Politico Playbook on March 18, 2022 interviewed returning Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy. It is very insightful on to what ails that party and why they are in trouble for November.

Here are a few important comments:

"The Democrats have ditched their big-tent mantra since taking over Washington, and that it's imperiling their majority."

"Some on the Woke left accused Murphy of being 'anti-immigrant' for supporting the GOP-authored 'Kate's Law' (a proposal to increase penalties on people who are convicted of crimes, are deported and re-enter the U.S. illegally.

"Murphy suspects that Dem leaders were encouraging outside group attacks on vulnerable members for wanting to separate the Build Back Better agenda from the infrastructure bill.

"Murphy told those groups, 'For every dollar that you spend against me, it's going to take 10 to repair that.' ... Why, as Democrats, we would take money that we need to reserve for the on-year to help win and grow the majority - why we would spend that money against our own members is really baffling.

"The DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) is out of touch with reality. I think about people like Abby Spanberger (D-Va), like some of these other members where in '18, they were celebrities for helping us win the majority. And as soon as they went about taking the votes that would help them keep and represent the seat that they had won, they drew the ire of the Democrats.

"I don't want to hand this country and the agenda over to a party that's trying to dismantle democracy. But I also don't want to hand my party over to the faction that wants to dismantle capitalism. I think both of those forces are dangerous and detrimental to this country.

"Her party right now doesn't want a member like her. Centrist Democrats, once the ballyhooed beacon of the House Democratic majority, are now greatly out of fashion. And because of that, she worries, her party may find itself in the minority. She, meanwhile, is ready to go home to spend time with her kids and finally get them a puppy."

So we learned why the Democrats nationally are in trouble from Democrats willingly to speak out.

Accidental County Judge Lina Hidalgo had a bad week. Oh she finally, behind liberal states (like New York and others) removed her mask mandate, which was overly restrictive and held onto way too long.

The big news was the public release of the search warrant issues in connection with the bid fixing scandal involving that $11 million outreach contract.

As an attorney, I have seen many search warrant affidavits and this one is over 65 pages! Typically, affidavits are just a few pages.

It is clear Hidalgo's office contracted with their friends, which everyone knows was a one person (Felicity Pereyra) office, ran out of her apartment.

TCR is sure she was well-qualified, after all, a few years ago she was a hostess at a restaurant.

This case is not going away. A few other points, Hidalgo’s attorney pledged full cooperation, but that's a lie as the District Attorney was forced to use a search warrant.

Recall when Hidalgo won in 2018 on Robert F. O'Rourke's coattails, she said her and her staff are to be held to the highest ethical standards.

How's that going for you? More to come here.

Debra Ibarra Mayfield RIP

August 26, 1974 – March 11, 2022

We have lost a Republican pioneer, Hispanic Republican leader and innovator, Debra Ibarra Mayfield. Not only was she an early GOP activist working with your editor during his three terms as Chair for Harris County Republicans, she was also a great lawyer, a well-respected Judge (who would still be serving but for the Democratic straight ticket vote in Harris County in recent years). She was also a great mother, wife and an activist making our community a better place for all. This is a major loss for all who had the privilege of knowing her.

Everyday you see the visible images of Russian soldiers, some are so young as well as young Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being killed, their bodies lying dead or injured and for what? The reasons over a madman and another who is trying to protect his country's right to exist. Do these two men have the right to send these young men and women to fight and die? In the end all we end up with is destruction of property, loss of life and permanent injuries. Nobody will ever recover from this situation. Young people who have their whole lives in front of them are being denied their destiny because of the ultimate power cravings of Putin. This has caused a collision course of these two leaders, Putin and Zelenskyy. One is living in the past to bring back the Soviet Union territories and the other to save his country. Are these goals justified? Have they given any thought about sending these young soldiers and civilians into battle? Real leadership needs to realize that a decision to start and defend a war is more than just for their goals. It only leads to death and destruction of property. Real power is to resolve disputes without the need of violence. So Putin and Zelenskyy need to meet at a neutral location and mediate a solution. Here is a suggested outcome. They need a cooling off period. Russia withdraws all its troops back out of Ukraine territory to the two Russian controlled provinces. Then the UN sends peacekeeping forces and holds UN sponsored elections for these two provinces to be independent or join Russia, same with Crimea. Ukraine has to wait 3 years before deciding to join the EU if a majority of its citizens vote for it. As to NATO, they agree not to expand further east while Russia has a contiguous border. Russia and Ukraine will present their cases to the International Court to decide war crimes and damage issues to persons and property. This is one option to get both these leaders together or the killing and destruction will continue. If not, then look at an option to let the US and NATO to decisively start moving troops into Ukraine, bomb Russian positions and even Russian military bases. If you think this is an absurd option then you do not understand history and Russian aggression.

Show real power and do not be worried about Putin's threats from this little man to use tactical nuclear weapons. He will not do it as it will lead to destruction of Russia. Show of force will force China to realize they need to align with Western nations, EU, USA for their economic survival and Russia is not that important to them. In fact, they will join the west to split up Russian physical assets. One of these two options must be presented to Putin with a short time frame like three days to accept or initiate option two. We are already in World War III. For the US government, now is the time to make all forms of energy from fossil fuels, natural gas, clean coal, green energy (wind, solar, hydrogen and hydro dams, water power) a national security issue. We need to build new and/or fix pipelines with smart technology and also build nuclear plants as needed to get us totally energy independent. When President Biden says there is nothing he can do this is a lack of leadership. If I can lay out this strategy, where are all the morons in Washington and why are they not seeing it? One reason is the defense weapons lobbyists and green energy radical ideas that America needs to sell its weapons and be totally green and suffer pain. These individuals have to go, so vote them all out in November as we need real leadership. Anyone who does not see how the cost of energy affects inflation, the cost of food, transportation, manufacturing and our technological advancement needs to cease making policies that harm our country and our way of life.

Whenever I have lunch or dinner with someone - especially with recent events — I ask a very straightforward question. "In your wildest dreams did you ever believe they would muck things up this bad, this fast?" I use more vivid language, but I am against using such language in a public forum so I will leave it to your imagination. Sit back and think about the question yourself and derive your own answer.

In a little over a year, the Biden Administration has opened our border to an estimated two million illegal aliens who have been spread throughout the country with very little hope of ever tracking them; shut down a significant amount of our home grown energy production by killing a major pipeline deal costing 3,900 full-time equivalent jobs and pausing oil production on all federal government land which is 25% of national production; taken sanctions off Nordstream 2 to continue the flow of Russian gas to Europe; had a radical withdrawal from Afghanistan that is roundly considered a disaster for the United States; engineered policies that lead to inflation levels not seen in over 40 years which caused a severe depression; and has the world involved in a war in Europe which is destroying a sovereign nation and killing hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people. In addition, there is an explosion of crime throughout the country that Biden has not caused, but his party has, and he has done little to combat it.

But Biden has solutions. Real solutions.

One of the countermeasures to pressure the Russians to stop their war on Ukraine is to stop the import of Russian oil. Over the last seven months in 2021, we imported 670,000 barrels of oil daily from Russia. Though 73% of that was in process products, we could have easily replaced this production with one policy decision. Had Biden not stopped the Keystone pipeline, we would have a flow of 850,000 barrels a day from friendly neighbor Canada. Biden decided to tell our Canadian neighbor's "tough luck" and we now have our adversarial supplier - Putin.

Telling the world that America is going to turn on the spigot, produce oil, and gas that will supply us and our allies what we need for energy independence would be a logical and effective solution. We are down an estimated million plus barrels a day. A simple announcement clearing the regulations for that to occur would crash the price of oil as pricing is based on future expectations.

Uncle Joe has a better idea. Why don't we engage the Venezuelans and the Iranians to replace the oil and gas from Russia? Nothing like replacing supplies from one murderous despot with two murderous despots. Biden tried to engage the Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, but they will not even talk to Biden because he is negotiating with the Iranians - who are hated by the Arab countries of the Middle East.

Biden reopened negotiations with Iran even while it was on the verge of collapse because American imposed sanctions decimated its cash supplies leaving it on the edge of bankruptcy. Not only is Biden at the table with Iran, but part of the negotiations is - you guessed it — the Russians. Do you think the Russians believe we really want to crush their invasion over here while negotiating with them over there? The Saudis are looking at turning to the Chinese since this American administration antagonizes them at every turn.

You just cannot make this stuff up. If your head is spinning, it is completely expected at this point.

Makes you thankful for small things. Thank God North Korea has a completely dysfunctional economy or Biden would be asking them for some help.

Biden also has a solution for inflation.

President Biden, the very definition of a career politician, tries to find others to blame for his own failings. He angrily states "I am sick of this stuff. We have to talk about it. The American people think the reason for inflation is the government spending more money. That is simply not true. Make no mistake, inflation is largely the fault of Putin. Democrats did not cause this problem. Vladimir Putin did."

Uncle Joe is right. Adding more than $3 trillion into the economy with made-up money had nothing to do with inflation. Biden missed the class where supply and demand was explained. When there are more dollars chasing fewer products that does not cause inflation - it is Putin. When people get free money and produce nothing that does not cause inflation - it is Putin. When the federal reserve injects additional money into the economy and holds interest at historically low rates that does not cause inflation - it is Putin.

We have not even touched on the ridiculously lax border. That would take a whole other column.

Fourteen months into the Biden presidency and you come to your own conclusion. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that he could muck this up so badly so quickly? We thought it might be bad. We can only pray for the next 34 months.

Gary Polland is now a regular on "What's Your Point?" hosted by Greg Groogan on Fox 26 Houston, appearing every other week. Tune in or set your recorder for 7:00 am Sundays.

Red, White, and Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland on Fridays at 7:30 pm on Houston Public Media TV 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Red, White & Blue returns in who knows?

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his twenty-sixth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last twenty-one years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 18 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 21st year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on Houston Public Media TV 8 PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary serves on the Board of Directors of American Values, a national pro-family, pro-faith, conservative organization supporting the unity of the American people around the vision of our founding fathers and dedicated to reminding the public of the conservative principles fundamental to the survival of our nation. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.