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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Republicans are making a last-ditch effort to maintain the House seat in Kansas vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, with President Donald Trump recording a robocall for the Republican candidate, state treasurer Ron Estes, TPM’s Caitlin MacNeal reported. Trump recorded a robocall supporting Estes, which went out to “tens of thousands,” according to the Kansas Republican Party. “On Tuesday, Republican Ron Estes needs your vote and needs it badly. Ron is a conservative leader who’s going to work with me to make America great again,” Trump says on the call.
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Remember that Manafort was first brought on board not as campaign manager but – notionally – to manage the delegate hunt and wrangling in the lead up to the GOP convention and at the convention itself. It later became clear that he served as de facto campaign manager pretty much from the start when he came on board in March 2016. On its face, this delegate wrangling role had a certain logic to it since Manafort had been involved in wrangling delegates at the semi-contested 1976 GOP convention in which incumbent Gerald Ford saw off a challenge from Ronald Reagan. It was commonly said that Manafort was the only GOP player with experience at a contested convention – thus making him a key asset for Trump, who looked likely to face just such a challenge in Cleveland.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “With the battle now over, the Republican antics that denied a confirmation vote to Judge Garland seem likely to have far greater ripple effects than the end of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations. The Republican contempt for Senate traditions, and for that matter the basic principles of good faith conduct upon which the Constitution and constitutional democracy in general depend, will likely carry us into an era in which no Supreme Court vacancy will be filled unless the party that controls the Senate also controls the White House. The Senate could fix that issue, in-house, by creating and following new rules for the confirmation process, but it does not seem likely that the Senate will make any attempt to do so, nor is there any reason to be confident that the Senate will follow its own rules in the future. The other solution would be a constitutional amendment, although it seems like a very distant long-shot to get the 2/3 majority votes in the House and Senate to put time constraints on the process. Ratification by the states presents its own set of problems, but I suspect that it would be the easier part of the equation.”
Related: At Gorsuch Swearing-In, Trump Thanks McConnell ‘For All That He Did’
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