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Monday, February 12, 2018

Muck the stable. Vote out Nunes. No. 1

An interesting websearch.

More to come. Scheduled irregularly, short or longer posts on topic shall flesh out the case that Nunes is not merely a Trump lackey, but a counterproductive one. A political pimple on the royal Trump - face.

UPDATE: On the national level, Politico, here. It links to a SacBee editorial. The Politico item has more focus upon Nunes vulnerability, in District, discussing a leading Democrat opponent, similar to the Vally Voice coverage, which levels serious criticism of Nunes partiality in investigating:

As chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which is currently looking into the possibility members of Trump’s campaign worked with agents of the Russian government to illegally influence the outcome of the US presidential election in Trump’s favor, Nunes has final say on who will be subpoenaed to appear before that investigative body.

Recently, Nunes has refused to grant subpoena requests by Democratic members of the Intel Committee, despite his promise to remove himself from his role in the investigation after the House Ethics Committee began its own investigation of Nunes for his possible mishandling of classified materials last spring. Nunes was cleared of wrongdoing last month.

Nunes’ refusal to act, says Janz, amounts to an obstruction of the investigation.

“Nunes has been sitting on a number of subpoenas, and it looks like the Democrats are going to have to file a minority report,” Janz said. “That conduct sounds, from a prosecutor’s perspective, like obstruction of justice. Many legal experts agree on that too.”

The Intel Committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, said Nunes is setting a “troubling double-standard” with his conduct. He points to accusations by Fusion GPS, the firm responsible for the so-called Steele Dossier, that Nunes leaked or allowed to be leaked information about that company’s banking records. Nunes has since refused to sign subpoenas demanding Trump’s banking records that could reveal his and his companies’ Russian associations.

A grade school child could figure out that if a serious intent is to answer questions of Russian influence on Trump a look at Trump banking records would be more relevant than putting out a memo critical of the FBI and cherry-picking individuals' text messaging. To whatever extent individual FBI personnel had negative opinions of Trump, that is less relevant than "follow the money." Nunes is silent about any rationale for not doing that. Does he know where the money might lead? Ducking that question colors his reelection hopes.

Those two links are from January and this month. They are not stale. Background on challenger Janz from a year ago. Janz campaign site:

https://www.andrewjanzforcongress.com/

Blue America reports Ricardo Franco as another Democrat seeking the seat Nunes now holds. This link gives background on Franco, as does Fresno Bee, here. Earlier this month CNN reported:

"It's important to provide context to what Devin (Nunes) has released," Janz said. "It's important for the American people to get a full picture so they can reach their own conclusions about how well the FBI is doing their job."

Nunes, who has served in Congress since 2003, is being challenged by six Democratic candidates, a Libertarian candidate, and an American Solidarity Party candidate in the 22nd Congressional District race, which includes Fresno.

LA Times offers a separate perspective [links in original omitted]:

Nunes' district sits in the San Joaquin Valley, spanning Tulare, Visalia and parts of Fresno. It is predominantly Latino, although less than 29% of that population is registered to vote, and agriculture is a major economic driver and among the top private employers. In Tulare, a city of nearly 63,000, farmers like to point out that the region feeds the world, with Tulare, Fresno and Kern counties typically running among the top three global agricultural producers for cotton, almonds, wine grapes and walnuts.

The district is home to nearly half a million cows, and 50% of the world's supply of raisins is produced within a 60-mile radius of Fresno.

For growers, Nunes, whose family has been farming in the community for generations, is a longtime vocal advocate for their interests. They say his prior legislation only failed thanks to previous presidents.

Roger Isom, president of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Assn., said Nunes in his 14 years in Congress has helped bring attention to the water crisis. They cited in particular East Porterville, an unincorporated area of Tulare County, where hundreds of wells went dry and people were forced to flush toilets with buckets of dirty water during the recent years-long drought. The congressman's efforts led to the building of a communal shower, he said, and water supplies were trucked into East Porterville during the drought.

"Devin fought to bring this to the light," Isom said. "He has pushed the conversation, and there is the impact in my community."

Now Isom and other growers are hoping Nunes helps push for more deregulation of the farming industry, funds for research and the creation of more dams, which they say requires state and federal dollars.

One question: Does the Trump White House suppression of the Dem. countermemo hurt Nunes, in the District. LA Times implies local politics matters more. At least among large business and agriculture interests. Yet LA Times also notes fund raising.

In lengthy coverage, Mother Jones reports [links in original omitted]:

Fred Vanderhoof, the chair of the Fresno County Republican Party Central Committee, is sticking by Nunes’ interpretation of the memo. “The shocking thing is that we got what looks like collusion—but it’s between the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the FBI and the DOJ, colluding to support one candidate, Hillary Clinton, over Trump,” he says. “As we unravel this whole problem, we’ll probably see some people go to jail.” He’s not referring to members of the Trump administration.

Yet there are signs that Nunes’s advantage is weakening. He hasn’t held a town hall meeting since 2010, instead communicating with his constituents by calling into friendly radio stations. Though Nunes has been an advocate for big agriculture and its water needs, he hasn’t delivered many tangible results. “He’s been putting out bills, they pass the House and go nowhere in the Senate,” Holyoke says. (In 2017, none of the bills he authored passed.) His district’s demographics increasingly favor Democrats, too: Nearly 45 percent of its residents are Hispanic, and its white population is getting older.

And Nunes’s awkward behavior in Washington—like telling Fox & Friends that indicted former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos had never met Trump despite a photo of them at the same table—may contribute to the perception that he’s distracted. “Focusing on the national issues does help Janz,” Holyoke says. “He can paint Nunes as an out-of-touch politician, one who is more interested in raising his own profile and more interested in defending an ethically questionable president than representing his constituents.”

Of course, to really make the November election competitive, says Holyoke, Democrats will have to galvanize a local movement, carry Janz’s message to undecided voters, and raise a lot more money. Though Janz’s campaign has raked in more than $340,000 since the Nunes memo dropped, it’s nothing compared to the $3.8 million Nunes has socked away.

Republicans “are going to be working hard” to reelect Nunes, Vanderhoof says. But, for once, “We’re not taking his race for granted.”

Along those lines, WaPo in Feb. 5 reporting stated:

We are nine months from the midterm elections, and it’s just one poll, and a non-neutral poll at that. That said, Democrats surely will be encouraged by a Public Policy Polling survey (done for the Democrats’ leading candidate). It shows that House Intelligence Committee Chariman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), whose memo has created a fiery backlash against him and his anti-FBI cohorts, is ahead by only five points and has not broken 50 percent. “He was leading a reelection bid by only 50% to 45% against a generic Democratic opponent, with a 4.1% margin of error, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released by his potential opponent Andrew Janz last month.” That was before the memo stunt.

[link and italics in original]

Living at a distance from the battle it appears that neither Nunes nor his challengers have personal conduct skeletons in the closet, wife-beating or such, but November is months away and things have a way of getting to the surface, if there at all.

A sampling of websearch items are presented above. The post is closed with a purely factual link, one helpful to those outside of California and its CD22; Ballotpedia [with links]. At a guess, Janz is the leading opposition candidate going into the June 5 "top-two" primary Ballotpedia describes.

What happens after the top two candidates are determined, between June 5 and the general election, may be up for grabs. Nunes will be acting further in DC in his pro-Trump [not following the money] adventure, and Mueller has yet to report. What is certain, the top-two primary will have the challengers spending while Nunes sits on a mountain of money in anticipation of spending before the general election. Will money talk? Will something of personal impact rise to attention? Will Nunes DC hijinks matter, in District? Wait and see.

Possibly there may be no follow-up post on the theme until after June 5, possibly news may intervene meriting coverage here, sooner.

FURTHER UPDATE: The Nunes Congressional page is here. No campaign website was found. Ballotpedia reports a website link:

http://www.devinnunes.net/

That is a dead link. A site believed to be neutral has Nunes voting record info:

http://www.ontheissues.org/CA/Devin_Nunes.htm

Politico reported Nunes had promulgated a "news site" - see Facebook, here. Washington Examiner in Feb. 11 reporting noted an attack on the Nunes "news" site server, the item being scant on details, however this item from an apparent partisan site states, "Someone arranged so that www.nunesmemo.com redirects to Janz’s campaign website." There is an archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180202004407/http://www.carepublican.com/

The appearance of the archive is of a partisan outlet.

While trying to find a Nunes site pinning him down on specific issues he would offer as important failed; an issues page was found for Janz stating what is basically a progressive Demcratic branch set of beliefs and promises:

https://www.andrewjanzforcongress.com/issues

That Janz page joins Nunes in focusing upon water issues for CA22:

Water for the Valley

Water is one of the most important issue areas in the valley, one that Devin Nunes has tried to own during his tenure as our representative. I have spoken with countless local farmers, and I have looked at the state of our aquifer levels and water storage systems; I can tell you that Nunes hasn't delivered. I will work on increasing water storage for our Valley and commit to recharging our underground aquifers. I will work in a collaborative way that does not undermine our environment or our farmers.

Janz leads with Single Payer, and embraces womens' reproductive rights. He marched. In Fresno. With Congress in session Nunes likely was in DC.

A Feb. 11 ten minute FOX segment featuring Nunes. He blinks a lot. FOX same day and same FOX agent, discussion with Newt Gingrich. Neither segment mentions the Mueller inquiry and whether Trump actually will meet with Muller and his investigators. There is nothing substantive and factual about Trump and Russians in either segment. Collateral Republican worries are all in there. There are questions that should be asked about FBI conduct, but that's not the point of Mueller and/or a Congresional committee investigating Trump-Russia. Nunes appears to not have yet addressed suppression of subpoena power use to see Trump banking records - money in, money out, any Russian names in or outside of that nation. Presidential conduct arguably is more important than FBI errors and omissions and hearings meandering to digressionary areas such as allegations of FBI bias. A biased investigation can still reach to critical facts; e.g., Gowdy's Benghazi hearings.

Neither Nunes nor Gingrich in the FOX items from yesterday has made any factual allegations against Mueller and the present incomplete investigation of Trump-Russia by Mueller. A special prosecutor could be accused to investigate the Gingrich "deep state" charge, which is a serious concern. An impartial special prosecutor; not partisan people such as FOX, Gingrich, or Nunes.

Nunes appears to not focus much now upon his district or his reelection, which can be expected to heat up as November approaches. The FBI is not above the law, and looking at it would not be against the needs of the nation. But Trump-Russia has a special prosecutor, so we can look forward to findings on that front.

FURTHER UPDATE: In fairness to Devin Nunes, he would not be abole to pull off any of that crap without a solid committee Republican backing. It is not Nunes alone that is obstructing and misinforming, it is the bunch letting Nunes walk point. Nunes goes to the White House for marching orders, okay, but then the committee majority marches. If the Democrats on committee want the obvious, following the money, and Nunes obstructs that step by denying subpoenaes, does he get away doing that alone? A committee majority, if one is attained to latch onto the money trail would govern, Nunes or not. It is every Republican on the committee playing politics. Surely the letter-agencies, CIA, NSA, and FBI should for the liberty of all be kept on a short leash and the mood of an agency is top down in part, bottom up in part, because the civil service laws entrench positions mid-totem pole.

But there are two separate questions. If there is a get-Trump mood, if he's faultless then no harm, no foul, but clean up any actual investigation bias. If there is a get-Trump mood, and he's at fault, Mueller likely would so report. Has Mueller gone after the money trail, including looking at Trump banking ins and outs? If you or I were a target, they'd even see what books we've checked out of the library and our banking records would be the first thing looked at before we'd even have notice of being a target. Again, short leash would be better, but not how it is for the citizenry.

Back to Nunes. He takes his role with enthusiasm, that role beng cta, even to the extent his cya attention might be deficient.

Has all this "loyalty" to the White House helped or hurt the District? November voting should weigh in on that issue. Until then there will be the top-two primary in California CD22, and outside money, and lots of in-state money, spent on election foolery. It is no wonder that Congress has such low public approval in polling. The puzzling question is why no district public has embraced enough the logic of vote the bastards out. That mood should be welcome among voters in a district - if there is no compelling reason to keep an incumbent in office, try for a better level of representation by changing. It might be too many hot button issues smoke-screened in front of a compliant voting public; the wealthy using Congress to screw the rest of the nation getting obscured by a ceaseless September and October barrage of propaganda pushing divisive hot-buttons, and that too many voters are single-issue rabid dogs, but there are legions of political science university departments and none have explained, to my knowledge, why vote the bastards out is not universally embraced. It would be with an intelligent voting public. That might be the explanation in a nutshell.

Orrin Hatch is the poster child of vote the bastards out, yet the bastard hasn't been ousted, and in passing it is noteworthy that Hatch mentored Rob Porter at one point in time. Why have we not had single payer? Truman said he wanted it. Since then money has steered the nation's Congress to serve money at greater cost to the people. Orrin Hatch a major part of it. Devin Nunes is a late arrival next to Orrin Hatch. What is wrong with the electorate?

FURTHER UPDATE: Two links, here and here, juxtaposed with the caveat that Nunes hijinks could only exist with Republican commmittee fellow travelers travelin with Nunes. No quotes. Read and interpret. The divide is clear. Who should you trust more, that committee of politicians, or Mueller? Vote the bastards out is a principle that should be taught in high school civics classes nationwide.