Will Obamacare Survive?

Today marks the seventh anniversary of Obamacare. After voters gave Republicans control of the House, the Senate and the White House on November 8th, many hoped that a vote today in the House of Representatives might mark the beginning of the end of Obamacare.

President Trump made another attempt today to persuade conservative holdouts in the House Freedom Caucus to support the leadership's repeal bill. But they emerged from the White House without a deal.

Meanwhile, The Hill reports that moderates in the Republican caucus aren't sold either. The president plans to meet with them today as House leaders scramble to find the votes they need.

News broke at 3:30 that the House leadership had cancelled tonight's scheduled vote on the Obamacare repeal bill. The stock market turned down on the news. As one financial analyst put it, the healthcare bill was "the first 'put up or shut up' moment of Trump's presidency," the first chance to "find out whether meaningful change can really happen -- or not."

I still believe a deal can be reached tomorrow or over the weekend.

Deep State Strikes Back

I want to revisit the stunning announcement yesterday by Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Chairman Nunes made an unscheduled trip to the White House to inform the president that his communications were in fact monitored by the government. Rep. Nunes also stressed that "None of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team."

So what was it related to?

This gets back to FBI Director James Comey's testimony on Monday. Comey made headlines for saying that there is an active investigation of the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia. Comey stated that this investigation began in July -- around the time Trump became the nominee of the Republican Party.

Under questioning Monday, Comey stated that he usually makes quarterly notifications to key executive branch and congressional leaders when it comes to counterintelligence operations. Asked when he notified the leadership about the Trump investigation that began in July, Comey said that congressional leaders were only informed "recently," while the Justice Department "was aware of it all along."

Let's get this straight: The Obama FBI director, who answers to the Obama Justice Department, began investigating the Republican candidate in the middle of the most consequential presidential election in modern history. Are we really to believe that Obama's attorney general, Loretta Lynch, did not inform the Obama White House that Donald Trump was under investigation?

Meanwhile, the only people NOT INFORMED last year were the Republican House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

So the Obama Administration was investigating the Republican presidential candidate and it deliberately kept Republican congressional leaders in the dark. Comey justified his exclusion of the congressional leadership by saying that he wanted to keep it "tight within the executive branch."

Why isn't this a scandal? Where is the "free press" that is always so eager to serve as a check on executive power? Perhaps instead of investigating Russian interference in the election we need an investigation of Obama's use of our national security agencies to interfere in the election.

The deep state and its left-wing allies don't like the unusual twists and turns of this controversy. Yesterday evening, they struck back at Rep. Nunes, questioning his integrity, suggesting he leaked classified information and demanding that he be investigated.

Then CNN fired another shot in this war, reporting that: "The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign, U.S. officials told CNN."

But if you read further into the report, it becomes clear that there is little to it. "Officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive" and that it was "premature to draw" conclusions based on information that is "largely circumstantial."

In other words, we've got next to nothing, except for more unauthorized leaks perfectly timed to distract from the information Rep. Nunes revealed.

Liberals To Filibuster Gorsuch

Judge Neil Gorsuch endured 20 hours of grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Senate liberals hoping to derail him failed miserably. Even left-wing commentators recognized that.

NBC's Mark Halperin said, "[Judge Gorsuch] was a very good pick politically and substantively. . . Gorsuch is doing so well, in part, because he's so well prepared."

CNN' legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said, "He's doing well. He knows more constitutional law than [the senators] asking these questions. . . Obviously, he's got some charm, a lot of intelligence and he's doing fine."

CNBC's John Harwood tweeted, "[Gorsuch] makes [an] extremely strong case for himself."

Unfortunately, the left doesn't care. This morning, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer announced on the Senate floor that he intended to filibuster Judge Gorsuch's nomination, saying that he "will have to earn 60 votes for confirmation."

Schumer then dared Senate conservatives, adding that if they can't persuade at least eight Democrats to join them, "the answer isn't to change the rules. It's to change the nominee."

Harry Reid had no problem changing the Senate's rules when it was to the left's advantage to do so. If the left is going to demonize a judge of Gorsuch's character and intellect, then the rules need to be changed by the GOP.

Majority Leader McConnell would be far better off changing the rules now with a nominee like Judge Gorsuch, who does not alter the ideological balance of the court. The next vacancy -- Kennedy or Ginsburg -- will make a huge difference.

If liberals wants to have this fight now, bring it on!

The Battle of Britain

Kudos to British intelligence. The reaction time to yesterday's terrorist attack appeared to be very high. The government also launched a series of raids overnight that netted eight extremists. But . . .

NBC News reports that London Mayor Sadiq Khan "invited Londoners to an evening vigil and promised 'business as usual.'" In my opinion, that's part of the problem. Terrorism requires more than vigils, and "business as usual" is what has been happening as radical Islam has gained a beachhead in Great Britain.

Khalid Masood managed to get onto the grounds of Parliament because he went through an unlocked gate for vehicles. The fact that the gate was unlocked is indicative of a mindset that is unprepared for attacks.

To add insult to injury, the policeman guarding the gate was unarmed, in keeping with British tradition. And he was stabbed to death by the jihadist Masood. In my view, this officer is another victim of the left, just like the 14 year-old girl brutally raped at her high school by an adult illegal immigrant "freshman."

Left-wing political ideology is killing people.