Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/644004
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS EversinceGeorgeW.Bushwenthometo paint puppies, Republicans have generally lauded him as a tough commander-in-chief who "kept us safe." But Donald Trump is torching that party mantra. SouthCarolina,whichwill stage its GOP primary on Sat- urday night, is arguably the state that will make or break Trump and Jeb Bush. It's a state, long dominated by the Republican establishment, that has revered the Bush fam- ily. It saved George H. W. Bush's candidacy in 1988, and Dubyah's candidacy in 2000. It was their firewall. And yet, over the last few days, Trump has been pound- ing that wall with rhetori- cal TNT, saying heretical stuff that no Republican ever dared utter before. Conventional wisdom, as voiced by the Bush camp, is that this time Trump has re- ally truly finally gone too far, that what he's saying in a place like South Carolina is tantamount to political sui- cide. But I wouldn't bet on that. Trump, of course, is right on this one issue. Dubyah's elec- tive war in Iraq was a destabi- lizing, multi-trillion-dollar di- saster fought on false prem- ises that stains him forever as one of the worst presidents in history. Still, you just don't say stuff like that to a Republican au- dience during a debate. What- ever I may think of Trump, I've gotta give him points for moxie. Jeb, looking like a high school nerd who'd just been hit by a bully's spitball, tried to defend his brother's ac- tions during the debate, laud- ing Dubyah for "building a se- curity apparatus to keep us safe." Trump picked up the "keep us safe" mantra like it was an old chair and smashed it against the wall. "The World Trade Center came down dur- ing the reign of George Bush. He kept us safe? That is not safe," Trump said. "George Bush had the chance (to stop al Qaeda, pre 9/11) and he didn't listen to the advice of the CIA." Bush fans in the audi- ence duly booed, but, again, Trump was right. It has long been documented that the CIA, in its Daily Briefs to President Bush in 2001, rang the bell about al Qae- da's imminent intentions on May 1, June 22, June 29, June 30 ("Bin Laden Threats Are Real"), July 1, July 24 — and, most infamously, on Aug. 6 ("Bin Laden Determined to Strike the U.S."), which warned of a potential New York attack with hijacked planes. A CIA briefer flew to Texas that day to stress the threat in person. That's when Bush reportedly responded with my favorite gem of all time (imagine if Obama had ever said something like this): "All right. You've covered your ass now." Longtime GOP strategist Curt Anderson said: "Every- thing we know about political strategy suggests that Trump's decision to attack George W. Bush will backfire." But what's happening this year reminds me of screenwriter William Goldman's quip about Holly- wood: "Nobody knows any- thing." These establishment Re- publicans may well discover, in the Saturday balloting, that Trump's voters (a hefty, poten- tially winning share of all vot- ers) are fine with their candi- date dissing Dubyah so vocif- erously. They don't cleave to con- servative orthodoxy. Some of them realize that the Iraq war went wrong; some of them know about the pre-9/11 warn- ings; and, just as likely, a lot of them simply don't care one way or the other. Because they've moved on, because they generally feel be- trayed by the party establish- ment, because they're simply stoked by Trump's ire, because they dig his style. So what we're watching in South Carolina is a party in the throes of sorting out its identity crisis. If Trump parlays populist anger into a decisive victory, smashing the traditional GOP paradigm and breaking the Bush dynasty, then we may be witnessing the birth of a new GOP — and the furtherance of a frontrunner who will be tough to stop. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman Trump and the GOP's identity crisis Cartoonist's take A fair amount of opining has shown up, on these pages and elsewhere, over the contentious issue of replacing deceased Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. I should neither surprise nor shock readers that I would en- courage every tac- tic and tool avail- able to Senate Republicans to assure that 1) this President has no nominee confirmed; and 2) the next President, hopefully a Republican, has the preroga- tive to nominate an appropri- ate, qualified individual who closely reflects Scalia's judicial philosophy. That ideological orientation is, after all, the key to retain- ing the conservative majority on the court which, even at a 5 to 4 advantage, is still out of step with a solidly center/right electorate. That's based on poll- ing positions on abortion, gun rights, private property superi- ority, and the preference for the free market and private enter- prise over big government. Anyone quibbling with that has only to set aside their bi- ases—and pollsters' manipula- tive questions and "push poll- ing"—to confirm the massive swing in state legislatures to- ward Republican control during the last seven years. Then you have this curious fact that the voters put Re- publicans in charge of first, the House of Representatives, then the U.S. Senate, in un- equivocal elections sending disapproving messages to Em- peror Obama and his Demo- crat followers. That refutes those wanting Obama to simply wave aside the role of the Senate and have his choice approved and acclaimed simply because he was elected twice. Most voters want him stopped. Mr. Stan Statham's com- ments were thoughtful and re- flected his estimable experi- ences, and salutary record, as a long-and-faithful-serving Re- publican Assemblyman and news anchor. Setting aside his fair-minded reflections on the advantages of personal camaraderie and mu- tual, respectful consensus, he somewhat answered his own concerns over "right wing con- servatives going 'berserkly' at the prospect of Barack Hussein Obama having this appoint- ment opportunity." The answer resided among the issues he listed, "since this ultimate court can re- ally change America and even our cultural norms on issues like gun control, homosexual- ity, the death penalty, immigra- tion (and) those Executive Or- ders that all of our Presidents use to varying degrees when they can't get Congress to coop- erate." I don't believe the Supreme Court, the coequal—not supe- rior—branch of government be- side the legislative and the ex- ecutive, was meant by any stretch of the Constitution to "change America and our cul- tural norms." The changes that the Fram- ers anticipated were intended to reside in, and emanate from, the local and state electorate and find expression in the na- tional elected bodies estab- lished to represent the voters in Washington. I just reread Article III: "Sec- tion 1. The judicial Power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Con- gress may from time to time or- dain and establish." Section 2 describes the extent of judicial power therein created; I think the average American would be perplexed over how issues listed there could have possibly morphed into "changing Amer- ica and our cultural norms" on issues mentioned by Mr. Sta- tham (who was only stating the obvious, current state of judi- cial affairs). It is that reality that prompts each partisan side to inveigh mightily against nominees that don't reflect their party's ideo- logical leanings. Were courts and judges mar- ginally involved with laws writ- ten by the people's representa- tives; were those laws the final word of instruction to the exec- utive branch (not suggestions for the vast regulatory arm of the executive to write millions of words with the effect of law); and were all of that restricted to the original meaning en- shrined in our Founding docu- ments—were those our current norms, Americans wouldn't be anxious over what to expect next week, month, year and be- yond because legislatures, not judges, would make necessary changes. The laws would not reflect political parties' beliefs except as they were formed over time into legislation. However, "right-wing con- servatives" are only a small slice of the citizenry that are at best uneasy, and at worst vis- cerally angry and afraid that (to reflect Stan's listed issues): 1) Obama judges will reverse the decisions that we, in fact, have a personal right to arm and protect ourselves if local security and law enforcement is insufficient for our families' safety; 2) Obama judges will blithely mandate that religious liberty take a back seat, even suffering monetary and prison punish- ments, when the cultural left makes homosexual marriage a universal institution and al- lows none to forbear or disap- prove; 3) Obama judges will set in motion legal frameworks that return killers to our streets and communities, regardless of the common sense wisdom of the majority that wants hei- nous murderers put to death; and 4) Obama judges will overrule and negate the laws of America making the ille- gal crossing of our borders— or other means of breaking our immigration laws—a nuisance we must tolerate, an economic burden we must bear, a linguis- tic hurdle we are powerless to address, and an anti-American cultural travesty we are cowed into accepting. I also believe that, before Obama's terms, Presidents avoided using Executive Or- ders to negate laws, ignore laws, violate clearly stated "re- cess appointment" protocol, and unilaterally impose made- up regulations on sovereign states. Next week, I'll explain the fallacies bandied about over the Senate's role in the process. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Why the hubbub over judges? StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03. asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate. ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@gover- nor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Can- non House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393- 0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224- 0454 Local Tehama County Supervi- sors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamb- lin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Gar- ton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Man- ager, John Brewer, 824- 7033. YOUR OFFICIALS Don Polson Setting aside his fair-minded reflections on the advantages of personal camaraderie and mutual, respectful consensus, he somewhat answered his own concerns over "right wing conservatives going 'berserkly' at the prospect of Barack Hussein Obama having this appointment opportunity." Conventional wisdom, as voiced by the Bush camp, is that this time Trump has really truly finally gone too far, that what he's saying in a place like South Carolina is tantamount to political suicide. But I wouldn't bet on that. Trump, of course, is right on this one issue. Dubyah's elective war in Iraq was a destabilizing, multi-trillion- dollar disaster fought on false premises that stains him forever as one of the worst presidents in history. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, February 23, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6