I have a whole backlog of posts to share with you – how to subpoena the President’s tax returns, the terribly run company Facebook and its impact on the news industry and a few other things. But my day hasn’t gone precisely as I’d planned. So more soon.
Federal judge in DC thrashes Trump administration’s approval of Medicaid work requirements for Kentucky. The devastating decision blocks the new requirements from taking effect Sunday.
The Times has a fascinating article tonight on the Trump White House’s courtship of Justice Anthony Kennedy, building a relationship and rapport to make Kennedy comfortable retiring on Trump’s watch and ahead of the 2018 midterm election. One particular detail grabbed my attention: Justice Kennedy’s son Justin was the global head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank and a key lifeline of capital to President Donald Trump. Read More
There’s a point about strategy about the new Supreme Court pick I wanted to discuss with you. It’s very important and I have a clear view. But I want to share some contrary views too. Read More
Some remarkable moments below from Rod Rosenstein’s testimony on Capitol Hill within the last half hour. It’s an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, former head of the so-called “Freedom Caucus,” which happens to be one of the most autocracy-friendly, anti-rule of law groups on Capitol Hill. The exchanges below are wild. They’re likely to take in a lot of journalists. But see them in the light of a broader overarching goal. All of these fights, all of these demands, this whole storm is part of a larger effort: defending President Trump from whatever Robert Mueller may find about what he, his associates and his family did. This could not be more important. Read More
I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about something that had been eating at me since Tuesday. Many of our assumptions about the course of the Mueller investigation are based on the premise or the backstop that Supreme Court will enforce the Nixon-era precedents about the rule of law and presidency. This seemed less clear to me after Tuesday’s decisions, though I didn’t return to that issue after yesterday’s news. I did last night at 3 a.m. The Mueller probe is the most immediate issue but it’s really just a proxy for our democratic institutions. I’ve said before that Trump is an autocrat without an autocracy. But he’s working on it and the question is whether there will be any check.
Looking through my email I found this from a former federal public corruption prosecutor …
I am deeply concerned that the Kennedy retirement will put the rule of law and our democratic institutions at graver risk than ever before. The President of the United States is the subject of a serious federal criminal investigation into (1) whether he conspired with a foreign adversary to help him win a narrow electoral college victory; and (2) whether he has obstructed that very investigation by, among things, firing the FBI director in charge of the investigation. The President will now be able to choose the person who, in a very real sense, may be the ultimate arbiter of whether or not he and others are ever held accountable.
Understandably, it got little attention in today’s rush of news. But spare a moment for this. CNN had a short package of news on the now finalized plans for a summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. As the CNN reporter in Moscow put it, “the Russians [are] clearly showing they are in the driver’s seat on this.” Here’s short excerpt of video with John Bolton in a begging mode, insisting there’s no problem with the summit, while Russian state television mockingly says Russia elected Trump. Read More
I want to take the liberty of reprinting something I wrote 14 years ago, in December of 2004. The political and legislative context were quite different. This was right after the 2004 election after President Bush had announced his intention to partially privatize Social Security. Yet certain dynamics remain unchanged …
In politics as in life, victory or success is seldom entirely within our control. As we noted a few days ago, the Democrats can’t win this legislatively. They don’t have the votes. The GOP has the White House and solid majorities in both chambers. If they can hold their troops together, they can write the bill, pass it, and sign it into law before anyone gets another chance at the ballot box. But, as important as winning is in this case (and I’m a good deal more optimistic than many of my friends and colleagues seem to be), winning isn’t everything.
If Democrats have to lose this, they must be sure to lose well.
Elections have consequences. Often they are profound consequences stretching years or decades into the future from their inception point. Trumpism is civic poison. There is a temptation to think that this is another reverse coming after Trump’s election, the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, the reversal of DACA protections and more. I don’t see it that way. These jolts are really only absorbing, fully recognizing the consequences of what happened in November 2016. Once we ingested it into the body politic all sorts of outcomes became either inevitable or possible. This is just one more of them, though perhaps the most consequential yet.
Jeffrey Toobin says Roe v Wade will be overturned and abortion in 20+ states within 18 months. This is far from the only change we are likely to see in short order. The most visible, high-profile Court issues tend to be those centering on questions like abortion rights, LGBT equality, religious liberty. Far less visible, though no less consequential, are the issues I expect a new Court to focus on most: using the scaffolding of the law to block legislatures from addressing key economic questions facing our society, much as the Court did in the late 19th and early decades of the 20th century. They are all important; they’re all down by six runs in the 9th inning. Read More
We’re collecting statements and official positions from every Democratic Senator on whether they believe a SCOTUS vote should happen before the 2018 midterm election. We’re collecting now. Here’s what we have so far. If you find other statements or stated positions, let us know.