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Anonymous ID: 06d9ff Jan. 21, 2019, 7:01 a.m. No.4846066   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>6099

Byron York: How Democrats came to love 'coequal'

 

The divided government of 2019 is a mirror image of the divided government of 2011. Back then, Democrats controlled the White House and Senate, while Republicans had recently taken control of the House with a big victory in the 2010 midterm elections. Today, Republicans control the White House and Senate, while Democrats have recently taken control of the House with a big victory in the 2018 midterm elections.

 

It's the same situation, essentially. But today there is a vastly different public conversation about the balance of power in government. These days, we are often reminded that Congress is a coequal branch of government, and therefore, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stands on an even level with President Trump. Back in 2011, when the two players were Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and President Barack Obama, there wasn't as much of that kind of talk.

 

But the speaker of the House is not, in fact, equal to the president of the United States. Congress, not the House, is a coequal branch of government. Actually, more than equal — it is, as Pelosi noted, the first branch of government. But to exert its will, Congress must be united. To overrule the president — and of course Congress can even remove the president — Congress must be united.

 

Pelosi controls just half of Congress. And she only controls the House when she gets 218 members to agree with her. To overrule a presidential veto, she needs 287 members to agree with her. And then the Senate, controlled by Republicans under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has to go along.

 

The bottom line is the House is one-half of a coequal branch of government. The speaker of the House is enormously powerful in the House. If she can persuade majorities, and sometimes supermajorities, of House members, and then majorities, and sometimes supermajorities, of the Senate to go along with her, she can block the president's agenda and exert enormous power in the government. But by herself — not so much.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-how-democrats-came-to-love-co-equal

Anonymous ID: 06d9ff Jan. 21, 2019, 7:39 a.m. No.4846454   🗄️.is đź”—kun

Barr’s first task as AG: Look at former FBI leaders’ conduct

 

During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview of attorney general nominee William Barr last Tuesday, committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked: “Are there rules on how you can do counterintelligence investigations in the FBI?”

 

Barr replied, “I believe there are.”

 

Indeed there are, Mr. Barr. There are very specific rules governing the FBI’s ability to initiate and conduct counterintelligence investigations. These rules bear the title of the role you soon may take on for the second time. They are referred to as the “Attorney General Guidelines,” or AGG.

 

Please read and understand them. This may seem like a basic request to make of an attorney general, but there are strong indications that key players at the top of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) — who were at the center of the saga we, as a nation, have endured over the past two years — were not at all familiar with these vitally important guidelines.

 

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/426171-barrs-first-task-as-ag-look-at-former-fbi-leaders-conduct