Dan Balz: “New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) knows only one set of instincts when challenged: deny, resist and fight. This has marked a public career that has seen him as secretary of housing and urban development, state attorney general and now as a three-term governor of New York. He might think this has served him well. It has been his undoing.”
“His legacy has been soiled by hubris, temperament and a sense of entitlement.”
A new Consumer Brands/Ipsos survey finds 84% of U.S. shoppers say they’re concerned about plastic and packaging waste.
Related from Green That Life: 5 ways to kick your plastic addiction.
“Although most large events shut down last summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally forged ahead, panicking health experts as nearly a half-million motorcycle enthusiasts descended on the Black Hills of South Dakota,” the New York Times reports.
“This year’s rally, which began on Friday, is expected to draw an even larger crowd, just as the infectious Delta variant is producing more new virus cases nationwide than this time last year.”
“Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general during the Trump administration, has told the Justice Department watchdog and congressional investigators that one of his deputies tried to help former President Donald Trump subvert the results of the 2020 election,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Rosen had a two-hour meeting on Friday with the Justice Department’s office of the inspector general and provided closed-door testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Saturday.”
Conservative radio host Dick Farrel, who used his local talk show to rail against Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “power tripping lying freak” and say that no one should get the coronavirus vaccine, died from Covid-19 complications, the Daily Beast reports.
When the disease sent him to the hospital three weeks ago, he changed his tune and urged friends to get vaccinated, WPTV reports.
“The Taliban seized the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on Sunday. It is the first major city to be overtaken by the insurgents since they began their sweeping military offensive in May,” the New York Times reports.
Wall Street Journal: “In addition to Kunduz, the Taliban captured the provincial capital of Sar-e-Pul and were on the verge of completing the takeover of Taloqan, the capital of nearby Takhar province.”
CNN anchor Jim Acosta called out several Republican governors who have pushed back on mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccination, suggesting new coronavirus variants be named after them.
He specifically went after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): “People should not have to die so some politicians can own the libs. They’re not owning anybody. They may end up owning the pandemic because they’re prolonging it. Perhaps it may be time to start naming these new variants after them. Why not call it the DeSantis variant instead of the Delta variant?”
Florida’s State Board of Education approved an emergency rule hastily crafted by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration that will allow parents to use vouchers to move their children to another school if they perceive any type of “COVID-19 harassment” against their child in connection to district rules on masking, testing and isolation due to exposure, the Miami Herald reports.
Miami Herald: “Some people itching to get their hands on a COVID-19 cure are putting themselves in danger for taking unprescribed doses of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug used to treat diseases such as river blindness or scabies in people and prevent heartworm disease and other infestations in animals.”
“The drug has been flying off the shelves of farm supply stores and veterinary offices as people, mostly those who refuse to get vaccinated, search for unconventional ways out of the pandemic.”
A Kansas Republican accused one of her party’s leaders of barring her from a special convention vote after she congratulated a Democrat who beat her in a state House election, the Wichita Eagle reports.
“The California Republican Party voted overwhelmingly Saturday not to endorse any candidate in the looming recall election that could remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom from office, sidestepping a potentially nasty fight over a GOP favorite that threatened to divide Republicans and depress turnout in the nationally watched race,” the AP reports.
“The lopsided vote to skip an endorsement — supported by about 90 percent of delegates attending at a virtual party meeting — reflected concerns that an internal feud among candidates and their supporters would cleave party ranks and sour Republicans who wouldn’t bother to vote if their candidate of choice was snubbed.”
Washington Post: “The gaping disparity between Cuomo’s publicly declared commitment to stamping out abuse and harassment and his alleged private behavior has emerged as one of the most staggering aspects of a scandal that seems on track to lead to an early end to his governorship. An examination of the report’s findings compared with Cuomo’s contemporaneous public statements reveals a leader who appeared completely to detach his personal behavior from his public persona.”
“Over and over again, the investigation found, he behaved in private exactly in the manner that he repeatedly condemned in public — making lewd comments to young women, kissing aides on the mouth, having others sit on his lap and repeatedly touching women inappropriately.”
New Yorker: Cuomo on the brink of impeachment.
“Federal judges will no longer play the role of referee when the intensely partisan, once-per-decade fight over congressional mapmaking gets underway this year,” The Hill reports.
“As a result of decisions by the Roberts Court, federal courthouses will be forced to turn away even the most egregious cases of partisan gerrymandering, which could make it easier for state lawmakers to lock in politically manipulated voting maps for the next decade.”
CBS News and the Albany Times Union will have an exclusive interview on Monday with “Executive Assistant number one,” as she’s referred to in the report on sexual harassment by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“A standoff over the roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is poised to drag out the Senate’s debate for days, with Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) vowing he will block attempts to speed up passage of the legislation,” The Hill reports.
“Without a deal, the next vote on the bill will be on Sunday evening and it would not pass the Senate until early Tuesday morning.”
“The aggressive fund-raising tactics that former President Donald Trump deployed late in last year’s presidential campaign have continued to spur an avalanche of refunds into 2021, with Mr. Trump, the Republican Party and their shared accounts returning $12.8 million to donors in the first six months of the year,” the New York Times reports.
“Trailing in the polls and facing a cash crunch last September, Mr. Trump’s political operation began opting online donors into automatic recurring contributions by prechecking a box on its digital donation forms to take a withdrawal every week. Donors would have to notice the box and uncheck it to opt out of the donation. A second prechecked box took out another donation, known as a ‘money bomb.’”
Proof-of-vaccination requirements in the United States and Europe have spurred a new market for counterfeit certificates, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol Saturday as Gov. Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a monthslong standoff that ramped up in July when some Democratic state lawmakers fled the state and hunkered down in Washington,” the AP reports.
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.