"The Mooch comes, the Mooch goes, but the real news, the good news, is that there is now going to be order in the court of Donald Trump.

"By agreeing to the wish of new chief of staff Gen. John Kelly that Anthony Scaramucci vacate the premises, President Trump sent a dramatic signal of his personal commitment to changing the ways of his White House.

"Other changes are sure to follow in the coming days. There likely will be no more open-door Oval Office gabfests and no more kibitzers loitering in the hallways hoping to catch the president's eye and scramble his schedule. Oh, and leakers will meet a firing squad at dawn on the White House lawn."

"Misconceptions have dominated the debate over Republican legislation to reform Obamacare. The press has spread those misconceptions, and Republicans have done almost nothing to dispel them. That's not the only reason Republicans have so far proven unsuccessful in enacting health-care legislation. It's probably not even the most important one. But it is a big one, and Republicans still don't seem to understand it.

"The first misconception is about how many people would 'lose' their health insurance under the Republican legislation. The House bill would supposedly 'take away' insurance from 23 million people; the bill the Senate considered over the last few weeks would supposedly take it away from 22 million; and the 'skinny bill' would take it away from 16 million in one year. No charge was made more frequently by Democrats against the bill. The press frequently repeated it and rarely challenged it.

"But it wasn't true. Under each of these bills, most of the reductions in coverage were driven by the voluntary decisions of people to go without insurance once they were no longer threatened with fines if they made that choice. The Congressional Budget Office report on the skinny bill implies that about 14 million people would leave the insurance rolls for that reason once the bill was enacted. An additional million or so would leave the rolls because the departure of those 14 million would send premiums higher."

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"It has been 10 days since Democrats received the glorious news that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley would require Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to explain their meeting with Russian operators at Trump Tower last year. The left was salivating at the prospect of watching two Trump insiders being grilled about Russian 'collusion' under the klieg lights.

"Yet Democrats now have meekly and noiselessly retreated, agreeing to let both men speak to the committee in private. Why would they so suddenly be willing to let go of this moment of political opportunity?

"Fusion GPS. That's the oppo-research outfit behind the infamous and discredited 'Trump dossier,' ginned up by a former British spook. Fusion co-founder Glenn Simpson also was supposed to testify at the Grassley hearing, where he might have been asked in public to reveal who hired him to put together the hit job on Mr. Trump, which was based largely on anonymous Russian sources. Turns out Democrats are willing to give up just about anything -- including their Manafort moment -- to protect Mr. Simpson from having to answer that question.

"What if, all this time, Washington and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn't the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility."

"Theodore Roosevelt offered Americans a 'Square Deal.' His fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, gave us 'The New Deal.' Modern Democrats, who have lost election after election, are now offering the country 'A Better Deal.'

"Speaking in Berryville, Va., a small town that voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump and is represented by a Republican in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, 'Too many Americans don't know what we stand for.'

"Actually, they do know, and that's why Democrats don't have the White House, why they lost their congressional majority and the reason they are in the minority in most state legislatures and governorships. ...

"This latest effort to fool voters into believing Democrats have something new to say, or better policies to try, isn't a better deal, it's a raw deal."

"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, has been under intense criticism over her retention of Imran Awan as a technology aide. While other members severed connections to Awan after he was accused of wrongdoing months ago, Wasserman Schultz retained him. He has now been arrested at Dulles International Airport in an alleged attempt to flee the country.

"Awan is an IT staffer accused of a scheme to double-charge the House for IT equipment. He and his family have made millions of dollars on the House payroll working for Democratic members, according to a Politico report.

"Today Wasserman Schultz fired him. However, her refusal to terminate the association seemed curious to many, particularly since he was barred from accessing the House's computer system since February. In the meantime, the Capitol Police and federal authorities were finding evidence of double billing for computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards and routers. Wasserman Schultz has also been accused of not cooperating with investigators and there are ongoing negotiations over access to her computer. After months of investigation, Wasserman Schultz is still in negotiation over access to her laptop."

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"Let's get this out of the way right now: Yes, Kid Rock can absolutely win if he runs for U.S. Senate in Michigan. He will be in first place to win the GOP nomination within a week of entering the race, and instantly be a tossup to defeat Democrat incumbent Debbie Stabenow.

"When Kid Rock first tweeted about running for Senate, political watchers rushed to proclaim that he was not serious about running, and that even if he were, he could not win the nomination, much less defeat the better-funded, more disciplined Democrat.

"It's hard to overstate the place Kid Rock holds in the consciousness of a certain segment of blue-collar Michigan voters. He is Detroit. He has made his quite lucrative career out of celebrating Michigan in general and Detroit in particular. He embodies the 'Detroit vs. Everybody' mentality that defines southeastern Michigan. His 'American Bad Ass' brand is tailor-made to appeal to a state and city that resent the contempt they feel from elitists around the country, while celebrating the overlooked virtues of the city and state. That's an easy message to sell in a campaign. ...

"Is Kid Rock going to run? I have absolutely no idea. Could he win? To borrow a phrase from the man himself: Hell, yeah."

"Judging by the unhinged reaction this past week to the first public meeting of President Trump's blue-ribbon voter fraud panel, progressives are terrified.

"They're fearful that these election experts are actually going to do the job they've been given -- uncovering the extent to which the nation's voter rolls are vulnerable to fraudulent activity. How else to explain the panic and shots fired before the commission even met? ...

"The left continues to insist that vote fraud is a myth, but panelists cited ample evidence such as hundreds of counties where registered voters far exceed the number of residents eligible to vote and where felons and noncitizens have no trouble registering -- and voting.

"A case in point is Broward County, Florida, which had 106 percent of its population registered to vote in 2010 and 103 percent registered to vote in 2014. This week, the American Civil Rights Union's lawsuit against Broward over its dirty voter rolls will be heard in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in Miami."

"Based upon President Trump's promise to secure the U.S. Border with Mexico, illegal immigration plummeted during the first half of 2017. In the first three months of his presidency, illegal border crossings fell by nearly 75 percent from that of the previous year and represented a historic low in the modern history of the Border Patrol. What President Trump accomplished is nothing short of a miracle, but he can't continue to do it alone. Border security is not the sole responsibility of the White House; it's also the responsibility of Congress.

"The initial dramatic declines in illegal border crossings demonstrate that when our government sends a clear message that people who attempt to cross our borders illegally will be turned away, far fewer people make the attempt. Conversely, when the government signals that crossing the border illegally is likely to pay off, people break our laws in large numbers. Unfortunately, most of the time, our government incentivizes illegal immigration.

"Since the American people cannot rely upon their government's resolve to turn away illegal border crossers, we will continue to need physical barriers to discourage people from entering the country illegally. Even under the best of circumstances the Border Patrol cannot detect, much less prevent everyone from entering illegally along the nearly 2,000 miles of border we share with Mexico.

"A secure border fence, particularly the double-layered fencing called for in the bipartisan Secure Fence Act of 2006 (Pub.L. 109367) and which Mr. Trump pledged to build, would provide another level of deterrence to those contemplating illegal entry. In all areas of law enforcement the most effective and humane way of enforcing laws is convincing people not to break them in the first place."

"There's a Republican credibility crisis brewing. The party's leaders are not leading their troops, who have found that there is often only disappointment rather than reward for following orders. Republican members won office promising to reform healthcare and taxes, but run the risk of doing neither.

Republicans need to reform taxes, both to prove they can govern and to juice the economy. To reform taxes, they need to pass a budget. And to pass a budget, their leaders need to abandon their heavy-handed ways."

"There were lots of celebrations on the left side of the aisle after the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare died. The good times will be short lived, because one way or another ObamaCare is going away, and it's not at all clear that Democrats will gain additional leverage over what comes next by waiting for its collapse.

"It was amusing to hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, after the Senate bill failed, that Republicans should 'work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system.'

"Lower premiums, stabilize insurance markets, improve health care? Wasn't that what ObamaCare was supposed to do in the first place? ...

"So the GOP's answer to Schumer should be: You had your chance to fix health care. You blew it. Twice. First when you passed ObamaCare, and second when you refused to admit that mistake and decided to cast Republicans as evil. Why should the GOP reward you with a third?

"Plus, as the ObamaCare exchanges continue to crumble and as more states chafe at Medicaid's costs, it will be easier for Republicans to get what they want on their own -- if Republicans are smart enough to seize the opportunity, that is."