“I hope you die. I hope everybody in your fucking family dies.” That’s the voicemail Rep. Fred Upton, Republican from Michigan, found after he cast a vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill last Friday. The caller called him a “fucking piece of shit traitor.” Upton told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he’s gotten other calls, and it’s like the others in that group of 13 have as well, because they’ve been targeted after poster child for deplorables Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted out the names and phone numbers of the 13 “traitors.”
The Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of the caucus attacked immediately after the vote. “I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill,” Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said. “That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd,” Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said. “Vote for this infrastructure bill and I will primary the hell out of you,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina warned just before the vote.
The Marjorie Taylor Greenes among the House Republicans aren’t just siccing their violent followers against the 13, they’re lobbying leadership to strip the 13 of the committee assignments. “Several of these lawmakers,” Punchbowl News reports, “are also ranking members—top Republicans on committees—and those could be at risk, too.”
Meanwhile, there’s a guy who really should be not just stripped of committee assignments, but expelled. Rep. Paul Gosar—the Arizona dentist who is so awful his six siblings have appeared in ads begging the voters to reject him—is making videos of his violent homicidal fantasies against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden and tweeting them out.
That’s got regular people outraged—regular people meaning Democrats in the House who treat death threats as serious problems and not just how we express political views.
Rep Gosar should be stripped of his committees and be censured. He is unfit to serve in public office. https://t.co/H5u4VVlfOe
Rep. Gosar’s conduct is grotesque, dangerous and utterly disgraceful to the United States House of Representatives. We must address his intolerable assaults on the dignity of our body and safety of our colleagues. https://t.co/oR4qtIOjAt
Now that’s someone who should be expelled. As of now, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy hasn’t said a thing about Gosar, or the 13 “traitors” the deplorable crowd is trying to get kicked out, if not killed.
Upton is worried. He told Cooper, “I’ll tell you it’s a terrible way—we have seen civility really downslide here. I’m concerned about my staff. They are taking these calls.”
“These are very disturbing, adult language,” he added. “To say the least, that truly is frightening.”
Trump’ executive assistant for the campaign, Angela McCallum, who served as the “war room” chief for the two failed GOP Senate candidates in Georgia and who made some very suspect calls to Michigan.
Disgraced former General Michael Flynn, best known for being an absurd jackass pardoned by Trump after lying to the FBI, and for his ongoing tour in which he cheers on violence and conspiracy theories alongside MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Which seems like a good lineup of people who should have interesting stories to tell about their involvement in everything from the planning of the insurgency in the weeks following the election to the events on the day of the attack.
But the real question is: Will any of these six ever be compelled to provide meaningful testimony? And based on what’s been seen so far with Steve Bannon, that answer seems clear.
All six of those facing new subpoenas have connections to the way in which Trump refused to accept the outcome of the election and created the conditions leading to insurgency. That includes Flynn, who headlined “Stop the Steal” rallies in the weeks after Election Day; Stepien, who worked with the organizers of those rallies to coordinate the message of the Big Lie; Kerik and Miller, who were both part of the Jan. 5 meeting with Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon at which the events of the following day were planned; McCallum, who reportedly got hands-on in trying to get Michigan state representatives to throw out the votes and appoint Trump electors; and Eastman … who should simply be in jail.
But the name that hangs over all six of the newly subpoenaed crew is Bannon. The Select Committee issued its first round of subpoenas back on Sept. 24. After a month of refusals, the committee moved to hold Bannon in contempt on Oct. 20. The full House then voted to send the finding to the Department of Justice on Oct. 21. Then the Department of Justice … has done nothing.
It’s been three weeks since that citation landed in U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s lap, and since then the attorney general hasn’t provided so much as a signal on how, or when, he intends to respond. It’s not as if the contempt of Congress citation against Bannon came as a surprise. Every step of the event—from the subpoena, to letters with Bannon’s attorneys, to the committee vote, to the House vote—all played out in public. In fact, it was clear that the select committee would be sending such contempt charges over to the Department of Justice well before the whole process with Bannon began.
Garland had all the time in the world to work through any concerns about how he would deal with these citations before the first one arrived. So why didn’t he? Why wasn’t the Department of Justice ready with a response—yea or nay—on the day, the hour, that Bannon’s contempt citation came their way?
There is no good reason.
What there is, is a deadline. In 14 months, a new Congress will sit down in D.C. If that election were held today, there’s very little doubt it would hand the Republicans a majority in the House. Over the next year, should Democrats get their act together and pass Build Back Better, and should someone in the press point out that child care credits more than offset imaginary increases in the cost of milk, there is a chance that the polls will flip. No one should be taking that chance.
The end of 2022 may not be the end of any opportunity to hold those involved in planning and executing the insurrection responsible, but it should absolutely be treated as a hard deadline.
That’s not just the point by which the committee must obtain meaningful testimony. By that point, it has to analyze that testimony, finalize its findings, and send Congress, the president, and the Department of Justice any recommendations for further action.
What’s happening with Bannon doesn’t make that seem likely. Neither does what’s happening with former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, or former Pentagon Chief of Staff (and Devin Nunes aide) Kash Patel. All of them got subpoenas at the same time as Bannon, and they’ve not even begun to be moved through the pipeline toward contempt.
It’s not just Garland’s silence on Bannon’s contempt citation that seems to doom the idea of getting anything done on time, it’s the experience of the last five years. Consider the earlier case of Michael Flynn, who agreed to cooperate with the investigation into Trump: Russia in December 2017, saw multiple extensions in 2018 and 2019, reversed his plea in January 2020, was recommended for six months in prison by federal prosecutors a few weeks later, saw his case withdrawn and reinstated in May, and was ultimately pardoned by Trump in November 2020.
Or take the efforts to obtain Donald Trump’s tax records, which are absolutely available to Congress in clear terms spelled out in law.
On April 3, 2019 House Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig requesting six years of Trump’s business and personal returns. That should have been the end of it. Instead, the IRS simply ignored that letter. The House subpoenaed the returns in May 2019. The case went to District Court in July with the Department of Justice acting to protect Trump. After a month of inaction, the House requested a summary judgement. The judge refused and instead asked for “a briefing by both parties” to be held by Sept. 30. The judge then “urged the parties to work out a compromise” and issued a stay over the House attempt to get the documents. The Ways and Means Committee issued a new request in July 2021, the Justice Department joined the suit this time, ordering the IRS to turn over the documents on July 30. Trump sued to block the action, but on on Aug. 11, 2021 a federal district judge ruled that the committee can get access to some of the documents. Trump appealed. On Oct. 27, Trump’s attorneys were back in front of a federal judge to block the Treasury Department and the IRS from giving his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The law entitling the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee to Trump’s tax returns is absolutely clear, but over two and half years after requesting those documents, the committee does not have Trump’s returns.
Trump didn’t learn these skills in the White House. He—like a lot of wealthy people—learned them by successfully using the courts to block collection of legitimate debts, persecute those who tried to point out his crimes, and harass people for sport in literally thousands upon thousands of cases. He knows that with sufficient money and a willing attorney, there is always another way to challenge a ruling. The whole of the judicial branch is a mechanism absolutely rife with opportunity for delay and distraction for those with the resources to exploit its weaknesses.
It is a real question as to whether it is possible to protect the United States government from attempted overthrow, with actions carried out through the United States legal system—especially when the efforts to overthrow that government enjoy the support and resources of one of the two major parties.
“I think the Justice Dept. takes too long and I think the courts take too long… We need to be getting things done in real time. People died because of the conspiracy that these people were involved in to overturn the election” – @GerryConnolly w/ @NicolleDWallacepic.twitter.com/IX8DlFEeCp
Donald Trump may be on his own planet in terms of understanding what is legal or constitutional in the United States, but Judge Tanya Chutkan brought him down to earth late Monday night after promptly rejecting the former president’s last-minute bid to keep records sought by the Jan. 6th Committee shrouded.
Trump sued the committee as well as the National Archives in October following an earlier subpoena from congressional investigators demanding a litany of records related to Trump’s activities before, during and after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Though Trump cited executive privilege over the records, President Joe Biden stepped in and with a letter from White House Counsel Dana Remus, declined to honor the claim and cited instead the “extraordinary circumstances” involved in examining “an assault on the Constitution and democratic institutions provoked and fanned by those sworn to protect them.”
The National Archives has indicated the twice-impeached, single term president is trying to block roughly 750 pages of some 1,500 pages already collected by the archives at the committee’s behest. National Archivist David Ferriero agreed to turn over any documents amassed no later than this Friday, Nov. 12, barring an intervention by the court.
But with the clock running down and this week already interrupted by a federal holiday that shutters the court— Veteran’s Day—Trump just before midnight on Monday filed the urgent relief request asking Chutkan to not only block the committee from receiving the records as “novel constitutional and statutory issues” are considered but further and bizarrely, to approve an “administrative stay” of her ruling before she even issued it.
Trump’s attorney Jesse Binnall then doubled down in the request writing to Chutkan: “Should this court refuse President Trump’s injunction, he will promptly seek appellate relief.”
While Trump’s team was sweating the deadline, Chutkan was apparently burning the midnight oil and responded to the request in short order, calling it “premature” and against rules for relief which, she said, “plainly requires an interlocutory order or final judgment before considering such motions.”
The court, she added, intends to rule “expeditiously” on the matter.
According to court records, among the hundreds of pages sought after by the committee, Trump is trying to hide dozens of pages of daily presidential diaries, schedules, appointment information showing visitors to the White House activity logs, call logs and switchboard shift-change checklists showing calls to himself and former Vice President Mike Pence. Drafts of speeches, remarks and correspondence concerning the events of Jan. 6 and at least three handwritten notes related to Jan. 6 from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows files are also on Trump’s list of “to-block” documents.
Trump is trying to shield talking points housed in White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s binder related to allegations of voter fraud, election security and the 2020 election as well and he seeks to hide a draft of a “presidential speech for the Save America March” on Jan. 6.
Trump has also claimed privilege over a draft executive order “concerning election integrity and a draft proclamation honoring U.S. Capitol Police officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood. Sicknick died after sustaining injuries during the melee at the Capitol. The longtime officer, according to D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Francisco Diaz, endured two strokes about eight hours after being repeatedly sprayed with a chemical irritant during the assault. Though Sicknick’s death was listed as natural causes, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement this April he “This does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.”
Liebengood, a 15-year veteran of the force, took his own life just a few days after the siege.
Trump also seeks to block emails from the Office of the Executive Clerk related to the committee’s interest in the White House’s response to the Capitol attack. That office specifically handles all legal documents signed by a president that comprise that president’s official acts and duties, including things like vetoes, public laws, pardons and certificates. It also is the entity responsible for transmitting messages from the president to Congress.
A new book by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl includes an anecdote in which, hours before Donald Trump left office in January, he threatened to quit the Republican Party.
“I’m done,” Trump told RNC chair Ronna McDaniel. “I’m starting my own party.”
“You cannot do that,” McDaniel pleaded with Trump. “If you do, we will lose forever.”
“Exactly. You lose forever without me,” Trump responded. “I don’t care.”
Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that Trump had been telling associates he was holding the prospect of a third party over the heads of GOP lawmakers so they wouldn’t vote to convict him in the February impeachment trial.
Trump later dismissed the third-party threat as “fake news.”
Where the truth lies with anything involving Trump is always murky, but whether or not Trump actually articulated such a threat is kind of beside the point. In fact, ever since the closing of a very brief window following Jan. 6, GOP leaders have been acting like hostages in a hostage situation, as the Post‘s Aaron Blake points out.
That’s not to say that plenty of congressional Republicans and leaders at the state and local levels have been forced into anything. Many of them have been absolutely relishing living the MAGA dream.
But for GOP congressional leaders like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the third-party threat is among the most plausible reasons for their quick evolution from tepid criticism of Trump to absolute fealty.
For McCarthy, that transformation included a blip on Jan. 13 in which he admitted Trump “bears responsibility” for the Capitol attack to suddenly jetting down to Mar-a-Lago on Jan. 28 for a makeup photo.
McConnell’s evolution included declaring on Jan. 13 “there’s no question” that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the Capitol attack, and then failing to corral the votes in his caucus to convict Trump and permanently kill his ongoing presidential aspirations. Ultimately, McConnell even found his own way to a “no” vote on conviction through the intellectual loophole of claiming it was improper to convict a president who wasn’t still in office. Of course, McConnell also refused to take up the proceeding while he was still majority leader, thereby stalling the trial until after Trump left office.
For congressional Republicans, the specter of Trump quitting the GOP and taking a healthy slice of the base with him would have sent shivers down their spine. Sure, they could rebuild, but it would take at least several election cycles along with some inspired thinking. The notion of inspired thinking alone might have kept McCarthy up at night, likely even moreso than gifting the party to Trump. McCarthy doesn’t care how he becomes speaker of the House or even whether he’s just an ornamental mouthpiece for Trump—he wants the speakership at any price.
McConnell, on the other hand, wants real power and likes to be the master of his own design—he simply miscalculated and misplayed his hand. As McConnell said himself, he thought Trump was a “fading brand” and the energy of the party was moving back toward the establishment. McConnell seemed to believe he was finally in a position to enjoy the upside of Trump without the equal and opposite downward pull toward the gutter.
He was horribly mistaken. The GOP lawmaker who got it right was Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of 10 House Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump. Cheney made the opposite calculation of McConnell—Trump’s election lies were a “continuing danger to our system” and risking her leadership post was worth making the point. Because as long as Trump remained a viable political force, he stood capable of bringing everyone down, including the republic.
On Jan. 6, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was holed up for hours in a secure location with McConnell and other Democratic leaders as they watched scenes of the siege play out on TV. McConnell “reacted with anger and revulsion” at what was transpiring, and Durbin wondered if it might be a “transformative moment,” according to the Post.
Not so much. Now Durbin believes McConnell knows he missed his chance.
“Now he’s looking at Trump, not in the rearview mirror, but looking through the windshield and realizing he’s going to have tolive with this man in the Republican Party for the foreseeable future,” Durbin told the Post‘s Michael Kranish.
Indeed, Trump so dominates the GOP now that he no longer has to threaten a third-party defection. Now Trump can simply threaten to tell his believers to stay home—as he did several weeks ago—and congressional Republicans shudder.
As the Kranish points out: “Mitch McConnell spent decades chasing power. Now he heeds Trump, who mocks him and wants him gone.”
Former President Barack Obama delivered a moving speech during day nine of COP26 that took his successor to task and urged collaboration between individuals and nations in order to continue fighting climate change for the long haul regardless of political affiliation or motivation. While many outlets chose to focus on Obama’s soundbite-worthy call for young folks to “stay angry” and let that frustration motivate them, his speech on Monday was less about righteous fury and more about the urgent action this crisis requires.
Obama acknowledged some of his and his party’s own shortcomings while also noting how the Biden administration is stymied by similar problems. “I am convinced that President Biden’s Build Back Better bill will be historic and a huge plus for U.S. action on climate change. But keep in mind, Joe Biden wanted to do even more. He’s constrained by the absence of a robust majority that’s needed to make that happen,” Obama said. “Both of us have been constrained in large part by the fact that one of our two major parties has decided not only to sit on the sidelines, but express active hostility toward climate science and make climate change a partisan issue.”
The House is expected to tack up the Build Back Better Act next week. Obama made it clear that “saving the planet isn’t a partisan issue,” however, and urged Republicans to take climate change seriously. That notion extends to countries that may not be making as much progress as the world hoped for when 175 signees first adopted the Paris Accord in 2015. That number is now closer to 200 but many countries—the U.S. included—failed to meet many of the goals highlighted in that framework.
“Paris showed the world that progress is possible, created a framework, important work was done there, and important work has been done here. That is the good news,” Obama said. “Now for the bad news: We are nowhere near where we need to be yet… The consequences of not moving fast enough are becoming more apparent all the time. Last month, a study found that 85% of the global population has experienced weather events that were more severe because of climate change.”
Obama admitted that the U.S. did itself and the planet no favors by leaving the Paris Accord during the Trump administration but praised the companies that “chose to stay the course” and prioritize reducing emissions. Still, more must be done, especially when it comes to investing in a net-zero future. This is where the Build Back Better Act plays a key role, as even at its most stripped-down, it allows for historic investments in climate action. Ahead of the House vote, call on lawmakers to pass BBB. The U.S.—and the world—simply cannot wait.
We have noted multiple times in the last year that the COVID-19 pandemic is turning into a largely Republican pandemic. That doesn’t mean that non-Republicans aren’t still getting sick, but the places where the most COVID-related deaths happen are places that most vote Republican, have Republican-controlled government, and cast their votes for Donald Trump one year ago.
That hasn’t changed. If anything, the divide has only been widening in recent months. That’s the conclusion reached by The New York Times‘ David Leonhardt, who notes that the gap in new deaths “between red and blue America has grown faster over the past month than at any previous point.”
The deaths correlate strongly—very strongly—to a county’s level of Trump support. But Leonhardt notes that the gap in cases is now shrinking again—possibly because in conservative regions, so many residents have now been infected with the virus that “natural immunity” is beginning to build up.
In places like Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida, COVID-19 cases are decreasing after the recent surge. It’s likely not due to any changes in behavior; there are just considerably fewer people around who haven’t already gotten sick.
As to the why of the partisan divide, there isn’t much mystery behind it. Republicans are more likely to believe conspiracy theories about the pandemic, about masking, and about the vaccines now widely available. Those conspiracy theories translate into a willingness to engage in riskier pandemic behaviors, a political desire to refuse the vaccine because Reasons, and (as countless internet-reported deaths have indicated) hesitancy even when it comes to receiving medical treatment. It’s a rich tapestry of social paranoia, and it’s leading the vaccine-hesitant into what could end up being a “herd immunity” reached the hard way.
A just-out KFF poll gives more insight on how we got to this point. The central finding is that misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic are absolutely rampant, with nearly four in five American adults either believing in or being unsure of the validity of at least one of the major false claims currently making the rounds in disinformation circles.
Here, too, the partisan divide is pronounced. Republicans are far more likely to believe multiple false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic, still-unvaccinated adults are much more likely to hold those beliefs, and as for how they might have come to that information? Again, there are no surprises to be seen.
Fox News viewers were several times more likely to believe false information about the pandemic than the viewers of other network or cable news shows. Only 12% of those who “trust” Fox News for COVID-19 information believed none of the eight tested conspiracies the polling group tested; for most other major news outlets, 40% could reject all of them.
The divide between Fox and “real” news outlets is even starker than that suggests, however. Fox News viewers were more likely to believe at least one false COVID claim than viewers of outright conspiracy outlets Newsmax and OANN. You read that right: Fox News viewers know less about the pandemic than those who rely on conspiracy sites.
Take a bow, Tucker freakin’ Carlson. Your network is killing the folks that watch it.
There’s no expectation that these trends aren’t going to continue. There’s no reason to believe that anyone in Republican governance will treat masking, vaccination, or other pandemic measures with any less scorn than they currently are. If anything, the DeSantis experience of allowing a massive red-state surge, weathering the resulting deaths, and boasting when the resulting infections dwindle again after local pockets of herd immunity are reached may encourage other conservative leaders that they, too, can bluff their way through 60,000 or so deaths and still claim a leadership trophy after the worst of it is over.
It’s shaping up to be quite a winter, and if you’re still not vaccinated you should fix that as soon as you possibly can. It’s going to be you versus the pandemic, and you can’t count on your local leaders to give a flying damn whether you catch it or don’t.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●VA State House: While Virginia Republicans currently lead in 52 races for the state House and Democrats in just 48, the final outcome hasn’t been decided yet because two contests where Democrats trail are poised for recounts.
One of those two Democrats, Del. Martha Mugler, in fact conceded on Friday, prompting House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn to issue a statement congratulating Republicans on their victory. But Mugler, who represents the 91st District in the Hampton Roads area, rescinded her concession over the weekend after a tabulation error cut Republican A.C. Cordoza’s lead almost in half, from 185 votes to just 94.
Just to the south in Virginia Beach, 85th District Rep. Alex Askew is likewise in a very tight race, just 127 votes behind Republican Karen Greenhalgh. Both races are within the 0.5% margin that would trigger an automatic recount paid for by the state. If somehow both elections were to flip, Democrats and Republicans would find themselves with 50 seats apiece in the House, necessitating a power-sharing agreement. Recounts very seldom change electoral outcomes, though the error in Mugler’s race gives Democrats very good reason to pursue a thorough review.
Redistricting
●GA Redistricting: On a party-line vote on Friday, a committee in Georgia’s Republican-run state Senate advanced the GOP’s new map for the chamber. The proposal represents an extreme gerrymander: Donald Trump would have won half of the Senate’s districts by at least 15 points despite losing statewide. The full Senate will reportedly take up the plan this week.
●ID Redistricting: Idaho’s evenly divided bipartisan redistricting commission has approved new maps for the state, making minimal changes to the congressional boundaries. The legislative map, which is used to elect both the state Senate and House, likewise does nothing to affect the GOP’s dominance. Commissioners must now forward their plans to the secretary of state’s office (which will likely happen this week), at which point anyone unhappy with the maps has 35 days to challenge them before the state Supreme Court.
●SC Redistricting: South Carolina’s Republican-run Senate has released a draft map for its own chamber. Lawmakers have yet to unveil proposals for the state House or Congress.
●WI Redistricting: Wisconsin’s Republican-run state Senate passed the GOP’s new redistricting proposals for Congress and the state legislature on a party-line vote on Monday. The Assembly, which is also in Republican hands, will reportedly take up the maps on Thursday. After the Senate vote, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers reiterated his pledge to veto “Republicans’ new gerrymandered maps.”
Senate
●AZ-Sen: Saving Arizona PAC, the group funded with a $10 million donation from billionaire Peter Thiel, has released a poll from Fabrizio Lee arguing that the ad campaign it’s running has had an impact on next year’s GOP primary. The PAC’s endorsed candidate, Thiel Capital chief operating officer Blake Masters, trails state Attorney General Mark Brnovich 26-14, but a previously unreleased August survey had Brnovich ahead by a wider 29-5 spread. Predictably, Saving Arizona’s ads have attacked Brnovich for failing to act on the Big Lie, something Donald Trump himself has of course also whined about.
●NC-Sen: The far-right Club for Growth, which has already spent millions promoting Republican Rep. Ted Budd in next year’s Senate primary, has put out a new poll from WPA Intelligence suggesting their candidate is surging. The numbers find former Gov. Pat McCrory leading Budd 36-33, compared to a much larger 45-21 margin in June. Former Rep. Mark Walker is at 13% in both polls. The Club’s ads have focused on publicizing Donald Trump’s endorsement of Budd.
●NH-Sen: Are we there yet? Republican Gov. Chris Sununu told Fox News on Friday night that he’ll “probably come to some decision in the next week or so” regarding a bid against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, adding, “Maybe sooner.” Sununu made the remarks in Las Vegas while attending an event held by the Republican Jewish Coalition.
Governor
●GA-Gov: DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond indicated on Friday that he might run in next year’s Democratic primary for governor if Stacey Abrams declines to seek a rematch, saying, “I’m always interested. Hope springs eternal in every political heart, but we’ll see what the future brings.” Thurmond, who lost a bid for Senate in 2010 by a 58-39 margin, also made it clear that he’d defer to Abrams, who hasn’t said anything publicly about her plans.
●MA-Gov: State Attorney General Maura Healey is still weighing a bid for governor, saying on Saturday, “I continue to seriously consider running for governor. And I’ll make a decision soon.” In mid-July, she said she’d “know more by fall” about her plans. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has likewise refused to offer a specific timetable about whether he’ll seek a third term, saying last week only that he’d decide “soon.”
●PA-Gov: State Senate President Jake Corman, who’s been eyeing a bid for governor, is reportedly planning a “special announcement” Thursday, at which the Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Andrew Seidman says “he’s expected to launch his campaign for governor.” Corman would join a very large Republican field in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, while Democrats have consolidated around state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.
House
●IL-06: EMILY’s List has endorsed freshman Rep. Marie Newman as she seeks re-election in Illinois’ redrawn 6th District, where she’s been thrown together with fellow Democratic Rep. Sean Casten.
●MI-13: State Rep. Shri Thanedar said on Monday he’s considering a bid for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, which is currently held by Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Thanedar, however, didn’t indicate he has any beef with the congresswoman, and redistricting is still underway, so there’s no telling where the next incarnation of the 13th District might end up. That might not matter much to Thanedar, though: After badly losing the 2018 Democratic primary for governor despite spending $10 million of his own money, he moved from Ann Arbor to Detroit and spent another $300,000 to win a safely blue state in the state House.
●MO-04: State Sen. Caleb Rowden, who had been considering joining the GOP primary for Missouri’s open 4th Congressional District, has announced he won’t run.
●NC-06: Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, who last year became the first Muslim woman to win elective office in North Carolina, announced on Monday that she’ll run for the redrawn 6th Congressional District. Allam had been considering a bid for the old 4th District, the predecessor to the new 6th, which became open when veteran Democratic Rep. David Price announced his retirement last month. She joins state Sen. Wiley Nickel in the Democratic primary. The 6th is a safely blue seat in the Chapel Hill-Durham area that would have voted for Joe Biden 73-25 last year, according to Dave’s Redistricting App.
●NJ-03: Wealthy yacht manufacturer and yoga instructor Robert Healey has entered the race against Democratic Rep. Andy Kim in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, though the seat’s precise future remains uncertain as the Garden State’s redistricting commission has yet to release even a draft map. The New Jersey Globe’s David Wildstein previously reported that Healey “is expected to self-fund a major portion of his campaign” and noted that he’s a former punk rock singer who is “[h]eavily-tattooed with long hair and nipple piercings,” though in a more recent photo, he appears to have cut his hair and shaved his beard.
●OR-05, OR-06: Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader announced over the weekend that he’d seek re-election in Oregon’s 5th District, which contains his home town of Canby, rather than in the new 6th, where more of his current constituents have wound up. Though the 6th is slightly bluer (it would have voted for Joe Biden 55-42, while the new 5th would have gone 53-44), it’s already attracted the attention of some heavyweight progressive Democrats, making it less appetizing for the Blue Dog Schrader. However, the congressman still faces a primary challenge from attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who kicked off a bid recently.
●PA-17: Democratic operative Sean Meloy, who previously worked as a campaign staffer for retiring Rep. Mike Doyle, launched a bid for Pennsylvania’s open 17th Congressional District on Monday. Meloy, who is currently an official with the LGBTQ Victory Fund, would be the first gay person to represent the state in Congress. He joins Navy veteran Chris Deluzio in the primary.
●SC-01: Physician Annie Andrews has announced a challenge to Republican Rep. Nancy Mace in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, making her the first notable Democrat to do so. The 1st is tough territory for Democrats, though—it voted 52-46 for Donald Trump last year as Mace was ousting Rep. Joe Cunningham 41-39—and Republicans in the legislature may try to make it redder in the redistricting process.
Despite all the Republican “repeal and replace” nonsense and legal threats, not to mention Death Panel Donald’s four years of sabotage, HHS and my non-profit health insurance provider wasted no time in letting me know that the 2022 ACA enrollment period for health insurance has begun. If you live in one of the states that relies on the federal exchange, you can get info and shop around at healthcare.gov for the most bang for your buck. This year the ACA is firing on all cylinders (Thanks, Joe!) and, well, you might say it’s been built back better.
Continued…
As always, Charles Gaba’s—aka Brainwrap’s—ACA Signups is a must-bookmark for both the big picture and minutiae of this year’s enrollment period. (Toss him some coin while you’re there.) This year there are eleven important things he says you need to know as you’re sorting it all out, including:
★ RESIDENTS OF MOST STATES HAVE MORE TIME, BUT YOU STILL SHOULDN’T DELAY!
★ MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO DIDN’T QUALIFY FOR FINANCIAL HELP LAST YEAR DO NOW…AND THEY COULD SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!
★ MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE ELIGIBLE FOR FREE “SECRET PLATINUM” PLANS (LABELED AS SILVER)!
★ MANY STATES & COUNTIES WILL HAVE MORE CARRIER & PLAN CHOICES THAN EVER.
★ THE NAVIGATOR PROGRAM IS BACK AT FULL STRENGTH, BABY!
And one other reminder: now that the Affordable Care Act has a president who will take seriously his oath to “faithfully execute” the law, it’s worth noting again that these are benefits Americans now enjoy because of Democrats and only Democrats:
» No penalties for pre-existing conditions
» No out-of-pocket costs for preventive checkups, immunizations, and cancer screenings
» No annual or lifetime limits on coverage
» Coverage of dependent kids up to age 26
» Prohibition of “retroactive cancellation” for no good reason
» Prohibition on charging women more for coverage
» High minimum amounts that insurance companies have to spend on your actual coverage versus their advertising
The list goes on and on. So, to recap: enrollment is underway for federal exchange signer-uppers. Mention my name and they’ll throw in a free jar of cotton balls. (The things I do for you people, I swear.)
And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Note: [Loads fruitcake with the words HAPPY HOLIDAYS on it into catapult. Launches in direction of Fox News.] It is time. Begun, the War on Christmas has.
Number of jobs created during Trump’s first two years in office: 4.5 million
Number of jobs created during Joe Biden’s first 10 months in office: 5.8 million
Rank of the United Kingdom among windiest nations in Europe: #1
Estimated share of the UK’s energy that came from wind power in 2020: 24%
Number of years the iconic Custom House Wharf on the Portland, Maine waterfront (next door from my old office) has been owned by one family, which is now selling it: 162
CHEERS to Infrastructure Week! I was going to wait until President Biden actually signed the bill before I brought the champagne up on the dumbwaiter from the temperature-controlled salt mine under our back yard, but then I thought, naw, I’ve got 6,599 bottles of the stuff stored from all the weeks that haven’t been Infrastructure Week, so—[Pop!!!]—why not? Yes, the House finally passed the half of the Biden agenda that was easiest to pass, so now Transportation Secretary Buttigieg and Labor Secretary Walsh are really gonna have their hands full. The official White House Fact Sheet was released yesterday, and here are the Top 10 highlights of Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill:
1. Invests $110B to repair and rebuild roads and bridges, focusing on resilience, equity, and safety.
2. Invests $65B to ensure every American has access to reliable high-speed internet and lower the cost of internet service.
3. Delivers the largest federal investment in public transit ever. It will expand public transit options across every state, replace thousands of deficient transit vehicles, including buses, with clean, zero emission vehicles, and improve accessibility.
4. $66B to eliminate the Amtrak maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor, and bring world-class service to new areas.
5. Through a $7.5B investment, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will develop the first national network of electric vehicle chargers.
6. $55B to deliver clean water to millions of Americans and eliminate lead service lines.
7. More than $65B to upgrade our power infrastructure, including thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines.
8. $50B to make communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change and cyber-attacks.
9. An historic $21B to: clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mines and cap orphaned gas wells, and create good-paying jobs while advancing economic and environmental justice.
10. Modernize airports, ports, and waterways to support supply chains and reduce emissions. $42B to address repair and maintenance backlogs, reduce congestion and bottlenecks, and drive low-carbon technologies.
I’m also pleased to announce that my strategically-targeted 2020 campaign contributions paid off handsomely. As soon as the bill is signed into law, $2 billion will be allocated for a fresh chlorination tablet in the C&J kiddie pool. It’s 8 feet in diameter and weighs two tons. You’ll want to wear a hazmat suit for a few weeks. It’s gonna get fizzy.
JEERS to friendly fire. And then there’s the $1.75 Build Back Better framework, the real meat of the Biden agenda. The Congressional Roadblock Caucus—Manchin and Sinema in the Senate, 12 petty assholes in the House—wants to delay it to death. (Their latest stall for time: the petty assholes in the House want to see the CBO score, which will take weeks.) I’ll be blunt: if the conserva-Dems stab the progressives in the back by killing BBB now that they have their precious—and deficit-ballooning—infrastructure bill in hand, I’ll have to think twice about remaining a Democrat. The betrayal would be off the charts, not only to the party faithful but to all Americans who desperately need what BBB offers after being patient for so many decades. Let’s hope those 14 Roadblockers can tamp down the innate sense of sadism and malignant narcissism infecting their brains to keep their word. Because have you ever seen me in a MAGA hat? Trust me—you don’t want to see me in a MAGA hat.
CHEERS good readin’. During this week in 1731, Benjamin Franklin opened the first lending library—officially called “The Library Company of Philadelphia,” an idea that sprang from his weekly meetings with tradesmen designed to expand their depth of knowledge. (For our Republican readers: a library is a place where people go to learn facts and logic and wisdom from things called books and computers.) The dedication ceremony was cut short, however, thanks to strict enforcement of the colonies’ first ever “3 shushes and you’re out” rule.
CHEERS to today’s edition of Hey, Remember That Insurrectionist Who Said She’s Definitely Not Going To Jail Because She Has Blonde Hair And White Skin? Whatever Happened To Her? Courtesy of HuffPost:
Jenna Ryan, a Donald Trump enthusiast who tweeted that she’s “definitely not going to jail” after she stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, was sentenced to 60 days in prison on Thursday.
This has been today’s edition of Hey, Remember That Insurrectionist Who Said She’s Definitely Not Going To Jail Because She Has Blonde Hair And White Skin? Whatever Happened To Her?
CHEERS to giving Hoover the boot. Eighty-nine years ago this week, in 1932, New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt was elected president. A few verbal goodies from FDR…
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.”
FDR was a populist. But the good kind.
“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
[Memo to self: check source on that last one. Might be Polk?]
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Ten years ago in C&J: November 9, 2011
CHEERS (for comedy purposes only) to boobs on the tube. The Republican candidates will gather in Michigan today for another debate, this one airing on CNBC. Also on CNBC and every other channel: the first nationwide test of the new National Emergency Alert System. Wow—two major TV events in one day. One will make you want to duck and cover under a desk in a fallout shelter, and the other is the National Emergency Alert System.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to knockin’ that sucker down. Thirty-two years ago today, the world witnessed a surreal scene: Berliners hacking away with pickaxes and hammers at that damned wall that had divided their city for decades—a mind-blowing moment that briefly galvanized the planet in celebration. And what sparked it wasn’t the pope or the U.N. or even ex-president Saint Ronald Reagan—it was this awkwardly-delivered comment by Politburo member Guenter Schabowski a day earlier:
“Therefore…um…we have decided today…um…to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic…um…to…um…leave East Germany through any of the border crossings,” said Schabowski.
Something we’ll never have to do to Trump’s wall, mainly because the tiny fraction of it that got built is falling down all on its own.
He appeared scarcely to believe his own words and we were all dumbfounded. What did he just say? Schabowski was asked when the new rule would take effect. “That comes into effect…according to my information…. immediately, without delay,” Schabowski stammered, shuffling through the papers spread in front of him as he sought in vain for more information.
I still link to this must-see Boston Globe photo diary, which documents the jubilation and its aftermath. I had the chance to visit Berlin a couple times in the 70s when I was kid. I had a middle-school knowledge of the post-war history of Berlin, but nothing could prepare me for the contrast I saw in person: vibrant and colorful on the western side…oppressive, gray, boarded-up and barbed-wired on the eastern side. In some ways it reminds me of what this country has become: reality-based, education-oriented and live-and-let-live on the left…authoritarian, trigger-happy, reality-averse and homogenous on the right. But my main point is: Happy reunification anniversary, Germany—let’s all drink beer.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today’s Shameless C&J Testimonial
“The efforts to tug on our heartstrings don’t always work, but Cheers and Jeers is a sweet-natured comic blog post about what it means to be human.”
Robert Baird at The New Yorker takes a deep dive into the negotiations on President Biden’s agenda and the Congressional Progressive Caucus:
The C.P.C.’s show of strength came as a surprise. Not since the Democratic Study Group, an organization of liberal House members who helped steer civil-rights legislation through the blockade of Southern Democrats in the nineteen-sixties, had a group of left-leaning members of Congress acted with such concentrated force. The C.P.C. was founded three decades ago, but, as recently as 2015, The American Prospect described the caucus as “a fragile informal coalition that has lacked the same kind of leadership, money, publications, communications strategy, or clout” as its predecessor. Jayapal told me that when she first joined, “People got together, and they got mad at what was happening, but there wasn’t infrastructure built for the caucus to be strong.”
Brian Klaas in interviewed by Molly Jong-Fast on how Democrats can fight Republican extremism:
“Democrats have been given power. They need to wield [it],” he says. “The idea of protecting some comparatively insignificant norm while letting the rest of democracy burn is totally antithetical to everything we understand about how to protect democratic institutions.” That, and the rest of us need to “beat the authoritarian party at the ballot box while you still have democracy.”
The alternative? More extreme people in office. In fact, it’s what Klaas’ book is about: examining why so many leaders are awful humans, with the rest of us at their mercy. It’s how we got people like Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, and Lauren Boebert making political decisions in the first place.
“The way you set up the system of power determines who ends up putting their hat in the ring for it,” he says. “When you have Trump as the figurehead for the party, the people who are thinking about [running for office] that are on the fence… they’re thinking they’re going to lose the primary. So they bow out. Whereas the Lauren Boeberts and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world, they’re full speed ahead.”
Ed Kilgore takes on the 90s take on Democratic strategy:
Sometimes when I hear a bit of popular music from the 1990s — whether it’s the boy-band stylings of NSYNC or the guitar-rock version of Radiohead — it seems familiar and momentarily with-it until I realize, Oh my God, this was a quarter-century ago!
Similarly, when I read Mark Penn and Andrew Stein’s op-ed in the New York Times offering a take on the current plight of the Democratic Party, I certainly recognized a familiar tune from the ’90s. This was the heyday of the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization I loyally served in various capacities for about a decade, eventually becoming vice-president for policy. I feel that like most of my colleagues from that era, I have evolved a lot since then, as has the Democratic Party and the United States of America. But the Penn-Stein analysis shows no evolution at all: It’s a view of the current political landscape from the perspective of 1995 at the latest, and thus offers very bad advice to today’s Democrats.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post editorial board writes in support of vaccine mandates:
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve heard outrage expressed that somehow public health measures are a restraint on people’s liberty. Beyond doubt, the restrictions have been onerous for many. But they must be weighed against the benefit. Face masks, social distancing, better ventilation, hand hygiene and vaccines have saved lives. The vaccines available today, free and widely available in the United States, are an unprecedented boon. No generation before had such highly effective vaccines invented, manufactured and distributed in such a short period of time. Listen to the voices of those unvaccinated people sickened in the hospital or on their deathbeds saying they wish they had taken the vaccine. Vaccines are a near-certain pass to avert misery, a protection against hospitalization and death. Isn’t that freedom?
On a final note, don’t miss Paul Krugman in The New York Times on infrastructure week:
But if infrastructure spending is a political winner, why didn’t it happen under Donald Trump? The Trump administration first declared Infrastructure Week in June 2017, but no legislative proposal ever materialized, and by the time Trump was voted out of office the phrase had become a national punchline. Why?
It wasn’t just incompetence, although that was part of it. The bigger story is that the modern Republican Party is constitutionally incapable — or maybe, given recent behavior, that should be unconstitutionally incapable — of investing in America’s future. And, sad to say, pro-corporate Democrats, whom we really should stop calling “centrists,” have some of the same problems.
Trump talked big about infrastructure during the 2016 election campaign. But the “plan” released by his advisers — it was actually just a vague sketch — was a mess. It wasn’t even really a proposal for public investment; to a large extent it was an exercise in crony capitalism, a scheme for taxpayer-subsidized private investment that would, like the “opportunity zones” that were part of the 2017 tax cut, mainly have ended up showering benefits on wealthy developers. It was also completely unworkable.
In the news today: As Ted Cruz grouses that teaching children about vaccination amounts to “propaganda,” fellow Senate seditionist Josh Hawley says he’ll be adopting “masculinity” as his new central political theme. As Democratic strategist James Carville gets hammered for another tired take on “wokeness,” the people trying to sell “wokeness” as a danger are racist conservative billionaires who’ve devoted themselves to stoking similar panics for decades now. Meanwhile, the Biden White House walks back a prior Biden statement suggesting Biden was rejecting compensation for refugee families caught in Trump’s intentionally cruel separation policies.
Today’s been a weird, weird day. There may be something in the punch.
