The Netanyahu Speech: You Should Have Known This Stuff, America

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. . . with Jim Geraghty, Conservative Journalist of the Year

March 04, 2015

Priorities

The federal government removed 438,421 unauthorized immigrants in fiscal 2013.

In fiscal 2012, the IRS audited 1,481,966 people.

The Netanyahu Speech: You Should Have Known This Stuff, America

My only lament about Bibi Netanyahu's speech to Congress is that he's telling us things that readers like you probably already knew -- Iran practicing attacking a U.S. aircraft carrier, Iran's long history of secretly breaking agreements, etc. What he said is shocking to anyone who hasn't been paying attention. My lament isn't with what he said; it's that it required a high-profile speech like this one to get the nation's attention on an issue with such potentially catastrophic consequences as an Iranian nuclear bomb.

My fellow Americans, you should know this stuff.

Meanwhile, here's Nancy Pelosi's official statement responding to the speech:

I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister's speech -- saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations, and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.

Here's a meeting with a foreign leader where Nancy Pelosi wasn't near tears and didn't feel insulted:

Gee, why would anyone ever think Nancy Pelosi wasn't sufficiently knowledgeable about a threat?

Why Was Our Secretary of State Running Her Own Personal E-Mail System?

Confirmed: Hillary Rodham Clinton is insanely secretive:

The computer server that transmitted and received Hillary Clinton's emails — on a private account she used exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state — traced back to an Internet service registered to her family's home in Chappaqua, New York, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives. It also would distinguish Clinton's secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

Clinton has not described her motivation for using a private email account —hdr22@clintonemail.com, which traced back to her own private email server registered under an apparent pseudonym — for official State Department business.

Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails. And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton's home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking.

But homebrew email servers are generally not as reliable, secure from hackers or protected from fires or floods as those in commercial data centers.

J.D. Salinger would have found Hillary's practices too secretive.

Wait, it gets even better:

It was unclear whom Clinton hired to set up or maintain her private email server, which the AP traced to a mysterious identity, Eric Hoteham. That name does not appear in public records databases, campaign contribution records or Internet background searches. Hoteham was listed as the customer at Clinton's $1.7 million home on Old House Lane in Chappaqua in records registering the Internet address for her email server since August 2010.

By the way, remember how we were told to not worry about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, because the U.S. State Department -- run by Hillary Clinton, of course -- had reviewed and approved all of them? Yeah, never mind.

Asked at a daily briefing Thursday about the foundation's failure to submit a $500,000 donation from the country of Algeria for a conflict of interest review in 2010, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that the department did such reviews whenever the non-profit founded by former President Bill Clinton sent in information about a potential gift.

"We like to review — and we have reviewed every donation that was submitted," Psaki said.

However, there are no indications any Clinton Foundation donations were ever sent to the State Department for approval.

Asked about Psaki's comment, another State Department spokesperson said Monday that the reviews the agency did were of paid speeches Bill Clinton was proposing to make and business deals he wanted to enter into. From 2009 to 2012, hundreds of speech requests and a handful of consulting deals were sent to State Department lawyers for sign off. The vast majority were approved.

I know you are stunned to learn Jen Psaki said something that turned out to not be true. Take a moment if you need it.

The 'What Good Are Republicans?' Argument Gained Some Strength Tuesday

I'm not usually a harsh critic of Boehner, but right now, grassroots conservatives have enormous reason to be upset with the GOP's congressional leadership.

The House cleared legislation Tuesday that will keep the agency operating through the end of September after a standoff last week threatened to shutter the agency and furlough thousands of workers. The 257-167 vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who rarely casts votes, backed the bill, along with his top lieutenants. A majority of House Republicans opposed the bill. Just 75 GOP lawmakers joined with 182 Democrats to push it across the finish line.

The legislation does nothing to rein in Obama's immigration executive orders -- a top priority of conservatives. That issue was a sticking point for weeks as Republicans tried to tie DHS funding to the repeal of the orders but the party couldn't overcome Democratic filibusters in the Senate.

My friend Ace of Spades is ready to give up on the Republicans. He thinks grassroots conservatives should begin pushing for a much higher minimum wage for all employees, including newly-amnestied illegal immigrants, and higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for it all.

His contends, not unreasonably, that the GOP's donor class just isn't willing to step up to the plate and use their leverage on an issue like amnesty. The problems of illegal immigration seem pretty far from their gated communities.

A lot of people, in each faction of the Republican Party, remain convinced that their particular policy preferences are popular and that the other guys are dead weight. It's quite difficult to resist the urge to believe that your views are more widespread than they really are.

The GOP's big-money donors aren't driven entirely by a desire to see capital-gains tax cuts, a lower corporate tax rate, an elimination of estate taxes, and so on. But those are big issues to them. They contend, as many free-market minds believe, that a rising tide lifts all boats and that cutting taxes for those folks earning the most will lead to more economic growth, which leads to more jobs, higher salaries, and better outcomes for everyone.

Except that cutting taxes on the rich is not particularly popular. We've seen Obama and the Democrats – and some Republicans – play the populist card quite effectively. Back in 2008, under TARP, the whole country watched the richest people they could imagine -- Wall Street bankers -- come to Washington and beg for enormous sums of taxpayer money to save them from their own bad judgment. Congress, President Bush, then-Senator Obama -- just about everyone agreed to do it. And millions of Americans thought, "Wait a minute . . . who's there to save me when my business gets in trouble?" Why do those guys get bailed out with my money?

And thus Elizabeth Warren's "the game is rigged" narrative gained strength. It's extremely difficult to persuade the country to cut taxes on the highest earners or inheritances when so many think the rich and powerful elites are only in it for themselves.

Paraphrasing Jonah, both the Left and the Right denounce crony capitalism, but we're furious about the cronyism, and they're furious about the capitalism.

ADDENDA: I'm scheduled to appear on Greta Van Susteren's On the Record this evening.

Over on the home page, a look at Marco Rubio's all-but-certain campaign and how he and Bush will compete for Florida donors.

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The Netanyahu Speech: You Should Have Known This Stuff, America

The Netanyahu Speech: You Should Have Known This Stuff, America

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