Mark Leibovich: “Democrats can’t help but keep playing to a stubborn stereotype — a soft and pampered bunch, unwilling to make the gritty sacrifices… necessary to prevail in their ‘existential’ campaign to save democracy.”
“No matter how eager they were to resist Trump, they kept living up to their worst image as an overly sensitive, out-of-touch, and terminally online band of myopic and overindulged factions.”
“Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) on Wednesday demanded U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro preserve all evidence related to her unsuccessful effort to bring charges against him and five other Democratic lawmakers,” Politico reports.
“Speaker Mike Johnson says he has asked retiring Rep. Neal Dunn to serve out his term amid concerns the Florida Republican might resign early,” Politico reports.
“An early exit from Dunn, 72, would deal Johnson another massive blow as he tries to maintain his narrow majority. Currently, Republicans can afford to lose no more than one GOP vote on party-line measures, though they are expected to pick up a vote in a March special election.”
“The Pentagon has told a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare to deploy to the Middle East as the U.S. military prepares for a potential attack on Iran,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) is planning to announce an early retirement as soon as next week — an exit that would drag the House Republican majority out the door with him, Florida Politics reports.
Mediaite reports several reporters spoke to Dunn this afternoon and he said he was “not making any comments right now” about the reports of his early retirement — which is notably not a denial.
“With just two days until funding runs out for the Department of Homeland Security, there are no signs of a breakthrough between Republicans and Democrats,” Punchbowl News reports.
“It now appears likely that Congress will blow past the DHS funding deadline on Friday night without a deal, barring a major breakthrough in talks with the White House.”
“Attorney General Pam Bondi and House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) literally screamed at each other during an oversight hearing after Raskin demanded she stop talking over his members,” Mediaite reports.
Punchbowl News: “In one remarkable exchange, Bondi said Democrats only care about the Epstein case now because the Dow and the S&P are at all-time highs. Bondi’s claim elicited laughs from Judiciary Democrats. Bondi replied by saying the Democrats shouldn’t laugh because they’re great stock traders.”
“It’s hard to capture the level of disdain and derision on display throughout this hearing. Almost every time Bondi replied to Democratic questions, Democrats accused Bondi of filibustering and tried to reclaim their time. Bondi would continue speaking, leading to constant cross-talk.”
USA Today: Democrats grill Pam Bondi on Epstein files as she touts stock market in hearing.
President Trump embarked on a bizarre posting spree touting his friendship with Black celebrities following his racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama, the Daily Beast reports.
Groundwork Collaborative: “It’s become a defining feature of modern life: the steady grind of small hassles that eat away at our time, patience, and wallets. Everyday interactions that should be simple too often turn into fraught ordeals, leaving people feeling overwhelmed, ignored, or jerked around.”
“We call it the ‘Annoyance Economy’ — what we pay in time, fees, and irritation to navigate our daily lives.”
NBC News: “It’s exceedingly rare for a federal grand jury to reject prosecutors’ attempts to secure an indictment, since the process is stacked in the government’s favor. Federal grand juries need a minimum of 16 members to have a quorum, and they max out at 23 members. Just 12 grand jurors need to agree that the government had probable cause to indict, a threshold much lower than the unanimous ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard that a petit jury needs to convict.”
“In 2016, the Justice Department investigated more than 151,000 suspects, but grand juries returned just six ‘no bills,’ per DOJ statistics. The vast majority of assistant U.S. attorneys will go their entire careers without being rejected by a grand jury like this. As NBC News previously reported, the lawyers who attempted to bring the case are political appointees, not career prosecutors.”
Gallup will no longer measure presidential approval ratings, the Washington Post reports.
In October, Kari Lake was spotted waiting in a White House lobby, hoping to see President Trump, The Atlantic reports.
Said one Trump operative: “Kari has been here for hours. She’s going to run, and she’s asking for the endorsement.”
“Lake, who was rumored to be mulling a run for Congress in Arizona, eventually shared her pitch with a low-level aide who conveyed no enthusiasm for a third Lake candidacy, the same person said. The other Republican operative offered a similar account.”
“That’s the gaslightiest gaslighting shit I’ve ever heard in my life.”
— Joe Rogan, talking on his podcast about the Trump administration claiming Jeffrey Epstein did not run a sex trafficking ring.
“The House is set on Wednesday to consider a Democratic-written measure that would rescind tariffs President Trump imposed on Canada last year, taking a largely symbolic but politically consequential vote that Republicans have fought for a year to prevent,” the New York Times reports.
“It is unlikely to have any practical effect given that Mr. Trump almost certainly would veto it, but the measure’s movement through the House reflects frustration among some GOP lawmakers about Congress continuing to cede its authority over trade matters to the White House, and concern that voters are being hurt by the levies.”
New York Daily News: Democrats force vote to rebuke Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports.
Just published: End of Days: Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America by Chris Jennings.
How a historic standoff enabled the conspiracy-laden politics of the Trump era.
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “In our first handicapping of state legislature control for the 2026 cycle, we find 15 chambers that are competitive—either Leans Republican, Toss-up, or Leans Democratic.”
“That’s slightly higher than the number we found at a similar point in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani told state lawmakers that the only way out of the city’s $12 billion budget gap is to raise taxes on the wealthy, the New York Post reports.
Said Mandani: “I’m asking for a 2% raise in personal income taxes on the most affluent New Yorkers, someone earning $1 million a year. The top 1% of New York City can afford to contribute $20,000 more in taxes.”
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.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
