The GOP primary in June for Staten Island promises to be newsworthy and a difficult decision for residents of this conservative NYC borough.  The race will be between two men I have supported in the past and for whom I have great respect, but I plan to vote for Michael Grimm, described in the mainstream media as the disgraced former congressman who served seven months in prison for felony tax evasion.  It is my hope that the president will pardon Grimm and Dinesh D'Souza, another individual who was also railroaded for being conservative.

These men both admitted they made the mistakes; however, their sins have always been ignored when perpetrated by Democrats.  President Trump just pardoned Scooter Libby, another soul railroaded by the left, so I'm hoping he'll rectify the damage done to Grimm and D'Souza.

Michael Grimm was sent to prison for felony tax fraud committed when he under-reported business income and paid employees under the table.  Frankly, about 90% of businesses in New York do the same thing, it seems to me, but they aren't the targets of a congressional cabal.  Way back in 2012, I wrote the following, comparing what Rep. Grimm had encountered in D.C. to what the fictional character portrayed by Jimmy Stewart in the prescient film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington:

Soon after his ascent to office he held a town hall meeting to inform his supporters of his first impressions and he said a shocking thing. "Nobody here cares," he said and he was referring to those on both sides of the aisle.  Getting reelected is their first priority, he concluded. 

Those were dangerous words for the freshman congressman to utter and I had a sinking feeling that he would pay for them, much like the hero Stewart played in that movie.  Despite all the positive work Grimm has achieved in Congress, much of it will be subject to the spin of a hostile press beholden to his opponents. 

In that film, Mr. Stewart plays an idealistic young man, Jefferson Smith, who encounters a powerful enemy in the media when he refuses to co-sponsor legislation that he finds to be against the public interests.  When he complains to his mentor, Senator Paine, he learns that compromise is the price one pays to remain in power for so many years.  A press tycoon, Jim Taylor, controls Congress and is able to manipulate public opinion.  When Sen. Paine tells Taylor that Smith will not cooperate he responds, "Aah, he'll never get started.  I'll make public opinion out there within five hours!  I've done it all my life.  I'll blacken this punk so that he'll ... [y]ou leave public opinion to me." 

Doesn't all this sound familiar?  Doesn't that describe the influence that the mainstream media has on public opinion today?  Michael Grimm has been called one of the Young Guns in Congress and has been quite successful for a freshman in helping pass conservative legislation.  Make no mistake about it; this made him a target for Democrats on the Hill.

In that column, I concluded with the following:

In that 1939 Frank Capra film classic, the people rallied around Mr. Smith and managed to bypass the evil clutches of the media magnate through a Herculean effort of getting the truth out.  Thanks to the Internet and other alternative news sources, it is now much easier to do so.  The question remains – are Americans as committed to the truth as Mr. Smith's supporters were?

Now Michael Grimm is running for his old seat as representative of Staten Island against Dan Donovan, the former Republican district attorney whom I endorsed in his race for that office and in his race to replace Grimm after he resigned.  He was a very good D.A., and I regret that I cannot vote to re-elect him as my congressman because his voting for the past two years has been a big disappointment.  I have tried to contact his office to inquire why he seems to be siding most of the time with the GOP elite and NeverTrumps in the media and Congress.  It is vital that the president have a Congress that will fight for his agenda without fear, and for that we need Michael Grimm to return.  He is a former Gulf War Marine veteran who was also an FBI undercover agent on Wall Street.  He worked hard for those in his district suffering the devastating effects of  Superstorm Sandy.  He is pro-life and tried hard to pass a bill protecting female fetuses from being selectively terminated that was naturally defeated by the Democrats.  He said:

I find it disappointing that legislation to outlaw the barbaric practice of sex-selective abortions failed to pass the House of Representatives.  Beyond my religious and pro-life views, I believe to end the life of an unborn baby girl simply because her parents were hoping for a boy is absolutely disgusting and horrific, not to mention the ultimate betrayal of women's rights.

There are apparently many Islanders who feel as I do, judging by the number of Grimm yard signs compared to Donovan signs.  I'm still waiting for mine.

As for Dinesh D'Souza's punishment for what many liberals in politics do routinely, I can describe it only as not just despicable, but a frightening display of selective prosecution.  Even liberal Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz agreed, stating: "I can't help but think that [D'Souza's] politics have something to do with it. ... It smacks of selective prosecution."

To be sure, D'Souza had written several books that were not favorable to President Obama.  His public appearances and speeches criticized Obama's history and the Democrats' liberal agenda.  He had to be stopped, and in September 2014, the court sentenced D'Souza to five years' probation, eight months in a halfway house (referred to as a "community confinement center"), and a $30,000 fine.  One would think this would shut him up, but in his 2016 film, Hillary's America, he uses his confinement to illustrate ironically how free speech has been censored by the liberal left.  It's actually quite entertaining and educational, exposing the racist history in the Democratic Party.

As for D'Souza's crime of breaking campaign finance laws, one has to wonder why President Obama's campaigns in 2008 and 2012 weren't charged with accepting millions in illegal overseas donations.  Nor can we question why Grimm's crime of tax fraud was treated as more serious than Rep. Charlie Rangel failing to report income from his rental of a beachside villa he owns in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, or using his position on the House Ways and Means Committee to solicit political donations to his Center.  Apparently, all Democrat crimes may be unethical, but conservative misdeeds are always criminal.

Getting rid of the swamp creatures in Congress will undoubtedly force us all to make difficult choices in the future.  Here's hoping that means we'll be sending more fighters and fewer RINOs to Congress in November.

MAGA.