Boston Herald

Dems’ double standard on collusion

- By R. EMMETT TYRRELL R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator.

WASHINGTON — There is a whiff of the absurd about former Secretary of State Jean-Francois Kerry’s recent diplomatic mission to New York City. His return to diplomacy was as comic as his episodes of hang-gliding while running for president, mad bicycling jaunts across Europe in what looked like his underpants and recreation­al surfing — all while ostensibly on duty. As for his recent mission in New York, is he delusional? Has he never heard of the Logan Act, outlawing private diplomacy? President Trump has heard of it, and in a Monday morning tweet, he raised the specter of illegality. Again, is Jean-Francois delusional?

Well, I have long thought that he is, but so are many of the upper-echelon members of the Democratic Party, starting with Hillary Clinton, who apparently believes that she is the rightful claimant to the presidency. She has moved her seat of power to Chappaqua, N.Y., to wait patiently until her loyal factotum, special counsel Robert Mueller III, makes the necessary arrangemen­ts for her return to Washington, D.C., where she, in her delusion, will take over the White House from the disgraced Trumpians. Surely, 78-yearold House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will return to House Speakershi­p, along with dozens of other Democrats. For them the recent election has been a mere distractio­n from the business of governing America and raising taxes.

I wonder when Secretary-of-State-in-waiting Kerry will return to the Chappaqua White House to report his New York mission to the presidenti­n-waiting. Apparently, his meetings with the Iranian foreign minister were not his only high-level consultati­ons during his important undertakin­g to salvage Iran’s nuclear program. He reportedly met with German President FrankWalte­r Steinmeier last month and conferred with French President Emmanuel Macron in both Paris and New York, doubtless in French. He has been very busy brushing up on his diplomatic skills.

Perhaps you have heard, as I have, that madam president is becoming very impatient. Her Secret Service detail is becoming edgy. Lamps have been thrown, furniture broken. I hope husband Bill Clinton was out of range. There are many urgent matters facing America’s chief executive, and the longer we wait for her to take residence in the White House, the more difficult it is going to be to achieve her goals. Possibly, Kerry is going to bring Madame Hillary good news, but I cannot actually think of what it is going to be. Maybe former Rep. Anthony Weiner is in solitary confinemen­t. Possibly, Clinton has heard rumors of troop movements in and around the capital. She is a restless sleeper. Will she throw her formidable weight behind the insurrecti­onary forces, or will she wait for Mueller to work his magic? Time will tell.

Actually, Kerry’s meetings with the Iranian foreign minister should be causing alarm with the more sober members of the Democratic Party. It looks like an instance of collusion and surely is more serious than anything anyone on the Trump team is accused of.

Democrats have been colluding with the enemy for years, going all the way back to the “Lion of the Senate,” Sen. Edward Kennedy. He colluded with the Soviet Union against then-President Jimmy Carter back in 1980, and in 1983 against then-President Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s foreign policy frightened Kennedy Democrats. The Lion of the Senate sought to establish a common front with the Soviets against the administra­tion. A few years later, the president won the Cold War without them. It is a little amazing how rarely we hear nowadays that Ronald Reagan won the Cold War and Sen. Kennedy opposed him.

Now a former secretary of state was plainly colluding with the Iranians to salvage a nuclear agreement that the majority of senators on Capitol Hill opposed. Meanwhile, special counsel Mueller is obsessed with “collusion,” the collusion of Donald Trump with Russians, of which there is still no proof. I wonder, if President Trump were to join Kerry in colluding with the Iranians, would Mueller still be pursuing him?

 ?? AP FILE PHOTO ?? OUT OF OFFICE: Secretary of State John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a 2016 meeting in Vienna.
AP FILE PHOTO OUT OF OFFICE: Secretary of State John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a 2016 meeting in Vienna.

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