Byron York

Obama declares war on Boehner

In his economic speech in Cleveland, President Obama mentioned House Minority Leader John Boehner by name seven times -- a striking change from the president's speech in Milwaukee Monday in which he referred to Boehner only as "the man who thinks he's going to be Speaker." With the Democrats' hold on the House of Representatives in deep jeopardy, the president has apparently decided to make the campaign in part a personal showdown between himself and Boehner. It's a risky strategy, one that elevates a House minority leader to an eye-to-eye level with the President of the United States. And by personalizing the conflict with Boehner, it also casts the coming elections as a referendum on...

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Obama's 'pivot' to the economy comes far too late

In early November 2009, as the fight over Obamacare threatened to stretch all the way to New Years, I discussed the battle with a well-connected Democratic strategist. He wanted health care to pass, but he was eager for President Obama to turn his attention to the issues Americans cared about most: the economy and federal spending. "As soon as health care reform is over, he needs to pivot hard to becoming a deficit and spending hawk and a jobs creator," the strategist told me. Of course, the health care fight didn't end quickly. Two days before Christmas, Politico reported that White House officials believed it would last until February -- after which Obama would make a "very hard pivot"...

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Fearing for image, First Lady's aides warned against Spain vacation

The New York Times reports First Lady Michelle Obama's aides cautioned against her going on the early August European vacation in which she stayed at a 5-star resort in Spain and mingled with royalty. The lavish trip, the aides reportedly argued, could result in harm to her image. "Aides say privately that they warned her there would be a cost to the trip, but she overruled them, insisting it was a rare chance to spend time with Sasha and with a friend whose father had died," the paper reports. "But the intensity of the uproar -- including accusations that she was a 'modern-day Marie Antoinette' -- caught the White House and Mrs. Obama off guard." The trip resulted in the first extended...

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New evidence undermines feds' case against Arizona

You've heard a lot about the Justice Department's lawsuit to stop the new Arizona immigration law. But that's just one part of the Obama administration's multi-front war on immigration enforcement in Arizona. In addition to the drive to kill the new law, Attorney General Eric Holder is also suing the Maricopa Community College system in Phoenix, alleging it broke the law by requiring a job seeker to provide a green card before being hired. And on Thursday the Justice Department filed suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's office, run by the flamboyant Joe Arpaio, as part of an extended investigation into alleged civil rights violations there. Despite the splash of attention from the...

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How Democratic Congress threw away advantage over GOP

Many political observers were stunned by the new Gallup poll showing the Republican party with a 10-point advantage in the so-called "generic ballot" question. Now we have a better idea how that happened. According to new, more detailed Gallup numbers, Democratic advantages on issues like health care, the economy, and handling corruption in government have simply disappeared. Democratic leads that were enormous when the party took control of Congress in 2006 have dwindled to nothing or have now become Republican advantages. The most striking example is in health care. Back in October 2006, just before Democrats won control of Congress, Gallup asked the traditional question, "Do you...

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Previewing Obama Iraq speech, Gibbs won't credit surge

At Monday's White House briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs gave reporters a preview of President Obama's speech on Iraq. Obama will apparently take credit for withdrawing U.S. troops -- "We are completing a drawdown of almost 100,000 troops that…many did not think was possible," Gibbs said -- but is unlikely to acknowledge any special role played by George W. Bush's troop surge. Gibbs said Obama plans to call Bush before the speech, but through repeated questioning would not admit that the surge played any especially important role in the war's progress. "Does he believe that President Bush deserves any credit for the surge, laying the groundwork for troop withdrawal?" a reporter...

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For Obamacare supporters, judgment day approaches

Say you're a Democratic member of Congress. You proudly cast your vote for Obamacare, you cheered when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed it as the achievement of a generation and you scoffed at Republicans who vowed to repeal it. Now you're running for re-election, and a voter asks: What is the most important thing you've done in the last two years? The answer should be easy. In passing the national health care bill, you accomplished something your party dreamed of for decades. It was your most important vote, and now is the time to take credit for it. Except it's not. Recently a number of top Democratic strategists conducted focus groups in Las Vegas, Charlotte, Philadelphia and St....

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Bush confidante Hughes calls on Ground Zero organizers to 'locate their mosque elsewhere'

Karen Hughes, who for years was one of George W. Bush's closest advisers, is calling on the organizers of the Ground Zero mosque to "locate their mosque elsewhere." In an article for Sunday's Washington Post, Hughes writes: A mosque at the edge of Ground Zero would be much more than a house of worship; it would be a symbol, interpreted differently by different audiences. For some it would be the ultimate expression of the freedom of religion we enjoy in America; for others, a searing reminder of terrible deaths at the hands of murderers calling themselves Muslims. I suspect that the terrorists themselves might celebrate its presence as a twisted victory over our society's freedoms....

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Obama has himself to blame for Muslim problem

In 1985, Barack Obama had just arrived in Chicago for his new job as a community organizer when he headed to Smitty’s Barbershop, a tiny storefront on the South Side. As Smitty cut his hair, Obama listened to the men in the shop talk politics and racial grievance. When the barber finished, he handed Obama a mirror and said, “Haircut’s ten dollars. What’s your name, anyway?” “Barack.” “Barack, huh,” Smitty responded. “You a Muslim?” “Grandfather was,” Obama said, according to his memoir Dreams From My Father. Smitty’s question, which Obama didn’t exactly answer, prefigured a controversy that...

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Mosque supporters beg George W. Bush to come to Obama's rescue

There's a new argument emerging among supporters of the Ground Zero mosque. Distressed by President Obama's waffling on the issue, they're calling on former President George W. Bush to announce his support for the project, because in this case Bush understands better than Obama the connection between the war on terror and the larger question of America's relationship with Islam. It's an extraordinary change of position for commentators who long argued that Bush had done grievous harm to America's image in the Muslim world and that Obama represented a fresh start for the United States. Nevertheless, they are now seeing a different side of the former president. "It's time for W. to...

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Dems feel the heat from Obama's stand on mosque

"He expressed support for that project," says Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and a guest at the White House iftar dinner on Friday. The "he" to whom Al-Marayati refers is President Obama, and "that project" is the Ground Zero mosque. "Did we believe he supported the project?" Al-Marayati asks. "Yes." "We felt that he was giving encouragement, that he was supporting the idea," says another guest, Imam Mohamed Hag Magid, head of Virginia's All Dulles Area Muslim Society. "I personally felt he was saying it is wrong to attack the building of the mosque." Still another attendee, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, professor of Islamic Studies at American University,...

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Obama's Clintonian speech pulls rug from under mosque supporters

When President Obama used the occasion of the White House Ramadan iftar dinner to announce his support for the Ground Zero mosque, some of his partisans rushed to praise what they viewed as a ringing endorsement of the controversial project. "Obama's forceful speech yesterday expressing strong support for Cordoba House…will go down as one of the finest moments of his presidency," wrote Washington Post reporter Greg Sargent. Obama, Sargent said, "isn't hedging a bit: He's saying that opposing the group's right to build the Islamic center is, in essence, un-American." "CAP Supports Building of Mosque Near Ground Zero," was the headline of a press release from the liberal think...

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For Michelle Obama, extravagance dents popularity

After a widely admired start in the White House, first lady Michelle Obama's popularity is falling and, if the current downward trend in her approval ratings continues, could touch lows not seen since the scandal-tainted days of Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 50 percent of those surveyed say they have a positive opinion of Mrs. Obama. That's down from 64 percent in April 2009 and 55 percent in January of this year. The first lady's positive rating is barely ahead of her husband's personal approval figure, which stands at 46 percent in the new poll. The survey was taken from Aug. 5-9, which happened to coincide with Mrs. Obama's vacation in Spain,...

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Michelle Obama popularity falls

The number of Americans who have a positive opinion of First Lady Michelle Obama has fallen in the last 16 months, according to the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. In April, 2009, 64 percent of those surveyed by the Journal/NBC said they had a positive impression of Mrs. Obama; today, the number is 50 percent. That 50 percent personal approval is just slightly above President Obama's personal approval figure, which stands at 46 percent in the new poll. The specific survey question asked respondents to rate their feelings about Mrs. Obama "as very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative." The first lady's rating, a combination of the very...

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Cut deficit without cutting services? Start here

Whenever a conservative suggests reducing the federal deficit by cutting spending rather than raising taxes, there's always someone to ask: Well, what would you cut? Americans may say they want less government spending, the argument goes, but they don't want anyone to touch their services and subsidies and monthly checks. Fair enough. But there's a persuasive counter-argument going around in conservative circles these days: You can start cutting government spending without cutting anyone's services or subsidies or monthly checks. Just bring the pay of federal workers into line with pay in the private sector. A recent Heritage Foundation study found the average federal worker (excluding...

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Jeff Sessions’ closing argument against Kagan’s nomination

Republicans knew they couldn't stop the Kagan nomination, but through the hearing and confirmation process they came to strongly believe she should not win a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Here's the case, made in final form by Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jeff...

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Obama's zealous civil rights enforcer gets busy

"I love this job," said Thomas Perez, the hard-charging head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a speech last December to the liberal legal group American Constitution Society. "We have a very broad, a very ambitious vision. It's a very exciting vision, and I wake up every morning with a hop in my...

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Justice Department steers money to favored groups

The Justice Department has found a new way to pursue civil rights lawsuits, using the powers of the Civil Rights Division not just to win compensation for victims of alleged discrimination but also to direct large sums of money to activist groups that are not discrimination victims and not connected to a particular suit. In the past, when the Civil Rights Division filed suit against, say, a bank or a landlord, alleging discrimination in lending or rentals, the cases were often settled by the defendant paying a fine to the U.S. Treasury and agreeing to put aside a sum of money to compensate the alleged discrimination victims. There was then a search for those victims -- people who were...

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Why did feds claim Kindle violates civil rights?

Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks? Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops. It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez,...

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To historians, Obama pledged to ’speak less often’ in future

The historian Garry Wills has written a brief item for the New York Review of Books blog about a dinner with President Obama on June 30, 2009. In that dinner with Wills, eight other historians, and three White House staffers, Obama was seeking to learn, in Wills’ words, “what history could teach him about conducting...

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A battle between Left and Right -- inside the GOP

There's been a lot of talk about what Democrats will do if they lose seats in the House and Senate this November. Many Republicans believe Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will make a last-ditch, lame-duck effort to pass the remaining parts of their agenda, like tax increases, card check, and a climate change bill. And that's why Christine O'Donnell says the Senate race in Delaware is so important. The Delaware contest is not a regularly scheduled election but rather a special vote to fill the last four years of Vice President Biden's old term. That means the winner will be sworn in immediately after the Nov. 2 election -- not in January like other new lawmakers -- and the new senator...

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Obama support falls among blacks, Hispanics

Gallup’s latest weekly compilation of polling data on President Obama’s job approval rating shows him at 85 percent among black Americans, down from a 94 percent approval rating among blacks as recently as March.  The 85 percent figure is also Obama’s lowest-ever as president among African-Americans in the Gallup weekly poll.  The poll data is...

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What does it take to be a ‘hero’ of JournoList?

The Daily Caller has published still more excerpts from the left-wing journalism chat room JournoList. This time the theme is "Heroes of JournoList." The phrase refers to lefty journalists who on at least one occasion overcame their ideology to defy the conventional wisdom of JournoList's 400 participants. And what qualifies as heroism on JournoList? The following: Asserting that Gen. David Petraeus did not betray his country, as a notorious 2007 MoveOn.org ad asserted. Apparently the JournoList discussion of the ad focused on whether it was effective or whether it was counterproductive from the Left's perspective. It took the Guardian's Michael Tomasky to note that "no one has yet...

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Dems fear GOP oversight of Obama administration

Speaking to a group of left-wing activists at the annual Netroots Nation convention in Las Vegas, Democratic Sen. Al Franken painted a bleak picture of what will happen if Republicans win control of Congress. "They'll implement a truly dangerous agenda," Franken said Saturday. "Everything is on the table, from repealing health care reform to privatizing Social Security." Not only will GOP lawmakers "punch loopholes in our regulations," they will also "shred the social safety net," while their "corporate backers" work to enact "an even more dangerous agenda." Bad as all that might be, Franken suggested that a little-known Republican congressman from California is plotting something even...

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GOP spoiling for fight over Berwick appointment

On July 19, the White House sent to the Senate the nomination of Donald Berwick to be the top administrator of Medicare and Medicaid. The move seemed odd, given that President Obama had already nominated Berwick once, and then on July 7 used executive authority to bypass lawmakers and unilaterally appoint Berwick to the post while the Senate was in recess. Whether lawmakers like it or not, Berwick has the job -- a powerful position made even more powerful by the passage of Obamacare -- until the end of 2011. So why resubmit his nomination to the Senate? A White House spokesman did not respond to questions. But the renomination allows Obama to claim he wants to work with the Senate to...

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Berwick battle escalates: GOP introduces resolution calling recess appointment ‘abuse of power’

Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts has just introduced an amendment calling for the Senate to declare the recess appointment of Medicare and Medicaid chief Donald Berwick “an abuse of power.”  The nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution also calls on Berwick to appear before the Senate Finance Committee to answer questions. The measure is designed to...

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Did GOP senators show ‘contempt’ for Obama and Kagan? Then so did Dems

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank lavishes praise on Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham for voting yes on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The six committee Republicans who voted against Kagan, Milbank writes, “have become so reflexive in their opposition to Obama that they are distorting their constitutional duties.” Exhibit A for Milbank...

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Limbaugh responds to JournoList death wish report

This morning I asked Rush Limbaugh what he thought of references to him on the private left-wing journalist discussion group JournoList. As reported in the Daily Caller, Sarah Spitz, producer* of the KCRW public radio program “Left, Right and Center,” which is heard on a number of NPR stations across the country, wrote on JournoList...

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At Washington Post, mum’s the word on JournoList

If any large publication stands to suffer from the JournoList controversy, it’s the Washington Post. The paper hired JournoList founder Ezra Klein from the left-wing publication The American Prospect, and Klein continued to run JournoList while at the Post. In June, the paper quickly accepted the resignation of David Weigel, whom it hired from the...

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In vote, will senators weigh Kagan's tricky words?

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote Tuesday on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. In a panel made up of 12 Democrats and seven Republicans (the most lopsided party ratio of any Senate committee), the outcome is not in doubt. But a serious question remains: How can any senator reconcile an "aye" vote with Kagan's troubling actions in the Clinton White House on partial-birth abortion? The key question in a Supreme Court confirmation vote is whether the nominee will use the Constitution and the law as her guideposts, or whether she will sometimes just make things up to suit her preferences. The partial-birth abortion affair suggests Kagan will make things up. In April 1996,...

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