Just as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) managed to keep the government open by following the Kevin McCarthy playbook, so too will the party’s right flank not veer from its McCarthy-era (no, the other McCarthy era) retaliatory tactics.
Continue reading “No Plans To Veer From The McCarthy Punishment Playbook”Ukraine Officials Who Spun Dirt On Bidens Charged With Treason
The group of Ukrainians who flung byzantine and self-serving allegations about corruption in the Biden family were hit on Monday with treason charges over the effort.
Continue reading “Ukraine Officials Who Spun Dirt On Bidens Charged With Treason”The Long National Nightmare Inflicted By The House GOP Isn’t Nearly Over
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
House Dems Rescue House GOP From Gov’t Shutdown
Despite the extracurricular antics I will describe further down, the House managed to avoid a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution with more Democratic support than Republican. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to concur, and President Biden is expected to sign it.
A near-term disaster was averted, but this had red flags all over it.
After ousting Kevin McCarthy as speaker and spending three weeks fumbling for a replacement, the House GOP is right back where it was to begin with: unwilling and incapable of governing, eager to tear things down and engage in performative politics, and beholden to a pro-insurrection far-right fringe.
One can imagine a scenario where the turmoil of October would have had some kind of cathartic effect, forcing an internal reckoning in the House GOP and changing the underlying power dynamics. But there was no real indication that that had happened, and the funding impasse serves as powerful evidence that we remain in the same predicament as before.
While it appears that Speaker Mike Johnson’s perch is safe for now, despite doing virtually the same thing McCarthy did, the road ahead to permanent government funding sometime early next year remains as murky as it was all of 2023.
A Wild And Crazy Day On The Hill
It was a day where men fought on things that didn’t matter, folded on things that did, and congratulated themselves heartily for being jagoffs. Let’s run through the three incidents:
Elbowed In The Back!
NPR reporter Claudia Grisales unexpectedly found herself in the midst of a near-scuffle between Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Kevin McCarthy. Burchett claimed McCarthy elbowed him in the back while walking by during a hallway interview with Grisales and chased after McCarthy. Grisales trailed him and caught audio of the ridiculous exchange:
Is ‘Smurf’ The Best You Can Come Up With?
Democrats on the Chairman James Comer’s Oversight Committee are becoming more aggressive in challenging his bogus investigations, and Comer doesn’t like it one bit:
Sit The Hell Down
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) picked a fight with Teamsters president Sean O’Brien, who was testifying before Chairman Bernie Sander’s HELP Committee:
Kudos to Sanders, whose dyspeptic orneriness was perfect for the moment.
“Stop it. Sit down. You’re a United States senator,” Sanders implored, before adding, “This is a hearing. And God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress. Let’s not make it worse.”
Santos Fundraiser Pleads Guilty
Sam Miele, a one-time fundraiser for Rep. George Santos (R-NY), has pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge after, among other misdeeds, impersonating the then-chief of staff for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to raise funds for Santos.
No Argument Here
Trump Summons Violence Against NY Judge
Make no mistake what Trump is doing here:
Jack Smith: Trump Is Responsible For Jan. 6
The indictment of Donald Trump in the Jan. 6 case in DC was so sweeping and broad that sometimes its specific impact can be missed. For example, because it didn’t allege that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol, it was interpreted as demurring to First Amendment concerns, which is both true but perhaps misses the point.
In recent days, Smith has gone out of his way to suggest that the indictment should not be read as narrow, constrained, or limited. In the first example a few days ago, in a filing that offered a preview of the evidence Smith intends to present at trial, prosecutors revealed that they would be making the case that the rioters themselves said Trump summoned them and directed them to the Capitol and that they were following his direction.
Yesterday, Smith was even more direct: “Although the indictment does not charge the defendant with incitement to insurrection … it squarely alleges that he is responsible for the events of January 6, 2021.” That plain statement, made in a filing to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the gag order imposed in the case, sets up a trial where Jan. 6 is front and center, not something Smith is dodging.
Fani Willis Seeks Emergency Protective Order
After the leak of proffer videos, Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis rushed to court yesterday to renew her pending request for a protective order in the case. Notably, in her filing she identified an email (Exhibit B here) in which one of the defendants’ lawyer seems to admit to having leaked the proffer videos, before retracting it in a subsequent email and claiming it was a “typo.”
State Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled a hearing on Willis’ emergency request for 1:30 p.m. ET today via Zoom. Trump and other defendants are opposed to the protective order.
Willis: RICO Trial Won’t Be Finished Before 2024 Election
“I believe in that case there will be a trial. I believe the trial will take many months. And I don’t expect that we will conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025,” Willis said.
2024 Ephemera
- Politico: Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom announces bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola
- WaPo: Univision, the Spanish language news giant, shifts its approach to Trump
- Politico: New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy enters US Senate race to replace Menendez
Helpful!
A useful analysis of the Supreme Court’s new ethics code and how it differs from other judicial ethical guidelines.
Women On The Verge
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Are The Republican Men Okay?
Look, I get it, the recess bell hasn’t rang in 10 weeks. The tryptophan nap in your dad’s Lazy Boy and the football pickup game down the street is calling your name.
But keep it together for a few more days, boys.
Continue reading “Are The Republican Men Okay?”Johnson Keeps Government Open By Taking Page Out Of McCarthy’s Book
The House passed a two-step stopgap Tuesday, which will keep the government funded until mid-winter. The continuing resolution passed with more Democratic votes than Republican ones. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) lost 93 Republican votes, spelling trouble ahead when the CRs — and his honeymoon period — run out in January and February.
While many on the right flank of the party are unhappy, they’re not ready to punish Johnson yet, figuring that he’s still new to the job. The impending holiday has also lessened the thirst for speaker punishment.
So Johnson took a page from McCarthy’s book — keeping the government open with mostly Democratic support, and promising the right flank some red meat down the road (when none of these dynamics will have changed).
Johnson Does Virtually Exactly What McCarthy Did To Keep Government Open
The House of Representatives passed a clean continuing resolution Tuesday with hefty bipartisan support, averting the shutdown that would have followed the expiration of the last stopgap, which cost former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) his job.
How did Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) pull off such a feat? He did essentially the exact same thing McCarthy did, avoiding a similar fate by dint of such incidentals as his newness in the post and members’ eagerness to get home for Thanksgiving.
Continue reading “Johnson Does Virtually Exactly What McCarthy Did To Keep Government Open “Michigan Judge Allows Trump To Stay On Ballot Through Primaries
A Michigan judge on Tuesday ruled that Donald Trump can stay on the ballot at least through the 2024 presidential primaries in the state, deciding a batch of three separate cases addressing the Constitution’s Disqualification Clause.
Continue reading “Michigan Judge Allows Trump To Stay On Ballot Through Primaries”Site Notice
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History from the River to the Sea and Across the Ocean
This may seem like old news to some people. But I wanted to go back and reread some of the initial reactions to the massacres in southern Israel on October 7th. They are notable in themselves. And I read at least some versions of them in real time. But I felt the need to reread them now to understand the progression of events in North America over the last 5 weeks if not necessarily in Israel/Palestine.
National Students for Justice in Palestine is the national umbrella group which supports and coordinates messaging for over 200 Students for Justice in Palestine campus groups across North America.
On the day after the October 7th attacks, the organization issued this statement as either their first or one of their first statements on the massacres in southern Israel.
Continue reading “History from the River to the Sea and Across the Ocean”Is Chesebro Throwing Eastman Under The Bus?
Connoisseurs of Trump attorney Ken Chesebro – cheeseheads, if you will – may remember that his work for the former president went beyond the fake electors scheme. Emails and memos from December 2020 and January 2021 showed that Chesebro also pitched an uncanny plan: that on Jan. 6 then-Vice President Mike Pence should “mak[e] judgements” about which electoral votes he was constitutionally obligated to open and count.
Continue reading “Is Chesebro Throwing Eastman Under The Bus?”