#Hunter Biden ripe for special counsel and other commentary

Ex-Prosecutor: Hunter Ripe for Special Counsel

One reason the Hunter Biden probe became public may be that prosecutors now realize their “primary suspect” is the son of the incoming president, who’ll be running the Justice Department “through his own appointees,” suggests former Assistant US Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review. He cites “unique challenges” in conducting such a probe, which involves “suspicious” activities linked to Joe Biden himself. “A Biden Justice Department could bury the probe.” Yet if charges aren’t imminent, the investigation will continue, so it’s “likely” the department will tap a special counsel. “One need not be a fan of that institution” — McCarthy’s not — “to grasp that the classic situation for a special counsel is when the Justice Department has a profound conflict of interest.” Some “critical decisions” now have to be made.

Urban beat: NYC’s War on Small Biz

At City Journal, Michael Hendrix recounts the harrowing tale of Gary and Jolie Alony, owners of Thompson Chemists in SoHo, who were slapped by a city inspector with a $28,500 fine for “price-gouging” in July: They’d charged $20 for Clorox wipes and $15 for thermometers, using a “similar markup as before the pandemic” and in line with prices elsewhere. “One person’s unscrupulous profiteering may be another’s merely high price.” Economists, after all, might see high prices as “a sign of a market demanding greater supply.” “We can’t afford to pay,” sighs Jolie. Their business is down 90 percent; they can’t even pay rent. “It makes you want to shut your door,” she says, though they hope to stick around if they win their appeal of the fine. Meanwhile, they’re begging city government: “Don’t fine us, help us.”

From the left: A Post-Trump Democratic Party

With the presidential election over, the Democratic Party’s “immediate challenge” is to redefine itself without opposition to Trump serving as its “great unifier,” argues former Rep. Steve Israel at The Hill. Democrats, after all, “won’t have Donald Trump to kick around anymore.” One idea: “Listen more” to average members. A recent report by the Future Majority group and Change Research data firm shows that “economic concerns predominate.” “Making the American worker the hero of the story is unifying” and “more constructive than pitting people against each other,” Future Majority advised. The key to delivering that message: “Avoid self-defeatist language” and “act like we actually won.”

From the right: Expect a Third Obama Term

Joe Biden denies he’ll preside over a third Obama term, but his Cabinet picks are “the same people who made such a hash of things from 2009 to 2017,” The Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Continetti points out. Biden is bringing back Obama appointees like John Kerry and Alejandro Mayorkas, who were “known for their elitism, imperiousness, and cocksure expertise.” The incoming president insists his tenure will be “novel” — because the world is “totally different.” But “what matters is whether Biden will diverge” from President Barack Obama’s team “in people, policy and style.” So far, Biden has been copying his former boss, though with “more awkward presentation and additional scandal” — assuring that “the third Obama term” will be “as disappointing as the first two.”

Libertarian: Second Thoughts on Lockdowns

At Reason, Jacob Sullum finds “San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow’s misgivings about” fighting COVID with more “sweeping” restrictions “striking,” because the California county was among the first to introduce them in March. “I’m not sure we know what we’re doing,” Morrow declared. He endorsed the first shelter-in-place order because “the virus was brand new and had the capability of spreading exponentially due to zero immunity and people’s complete lack of awareness.” But he believes “recently imposed local and statewide restrictions make little sense”; he knows of “no data” showing targeted businesses are “major drivers of transmission.” Instead, “greater restrictions are likely to drive more activity indoors” — putting people at greater risk and fueling “more job loss, more hunger, more despair and desperation.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board