“Economic growth accelerated to a 6.9% annual rate in the fourth quarter. But it appears to have lost momentum because of Omicron and supply shortages,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
CNBC: “The report reflected an overall solid period for the economy after output had slowed considerably over the summer. Supply chain issues tied to the pandemic coupled with robust demand spurred by unprecedented stimulus from Congress and the Federal Reserve led to imbalances across the economic spectrum.”
“House Democrats added seven names Thursday to their list of vulnerable incumbents in need of party resources heading into the challenging midterm elections,” NBC News reports.
Jonathan Chait: “When an ideological extreme faction with unpopular views emerges, it becomes a threat to the party that hosts it. At first, the party’s incentive is to banish the extremists, lest their toxic ideas taint the party’s brand with the broader electorate. But if the radical faction’s growth is not arrested, the calculus changes, and barring the doors can no longer work. It forms a large enough part of the base that the party can’t afford to alienate its members. The crank wing becomes too big to fail.”
“I believe the anti-vaccine movement is reaching that point in the Republican Party. The movement’s position is akin to the tea party in 2009, or the birther movement a few years later — perhaps (this is a rough estimate) smaller than the former but larger than the latter. The cause has too many adherents, who supply too much energy, for the party to risk alienating.”
“Germany has provoked outrage in some quarters after it offered to supply 5,000 military helmets to Ukraine to help it defend itself against a possible Russian invasion,” CNBC reports.
“About 100,000 Russian troops are believed to be on the border with Ukraine. While countries like the U.S. and U.K. have sent military hardware to Ukraine, Germany has been conspicuously reluctant to send equipment.”
Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has a memoir out May 24: Here’s the Deal is billed by her publisher as a look beyond the headlines of the Trump administration and her family life, including her husband and prominent Trump detractor, George Conway, the AP reports.
“About 14.5 million Americans have signed up to get health coverage this year through Affordable Care Act insurance marketplaces, eclipsing the previous record enrollment by nearly 2 million,” the Washington Post reports.
“After a frenetic few weeks when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus seemed to infect everyone, including the vaccinated and boosted, the United States is finally seeing encouraging signs,” the New York Times reports.
“As cases decline in some parts of the country, many have begun to hope that this surge is the last big battle with the virus — that because of its unique characteristics, the Omicron variant will usher Americans out of the pandemic.”
Axios: “Most of that decline is being driven by continued improvement on the East Coast, particularly in and around New York, Washington, D.C., and New England.”
“When a federal judge ordered Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes to remain jailed pending his trial for conspiracy charges on Wednesday, they cited testimony by Rhodes’s estranged wife, who alleged that he installed ‘elaborate escape tunnels’ in his backyard,” the Daily Beast reports.
Tasha Adams shared her photos on Twitter: “Folks if you ever feel tempted to rent a backhoe and dig escape tunnels in the backyard of your rental house, keep in mind it may back to haunt you if you later attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.”
Punchbowl News: “Biden presided over Breyer’s confirmation to the Supreme Court as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994, and now he will name Breyer’s replacement.”
“This has never happened before in U.S. history. Not even by Martin Van Buren, who was Judiciary Committee chair way back in the 1820s and then later became the 8th president.”
Politico: “Democrats are eyeing a timeline similar to what Republicans used to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett, which was about a month between her nomination and confirmation. The tight timeline doesn’t reflect an overall rush.”
“Aides have said Democrats may consider confirming his replacement before this SCOTUS term is over, but delay the succession until after Breyer leaves his seat vacant.”
Punchbowl News: “And let’s clear up something here – Republicans can’t block a Supreme Court nomination in the Judiciary Committee or on the floor as long as all 50 Senate Democrats stick together and back Biden’s nominee. Democrats don’t need Republicans to hold a confirmation hearing in the Judiciary Committee, and they don’t need them to vote in committee in order to advance a nomination.”
Sarah Palin, who tested positive for Covid-19 Monday, delaying her defamation trial against the New York Times, was spotted dining out at a restaurant in New York City on Wednesday night, the Daily Mail reports.
Nathanial Rakich: “The Senate has been remarkably efficient at passing President Biden’s judicial nominees so far: During the first year of his presidency, 42 of Biden’s district-court and appeals-court nominees have been confirmed — more than any president since John F. Kennedy.”
“And crucially, Democrats have been united behind those nominees. The next time a Democratic senator votes no on one of Biden’s judicial picks, it will be the first time. That means that even Manchin and Sinema have 100 percent track records of supporting Biden’s judicial nominees.”
“The Kremlin warned on Thursday that there was ‘not much cause for optimism’ that the West would satisfy Russia’s demands in the showdown over Ukraine, but said that President Vladimir Putin would take his time to study the written responses that the United States and NATO submitted a day earlier before deciding how to proceed,” the New York Times reports .
“Senate Democrats say they plan to move speedily to consider President Biden’s nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Stephen G. Breyer, following the lead of Republicans who raced through the nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a matter of weeks before the 2020 elections,” the New York Times reports.
“Holding a bare 50-seat majority that is under severe threat in November’s midterm elections, Democrats acknowledged the need to act fast, particularly since an illness or death of one of their members could deprive them of their numerical advantage and greatly complicate efforts to fill the seat.”
Politico: Why not to expect a scorched earth fight over Breyer’s replacement.
Washington Post: “Emails released Wednesday by Britain’s Foreign Office appear to show that Prime Minister Boris Johnson did sign off on a controversial evacuation of dogs and cats from Afghanistan in August, contradicting his dismissal as ‘complete nonsense’ of claims that he intervened to rescue animals over the thousands of Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban takeover.”
Iowa state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann (R) “gave the finger” to those he described as political opponents during a rally at the statehouse on Tuesday, WHO reports.
Said Kaufmann: “When it comes to these gun-grabbing, freedom-hating, over-regulating, civil liberty-violating tyrants. Here’s my message…(holds up both middle fingers) thank you.”
Justice Stephen Breyer was not planning to announce his retirement today and is “upset” that the way that this is being handled was not the timeline that he had planned, Fox News reports.
Breyer reportedly “felt this was pushed before he was ready to make it official.”
A new Data for Progress poll in Arizona finds Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) would crush Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, 74% to 16%.
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.