With the media now almost completely focused on the Israel Hamas war, this newsletter is even more invaluable. There were so many head scratching quotes from House GOPers in this edition but this one won out for me in the post-Scalese vote: "I would probably say to those in the Republican conference that had problems with Donald Trump, get over yourself, because Donald Trump's the leader of our party, make no mistake," said Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX).
Then get ready to once again lose the WH and quite possibly the House majority next year, Rep. Nehls. In what galactic dimension are these folks residing where 45 magically expands his voting base beyond his cult at this point? Especially after millions of his voters in red states are now dead because they bought into his COVID lies?
I did not have time last night to go through Trump's speech in Florida, but he rebuked Netanyahu multiple times in it. Why? Remember, Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his victory in 2020.
"Those three items do tell a story. They have nothing to do with the economy, jobs, inflation, or anything related to your wallet and pocketbook." - it's hard to be concerned about subjects you have no interest in.
Next time you have a political conversation with someone and they mention gas prices and domestic oil production - just remind them that it's now at record levels - and that Republicans never even sent their oil production bill to the Senate. They passed it in the House, and it's just sitting in the Clerk's office gathering dust. It's the weirdest political thing I've ever seen.
Rep. Luna’s demands sound like an unhinged MAGA hostage negotiation, all on behalf of a guy facing 91 criminal indictments. The sheer stupidity is astounding.
What's also notable about those type of demands from Luna is that those stories have pretty much dropped off the radar - even from conservative media - in the past few weeks.
That link to a fireside chat from FDR is a real treasure. After all these years this is the first time I have taken time to listen to any of those famous one-way conversations.
"For a President especially it is a duty to think in national terms. He must think not only of this year but of future years, when someone else will be President. He must look beyond the average of the prosperity and well-being of the country (for) because averages easily cover up danger spots of poverty and instability. He must not let the country be deceived by a merely temporary prosperity, which depends on wasteful exploitation of resources, which cannot last. He must think not only of keeping us out of war today, but also of keeping us out of war in generations to come."
This man's wisdom and foresight were legendary. It's easy to understand why he was returned to office so often that Congress added a constitutional amendment limiting presidents to two terms.
I almost forgot the comment I was about to post when I stopped to listen to that link.
~> Events of the last few days have limited Trump's air time and the few clips I have seen make him seem even less coherent than usual. He pauses at odd times and messed up the pronunciation of Hamas to sound like hummus. One commentator suggested he's showing signs of senility. (I worry about that myself as the years tick by)
Fixnews was complaining that Biden hasn’t confirmed ambassadorships in the Middle East, even though it’s republican senators holding them (as well as military leaderships).
I don’t understand how one Republican senator can stop these confirmations, but one democratic senator couldn’t stop rapey o’kavanaugh and amy “I’ll uphold Roe” Barrett from sailing through immediately.
They can't actually STOP any given nomination, but they CAN stop the procedure whereby everyone goes through en masse. The Ds don't want to give up the floor time for most of these nominations. That's why we have a Commandant of the Marine Corps - the Ds decided he was worth holding an actual confirmation vote rather than just waiving him through via unanimous consent. Hopefully they'll put in the time with Jack Lew's nomination to be US ambassador to Israel as well.
These are historic levels of dysfunction in Congress by one party. It's just nuts. I can't tell you how much time I have spent this year covering Republican self-inflicted gridlock, instead of covering their actions on legislation.
Agree with all that, but if you vote for a MAGA motion to vacate, you need to own it, not pretend like you weren't contributing. There are no heroes here.
Yes, there are no heroes. But the party in power should be able to pick a Speaker almost immediately, and not fall back into quicksand. The inability of the House GOP to rally behind a Speaker, the daily attacks on McCarthy, the inability to move legislation, the refusal to send House-passed bills to the Senate, and the haphazard patchwork of committee investigations speaks to a much deeper divide inside the GOP. "Mom, look what Johnny made me do," does not cut it on Capitol Hill.
Well, that's the way it's always been but we have a unique (in my experience) set of circumstances. There really is no majority "party" but a majority coalition (in a parliamentary/proportionate system there's probably a dozen nationalist party members coalescing with the Republicans). That's just the reality. So the question is "what do you do with it?"
Look what Johnny made me do does not fly, no.
But neither does "it's the minority's duty to oppose" in an environment when simply saying "no" to everything means a shutdown, which I think they'd welcome as evidence that the Republicans can't govern (as if we need more than what we've already seen).
You're conveniently overlooking that fact that it was the Dems siding with McCarthy the weekend before last that kept the government open, DCLawyer. And then he went on "Face the Nation" the very next morning and attempted to blame them for his own party's dysfunction. If you want to focus your ire, look at folks like Gaetz and MTG who, make no mistake, want to burn it all down.
I'm tired of this nonsensical whining about the Dems (the House minority party, mind you) not saving a guy who voted to overturn the 2020 election, a guy who then flew to Mar-a-Lago to kiss his mob boss's ring and the guy who has greenlit a tractionless, evidence-free impeachment inquiry into the current president. Walk me through the Dem motivation for saving that guy again?
And I'm tired of people who make excuses for childish behavior, so I guess we're even.
I'm not conveniently forgetting anything. He gave them pretty much what they wanted in the CR (all the controversial border stuff was out) and was willing to piss off his right wing. The blame for failure would have been entirely on them at that point.
In the motion to vacate, every Dem voted with Gaetz, MTG, et. al. The question wasn't whether Jeffries or McCarthy should be speaker, but whether there should be chaos.
So why vote "yes"? What do they get out of that?
Any new Speaker necessarily gets the message that working with Dems in the future will wind up on the street. Their vote empowered the MAGA wing. They're not dumb. They get it.
They get nothing out of Gaetz et al winning but Schadenfreude. Had they put country first, that would have been motivation enough.
The Dems didn't oppose McCarthy because they wanted to make the GOP look bad. They opposed him because he didn't negotiate in good faith. He made a debt limit deal with Biden and then ignored it. He depended on Dems to pass the CR he gave them zero time to read, and then said they had tried to tank the measure with their delaying tactics, which they only used to get time to read the darn thing. He can't be trusted, and there's no reason they should vote to keep him. If the GOP can't agree among themselves, they can present a candidate who will be a trustworthy negotiating partner and draw Democratic votes. They are in control of what happens here. If it's a fiasco, it's their fault.
I hope those who suffer from the next government shutdown take some comfort in knowing "he had it coming." This is schadenfreude, not responsible governance.
But again, the motion to vacate was NOT Jeffries vs. McCarthy but rather Gaetz vs McCarthy, and they voted to empower Gaetz and the very small group who are making it impossible to make the House even marginally functioning.
With the media now almost completely focused on the Israel Hamas war, this newsletter is even more invaluable. There were so many head scratching quotes from House GOPers in this edition but this one won out for me in the post-Scalese vote: "I would probably say to those in the Republican conference that had problems with Donald Trump, get over yourself, because Donald Trump's the leader of our party, make no mistake," said Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX).
Then get ready to once again lose the WH and quite possibly the House majority next year, Rep. Nehls. In what galactic dimension are these folks residing where 45 magically expands his voting base beyond his cult at this point? Especially after millions of his voters in red states are now dead because they bought into his COVID lies?
I did not have time last night to go through Trump's speech in Florida, but he rebuked Netanyahu multiple times in it. Why? Remember, Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his victory in 2020.
Makes me wonder, should DJT be elected, if he will shun any world leader who congratulated Biden.
Your news letter is worth every penny.
"Those three items do tell a story. They have nothing to do with the economy, jobs, inflation, or anything related to your wallet and pocketbook." - it's hard to be concerned about subjects you have no interest in.
Next time you have a political conversation with someone and they mention gas prices and domestic oil production - just remind them that it's now at record levels - and that Republicans never even sent their oil production bill to the Senate. They passed it in the House, and it's just sitting in the Clerk's office gathering dust. It's the weirdest political thing I've ever seen.
I saw an ad yesterday on CNN saying the government is trying to stifle oil production. But thanks to you, I knew better.
Rep. Luna’s demands sound like an unhinged MAGA hostage negotiation, all on behalf of a guy facing 91 criminal indictments. The sheer stupidity is astounding.
What's also notable about those type of demands from Luna is that those stories have pretty much dropped off the radar - even from conservative media - in the past few weeks.
Floriduh does it better...smh
That link to a fireside chat from FDR is a real treasure. After all these years this is the first time I have taken time to listen to any of those famous one-way conversations.
"For a President especially it is a duty to think in national terms. He must think not only of this year but of future years, when someone else will be President. He must look beyond the average of the prosperity and well-being of the country (for) because averages easily cover up danger spots of poverty and instability. He must not let the country be deceived by a merely temporary prosperity, which depends on wasteful exploitation of resources, which cannot last. He must think not only of keeping us out of war today, but also of keeping us out of war in generations to come."
This man's wisdom and foresight were legendary. It's easy to understand why he was returned to office so often that Congress added a constitutional amendment limiting presidents to two terms.
I almost forgot the comment I was about to post when I stopped to listen to that link.
~> Events of the last few days have limited Trump's air time and the few clips I have seen make him seem even less coherent than usual. He pauses at odd times and messed up the pronunciation of Hamas to sound like hummus. One commentator suggested he's showing signs of senility. (I worry about that myself as the years tick by)
Has anyone else had the same impression?
Fixnews was complaining that Biden hasn’t confirmed ambassadorships in the Middle East, even though it’s republican senators holding them (as well as military leaderships).
I don’t understand how one Republican senator can stop these confirmations, but one democratic senator couldn’t stop rapey o’kavanaugh and amy “I’ll uphold Roe” Barrett from sailing through immediately.
They can't actually STOP any given nomination, but they CAN stop the procedure whereby everyone goes through en masse. The Ds don't want to give up the floor time for most of these nominations. That's why we have a Commandant of the Marine Corps - the Ds decided he was worth holding an actual confirmation vote rather than just waiving him through via unanimous consent. Hopefully they'll put in the time with Jack Lew's nomination to be US ambassador to Israel as well.
"Democrats couldn't believe what they were watching..."
They enabled, and delight in, MAGA victories and House dysfunction. Makes for great talking points in the 2024 elections.
These are historic levels of dysfunction in Congress by one party. It's just nuts. I can't tell you how much time I have spent this year covering Republican self-inflicted gridlock, instead of covering their actions on legislation.
Agree with all that, but if you vote for a MAGA motion to vacate, you need to own it, not pretend like you weren't contributing. There are no heroes here.
Yes, there are no heroes. But the party in power should be able to pick a Speaker almost immediately, and not fall back into quicksand. The inability of the House GOP to rally behind a Speaker, the daily attacks on McCarthy, the inability to move legislation, the refusal to send House-passed bills to the Senate, and the haphazard patchwork of committee investigations speaks to a much deeper divide inside the GOP. "Mom, look what Johnny made me do," does not cut it on Capitol Hill.
Well, that's the way it's always been but we have a unique (in my experience) set of circumstances. There really is no majority "party" but a majority coalition (in a parliamentary/proportionate system there's probably a dozen nationalist party members coalescing with the Republicans). That's just the reality. So the question is "what do you do with it?"
Look what Johnny made me do does not fly, no.
But neither does "it's the minority's duty to oppose" in an environment when simply saying "no" to everything means a shutdown, which I think they'd welcome as evidence that the Republicans can't govern (as if we need more than what we've already seen).
You're conveniently overlooking that fact that it was the Dems siding with McCarthy the weekend before last that kept the government open, DCLawyer. And then he went on "Face the Nation" the very next morning and attempted to blame them for his own party's dysfunction. If you want to focus your ire, look at folks like Gaetz and MTG who, make no mistake, want to burn it all down.
I'm tired of this nonsensical whining about the Dems (the House minority party, mind you) not saving a guy who voted to overturn the 2020 election, a guy who then flew to Mar-a-Lago to kiss his mob boss's ring and the guy who has greenlit a tractionless, evidence-free impeachment inquiry into the current president. Walk me through the Dem motivation for saving that guy again?
And I'm tired of people who make excuses for childish behavior, so I guess we're even.
I'm not conveniently forgetting anything. He gave them pretty much what they wanted in the CR (all the controversial border stuff was out) and was willing to piss off his right wing. The blame for failure would have been entirely on them at that point.
In the motion to vacate, every Dem voted with Gaetz, MTG, et. al. The question wasn't whether Jeffries or McCarthy should be speaker, but whether there should be chaos.
So why vote "yes"? What do they get out of that?
Any new Speaker necessarily gets the message that working with Dems in the future will wind up on the street. Their vote empowered the MAGA wing. They're not dumb. They get it.
They get nothing out of Gaetz et al winning but Schadenfreude. Had they put country first, that would have been motivation enough.
The Dems didn't oppose McCarthy because they wanted to make the GOP look bad. They opposed him because he didn't negotiate in good faith. He made a debt limit deal with Biden and then ignored it. He depended on Dems to pass the CR he gave them zero time to read, and then said they had tried to tank the measure with their delaying tactics, which they only used to get time to read the darn thing. He can't be trusted, and there's no reason they should vote to keep him. If the GOP can't agree among themselves, they can present a candidate who will be a trustworthy negotiating partner and draw Democratic votes. They are in control of what happens here. If it's a fiasco, it's their fault.
I hope those who suffer from the next government shutdown take some comfort in knowing "he had it coming." This is schadenfreude, not responsible governance.
But again, the motion to vacate was NOT Jeffries vs. McCarthy but rather Gaetz vs McCarthy, and they voted to empower Gaetz and the very small group who are making it impossible to make the House even marginally functioning.