The Glendale Star
8
February 3, 2022
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Kelly joined at Biden’s hip in upcoming race BY J.D. HAYWORTH
Glendale Star Columnist
There’s no mistaking Mark Kelly for the late comedian Don Knotts — especially since our junior senator bears an uncanny resemblance to Uncle Fester of “The Addams Family” — but similar themes have emerged in the body of work from both the contemporary legislator and the comedian of a bygone era. Knotts, who won multiple Emmy Awards for his portrayal of bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” parlayed that success on the small screen into a five-picture deal with Universal Studios in the mid1960s. Sen. Kelly parlayed his fame from piloting the space shuttle into winning a seat in the Senate. Certainly Kelly’s fundraising abilities have proven astronomical; his campaign pulled in $9 million in the final three months of last year, giving him an estimated war chest of $22 million as he attempts to win a full six-year term this November.
Of course, $22 million — or more — won’t buy what it used to… not even as recently as the campaign year of 2020. That’s because of Jan. 20, 2021… the day Joe Biden took up residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Immediately afterward, the politico-economic condition now known as “Bidenflation” took hold. Ol’ Joe began by revoking authorization for the Keystone XL pipeline in an executive order. In so doing, he killed 10,000 jobs and took $2.2 billion in payroll out of workers’ pockets. One of the newly unemployed, Neal Crabtree of Fouke, Arkansas, told the “Boston Herald” his concerns extended beyond his family to friends, neighbors and his fellow countrymen. “Now we’re seeing rising energy prices,” said Crabtree, a common-sense kind of guy, who was working as a welding foreman before Joe Biden got a new job… and took away his. Sadly, common sense is in short sup-
ply at the White House and within the Senate Democratic Caucus. Then again, lots of things are in short supply these days. A crippled supply line and a predictable decline in domestic energy production prompted a spike in prices. The result? The worst inflation rate our nation has seen in 40 years. As costs increased across the board for food, shelter, clothing and transportation, prices at the pump were especially troubling: a hike of almost 50% by December. Adding even more fuel to the inflationary fires was the spending spree of the Biden Bunch. Unilaterally enacted by the Democrats, a $1.9 trillion cash infusion actually paid bonuses to some lucky workers to stay off the job, kept the Bureau of Printing and Engraving churning out greenbacks, and further bloated our money supply. Whether due to economic illiteracy or delusion — perhaps both — Joe Biden then claimed that his horribly misnamed “Build Back Better” initia-
tive would somehow reduce inflation. Left unexplained is the dubious rationale behind the misguided notion that an exponentially more obscene orgy of spending — $5.5 trillion dollars’ worth — will do anything other than launch inflation to even “greater” heights and plunge our standard of living to even lower depths. Thankfully, the “Build Back Bummer” has been scrubbed for now… no thanks to Mark Kelly. Instead, Kelly has been a dependable vote for Bidenomics and Bidenflation, but Republicans aren’t exactly biding their time in the effort to scrub Mark Kelly’s political mission. This summer’s primary for the Arizona GOP Senate nomination will be crowded and spirited. The eventual winner will face a cash-infused but performance-imperiled incumbent, joined at the hip to Joe Biden. Mark Kelly’s handlers are doing what they can right now to start a midcourse correction, recently making their man available for an interview
a jump-start to his campaign. His promise at a February 2020 debate: “I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure we in fact get everyone represented.” The applause was loud. Biden won a seven-way primary with 49% of the vote. I understand we live in a nation where 108 out of 115 members of the highest court in the land have been white men. I understand and see value in diversity, of justices who bring different perspectives and cultures to the court — even
if they tend to vote in lockstep with either one of America’s two dominant, disastrous political parties. But for days I’ve been scouring the news waiting for someone to say what to me seemed abundantly obvious: Shouldn’t the president, a Democrat, nominate the most qualified liberal justice to the court, as opposed to filtering out candidates based on race and gender? I mean this as no slight to the jurists on the short list: Ketanji Brown Jackson, who currently sits on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the second most important court in the country.
Harvard educated, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, Brown Jackson clerked for Breyer early in her career. Also getting serious consideration is Leondra Kruger, who currently sits on the California Supreme Court. Kruger previously clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and, as an assistant U.S. solicitor general, she argued a dozen cases before SCOTUS. If either of these two amazing Black women is the most qualified choice for the court, then I celebrate the appointment. Ironically, next year the court is scheduled to hear a case on affirma-
SEE HAYWORTH PAGE 10
Color alone not the only criterion for Supreme Court BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist
United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his upcoming retirement on a Wednesday morning. Within the hour, reporters, pundits and politicos had settled on a must for the 83-year-old’s successor: The next justice, the 116th in the history of our nation, must be a Black woman. This certainty dates back to a promise President Biden made during the 2020 primaries. Struggling to get traction, especially with Black voters, Biden went to South Carolina needing
SEE LEIBOWITZ PAGE 10
