White House Watch: Why Did Trump Go All-In for Roy Moore?

Roy Moore’s small-but-solid lead over Doug Jones is the biggest reason why Trump has gone all-in for Moore. Besides the endorsement, the Pensacola rally, and the reentry by the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee into the race, Trump has cut a robocall on behalf of Moore. All this after Trump spent the weeks following the initial Washington Post story waffling about his support for Moore. What changed? Trump is telling those close to him that he thinks Moore will win, and for the president, that’s what matters.

12/11/17 5:05 AM

The #Resistance Is 'Creating a Genuine Constitutional Crisis at the CFPB'

If we’ve learned anything over the past year, it’s that the Republican party, even when handed full control of the American government, is so riven and otherwise dysfunctional that it simply can’t govern. The one consolation Republicans have is that voters seem to intuitively understand that while the Democratic party is more effective, it’s ideological imperatives mean it can’t be trusted to govern, either. The recent controversy over the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) is another in a long line of exhibits as to why exactly that is. anyone who is concerned about abuses of federal power.

12/11/17 6:25 AM

Don't Do It: Why Moving Tom Cotton to the CIA Is a Bad Idea

A job shuffle that would put Senator Tom Cotton in charge of the CIA is one of the worst ideas to come out of the Trump administration.

It’s not that Cotton couldn’t handle things at the intelligence agency. That’s not the problem. It’s what would be lost on Capitol Hill if Cotton, 40, leaves the Senate. He’s only been there for three years but he’s already a critical player.

Who came up with the proposal to use the Trump tax reform bill to kill ObamaCare’s mandate forcing everyone to buy health insurance? (A two-fer that also allows for a bigger cut in taxes.

12/11/17 6:21 AM

Actually, 'Eyes Wide Shut' Is Really a Christmas Movie

Die Hard is a Christmas movie. We know this because the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland—honestly, one of the great cultural institutions of the Washington area—screens it as part of its Holiday Classics series each December. (Though I would argue that Die Hard II is even more obviously a Christmas movie: Like many a Christmas film, its plot centers on someone’s harried attempt to to get home for the holiday.)

But, there’s a movie that’s even more obviously a Christmas classic, even if it doesn’t get the notice it deserves as such: Eyes Wide Shut.

12/11/17 6:50 AM

Much Ado About Nothing

On October 26, the National Archives was supposed to release the last of its remaining records on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The date was chiseled in a 1992 statute. Around 88 percent of the records had already been made public, but there were still 3,200 documents that had never been available and nearly 35,000 more that had only been released in redacted form.

As the date neared, Representative Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) declared, “It’s time to let people know the truth.” Jones believes (like a majority of Americans, according to polls) that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald had confederates and that important facts about that “awful afternoon” are still hidden away.

12/08/17 11:43 AM

Editorial: The Moore Rot

On December 5, the Republican National Committee formalized its support for Roy Moore by sending $170,000 to aid his campaign in the race’s final week. The decision came days after President Donald Trump announced his endorsement of Moore. The money is a pittance in the world of modern campaign finance. But the RNC’s decision to back Moore—after having withdrawn its money and manpower from the race three weeks before—is the sign of a political party rotting from the center out.

12/08/17 4:00 AM

Trump's Economy: So Much Winning

There was a time in the not-too distant past when the government’s monthly labor report was the most eagerly anticipated and influential of all economic data, and could move markets. Unemployment and a rising number of workers dropping out of the labor market meant the Great Recession had not run its course, the reverse meant that a recovery was rearing its pretty head. Share traders hoped that things were getting better, but no so quickly as to prompt the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates to prevent overheating.

That was then, and this is now.

Economy-watchers still had an interest in Friday’s jobs report, but it could hardly be called avid. So the economy added 228,000 jobs in November. Good. And

12/09/17 7:05 AM

Actually, 'Eyes Wide Shut' Is Really a Christmas Movie

Forget 'Die Hard.'
6:50 AM, Dec 11, 2017
Die Hard is a Christmas movie. We know this because the American Film Institute’s Silver Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland—honestly, one of the great cultural institutions of the Washington area—screens it as part of its Holiday Classics series each December. (Though I would argue that Die Hard II is even more obviously a Christmas movie: Like many a Christmas film, its plot centers on someone’s harried attempt to to get home for the holiday.) But, there’s a movie that’s even more obviously a Christmas classic, even if it doesn’t get the notice it deserves as such: Eyes Wide Shut.  Read more

White House Watch: Why Did Trump Go All-In for Roy Moore?

After hedging his bets early, the president has come off the sidelines for Moore in a big way.
5:05 AM, Dec 11, 2017
Roy Moore’s small-but-solid lead over Doug Jones is the biggest reason why Trump has gone all-in for Moore. Besides the endorsement, the Pensacola rally, and the reentry by the Trump-controlled Republican National Committee into the race, Trump has cut a robocall on behalf of Moore . All this after Trump spent the weeks following the initial Washington Post story waffling about his support for Moore. What changed? Trump is telling those close to him that he thinks Moore will win, and for the president, that’s what matters. Read more

Did Paul Manafort Violate the Judge's Gag Order?

Robert Mueller files more evidence.
Dec 09, 2017
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors filed evidence late Friday afternoon to demonstrate that Paul Manafort violated a court-mandated gag order by contributing to an op-ed defending himself in a Ukrainian newspaper. In a 41-page filing, prosecutors argue that Manafort, who is on trial for charges including money laundering and failing to file as a foreign agent, spent half an hour editing a column defending him written by former Ukrainian official Oleg Voloshyn. The op-ed, published over Mueller’s objections in the Ukrainian Kyiv Post, condemns American media who “falsely claim that Paul Manafort lobbied Russian interests in Ukraine” in service of the “dubious goal of undermining  Read more

Trump's Economy: So Much Winning

Three percent growth is for suckers.
Dec 09, 2017
There was a time in the not-too distant past when the government’s monthly labor report was the most eagerly anticipated and influential of all economic data, and could move markets. Unemployment and a rising number of workers dropping out of the labor market meant the Great Recession had not run its course, the reverse meant that a recovery was rearing its pretty head. Share traders hoped that things were getting better, but no so quickly as to prompt the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates to prevent overheating. That was then, and this is now. Economy-watchers still had an interest in Friday’s jobs report, but it could hardly be called avid. So the economy added 228,000 jobs in November. Good. And  Read more

RNC Members React to the Party's Re-embrace of Roy Moore

"We have to learn to build better men," said one GOP committeewoman.
Dec 08, 2017
In the wake of President Trump’s official endorsement of Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore, the Republican National Committee chose to resume funding Moore’s campaign for the U.S. Senate, a move that state-level members of the RNC greeted with a range of sanguinity. The embattled Alabaman has been credibly accused of pursuing, assaulting, or molesting eight young, vulnerable women—one of them under the legal age of consent—but denies the allegations. As accusations mounted last month, he lost the support of the Republican National Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee. But amid rallying support among Alabama voters, and the president’s vote of confidence in Moore, the RNC changed  Read more

Afternoon Links: Targeting Fake Debt Collectors, Wiffle Ball Pros, and Can Tax Reform Save Newman's Own?

Plus, Steve King strikes again.
Dec 08, 2017
Newman's Own's future depends on what happens in tax reform. I've always had a special place in my heart for the late actor Paul Newman, whose childhood home was three streets over from mine. His charity/business, however, is at risk of being put out of business if a provision isn't included in the GOP tax reform bill. POLITICO reports: During the Senate’s consideration of Republicans’ plans to rewrite the tax code, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough struck a provision that would have spared Newman’s Own from an unusual 200 percent tax it’s facing. It had been seeking the provision for eight years, and appeared to be finally on the cusp of victory.  Read more

Moore Accuser Nelson Did Not Admit Yearbook Forgery, And Her Story Doesn't Discredit Others

Dec 08, 2017
In an interview that aired Friday with ABC News, Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who alleged that Roy Moore sexually assaulted her at age 16, admitted that she added a note underneath the Roy Moore inscription in her high school yearbook. Nelson provided the yearbook in a press conference last month as proof that she knew Moore. And Nelson's lawyer Gloria Allred appeared to inaccurately attribute all of the writing to Moore. If you look at the photo below, there is a clear difference between the script used to write the words “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say ‘Merry Christmas.’ Christmas 1977. Love, Roy Moore, D.A." and the one used to write the words that follow: "12-22-77 Olde Hickory House.  Read more

The 20-Car Dust Storm Pile-Up

Hosted by Eric Felten.
Dec 08, 2017
This week on the Kristol Clear Podcast, filling in for Bill Kristol is Michael Warren, who talks with host Eric Felten about the multi-vehicle smash-up that was this week in Washington. The Kristol Clear podcast is sponsored by The Great Courses. Our listeners can enjoy an entire month of unlimited access to watch any of their lectures for FREE – but you need to sign up through our special URL: TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/STANDARD This podcast can be downloaded here. Subscribe to THE WEEKLY STANDARD's iTunes podcast feed here.  Read more

Fact Check: Did Roy Moore Accuser Beverly Young Nelson Admit to Forging His Signature?

No.
Dec 08, 2017
On Friday, Fox News claimed that one of Roy Moore’s accusers forged some of a yearbook inscription which had previously been used to substantiate Moore’s connection with the alleged victim. Fox News tweeted that, “Roy Moore accuser admits she forged part of yearbook inscription attributed to Alabama senate candidate.” (Fox later deleted the tweet without explanation.) This claim was also repeated with expanded specificity by pundit Dinesh D’Souza, who tweeted “Roy Moore’s ordinary accuser forged his signature in her yearbook.  Read more

Prufrock: Rehabilitating Freud, Waugh's Collected Work, and Buckminster Fuller's Domed Dreams

Also: Is theMystery.doc worth reading?
Dec 08, 2017
Reviews and News: Revisiting The Great Brain: “Of the many things that a young fellow, barely knee-high to a grasshopper, might aspire to be when he grows up, one that doesn’t often come to mind is ‘grifter.’ Yet in my early 20s, intoxicated by the demimonde allure of pulp novels by Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford, I was reminded of a time in early childhood when it was not firefighter, police officer, or astronaut but dirty rotten swindler that felt like my true calling. The bad influence in my case was Tom Fitzgerald, the antihero of one of the finest, most durable series of children’s novels ever written. John D.  Read more

What Roy Moore Voters Really Think

They believe Roy Moore dated teens. They're going to vote for him because of what they don't believe.
Dec 08, 2017
Athens, Alabama “The minute I saw Gloria Allred come on, I knew it was all a bunch of horse hockey.” –Louis in Huntsville In these godforsaken Years of Our Lord 2016 and ’17 there’ve been ways to misread just about everything: election polls, cultural trends, CBO reports, Margaret Atwood, covfefe. I worried time was the latest such object. It was 6:50 a.m., but that was Central Standard, and it was possible that Dale Jackson’s program started at 7:00 a.m. Eastern. I’d texted him twice in the last 12 minutes to let me inside from the parking lot and there had been no response. So I called. To my relief, he answered, first the phone and then the door.  Read more

White House Watch: Has the Mueller Investigation Been Contaminated?

Dec 08, 2017
As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators continue to bore into President Trump’s inner circle, Republicans have intensified their attempts to discredit the investigators as partisan hacks. As news began to break last weekend that former national security advisor Michael Flynn had struck a deal with Mueller, the president’s supporters latched onto another story: that one of Mueller’s top investigators had been reassigned to a supervisory job after it was discovered he had been critical of Trump in text messages a year before. President Trump immediately seized on the story, retweeting reports that Peter Strzok had been “busted sending political text messages” and that FBI Director  Read more

The God of the Snooker Table

The game's greatest player and the anguished dream of perfection.
Dec 08, 2017
A beautiful simplicity seems to unfold when Ronnie O’Sullivan constructs a century break, potting 100 points’ worth of balls on a single visit to a snooker table. No one ever described snooker as an easy game, but when O’Sullivan begins to flow, he makes each moment look natural. Obvious, almost. Self-evident. To watch him line up a shot is often to think that you—or I, any of us—could pot that particular ball. And while we’re watching the struck ball settle in the pocket, the cue ball has magically drifted to a spot where the next shot possesses the same easy clarity. The same self-evidence. And so with the next, and the next, and the next, until he’s finished putting away the 36 balls that  Read more

The Oldman Churchill

A metaphor for Britain's stiffening spine.
Dec 08, 2017
Darkest Hour is a movie about the first three weeks of Winston Churchill’s premiership in May 1940, and it is balderdash. In a razor-sharp National Review critique, Kyle Smith takes out after the movie for shrinking Churchill “down to a more manageable size” by portraying him as undergoing an emotional crisis due to the political maneuverings against him and the enormousness of the challenge he faced as the Nazis bore down on Britain’s army in France. Smith is right. Nothing in the historical record supports the idea that Churchill faltered internally in his determination to face down the Nazi menace and achieve victory against Hitler.  Read more

Finish the Investigation

Dec 08, 2017
In May, when deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller to investigate “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump,” we welcomed the news. So did the president. “As I have stated many times,” he said in a press release, “a thorough investigation will confirm what we already know—there was no collusion between my campaign and any foreign entity.  Read more

Meme Girls

Tina Fey's clique flick prepares for Broadway.
Dec 08, 2017
Back in 2013, in my last weeks as a high school senior, with plenty of free time on my hands, I wrote a survival guide for future students. This tome, full of wit and wisdom, remains unpublished, safely stored on a laptop buried somewhere in my closet. Which is just as well. I now realize Tina Fey had me beat by nearly a decade—ever since the release of Mean Girls, the movie she wrote satirizing high school cliques in all their, like, horribleness. Based partly on a 2002 book by Rosalind Wiseman, Mean Girls was a hit in theaters in 2004, pulling in $86 million at the domestic box office (on a relatively small budget of $17 million). In the years since its release, it has become a cult classic.  Read more

Kiddie Con Man

The Great Brain at 50.
Dec 08, 2017
Of the many things that a young fellow, barely knee-high to a grasshopper, might aspire to be when he grows up, one that doesn’t often come to mind is “grifter.” Yet in my early 20s, intoxicated by the demimonde allure of pulp novels by Jim Thompson and Charles Willeford, I was reminded of a time in early childhood when it was not firefighter, police officer, or astronaut but dirty rotten swindler that felt like my true calling. The bad influence in my case was Tom Fitzgerald, the antihero of one of the finest, most durable series of children’s novels ever written. John D.  Read more

In Us We Trust?

Institutions are indispensable, even as trust in them declines.
Dec 08, 2017
Pollsters, pundits, and public intellectuals identify declining levels of trust in America’s civic institutions as a threat to social and political order. Public opinion data bear out that trust has indeed waned in recent decades. The great majority of citizens in the early 1960s broadly viewed the nation’s institutions as reliable and well-functioning; today most people view them with skepticism. Confidence in government, the legal system, the news media, the medical system, public schools, and banks has significantly declined, and today all these institutions are distrusted by a majority of Americans. One important factor—albeit not always in straightforward ways—in the declining trust is technological  Read more

Trent Franks Resigns from Congress Over Surrogacy Comments Rather than Face Ethics Committee Investigation

Dec 07, 2017
Congressman Trent Franks announced his resignation from Congress Thursday evening, saying he was unwilling to undergo an Ethics Committee investigation into conversations about surrogacy he had in recent years with two female staffers. Franks said that he and his wife had struggled with infertility, and had twins through a surrogate in 2008. Later, when they wished to have another child, Franks apparently broached the topic with members of his staff. “Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others,” Franks said. “I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process  Read more

Millennials Have Officially Killed the Holiday Office Party

Thanks Vox.com.
Dec 07, 2017
As we celebrate this Christmas season (or this “holiday,” for Christ-haters), I don’t wish to be a killjoy to the world. But reflecting on the year gone by, it’s hard not to notice that we have lost a few of our favorite things: Tom Petty, political moderation, our dignity. And yet, as we’ve hunkered down throughout 2017 to weather every storm from Hurricane Harvey (the tropical cyclone that nearly destroyed Houston) to Hurricane Harvey (the film producer/sex-criminal who has all but destroyed famous men), there seems to be another death that has barely registered—that of the open-bar office Christmas party.  Read more
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