by Bob Barr | Nov 29, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerFollowing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the anthrax scare shortly thereafter, the federal government urged Americans to prepare for possible future attacks by, among other things, sealing the windows of their homes with plastic sheeting and duct tape. More recently, in the aftermath of violent incidents involving armed criminals targeting “soft” targets such as students in schools, shoppers in malls, or worshipers in churches, Uncle Sam has pressed two similarly unhelpful strategies: “run, hide, fight” and gun control. Neither of these strategies, which Washington has repeatedly promoted, has prevented or even minimized deaths or injuries caused by criminals targeting students, shoppers, co-workers, or church goers. Still, as Sonny and Cher declared in their 1967 hit, “the beat goes on.” As with other advice proffered by federal agencies — whether about what car to drive or foods to eat — the pointers about responding to active shooter incidents is not only unhelpful, but counterproductive. This has been demonstrated repeatedly in cases where individuals chose to confront armed perpetrators rather than run away from them, and in so doing saved lives.Whether it was the armed and trained church security parishioner at the West Freeway Church in White Settlement, Texas in December 2019, the armed and trained young man at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana last July, or the individual at the Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado earlier this month, taking action against armed criminals bent on murdering innocent victims is a strategy far superior to one that advocates running and hiding. Even when a passive response plan appears to make sense, as when a murderous gunman barged into the elementary school...
by Bob Barr | Nov 23, 2022 | Townhall Article |
TownhallBy extending the jurisdiction of newly appointed Special Counsel John Smith beyond the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation back to the events of January 6, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland is making the same mistake House Republicans appear poised to make by declaring their intent to conduct oversight of Hunter Biden as soon as the GOP majority is seated in early January 2023.Republicans and Democrats alike are set to use the powers within their jurisdiction – oversight by the Congress and prosecutorial power by the Executive Branch – to look backward for partisan political gain, rather than forward to solve real problems in behalf of the American people. Allow me to explain.Almost immediately after the midterm election results confirmed that the 118th Congress would be led in the House by the GOP, Party leaders stated that a primary focus of their oversight power would be to launch investigations of Hunter Biden. In this, the Party made clear its priority would be to investigate the past instead of focusing on ongoing abuses of executive branch power, which not only would increase its chances for victory in 2024, but also lay the foundation for correcting those abuses after winning the presidency.Days later, Garland decided that — rather than appoint a special counsel only to investigate possible violations of federal law in the current matter of the so-called “Mar-a-Lago” classified documents dump – the new Special Counsel’s jurisdiction would extendbackward to the far broader, and no longer current matters surrounding the January 6th violence on Capitol Hill and efforts by to impede the certification of the November 2020 election.Garland’s decision to thus expand the jurisdiction of the new Special Counsel makes no sense...
by Bob Barr | Nov 22, 2022 | Daily Caller Article |
Daily CallerMany of the compliments being heaped on Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the wake of her announcement that she is stepping way from leading the Democrat Party are well-deserved, including the fact that throughout her tenure as Speaker, she maintained a high degree of intra-party discipline. Republicans should take heed as they prepare to assume the majority in the House when the 118th Congress convenes in January, but if recent history is a guide, they probably will not.The fact that Pelosi was able to keep her at-times very small majority marching in the same direction, is a testament to her skills and leadership style. Often overlooked in analyses of Pelosi’s successes in the Congress, however, is the fact that, unlike Republicans, there is broad agreement among congressional Democrats that Party and individual Member discipline is essential if the goal is to achieve meaningful results. In today’s political environment, with the American electorate and its representatives in the Congress evenly divided, both aspects of discipline are essential in order to succeed at actually legislating.Speaker-in-waiting Kevin McCarthy, with a bare-bones majority in the coming 118th Congress, already is finding this out, as the far-right Freedom Caucus and a few of the most conservative members of his caucus already are reducing his flexibility to manage not only his conference but the administration of the House generally.For example, it appears that the Republican majority intends to strip several Democrat members of their committee assignments, in retaliation for the Democrats doing this to Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene in 2021. When the Democrats inappropriately punished Taylor Greene in this way, they broke with long-standing House tradition that each Party decides which committees...
