Friday evening, US Attorney General Bill Barr was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of The Federalist Society. The Federalist Society has become a boogeyman for the left because it believes in the Constitution, the separation of powers, judicial restraint, and the idea that the people’s representatives should make the laws, not a handful of Ivy League graduates with lifetime tenure.
Barr hit some very critical themes that probably foreshadow the remainder of his tenure as Attorney General and, if this is true, it leaves skeptics like me, who saw Barr as a gray, inoffensive man nominated because he could get confirmed and who would be a cipher, pining for what might have been had he been nominated in January 2017.
Key points in his speech:
He believes, rightfully, that the Executive Branch operates under the direction of the president. This puts him at odds with a lot of progressives who, without any proof, assert that cabinet secretaries and agencies are free agents who can do whatever the hell they wish.
He believes that the Judiciary and the Congress are encroaching upon the powers of the president.
He calls out the #Resistance for their deliberate obstruction.
He lambastes federal judges attempting to make policy and using their power to place nationwide injunctions on policies.
I’ve included the speech and the complete transcript at the bottom of the page for your convenience. I’d encourage you to at least read the transcript. It is really good stuff.
The reaction was pretty swift and expected.
Richard Painter, the bug-eating looney who is still trying to cadge meals off the fact that he was a minor functionary in the Bush White House did not disappoint:
We’re going to be seeing a lot of “Impeach Barr” nonsense, I think.
Some New Jersey Democrat took valuable time out from pursuing graft and corruption and protecting illegal aliens to feign shock:
More “impeach Barr.”
Some progressive non-entity who has already demanded Barr’s impeachment demanded Barr’s impeachment.
And some more members of the #Resistance got their panties moist and wadded over Barr’s defense of the obvious intent of the Framers of the Constitution.
The fact that The Federalist Society loved it, really set the left off.
This is so outrageously inappropriate for an AG to be saying. You are the head of the DOJ for all Americans not just the ones in the Federalist Society. Please start acting like it. https://t.co/OcaHZGi0ey
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) November 16, 2019
Here are my takeaways.
Barr has accurately identified the problem. We don’t know what he’ll do about it until Durham’s investigation is over and we get a chance to see what he’s going to do about state-level resistance to the enforcement of federal law and the problem of lone federal judges claiming authority over the entire nation. The very fact that he has identified the problem has caused a lot of consternation on the part of progressives.
Barr, himself, is now targeted for destruction.
My guess is that this is more like an opening aria to a German opera. It’s foreshadowing what is going to happen but the action is not going to take place until after Election Day 2020 because, right now, the administration doesn’t need to divert any attention away from the Schiff-show on Capitol Hill and the pack of neo-Communists campaigning for the Democrat nomination. After Election Day, I think that life is going to get a lot more interesting for judges in the Ninth Circuit and there will be a lot more muscle-flexing by the Trump administration to try to claw back authority Barr feels was abrogated by previous administrations.