Tag Archives: Republican Senator John Kennedy

Continuing The Shutdown

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On Friday, Fox News posted an article about a recent vote in the Senate. Obviously, the Democrat filibuster is preventing the Republicans from opening the government, but the Democrats won’t even vote to help the people being hurt by the shutdown.

The article reports:

Senate Democrats again blocked a plan by Republicans to ensure that federal workers and the military would receive a paycheck as the shutdown back and forth revs into high gear.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., again tried to advance a modified version of his “Shutdown Fairness Act” bill that would see federal workers and the military paid now and during subsequent government shutdowns. However, the bill failed 53-43 with 3 Democrats defecting to support the bill. Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico voted for the bill.

Last month, it was blocked over concerns from Senate Democrats that it did not include furloughed workers.

The article concludes:

The GOP’s attempt to pay federal workers amid the ongoing, 38-day shutdown came as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus announced their counter-offer to Senate Republicans’ plan to reopen the government.

Schumer’s offer included attaching a one-year extension onto expiring Obamacare subsidies — the main sticking point of the shutdown — in exchange for the Democratic votes to reopen the government.

But the offer, which a source told Fox News Digital had been made in private to Senate Republicans last week and was summarily rejected, was again not going over well with Republicans.

The Senate is expected to return on Saturday to vote on the House-passed plan for a 15th time. Whether Schumer and his caucus block it once more remains to be seen.

Schumer’s offer was essentially “You give us what we want and we will allow you to open the government.” That’s pretty much your basic hostage statement. I particularly like Senator Kennedy’s suggestion for a law that says if federal workers are not paid, Congress should not be paid.

Here Is A Partial List

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The government shutdown continues. The fake news is attempting to blame the Republicans (even though they are the ones who voted to keep the government open). And life continues pretty much as usual for most Americans. So what is the purpose of this exercise? What are the Democrats fighting for?

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported:

The main topic of the shutdown debate has been healthcare funding for illegal aliens, but there are some other items that Democrats are demanding, and they will amaze you. These demands are mainly coming from AOC and the socialist wing of the party.

Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana has a way with words, and he recently listed these demands as only he can.

The article quotes The Tampa Free Press:

The list of projects Kennedy claimed Democrats are insisting on restoring includes:

    • $3.6 million for cooking and dance workshops for male prostitutes in Haiti.
    • Over $4.2 million for LGBTQ projects in the Western Balkans and Uganda.
    • $6 million to subsidize Palestinian media outlets.
    • $3 million for circumcision and vasectomies in Zambia.
    • More than $833,000 for transgender people in Nepal.
    • $500,000 to purchase electric buses in Rwanda.
    • $300,000 to sponsor a pride parade in Lesotho.

One of the comments on the Legal Insurrection article pointed out how this actually works. Rather than the money actually going to the country listed for the designated project, it goes to an NGO that supposedly will do whatever the money is slated for. Actually, much of the money allocated will be kicked back to the campaign coffers of whoever directed the money to the NGO. That is one of many reasons the Democrats are fighting so hard to get this money restored.

Another Reason To Love Senator Kennedy From Louisiana

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On December 20th, Spreely News posted an article about some recent comments by Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana. As usual, Senator Kennedy summed up the situation with truth and humor.

The article reports:

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered a fiery performance during a recent Senate hearing, targeting what he called “climate alarmism” and exposing alleged inconsistencies in the arguments of Dr. Benjamin Keys, a Professor of Real Estate and Finance at the Wharton School. The contentious exchange revolved around climate change, homeownership, and the divide between public policy and personal actions.

The Louisiana senator began his questioning by referencing an essay Dr. Keys had written for The New York Times titled “Climate Change Should Make You Rethink Homeownership.” Kennedy asked directly, “Did you write that?” Dr. Keys confirmed he was the author.

Kennedy quickly pivoted to a pointed question: “Do you own a home?” Keys admitted that he did, revealing that his property was located in a flood-prone area.

The senator followed up, “Have you sold it?” When Keys said he had not, Kennedy delivered a sharp retort: “Oh, well, you’re telling everybody else to sell theirs.”

The article also notes:

Kennedy’s questioning didn’t stop with Keys’ real estate choices. The senator also brought up a July 2024 tweet attributed to Dr. Keys. The tweet read: “Honestly, the biggest long-term political problem the Democrats have is that they don’t know how to talk to low-information morons.”

When asked if he authored the tweet, Dr. Keys denied it but acknowledged that he might have liked or retweeted it. Kennedy seized on this, pressing, “Oh, do you often like tweets you don’t agree with?”

The exchange put Keys in an uncomfortable position, as Kennedy sought to portray him as out of touch with average Americans. By invoking the alleged tweet, Kennedy highlighted a cultural divide between policymakers and the public, suggesting that some elites hold dismissive views of those they seek to influence.

…Such cultural divides are not unique to climate policy debates but are emblematic of broader tensions between experts and the public. Kennedy’s line of questioning sought to highlight these divides while calling into question the credibility of those pushing climate alarmism.

Known for his sharp wit and plain-spoken manner, Kennedy delivered several memorable lines during the hearing. When Dr. Keys tried to defend his position, Kennedy quipped, “You can’t make this cat walk backwards, Professor.”

We need more Senator Kennedys in Congress!

Senator John Kennedy Of Louisiana Speaks Out

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On Thursday, Red State posted an article with some comments by Senator John Kennedy about the bribery allegations against Hunter and Joe Biden.

The article quotes the Senator:

I think the FBI is the premier law enforcement agency in all of human history, and I’m not going to vote to abolish them or defund them. But you don’t have to be Euclid to know that over the past five years, there have been people at the FBI and at the Justice Department who have acted on their political beliefs.

…The FBI Director Comey investigated President Trump on evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign gave to him. It was inevitable in light of President Trump’s prosecution that the issue of selective prosecution was going to be raised. What about Secretary Clinton’s e-mails, for example?

…Now Senator Grassley, who has a great deal of credibility, has received a document from a whistleblower inside the FBI based on a trusted informant that says President Biden has been bribed and that the people that bribed him have tapes. Now, I don’t know if all of that is true or not, but we’re entitled to see that document.

First, the FBI said, well, we can’t even tell you that it exists. And then they said, you can see it, but it has to be redacted. They won’t tell us whether they’ve even investigated the allegations.

The only people who can fix this are the head of the FBI and the attorney general. So the American people understandably have doubts and only Chris Wray and the attorney general can address those doubts. And you can’t find either one of them with a search party, and they just won’t answer.

And finally, my favorite quote:

I believe there’s a perception out there among the American people, there’s certainly a perception of that on Congress, and only the attorney general can address that. And Dog the Bounty Hunter couldn’t find the attorney general right now. He refuses to talk about it. So does the FBI director.

These are all fair questions. They’re not going away. For the integrity of the FBI as an institution and the Department of Justice, the two heads need to look the American people in the eye in front of God and country and tell them the truth. And until that happens, this isn’t going away.

Stay tuned.

 

The “Mark Twain” Of The Current Senate

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Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana has a way of expressing himself that both gets to the point and makes you smile. On Thursday, Red State posted an article about some of his recent remarks.

The article reports some of Senator Kennedy’s recent remarks:

The truth is that it’s important to speak your mind, he said, and he didn’t care too much about what anyone thought of him–except dogs, because he liked dogs. How do you sleep at night knowing some people don’t like you, he said some had asked him. “With the fan on,” he joked. “Because I think I make the right people mad.”

“What else is the truth?” Kennedy asked. “The truth is God is great, beer is good, and, and, the United States of America is star-spangled awesome!”

“I cannot imagine what the world would be like without our country,” he said.

“The truth is common sense is illegal in Washington, D.C.; I know, I’ve seen it first-hand,” Kennedy declared. “I wonder sometimes how some people in Washington, D.C., actually made it through the birth canal. The truth is we’re going to have to get some new conspiracy theories. Because all the old ones came true. The truth is that Americans aren’t perfect, we’re not. But the other side is crazy.”

The article notes:

Americans do not deserve to be governed, Kennedy explained, “by deeply weird, nauseously woke people, who hate George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, and Mr. Potato Head; who hyperventilate on their yoga mats if you use the wrong pronoun; who think kids should be able to change their gender at recess; who carry around Ziploc bags of kale to give them energy; and who think they are better than us.”

“By the way, to me, kale tastes like I’d rather be fat,” Kennedy exclaimed.

The truth is what we accomplished when we were in charge made the economy better and made your lives better, Kennedy said, listing all the things the Republicans had done from cutting taxes, increasing wages, and cutting unemployment to securing the border, beating back ISIS, and putting criminals in jail, as well as confirming 234 judges including three members to the Supreme Court.

“By God, we can do it again,” Kennedy proclaimed.

Please follow the above link to the article for further truths. Senator
Kennedy makes C-SPAN entertaining!

Some Washington Humor

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Humor is hard to find these days in Washington. Don Surber, a former journalist who writes at his own blog and at Substack (https://donsurber.substack.com/) seems to have a knack for finding it. On January 29, I posted an article about his post about Republican Senator John Kennedy’s wit and wisdom. Well, his latest article compares many of the leading figures in Washington politics to Warner Brothers cartoon characters.

The post quotes an article from the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Don Surber writess:

I really enjoyed writing last Saturday’s column, “The Wit and Wisdom of John Kennedy, R-La.” Readers did too. One hipped me to the Times-Picayune’s “Who said it: Sen. John Kennedy or Foghorn Leghorn?” quiz.

Alas, the quiz disappeared down the Internet memory hole, but Boing Boing saved four who-said-it questions:

    1. “She has a billy goat brain and a mockingbird mouth.”
    2. “He’s tough as a boiled owl.”
    3. “He’s a hard dog to keep on the porch. He’s not a porch dog; he’s a running dog. He likes to do things his way.”
    4. “I’m not just talking to hear my head roar.”

Kennedy said the first three about (in order) Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and President Trump. The last one was all Foghorn. Yep, the senator is the rooster.

That got me to thinking. Who are some of the other Looney Tunes cartoon characters in that Loony Bin we call Washington?

Adam Schiff’s doppelganger is Marvin the Martian, the weirdo who wanted to blow up Earth to get a better view of Venus. Schiff is the weirdo who wants to blow up Trump to give Red China a better hold on America.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. At this point, the best thing to do with Washington is laugh at it.

 

 

Sometimes The Only Way To Deal With Washington Is To Laugh

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Don Surber is a retired newspaperman. He writes columns at Substack. Recently he wrote one about the wit and wisdom of Louisiana Senator John Kennedy.

Here are a few excerpts:

Early in his days in the Senate, the Republican John Kennedy said, “This is Washington, D.C. Politics is in everybody’s blood, kind of like herpes.”

…At a hearing on October 9, 2017, he said something that shocked the Advocate, Louisiana’s biggest newspaper.

It reported, “During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week, members of Congress expressed bewilderment that credit reporting company Equifax, under siege after a data breach affecting more than 145 million people, has received a $7.25 million contract with the IRS to validate the identity of taxpayers communicating with the agency on the telephone or through its website.”

At the hearing, Kennedy said to former Equifax CEO Richard Smith of that contract, “You realize, to many Americans right now, that looks like we’re giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to the mini-bar.”

…Six days earlier, he questioned Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan about the bank’s creation of 3.5 million unauthorized deposit accounts and more than 500,000 unauthorized credit card applications.

Kennedy said, “I am certainly not anti-business. You can’t be for jobs if you are against business. What I am curious about is what in God’s name were you thinking? I am not against big business. With all due respect, I am against dumb.”

…On June 9, 2022, he told Fox, “In my state, the price of gas is so high that it would be cheaper to buy cocaine and just run everywhere.”

…“Just because you’ve seen My Cousin Vinny doesn’t qualify you to be a federal judge.”

…Kennedy told Neil Gorsuch when his nomination came up, “I guess what I want is a cross between Socrates and Dirty Harry, and I believe you just might be that person.”

He told Brett Kavanaugh, “I want someone who is willing to protect the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights and understands that the Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.”

The article notes that Senator Kennedy is not uneducated:

He plays the blunt good old boy so well, he could have been Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit, but without the swearing. He also graduated from Vanderbilt, got a University of Virginia law degree and was educated at Oxford. Good old boys ain’t dumb, as Northerners who underestimate them learn over and over again.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Senator Kennedy definitely knows how to disarm his opponents with a smile.

Telling It Like It Is

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I really enjoy listening to Louisiana Senator John Kennedy. He has a way of expressing ideas that gets the point across but also makes me smile.

On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about Senator Kennedy’s comments on President Biden’s speech on Thursday. The comments were made on Fox & Friends. The Senator did not disappoint.

The article reports:

The Louisiana senator said the president had a “missed opportunity” in the speech to address the issues directly impacting the American people. The president attacked former President Donald Trump and “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) Republicans for their alleged “extremism.”

“I’d make three points. Number one, after listening to the president’s speech, I really understand why it’s an unassailable fact that age does not guarantee wisdom,” Kennedy began. “Number two … Biden, we saw last night, was really every inch ‘Joe Biden the Politician.’ His speech was a very cynical attempt to fill our heads with stupid.

“And number three, I thought to myself, what a missed opportunity,” the senator continued. “To talk to the American people straight up about the reasons [for] when they lie down and sleep at night, they can’t. He could’ve talked about crime; inflation; learning loss by our children; the mountains of fentanyl coming across the border, killing our teenagers. Instead, he chose to say to the American people, if you don’t agree with me about higher taxes, more government; if you don’t agree with me that moms are ‘birthing people;’ if you don’t agree with me that government has a constitutional right to talk to your 5-year-old about sexuality, you’re a bad person, and you’re not even an American.”

The article concludes:

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has repeatedly doubled down on calling “MAGA Republicans” extremists, threats to democracy and comparing their philosophy to “semi-fascism.” She said during a press briefing Thursday that those who disagree with the “majority of Americans” are “extreme.”

“And again, we see [a] majority of Americans who disagree, and so when you are not with where a majority of Americans are, then that is extreme, that is an extreme way of thinking,” Jean-Pierre said.

Based on President Biden’s approval ratings, the majority of Americans do not agree with his policies, so who is extreme? Is it the minority who agree with President Biden or the majority who don’t?

A Step In The Right Direction

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By now most Americans have realized that China is not our friend–they have stolen intellectual property for years, the have manipulated their currency to gain trade advantages, and they have gifted the world with the coronavirus. Well, someone in Washington is attempting to take action to prevent further bad behavior.

The Washington Free Beacon reported yesterday that Republican Senator John Kennedy and Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen sponsored a bill in the Senate that could prevent some Chinese companies from listing their shares on U.S. exchanges unless they follow standards for U.S. audits and regulations. The bill passed by unanimous consent. It still has to pass the House of Representatives and be signed by President Trump.

The article reports:

“The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act” bars securities of any company from being listed on any U.S. securities exchange if it has failed to comply with the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s audits for three years in a row.

The measure also would require public companies disclose whether they are owned or controlled by a foreign government.

The bill is written to apply to all foreign companies, but it is targeted at China, and follows intense criticism of Beijing by Republican President Donald Trump that has been echoed by Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Trump and other officials in his administration insist that China mishandled the novel coronavirus during the early weeks of an outbreak that has spread into a global pandemic that has killed more than 320,000 people and cratered global economies.

Beijing denies such allegations.

“There are plenty of markets all over the world open to cheaters, but America can’t afford to be one of them. China is on a glidepath to dominance and is cheating at every turn,” Kennedy said in a statement.

“For too long, Chinese companies have disregarded U.S. reporting standards, misleading our investors,” Van Hollen said.

Let’s hope this bill becomes law.