April 30, 2022

Friday Talking Points -- Um... Madison Cawthorn Getting Naked In Sweden?

As we write this, everyone inside the Beltway is getting ready for the upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner, which President Joe Biden has said he will be attending (after a hiatus of presidents attending due to COVID and, earlier, due to Donald Trump having incredibly thin skin). But, as usual, our invitation seems to have been lost in the mail or something. Ahem.

We are excited with a sort of "something good is about to happen" feeling, however, because the House Select January 6th Committee has finally announced a preliminary schedule for public hearings. Here's the story (as it stands so far):

Primetime? That could certainly be interesting!

Meanwhile, more and more leaks have appeared, including those from an upcoming book by New York Times journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, which mostly cover Kevin McCarthy's initial reaction to the insurrection attempt (spoiler: McCarthy reacted somewhat sanely, condemning the insurrection and Trump, for which is he now being forced to abase himself in front of the rest of the party for insufficient loyalty to the Dear Leader). McCarthy initially tried to deny all the allegations as fake news, but had to walk that back after tapes were released proving exactly what he had said.

The Republican world held its collective breath for a day or so, until Trump bestowed his blessing upon McCarthy, which saved McCarthy's dream of becoming speaker of the House next year. Once Trump had registered his approval, McCarthy spoke to his caucus, who reportedly gave him a standing ovation.

Just another week in Trumptown, in other words.

However, the prize for most scandalous behavior within Republican ranks this week has to go to Representative Madison Cawthorn. Which led to one snarky article musing about what Cawthorn was actually up to:



The Washington Post had the best rundown of what Cawthorn has been up to of late, though:



All of that is pretty hard to top when it comes to outrageous scandals -- especially the photos of Cawthorn wearing lingerie -- but today Cawthorn managed this feat. Fittingly, it appeared in a British tabloid, the Daily Mail. Here's the story:



Um... "joined Cawthorn on his honeymoon"?!? Wow. No wonder his marriage only lasted eight months! And then there were all the Venmo payments. Which came with flirty little suggestive notes to explain the payments, such as:



...and one that was more concise, consisting of a single word: "Nudes."

Nothing like the "party of family values," eh? If you're waiting for his fellow Republicans to denounce Cawthorn or call for his resignation, you must have just woken up from a coma that lasted at least seven years. These days, the only thing that Republicans condemn is being insufficiently worshipful to the Dear Leader -- pretty much everything else gets a pass. As Madison Cawthorn seems intent on proving, as many different ways as he can.

This could all fit in rather well with one message Joe Biden has been deploying with more and more regularity: "This ain't your father's Republican Party, folks." Democrats should lean in to the warning that if Republicans take over the House in November, it won't be Kevin McCarthy leading them (no matter what title he has), it will be the likes of Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, and all the rest of the lunatics the GOP not only allows within its ranks but supports and seems to almost celebrate. This is today's Republican Party, make no mistake about it.

It's gotten so bad, in fact, that when a Republican actually lives up to her oath of office to the Constitution, it is such a rare event that she is given a Profile In Courage award for doing so.

What else? Donald Trump had a rather busy week, with some notable ups and downs. He was held in civil contempt by a court in New York, for refusing to provide documents that the prosecutor has requested. Trump will be forced to pay $10,000 a day until he produces them.

But the criminal grand jury in New York dissolved this week, after the new district attorney refused to move the criminal fraud case against Trump forward. So it looks like he's off the hook for any criminal penalties, at least in New York.

The most amusing Trump news of the week, however, came from a deposition Trump had to sit for in a case involving protesters against Trump who are suing him for his security guards assaulting them back in 2015. While being questioned about a campaign rally he gave in 2016, where he invited the crowd to "knock the crap" out of any protesters who tried to pelt him with tomatoes (going as far as saying he would "pay the legal fees" of anyone who did knock the crap out of a tomato-thrower), Trump revealed yet another item on the long list of things that he is terrified of -- killer fruit:



If he's this inarticulate and frightened in a case about his security guards, one can only imagine what he might say in a real deposition into a crime that he was guilty of committing. No wonder he wages such a fierce legal battle to avoid getting questioned under oath!





We've got a lot to get to in impressive Democratic behavior this week, we are happy to report.

Runners-up this week (who all deserve an Honorable Mention) were led off by Elizabeth Warren, who is out there trying to light a fire under her fellow Democrats to get some things done as soon as possible, because she knows that would be the best way to increase the party's chances in the midterms.

Meanwhile down in Florida, Chaz Stevens had an excellent idea. He's the same guy who put up a Festivus pole at the state capitol's year-end holiday display, to show that neutrality in government's handling of religion must be absolute. Now he's trying to make another important point, by sending challenges to 63 Florida school districts, to try to get them to remove the Bible from school libraries. He's doing this to spotlight a new law passed by Republicans which was intended to target books inclusive of L.G.B.T.Q. and Black students, but (as with most laws of this type) was written in an effort to pass constitutional muster by not explicitly saying which books should be targeted. So Stevens filed challenges that they probably never expected:



Stevens is a political prankster, no doubt. But he's standing on pretty firm legal ground:



In what might initially look like a political stunt, Utah Democrats have decided not to back a candidate for the upcoming Senate race, and instead to endorse Independent Evan McMullin. This should give McMullin a much better chance at unseating Mike Lee, and far from being a stunt it was actually a prime example of putting country over party (we wrote about this at length earlier in the week).

And in any other week, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham would have easily won the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week for the sheer magnitude of what she just accomplished:



That is pioneering and progressive and shows that this sort of thing can be done, no matter how many naysayers try to paint it as some radical "far left" idea. Democrats should take note, because this is precisely the sort of thing Congress should be doing (if it weren't for Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, of course). We hope, at any rate, that some other blue states follow suit.

But just for jaw-dropping impressiveness, we are obliged to give the coveted MDDOTW award this week to a candidate for Minnesota state senate, who didn't even get her party (the "Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party," in Minnesota) to endorse her, losing out to another candidate at the party's recent meeting. Why would we find such a losing bid impressive? Well, for one major reason:



The article also notes (with pun almost certainly intended) that she also had to "labor through" a question-and-answer period after her speech:



Personally, we are left speechless (which doesn't happen often, to us). This is a performance no male (politician or otherwise) can ever even begin to understand. For showing such grit and for her commitment to her candidacy, we think at the very least Erin Maye Quade deserves this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week.

And for those wondering, the story has a very happy ending: 12 hours later in the wee hours of the morning, she delivered a baby girl she named Harriet. Who will get to hear that story pretty much every single birthday she has for the rest of her life. She shouldn't mind, though, because the story is so breathtakingly impressive.

[Since she is no longer a candidate, we do not as a rule provide contact information for private citizens, so you'll have to look up Erin Maye Quade yourself if you'd like to offer your congratulations, sorry.]





We're going to return to what has become our default for the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week this week, by handing it to Joe Manchin, just on general principles.

We should mention in passing that there was one other contender for the award this week, but we don't really consider him a Democrat even though he's running as one for a state senate seat in Michigan (using the party to get on the ballot doesn't really make you a party member, in our eyes at least). But we do have to admit he is odious. Far-right radio host Randy Bishop said this week that the mainstream media is attempting to "destroy the nuclear family," for which he had a rather antediluvian definition: "Can't even watch a college basketball tournament without commercials telling me I have to feel guilty because I think a family should be a White mom, a White dad and White kids." Hoo boy.

But back to real Democrats (or, at least, "Democrats for the time being..." ). Senator Joe Manchin has begun his Dance of the Seven Veils again, teasing the entire rest of the Democratic Party with the slight possibility that he might vote for a reconciliation bill which gets a few things done before the midterms. However, he has cried "Wolf!" far too often for most Democrats to even take him seriously this time around. The White House is attempting to bargain with him, but since Manchin feels no compunction about agreeing to something and then later saying he can't agree to it, this will probably wind up going nowhere. Manchin is also involved with an effort to pass an energy bill with a bipartisan group of senators -- another effort that is likely to go precisely nowhere -- which means oodles of time wasted and no urgency to strike an energy deal with his fellow Democrats in the meantime.

On top of all this, the new book from the two New York Times journalists leaked an interesting excerpt showing Manchin has indeed considered switching parties:



So the only thing that saved Democratic control is Joe Manchin's dislike of Mitch McConnell. Which is truly disappointing, and is why Manchin can add one more Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to his growing collection.

[Contact Senator Joe Manchin on his Senate contact page, to let him know what you think of his actions.]




Volume 660 (4/29/22)

These are all kind of loosely based on the same theme this week -- all variations on the first talking point, really. Except maybe the last one, but then with anything dealing with Rand Paul it's going to be so loony that it defies description, really.



Not your dad's GOP

Hammer this one home, because it is so true.

"Joe Biden recently remarked: 'This is not your father's Republican Party by any stretch of the imagination. This is the MAGA party.' He's right. Today's Republicans have forsworn just about everything the party used to stand for, all in obeisance to a completely amoral and narcissistic con man. Donald Trump's lack of human empathy and any moral compass has filtered down to the rest of the party, to the point where they now celebrate the violent attempted overthrow of a presidential election and are working diligently to steal the next presidential election by taking over the machinery which verifies the vote, in state after state. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney summed up the difference between the two parties nicely when he said: 'We're for jobs. They're for mobs. We are fixing your country, and they are fixing elections.' Couldn't agree more. This is not your father's Republican Party, folks. It is now a party morally unmoored and adrift, with no respect for basic democracy at all."



The race to the bottom

There are just so many examples to choose from.

"Republicans are in a real race to the bottom, in fact, as they seem almost to be trying to outdo each other in what used to be universally considered disqualifying behavior for a public servant. Madison Cawthorn is a total Dumpster fire all on his own, and after the month he's had it'll be interesting to see how he tries to top it next month. So many Republican candidates for office have been accused of beating their spouses or children that it is actually hard to keep track of them all anymore. In Idaho, a former state representative was just convicted of raping a 19-year-old intern. Meanwhile, 'one of the most powerful senators in the North Dakota legislature' actually did step down after it was revealed that he had exchanged 72 text messages with a guy who was being held in jail on child pornography charges. This is the Republican Party of today, people. What's most astounding is that as they continue this race to the bottom, with every lurch downwards, within their own ranks they have normalized behaviors which used to be career-killing but are now seen as not as bad as what the rest of them are doing. It is disgraceful and disgusting, and it is indeed today's Republican Party."



Rapists' rights

This used to be an extreme position even on the right, but no more.

"Republicans at the state level are falling all over themselves to pass the most restrictive abortion laws possible, in anticipation of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court. This means we can all see precisely how extreme Republicans have become on the issue. In Ohio a bill was being debated that (it was pointed out during debate) would force a 13-year-old girl who was raped to carry her rapist's baby to term. The Republican who authored the measure agreed:"



"We think voters should ask themselves before entering the voting booth this November if this is the future they want to see for America. Because if Republicans take control of Congress, they very well could try to pass such abhorrent laws for the entire nation. The Republican Party has become the party of rapists' rights. Think about that when you vote. Because that is exactly where they want to take us all, make no mistake about it."



Book burnings, too

Again, this is not just an isolated example, it is a trend in red states across the country.

"Republicans used to be the party of small government -- you know, 'get the government out of my life,' that sort of thing. But now they're not only fighting hard to force women to carry rapists' babies to term, they're also trying to ban books they don't like -- a category which apparently includes any discussion of Black people or other minorities, or any suggestion that any relationship other than a heterosexual marriage even exists. In Tennessee, one Republican state representative even admitted what his real goal was. When asked what he'd do with all the banned books: 'You going to put them in the street? Light them on fire?' the Republican answered back: 'I don't have a clue, but I would burn them.' So this is what Republicans mean by 'small government'? Deciding what is allowed to be on bookshelves? And then burning any books they don't approve of? This is today's Republican Party, plain and simple."



Big Lie going strong

It's not just social issues, either.

"In state after state, Republicans are running for the offices that control elections with one goal in mind -- guaranteeing that any election which shows more people voted for Democrats than Republicans is thrown out and replaced by just anointing the Republican the winner. This is the inevitable end goal of Donald Trump's insistence on his Big Lie, that somehow (without the tiniest shred of evidence) he won the 2020 election. The race for Georgia governor had an interesting debate this week, where the Trump-endorsed candidate spent the first 23 minutes of the debate slamming his opponent for not just chucking out all the votes and proclaiming Trump the winner the last time around. He's not the only one, either -- there are plenty of Big Lie cult members running for state offices all around the country. And while it looks right now like the Georgia Trumpista is probably going to lose in the primary, some of them will manage to get their party's nomination and some may even win their election in November. Which could spell the end of fair and free elections in more than one U.S. state. This is today's Republican Party, folks -- they believe that if they lose an election, they should still get to rule anyway, and they are actively plotting to make that a reality, no matter what the voters have to say about it."



Profiles In Courage

This is really astonishing, when you think about it. Or it should be, at any rate.

"In normal times, Republican officeholders who uphold their oath of office to the United States Constitution would not be news, it would be expected of them all. But these are not normal times, and there are so few Republicans left that do stand up for free elections and doing what is right that they are being singled out for their bravery. This week the Profile In Courage awards were announced, and not only did Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy get one but also Representative Liz Cheney and three elections officials in Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia -- all for simply doing their duty. When Donald Trump tried to steal the last election, it was people like these who prevented it. And now they are such rarities within Republican ranks that they are fully deserving of Profile In Courage awards. That's kind of sad, when you think about it -- how far the party has fallen, really."



Sarah might have something to say about that, Rand

And finally, in the stupidest thing said all week category (a tough bar for Republicans to hit, these days), we have Rand Paul.

"In a hearing this week, Rand Paul uncorked some prime Russian propaganda while questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Paul seemed rather fine with Russia attacking Ukraine and other countries (Georgia and Moldova), pointing out: 'You could also argue the countries they've attacked were part of Russia, or were part of the Soviet Union.... The countries that were attacked were part of the Soviet Union since the 1920s.' Vladimir Putin was no doubt delighted to hear Paul parroting Kremlin talking points, one assumes. Using Rand Paul's logic, after all, it would be entirely reasonable if the United Kingdom tried to recapture the East Coast of America, or France launched a war to take back the Louisiana Purchase. Or, perhaps more to the point, Russia's next invasion could be launched to reconquer Alaska. Rand Paul seems to be suggesting this would be acceptable, but I would bet that Sarah Palin (and hundreds of millions of others) might have a different take on seeing Russian soldiers land in Anchorage."




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

April 23, 2022

Friday Talking Points -- The Wait Better Be Worth It This Time

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

It's been a rather bizarre week, which is even more odd since Congress is still off lollygagging, rather than doing the people's business as they are handsomely paid to do. Perhaps all these vacations have a cost? That's what we were thinking, at any rate, when we heard the news today that the House Select Committee on January 6th has punted the ball yet again, and will not even be scheduling public hearings until June, rather than next month. Seriously, guys? You're going to break the biggest political scandal story of the year right at the start of summer?!?

Sigh. It's like waiting for Mueller all over again. One only hopes that this time the wait doesn't lead to a massive disappointment in the end. The committee members keep promising blockbuster revelations, but they've been promising that since roughly January, so by now it's a little hard to share their excitement. And we do fervently hope that this scheduling promise actually comes to pass, and that one month from now we're not griping about the announcement that the hearings have slipped until July. And that the wait will ultimately prove to have been worth it, this time.

Perhaps we're being too pessimistic, for Earth Day. So we'll try something a little more upbeat -- a new way for us to review the week that was: bullet points! We're going to make an effort to rein in our persistent logorrhea in an effort to make these columns more readable. And to save you the trouble, the first dictionary definition that pops up for "logorrhea" is: "a tendency to extreme loquacity." Heh.

So, in no particular order, here's what happened in the week that was:

• Donald Trump Junior posted a photo of three heavily-armed Easter Bunnies brandishing guns, because of course he did. Nothing like that Republican respect for Christian religious holidays, eh?


• Rudy Giuliani briefly appeared (and was immediately voted off of) The Masked Singer, and delivered a truly horrible version of "Bad To The Bone." You just can't make this stuff up, folks.


• New Jersey started selling legal recreational marijuana to adults... on 4/21. Quoth Homer Simpson: "D'oh!"


• The Texas governor had to cave on his political stunt of grinding to a halt the passage of trucks across the Mexican border, because too many Texas businesses were saying it was doing nothing but harming them and the economy.


• Neck-and-neck in the race for "stupidest political stunts state of the week" was Florida, where they had to call a special session of the legislature just to fit in all the stupid. They passed an anti-Disney law, gerrymandered the heck out of their state's districts, and banned a whole bunch of math books for good measure.


• The U.S. Capitol was briefly evacuated due to a miscommunication ("missed communication," really) about an Army airplane circling near the Capitol to put on a parachute team display at a baseball game. Glad to know all those interdepartmental problems exposed by January 6th have been solved, guys!


• Tucker Carlson spent a whole show advocating "testicle tanning," and we're not even going to bother to make a joke about it (we'll leave that as an exercise for the reader, because it is so easy).


• Alex Jones's Infowars had to file for bankruptcy because he is on the hook for so many of his vile lies and is about to face enormous financial court decisions against him.


• Philadelphia quickly reversed course and ended its new mask mandate, saying the caseload and hospitalization numbers had gone back down already. Perhaps public reaction had something to do with this? Or perhaps the fact that no other major city followed suit (at least, not yet)....

In related news to that last item, because of one federal judge's ruling, Americans are now flying maskless once again. The Biden administration appealed the ruling, but will likely argue something along the lines of: "The need for a mandate is now moot, however we would like a clear decision in this case because we think it is important to have this power in place for future emergencies." Which most of the media hasn't really caught on to, at least for now.

The big news today, of course, is Marjorie Taylor Greene actually answering questions under oath about the January 6th insurrection, and her possible involvement. Greene said many unbelievable things during this hearing, but one stood out above the rest:



Got that, folks? She doesn't remember whether she personally told the president of the United States it would be a good idea to impose martial law on the country.

Is there anyone under the sun that believes that a person who either (1) did urge the president to impose martial law, or (2) did not urge the president to impose martial law wouldn't remember that they had done so, one way or the other? It seems like a fairly memorable moment, doesn't it? But not to her, apparently. Either that, or she's committing some pretty blatant perjury.

While it was interesting to see someone getting legally grilled over January 6th (since we have yet to see any of that sort of thing from the January 6th House committee itself, of course...), the outcome of this legal event seems pretty preordained. Greene is being challenged under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for her eligibility to run for re-election to her House seat. The people bringing this action claim Greene is ineligible to serve because the 14th Amendment bars anyone who has "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against" the U.S. Constitution," or "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof," who has also "previously taken an oath" to "support the Constitution," from ever holding "any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state."

So today's hearing was to explore whether any of that was true or could be proven. However, the ultimate decision rests with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a man who is already on Donald Trump's bad side (because he refused to allow Trump to steal Georgia's election result), and who is up for re-election against a Trump-supported GOP challenger. So it's a stretch to think that Raffensperger would enrage the Trumpian base right before his primary election -- which is precisely what would happen if he decided Greene was ineligible to be on the ballot. So it looks like a foregone conclusion, no matter what the judge says after today's testimony.

OK, we're supposed to be trying to keep this short (which, we point out, is kind of an experiment today, so we'll be interested to hear whether readers like it or not...), so let's whip through the rest of the bizarre news from the week and then get right to the awards.

While Trump pardoned Steve Bannon during his last days in office, there were three other fellow grifters in on the scheme which necessitated Bannon's pardon -- and none of them got pardoned. So two of them (including a disabled vet) just pled guilty to the massive grift that was the private "We Build the Wall" campaign. This grift-apolooza took in millions in donations, which was supposedly earmarked to privately build Trump's dreamed-of border barrier. The people running this scam all promised not to take a salary or any profits, but then they all dipped into the pot of millions of dollars in donations anyway. There is a third grifter who still hasn't pleaded guilty yet, so this story's not over. Bannon, of course, got off scot-free.

Speaking of grifting, Rick Scott is supposed to be running the group raising money to get more Republicans elected to the Senate (the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or "N.R.S.C." ), but it seems he's a whole lot more interested in funneling as much of that money as he possibly can towards his own stash. This is reportedly upsetting some of his fellow Republicans (who joke that he's turned the N.R.S.C. into "the National Rick Scott Committee" ), so this will be interesting to watch play out.

But of course, you can't speak of Republican grifting without mentioning their grifter-in-chief, Donald Trump. It seems Mar-a-Lago (and his other properties) are still raking it in from all and sundry in the Republican Party and conservative political sphere as a way to sort of ante up to the game of begging for Trump's approval. Including Trump's own PAC -- a convenient way for him to launder donations straight into his own pockets. Trump will, however, soon be losing his D.C. hotel -- which will be removing his name from the property within days. And in the bombshell of the week, Trump was also ordered to pay Omarosa a cool $1.3 million for the legal fees she had to spend to sue him, so that's some poetic justice.

And finally, we have to at least mention the story causing feathers to fly within Republican leadership ranks this week, as a new book out revealed that both Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell initially wanted not only to either have Trump resign the presidency or for the impeachment to succeed, but also were caught wishing that Twitter would kick off all the nutjobs they've allowed to fester with the Republican ranks.

Of course, within weeks, both McCarthy and McConnell had drastically changed their tunes and were (to one degree or another) once again kissing Trump's... um, ring... (yeah... let's go with "ring," shall we?). Because apparently having a spine or any sort of moral compass is no longer required in the ranks of the GOP leaders in Congress. Really makes you look forward to what might happen if either one of these sycophants ever regains congressional power, doesn't it?





We have a clear winner for this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week, but before we get to her we've got one more impressive Democrat to mention first.

Senator Elizabeth Warren this week published an opinion piece in the New York Times that is a true call to action for Democrats in Congress. She essentially says: "We've got to get more done now, or we don't stand a chance in the midterms," and it should come as a wakeup call for any who are arguing differently (we wrote about this earlier in the week, if anyone's interested in a deeper dive). Senator Warren deserves at least an Honorable Mention for her clarion call.

But this week a state senator in Michigan gave a speech which went viral -- for good reason. After being maliciously and falsely attacked by a fellow state senator, who used the increasingly-common vile accusations of "grooming" children and supporting pedophilia, Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow had had enough.

She stood up and shamed the Republican, her attacks, and the evil and hateful place from whence they sprang. McMorrow was incensed and deeply offended, which she made perfectly obvious while still remaining (mostly) civil. The speech is less than five minutes long, and it is well worth watching if you haven't seen it (we devoted yesterday's column to transcribing the entire thing, if you'd prefer to read it -- but we strongly encourage watching the whole thing, since the delivery is so powerful).

Here's just one part of it, where McMorrow hits back hard at the hypocrisy of those attacking her:



Obviously, she was not in the mood to mince words. Personally, we haven't seen such a display of righteousness from any Democrat in quite a while. This is how vile smears should be addressed -- quickly and forcefully. Shame those who would make such scurrilous and unfounded attacks. Call them out, for the whole world to hear. Treat them with the scathing contempt which they are due.

Above all, express your righteous indignation that American politics has sunk this low. The voters will agree with this sentiment, or at least the vast majority of them will. Democrats need to start pointing out that if Republicans win control, the next two years are going to consist of nothing but such hate-filled rants, since the Republican Party has absolutely no answers for any of the real problems facing everyday Americans. Perhaps what the Democrats are doing isn't fixing the problems fast enough, but at least they are trying, while the Republicans are content to offer absolutely nothing in the way of answers to any of it.

This is a powerful political argument to make, and we sincerely wish more Democrats were out there making it on a regular basis. We wish that this week's speech from a Michigan senator was unremarkable and not even worth mentioning -- because so many Democrats were out there saying the same things.

But until that happens, we are happy to award Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week. McMorrow made a whole lot of "straight, White, Christian, married suburban moms" (as she herself put it) proud of her this week -- and also a whole lot of people who don't fit that pigeonhole, too. Well done, Senator McMorrow, well done!

[Congratulate Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow on her official contact page, to let her know you appreciate her efforts.]





One senses there is more to this story that hasn't been told yet, but from what Politico and others are reporting, this smacks of the national party butting in where it isn't all that welcome.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has a super PAC devoted to getting more Democrats elected to the House. This seems a laudable goal, but what is inexplicable is that they just plonked a cool million dollars down to favor one Democratic candidate in a primary race for a safe Oregon House seat that has multiple viable candidates. And this is seriously annoying some Oregon Democrats. Here is the whole story (as it is has been reported, so far):



The article goes on to point out that Flynn is a political newcomer, and that "the district hasn't even been targeted by the GOP," since Biden carried it by 14 points. So whichever candidate won the Democratic primary would likely have cruised to victory in November. And you'd think the Democrats would be bending over backward trying to get more Hispanics into Congress, considering the slide among the demographic which showed up in the 2020 election. Which is precisely why they are so angry about this heavy-handed move:



They weren't the only ones upset. Salinas is not some longshot candidate far out of the mainstream Democratic ideology or something -- a condition which might have made the PAC's move more understandable. She's already proven herself to many within the party, in fact:



When asked about it, the House Majority PAC had the most anodyne of answers (which didn't address the controversy in any way, shape, or form):



This is putting a very heavy thumb on the scale of a primary election -- a task outside the stated goals of the PAC itself. There is no fear that this seat will go Republican, after all. The PAC could have spent that million bucks elsewhere, where it would have gone towards defeating Republican challengers or incumbents. Instead, they chose to intervene in a Democratic primary for no apparent reason, to tip the scales away from a prominent Latina candidate. That's a bad look all around.

And it is beyond disappointing. Which is why this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week is none other than Nancy Pelosi and the House Majority PAC. Get your priorities straight, folks -- that money is supposed to be used to fight Republicans, not Democratic candidates in a very safe district.

[Contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on her official contact page, to let her know what you think of her (and her PAC's) actions.]




Volume 659 (4/22/22)

We start off this week with three quotes from our awards section. The first is from Elizabeth Warren and the other two are from that extraordinary speech in Michigan. The rest of the mix is more of a grab-bag this week.



A clear warning

Senator Elizabeth Warren, as previously mentioned, issued a clarion call this week. Democrats should take it to heart, and act accordingly. She ends her message with the following warning:





Who she is

We saved the best parts of Michigan Senator Mallory McMorrow's speech for the following two talking points. In the first, McMorrow strongly defines herself, and what she stands for. Other Democrats, please take note -- this is the way to fight vile Republican smears:





We will not let hate win

Take the culture war fight directly to the Republicans, and point out that this is all they've got. They have no answers to today's problems, they just have fear and hatred. And fear and hatred is no reason to vote for someone.





Maybe look in the mirror?

If they're going to sling baseless mud, then how about reminding Republicans of what they are now comfortable with in their own party?

"Republicans are now yelling 'pedophile!' at the drop of a hat, it seems, which is just laughable since they have absolutely no moral leg left to stand on anymore. Donald Trump has endorsed a candidate for governor in Nebraska who has been accused by multiple prominent Republican women of sexual assault. Trump's going to appear at a rally for the guy. In South Carolina, Trump endorsed -- and the Republicans are falling in line behind -- a Senate candidate who pointed a gun at his ex-wife's head and threatened to kill her. A frontrunner in the Senate GOP contest in Missouri has been accused of physical abuse by both his ex-wife and his ex-mistress. And that's just scratching the surface, folks. Remember Trump trying to get Roy Moore elected -- a guy who hung out at shopping malls trolling for underage girls? That is a pedophile. Or take Matt Gaetz, who reportedly paid underage women for sex and called it 'tuition.' Have any Republicans said a word about Representative Lauren Boebert's husband, who did time in jail for exposing his penis to two young women, in a bowling alley, while she was also there? Funny, I haven't heard one of them denounce him. The Republican Party simply has no claim to any moral high road, folks. People like this used to be unceremoniously chucked out of the party for such abhorrent behavior, but now that Trump has normalized it, they are fine with all of this stuff... when Republicans do it. I mean, I hate to say it, but where is the Moral Majority when you really need them?"



Or maybe look in the mirror for all that voting fraud, perhaps?

A continuing story...

"So it now appears that Mark Meadows, who used to run Trump's White House for him, wasn't just voting illegally in North Carolina, but has actually been simultaneously registered to vote in three separate states. This is the same guy who has constantly fanned the flames of the idea that there is massive voter fraud happening out there... somewhere.... Maybe the fact that he couldn't actually find any spurred him to create some voter fraud of his own? Could be, could be...."



Maybe do another cost/benefit analysis?

This should put some fear into the hearts of Republican politicians, so don't be afraid to taunt them with it as much as possible.

"Boy, Republicans have certainly changed their tune on the whole idea of free speech and corporate speech. They used to be the biggest champions for corporate America to be as involved in American politics as possible, but now that giant corporations like Disney are beginning to realize that supporting antediluvian social policies is actually very unpopular with its customer base, they're starting to say things Republicans don't like. So Republicans are going to use the power of government to punish those corporations for their political free speech from now on, it appears. If I was a board member or C.E.O. of some giant corporate enterprise, I would be rethinking where to situate my business or support with my political donations. Why give a red state that demands ideological purity on unpopular issues any jobs by locating there? Why not open a headquarters in a blue state that will leave you alone and won't pass embarrassing laws that your employees and customers object to? The cost to the brand, at some point, would seem to outweigh any tax breaks red states offer -- especially now, that such tax breaks will be used as goads to force your corporation to agree with the most extreme conservative viewpoints. And why should corporations donate to politicians who would punish them in such fashion? Maybe we'll see a trend of big corporations refusing to blindly shovel dollars at Republican politicians from now on, who knows?"



Couldn't agree more, Mike

And finally, a funny slip of the tongue to end on.

"Recently in a Fox News interview, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo kind of let the cat out of the bag. When asked, 'Why does the left act as if conservatives are a bigger threat to America than the Chinese Communist Party?' Pompeo accidentally told the truth: 'Because, in fact, we are.' For the first time ever, I have to say I fully agree with Mike Pompeo. Conservatives are a bigger threat to America than China! After all, it wasn't China that tried to overthrow the Constitution by violently attacking the U.S. Capitol."




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

April 16, 2022

Friday Talking Points -- Democratic Early Primary Free-For-All

It wasn't the biggest or most important political news of the week, we admit, but the one story that definitely caught our attention was the earthquake which reverberated outward from the Democratic National Committee. This Wednesday, the D.N.C.'s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to upset the early-primary applecart to allow for the possibility of a complete shakeup of the roster of early-voting states (currently: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina). For the 2024 presidential race, all the states have now been encouraged to apply for a spot on the early calendar -- with no guarantees for the four states that have previously enjoyed the privilege of going first.

This is the type of change in the political system that is usually left in the realm of arcane political-science academic theorizing ("I think the system would work better if we changed this..." ) that usually comes to naught in the real world. However, the D.N.C. has now officially tossed the old rules out and instituted a new set of criteria for the states which are allowed to go first. And things don't look especially good for Iowa (and, to a lesser extent, New Hampshire). One of the criteria is having a diverse electorate, which is going to be very hard for Iowa to credibly claim.

This has already set off a very quiet feeding frenzy among the states. Several are already reportedly considering applying for early status (New Jersey, Michigan, even Massachusetts). Nevada is making a bid for the absolute front of the line -- the first state in the nation to vote. And this is all going to happen fairly quickly:

This means that within a few weeks, we'll at least know which states are in the running. The entire process is doubtlessly going to be fascinating to watch play out, and it could result in a very different process in the earliest days of the presidential campaign. Currently, Iowa and New Hampshire absolutely dominate all the early campaign attention. But maybe 2020 was the last time that will have been the case.

It's hard not to say that Iowa at least partially deserves getting booted. Their disastrous 2020 caucus -- complete with communications and technical screwups, dubious vote-counts, and a very long wait until the winner was announced -- showed the rest of the country that (1) perhaps caucuses should go the way of the dodo, and (2) maybe it's time to give another state a chance?

New Hampshire is unique because its state law clearly mandates that they go first no matter what. They turn a blind eye to Iowa (which actually votes first) only because it is a caucus (not a primary). But their law states that their primary will be held a set amount of time before any other primary is held anywhere else in the country. This could be a big problem if the D.N.C. decides they're not an early-voting state anymore (likely because New Hampshire has the same lack of diversity that Iowa does).

The D.N.C. has expanded the early primary states to five. Which means that they could, in theory, just add one more state to the four that currently vote early. Or they could kick Iowa out and add two new states to the early calendar. But they could also shuffle the entire deck and come up with five completely different states -- which would certainly make for a very different path to the presidential nomination.

Which is why, as we said, it may not have been the biggest story of the week to most people, but to political wonks such as ourselves, it was certainly the most intriguing.

In unrelated news, the Republican National Committee voted unanimously to boycott the accepted framework for presidential debates. Which means we could see, in 2024: no debates at all, two solo events (one Democratic and one Republican) that would be more "town hall" than debate, or some strange new way of allowing the two major-party candidates to interact with each other. After Donald Trump's disastrous performance in his debates with Joe Biden, it's pretty easy to see why the R.N.C. doesn't want that sort of spectacle to repeat itself.

But it's far too early for most people to even be thinking about the presidential election cycle, right? So let's see what else has been going on....

President Joe Biden announced some new gun safety measures this week, pledging to go after "ghost guns" that are built with impossible-to-trace parts or kits. This is a step in the right direction, but nobody has any real hope of actual legislation making it through the Senate any time soon, unfortunately. Biden also announced a new nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who may have a better chance of being confirmed by the Senate than his last pick did.

Biden got a bit of pushback from some Democrats this week, which in our opinion was reasonable, since getting rid of the "Title 42" restrictions on immigrant entry (which was put into place for the COVID pandemic) without having an actual plan for how that is going to change things on the southern border seems like asking for a fiasco to happen. Biden did promise to follow the experts' advice on things like removing COVID restrictions, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't also prepare for the inevitable fallout from such decisions being made. One wonders, in fact, where Kamala Harris is, since this is supposed to be one of the things in her vice-presidential portfolio.

What with Congress out on another of their eternal vacations, most of the political news this week came from the states. The biggest bombshell came from South Dakota, of all places, where there is a fierce intraparty struggle among Republicans. The South Dakota legislature's lower chamber just voted to impeach the state's attorney general, Jason Ravnsborg, for a rather questionable one-car accident that caused the death of a pedestrian late at night. This is unprecedented, as it will be the state's first impeachment trial in the state senate ever. This also pits Ravnsborg against his own party's governor in a power struggle. Here's the story for those who haven't heard about it:



Such as his initial statement that he thought he had hit "a deer" or some other large animal. One wonders what his blood alcohol content was at the time, but because he didn't 'fess up until the next day, we'll never know. Should be an interesting trial to watch in the state senate, that's for sure.

Down in Texas, Greg Abbott is having fun disrupting the supply chain and increasing inflation for everything from fresh produce for his own state's citizens to auto parts used nationwide. He caused a massive slowdown in the truck traffic entering his state from Mexico, claiming that he was looking for people being smuggled in as well as drugs and other contraband. Except that the state police can't actually search the trucks for any of that, because they have just been searched at the border by federal agents. So he's stopping them all to check their brakelights and other safety measures, which has created -- for no reason at all other than politics -- a backup over 24 hours long in some places. Nothing like grandstanding on problem by creating an entirely different and more massive problem to score a few political points!

Texas was also in the news this week for briefly charging a woman for having a "self-induced" abortion, and then (after realizing that she broke no actual Texas law) reversing themselves and dropping the "charges." This is a vision of the future in red states, beginning right after the Supreme Court rules in June, sadly enough.

Donald Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania race for an open Senate seat, since Dr. Oz was on television and all. No, seriously, that's about the sum total of his reasoning.

But we have to end on one bit of good news, since the citizens of the Garden State will be able to legally partake of a new product out of that garden come next Thursday -- when recreational marijuana will finally be available to all New Jersey adults. So we suppose the Jersey shore is about to get... um... even more Jersey-shore-ier? Wow, man... like... far out.





It was a fairly quiet week for politicians, since Congress is out on yet another of their multiweek playtime periods, so we're going to give the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award to a new member of the Biden administration.

Dr. Ashish Jha stepped into his role as the new "COVID czar" this week in a big way. It was hard to turn on a television news program in the early part of the week without seeing his face, in fact. This is not entirely unexpected, because he was pretty obviously hired because he has been the go-to expert to interview throughout the pandemic, for multiple television networks. He always calmly explains things in relatable ways, and he is a very personable medical professional (or, at least, he projects this image well on television, which is all we really have to go on). In other words: a perfect media spokesman for the administration's response to the ongoing pandemic.

Also, probably because up until now he has not been an official spokesperson at all (appearing on television merely as a neutral expert), he has not given rise to any of the naked hatred that Dr. Anthony Fauci has inexplicably provoked among right-wingers.

Jha is a fresh new face for the administration, and hiring him was an excellent idea. We'll see how he holds up to partisan scrutiny or handles another wave of the virus, but he certainly has had an impressive start to his new gig. So we're just going to go ahead and welcome him to his new job with this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Congratulate White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ashish Jha via the official White House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]





Before we get to the main award, we have to at least address one other situation first. We don't actually have one, but if a "Most Worrisome Democrat Of The Week" award existed, we would hand it to one of our own home-state senators, Dianne Feinstein.

We've been noting this developing story for quite some time now, but it seems the day is fast approaching when DiFi is going to say something so monumentally out of touch with reality that she is forced to resign in embarrassment. She's already said a number of borderline things, but sooner or later it seems almost inevitable she's going to wind up embarrassing not only herself but all the California constituents she represents as well. Because, at 88 years old, she is losing her focus and her memory and it's becoming more worrisome and apparent to those who actually interact with her.

That was the big scoop this week from the San Francisco Chronicle, where a story appeared that was backed up by four U.S. senators (three of them Democrats), one Democratic House member, and three of DiFi's own former staffers. The conclusion was that she has essentially lost her edge and is now mentally unfit to serve. There are plenty of on-the-record (but anonymous) quotes in the story; here's just one to serve as an example:



Personally, we had urged Feinstein to retire gracefully the last time she ran for re-election. This would have avoided such an embarrassing state of affairs. But she ran and won in 2018, meaning she won't have to run again until 2024. Which means California's 40 million residents will have two and a half more years of watching her deterioration.

So the disappointment for us happened years ago, when she announced she was running again, but we have to say the situation does appear to be getting a lot more worrisome -- which is precisely what we feared might happen.

But DiFi didn't even come close to being in the running for this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week, because we had yet another spectacle of rancid corruption land with a wet plop in Albany, New York. And that "another" is not hyperbole, as the stats show:



That's a pretty sad state of affairs. Here's the full story, for those who may have missed it earlier in the week:



The article didn't say whether that "New Yorkers deserve absolute confidence in their government" was supposed to be a joke or not.

What Benjamin is accused of is detailed later in the article:



Benjamin at first seemed like he was going to try to tough it out and not resign, but thankfully that changed within a few hours. But this leaves Hochul in a bind. Especially since only last week she had said: "I have utmost confidence in my lieutenant governor. This is an independent investigation related to other people, and he's fully cooperating." But having to walk back a full-throated endorsement isn't her only problem:



What this all means is that Hochul looks bad for selecting him in the first place (when she had to take over the top spot after Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace) and now she's got to hope that one of the candidates that was challenging him for the Democratic nomination actually wins -- so she can run with a politician she didn't personally select. In short: a complete mess.

For causing all of this in the first place, for not revealing his legal problems during his vetting process, and for being a corrupt New York politician (realizing that using that phrase may be headed towards "but I repeat myself" territory) that Boss Tweed himself would have approved of, Brian Benjamin is without a shadow of a doubt our Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week.

[Since he eventually did do the right thing and resign in disgrace, we cannot provide contact information for Brian Benjamin, as it is our blanket policy not to provide such information for private citizens. So you'll have to look him up on your own if you'd like to let him know what you think of his actions.]




Volume 658 (4/15/22)

Another mixed bunch of talking points this week, but we do have a fun one at the end. As always, use responsibly!



Call it what it is, Joe

The White House press corps needs to get out more, obviously.

"President Joe Biden expressed his moral outrage towards the war crimes of Russia by using the word 'genocide' to describe Vladimir Putin's brutal actions. Somehow, the press corps decided that what was outrageous was that Biden dared to use such a word. Excuse me? American presidents are somehow not supposed to express moral outrage now? Can anyone look at the slaughter of innocents in Ukraine and not come to the same conclusion -- that Russia just wants to wipe them all out? A Russian military analyst on Russian state television this week called for 'concentration camps for Ukrainians opposed to the invasion.' How else would you characterize such a statement? I would remind everyone that a long time ago Ronald Reagan got some press pushback for calling the Soviet Union an 'evil empire,' so I guess Biden's got some good company in calling Putin a genocidal war criminal."



Meanwhile, while the body bags pile up...

And who isn't happy that Biden is at the helm, when you consider the alternative.

"This week, on Sean Hannity's show on Fox News, former president Donald Trump made it pretty obvious which side he has always been on. Trump said about Vladimir Putin: 'I knew Putin very well -- almost as well as I know you, Sean,' [iwhile footage of body bags in Ukraine rolled on the screen]. Later, Hannity tried to prompt Trump into at least calling Russia 'evil,' but Trump refused to do so. Does anybody have any doubt that if Trump were still in charge, we'd be sending military supplies to Russia right now, and not Ukraine?"



Stock up on popcorn

It's like waiting for "Muellermas" all over again... (sigh).

"The House Select Committee on January 6th seems to be upping the pace of its leaks to the press, which I have to say is a good thing. This week we got to see a bunch of texts from the relevant period which were sent between White House Chief of Staff Mark Matthews and Senator Mike Lee and Representative Chip Roy. These reveal that even some of those most committed to aiding Trump in his fight against the clear results of the 2020 election eventually had to give up when there simply was no smoking gun of evidence to be found. After begging Matthews to give them something real -- anything! -- to hang their hat on, eventually both Roy and Lee realized that there was nothing there to begin with and that the one trying to steal the election was not the dastardly Democrats, but in fact Trump and his constellation of lunatic advisors. The committee has scheduled the first of its public hearings for next month, so we should soon get a flood of information about how close Trump actually came to stealing an election he lost. I for one will be watching all of this must-see TV."



Voter fraud has consequences!

Sometimes, karma catches up with the right people.

"I see that the very same Mark Meadows -- a man entrusted with running the White House by the former president -- has been unceremoniously booted off the voter rolls in North Carolina and is being investigated for committing voter fraud. After registering to vote in a house he never even set foot in, it seems the authorities are catching up with this criminal activity. This is on top of the news that two people from central Florida -- at least one of whom is openly Republican -- had to plead guilty to their own voter fraud crimes this week. Funny how the harder Republicans look for 'massive voter fraud' the only crimes they seem to uncover are people who somehow voted for Trump twice, or otherwise illegally."



Hunter who?

Yet another example of Republican projection surfaced.

"So I'm sitting here waiting for all the voices on the right who have been apoplectic over Hunter Biden's business dealings to similarly denounce Jared Kushner for getting the Saudis to pony up a cool two billion dollars for him to play around with, even though they knew full well he had no idea how to run a hedge fund and it was an incredible risk to take with that much money. The crown prince -- the same guy that authorized the killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post contributor -- overruled the fiduciary recommendation and sent the money along to Jared anyway. And of course this is on top of Ivanka getting her Chinese trademarks, various Trump family members running fraudulent and grifting 'charities,' all the Russian money that propped up Trump's business empire, and all the other shady deals the entire family has been engaged in for decades, now. But, you know, I'm still waiting for any of those folks who were so outraged over Hunter Biden to denounce Jared... but I'm not exactly holding my breath, if you know what I mean."



Nothing like citing an inspirational example

This too will likely end up in the "things the media never bothers to skewer other Republicans with" file.

"A state senator in Tennessee, during the debate on a bill this week, actually tried to use Adolf Hitler as an inspirational example. No, really -- you just cannot make this stuff up. Here's what he had to say, word for word:"



"This was during a debate on a bill to punish homelessness, I might add. So all those homeless people in Tennessee, take heart! If you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps, maybe one day you can make a difference in the world, just like Hitler did. Strange, I don't remember Horatio Alger ever writing that particular rags-to-riches story."



Slava Ukraini!

Helping the war effort just got more amusing.

"There's a new way to support Ukraine in their war with Russia, because they just issued their promised stamp showing a Ukrainian soldier flipping the bird at a Russian warship. Just in case anyone hadn't heard the story yet, in the borders of these sheets of this stamp is printed -- in English as well as Ukrainian -- the following helpful explanation: 'RUSSIAN WARSHIP GO ... !' What's even more amusing is that days after the stamp was released, the Russian warship Moskva that is depicted in the image was sunk by a Ukrainian missile attack. There is no easy way for foreigners to purchase the stamps directly from the Ukrainian post office online, but spending about two minutes on eBay shows lots of them for sale (at various prices, to say the least!). This stamp may go down in history as the most politically potent philatelic statement of the century, so being a stamp-lover I've personally already ordered two sheets of them! Slava Ukraini!"




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

April 8, 2022

Friday Talking Points -- History In The Making

History was made this week, as Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman ever confirmed to a seat on the Supreme Court. It's rare that such a milestone is reached, and it is unquestionably worth celebrating when it does finally happen. Especially since the first Black woman ever to become vice president was the one presiding over the Senate as it cast this historic vote.

In unrelated news, the nation's first Black president visited the White House this week for the first time in five years to give a speech at a signing ceremony for an executive order which will close a loophole in the Affordable Care Act. This will provide access to health insurance for more than one million Americans, so it is also well worth celebrating.

Congress even actually managed to do something this week, too (right before disappearing for yet another multi-week vacation), as the Senate unanimously passed two bills sanctioning Russia for its brutal invasion of Ukraine which are now heading to President Joe Biden's desk. For all the talk from Republicans about Biden somehow "moving too slowly" on aid to Ukraine, it's worth noting that this is the first time Congress has gotten its act together on the crisis since before it began. All previous attempts to legislate any sanctions or aid at all have failed, due to Republican resistance.

And in a little-noticed highpoint to the week, a Republican governor spoke to the lighthearted Gridiron Club dinner and called Donald Trump "crazy." Well, he actually went a bit further than that (note: emphasis and substitution with dashes are both in original):

Sununu was the featured Republican jokester at the event, while Representative Jamie Raskin spoke for Democrats. Raskin began with: "That was a total riot, by which I mean a normal tourist visit. I haven't heard a Republican use the f-word that much since the Nixon administration."

Meanwhile, it is becoming more and more evident that Trump's new social media network "Truth Social" is going down in flames. Executives are fleeing the sinking ship like the rats they are, but so far Devin Nunes has stuck around to supervise the miserable failure.

In other Trumpian news, both Jared and Ivanka have now testified before the January 6th committee.

So all in all, a pretty good week all around!

The Senate confirmation vote for Jackson was actually surprisingly bipartisan, with three Republicans (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney) joining with all the Democrats in making history. Of course, some Republicans were not happy about this at all, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted in disgust:



Now, you'd think that would almost automatically win the "stupidest and most vile thing a Republican said all week" award, but she had plenty of competition this week. Like this gem from Lauren Boebert:



Of course, many chimed in to point out that there's a whole song that just about everybody knows by heart that teaches exactly how to spell Mickey's name correctly, but the real facepalm part of Boebert's comment is that she was quite likely talking about Mickey's copyright, not his trademark. And the obvious fact that Republicans have now completely gotten on board with the idea of "using government power to punish corporations for exercising their free speech rights," which is just downright bizarre when you consider how hard the GOP fought to create this right in the first place. Free speech for corporations (and lots of campaign donations from them, of course) is fine and good, as long as they agree with you -- but woe to those corporations who don't. And, proving for the umpteenth time that pretty much anything the Republicans ever accuse Democrats of is nothing more than pure projection, what Boebert is obviously rooting for is to "cancel" Mickey Mouse. Or "Micky"... whatever....

Then there was this, from Representative Lisa McClain, who has only served 14 months and has already developed the ability to just shamelessly lie, straight through her teeth. As a warmup speaker at a Trump rally, she told the whopper that Osama Bin Laden was killed while Donald Trump was president (it was actually Barack Obama), and spewed this jaw-dropping falsehood as well: "We went from an economy that was booming to a shambles. What we have now is a shambles. It's a complete mess. Unemployment? Forty-year high." Um, no. It's the opposite, in fact -- unemployment is approaching an all-time low.

Greene had to up her game, obviously, which she did with this other entry for the stupidest thing a Republican did or said this week. We find that we cannot improve upon the level of snark in the Daily Beast report about it, so here you go:



Maybe we should just start calling it the "Utterly Shameless GOP Award," for brevity's sake. Or, in this last case, maybe the "GOP Snowflake Award"?

Let's see, what else has been going on? Top Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino were both held in contempt by the House of Representatives and referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution, adding their names to the list of those who feel they have some sort of right to just blatantly ignore subpoenas (spoiler: they don't).

But we're in such a good mood this week that we think we'll end it by noting that there was some "fox news" from the U.S. Capitol this week, as an actual fox was finally caught who had been aggressively biting people for days. Upon testing the fox was discovered to be rabid and had to be put down. [Readers should feel free to make their own comparisons with the capitalized version of that phrase which appeared in quotes. Ahem.]





Since (as we have previously noted) Ketanji Brown Jackson is supposed to be apolitical, we cannot in good conscience give her an award with "Democrat" in the title. We could give the nod to Joe Biden for nominating her or for Barack Obama for finally appearing at the White House again, but this week we've got something better.

Two Democrats this week, speaking from their respective chambers of Congress, showed how Democrats should be painting the Republican Party in general, and individual members in particular.

The first came from Representative Jamie Raskin, but we're going to save the actual content of what he said for the talking points section, so we'll just hand him an Honorable Mention and move on.

The second is the hands-down winner of the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawai'i. He spoke during the debate over the two anti-Russia measures (which both eventually passed unanimously), and he absolutely dismantled the supposed opposition to the idea of sanctioning Russia which came from Senator Josh Hawley. The entire video is well worth watching, even though it is over two minutes long.

For those who don't have the time, here is the full text of what Schatz had to say:



When interviewed later, Schatz described what the writer called the "loudness gap" between how the two parties manage to get their messages out to the people:



He's right. Democrats need to rediscover the power of righteous indignation and shout it from the rooftops much more often and effectively than they have so far managed to do.

We're with Schatz: let's close the loudness gap. The media is just never going to address this stuff unless you draw their attention to it in dramatic fashion. Which Schatz did, admirably well. Which is why he's our easy choice this week for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week.

[Congratulate Senator Brian Schatz on his Senate contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]





We were all prepared to hand the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to Andrew Cuomo this week, but as it turns out he did not actually file the necessary paperwork to throw his hat into the ring in the Democratic primary for governor (his old job), so we are left without anyone to give the award to.

No other Democrat massively disappointed us this week, so we're putting the award back on the shelf until next week, unless (as usual) someone's got a nomination to suggest in the comments.




Volume 657 (4/8/22)

Our talking points are fairly negative this week, perhaps to counterbalance the positive nature of the rest of this column. Enjoy responsibly, and we'll try to be a bit more upbeat next week, we promise.



History calls, only three Republicans answer

Obviously, this is the biggest political news of the week.

"I am proud and pleased to see the first Black woman successfully confirmed to the highest court in the land, as are tens of millions of my fellow Americans. We made history this week, smashed a glass ceiling, and Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to make the Supreme Court a lot more representative of what America truly looks like. The Republican Party -- what was once a very long time ago the 'Party of Lincoln' -- fought this nomination tooth and nail, however. When history called, only three Republican senators answered. The other 47 are now on the record on the wrong side of history, plain and simple. The attacks against her nomination sunk to a new low and were both scurrilous and completely unjustified. She weathered this storm with poise and composure, which are exactly the qualities I would like to see more of on the high court. I just hope that a day comes when the Republican Party realizes what a huge mistake it made this week by standing firmly against progress and against Black women, but I'm not exactly going to hold my breath waiting for it, if you know what I mean."



The Trump-Putin axis

This is where we return to the aforementioned Jamie Raskin.

"While Jamie Raskin was speaking in support of legislation to punish Russia for its inhuman invasion of Ukraine, he was actually heckled by (you guessed it) Marjorie Taylor Greene. His response was, and I quote:"



"He's right. That's exactly what it is -- a Trump-Putin axis. And it has infected the Republican Party to an alarming degree. This week a nonbinding resolution was passed by the House stating America's support for both NATO and for democracy. An astounding 63 Republicans voted against it. This should be shocking, but these days -- sadly -- it is not. It is just another indication of the moral decay which has infected the GOP right down to its very core. The Trump-Putin axis within the Republican Party is wrong, it is frightening, and it is downright dangerous, period."



Fraud, fear, and fascism

Raskin wasn't the only one coming up with brilliant snappy slogans this week.

"Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison had a different way of putting it this week, one that also gets right to the heart of the matter. He condemned the Republican Party as a whole by stating: 'It is a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism.' That sounds like overblown rhetoric or hyperbole, but upon examination it is neither. It is the honest truth, these days. Republicans not only believe that anything they can do to grab or retain political power is fair game, but that when they do get such power they should begin exercising it by punishing their political enemies to the absolute maximum. The way to tell whether their party's leader is lying is to note whether his lips are moving or not. They have doubled down on the Big Lie that caused the January 6th insurrection. They are absolutely shameless in proclaiming up is down and that their emperor's new clothes are gorgeous, instead of non-existent. The entire substance of their campaign strategy is to whip up fear over non-existent boogiemen they use to scare the voters. So Harrison is right -- the Republican Party these days is built entirely upon fraud, fear, and fascism, and nobody should be shy in calling it out."



No moral redlines at all

They'll even prove it, if you listen closely.

"Mitch McConnell was interviewed this week and asked point-blank where his moral redlines were. He had no answer. None. He was prompted to explain how he could reconcile denouncing Donald Trump's 'disgraceful dereliction of duty' on January 6th and stating baldly that Trump was 'practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day' with now being able to support him if he becomes the 2024 nominee of his party. Again, McConnell had no answer to this at all. There it is in plain language, folks -- McConnell and far too many of his fellow Republicans will put party over country in a heartbeat. Nothing matters to them but gaining political power. There simply are no Republican moral redlines left -- anything goes, as long as it is coming from a fellow Republican. This is so disgraceful and disgusting it is hard to even find the words to describe such spinelessness and ruthlessness, but that's what the leader of the Senate GOP just flat-out admitted."



More voting fraud found!

When it comes to projection, this one just seems to keep popping back up over and over again.

"The Republican Party is convinced that if they just look hard enough, somehow they'll find a widespread conspiracy to commit massive voter fraud. Well, of course the 'massive' part just doesn't exist, but what's interesting to me is that as more individual cases of voter fraud appear, all of them seem to be committed by Republican voters. And not just anonymous voters either, but ones very close to the Republican leadership. A few weeks ago it was revealed that Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, is under investigation for committing fraud by registering to vote in North Carolina when he had no residence there at all. This week we find that another former Trump administration official voted twice in the 2016 primary -- in two different states! At the time, he was Chris Christie's campaign director, so it's pretty hard to argue he didn't understand the voting laws. He's now running for a House seat, because no Republican is ever going to denounce any actual voter fraud coming from within their own party -- they're too busy looking for some non-existent grand conspiracy by Democrats. Whenever Republicans loudly accuse Democrats of anything underhanded, it's a pretty sure bet it's nothing more than projection, because they feel so guilty about stuff they themselves are wantonly doing."



Speaking of projection...

This one is ugly and brutal -- but Democrats certainly weren't the ones who opened this can of worms, so it has to be seen as fair game at this point.

"In the Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the phrase 'child porn' was used a total of 165 times. Also mentioned repeatedly were 'pedophile' and 'predators' and 'prepubescent.' Contrast that to the sentence handed down this week to a former Republican National Committee aide and GOP staffer who admitted to being part of a child porn trading ring, possessing over 150 child porn videos, both receiving and distributing such images, seeking out images of the rape of children (some as young as babies), and fantasizing online about killing children while abusing them. He will spend the next twelve-and-a-half years in prison -- a sentence handed down by a judge appointed by a Democrat. So maybe if Republicans are obsessed with jailing kiddie porn criminals, perhaps they should clean their own house first."



Hard to imagine...

Speaking of unspeakable images...

"This week, Ted Cruz spoke about an upcoming appearance he will be making at Yale University. At first he seemed to suggest that the university would require him to be in a 'smoking jacket with maybe a Sherlock Holmes pipe and maybe some Madeira,' but then he mused about what he really envisioned: 'Or, I don't know, has it gone more hippie than that? Like, nude and taking peyote or something?' Trust us, Ted, nobody wants to see that. In fact there are many who are already convinced you are the personification of a bad acid trip -- so please, for everyone's sake, keep away from the psychedelics and keep your damn clothes on. Please!"




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
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Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

April 1, 2022

Friday Squawking Points

[Editor's Note: We have a very special (and abbreviated) column today, for reasons that should become obvious. Regular Friday Talking Points columns will resume next Friday. Have a great day, everyone!]

You'll have to forgive our brevity this week, but we have been invited to a cocaine-fuelled sex orgy by Washington persons we cannot name at the moment, so we've got to go get ready a little early this week.

Ahem.

Madison Cawthorn caused quite a stir among his fellow Republicans after telling an interviewer he had been invited to orgies by his fellow Republican politicians, and furthermore that he'd witnessed them doing "key bumps of cocaine" right in front of him. He got pushback from his peers because he so obviously broke the Republican Golden Rule -- you can say the craziest possible things about Democrats, but never about fellow Republicans!

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy gave Cawthorn a stern talking-to, after which he emerged and announced he had in his hands a list of all the Republicans who had been inviting Cawthorn to sex parties and another one of those blatantly snorting coke in the Capitol, and that he would be making the list available to reporters soon, after he had had a chance to talk to each of them and offer them the option of just suddenly resigning.

Cawthorn, for his part, sheepishly announced that he had only actually attended "sixteen or seventeen" of these orgies, had never actually seen any Republicans doing lines off anyone's naked posterior, and that the whole thing was really "no big deal, since everyone in America does stuff like this, right?"

Donald Trump immediately weighed in on his new social media network Truth Social, with only the second message he's posted: "I don't know why anyone has a problem with Sex Parties, many people say you can meet very Interesting Girls at these parties -- girls who are, like, 8s or 9s, sometime even 10s -- and that only the best-looking Republicans get invited, never any radical left Democrats or anything, so what's the big deal? And cocaine should have been legalized long ago, everyone knows it's just a fun thing to do. Hey, did I mention I got a hole-in-one the other day? Everyone's talking about it!"

Trump also took the time to respond to the shocking news that there was a gap of over seven hours in the White House call logs for January 6th, saying: "I took a big nap during that time, how could I have been on the phone with anyone? Also, the toilets in the White House were lame -- it takes like 10 or 15 flushes to get rid of a huge wad of paper." These two comments seemed to be connected in his mind, for some reason.

Trump was also in the news for denouncing Biden's ad-libbed call for Vladimir Putin not to "remain in power," which Trump called "a really stupid, stupid thing to say." Trump continued: "Putin is a strong leader and knows what to do with power, unlike Sleepy Joe. Putin should be the one helping me with a regime change right here in America. In fact, if Putin does do me this favor, I promise I would appoint him to be my Secretary of Defense." This rather astonishing statement was apparently handled on social media in some strange way, because every Republican who was asked to comment on it either "hadn't seen it" or "hadn't heard about it." The only one willing to comment was Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wholeheartedly backed Trump up: "That would work for me -- we need to run the military with an iron grip, they've been taken over by the radical woke lefties."

Soon afterwards, the Republican National Committee announced that they had formed a strategic partnership with the Kremlin, so they could both be assured they were singing from the same songbook with their talking points. "It gets confusing the way things have been going," a spokesperson for the committee said, "what with Hannity saying something and the Kremlin using it for propaganda, and then the Kremlin coming up with something that GOP members of Congress parrot -- we decided that what we needed was better coordination, that's all."

Democrats, of course, denounced both Trump's comments and the GOP's announcement as "nothing short of treason," and "selling out American democracy to the Russians." Republicans responded: "What's treasonous is high gas prices -- and we aim to lower them by removing all those pesky sanctions on Putin and the Russians, as soon as we take power after the midterms. Because you know who profits from all those sanctions? That's right -- Hunter Biden. His laptop proves it!"

There was no comment from the Justice Department on any of these accusations of treason, because it all erupted during Merrick Garland's naptime.

President Biden this week signed a landmark anti-lynching law, but while he had invited prominent Republicans to the signing ceremony, none of them showed up. Ted Cruz later released a statement: "Republicans were fine with passing an anti-lynching law, but the Democrats refused to even consider our amendment to it, which would have allowed, under certain circumstances, the vice president to be lynched. We thought it was a prudent exemption to the law, because you just never know when a mob is going to demand the right to hang Mike Pence. Which is all about freedom, of course." Cruz then tried to enter his office, which was almost completely blocked by all the authors of teen self-help books who were desperately trying to convince Cruz to publicly denounce their books -- since this is now the fastest way to guarantee a place atop the bestseller lists.

Senator Mike Braun, when asked, responded that the anti-lynching bill was acceptable but he would have added his own amendment to overturn Loving v. Virginia, because "who gets married to whom is really a matter for the states to decide." Later, we saw Will Smith roaming the corridors of the Capitol, looking for Braun so he could "offer the senator the benefit of his wisdom on whether interracial marriage should be legal." Smith seemed rather tense, but there's no word yet on whether he had made contact with Braun in any way.

Over in the House, 193 Republicans voted against making insulin only cost $35 a month, because, as Kevin McCarthy put it, "Conservatives believe everyone should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and if one of those bootstraps happens to be lining the pockets of drug makers or dying, well, that's just tough beans. Making prescription drugs affordable is nothing short of socialism, plain and simple! And who wants that?"

President Biden announced the biggest release of oil from America's strategic reserves, which will continue daily for the next six months, in an effort to lower gas prices. The truckers' convoy outside of Washington responded by packing up and leaving town. They weren't impressed by Biden's actions, but rather (as one trucker put it): "We're fed up with ninety percent of the cars on the Beltway being driven by Antifa, and we're sick of getting flipped off 15 or 20 times per mile. So we're heading back out on the open road, where hopefully we'll be surrounded by drivers that cheer us on and wave to us like real Americans should." When asked how long the convoy would be aimlessly driving around the freeways of America, he answered: "Until we stop getting all those donations that allow us to fill up our tanks and not do our jobs -- I've been pleasantly amazed at the gullibility of all those people sending money to us, and I hope it continues forever!"

Speaking of fringe views, Ginni Thomas tweeted out her thoughts for what Republicans should run on in the midterms: "Republicans need not only to support raising taxes on over half of Americans and letting Medicare and Social Security die on the vine, but we should make it a priority to pass national legislation which will once and for all ban the use of litter boxes in K-12 schools, because accepting schoolchildren's contention that they identify as cats is just wrong!!! This should be our highest priority after the midterms!"

And for our final item of the week, the Capitol Police got a celebrity visit this week, from none other than U2's Bono. Bono had written a limerick for the occasion, but to the relief of all he found he had left it behind in his hotel room.



[Poisson d'Avril, y'all! Note: There is only one completely true paragraph in this entire article, and (sadly) it was the one about what Madison Cawthorn said, right up at the beginning. There are other factual launching points sprinkled throughout the rest of it (Bono did indeed visit the Capitol Police, for instance), but the scary thing should be how plausible a lot of this stuff sounds. As American politics gets weirder by the day it becomes harder and harder to write satire -- which is the real lesson of today's column. Hope everyone had a great day today and we'll see you all back here next week as regular Friday columns return.]




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com