{"id":10178,"date":"2017-02-20T15:08:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-20T22:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=10178"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:40:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T19:40:01","slug":"another-gorsuch-in-washington-can-the-sins-of-the-mother-tell-us-anything-about-the-son-and-how-hell-perform-if-hes-confirmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=10178","title":{"rendered":"Another Gorsuch in Washington. Can The Sins of The Mother Tell Us Anything About The Son and How He\u2019ll Perform If He\u2019s Confirmed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Another%20Gorsuch%20in%20Washington.%20Can%20The%20Sins%20of%20The%20Mother%20Tell%20Us%20Anything%20About%20The%20Son%20and%20How%20He%E2%80%99ll%20Perform%20If%20He%E2%80%99s%20Confirmed%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Jeff-Lord-CNN2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-10185\" title=\"Jeff Lord CNN\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Jeff-Lord-CNN2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Jeff-Lord-CNN2.png 769w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Jeff-Lord-CNN2-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><\/a><strong>By Peter Lance February 2nd 2017.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/5892e6f7e4b08ab684ca7b5f?timestamp=1486024967713\" target=\"_blank\">Huffington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s virtually impossible to watch an interview with Jeffrey Lord, one of CNN\u2019s principal \u201cTrump Whisperers,\u201d when he doesn\u2019t invoke the name of Ronald Reagan, in whose White House he reportedly worked as an Associate Political Director.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, each time CNN comes to him in a remote from his office, there\u2019s a smiling picture of \u201cDutch\u201d over his shoulder, as if to remind us of the parallels between the 40thPresident of the United States and the 45th<\/p>\n<p>A year ago on the eve of the first GOP primary debate, Lord celebrated Trump\u2019s outsider status in an interview for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/us-election\/11778157\/Donald-Trump-takes-centre-stage-at-first-Republican-debate.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Telegraph:<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe establishment critics said the exact-same things about Reagan, down to the very words sometimes\u201d Lord said, comparing him to Trump. \u201cReagan was ridiculed as \u2018not serious\u2019, and a \u2018B-movie actor\u2019, and they said over and over he could never win \u2013 until he did. It\u2019s happening again, I really feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now it\u00a0<em>has<\/em>\u00a0happened and Tuesday night we were treated to an uncharacteristically Reagan-like moment in the East Room when Donald Trump introduced Neil Gorsuch, his pick to fill the seat Antonin Scalia left vacant two weeks shy of a year ago. It was the Ninth Justice position the GOP-controlled Senate steadfastly refused to fill despite President Obama\u2019s nomination of Merrick Garland on March 16th.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.03.46-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10183 alignleft\" title=\"Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 2.03.46 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.03.46-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"405\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.03.46-PM.png 405w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.03.46-PM-300x199.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 405px) 100vw, 405px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s nod to Gorsuch was a break from the chaos-presidency of the last thirteen days, driven by crises of the President\u2019s own making, from his obsession with crowd sizes to his baseless assertion of three to five million fraudulent votes and the bungled rollout of Friday night\u2019s executive order \u2014 alternately described as a Muslim ban and not a ban \u2014 to the Monday Night Massacre in which he took the heads of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Acting ICE Director Daniel Ragsdale.<\/p>\n<p>And who needs Jeffrey Lord to make the Reagan comparisons when the website of The President\u2019s own self-styled Darth Vader, Steve Bannon\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/big-government\/2017\/01\/30\/trumps-patco-moment-emanating-reagan-president-takes-control-federal-government-protect-country-citizens\/\" target=\"_blank\">ran a piece<\/a>\u00a0Monday under the bold-faced headline: TRUMP\u2019S PATCO MOMENT: EMANATING (SIC) REAGAN, THE PRESIDENT TAKES CONTROL OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO \u2018PROTECT THE COUNTRY AND ITS CITIZENS.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Wait a second. Hold on. Time Out. Hit the Pause Button.<\/p>\n<p>As one who covered Reagan\u2019s presidency for ABC News I\u2019m here to argue that before The Gipper is further lionized, we need to flashback to The Eighties with chilling hindsight and remember the kind of damage many of\u00a0<em>his<\/em>\u00a0decisions and appointments did to \u201cthis country and its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Consider three of the stories I covered for \u201cNightline\u201d and \u201cWorld News Tonight.\u2019 Each one had life and death consequences: from close calls in the sky to nuclear weapons deployed without adequate testing to the toxic waste scandal that erupted after Mr. Reagan\u2019s appointment of Neil\u2019s mother to run the EPA.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-01-at-8.35.25-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"285\" height=\"226\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>THE FAA &amp; A SPIKE IN\u00a0\u201cNEAR MISSES\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 1981 all 11,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controller\u2019s Organization or PATCO went on strike, largely to improve working conditions and pay. In an historic effort to crush the union, Reagan fired them all.<\/p>\n<p>The impact was dangerous and immediate.<\/p>\n<p>We began getting reports from airline pilots all over the country that the number of Near Mid-Air Collisions (NMACs) or \u201cnear misses,\u201d was jumping dramatically.\u00a0The Federal Aviation Administration defined a NMAC as any time two planes came within 500 feet or a pilot reported a collision danger.<\/p>\n<p>In the course of reporting the piece I interviewed Admiral Donald Engen, Reagan\u2019s appointee as FAA Administrator. He assured our viewers, despite the skeleton crews of novice ATC\u2019s in those towers, that the skies were safer than ever.<\/p>\n<p>Proof of that was his insistence that the number of near misses had been \u201creduced by 50% \u2014 cut in half in the last four years.\u201d The 568 NMACs in 1980 when Reagan took office, he claimed, had been reduced, post-strike, to 297.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-01-at-8.19.07-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"215\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Since that didn\u2019t sync with the reports we were getting from ALPA, The Airline Pilots Association, I filed a FOIA and with my associate producer Randy Prior sifted through hundreds of reports of NMACs and \u201crunway incursions\u201d from each of the FAA\u2019s regional offices.<\/p>\n<p>As it turned out, Admiral Engen had hit us with what Kellyanne Conway would now call \u201calternative facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not only had the number\u00a0<em>not<\/em>\u00a0gone down, but it had actually reached\u00a0<em>an all time high of 583<\/em>, more than twice the number Engen had bragged about. And nearly 100 of those close calls in the sky involved commercial airliners with hundreds of people on board.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-01-at-8.25.51-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"198\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The FAA explained the dramatically different stats by falsely claiming that \u201cNot all of the earlier (Near Miss) reports had been sent to Washington from the (FAA) regions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But we zoomed-in on a typical report to show the designation \u201cNWC.\u201d That meant that the report<em>\u00a0had,<\/em>\u00a0in fact, been sent to D.C. It was proof of another misstatement of fact or what bolder reporters today would call a \u201clie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of my piece the late great Peter Jennings, read this tag: \u201cAfter we told the FAA that Peter Lance\u2019s report was going to be broadcast tonight the agency readjusted its Near Miss figures for 1984 from the 297 cited in December to 592 and that is the highest ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>RIGGING THE TESTS ON THE PERSHING II<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Given President Trump\u2019s statement on December 23rd\u00a0threatening to upend the longstanding U.S. nonproliferation policy by expanding our \u201cnuclear capability,\u201d the story of how the U.S. Army rushed the development and deployment of The Pershing II missile on Reagan\u2019s watch is another cautionary tale.<\/p>\n<p>The Pershing II was advertised as a highly mobile, two-stage ballistic missile aimed at countering the Soviet\u2019s SS-20, another missile-on-wheels that could be quickly deployed in what became a mini nuclear arms race in the early 80\u2019s between America-NATO and the U.S.S.R.<\/p>\n<p>After the Soviets put the SS-20 into the European theater of ops in 1975 NATO pressured the U.S. to deploy 464 Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM\u2019s) in the U.K. along with 108 Pershing II\u2019s in Germany. The target date for the P II\u2019s arrival was 1983, a full year\u00a0<em>earlier<\/em>\u00a0than the missile\u2019s initial deployment date.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.34-PM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-10189 alignleft\" title=\"Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 2.04.34 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.34-PM1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"248\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.34-PM1.png 275w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.34-PM1-50x50.png 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 248px) 100vw, 248px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Given the dense population of Eastern Europe it was crucial that these nukes, if fired, wouldn\u2019t go awry. So the Pershing II was sold as a weapon that could fly 1,000 miles in 10 minutes and drop its nuclear payload on a target with \u201csurgical precision\u201d and \u201cminimum collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But just as in the PATCO story, word began to leak out from sources that the testing process for this Weapon of Mass Destruction was highly flawed.<\/p>\n<p>First I discovered that the Army and the designer Martin-Marietta, had begun producing the missile 16 months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n<p>To meet their deadlines they\u2019d not only compressed the original testing schedule from 28 to 18, but the Army itself admitted that 4 of those scaled-back tests were \u201cfailures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As I started to dig, I soon learned that the Pentagon\u2019s spin on this testing process made the FAA\u2019s cook-of-the-books on Near Mid Air Collisions look small time.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did the once SECRET reports I found\u00a0<em>prove<\/em>\u00a0that 5 more of the tests were semi-failures, but I turned up a 19th\u00a0test in which a \u201cfailure to ignite\u201d caused an \u201cautomatic shutdown\u201d on the launch pad. That test wasn\u2019t even counted.<\/p>\n<p>Worse, this WMD with a blast yield of 5 to 80 kilotons was\u00a0<em>never<\/em>\u00a0given a successful \u201call-up\u201d test to include the two-stage solid-fuel rocket system\u00a0<em>and<\/em>\u00a0the radar-correlated payloads.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-10196\" title=\"Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 2.18.23 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5-300x245.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5-300x245.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5-1024x836.png 1024w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5-800x653.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.18.23-PM5.png 1149w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When I interviewed Rep. Joseph Addabbo (D-NY) then chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, this is what he had to say:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have less than a 50 per cent success rate in its tests and you have four complete failures and five semi-failures, to deploy a weapon as dangerous as a nuclear missile with that kind of record, is absolutely wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Addabbo underscored the importance of congressional oversight on a President. In those days the Democrats controlled the U.S. House while the GOP ruled the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>That\u00a0struggle between the Executive Branch and a divided Congress, brings us to our final story on the undoing of Anne Gorsuch Burford.<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE \u201cICE QUEEN\u201d OF THE EPA<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Starting out in government as a Deputy D.A. in Denver, Gorsuch served in the Colorado House for four years, where she was a member of a group of conservative lawmakers known as the \u201cHouse Crazies. It was a clique that The Washington Post\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A3418-2004Jul21.html\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>\u00a0was \u201cintent on permanently changing government.\u201d Sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>After she worked on Reagan\u2019s transition team he named Gorsuch to run The Environmental Protection Agency. She was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on May 5th\u00a01981 and like Scott Pruitt, President Trump\u2019s controversial nominee to head the agency now, she believed that the EPA was too big, too anti-business and in radical need of downsizing.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.49-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-10195 alignleft\" title=\"Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 2.04.49 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.04.49-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"326\" height=\"238\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dubbed \u201cThe Ice Queen,\u201d Gorsuch was a year into her tenure when Congress demanded that she turn over records on the EPA\u2019s administration of the $1.6 billion dollar Superfund, a program earmarked to clean up millions of gallons of toxic waste nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>She refused and soon became the first agency director in U.S. history cited for contempt of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch had a lot to hide. After\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/sierraclub.org\/sierra\/green-life\/neil-gorsuch-s-family-has-checkered-history-when-it-comes-environmental-protection\" target=\"_blank\">cutting the EPA\u2019s staff<\/a>,\u00a0hiring a lawyer from Exxon as her chief counsel and an attorney from GM as her chief enforcement officer she supported the appointment of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/articles.latimes.com\/1985-04-20\/news\/mn-21740_1_rita-lavelle\" target=\"_blank\">Rita LaVelle<\/a>\u00a0to administer the SuperFund.<\/p>\n<p>Lavelle\u2019s hiring turned out to be one of the greatest \u201cfox-guarding-the-chicken-coop\u201d moves in decades, since a principal SuperFund site was the 32 million gallon\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1983\/02\/10\/us\/acid-pits-dump-site-long-in-dispute.html\" target=\"_blank\">Stringfellow Acids Pits<\/a>in Glen Avon, California.<\/p>\n<p>Among the 224 polluters who\u2019d dumped hazardous waste at the Pits was Aerojet General Corporation.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-10201\" title=\"Screen Shot 2017-02-02 at 2.25.48 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1-300x222.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1-1024x758.png 1024w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1-800x592.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-02-at-2.25.48-PM1.png 1352w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who do you suppose was Aerojet\u2019s principal lobbyist from 1979 to 1982?<\/p>\n<p>Drum roll\u2026 Rita Lavelle.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019d been a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Reagan\u2019s counselor and subsequent Attorney General Edwin Meese. He even\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.upi.com\/Archives\/1983\/03\/10\/Presidential-aide-Edwin-Meese-has-denied-helping-Rita-Lavelle\/3800416120400\/\" target=\"_blank\">held the bible for her<\/a>\u00a0during her swearing in, though Meese\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.upi.com\/Archives\/1983\/03\/10\/Presidential-aide-Edwin-Meese-has-denied-helping-Rita-Lavelle\/3800416120400\/\" target=\"_blank\">later denied<\/a>\u00a0helping her get the job.<\/p>\n<p>After legendary EPA analyst\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/gwire\/2011\/01\/06\/06greenwire-no-retreat-for-veteran-epa-whistleblower-in-er-76194.html?pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\">Hugh Kaufman<\/a>\u00a0blew the whistle, Lavelle was indicted for lying to Congress about just when she\u2019d learned that her old employer Aerojet was dumping at the Stringfellow site. Ultimately fired by President Reagan she was later\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1984\/01\/10\/us\/rita-lavelle-gets-6-month-term-and-is-fined-10000-for-perjury.html\" target=\"_blank\">sentenced to 6 months in prison<\/a>\u00a0and fined $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>But that wasn\u2019t her only stretch. In 2005, decades after leaving the EPA, Lavelle was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20120115172148\/http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao\/cac\/Pressroom\/pr2005\/002.html\" target=\"_blank\">sentenced to 15 months<\/a>\u00a0for orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from a client who\u2019d hired her company to assist in a SuperFund cleanup.<\/p>\n<p>Talk about a swamp that needed draining.\u00a0But at the time Lavelle was appointed,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20090618104612\/http:\/\/www.epa.gov\/history\/admin\/oswer\/lavelle.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Anne Gorsuch praised her<\/a>\u00a0for bringing, \u201cover 12 years of professional experience in state government and private industry to the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gorsuch herself resigned 13 months later after being cited for contempt. Following her departure a regional\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?id=X6YSAAAAIBAJ&amp;sjid=e_kDAAAAIBAJ&amp;pg=528,3563248&amp;dq=anne+mcgill+gorsuch+held+in+contempt+of+congress\" target=\"_blank\">EPA official was quoted<\/a>\u00a0as saying \u201cthe agency is in shambles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>HOW FAR DOES THE APPLE FALL?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s little doubt that 49-year old Neil Gorsuch, an Ivy League and Oxford educated jurist and legal scholar, shares his mother\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/danielfisher\/2017\/01\/31\/trump-nominates-gorsuch-for-supreme-court-promising-long-conservative-majority\/#50bf40f61786\" target=\"_blank\">pro-business\/anti regulation<\/a>sentiments. While a few Progressives have already weighed in with their support, Judge Gorsuch\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/01\/31\/politics\/hobby-lobby-executive-power-gorsuch-key-rulings\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">Hobby-Lobby opinion<\/a>\u00a0against contraception coverage under The Affordable Care Act signals that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/la-oe-chemerinsky-trump-effect-on-supreme-court-20161109-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Roe vs. Wade<\/a>\u00a0could be in serious jeopardy.<\/p>\n<p>If Donald Trump gets his way with Scott Pruitt as he has with former Exxon\/Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson, now at State, it\u2019s a good bet that once 45\u2019s Cabinet members start to dismantle the very agencies they run or roll back the health &amp; safety regs,\u00a0Justice Gorsuch, once confirmed, will adhere to his mother\u2019s ethos and back their play.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any doubts, remember Ronald Reagan, the man Jeffrey Lord predicts Donald Trump will emulate. Long before his hyper-spending on defense drove the Soviets toward Perestroika and Glasnost, there was his union-busting firing of the air traffic controllers, his rush to deploy an unreliable nuclear weapons system in Germany and his staggeringly misguided EPA appointments. Think about that, then imagine the damage another pro-corporation justice can do on The U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Another%20Gorsuch%20in%20Washington.%20Can%20The%20Sins%20of%20The%20Mother%20Tell%20Us%20Anything%20About%20The%20Son%20and%20How%20He%E2%80%99ll%20Perform%20If%20He%E2%80%99s%20Confirmed%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By Peter Lance February 2nd 2017.\u00a0\u00a0Huffington Post. It\u2019s virtually impossible to watch an interview with Jeffrey Lord, one of CNN\u2019s principal \u201cTrump Whisperers,\u201d when he doesn\u2019t invoke the name of Ronald Reagan, in whose White House he reportedly worked as an Associate Political Director. In fact, each time CNN comes to him in a remote [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10178"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10504,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10178\/revisions\/10504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}