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From The Reporter’s Notebook
The Republican National Committee announced Monday that Michael Cohen, longtime attorney and ally to President Donald Trump, will join its financial team, TPM’s Allegra Kirkland reported. Cohen was a lifelong Democrat who was unable to vote for his boss in the Empire State primary because of his party affiliation. On March 9, he announced he’d finally “made the official move” to register as a Republican.
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “Why did Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, a junior lawyer who used to work for Chairman Nunes, call Nunes late in the evening and have him rush over to the White House to see the ‘smoking gun’ information that supposedly validated President Trump’s ‘Obama wiretapping’ tweets? Remember, this overnight cloak and dagger stunt was followed the next day by Nunes going and ‘briefing’ President Trump about the new information. So the White House briefs Nunes in the middle of the night and then Nunes returns to the White House in the morning to brief Trump? That never made sense.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “In a sense, yes, if you have a lower threshold for confirmation, you could get less competent people appointed. Reid partially eliminated the filibuster to seat qualified nominees; Trump used the post-filibuster threshold to get the Senate to confirm a number of nominees who were dubious at best, and in same cases wholly unqualified or compromised. But when it comes to the Supreme Court, as Rubin has earlier conceded, the filibuster has never actually been an issue — nominees who have lost have done so because they could not get the support of their own party, or could not get a majority vote for confirmation. Further, it makes no difference to the present debate, because if the Senate is intent on confirming an unqualified candidate in the future based upon a party line majority vote, it’s going to happen. If the Supreme Court filibuster survives to that date, it will die on that date.”
Related: Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Gorsuch Nomination For SCOTUS As Dems Plan Filibuster
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