Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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May 25
Lexington Herald-Leader on Rep. Thomas Massie’s statements about “the deep state”:
The FBI’s investigation of corruption in Kentucky, Operation BOPTROT, took nearly three years, even though at the time getting legislators to accept bribes from FBI informants was like picking off fish in a barrel.
Why, then, would anyone suppose that in just one year the FBI could nail down an international plot against American democracy? Those who cherish that democracy must insist on a thorough investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Even President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters must see that what’s at stake is bigger - much bigger - than any one president or election.
And, yet, defending Trump by scapegoating federal law enforcement is catching on among some right-wingers, including Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie.
On May 19, after news reports that a confidential FBI informant had made contact with three Trump advisers in July 2016, Massie tweeted that unless the articles were wrong, “an informant (spy) for the Obama administration (paid tax payer dollars?!) kept tabs (spied) on the Trump campaign. Of all the disturbing revelations about the deep state in the last 2 years, I find this one most disturbing.”
What’s disturbing is Massie’s feverish parroting of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims.
In addition to criticizing the length of the investigation - one year this May - Trump and his Fox News allies insist that the “Criminal Deep State,” as the president tweeted, spied on his campaign as part of a plot to help Hillary Clinton.
Any thinking person will see the difference between planting a spy and following leads to people with ties to both Russia and Trump. Remember, too, that then-FBI director James Comey broke from protocol to publicly denounce Clinton’s use of a private email server and revived the email questions days before the election, without ever breathing a word about the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. If FBI actions helped anyone, it was Trump.
Sen. Rand Paul is more measured, accusing Mueller of overreach by looking at Trump associates such as Michael Cohen. But Cohen has Russian links. Uncovering Russian influence on the U.S. government requires examining deals between associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump associates.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell renewed his support for the Mueller investigation, significantly, after a secret briefing last week.
Mueller has obtained 17 criminal indictments and five guilty pleas. Yet 59 percent of Americans in a recent poll said the investigation has yet to uncover evidence of crimes, suggesting that Trump’s “witch hunt” drumbeat is working.
The FBI and Justice Department have an imperfect record, to put it kindly, from real spying on the civil rights movement to the cyber dragnet enabled by the Justice Department after 9/11. The excesses were grounded in fears for national security. Dread of domination by Soviet Russia drove Americans for decades. Putin sprang from the KGB, the Soviet security agency, and still smarts from the Soviet Union’s breakup. Russia still craves dominance.
After BOPTROT broke, it took several years to obtain the 20 convictions.
Mueller might find nothing that implicates Trump, but investigators must have time to look for all that’s there.
Online: http://www.kentucky.com
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May 25
Bowling Green Daily News on political attack ad directed against Amy McGrath:
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray was a horrible pick by the Democratic Party for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and he was not a good pick to run in the 6th Congressional District this year, either.
In 2016, the far-left Gray was trounced by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. The revisionist historian was simply out of touch with Kentucky voters and Paul’s margin of victory showed that. Gray carried only seven of Kentucky’s 120 counties, two of which were Fayette and Jefferson, and was beaten by Paul by 15 percentage points.
Last week, we watched as Gray was once again defeated, this time in the Democratic primary by political newcomer and retired Marine Lt. Col. Amy McGrath by more than 8 percentage points. This was an interesting race to watch, as many out-of-state donors spent a lot of money on these candidates. Gray, who was backed heavily by the national Democratic establishment, seemed like he had a good shot of winning against McGrath until right before the election, when he decided to go negative and try to label McGrath as a carpetbagger. Gray ran a television ad that in part said, “Now she’s running for Congress to represent the one place she’s never lived: here,” a narrator says. “In fact, she moved here from Maryland just last year to run for Congress. We honor Amy McGrath’s service, but shouldn’t she live here for a while before she tries to represent us?”
This tactic by Gray was the lowest of the low. First off, Gray didn’t do his homework, as McGrath is a Kentucky native. She grew up in the northern Kentucky town of Edgewood. McGrath moved away from Kentucky to attend the University of Notre Dame and later the Naval Academy, graduating from both before joining the Marines. She served admirably for 20 years in the Marines and holds the high distinction of being the first female pilot to fly in an F/A-18 on a combat mission. During her time in the military, she made 89 bombing runs, hitting al-Qaida and Taliban targets.
Anyone who knows anything about military life knows that service members move around a lot. They are never in the same place for more than a few years. McGrath moved around a lot, but in her own words, “Kentucky has always been my home of record.” McGrath’s military moves don’t make her any less of a Kentuckian. So for Gray to try to paint an admirable patriot as a carpetbagger was just plain wrong and mean-spirited. It was also clearly a sign that his campaign was running scared.
In the final analysis, the negative attack ad may have cost Gray the race. It certainly didn’t help him, since he was defeated.
Online: http://www.bgdailynews.com
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May 30
The Paducah Sun on the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law:
Congress did something a bit unusual last week. It passed a piece of bipartisan legislation.
We refer to a bill that rolls back portions of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The fact that a number of Democrats signed on is testament to how bad a law Dodd-Frank really is.
Dodd-Frank was your typical congressional blunt instrument. It was passed by Democrats in the wake of the Great Recession, a time when the party had full control of Congress and the White House.
The changes passed last week provide relief from much of that, although rewriting the attendant regulations will take time. The new law relieves banks with less than $10 billion in assets from many of the more burdensome mortgage underwriting rules. It also exempts the likes of mobile home dealers from Dodd-Frank rules. And it relieves smaller banks from capital requirements that reduce the amount of money they have available to lend.
There’s still plenty wrong with Dodd-Frank even after these modifications. The law is testament to the late President Ronald Reagan’s famous remark that “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
But congressional leaders did well here to come up with a measure that addresses some of the most damaging elements of Dodd-Frank — provisions that even many Democrats agreed needed to be axed. They crafted a bill they knew they could pass and left the rest for another day.
It’s a start. And many Americans’ lives will be better because of it.
Online: http://www.paducahsun.com
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