BREDESEN’S DIDN’T-MEAN-IT STATEMENT
A POLITICAL PLOY
Tennessee senatorial candidate Phil Bredesen’s recent limp statement of support for the U.S. Supreme Court confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh was done for purely political reasons, his staffers suggested.
In a hidden-camera video released by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas, one staffer said the candidate never would have cast a yes vote for the then-court nominee.
“We’re down eight points,” she said, referring to a recent CBS poll, “and it also said that 47 percent of Tennesseans … oh, no, no, no … 74 percent of Tennesseans wanted to see Kavanaugh confirmed. So, like, this isn’t, like … So, he thought that, like, by coming out in support it would get more Republicans on his side. He wasn’t doing as well in the rural parts [of the state].”
Other staffers on the video were worried it would make Democrats less willing to cast a ballot for Bredesen.
“I’m going to be [mad] if this doesn’t pay off,” one said. “If we lose, I’m going to be so mad. Because not only did he forfeit a lot of moral high ground … If it’s by a small margin, that’s the base.”
Bredesen’s statement tried to have it both ways. While calling Kavanaugh accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford “a heroine” and saying he was “disgusted by the treatment she received at the hands of the Senate,” he said “presidents have the right to appoint justices who share their values — elections have consequences,” he believed “Kavanaugh met this [qualifications] test” and that while “subsequent events make it a much closer call … I’m still a ‘yes’.”
As of late last week, Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn led Bredesen in a Real Clear Politics average of polls by 2.7 percent.
INAUGURATION IN SIGHT
New York Democratic socialist congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes, the new face of today’s Democratic Party, usually does fine until she opens her mouth.
Recently, she was talking about implementing her campaign promises if she wins her race next month. She said her supporters might have to wait a couple of more months.
It doesn’t mean you get everything tomorrow,” Ocasio Cortes said. “As much as I would love that, I would love to get inaugurated January 3rd [and] January 4th we’re signing health care, we’re signing this.”
She may be a little disappointed at her “inauguration,” where, if she wins, she’ll raise her right hand in front of her family and take an oath of office. The bills? Yeah, they’ll take a little longer, if one that she proposes ever passes.
Twitter users had a field day with her latest open-mouth, insert-foot moment.
Among the best:
“This [is] why socialists don’t understand economics,” said one. “They don’t even get how their political office works.”
“How can you have a college education and be as dumb as a box of rocks!” said another. “I didn’t think it was possible, but this women doesn’t even have the simplest idea of how our government operates! Did you not take a civics or government class in high school! Unbelievable!”
COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?
The new president of the San Francisco school board has scrapped recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and is replacing it with quotes from inspirational Americans.
“There are a lot of ways to express gratitude and appreciation for the country and its citizens,” Stevon Cook said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “This is how I plan to do that.”
The Pledge of Allegiance had been the first order of business at school board meetings for decades. In the past, as a board member, the new president would stand for the pledge but not recite its words.
“We should stand for [the pledge] because those ideals are important to me,” he said. “To speak them is another thing.”
A district spokeswoman said there is no requirement that school boards say the Pledge of Allegiance.
The first quote from an inspirational American Cook used was this from poet Maya Angelou: “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”
Other subjects he plans to quote are novelist James Baldwin, slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk and writer Toni Morrison.
“I’m not doing it as a way to seek attention,” Cook said.
HOW THEY DO IT
How bad is the illegal immigrant problem in California? Illegal immigrant mothers are giving birth to more anchor babies in the Los Angeles metro area annually than all births annually in 14 states and Washington, D.C.
The Los Angeles area, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, sees some 28,000 babies born annually to illegal immigrant mothers. The babies are referred to as anchor babies because they anchor their illegal immigrant and noncitizen parents in the U.S., and, in what as known as chain migration, their status as citizens allows them to bring into the country a number of foreign relatives.
The births in the L.A. area make up about 18 percent of all births in the region, and California sees about 65,000 births to illegal immigrant mothers every year.
In the U.S., about one in five births is to an immigrant mother, legal and illegal. Of all births in the country, 12.4 percent are born to a legal immigrant mother, and 7.5 percent are born to an illegal immigrant mother.