Friday Talking Points (481) -- Dazed And Confused

[ChrisWeigant]

We don't know why that headline sounded like such a good idea on today, of all days. {Ahem.} But it somehow seemed appropriate when the week began with the Trump White House casually tossing Nikki Haley under the bus. Except, unlike most of the folks now residing down there with her, Haley pushed back on the cover story that she had just somehow "gotten confused."

Haley, appearing on last week's Face The Nation, answered very directly when asked if Russia would be facing further sanctions: "Absolutely. So you will see that Russian sanctions will be coming down. Secretary {Steven} Mnuchin will be announcing those on Monday, if he hasn't already." Now, Haley is one of the more competent members of Trump's team, so you can bet your bottom dollar she had cleared such a statement in advance before publicly making it. The specific nature of her comment -- that Mnuchin would be announcing new sanctions within a day -- also go to show she had obviously discussed the subject beforehand with the White House.

On Monday, the White House announced there would be no new sanctions on Russia, and tried in various ways to walk back or otherwise explain Haley's comment. Most of these excuses relied upon some version of Haley getting ahead of where Trump actually was, or that she must have been "confused" about the subject. But Haley, rather than back Trump up in what was plainly a reversal of a major policy on a whim, responded tersely: "With all due respect, I don't get confused."

The "dazed" part of today's title might refer to how the rest of the world sees what is going on. President Trump continuously undercut his first secretary of State, directly contradicting him (sometimes within hours). Now Trump is doing exactly the same thing to Nikki Haley, who (up until now) has managed to stay on the same page as Trump with remarkable consistency. If Trump is going to undercut her, then who should other world leaders now believe actually speaks for the president? The more this sort of thing goes on, the more it becomes obvious that Trump creates his foreign policy on the fly, announcing sweeping policy changes without even warning his own advisors, and that no one -- not even Haley -- can ever be trusted in anything they say is U.S. policy, because it can always be overturned or reversed at the speed of a tweet.

One thing's for sure, it certainly is getting crowded under the Trump bus. Haley wasn't the only one tossed down there this week: "A new national security aide to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence stepped down on Sunday, only two days after being officially named to the job, after a behind-the-scenes White House argument hit the headlines, a White House official said." Coincidentally enough, the guy was (and will remain) a top aide to Nikki Haley. Trump pitched a fit about Pence's hire because Trump -- mistakenly -- was told the guy was a "never-Trumper." Just another day in Trumpland, folks.

Are we all getting a bit dazed and confused these days? We saw two articles this week that made us wonder if we all haven't hit some plateau of "scandal fatigue." The scandals have been coming so fast and thick that it's hard not to get numb to it all after a while. What initially got me thinking about this was a Washington Post article titled: "Here's A GOP Scandal That Should Be Huge National News. Why Isn't It?" Here's how the article starts:

Eric Greitens, the married Republican governor of Missouri, allegedly tied his mistress to a piece of exercise equipment, blindfolded her and took a picture without asking her permission, informing her that if she went public about their affair, he would make sure the photo went public, too.

Then last week further allegations came to light, contained in a 24-page report commissioned by the state's legislature. The details were damning and explicit. Greitens, his now-former paramour claimed, had variously hit, kissed and coerced her into giving oral sex without her permission.

Greitens, who only last summer was heralded as a "rising star" in the Republican Party, is now under indictment on a charge of invasion of privacy, with a trial set to begin in mid-May. He's declared his innocence, claiming all that happened was a consensual affair between adults prior to his election as governor that he now -- shockingly -- regrets. As for all the rest? It’s all "lies" and "fake charges."

And I am betting that unless you live in Missouri or a nearby state that shares a media market, you know nothing about this.

Later in the week this political battle royale got even more fierce:

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) is seeking a temporary restraining order against state Attorney General Josh Hawley, a fellow Republican, to block him from investigating the increasingly embattled governor.

The request for a restraining order was filed on Monday, according to Missouri court records, the day before Hawley announced that his office had uncovered evidence of a possible felony committed by the governor. In an apparently unrelated case, Hawley has called for Greitens to resign amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

Make all the "Show-Me State" jokes you want, in any normal year this would be enormous news. Remember Rod Blagojevich? That was big news, and there's no reason this shouldn't be as well. But, these days it is a mere drop in the bucket -- or, perhaps, ocean -- of scandals we learn about on an almost daily basis.

Want another example? Three domestic terrorists were found guilty this week of plotting to slaughter as many people as they could. Part of their crime involved "weapons of mass destruction." They face possible life sentences, and the jury took less than a day to convict them. Jeff Sessions even took a victory lap:

The Justice Department's national press office sent out a press release on the case featuring a quote from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, calling the jury verdict a "significant victory against domestic terrorism and hate crimes" and touting D.O.J.'s commitment to fighting both foreign and domestic terrorist threats.

"The defendants in this case acted with clear premeditation in an attempt to kill people on the basis of their religion and national origin. That's not just illegal -- it's immoral and unacceptable, and we're not going to stand for it," Sessions said. "Law enforcement saved lives in this case."

Why wasn't this big news? Perhaps because the intended targets were Muslim refugees, and they were targeted by right-wing militia members? So much for the so-called "liberal media" making this a big deal -- even though:

The men were enthusiastic supporters of Donald Trump, who vilified Muslims during his presidential campaign and has continued to do so while in office. During the plotting, {one of the domestic terrorists, Patrick} Stein reportedly referred to then-candidate Trump as "the Man." The men had planned their attack for after the 2016 election, so as not to hurt Trump's chances of winning. Delaying the attack until then would avoid giving "any ammunition" to their political opponents, Stein said.

Normally, this would have been headline news for days, if not weeks. Now? The story barely caused a ripple. Call it scandal fatigue. Or the dazed and confused nature of the Trump Era, we suppose.

Of course, while those are two big stories, they have to compete with everything else that is going on for media (and public) attention. There's so much of this, in fact, that we're just going to run it down in lightning "dazed and confused" fashion. So hold onto your hats, here we go....

Just announced today: the Democratic National Committee is suing the Trump campaign, Russia, and WikiLeaks for hacking them during the 2016 election. This may sound bizarre, but back in the days of Watergate, the Democrats sued Richard Nixon's re-election campaign (known as "CREEP" ) and won a $750,000 judgment against them, so it's not as crazy as it may sound.

Rudy Giuliani joined Trump's legal team this week, and it sure looks like he's going to have a lot to do. Trump's personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen is now so busy with the investigation against him that he's dropped his defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed for the leaked Russian dossier. When a Trump lawyer is too busy to follow through on a frivolous lawsuit, you know he's a busy man!

Meanwhile, Cohen and Trump are fighting in court to be the ones to vet all the evidence seized in the F.B.I. raid. So far, they haven't had much notable success, and the judge seems highly skeptical of their case. But it was revealed that Sean Hannity is the mysterious "third client" of Cohen, the other two being Republican heavyweights that used Cohen to pay hush money to mistresses. Make of that what you will.

The House Republicans are once again proving to be the gang who couldn't shoot straight. They had a Machiavellian plan to get rid of Rod Rosenstein, but it backfired spectacularly. They subpoenaed the memos James Comey wrote after speaking with President Trump (because he was justifiably worried Trump would lie about them later), thinking that Rosenstein would refuse to provide them. It's incredibly rare that such evidence is released by prosecutors in the middle of making a case, after all. If Rosenstein refused, then Congress could find him in contempt, which would give Trump just the excuse he's been looking for to fire Rosenstein. That was the plan, at any rate. But Rosenstein surprised them by releasing all the memos (although some secret information was redacted, like world leaders' names). The memos backed up everything Comey's been saying all along, and indeed provided further embarrassing stories about Trump's unhinged behavior (such as expressing joy over the prospect of jailing journalists to get them to name their sources: "They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, they are ready to talk." ). So much for the House GOP's grand strategy.

Trump lost two court rulings this week on his immigration policy, so it hasn't been a great week for him all around. A three-judge panel (all Republican appointees, by the way) ruled against Trump's plan to withhold federal money from sanctuary cities. The ruling was a pretty strong one, warning of "tyranny" several times. And Trump's own hand-picked Supreme Court justice just joined with the liberals to void an immigration law for deporting criminals as being too unconstitutionally vague.

Trump began the week last Friday by launching some missiles at Syria, which actually went pretty well (as these things go), but it seems like he's been heading downhill since then. When Barbara Bush died, the White House condolence statement went out with the wrong date on it (the original was dated 2017, not 2018), which is about par for the course for this White House.

Outside of Washington, Kentucky's Republican governor had to apologize for his own bit of fearmongering last week. Speaking against the teachers' strike in his state, Governor Matt Bevin said "I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them.... Children were harmed -- some physically, some sexually, some were introduced to drugs for the first time -- because they were vulnerable and left alone." He had zero evidence for these claims, of course.

And, finally, Cuba's government is now being run by a man whose last name is not "Castro." Since this is the first time since we've been alive that this is true, it is a very big deal.

OK, with all of that out of the way, let's move right along to the awards, shall we?





We have a four-way tie this week for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award, because we couldn't see any of these four senators being awarded a mere Honorable Mention for their efforts.

To begin with, Senators Jeff Merkley and Chris Murphy just introduced the "Choose Medicare Act" which would bring back the concept of the "public option." Under their plan, anyone could choose to buy in to Medicare rather than obtain private health insurance. Nobody would be forced to do so, but the option would exist for all. Also, it would improve Medicare generally, by adding a cap on out-of-pocket expenses for current seniors. It's a great idea and seems very well-thought-out. Of course, it doesn't have a prayer of passing any time soon, but that shouldn't stop anyone in Congress from putting a good idea on the table. We wrote about this in greater detail yesterday, if anyone's interested.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also wins his 17th MIDOTW award this week, for introducing a bill that would end the federal War On Weed forever. Schumer's bill would turn the decision about how to handle marijuana over to state law (rather than federal), remove all federal laws which make marijuana illegal, and turn over enforcement of the marijuana market (such as banning advertising to minors, for instance) to the federal department who really should be doing this -- the same department that does the same thing for alcohol and tobacco. And Schumer waited until 4/20 to introduce the bill, much to everyone's amusement.

Schumer released a statement saying: "The time has come to decriminalize marijuana. My thinking -- as well as the general population's views -- on the issue has evolved, and so I believe there's no better time than the present to get this done. It's simply the right thing to do." He becomes the highest-ranking official of either party to call for the War On Weed's end, and he should be saluted for doing so. Especially in the same week that an F.D.A. advisory panel voted unanimously to recommend approving the first marijuana-derived medicine, which helps stop seizures caused by rare forms of epilepsy.

As impressive as all of that is, the first name that came to mind for Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week was Tammy Duckworth, who got a unanimous vote from the Senate to allow babies younger than a year old on the floor of the Senate while they conduct votes. This passed in lightspeed fashion (for the Senate), and the very next day Duckworth appeared carrying Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, her newborn baby, on the floor while casting her vote.

The baby, adorably, was dressed in a duckling-print onesie, which was accessorized by a baby "jacket" -- which was necessary under a Senate rule that everyone appear wearing a "blazer." At 10 days old, Maile is quite likely the youngest person ever to be present for a Senate floor vote in all of American history. That's pretty impressive!

A funny footnote (or, more properly: "foot-in-mouth-note" ): Senator Orrin Hatch grumpily asked during the rule change debate: "What if there are ten babies on the floor of the Senate?" This led to much hilarity online and over at the Washington Post. Reporter Karen Tumulty tweeted in response: "It would be fewer than usual," while Alexandra Petri wrote a whole spoof column on the new Senate baby rules, which contained the classic line: "If babies throw tantrums on the floor, they will be removed, instead of returned by the people of the state of Texas to serve another term." Heh. Maybe read him Green Eggs And Ham and he'll fall quietly to sleep?

In any case, it isn't often we get so sentimental in our awards, but Tammy Duckworth definitely deserves a Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week for getting the Senate to move so fast to change their arcane rules to accommodate her growing family. Well done, Senator Duckworth!

{Congratulate Senator Chuck Schumer on his Senate contact page, Senator Jeff Merkley on his Senate contact page, Senator Chris Murphy on his Senate contact page, and Senator Tammy Duckworth on her Senate contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.}





We have two Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week awards to hand out this week, both for red-state Democrats who are obviously worried about facing their voters this year, and wishing to "put some distance" between them and their party to "show independence" instead.

The first goes to Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who announced she would be supporting Mike Pompeo's nomination to be secretary of State. Currently, Republicans are in very shaky position on confirmation votes, because they effectively only have 50 votes (due to John McCain's continued absence). This means if Democrats hold together, only a single Republican senator flipping his vote means the confirmation does not happen. Which is why Heitkamp announcing her support in advance of the actual vote takes a whole lot of pressure off Mitch McConnell, and will likely assure Pompeo's confirmation.

Our second Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week goes to Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He voted with the Republicans this week on a bill to roll back an Obama-era rule designed to prohibit auto dealers and lenders from discriminating against minorities. It's rare that an issue is so clear-cut, but this was one of them: the Senate essentially voted to legally allow racial discrimination in auto loans. And Joe Manchin voted for it.

Now, we understand the inclination of a red-state Democrat who wants to distance themselves in some way from the party's leadership, but were these really the best vehicles to show such independence? For picking these particular battles to make a stand on, we hereby award the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to both Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin.

{Contact Senator Heidi Heitkamp on her Senate contact page, and Senator Joe Manchin on his Senate contact page, to let them know what you think of their actions.}




Volume 481 (4/20/18)

For a change, our talking points section has a single theme this week: how Democrats are doing really well heading into the midterm election cycle. Democrats are up, Republicans are down, and it's time to start rubbing it in. Republicans have been all but robbed of the central theme they were teeing up for this year's election (the tax cuts for billionaires and Wall Street), and they are being denied the use of the theme from their past few elections (as more and more of the public trusts Democrats to handle healthcare).

There's another special House election next Tuesday to watch for, in Arizona, and once again the Democrat has a solid shot of winning in a district no Democrat should even have a chance in. Sound familiar? Whether Democrats pick up this seat or not, the fact that Republicans are even having to actively defend it is yet another sign of the blue wave that is building. So it's a pretty positive week for talking points!



Tax cuts getting less popular

Back to the drawing board, GOP.....

"The Republicans have spent the past year proving that they cannot govern their way out of a paper bag. They've passed virtually none of their agenda, and the one lonely bill that they did manage to ram through -- without anyone having read it, of course -- was a gigantic tax cut which is going to blow a trillion-dollar-plus hole in the deficit. Over 80 percent of these tax cuts go to businesses and the ultra-wealthy. Republicans were counting on their base voters just not noticing this, which has indeed worked for them in the past. But this time seems different. The tax cuts were not popular when they were passed, and over time they are getting less popular with the public. In a recent poll, only 27 percent of the public said the tax cuts were a good idea -- down three points from last month. Republicans were counting on the tax cuts being the central theme of their midterm campaigns, but the more people learn about their tax cuts, the less they like them. Their entire campaign was going to be how wonderful the tax cuts were (since they have no other achievements to talk about), so this really leaves them with nothing at all to run on."



While Obamacare gets more popular

As if things weren't bad enough for the GOP....

"Since the Republicans have lost their central campaign theme, they might be expected to fall back on their previous campaign's theme, but that's not going to work, either. Because since Donald Trump took office and since the Republican Congress seriously tried to dismantle it, Obamacare's popularity has substantially grown. In fact, now the public is looking for more ideas for healthcare, and the Democrats have many proposals on the table -- most of which would revive the public option and allow anyone to buy in to Medicare. A funny thing has been happening among Republicans, meanwhile. They have taken down all those calls to repeal and replace Obamacare from their websites. They have stopped running ads attacking Obamacare. They have realized that it is no longer a winning issue for them and has even flipped so totally that it is now a winning issue for Democrats. So it looks like the Republicans won't be able to recycle their previous campaign themes this fall, either."



Progressive agenda wildly popular

Even more good news for Democratic candidates for office!

"A new study is out showing that a progressive economic message polls incredibly well across all demographics. It really doesn't matter whether people make a whole lot of money or very little at all; it likewise doesn't matter whether they are highly educated or not -- among all groups support for measures like raising the minimum wage is very high. This means that all of the handwringing about whether Democrats should support a progressive economic agenda or not wasn't even necessary, because virtually all segments of the population agree with this agenda -- sometimes by overwhelming margins. Democrats who run on a progressive economic agenda are going to be wildly popular this year, to put it another way."



Another longshot possible?

These next three deal with another special election where Democrats really shouldn't even have a chance, but which is expected to be quite close.

"There's another House special election next Tuesday in Arizona, to replace yet another Republican congressman who had to step down in disgrace for sexually harassing his staff. I mean, it's hard to keep all their names straight, at this point. This is in a district that Trump won by 21 percent -- a district Republicans should be running away with. It's so red that Democrats didn't even bother to field candidates in the past two elections. This time around the Democrats have a strong candidate in Dr. Hiral Tipirneni, who is centering her campaign around making healthcare more affordable and more accessible. The latest poll shows her up by one point over the Republican, so it's likely going to be a close race. Even if she loses, the very fact that this race is even competitive should be another loud warning to the Republican Party that they are in serious trouble heading into the midterms. And if she wins, the number of House seats Democrats will have to flip in November will go down to only 22."



Panic and fearmongering

Republicans are scrambling to save the seat, of course.

"Panic over the Arizona special election has set in among Republicans, in the same way they panicked over the Pennsylvania district they just lost to Conor Lamb. Outside money is pouring in on the Republican side, to counter the fact that the Democratic candidate has actually raised a lot more money than the Republican. And now Donald Trump has chimed in, with a robocall that can only be described as the rankest naked fearmongering you've ever heard. Here is what Trump says in the call, showing how desperate Republicans have now become:"

Nancy Pelosi wants to send a liberal Democrat to Congress to represent you. We can't have that. If that happens, illegal immigrants will pour right over your border, bringing their drugs and their crime with them, right into your neighborhood, right into your back yard.

More Arizona panic

Republicans in Arizona have a lot to worry about, these days.

"Republicans in the Arizona state legislature are apparently afraid that John McCain will die at an inconvenient time on the calendar. They introduced an emergency measure which would ensure that, should McCain die any time soon, the Republican governor will be allowed to appoint a replacement who will not have to run in this November's election. To protect a Senate seat from possibly going Democratic, they have to change state law to rig the process in their favor, rather than letting the voters decide. Because if there's one thing Republicans fear, it is a fair election, obviously. A few years back, they wouldn't have even bothered, since they would have been confident of retaining the seat in an election, but now they're terrified of losing John McCain's seat to a Democrat. That should tell you something, right there."



Republican-on-Republican violence

As if things weren't bad enough in Republicanland....

"The national Republican Party is getting scared that Senate candidates might emerge in the upcoming primaries in multiple states who are so crazy or otherwise flawed that solid-red states might just elect a Democrat instead. They are desperately trying to avoid a repeat of all the laughable Senate candidates from the Tea Party era -- people like Todd 'Legitimate Rape' Aiken and Christine 'I Am Not A Witch' O'Donnell. So the GOP establishment is having to spend money campaigning against candidates like the one in West Virginia who is a convicted felon responsible for a coal mine disaster that killed 29 miners. It seems the Republicans can't even trust their own voters not to nominate ridiculous candidates. As a Democrat, I heartily encourage the R.N.C. to spend many, many millions of dollars against Republican candidates in primary races. Every dollar they spend now is a dollar less they'll have to spend in the general election cycle, after all."




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