International Fact-Checking Day

Ceci n'est pas un cigare volant, this is not a flying cigar, by Bonny Doon Vineyard, via Vincent Pousson.

In honor of International Fact-Checking Day, I would like to check a fact:

In 1998, Rep.Jerry Nadler strongly opposed the release of the Starr Report on Bill Clinton. No information whatsoever would or could be legally released. But with the NO COLLUSION Mueller Report, which the Dems hate, he wants it all. NOTHING WILL EVER SATISFY THEM! @foxandfriends

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2019

One of the signal differences between the Starr report and the Mueller report is, in fact, that while Attorney General Barr is intent on making redactions in the Mueller report before allowing members of Congress to see it, of

grand jury material, sensitive intelligence, matters that could affect ongoing investigations, and infringements on the privacy rights of “peripheral third parties.”

Attorney General Reno gave the Starr report to every member of Congress with no redactions at all (it was over his own grand jury testimony that Clinton was accused and subsequently acquitted of committing perjury, or, as I would prefer to call it, gentlemanly obfuscation of the unpleasant facts), and what Nadler was talking about was something he'd been allowed to read.

Consider where we are

Brews Wayne, I believe, via DrunkenDorkPodcasts.

Consider where we are: It is now considered an outrage that there isn’t an FBI investigation into a Supreme Court nominee’s college drinking https://t.co/8Uf3AaLed0

— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) September 29, 2018

Maybe that's as good a place to start as any. Judge Kavanaugh is accused by various women described as "credible" (including by the president of the United States) as having perpetrated various revolting assaults on them when he was in a state of extreme drunkenness and by a range of witnesses of both sexes as frequently drinking to excess and getting notably aggressive and nasty when he does, including his own apology to a bunch of buddies—

pic.twitter.com/eIQXsOBA8F

— DavKat (@DavKat43) September 29, 2018

—and then denies under oath that he ever drinks to excess, while consistently evading more specific questions on the subject, even to the extent of turning them around on his questioners—"Have you ever had an alcoholic blackout, Senator Klobuchar?" "What do you like to drink, Senator Whitehouse?" I think the question is relevant on its face, I don't see how there can even be any question.

This is the man, by the way, who advised his boss, Kenneth Starr, to ply the president of the United States in his Special Counsel interview with questions such as,

Inaccurate, mindless, biased, disorganized, unprofessional, and corrupt

Kenneth Starr, via Daily Beast (check out the story!).

What

asks Monsignor Ross Douthat, Apostolic Nuncio to 42nd Street,

if Ken Starr Was Right?

Wait, right about what? On why Congress ought to impeach Clinton?

F. Summary

In this case, the President made and caused to be made false statements to the American people about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. He also made false statements about whether he had lied under oath or otherwise obstructed justice in his civil case. By publicly and emphatically stating in January 1998 that "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" and these "allegations are false," the President also effectively delayed a possible congressional inquiry, and then he further delayed it by asserting Executive Privilege and refusing to testify for six months during the Independent Counsel investigation. This represents substantial and credible information that may constitute grounds for an impeachment.

No, Ross thinks he should have been impeached for not resigning: