Speaker Of The House Of Representatives

Time To Confront Newt Gingrich And Rudy Giuliani On Media For Their Invoking Bill Clinton, When Their Own Behavior Is Equally Horrible!

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One of the most obnoxious developments of the Presidential campaign is Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, and Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor, both with scandalous private lives, clear womanizers, extreme misogynists, speaking up to defend Donald Trump’s obscene statements and behavior regarding women.

All three have been married three times and have cheated on their wives while married, and most likely, are still cheating on their present third wives.

All three are the lowest of the low, breaking up families, harming their children no matter how much the children might deny it, while Bill Clinton, despite his totally reprehensible behavior, kept his family together, and remains, despite his terrible behavior, in love with his wife.

In many ways, the Bill and Hillary Clinton marriage reminds us of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt marriage, with its ups and downs, but real basic love for each other very obvious.

For Gingrich and Giuliani in 2012 and 2008, respectively, to have run for President with their disgraceful private life, as Trump has now, and yet to criticize Hillary Clinton, is the height of hypocrisy.

Kudos to Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly for NOT allowing Gingrich to bully her, but of course, Trump went ahead and applauded Gingrich for attacking her, and the effect is to make a mass movement of women abandoning the Republican Party this November, and possibly, for the long term, until and when the GOP no longer endorses misogyny and bad personal behavior in its candidates and its members in the Congress and in the states.

More media people need to openly confront Gingrich, Giuliani,and Trump directly about their behavior, and put them on the defensive. Kudos to Anderson Cooper of CNN for already doing so!

We cannot allow bullies to get away with their actions and behavior, and the American people would salute media personalities, like Cooper, who challenge openly the hypocrisy of these characters!

With Four Weeks To Go, Republican Party Is In Full Panic Mode And Moving Toward Civil War Over Donald Trump!

Ronald 11 Comments

Total anarchy, full panic mode, and movement toward civil war—that is the state of the Republican Party four weeks before the Presidential Election of 2016.

Donald Trump has gone on a Twitter attack on Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, for refusing to campaign for or appear with Trump at any political rally.

Trump supporters and Tea Party radicals are threatening retribution against Republican members of Congress who refuse to support Trump.

Conservatives are also bitterly divided over Trump, as for example, Glenn Beck and Hugh Hewitt condemning Trump, and Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and others totally supporting him.

Trump supporters showing up at rallies are talking revolution, a scary proposition, if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins next month, which she most assuredly will accomplish.

And now, lunatic Maine Governor Paul Le Page is talking about the need for an authoritarian President to deal with, get this, what he terms the authoritarian actions of Barack Obama in the past eight years.

The danger of a total breakdown of our government is looming, due to what Donald Trump has wrought in the past 16 months, and we are on the verge of a massive constitutional crisis!

Democratic Party Historical Accomplishments

Ronald 6 Comments

The Democratic Party has been criticized for the fact that in its 188 year history, it was the party that promoted slavery, segregation, and lynching, being dominated for a long time by its ugly Southern membership.

This cannot be denied, but it is the Democratic Party which has also, in the last century of history, had many historical accomplishments.

Among these are:

First Catholic nominee for President–Alfred E. Smith 1928
First Catholic President elected–John F. Kennedy 1960
First Catholic Vice President elected–Joe Biden 2008
First Jewish nominee for Vice President–Joseph Lieberman 2000
First Jewish Presidential candidate as serious contender–Bernie Sanders 2016
First African American President–Barack Obama 2008
First Woman nominated for Vice President–Geraldine Ferraro 1984
First African American Presidential Contender–Shirley Chisholm 1972
First Woman nominee for President–Hillary Clinton 2016
First woman Secretary of State—Madeleine Albright under Bill Clinton
First Southerner elected President since 1848–Jimmy Carter 1976
Youngest elected President–John F. Kennedy 1960
President who gave us Social Security–Franklin D. Roosevelt 1935
President who gave us Medicare and Medicaid–Lyndon B. Johnson 1965-1966
One Term President who advanced Environmental Causes the most in history–Jimmy Carter 1977-1981
President who gave us ObamaCare–Barack Obama 2010
President who advanced Civil Rights—John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson 1960s
President to appoint first Jewish Supreme Court Justice—Woodrow Wilson 1916 (Louis Brandeis)
President to appoint first woman Jewish Supreme Court Justice—Bill Clinton 1993 (Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
President to appoint first African American Supreme Court Justice–Lyndon B. Johnson 1967 (Thurgood Marshall)
President to appoint first Hispanic-Latino Supreme Court Justice—Barack Obama 2009 (Sonia Sotomayor)
President who promoted Containment Foreign Policy with the Soviet Union—Harry Truman
President who promoted concept of international cooperation—Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt
First Woman Speaker Of The House of Representatives–Nancy Pelosi 2007
Most accomplished Congresses, Democratic controlled—-63rd and 64th (1913-1917) under Woodrow Wilson; 73rd and 74th (1933-1937) under Franklin D. Roosevelt; 89th Congress (1965-1967) under Lyndon B. Johnson; 111th Congress (2009-2011) under Barack Obama
Great Supreme Court Justices appointed by Democratic Presidents—Louis Brandeis 1916 by Woodrow Wilson; Hugo Black 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt; Felix Frankfurter 1939 by Franklin D. Roosevelt; William O. Douglas 1939 by Franklin D. Roosevelt; Thurgood Marshall 1967 by Lyndon B. Johnson; Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1993 by Bill Clinton; Stephen Breyer 1994 by Bill Clinton

Speaker Paul Ryan Totally Out Of Line In Demanding That Hillary Clinton Be Denied Access To Intelligence Information As Nominee!

Ronald 4 Comments

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is totally out of line in demanding that Hillary Clinton be denied access to intelligence information as the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, due to the controversy over Emails, and the FBI director’s criticism of her handling of the matter, while not recommending prosecution.

If that is to occur, then Republican nominee Donald Trump, a dangerous, reckless, “loose cannon” must also be denied access, as he is unable to control his mouth, and might reveal highly sensitive information during the campaign.

It is not Paul Ryan’s place as second in line to the Presidency to intervene and get involved in this controversy, and it makes one wonder how Ryan, if he remains Speaker, and Hillary Clinton, would be able to work together and cooperate next year, if Clinton wins the White House.

Some have thought that Ryan would love to cause a coup and become President himself, as he has done a horrible job as Speaker, and this blogger was highly critical of him when he was Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential running mate in the 2012 Presidential election.

Ryan is totally untrustworthy, and is a good reason to wish that the old Presidential Succession Act of 1886, replaced by the present one in 1947, could be revived. The cabinet members should follow the Vice President in the order of succession, not the three out of four years opposition party Speaker and President Pro Tempore of the Senate being ahead of the cabinet officers in the line of succession, in case of an emergency.

Imagine Donald Trump And Newt Gingrich As A Team: Two Combative, Egotistical Narcissists And Misogynists With Scandals!

Ronald 4 Comments

The indications now are that Donald Trump is vetting former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia to be his Vice Presidential running mate.

This presents the possibility of the most unbelievable combination of Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates in all of American history!

Trump and Gingrich share many traits:

Narcissism
Egotism
Total Ruthlessness
Misogyny
Three marriages, two divorces, and massive amounts of infidelity and adultery
Ethical Violations on a massive scale
Both major Clinton bashers
Unapologetic about their actions and behavior
Both highly intelligent but lacking in humility
Both authors of many books

Gingrich has been out of office for 18 years, longer than any candidate for Presidential or Vice Presidential nominee in history, with exception of Trump, who has NO government or military experience at all!

Two previous Speakers of the House have gone on to be elected Vice President:

Schuyler Colfax, first Vice President under Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1873
John Nance Garner, first Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1941

Also, present Speaker of the House Paul Ryan ran for Vice President in 2012 with Mitt Romney.

We shall soon see if Gingrich is chosen, and if he is, it means major fireworks, and great debates coming in the Presidential Election of 2016!

Particularly, imagine if Hillary Clinton ends up selecting Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as her running mate for Vice President!

Then it means two misogynists against two powerful, intelligent women–the battle of the sexes, and the best debates in all of American political history!

Paul Ryan’s Surrender To Donald Trump Means The End Of The Republican Party!

Ronald 10 Comments

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s abject surrender to Donald Trump as the Republican Presidential nominee marks the end of the Republican Party completely.

Ryan, as the top ranking Republican in Congress, and two heartbeats away from the Presidency, has lost all credibility, by supporting a man who is a racist, nativist, misogynist, massive liar, and a xenophobe, and who has continued to attack viciously members of his own party who dare to challenge him.

Trump is a Fascist who has the backing of a declining white population who is crazy enough to think a billionaire who has been a bully, a narcissist, an egotist, all of his life, and has abused people verbally, and cheated workers and consumers on a regular basis his entire life, will suddenly show concern for the average American.

We have a lot of delusional people in this nation who clearly have no understanding of what American democracy is all about, that we need to unite, rather than divide, to move to the future .

As long as we have one percent of the population, a true oligarchy, dictating life to the rest of us, we have lost the dream of Theodore Roosevelt more than a century ago who, if he was here on earth now, would be leading the charge against a man who is the most dangerous person ever to compete for the Presidency.

All decent people must go past their biases, their prejudices, their hatreds, and even their finances, to do what is right for America, and that is to deal Donald Trump, the Fascist, a resounding defeat in November, to avoid a constitutional crisis and the danger of world wide war, brought about by this maniac–our Mussolini, our Franco, and maybe even, our Hitler!

Imagine A President Trump Confronting Speaker Paul Ryan, The Intelligence Agencies, And The Military Hierarchy!

Ronald 6 Comments

Imagine just for a minute a President Donald Trump and a Speaker Paul Ryan, and the constant clash they would be engaging in for ultimate control of domestic and economic policy!

Trump has no clue as to how Congress works, and he fails to understand that the Speaker of the House wields great power over anything that goes through the House of Representatives.

So be assured that Paul Ryan would not allow any kind of mass deportation of Muslims, or the building of a Mexico wall, along with many other ideas that Donald Trump has!

And be assured that the intelligence agencies and the military would never follow through on what a President Trump wanted to do in foreign and military policy, and this has already been made clear by people in the intelligence agencies and the military hierarchy! This includes David Petraeus, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta and John Brennan, and many others!

President Dwight D. Eisenhower discovered that he could not “bark orders” and get things done, as had been true in the military!

Donald Trump would discover that he would be put in a “strait jacket” in both domestic and foreign policy, and the likelihood of an impeachment is likely, since he is a very dangerous man, with his ignorance and shortcomings in both domestic and foreign policy are massive.

The greatest danger would come from the “mob psychology” of the crowds who come to cheer him on, thinking they are at a football game or some such event.

But even scarier is the image of the Nuremberg rallies where Adolf Hitler spewed for this antisemitism and his belligerent war threats, as Trump’s “minions” are totally terrifying.

Trump represents an evil that must be overcome, and this idea of disillusioned voters staying home creates perfect conditions for a Trump victory, and an attempt at a Trump dictatorship, which would turn the American nation upside down and inside out, far worse than the threat of Richard Nixon!

Speakers Of The House Of Representatives Who Sought The Presidency, And Now Paul Ryan?

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives is second in line for the Presidency after the Vice President under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, the third such law.

The first such law, from 1792-1886, put the Speaker third in line for the Presidency, with the Vice President and the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate ahead of him, later reversed in 1947.

The second law, from 1886-1947, did not include the Speaker in the line of succession, but rather the Cabinet officers after the Vice President.

In our history, only one Speaker of the House became President, James K. Polk of Tennessee, from 1845-1849, and he proved to be one of the more significant Presidents, adding more real estate to America than anyone other than Thomas Jefferson.  This was accomplished by treaty with Great Britain over the Pacific Northwest in 1846, and by war with Mexico from 1846-1848, which added the Southwestern United States to the Union.

But seven other Speakers sought the Presidency, including the following:

Henry Clay of Kentucky sought the Presidency in 1824, 1832, and 1844, and is regarded as the greatest single legislator in the history of both houses of Congress.  In 1844, we had the only Presidential election where the two opponents had both been Speaker of the House, Clay and Polk!  Clay lost his three elections to John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Polk.

John Bell of Tennessee was the Constitutional Union Party nominee for President in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War, and lost to Abraham Lincoln.

James G. Blaine of Maine was the Republican nominee for President in 1884 and lost the election to Grover Cleveland, and was also Secretary of State under three Presidents–James A. Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur, and a full term under Benjamin Harrison.

Thomas Reed of Maine lost the nomination of the Republican Party in 1896 to future President William McKinley.

Champ Clark of Missouri lost the nomination of the Democratic Party in 1912 to future President Woodrow Wilson.

John Nance Garner of Texas, after being Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt for two terms from 1933-1941, lost the nomination of the Democratic Party to his boss, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940

Newt Gingrich of Georgia lost the Republican nomination for President to eventual nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.

So four Speakers were nominated for President, with only Polk winning; and four other Speakers lost the nomination when they sought the Presidency.

Now we may have a ninth such Speaker seeking the Presidency, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, whose name is being promoted, despite Ryan’s denial of any interest in running for President.

Front Runners In Delegates At National Conventions Who Failed To Become The Nominee Of Their Party: William Henry Seward, Champ Clark, And Martin Van Buren!

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Senator William Henry Seward of New York was the front runner in delegates at the Republican National Convention in 1860, but Abraham Lincoln won the nomination on the 3rd ballot, and went on to become the greatest President in American history!

Speaker of the House Champ Clark of Missouri was the front runner in delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1912, but Woodrow Wilson won the nomination on the 46th ballot, and went on to become one of the most significant President in American history, and took us through World War I.

Former President Martin Van Buren of New York was the front runner in delegates at the Democratic National Convention in 1844, but James K. Polk won the nomination on the 9th ballot, and went on to gain more territory, by peace treaty with Great Britain and war with Mexico, than any President except Thomas Jefferson!

Seward went on to become Lincoln’s and Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State, and helped to prevent Great Britain or France from recognizing the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and was able to arrange the purchase of Alaska from Czarist Russia in 1867.

Champ Clark remained Speaker of the House, and served eight years, from 1911-1919, one of the longer lasting Speakers in American history, with only five Speakers serving longer than him.

Martin Van Buren could have been the first Grover Cleveland, to have served two non-consecutive terms in the White House, but instead ran for President once again in 1848 as the candidate of the Free Soil Party, and in so doing, undermined the Democratic Party nominee, and helped indirectly to elect Whig nominee Zachary Taylor.  Van Buren became the first former President to run on a third party line, and the Free Soil Party was the first significant third party, winning 10 percent of the national popular vote, and being a forerunner of the modern Republican Party, which formed six years later, in 1854.

A total of  nine times in American history, we have seen the front runner in delegates fail to win the party’s nomination–three times for the Democrats, five times for the Republicans, and once for the Whigs, so if Donald Trump were to be denied the Republican nomination  in 2016, it would be far from unique or unusual!

Three Speakers Of The House Who Were “A Heartbeat Away” From The Presidency!

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The Presidential Succession Act was changed in 1947 from what it had been in the earlier law of 1886.

Instead of the cabinet officers being next in line after the Vice President, the new law, in effect now for 68 years, has the Speaker of the House of Representatives, a Congressman elected by one Congressional district, as next in line.

So therefore, three Speakers of the House have been “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency, in mid 1947-1948, November 1963 to January 1965, and October to December 1973 and August to December 1974.

Joseph W.  Martin Jr. was the first Republican Speaker in 16 years, when the law changed, and when threats against Harry Truman by the Zionist Stern Gang in 1947, as reported by Margaret Truman, occurred, and Martin was a heartbeat away.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who had suffered a heart attack in 1955 became President, 73 year John W. McCormack was next in line for 14 months, and the recognition of this fact and his advanced age, led to the passage and ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, providing for an appointed Vice President to fill a vacancy after hearings by the House of Representatives and Senate.

Carl Albert was the third Speaker to be next in line when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in October 1973, and Albert remained so for two months until Gerald Ford was selected and confirmed as the the first Vice President under the 25th Amendment.

Again, Albert was first in line from August 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford became President, until December 1974 when Nelson Rockefeller was selected and confirmed as the second Vice President under the 25th Amendment.

So for a total of about two years, we have had Speakers of the House, and all three of the opposition party to boot, as “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency.

And although no President or Vice President has left office since 1974, the odds of such an event occurring at some point in the future is mounting, and worrisome, with three out of four years since 1947 having the opposition party in the Speakership as two heartbeats away from the Presidency!