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Congressional Republicans, we watched you at the White House Thursday. Just before Donald Trumps rambling, manic, often snarky press conference delivered more in the manner of a churlish insult comic than leader of the free world the president met with a group of you, a self-titled Trump caucus of early supporters.

You fawned over him like autograph hunters gushing over their favorite movie star. Rep. Chris Collins of New York: Mr. President, were all honored to be here. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee: Were excited about the work youre doing. And Missouris Billy Long referenced the recent visit of Japans prime minister: I knew you all would hit it off because youre both people persons and great personalities. . . . I knew you guys would get along good.

Oh, brother. Has it come down to this? The party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower in the thrall of a petulant, impulsive, preening and shamelessly amoral president who thinks Vladimir Putin is the apex of effective management.

Republicans, is this really the legacy you choose?

How can you not take a solid stand against an unhinged con man who in less than a month has undermined fundamental constitutional liberties, thrown governance into disorganized hell and possibly made decisions based on his desire to please the leader of another country? (Whats he afraid that Putin might do?)

Its well reported now that Trump campaign aides, including hustlers like the recently departedMike Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort dubbed the King of K Street by a prominent business magazine were in regular touch with Russian intelligence and other officials during our 2016 election cycle and the presidential transition. Were they coordinating dirty tricks to damage not only the candidacy of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party but the fate of American democracy as well? Its possible.

Listening to Morning Edition on NPR this week, we were struck by the inability of some of your colleagues to get a grip and face some hard truths about all this. The broadcast played a Fox News clip of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) appearing to justify a cover-up: I just dont think its useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party.

Then host Steve Inskeep spoke with Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), who seemed to think Mike Flynn and the Trump campaigns contacts with Russia werent the problem. Following his presidents claim that the Russia story is a ruse and the real issue is leaks, he said, I mean, the leak of highly classified information by, what is apparent here, a number of individuals inside our intelligence community, is the illegal act that I think we need to review.

Johnson added: I dont think that theres anything extraordinary at all about persons in an incoming administration or during a campaign talking with officials from other countries.

Would you agree with us that a comment like that bespeaks less a stupid man than a man who looks upon the public as stupid? Is that what you think of the people now? In the full blossom of your monopoly power over government, are you writing off the people who gave you that power?

And so it went: Hemming and hawing, backing and filling, their comments reminded us of Watergate, a scandalous sequence of events that the two of us witnessed firsthand, and thought or hoped, at least would be the worst political and constitutional crisis of our lifetimes. This has the potential to be much, much worse.

Back then, as today, many Republicans refused to acknowledge the horrors perpetrated by Richard Nixon and his thugs. Some held onto their willful blindness right up to the bitter end, when to ignore the mans perfidy would have been tantamount to treason. Thanks in part to the courts and journalists like Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and to true Republican patriots who refused to follow Nixons nefarious orders, this country narrowly averted a disaster.

Now, once again, we find ourselves desperately counting on the courts and an independent press to help protect us. We cant depend on but a handful of Republican senators and House members who have come forward. Theyve called for more thorough investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees, and thats a start, but in this current Congress, its more than likely that a truly impartial, transparent, honest inquiry will be stymied and quashed.

Thats why we continue to insist that only an open and public, independent, bipartisan investigation can determine if Trump and his pals actually colluded with Putins intelligence agencies to influence the 2016 election, and whether they came to power obligated to carry out the wishes of a foreign power.

Heres what former Democratic House member Lee Hamilton who was vice chair of the independent 9/11 Commission just told Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post: Very aggressive leadership is necessary, he said. Theres just an awful lot out there that needs to be clarified and investigated independently by people who do not have an interest in the outcome of the investigation. I am doubtful that the Congress can put together a very robust investigation. Their performance on oversight in recent years has been deplorable timid and not robust enough.

We have to remind you of something: Those Republicans who stand by watching all of this, silently, in the hope that in return for their obeisance they will get away with forcing a right-wing agenda of privatization, deregulation and inequality upon the nation, should keep in mind that when survivors look back upon a time of acute crisis, those who are remembered are not the spineless and opportunistic who hoped to snag a piece of the action. Rather, it is the men and women who rose in defiance and said this betrayal of what my country is supposed to be will not stand.

In the 50s, the red-baiting Joseph McCarthy was brought down not just by newsman Edward R. Murrow and the compassionate but scathing attorney Joseph Welch, but also by Republican senators who said enough is enough. During Watergate, Richard Nixon was not undone solely by The Washington Post and the justices of the Supreme Court, but also by Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted for his impeachment and the senators who came to him in the White House and said it is time for you go.

Republicans, there is a name for those who take the moral high ground and fight back: heroes. When all is said and done, how will you be remembered?

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Republicans, where's your backbone? Congressional GOP members must take a stand, not stay silent - Salon

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Tom Pennington/Getty Images

Republicans disagreed this weekend with President Donald Trump 's claim that the media is the "enemy" of the American people .

Trump has repeatedly attacked what he calls the "FAKE NEWS media," and on Friday he lashed out on Twitter, saying outlets like the New York Times , NBC News, ABC, CBS and CNN are the "enemy of the American People!"

Following the attacks, members of his administration and party defended the need for a free press.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday that he had no problems with the press.

"I've had some rather contentious times with the press. But no, the press, as far as I'm concerned are a constituency that we deal with," Mattis said when asked about Trump's criticism during a trip to the Middle East. "And I don't have any issues with the press, myself."

Arizona Sen. John McCain came out strongly against Trump's assertion during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press .

"That's how dictators get started," he said of Trump's tweet about the media. Later, McCain said a free press is "vital."

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham partially echoed McCain during an interview with CBS's Face the Nation , although he scolded the press for "acting more like an opposition party" when it comes to reporting on Trump and urged reporters to step up their game.

"The backbone of democracy is a free press and an independent judiciary, and they're worth fighting and dying for," Graham said. "The bottom line is America is not becoming a dictatorship."

Original post:
Republicans Speak Out on Freedom of the Press After President Trump Calls Media the 'Enemy' - Fortune

Republicans have spent years decades talking up welfare and entitlement reform. But for the past two decades thats all they have delivered: talk.

This year Virginias General Assembly considered a half-dozen measures that would have curtailed various social-welfare benefits. Only two minor ones have survived the gauntlet. One would audit a family that loses multiple benefit cards. The other would cross-check welfare beneficiary lists against lists of lottery winners.

If the changes were any less significant you would need an electron microscope to see them.

Note that the GOP controls both houses of the legislature. So while Republicans sponsored the measures, Republicans also killed them.

The picture looks much the same at the national level. Congressional leaders such as House Speaker Paul Ryan have long agitated for changes to Medicare and other programs. The need to change social-welfare programs so they do not become a hammock, as some put it, is an article of faith among Beltway Republicans.

So is deficit reduction. Many Republicans want to trim benefits not for cultural reasons but for fiscal ones. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are growing to such a degree that all other federal spending (except interest payments on the debt) soon will be squeezed to nothing, unless the federal deficit balloons again.

Which it almost certainly will. Donald Trump has proposed big tax cuts. He wants to spend as much as $1 trillion on a new infrastructure program. He also aims to rebuild the military. But he has shown little interest in entitlement reform. He has promised to protect Social Security and does not want to meddle with Medicare or cut Medicaid. There is no universe in which this does not amount to a prescription for ruinous levels of debt. Something needs to give.

That something ought to be entitlements, which have spiraled out of control and which are placing the greatest strain on the federal treasury. But without the president behind them, congressional Republicans wont get far on reform even if they have the stomach to give it a shot. Given recent events in Virginia, that too is open for debate.

Read more from the original source:
Editorial: On welfare reform, Republicans are all talk - Richmond.com

To best understand the Republican mentality on Capitol Hill specifically, their disgraceful refusal to probe the President Donald Trump-Russia national security scandal with even a scintilla of the energy they devoted to Benghazi you need only read what Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Fox News Radio.

I just dont think its useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party, Paul said.

Well never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing Obamacare if were spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans.

There you have it, folks. Permit me to translate: If we fully probe deeply for anti-American treason, we wont have time to strip Americans of their health care.

Remember when Republicans wrapped themselves in the flag and fancied themselves to be our truest patriots? That was their brand for decades. But these days, the Trump armband is wound so tight that its cutting off oxygen to their brains.

Republicans have their priorities. The party, and its dream of shredding the safety net, totally comes first. The country, despite ever-mounting evidence that Team Trump was in bed with a foreign adversary, decidedly comes second.

The latest news and I know, its tough to keep up is that Trump campaign officials and Trump associates had repeated contacts with Russia in 2016, during the same time frame that Russia was actively working to get Trump elected.

Theres no evidence in this new report that Trumps people participated in the anti-Hillary Clinton hacking or that they were apprised of Russian leader Vladimir Putins cyber-invasion.

But its suspicious that in December, on the same day President Barack Obama punished Russia with sanctions, newly departed national security adviser Michael Flynn called Russia five times in an attempt to undermine Americas sanctions.

Was he sending Russia a thank-you note for the election help? Is it rational to believe that he called so many times on his own, without a directive from Trump or other higher-ups?

All this smoke wait, heres even more suggests a serious Trumpster fire. All these unconnected dots are clearly sufficient impetus for a thorough independent probe.

But somehow (and I know this is hard to believe), Republicans have lost the investigative zeal they exuded during the Obama era.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, was all geared up last year to deep-dive into Clintons private email server vowing to soldier on even if she became president. He churned out more than 70 letters and subpoenas about that allegedly dire threat to national security.

But when asked about Trump and Russia, Chaffetz took refuge in Flynns resignation: I think the situation has taken care of itself.

Right. As if thats the end of the story. Those of us who lived through Watergate know that the scandal didnt end when Jeb Magruder and John Mitchell quit their jobs.

Congressional Republicans probably know this, but theyre willing to indulge Trumps tumultuous idiocy in exchange for his signature on long-sought right-wing legislation.

And theres another big reason for their refusal to provide oversight: Many are terrified of being primaried in 2018 by Trumpy challengers. In fact, the Republican base remains inexplicably in thrall to Trump.

According to a late-January Qunnipiac poll, 62 percent of Americans including 66 percent of independents want Congress to investigate potential links between Trumps campaign advisers and the Russian government. Probe support among grassroots Republicans is a mere 28 percent.

This helps explain why we have such a zeal imbalance. This is why Republicans (with a few rare exceptions) are zoning out on Trump-Russia, in contrast to their passion for nailing Clinton on Benghazi which inspired futile investigations by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Somehow it feels like the Russian cyber-invasion and what Trump and his people mightve known and when they knew it rates at least a fraction of all that investigatory attention.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at least, is willing to openly state the obvious: If theres contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials outside the norm, thats not only big-league bad, thats a game changer.

And Ill put it in Trump language: Congress needs to extreme-vet this regime until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia, a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania and is syndicated by Cagle Cartoons. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: @DickPolman1. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.

Continued here:
Dick Polman: With Donald Trump, Republicans Suddenly Lose Their Appetite to Investigate - Noozhawk

WASHINGTONRep. Tom MacArthur was partway through a teleconference with constituents Monday night when one raised a sensitive subject: Why wasnt he speaking to them in person, at a town hall?

The South Jersey congressman had a ready answer, one echoing Republicans throughout the region and country. He said such events were being hijacked.

I like hearing divergent views, but I don't want to be baited into having an event that some outside group can just make a spectacle out of, MacArthur said, accusing protesters of being bused in or paid to cause disruption.

Congressional Republicans heading home for a weeklong recess are taking a wary approach to public events as they face a wave of activism that has grown since President Trumps election. Given a week in their districts, the public schedules for lawmakers from the Philadelphia area are sparse to nonexistent.

None of the regions Republicans plan open town halls that might put them before a crowd and facing questions, despite protests and a flood of social media posts requesting them. While they said theyll be meeting with constituents and community groups, the events are mostly smaller sit-downs behind closed doors, guarding against the viral video confrontations that have flummoxed other Republicans.

No one wants to be the next Jason Chaffetz, the congressman whoserowdy reception in deep red Utahthis month sounded alarms for the GOP.

Local Republicans are instead relying on large conference calls with constituents. Dubbed tele-town halls, the events are not quite anodyne three this week included questions on some hot topics. But they are bloodless. Aides screen the questions and there are no follow-ups, crowd reactions, or visuals.

All of which left some activists demanding more.

I had to listen to a lot of upset and frustrated patients in my lifetime, said Eileen Hill, a retired doctor from Mount Laurel who joined MacArthurs teleconference. You know what makes them more upset? When you don't let them talk and they feel like they're not being heard.

Hill, 62, voted for Hillary Clinton but said she was never politically active she said she didnt even know who her congressman was six weeks ago. Now, she helped arrange what she calls a forced town hall for MacArthur. She and liberal groups have invited people togather Wednesdayat a Marlton school, and asked the congressman to show up and listen.

A similar event is planned next weektargeting Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) in Allentown. After he helda tele-town hall Thursdaywith 90 minutes notice, his Facebook page filled withmore than 5,700responses, many blasting him for not talking to voters in person.

Its the same reason people like to go to concerts instead of just listening to the radio or buying the album, said Nancy Bea Miller, a 53-year-old artist and teacher who has protested outside Toomeys Philadelphia office and dismissed the telephone event. Looking someone in the eye, even if it's across an auditorium, really helps you judge the person, decide how sincere they are.

The situation mirrors the tea party protests that swamped Democrats in 2009 and 2010. On the back of that wave, Republicans won three local House seats previously held by Democrats.

They disrupted, they created buzz around their issues and made people respond, said Barbara Blonsky, another Mount Laurel Democrat who is among those pressuring MacArthur. They really are the model for this.

Republicans dont want to play into the effort. They accuse Democrats of ginning up crowds.

I have no plans to have one of these big, sort of circus meetings,Rep. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) told a Chicago radio station. In upstate New York,Rep. Chris Collins told a TV station that at town halls,what you get are demonstrators who come and shout you down and heckle you. They are not what you hope they would be.

On Friday, the political arm of the liberal Center for American Progress alerted reporters that it had "ordinary Americans" who rely on the Affordable Care Act ready to speak out at coming town halls.

Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R., N.J.) met Friday with five constituent groups at his Mays Landing office. He said that has been my style for years and he has no plans for a town hall for the sole purpose of those only seeking their YouTube moment.

Those he sat with said it was no substitute for a public event.

Activists across several districts had one common goal: to push Republicans who control Congress to serve as a check on the president.

While the most vigorous protests have targeted Toomey, he is politically insulatedhe wont face reelection again until 2022. House members, however, have to run next year and could be on the front lines of any Trump backlash. Reps. Ryan Costello of Chester County and Patrick Meehan of Delaware County represent districts the president lost,according to data analyzed by website Daily Kos.

They are among those utilizing tele-town halls. The events start with automated calls blasted out to homes in each lawmakers district, inviting anyone who answers to join in. In some cases constituents can sign up to be included or submit questions online.

MacArthur took 19 questions over his one-hour call Monday, and more than 4,000 people participated, his office said. He spoke about Social Security, climate change, and why he wasnt holding a formal town hall.

I take offense when you say that these town halls have been hijacked, said a woman who identified herself as Jodi from Brick. I went to the Women's March in D.C. - no one paid me, I went with my 22-year-old daughter, I'm a teacher.

And then her phone cut out. MacArthur later said that there was a technical problem and that he spoke with Jodi by phone days later.

Republicans object to any suggestion they arent listening. Tele-town halls, they said, connect them with thousands of residents. It's a very effective way to stay in touch and to listen to the concerns that you have, Meehan said on his call Wednesday night.

The accusations that the crowds are paid or orchestrated, though, recall Democrats ill-fated dismissal of the tea party as an Astroturf movement.

Hill, Miller and other newly energized activists acknowledged they have followed guidelines from the liberal group Indivisible, which offers advice on how to pressure members of Congress. But they stressed they were driven to action by their own concerns, on their own time, and laughed at the idea they were paid.

"If you know who's making payments to people, please inform me so I can get paid for my time," Blonsky said. "We have legitimate questions about our fears about this administration."

Some lawmakers are still braving town halls. Rep. Leonard Lance (R., N.J.) is planning two next week in his Central New Jersey districtone that Trump lost.

Its important to communicate with constituents and to have constituents communicate with me, Lance said. Having said that, I hope that the level of discussion will be conducted with civility.

More here:
As Trump critics demand an audience, Republicans avoid town halls - Philly.com