Saturday, June 1, 2019
VIEWPOINTS
East Oregonian
A5
Not-so-special counsel after all
R
obert Mueller certainly
“The case is closed! Thank
looks as if he could use
you,” tweeted the president, who
a rest. Give the man
magically interpreted Mueller’s
credit. There’s nothing more
statement as saying that “there
exhausting than trying to ana-
was insufficient evidence and
lyze the inner workings of Don-
therefore, in our Country, a per-
ald Trump’s mind.
son is innocent.”
The special counsel made a
Try to imagine some other
G ail
brief farewell address, after two
inhabitant of the White House
C ollins
years and a 448-page report. “If
responding to an investiga-
COMMENT
tion into whether he had been
we had had confidence that the
engaged in a deeply illegal cov-
president clearly did not com-
mit a crime, we would have said
er-up. Wouldn’t you be a little
so,” he told America.
suspicious if he referred to himself the
That was the bottom line, a sort of
way a defense lawyer might refer to a
vague double negative that wouldn’t
presumably guilty client?
work in the first grade:
Well, at least he didn’t say “Trump is
“Bobby, did Sylvia pull the class bun-
innocent!” Those third-person speeches
ny’s tail while I was out of the room?”
are getting a little weird.
“Teacher, if I had had confidence that
When Mueller issued his very long
Sylvia clearly did not commit any infrac-
report two months ago, the president
tion of the bunny rules, I would have
responded with triumphant cries of “No
said so.”
collusion” and a vow to turn his attention
At that point, one would hope said
to making the Republicans “the party of
teacher would write a letter to Bobby’s
health care!” You can see how well that’s
mom, expressing concern that the kid
been going. Trump hasn’t even been able
might grow up to be a self-protective
to make them the party of road repair.
weenie.
But he’s still ... here. And Mueller,
If Mueller’s speech had been accom-
for all his warning bells about a presi-
panied by Real English subtitles, they’d
dent who you can’t say didn’t commit
have said something like: “Look, the guy
a crime, isn’t planning to be any fur-
ther help. He made it pretty clear that if
obstructed justice, but you can’t charge
he’s forced to testify before a congres-
a president with a crime while he’s in
sional committee, he’ll just point to his
office. You’re gonna have to impeach
mammoth report. Anybody who wants
him first.”
to drive home the obstruction of justice
But there was no helpful translation.
issue might have to find some other for-
So you know what happened.
mer special counsel to help out.
The biggest message Mueller wanted
to leave with the American public was a
very loud howl about Russia’s attempts
to undermine the American democratic
system by hacking into the Clinton cam-
paign computers and releasing private
information that it stole there.
And it succeeded. A foreign power
helped to throw the election to the can-
didate its leaders liked. It was exactly
the sort of disaster the Founding Fathers
would have pictured if their worst night-
mares featured computers. They passed
the Alien Sedition Act in 1798, noted
historian H.W. Brands, “amid concern
that French revolutionaries were trying
to undermine the American Republic.”
Brands said that kind of worry was
also what prompted the founders to
require that all presidents be born in the
United States. And Donald Trump ful-
fills that description to a T. The man may
be a remorseless liar who has no interest
whatsoever in any aspect of American
democracy that doesn’t directly affect
his own personal fortunes. But he’s from
here. Think positive.
Trump hates to hear warnings about
Russia, since they do sort of suggest that
he truly lost the election. (Even as it was,
all the Russian oligarchs and intelligence
chiefs in the world weren’t effective
enough to win him the popular vote.)
Kirstjen Nielsen, the recently axed
homeland security secretary, ticked
off our commander in chief when she
started working on plans to guard
against Russian interference in 2020. A
senior administration official told Times
reporters that Nielsen was warned it
“wasn’t a great subject” to discuss in
front of the president.
Trump did his own research, of
course, by simply asking Vladimir
Putin. (“He said he didn’t meddle. ... I
really believe that when he tells me that,
he means it.”) Later, when 13 Russian
nationals were indicted for interfering
in the election, the president just moved
on to arguing that even if it happened, it
didn’t really matter. (“The results of the
election were not impacted.”)
But let’s get back to Mueller. What
did you think about his address to the
nation?
A) That was about a 448-page report,
right? Didn’t totally focus. I was busy ...
buying condiments for the pantry.
B) Thrilled to learn our president
won’t be distracted by criminal charges
while he’s in office.
C) Can’t we do something about the
“while in office” part?
It’s been quite a ride. When Muel-
ler became special counsel, a lot of us
thought he’d wind up as a chapter in the
history books of the future. Well, maybe
at least an asterisk.
———
Gail Collins is an American journal-
ist, op-ed columnist and author, most
recognized for her work with the New
York Times.
It’s time for America’s dairymen to get paid
H
ats off to Beth Ford for
program to assist farmers caught
calling out President
in the crossfire of the president’s
Trump’s questionable
endless trade war. Retaliatory tar-
iffs are coming tit-for-tat with
arithmetic.
In a recent interview with
China even as a still-unratified
Bloomberg, Land O’Lakes Inc.’s
trade pact with Mexico and Can-
ada continues to languish before
chief executive noted that while
Congress.
tariffs have cost America’s dair-
l aurie
ies around $2 billion, the men and
America’s farmers and dairy-
F isCher
men are proud, hard-working
women struggling to save their
COMMENT
people. Their mantra, from day
farms only received about $250
one, has been, “Trade, Not Aid.”
million in aid during the first
They’d much prefer competing in
round of government payouts last
thriving open markets for their products
year.
“The math last time wasn’t terrific,” she
than receiving government handouts.
diplomatically understated.
But it’s hard not to feel insult added to
Ford’s observation comes as the Trump
injury, when the U.S. Department of Trea-
sury is reporting the nation is on pace to
administration announced a $16 billion
collect $72 billion in customs revenue this
year. It’s an unpalatable thought to see the
government lining its pockets with higher
tariffs even as 3,000 dairy farms across
the country folded last year alone.
The farm economy in the Upper Mid-
west “might generously be described as
struggling to tread water,” the Federal
Reserve Bank’s Ronald Wirtz recently
told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
For an administration that has prom-
ised to do great things for America’s farm-
ers, it has yet to hold up its end of the bar-
gain for dairy farmers. So far, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture has offered
little insight on how it will divvy up this
new allocation for direct payments.
Search to find your legislator’s con-
tact information. Let them know the dairy
industry has showed its patriotic loyalty
but now it’s time for a solution and an end
to the bleeding.
The dairy industry is in the midst of
a six-year downturn. With little hope of
a quick resolution on the Chinese trade
talks, the prospects for those hanging on
to their herds grow dimmer by the day.
If Trump can’t offer open trade, it’s
time we demand fair aid to dairy farmers.
-----
Laurie Fischer is CEO of the American
Dairy Coalition, a farmer-led national lob-
bying organization of modern dairy farmers.
We focus on federal dairy policy. For more
information, call 920-965-6070 or email
info@americandairycoalitioninc.com.
Joe Biden: Be proud of your crime bill
J
oe Biden has been attacked
enced a 129-day stretch without
by politicians on the left —
homicides. Citywide, New York
and now, thanks to Don-
ended last year with just under
ald Trump, on the right — for
300 murders, down 85% from the
his role in shepherding the 1994
1,960 it suffered in 1993.
crime bill through Congress.
Put those numbers in a dif-
ferent perspective: If the murder
One of these attacks is simply
rate in New York had persisted
cynical. The other is dangerous.
at its 1993 level over the next 25
For those whose memories of
B ret
s tephens
years, 49,000 people would have
early 1990s America are either
COMMENT
been killed. Instead, some 15,000
foggy or nonexistent, it’s worth
were. That’s 34,000 New Yorkers
recalling what life in much of
spared. Nationwide, the equiva-
urban America was like back
lent figure exceeds 150,000. Those were
then. A sample:
the teenagers who did come home that
“The death yesterday of a 41-year-old
night, the mom or dad or sibling who
armed security guard from Long Island
wasn’t missed at dinner. It’s one of the
was not an uncommon occurrence in
most impressive social achievements of
East New York,” The Times reported on
the past 30 years.
Dec. 20, 1993. “Indeed, it followed 13
What did the 1994 crime bill have to
other killings in the 75th Precinct in the
do with it?
last nine days.”
There’s a topic for a long debate. The
“What was uncommon about the kill-
ing,” the report continued, “was that it
bill coincided with an economic boom,
broke a 20-year record for homicides in a
the cresting of the crack-cocaine wave
single precinct, although with a footnote.
and, according to one notorious theory,
Maurice Matola, the victim, was by unof-
the unintended benefit of legalized abor-
ficial count the 124th person killed this
tion eliminating thousands of would-be
year in the 75th Precinct. … Last night,
criminals before they had a chance to be
a shooting on Georgia Avenue made
born.
Anthony Broadnax, 17, the 125th person
But economic growth has no obvious
killed.”
correlation with crime (homicide rates
Fast-forward more than two decades
fell during both the Great Depression and
to another story in The Times about the
the Great Recession). Property crimes
same neighborhood. “Once the ‘Killing
have continued to fall despite the current
Fields,’ East New York Has No Murders
opioid epidemic. And the abortion theory
in 2018,” ran an April 2018 headline, not-
runs afoul of the questionable hypothe-
ing that the neighborhood had experi-
sis that unwanted pregnancies, if brought
to term, are likelier to produce criminally
disposed kids.
What really changed after 1994 was
that we hired more cops, incarcerated
more offenders, and, most importantly,
policed our streets a lot better. That
year’s crime bill wasn’t the only reason
those changes took place, or perhaps even
the main one. What it did do, however,
was move the country, with fractious but
bipartisan support, in the right direction:
of more policing and tougher enforce-
ment and a powerful refusal to continue
defining criminal deviancy down in the
face of those who said we just had to take
it. It was an act of moral clarity mar-
ried to political possibility, which is what
statesmanship is all about.
The result is a vastly safer country.
That Biden played a major role in it is
something for him to trumpet, not apolo-
gize for.
Side effects? There have been a few.
There may be a case that long prison
terms cripple the lives and prospects of
offenders, with disproportionate conse-
quences for racial minorities. But locking
up violent offenders (whose victims are
also, disproportionately, racial minorities)
creates a far greater margin of safety for
those who don’t disobey the law.
There are also plenty of stories of
aggressive, abusive and sometimes trig-
ger-happy policing. But there’s also
mounting evidence that under-policing
hits minority communities much harder
than over-policing. Just look at Balti-
more, city of discouraged cops, terrified
residents — and a record-high homicide
rate.
As for the political criticism, Biden
can shrug off Trump’s cheeky tweet that
“African Americans will not be able to
vote for you,” since it only reminds voters
that Trump sees him as his most formida-
ble rival. Besides, it was support from the
Congressional Black Caucus that helped
get the bill passed in the first place.
But the former vice president would be
smart to take on the barbs from the left,
especially from people like Bill de Bla-
sio. The progressive mayor could never
have been elected to his current office
(much less aspired to a higher one) had
25 years of ever-lower crime not made
New Yorkers remarkably nonchalant
about the need for safe streets. “Makin’
mock o’ uniforms that guard you while
you sleep,” as Kipling wrote, is the pas-
time of people who lack either the wit to
recognize the source of their good for-
tune or the decency to be grateful for it.
Or, in de Blasio’s case, both.
Meanwhile, violent crime in East New
York seems to be rising again. Biden
ought to pay a visit. He can say: We
saved communities like this once before,
by being tough and smart in the face of
naysayers from both parties. He should
add: On his watch, he’ll never risk losing
them again.
———
Bret Stephens is a columnist for The
New York Times.