Is Reince Priebus Being Targeted?

Poor old Reince Priebus, RNC chief turned to Trump's Chief of Staff, must be feeling like he's got a bullseye on his back.

It started over the weekend when longtime friend and ally to Trump, Christopher Ruddy, publicly said that Priebus wasn't up to the job:

One of President Trump’s longtime friends made a striking move on Sunday: After talking privately with the president over drinks late Friday, Christopher Ruddy publicly argued that Trump should replace his White House chief of staff.

“A lot of people have been saying, ‘Look, Donald has some problems,’ and I think he realizes that he’s got to make some changes going forward,” Ruddy said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Ruddy went on to detail his critique of White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus: “It’s my view that Reince is the problem. I think on paper Reince looked good as the chief of staff — and Donald trusted him — but it’s pretty clear the guy is in way over his head. He’s not knowledgeable of how federal agencies work, how the communications operations work. He botched this whole immigration rollout. This should’ve been a win for Donald, not two or three weeks of negative publicity.”

But on Monday, when Comrade General Michael Flynn fell on his shashka, things really escalated quickly.

Briebart, the official Trump news outlet, ran a story questioning Priebus' longevity in the Trump misadministration and accusing him of being behind Flynn's ouster:

Citing several anonymous White House sources, Breitbart News posted a story Tuesday questioning the future of Kenosha-native Reince Priebus as President Donald Trump's chief of staff.

Following the resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, the story by the conservative web site carried the headline "As Flynn Resigns, Priebus Future In Doubt As Trump Allies Circulate List of Alternate Chief of Staff Candidates."

Breitbart cited multiple sources with "internal knowledge of White House operations." The Breitbart sources blamed Priebus and the "GOP establishment" for forcing out Flynn over his contacts with the Russian ambassador before the election.

The sources also blamed Priebus for not getting congressional Republicans to approve Trump cabinet nominees in a timely fashion.

But with all things Republicans, there's more. There's always more.

Now, keep in mind that the Brietbart sources are unnamed, but I have it on good authority that the initials of the source are Steve Bannon. (Like that was hard to figure out. Bannon and Priebus haven't gotten along since day one.)

Brietbart also accused Priebus of knowing of Obama holdovers and doing nothing about them, feeling that is helping sabotage Trump's misadministration, as if it really needed any help:

But the broadest criticism of Priebus was the claim that he's aware of "as many as 50" holdover staffers from the Obama administration who are suspected of working against Trump.

“They’re hiding like sleeper cells everywhere,” one source told Breitbart News.

"Priebus has full knowledge of their whereabouts, who they are, and what potential for damage they may cause. He is not doing anything about it, these sources add," the story says.

Even though none of this is coming from Trump officially and even though he might not feel that way personally, keep in mind that Trump is very easily influenced, especially by those in his inner circle and by his sycophants. Even if Trump might not agree now, it won't be long before he starts to doubt Priebus.

I don't know if this is all right wing nuts scapegoating or if Priebus' days in government are numbered, but if I were him, I'd polish up that resume now.

Lyin' Ryan, The Great Unifier, Strikes Again

Breitbart has a seething article attacking Paul Ryan for not being supportive enough of Donald Trump's presidential bid. Most of the sniping it about Ryan not supporting The Donald's xenophobic, bigoted world view and immigration policy, for loving global economics and for not being dismissive of the Toupeed One's sexual predatory audio tape.

A taste of the vitriol:

Yet these attempts to seemingly sabotage Trump are hardly a recent development from Ryan. Over the last several months, the Speaker has made a habit of both of overtly and subtly undermining his party’s nominee.

Just prior to Trump’s cinching the Republican nomination, Ryan indicated to Capitol Hill reporters that he disavowed Trump’s campaign pledge to enforce U.S. immigration law. Ryan also made clear that he would not include Trump’s signature policy platforms on trade or immigration in the House GOP 2017 policy agenda. A recent report by The Atlantic spotlighted how Ryan, to this day, continues to oppose Trump on a wide range of issues from entitlements to infrastructure, to trade, to foreign alliances, to immigration, and to crime.

After Trump won his party’s nomination, Ryan dragged out his decision to endorse Trump for weeks—leaving voters with the distinct impression that Ryan does not consider the choice between Trump versus Clinton to be an easy one.

After he finally issued his tepid endorsement of Trump, Ryan continued to be one of Trump’s most frequent public critics—making repeated declarations in high-profile media appearances that would seem to undermine the party’s presumptive nominee.

Beyond simply what Ryan has said to seemingly undermine Trump, it’s also a matter of what Ryan has not said. For instance, Ryan has scarcely discussed the WikiLeaks revelations regarding Hillary Clinton or the pay-for-play tactics of the Clinton Foundation. Nor has Ryan forcefully spoken out against Clinton’s declaration to Goldman Sachs that Americans who want to limit immigration are “fundamentally un-American”—an astonishing statement given the fact that according to Pew polling data, 83% of the American electorate would like to see immigration levels frozen or reduced.

Instead, Ryan has seemed much more aggressive in attacking Trump during interviews about the election than he has been in going after Hillary Clinton.

In fact, Ryan has frequently given fuel to many of the corporate media’s narratives against Trump—by not only refusing to defend his party’s nominee against his critics, but also by subsequently joining in on the left’s pile on of Trump after the nominee was forced to fight back against his critics himself.

Aw, that just makes my liberal heart bleed for all of them.

Another point of interest, although it's not clear if it is factual or just based on Breitbart's wet dreams, is that Ryan isn't long for the speaker's seat.

I'd hope that he isn't long for Congress, but I'd take that as a start.

KEDZIE!

Republican State Senator Neil Kedzie's son Sean was seriously beaten right before the election.  The imbecilic Breitbart and the rest of the right wing hate cabal was giddy to label it an act of desperate liberals.  

As you can see Mr. Kedzie does not look good at all.  Whoever did this to him, needs to be punished.  I look forward to the Whitewater police finding the person who did this and ticketing them justly.  I do not condone violence at all!   

Thanks to the good folks at One Wisconsin Now, we find out that Senator Kedzie and the Romeny/Ryan campaign had a different take on this tragedy!  They saw it as a great press opportunity, which is why they cleaned up Mr. Kedzie before marching him in front of as many reporters as they could find!

OWN, did an Open Records request and found that Senator Kedzie and the Romney campaign was coordinating(using taxpayer money and resources) to coordinate between Neal Kedzie and the Romney campaign.

Among the records obtained by One Wisconsin Now were two separate emails from a Kedzie staffer who used her state account to email Kedzie's son to coordinate a call between the son and the Romney campaign. They are available here and the text is below:

From: Michelle Osdene, Tuesday, October 23, 2012, 12:19PM
Subject: Sean Kedzie media
Hi Sean,
Great job today. Please let me know what your availability is to do media tomorrow and Thursday. I'm guessing we will get at least a few more requests tomorrow. The Romney camp called today, they would like to set up a time for someone to call you. They were thinking sometime within the next week.
I told them I would follow up with a few times that would work on your end. Let me know when you will be available. For your information, I've included a list of the media that popped up on my Google Alerts (by noon) today.
Let me know if you have any questions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Michelle Osdene, Wednesday, October 24, 2012, 12:51PM
Subject: Romney Camp
Hi Sean,
We got a call from the Romney office. It sounds like the will likely call on Friday, so if you see a restricted number you might want to answer. Thanks!

A right wing, Wisconsin website indicated in a post October 23 that Kedzie's son had been already contacted by then-Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, leaving questions about the intention of the Romney campaign's additional need to speak with Kedzie's son.

It sucks that Sean Kedzie had to deal with being beaten by someone regardless of the reason.  It sucks even more that when Sean needed his father the most, his father did not see a son who needed help, instead his father saw an opportunity to increase republican power in the state of Wisconsin.

What a sad, sick, twisted man Senator Kedzie is!    

I pray that  Neil has a  full and healthy recover!