T. Belman. Frank Gaffney Jr is a close associate of Clare Lopez.
Draining the swamp
Vice-e President-elect Mike Pence has purged lobbyists placed in key transition leadership roles by Chris Christie, the former head of Trump’s transition team.
Pence signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday, formally placing him in charge of the transition team after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was removed from the position by Donald Trump last week.
During his time heading the transition team, Christie placed a number of lobbyists, former bureaucrats, academics and corporate lawyers in key leadership positions, alienating many Trump allies who felt their inclusion conflicted with Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC.
Upon replacing Christie, Pence immediately ordered the removal of lobbyists and other Christie-appointed figures from the transition team.
The decision “makes good on [Trump’s] vision of how he wants his government constructed,” one source told Fox News.
Mike Rogers, a former Representative from Michigan and chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recruited by Christie, left his position advising the transition team on national security issues; corporate and foreign government lobbyist Matthew Freedman was also removed.
Frank Gaffney, a former defense official in the Reagan administration, has replaced Rogers in that role (advising the transition team on national security issues), along with California Representative Devin Nunes and former Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra.
Richard Bagger, Christie’s former chief of staff who had been executive director of the transition, and New Jersey Republican William Palatucci, who served as the transition’s general counsel, were also removed from their positions.
The mainstream media has been quick to pounce on the transition team’s “state of disarray” due to “firings, infighting,” rather than praise Trump’s efforts to purge his transition team of lobbyists placed in positions by an establishment Republican.
The mainstream media’s glee in covering the supposed turmoil in the transition would be less ridiculous had that very same mainstream media not flipped out over Donald Trump’s decision to go for dinner with his family in New York City without first informing the press.
I have a joke about that from last January — long before more serious allegations surfaced about Bill Clinton, nobody was talking about him at that time — nobody in my crowd, including myself, actually knew about anything but the Monica Lewinsky scandal — I actually was telling this joke quite a bit earlier but wrote it in my blog last January:
https://pinchinat.wordpress.com/page/5/
Here Come da Pope
JANUARY 29, 2016
When the Pope came to town recently, a lot of people were talking about the spiritual impact of his visit, how people were being nicer to one another, and so on. As a New York driver, I drew a somewhat different lesson: We should only elect philanderers, men who cheat on their wives, President. Huh, what? Do I hear you say? How on earth did you get that? I will tell you. It’s quite logical, really. What is it that the Pope is to all New Yorkers, irrespective of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, sexual origin, dominant hand* or favorite musical instrument? Oh right, and religion? He’s a public figure. And what do all public figures have in common? They screw up traffic.
[I’m driving down the West Side Highway, they announce on the radio that Obama is going to Sylvia’s. BAM! The road blocks go up. The West Side Highway turns into a parking lot. I don’t even want to think about the FDR Drive.]
It being a Presidential election season and all, I’m surprised nobody’s thought of this quintissentially non-partisan perfect New York issue – they don’t have to keep their word, after all, I mean do they ever?** —
“if elected, I solemnly swear never, ever, ever under any circumstances to come here” (and screw up traffic.) Or at the very least, to have the common decency to sneak around like President Clinton, who, in fact, stayed in the oval office half the time, additionally providing an innovative spin on room service.
*yes, I really, seriously once had a left-handed boss who felt that he was a member of an oppressed minority in a right-handed world; in the ultimate real-life viola joke, I was told with a straight face by a young violist of her famous teacher who wrote a letter to a famous string magazine protesting viola jokes as a form of hate speech. In elementary school, I remember being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. If I knew then what I know now, I would have said, “oppressed.”
**”The Most important thing is sincerity. Once you can fake that, the rest is easy.” – George Burns
—
So, our Kobiyashi Maru*** President-Elect is, as is his wont, not only thinking outside the box, but reinventing it. Sneaking around — and thus not screwing up traffic — in order to be a good husband and family man!
***
“James T. Kirk’s test
James T. Kirk took the test three times while at Starfleet Academy. Before his third attempt, Kirk surreptitiously reprogrammed the simulator so that it was possible to rescue the freighter. Despite having cheated, Kirk was awarded a commendation for “original thinking”. This fact is revealed in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as Kirk, Saavik and others are marooned. Saavik accuses Kirk of never having faced the no-win scenario. Kirk replies that he doesn’t believe in such a thing.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru