing if no prosecutor in New York State had the goods on him.
The wisdom of pursuing prosecution of a former president is another issue. It is understandable that Biden won’t want to spend his presidency answering questions about Trump’s malfeasances and legal troubles. But at the same time there is a need for accountability. If no one is above the law, Trump should not be above the law. A conviction or two might go a long way to reducing him to political irrelevancy, which in my view would serve the interests of the country at this juncture.
But more than prosecution and conviction, what is needed is for Republicans to acknowledge that Trump took them and their party in a direction they should not have gone. His racist populism, fiscal profligacy, affection for autocrats, disdain for allies, and bad judgment in failing to respond to Covid-19 are the real issues. Much as I would like to see him pay his fair share of taxes, only his political party and voters can do what is really needed: return to a political discourse based on respect, facts, and the compromises required to serve American citizens well.
The question then comes down to this: what will convince the leadership of the Republican party and Trump’s base to abandon him? Do they need to see him humiliated in court? Or will they reconsider their direction based on the election results? The latter certainly hasn’t happened yet. The strong showing in the House elections makes it unlikely. I can hope the Senate runoff in Georgia January 5 will be the right occasion for an electoral defeat that leads to a re-examination, but there is no sign of it in the way the Republican candidates are running there.
Remorse is what is needed. It is nowhere to be seen.
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Stevenson’s army, December 18
I have long been concerned that the US, especially the military, have given priority to cyber offense rather than defense in spending, planning, and thinking. Now we have the massive Russian hack of the US government which looks to me like espionage rather than “war.” [Maybe we need some secret understandings on this. In the analog era, it was OK for countries to steal and bribe to get secrets, but not to kill. And while cyber espionage can give an adversary potential advantages in combat, retaliation should not be deadly.] But the political rhetoric is close to “act of war,” when we should take it as a wake up call to be better at defense and resilience.
NDAA imperiled. It looks as if Trump will wait until Dec 23 to veto the NDAA, forcing Congress to reconvene before noon on Jan. 3 for override votes. House votes first. If it fails, the 59 year record of NDAAs will fall. RollCall has more details.
The administration released a “tri-maritime strategy” paper but can’t explain it.
Interagency fight over order blocking US investments in Chinese firms with military links.
Just over 155 million people voted for the presidential candidates in November. If just 32,000 of them had voted for GOP congressional candidates, the Republicans would have won control of the House.
WaPo has a Biden appointment tracker.
Climate change boosts Russian agriculture.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, December 12
– Lawfare study finds Congress doesn’t know what it needs to about executive agreements.
– Also on Lawfare, an explanation and critique of new executive order on civil service.
– Former intelligence official has new suggestions for whole of government policymaking.
– Cong. Nunes is blocking intelligence authorization bill.
Atlantic writer notes election problems in red states’ equipment.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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