Another Waste Of Time, Soleimani Was No Elvis, End Of An ERA

Gary Bauer

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Another Waste Of Time
Yesterday the House of Representatives passed a worthless resolution telling President Trump that he could not take out terrorists like Iranian General Qassem Soleimani without permission from Congress.

Why do I say the resolution is worthless? Because it was a purely symbolic, non-binding resolution with no legal impact. In fact, at least one House Democrat, Rep. Max Rose of New York, opposed the measure precisely because it was meaningless. Rose said:

"Unfortunately, today's War Powers resolution is a non-binding resolution that simply restates existing law. . . I refuse to play politics with questions of war and peace and therefore will not support this resolution."

Just like the impeachment fiasco, this is another example of progressives wasting time trying to score cheap political points rather than doing the people's business. But Pelosi's resolution will be applauded in Tehran, where the mullahs are betting on Trump being restrained because of opposition like this.

Nevertheless, there was heated debate over the resolution. One statement that stood out to me was delivered by Representative Brian Mast (R-FL). I recall first meeting Brian at a rally against the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. He was then a candidate for Congress, and I pledged to support his campaign.

Mast told his colleagues that Soleimani was a terrorist just like Osama bin Laden or al-Baghdadi. He noted that Soleimani's super IEDs were responsible for burning our soldiers alive in their Humvees, for blowing their arms and legs off, and sending our young men home totally unrecognizable to their loved ones.

Mast said that we would have been justified in killing 100 Soleimanis for just one of our heroes he killed.

Of course, many conservatives made similar arguments yesterday. But they had much more power coming from Congressman Mast because as he stood to give those remarks, he wasn't standing on his own legs, but on two artificial legs.

Prior to his election to Congress, Brian Mast served in the U.S. Army and lost both his legs to an IED blast in Afghanistan. As someone who literally sacrificed parts of his body for our country, Mast brings a much-needed perspective to debates about foreign policy and national security.

I have no doubt that our country is economically and militarily strong enough to deal with Iran. What I do worry about is whether we can overcome the moral rot that is so prevalent on the left today, with so many commentators and politicians sounding like apologists for the Iranian regime.

Soleimani Was No Elvis
If you need an example of the moral rot I described above, look no further than MSNBC host Chris Matthews, who waxed poetic about the dead terrorist, Qassem Soleimani. Here's what he said on his show Wednesday night:

"When some people die, you don't know what the impact is going to be. When Princess Diana died there was a huge emotional outpouring. Elvis Presley in our culture. It turns out that this general [Trump] killed was a beloved hero of the Iranian people."

Here's a reality check for Mr. Matthews and anyone else who needs it:

• President Trump said yesterday that we killed Soleimani because "they were looking to blow up our embassy."
• The German newspaper Bild wrote this about Soleimani: "President Trump has freed the world of a monster whose aim in life was an atomic cloud over Tel Aviv." (By the way, I took the opportunity during this week's hearing of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to note how the Iranian regime is built on anti-Semitism and constantly threatening a second Holocaust against the state of Israel. Watch the exchange here:
  
• Journalist Oz Katerji, who has written extensively on the Middle East, described Soleimani this way: "The only way to understand Qasem Soleimani's legacy is to trace the trail of bloodshed in his wake across the Middle East. . . Soleimani made his mark through his unrestrained barbarity towards civilians in Syria and Iraq. . . Soleimani was brutal, merciless . . . slaughtering his way across the Middle East."

That's not the legacy of Princess Diana or Elvis Presley. Anyone who sees Soleimani as a "hero" is an enemy of the civilized world and should be prepared to meet a similar fate. Assuming, of course, that progressives like Chris Matthews aren't responsible for protecting the civilized world.

Pelosi Blinks Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced today that she is planning to transmit the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate next week.

The speaker is facing growing pressure from within her own caucus to stop her stalling, and polling shows that the public is overwhelmingly against it.

Her announcement comes on the heels of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signing on to a resolution to dismiss the articles of impeachment if they are delayed longer than 25 days.

Netflix's Latest Here's Netflix's latest contribution to our culture: "AJ And The Queen." And no, I don't mean the queen of England.

According to the Washington Post, the movie is about "a drag queen who takes on a 10 year-old runaway as a traveling companion while embarking on a cross-country trip in an attempt to open his own drag club." I think I can safely say that this movie is in a category all by itself. I was not aware that Americans were clamoring for a movie about a drag queen traveling the country with a young boy.

End Of An ERA Liberals all over America celebrated Wednesday as Democrats assumed full control of the Virginia government for the first time in a generation. But why would liberals in California care about what is happening in Richmond, Virginia?

Among other things, progressives are hoping to resuscitate the Equal Rights Amendment by getting Virginia to approve the ERA.

That's right -- the same pro-abortion constitutional amendment that the late great Phyllis Schlafly battled back in the early 1970s is still kicking. Sort of.

If the Virginia General Assembly approves the ERA, it would become the 38th state to do so, precisely the number needed to ratify constitutional amendments. But there's a catch.

When Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it included a time limit for the states to approve it. That time limit expired in 1982, but that's not stopping the left from pursuing its radical pro-abortion agenda. Yesterday, a Virginia State Senate committee approved the Equal Rights Amendments.

Anticipating the left's push to have Virginia ratify the ERA, the Justice Department issued an opinion this week officially declaring the ERA dead and prohibiting its recognition. Now, just imagine for a minute that Hillary Clinton had prevailed in November of 2016.

Imagine that "Attorney General Kamala Harris" or "Attorney General Elizabeth Warren" is running the Justice Department.

I guarantee that this week's opinion on the ERA would have been very different, and the country would have been on the verge of abortion on demand being enshrined in our Constitution.

This is just one more example of the Trump/Pence team defending the values of men and women of faith. Just one more example of why it is so important for them to win four more years this November!
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Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer)  is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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