Conservative Musings

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Showing posts with label Kenneth Starr. Show all posts

Friday, August 24, 2018

Is Mueller Investigation Same As Starr's?

Dick Morris: The Cohen/Daniels Scandal Will Backfire on Mueller

By Dick Morris
August 23, 2018 at 10:45am

A curious parallel is emerging between Kenneth Starr’s ill-fated prosecution of Bill Clinton and Robert Mueller’s attempts to get Donald Trump.

Both special prosecutors initially pursued serious allegations: The Whitewater scandal and Russian collusion with Trump. Both indicted, convicted, and sent important ancillary figures to prison: Jim Guy Tucker, governor of Arkansas and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager.

And then, when their investigations stalled, they sidetracked into a sex-related scandal: Lewinsky and Michael Cohen’s payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

The public reacted angrily to Starr’s focus on Monica. They questioned why tens of millions of tax dollars were being spent on a sex scandal. As hard as Republicans tried to make the case that it was about perjury, the public still believed it was about sex.

Despite impeaching the president, Republicans scored no gains in the 1998 midterm election.

Now, I believe, Americans may question why Mueller is spending our tax money to go after Cohen for his payments to Daniels. As much as the Democrats try to say it’s about election law violations, the public will say it’s about payments to cover up sex. And it may backfire on Mueller and the Democrats.

The reason for the backlash in 1998 and, possibly, in 2018 is the same: American parents do not want sex scandals to play out in front of their children on the nightly news. They don’t want to see it, read it, or hear about it.

The mainstream media does not understand their point of view. To them, such scandal is daily fare and nothing unusual or repellent. They report the developments with a straight face.

But, in flyover country, they don’t treat it that way.

Do you think these scandals will backfire on Mueller?

They understand that Trump may have cheated on his wife (wives) and that he might pay to try to keep it quiet. They don’t think its a big deal and are not about to change their opinion of a president who is so manifestly succeeding because of these changes, anymore than they were willing to turn their backs on Bill Clinton’s record of economic achievement because of his involvement with Lewinsky, no matter how much Republicans shouted perjury.

The same may be happening now.

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Will Democrats Follow Dick Morris' Advice?

Dick Morris: Democrats Fall Into the Monica Lewinsky Trap

By Dick Morris
May 8, 2018 at 12:17pm

In the congressional elections of 1998, the Republicans failed to gain seats in either the House or the Senate despite the historic advantage that the out-of-power party normally enjoys in the sixth year of a two-term incumbent’s presidency.

Now, in 2018, the Democrats are making exactly the same mistake … and will likely have the same result.

The names have changed.

Instead of Kenneth Starr, we have Robert Mueller.

Monica Lewinsky has been replaced by Stormy Daniels.

And the part of the offender, once played by Bill Clinton, is now performed by Donald Trump.

But the plot is the same: Members of the out-of-power party seize on a sex scandal that they resolutely contend is about everything but sex.

Just as Republicans said, again and again, that the Lewinsky scandal was not about sex but about Clinton’s lying under oath, so the Democrats claim that the Daniels affair is all about extortion, bribery and election law violations — not about a porn star and the president.

Will you take the Stormy Daniels scandal into account when you vote in mid-term elections?

But in 2018, as in 1998, the public knows better.

Many Americans are disgusted by the Democratic tendency to wallow in the Stormy scandal even as President Trump addresses the nation’s problems.

Since L’Affaire Daniels has captured the heart of the liberal media, Trump’s job approval has risen from 41 percent on April 23 to 44.4 percent now.

More impressively, the Reuters-Ipsos Poll reports that more than 50 percent of the voters rate his performance approvingly on employment and jobs (59 percent), the economy (57 percent), defeating ISIS (58 percent), taxes (52 percent) and immigration (50 percent).

So while the Democrats talk only about Stormy, Trump is putting real gains on the board.

The Democrats are acting like they have nothing else to talk about. They have bet all their marbles on Mueller and his probe and on Daniels.

They just do not seem to realize that, however glittering the headlines may be, and however titillating the story line may appear, the Stormy Daniels scandal is just not a credible basis for a party to use in winning an election. It’s fool’s gold.

Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Bill Clinton as well as a political author, pollster and consultant.

His most recent book, “Rogue Spooks,” was written with his wife, Eileen McGann.

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

What do you think?