Austrian chancellor resigns amid tensions over migrant crackdowns

(Hat tip: KimR) - Austria’s chancellor resigned Monday, citing insufficient political support within his party to deal with challenges, including efforts to confront the ongoing migrant crisis. The surprise move by Werner Faymann followed a back-of-the-pack showing last month by his Social Democratic Party in the first round of the presidential election, which was led by the right-wing Freedom Party that favors a harder line against migrants and refugees streaming into Europe. Read more at the Washington Post Read More......

Boehner to resign at end of October

House Speaker John Boehner told lawmakers Friday that he plans to resign at the end of October, in a stunning development that comes amid mounting friction with the conservative wing of the party.

Read more at Fox News
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Governor John Kitzhaber announces his resignation

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned effective Wednesday, Feb. 18, in a letter submitted to Secretary of State Kate Brown. "I am announcing today that I will resign as Governor of the State of Oregon," he wrote in a statement released just after noon Friday.

In just four months, a public corruption scandal involving Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, has hobbled one of Oregon's most durable politicians. Kitzhaber, a public official for 37 years, was sworn in for a historic fourth term as governor just a month ago. Facing not only a state criminal investigation and an ethics review, Kitzhaber watched his support from fellow veteran lawmakers crumble this week.

The governor's resignation does not end either the criminal investigation or ethics review.

Brown, also a Democrat, will be sworn in as Oregon's 37th governor, but the timing of that ceremony is uncertain. Read more at OregonLive Read More......

Hoekstra: Blair Victim of Obama's Politicization

NEWSMAX, 5/20/2010 - U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, after being notified of director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s resignation, called the public servant a victim of President Obama's ongoing politicization of national security. Hoekstra said,

[...] "Congressional Republicans we will be watching closely who the president plans to name as a successor. Right now, the Obama administration’s national security apparatus is broken, dysfunctional and in disarray. Dennis Blair was the one person you could count on for rationality among Holder, Napolitano and Brennan—and he’s the one the president let go." Read more about Dennis Blair at Newsmax...

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Hoekstra: Blair Victim of Obama's Politicization

NEWSMAX, 5/20/2010 - U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, after being notified of director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair’s resignation, called the public servant a victim of President Obama's ongoing politicization of national security. Hoekstra said,

[...] "Congressional Republicans we will be watching closely who the president plans to name as a successor. Right now, the Obama administration’s national security apparatus is broken, dysfunctional and in disarray. Dennis Blair was the one person you could count on for rationality among Holder, Napolitano and Brennan—and he’s the one the president let go." Read more about Dennis Blair at Newsmax...

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ORP Chairman's message about Andrew Over

FROM BOB TIERNAN
Chairman, Oregon Republican Party
2/22/2010

Dear ORP Executive and Central Committee Members,
I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to watch some of the exceptional action from the CPAC convention in Washington, D.C. I am writing today to share some news that is both sad and exciting. Andrew Over, who has served as Executive Director of the Oregon Republican Party for the past 2 years, recently informed me of his decision to step down as Executive Director in order to pursue a career outside of politics. I respect the decision that Andrew has made for himself and his family, however, his professionalism and leadership will be greatly missed at the Oregon Republican Party. During his time as Executive Director, Andrew brought the ORP out of a period of financial instability and raised the Party’s profile across the state. Andrew’s leadership and campaign background helped to refocus the Party’s efforts on electing Republicans and has put in place a strong political organization that is poised to take advantage of Republican opportunities in 2010.

Most recently, under Andrew’s leadership, the ORP led the robust statewide grassroots and Get-Out -the-Vote efforts for the tax referendum campaign. We have had so many accomplishments during this past year – none of which could have been accomplished without his help and leadership. The ORP is now considered one of the TOP 10 party organizations in this country – Andrew had everything to do with putting us there.The Party’s work over the past year and especially the work on the recent tax referendum have put us in a great position to capitalize on the political climate for the 2010 elections. To do this, we must work together and I look forward to working with you over the next year to promote Republican principles and elect Republican candidates.Andrew has agreed to stay on through Dorchester and I will keep you updated over the next couple weeks on what is happening at the ORP. In the meantime, I would like to thank Andrew for his service to the Oregon Republican Party and wish he and his family the best in their future endeavors. Sincerely,

Bob Tiernan
Chairman, Oregon Republican Party Read More......

Gallup: 70 Percent say Palin's resignation has no effect on their opinion

AMERICAN SPECTATOR, 7/7/2009 by Philip Klein - A new Gallup poll finds that 70 percent of Americans say that Sarah Palin's decision to resign as governor of Alaska has no effect on their opinion of her. At the same time, 17 percent view her less favorably as a result of the move, and 9 percent view her more favorably. Meanwhile, Palin continues to be polarizing, with 43 percent saying they would be very or somewhat likely to vote for her as president and 54 percent saying they would be "not too likely" or "not at all likely" to vote for her. But the media gets overwhelmingly bad reviews, with 53 percent of Americans saying that coverage of Palin has been "unfairly negative" while only 9 percent say it's "unfairly positive" and 28 percent say it's "about right." Read more at the American Spectator... Read More......

After AG Piñata

Opinion Journal, Review & Outlook, August 28, 2007, Hat tip: Maureen

Two priorities: Presidential power and the war on terror.

Democrats finally got their man yesterday, as Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation so he'd no longer be a political "distraction" as Attorney General. President Bush accepted with regret and rued that his longtime friend had been "dragged through the mud for political reasons." The decision was probably inevitable, but it should also teach the White House a lesson in the kind of qualities Mr. Bush will need in a successor.

Mr. Gonzales made more than a few political mistakes, and his management at Justice will not be taught in case studies. Yet the great irony of his tenure is that he is hardly the hyper-partisan political actor that Democrats portrayed him to be. He's more a conciliator than fighter. His greatest mistake is that he underestimated the political assaults that would come his way once Democrats took Congress.

Thus did the entirely legitimate dismissal of nine U.S. Attorneys blossom into a "scandal" without a crime. Those Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President, and the Administration should have defended the firings as a proper exercise of Presidential political authority from the moment they were questioned. Instead, Mr. Gonzales allowed assorted Justice officials to claim such other reasons as competence for the dismissals, giving Democrats the opening they needed to charge a "coverup" and question his "credibility." The claims that Mr. Gonzales lied to Congress were always trumped up, but his ability to argue for Mr. Bush's other priorities was undermined.

On the merits, the worst abuse uncovered in this affair so far was committed by a Member of Congress: Senator Pete Domenici's phone call to a U.S. Attorney about the status of a corruption probe against political opponents in New Mexico. But that was quickly dropped as a story line because the real Democratic goal is to keep the Bush White House under constant political fire through November 2008.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave that game away yesterday, when he greeted Mr. Gonzales's resignation with a press release noting that this "is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House."

In other words, Democrats will now insist that the price of confirmation for the next Attorney General be that he agrees to appoint a "special counsel" to investigate the firing fiasco. This would mean the next 17 months would be filled with more grand jury proceedings, FBI leaks, and other events designed to investigate what is essentially a political dispute. If Mr. Bush lets that happen, he might as well stay in Crawford.

With so little time left in his term, Mr. Bush needs above all an AG willing to explain and defend his policies on the vital and related areas of Presidential power and the war on terror. Mr. Gonzales was mostly a stalwart on the latter, going back to his years as White House Counsel. More recently, he has argued inside the Administration for the usefulness of Guantanamo against those at State and Defense who want to close it for reasons of public diplomacy. Mr. Gonzales understands that these detainees have to be kept somewhere, and that the criminal justice system is not up to the job of trying them. His successor should be someone willing to engage critics on the Gitmo battle, as well as on fights over military tribunals and wiretaps of foreign terrorists. He should also be someone who understands that even a weakened President needs to act as if he's strong. That is, even a "lame duck" President still retains his powers under the Constitution and will be more effective if he's willing to use them.

The press is floating the name of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was confirmed unanimously by the Senate as recently as 2005. That'd be fine with us, though we wonder why Mr. Bush would want to fight two confirmation battles or revisit Hurricane Katrina.

A better choice would be Laurence Silberman, a Deputy Attorney General during the 1970s when the executive branch was similarly under siege from Capitol Hill. Now on senior status with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Silberman also knows the terror issue, having served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's Review Panel and as co-chair of the Robb-Silberman commission that looked at Iraq intelligence. Judges Michael Mukasey or Jose Cabranes might also fit the bill.

Democrats may be in such a mood that they won't confirm anybody, but then the political nature of their attacks will be exposed for what they are.

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