A couple of quick points and something fun at the end:
- Some of you made excuses for Brian Higgins (former D-NY-26) who quit to run a non-profit effective this month when I mentioned it in an earlier post. The only reason that Mayorkas wasn’t impeached in the house is because Rep Al Green (D-TX-9) left his fucking hospital bed to vote no. Steve Scalise was absent getting treatment for his cancer and he’s back, so it may well be that Higgins’ ill-timed retirement will lead to another vote where Mayorkas is impeached. Also, the special election to replace George Santos in NY-3 is Tuesday. Dems might get a pickup there. Having Higgins around would make Johnson’s job even tougher. But we won’t because Higgins chose his selfish needs over the party, something that might have been OK once upon a time, but not when democracy is literally in the balance.
- Someone was upset that I titled yesterday’s post “Getting Old and Out of Touch” because it could have been misinterpreted as a comment on the Special Prosecutor’s report that questioned Biden’s memory. The special prosecutor was a Republican, because of course he was. He had to shit on Biden in his report while basically saying there’s no crime here. This one is on Merrick Garland, and I’ll outsource the rest of the commentary on him to Paul Campos at LGM. Suffice it to say that he’s not a wartime consigliere — and I’m not saying that Biden should have appointed the Democratic analogue to Bill Barr. I’m just asking for an AG who would have appointed a (gasp!) fair-minded Democrat to that post, a Democrat who would have said Biden should have done better without the “and he’s senile” part of the report. Again, Democrats choosing Republicans as special prosecutors and for national security positions (“Butter Emails” Comey) was always dumb, but it’s dangerous when democracy is in the balance.
- In general, it’s hard for political junkies like us to imagine what motivates marginally motivated voters, but I really think Biden is playing with fire with Israel and the border. AOC’s 90 second floor speech pretty much sums up the Israel argument, and I’ve said my piece on the border a couple of times. In my view, we’re risking de-motivating younger, Arab (especially important in Michigan) and hispanic marginal voters by adopting Republican talking points on the border and not tying aid to Israel to humanitarian goals. And we need those voters.
I know that’s plenty but here’s something less serious: The Hawaii Supreme Court quoted Slim Charles of “The Wire” in a ruling on gun laws, when he said “the thing about the old days, they the old days.” That quote is applicable in a lot of contexts.
It Was a Crime at the Time but the Laws Have ChangedPost + Comments (188)