FiveThirtyEight: “We can now say with finality that Republicans will control the redrawing of 187 congressional districts (43 percent) — or 2.5 times as many as Democrats (who will redraw 75 districts, or 17 percent).
“There are also 167 districts (38 percent) where neither party will enjoy exclusive control over redistricting (either because of independent commissions or split partisan control).”
Coming this fall from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA): Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could.
Politico says Schiff puts the blame squarely on the Republican party and got this statement: “For all his cynicism and shrewdness, Trump could not have come so close to succeeding if his party had stood up to him, if good people hadn’t been silent, or worse, allowed themselves to become complicit.”
Cheri Beasley (D), the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, announced she will run for U.S. Senate from North Carolina, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
Beasley narrowly lost her 2020 election for chief justice by 401 votes to fellow Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby.
New York Times: “After months of campaigning by Zoom and increasingly, at in-person events, the candidates are moving toward pricey on-air advertising, signaling the start of an aggressive chapter in the race, designed to capture the attention of voters who have yet to tune in to the most consequential mayoral contest in a generation.”
“Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is emerging as the chief obstacle to quick passage of President Biden’s $2.25 trillion infrastructure package that Democrats want to move through Congress sooner rather than later,” The Hill reports.
“Manchin is ramping up discussions with Republicans about what a scaled-down infrastructure package should look like, and some GOP senators are even optimistic that the moderate Democrat can be persuaded to block efforts to raise the corporate tax rate.”
A new NBC News poll finds 58% of all Americans prioritize ensuring that those who want to vote can do so, as compared to just 38% who want to make sure no ineligible people can vote.
Playbook: “OK, some of you will argue that he lost it long ago. But as careful students of his evening show, we’ve noticed that Carlson has gradually become more unhinged in recent weeks. He’s devoted enormous attention to apologias for the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. He seemed noticeably perturbed the night that Derek Chauvin was found guilty. And under the banner of just asking questions! he has given quarter to anti-vaxxers and Covid-19 conspiracists.”
“But on Monday night, during a rant where it was hard to tell whether Carlson was serious or not — his Trump-like way of distancing himself from the content of his monologues is to always keep you guessing as to whether he’s just putting you on — Carlson made a comment that was beyond the pale even for him, and especially strange for a self-styled anti-nanny state libertarian.”
Said Carlson: “Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid at Walmart. Call the police immediately, contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives.”
“Justin Trudeau’s government survived a confidence vote, avoiding an election for now, as its first budget in two years passed in Canada’s legislature with the support of a left-leaning opposition party,” Bloomberg reports.
“In a Monday evening vote, lawmakers from the New Democratic Party backed Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s plan to help the Canadian economy recover from its pandemic-induced losses. The vote in the House of Commons was 178 to 157 in favor.”
“The Washington, D.C., police department said Monday that its computer network was breached, and a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate claimed to have stolen sensitive data, including on informants, that it threatened to share with local criminal gangs unless police paid an unspecified ransom,” the AP reports.
Sources who heard U.K Prime Minister Boris Johnson say he would rather “let the bodies pile high” than allow a third coronavirus lockdown say they are willing to testify under oath that he made the comments, ITV News reports.
Johnson denied making the comments after a Daily Mail report, but The Guardian and Politico have also spoken to multiple sources who confirm the remarks.
NBC News: “Both presidents inherited a crisis-ravaged economy, but their signature 100-day achievements look markedly different: Biden’s stimulus plan was about 2½ times the size of President Barack Obama’s. It was easy for voters to understand, centered on popular $1,400 cash payments for most people, while Obama’s stimulus program was criticized as being too small and complicated, delivering small-dollar benefits in paychecks that polls showed many people didn’t even notice.”
“While Obama pared back his stimulus to win Republican votes, Biden met with Republicans once before he opted for a special process to go it alone. While conservative deficit hawks reined in Obama, Biden has brushed them off, arguing that now is the time to spend big. While Obama was hesitant to brag about his achievements, Biden’s team regularly takes credit for the receding pandemic — and voters give him high marks.”
CNN: How Biden anchored his first 100 days on two simple principles.
“President Biden, in an effort to pay for his ambitious economic agenda, is expected to propose giving the Internal Revenue Service an extra $80 billion and more authority over the next 10 years to help crack down on tax evasion by high-earners and large corporations,” the New York Times reports.
“The additional money and enforcement power will accompany new disclosure requirements for people who own businesses that are not organized as corporations and for other wealthy people who could be hiding income from the government.”
President Biden on Tuesday is expected to sign an executive order raising the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15 by March 2022, The Hill reports.
Gerard Baker: “It’s hard to overstate the extent to which the Trump presidency was for nonpartisans simply wearying. It often felt like being a child of parents going through the collapse of a desperately unhappy marriage: Daddy rage-tweeting about some latest grievance while the media howl back in an angry storm of wild accusations and threats.”
“The Biden presidency by contrast is a throwback to an ideal of an earlier age of family tranquility: Old Joe sitting benignly in the La-Z-Boy, listening to Bing Crosby on the record player. Mother Media dutifully handing him his slippers and a scotch and reassuring him all is well. The kids quietly doing their homework, and everyone’s in bed by 9.”
“This contrast alone—the dialing down of the hysteria we’ve lived with for four years—probably explains the 10-point difference in the Trump and Biden ratings. The cleverest White House move has been the careful rationing of the president’s presence in the lives of ordinary Americans, the rediscovery that scarcity has value.”
Axios: “Nearly half of those have come in the U.S. (29%), EU (13%) and U.K. (5%), with other rich countries also sprinting ahead. Another 22% have come in China and 14% in India. Africa, meanwhile, represents just 1.6% of vaccinations to date.”
“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said it’s imperative for Republicans to stay united if they want to take back the majority. But cracks are widening in his own relationship with one of his top deputies over former President Donald Trump,” Politico reports.
“At a retreat meant to craft a cohesive message for the party, McCarthy (R-CA) and GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) illustrated the exact rift the GOP has fought to avoid. While the former president wasn’t even invited to the House GOP’s annual policy retreat here in the Sunshine State, his presence has loomed large over the three-day gathering.”
“Allegations that a Texas lobbyist drugged a legislative aide shook the state Capitol on Monday, leading to some lawmakers restricting access to their offices as both law enforcement and a major lobbying firm said they were investigating,” 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.