President Donald Trump gestures after giving his speech at a reception commemorating the 35th anniversary of the attack on Beirut Barracks in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Like many conservative baby-boomers, I watched Fox News' post-midterm analysis over the weekend, seeking information, expertise, and opinion from the pundit class. I also read pieces about the election on this website, and several of the related links over at Instapundit.
For the record, I never go anywhere near leftist broadcast and cable news or analysis. I know what they’re selling—sheer Democrat partisanship—and I haven’t bought it since Ronald Reagan was in office. If FNC didn’t constantly run clips from CNN and MSNBC while harping on the extreme bias of Don Lemon, Jim Acosta, Rachel Maddow, and others, I would never see or hear these people. (Note to self: idea for another column.)
As of this Monday morning, I have not yet sampled conservative talk radio, but I’m about to do what Rush Limbaugh admonishes us never to do: I’m going to try this at home.
And I won’t bury the lede: If House Democrats hit the ground running in January with an overarching investigatory agenda, President Trump will have no choice but to follow through on his warning to adopt a “warlike posture” in response.
And if you think the Democrats will forego a full-scale effort to probe and hobble Mr. Trump’s administration, I’ve got a 1979 40-year anniversary commemorative Jimmy Carter Rose Garden Strategy white paper to send to your home address.
Two main themes/issues have emerged from the election: (A) virtually deadlocked races in Florida, Arizona and Georgia — dead-heats complicated by alleged attempts at vote fraud, and (B) the question of exactly how the new Democrat majority will proceed vis-a-vis investigations versus legislation. Is there anything House Democrats, a Republican Senate, and the president can get together on?
Hopes for a bipartisan infrastructure package are typically floated like mid-November NFL “Hail Mary" passes. Great. Let’s get Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and President Trump together on a plan to improve our nation’s roads, bridges, airports. Who could be against that?
There’s one insurmountable problem: If Ms. Pelosi allows representatives like Adam Schiff and Maxine Waters to chart the course for the new House majority, we are surely headed for a morass of investigations, recriminations, pay-backs, and gridlock. Congressman Schiff is a man grotesquely twisted by hatred for the president. Maxine Waters' loathing for Trump, his administration, and supporters have helped set an unprecedentedly low bar for political incivility, and virtually guaranteed an uncompromising relationship between Republicans and Democrats in the run-up to 2020.
Slipping into cultural vernacular here, many Beltway-watchers got their drawers and panties in a bunch over Trump’s “warlike posture” admonition. The argument goes: Trump and the party he now owns should work for a bipartisan accord on issues that will benefit the nation even if a Democrat House is working overtime to take him out.
Make no mistake: an investigative agenda will not restrain itself to probing inconsequentially around the edges. Schiff, Waters, Nadler and the rest will go right for the jugular of this presidency.
It is sad to say, and smart Trump spokespeople like Kellyanne Conway will couch the reality very carefully, but a war-like posture and response will be the president’s only option.
You don’t send nice packages all tied up with ribbons—like an intraparty infrastructure deal signed by Mr. Trump—to a Democrat House leadership waging war with a relentless investigatory agenda aimed at blowing you, your family, and your political party out of the water.
Closing note: Senator Mitch McConnell, we need you now more than ever.
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