NEWS AND OPINION:
He’s off the presidential campaign trail for the time being, and on to a cause that is close to his heart. On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham heads to the U.S. Capitol to formally introduce the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act before the U.S. Senate. He will be joined at a press conference by pro-life leaders who support legislation meant “to protect children after five months,” — more than halfway through pregnancy, when the baby can feel pain. The coalition points out that even fetal surgeons acknowledge this phenomenon by “routinely anesthetizing their small patients before surgery.”
Mr. Graham has already made his case clear.
“There are seven countries who allow on-demand abortions at 20 weeks, and I don’t believe the United States should be in that club,” Mr. Graham noted last month, following passage of the aforementioned bill in the House. “Over time, we’re going to win on this issue just like we did on another pro-life bill I authored, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. I believe we are on the right side of history. I think America is at its best when we are standing up for the least among us.”
WHITE HOUSE BAND-AID
One former lawmaker, presidential hopeful and combat veteran is not entirely thrilled by President Obama’s plan to send 450 more U.S. troops to Iraq to help train Iraqi security forces to fight the Islamic State.
“This is the equivalent to putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. This does not reflect a strategy. It is the reactive facade of doing something. We have 3,000 troops in Iraq. Another 450 does not reflect a reinforcement of success,” says Allen West, now president and CEO of the National Center For Policy Analysis.
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MR. RUBIO DISCOMBOBULATES THE PRESS
Behold, it’s “Rubio derangement syndrome,” a convenient new term introduced by Roger L. Simon, founder of PJ Media.
“It took several years of George W. Bush’s presidency for the mainstream media to develop full-blown Bush derangement syndrome, but the New York Times seems to have contracted Rubio derangement syndrome over a year before there is even a Republican nominee, let alone a sitting president,” says Mr. Simon, referring to a pair of recent hit pieces in The Times, critical of Sen. Marco Rubio for his traffic tickets and purchase of a family fishing boat, among other things.
Yes, well. Any time certain candidates make gains, the old Gray Lady gets nervous. And aggressive. The gains for Mr. Rubio are accumulating, meanwhile. Why, only Wednesday, a Saint Leo University poll of Florida Republicans found that given a choice between Mr. Rubio and rival Jeb Bush alone, the respondents chose Mr. Rubio 48 percent to 40 percent, respectively. It is a “significant surge,” the pollsters say.
“Rubio is young, gifted, charismatic and Hispanic — a potential winner against the aging and oh-so-familiar Hillary Clinton in a general election. But that still doesn’t quite account for the nuttiness at The Times. After all, they’re spending more time investigating Rubio a year and a half out than they ever did at far more significant matters like President Obama’s still unknown college record,” Mr. Simon continues.
“Perhaps it’s because Rubio threatens not just Hillary but them. He threatens their world view that the cool guy is always on the Democratic side. He exposes them for what they are — not exactly with it, but actually very square and old fashioned. Liberalism, despite its recent supposed renaissance, is dead ideologically, out of ideas,” he concludes.
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WEATHER OR NOT
This is not a place for Al Gore and depressed polar bears. The Heartland Institute’s International Conference on Climate Change arrives in the nation’s capital on Thursday, drawing scientists, economists, and policy experts who fight the politicization and misinterpretation of climate science — and fearlessly suggest that Congress “start over” when it comes to global warming.
Sen. Jim Inhofe and Rep. Lamar Smith are among those to rally the big gathering — which includes such learned climate skeptics as John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel and Marc Morano, editor of ClimateDepot.com — and a spate of scholars from the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, among many others. Their aim is to encourage “otherwise silent scientists, philanthropists, and civic and business leaders to speak up on behalf of sound science and common sense.”
See the conference live online beginning at 8 a.m. ET on Thursday here: Heartland.org
FAITH AND BEGORRAH
“Tiraloo! Tiraloo! It’s time to party!
He’s gonna be president — Martin O’Malley.”
— From a new campaign song for Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley recorded by The Corrigan Brothers, an Irish rock band from Tipperary. Their last contribution to U.S. politics was the ditty “There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama,” recorded in 2008. The O’Malley campaign has vowed to add the new tune to their campaign playlist.
Mr. O’Malley, incidentally, will be in Iowa on Thursday and New Hampshire on Saturday.
THE SEINFELD FACTOR
It’s been 17 years since George, Jerry, Kramer and Elaine had their way with comedy. Think of it. “Seinfeld” went off the air in 1998. And Jerry Seinfeld, one of the masterminds behind the primetime favorite, has since assumed an unfamiliar role as cultural gadfly in the PC wars. He’s become a critic against the creeping, neutralizing effect of political correctness on comedy itself and the public mindset. Mr. Seinfeld has revealed he’ll now avoid college campuses because students have become ultra-sensitive in their embrace of the virtuous PC cause; he’s personally bothered by the diminished humor in the citizenry. And he has received considerable pushback for his views for quite some time.
“Jerry Seinfeld is being treated as though he’s a Republican,” said Rush Limbaugh when the comedian first voiced his irritation — 16 months ago.
“Academic freedom has become a joke. Comedians from Chris Rock to Bill Maher to Seinfeld have battled college audiences because academia has become too PC,” observes Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture for the Media Research Center.
“Sadly, this reflects similar liberal, thought-police problems for professors. Many of them are so terrified of what they say that even the left-wing news organization Vox ran a piece by a professor scared to use his real name and headlined ’I’m a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me.’ This is the world the left has created — where colleges have a safe space for everything except freedom,” Mr. Gainor adds.
POLL DU JOUR
• 70 percent of people in NATO countries support the idea of Western nation’s sending economic aid to Ukraine.
• 68 percent believe the U.S. would come to the aid of a NATO ally in a “serious military conflict” with Russia.
• 57 percent support the idea of Ukraine joining NATO.
• 50 percent support the idea of Ukraine joining the European Union.
• 48 percent say NATO countries should come to the aid of another NATO ally in a “serious military conflict” with Russia.
• 41 percent support the idea of NATO sending arms to Ukraine.
Source: A Pew Research Center poll of an average 1,000 adults conducted throughout April and May in Poland, Spain, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and the U.S; the percentage quoted here is the median number.
• Ballyhoo, whatnot, chitchat to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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