Required reading from around the web of the best, most interesting, or most though provoking things we’ve read:
Pompeo: Roadblocks to State Department Staffing
“In order to conduct U.S. foreign policy, the State Department needs its full team in place. Today, there are more than 60 State Department nominees awaiting confirmation in the United States Senate. That’s more than a quarter of all the senior-level confirmable positions at the Department. These are excellent candidates, a mix of career Foreign Service Officers and political nominees. More than a dozen of these qualified political nominees are being held up by Senate Democrats because of politics. […] Yesterday, astonishingly and shamefully, Senator Menendez blamed the Administration for a lack of confirmed nominees when he said, ‘This Administration’s continued inability to adequately or appropriately fill key national security positions puts our nation at risk.’ These outstanding candidates remain unconfirmed because Senator Menendez and some of his colleagues are using our nominees as a political football.”
Greenfield: The Left’s Religious War Against America
“What’s really driving leftist anger and hatred. Numbers from one poll showed that, ‘religiously unaffiliated Democrats were more than twice as likely to have attended a rally within the past 12 months compared with their religious peers’ and were ‘significantly more likely to have contacted an elected official or to have donated to a candidate or cause’ or ‘bought or boycotted a product for political reasons or posted political opinions online’. They’re also far more likely to be angry over Trump than Democrats who do have religious beliefs. Studies may label them secular, but they are animated by all the convictions of a political religion. Political participation gives their lives meaning. It offers them the opportunity to save the world. Republicans are not just political opponents, but religious foes who threaten the planet’s survival. And what do their political beliefs tell them about the traditional great questions answered by religion? 86% believe . . .”
Ross: Fusion GPS Founder Will Plead The Fifth To Avoid Testifying To Congress
“Simpson’s attorney, Joshua Levy, told House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte that Simpson will not appear for a deposition because the congressional investigation ‘is not designed to discover the truth.’ […]
Ohr’s congressional testimony has cast doubt on what Simpson told the House Intelligence panel last November.”