Сдержки и противовесы

[tijd.livejournal.com]

DailyBeast напоминает о том, что администрация Трампа продолжает уклоняться от выполнения закона о российских санкциях.

Per the legislation, the administration was required to issue guidance by October 1 on how it was implementing the sanctions against Russia. That process includes publishing a list of the people and organizations who will be targeted by the sanctions, which are primarily aimed at Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors.
But that deadline came and went without any actual guidance issued, and lawmakers feel as though they are being stonewalled by an administration which has the tools it needs to implement and enforce the sanctions, yet has not followed through.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/congress-trump-wont-implement-russia-sanctionsand-he-wont-tell-us-why

У Конгресса не так много инструментов, чтобы надавить на администрацию президента. Пока что речь идет он том, чтобы затормозить процесс утверждения назначений работников администрации в Сенате. Две влиятельные комиссии Сената, которые возглавляют враги трампизма Джон Маккейн и Боб Коркер, отвечают за рассмотрения кандидатур в Пентагон и Госдеп.

Пока что Трамп сильно отстает от своих предшественников в заполнении кабинета. Из 604 должностей, которые требуют утверждения в Конгрессе, номинированы 177 и утверждены 145. На этот же момент времени у Обамы были утверждены 359 сотрудникв, а у Буша 375.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-administration-appointee-tracker/database/
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/trump-nominations/

America's largest #defense contractors? Lockheed, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamic, Northrop. #aerospace pic.twitter.com/agkEboDnnr

— Mike Quindazzi ✨ (@MikeQuindazzi) June 2, 2016

Из высших должностей в Пентагоне до сих пор не утвержден Министр армии (Secretary of the Army). После двух неудачных номинаций Трамп номинировал на эту должность Марка Эспера, лоббиста фирмы Raytheon.

Что касается хода росийских расследований в Конгрессе, New York Times рисует печальную картину.

All three committees looking into Russian interference — one in the House, two in the Senate — have run into problems, from insufficient staffing to fights over when the committees should wrap up their investigations. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s inquiry has barely started, delayed in part by negotiations over the scope of the investigation. Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, while maintaining bipartisan comity, have sought to tamp down expectations about what they might find. Nine months into the Trump administration, any notion that Capitol Hill would provide a comprehensive, authoritative and bipartisan accounting of the extraordinary efforts of a hostile power to disrupt American democracy appears to be dwindling.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/us/politics/russia-investigation-congress-intelligence-committees-gowdy.html



Приводятся циничные слова Трея Гауди, который прославился бесконечным расследованием Бенгази и Хиллари Клинтон. В октябре 2016 Гауди говорил "тhis is not about politics".

“Are you powerless? What is the end game?” Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Gowdy on Sunday. “Are you going to be able to do anything? There are 38 days left until the election, and Hillary Clinton may be the president.”
Gowdy, as he did at the conclusion of the Benghazi Committee, said he had done his job as a prosecutor and that it was about the integrity of the justice system.
“What can we do? I can do the same thing I did in my previous job: I can lay out the facts and the evidence for the jury and let them decide whether or not they think this person is qualified to be the leader of the free world with all of the false statements, with all of the concealment,” he said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article105738886.html

Ныне, пытаясь затоптать расследование российских связей Трампа, Гауди без смущения признается "this is politics". В статье рассказывается, как он, выступая нештатным адвокатом, пытался за закрытыми дверями помешать своим коллегам расспрашивать  Кушнера.

In a secured room in the basement of the Capitol in July, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, fielded question after question from members of the House Intelligence Committee. Though the allotted time for the grilling had expired, he offered to stick around as long as they wanted.
But Representative Trey Gowdy, who spent nearly three years investigating Hillary Clinton’s culpability in the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, was growing frustrated after two hours. You are in an unwinnable situation, Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, counseled Mr. Kushner. If you leave now, Democrats will say you did not answer all the questions. If you stay, they will keep you here all week.
The exchange, described by three people with knowledge of it, typified the political morass that is crippling the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — and whether the Trump campaign colluded in any way.



Трей Гауди до сих пор легко выигрывал выборы в своем округе в Южной Каролине, набирая 2/3 голосов. Примерно с тем же перевесом в его округе победил Трамп. На выборах 2018 ему ничего не грозит. Но на всякий случай он пользуется своей защитой Трампа и Кушнера, чтобы активизировать своих сторонников и собрать с них деньги.

“I'll get straight to it — I've ticked off Nancy Pelosi & her buddy in Congress — Adam Schiff, and the Democrats are targeting me for defeat,” read an email sent from Gowdy’s fundraising arm Friday. “Because I have been speaking the truth in Congress this past week (and always), Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff are lining up the Democrat machine to take me down next election.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/28/trey-gowdy-fundraising-off-criticism-democrat-adam-schiff/521480001/

Comments

[tijd.livejournal.com]

Один из врагов трампизма, сенатор Джефф Флейк из Аризоны, объявил, что не пойдет на перевыборы в 2018. Возможно, это ему развяжет язык, как Коркеру до того.

"Here's the bottom line: The path that I would have to travel to get the Republican nomination is a path I'm not willing to take, and that I can't in good conscience take," Flake told The Republic in a telephone interview. "It would require me to believe in positions I don't hold on such issues as trade and immigration and it would require me to condone behavior that I cannot condone."
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/2017/10/24/republican-senator-jeff-flake-announces-not-running-senate-reelection-gop-primary-ward-trump/793952001/

[tijd.livejournal.com]

Сильная речь.

Mr. President, I rise today to say: Enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it. We know better than that. By now, we all know better than that.
Here, today, I stand to say that we would better serve the country and better fulfill our obligations under the constitution by adhering to our Article 1 "old normal" -- Mr. Madison's doctrine of the separation of powers. This genius innovation which affirms Madison's status as a true visionary and for which Madison argued in Federalist 51 -- held that the equal branches of our government would balance and counteract each other when necessary. "Ambition counteracts ambition," he wrote.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/24/politics/jeff-flake-retirement-speech-full-text/index.html

Don't say this loosely, but we're watching history today. Whatever is next, senators are placing hard bets on the future of America in 2017.

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) October 24, 2017 (https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/922906525492015104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)