“No, no. When they go low, we kick ’em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”
— Former Attorney General Eric Holder, quoted by the Washington Post.
“No, no. When they go low, we kick ’em. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.”
— Former Attorney General Eric Holder, quoted by the Washington Post.
A new Gallup poll finds that more Americans continue to disapprove than approve of last year’s sweeping tax overhaul bill signed into law by President Trump, 46% to 39%.
A new Morning Consult poll finds Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is the most popular member of the U.S. Senate, while Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the least popular.
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The Chicago Sun Times doesn’t take very long to endorse in Illinois’ 3rd congressional district:
In the March Democratic primary, incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski got a lot of grief from fellow Democrats who accused him of being a closet Republican. We endorsed Lipinski nonetheless, saying his more conservative views on social issues — including his opposition to a woman’s right to have an abortion — were not necessarily out of step with his heavily blue-collar, Southwest Side and suburban district.
Democrats do best, we argued, when they pitch a big tent. Now, in the November election, Lipinski’s Republican opponent is a Holocaust-denying white supremacist. Enough said. We endorse Lipinski.
“Numbers show requests from African-American voters for absentee ballots in Georgia are coming in to county elections offices at a rate not seen since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008,” WSB-TV reports.
“According to the GeorgiaVotes.com website, which compiles data made available by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, 41.9% of all absentee ballot requests are coming from African-American voters, while 44.7% are coming from white voters.”
Steve Bannon told Bloomberg that next month’s congressional elections will be a referendum on the president and that Republicans can still hang on to a slender House majority with the GOP base energized by the bitter confirmation fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Said Bannon: “I’ve called this now for many months to be his first re-elect. There’s a very narrow gate you have to go through but it’s doable. The Kavanaugh hearings gave us traction for the first time to try to, against all odds just like in ’16, to try to close strong and try to save it by a seat or two.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hit back at Hillary Clinton after she said that Democrats “cannot be civil” with Republicans until they retake control, USA Today reports.
Said McConnell: “The far-left mob is not letting up. Earlier today, former Secretary of State Clinton sent this signal as clear as day. She told CNN exactly how she views millions of Americans who hold different political views from her own.”
“A California man who pleaded guilty to selling fraudulent bank account numbers — information that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office says was used to finance Russian election interference efforts — was sentenced on Wednesday to six months of prison followed by six months of home detention,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Richard Pinedo wasn’t accused of knowingly helping Russian companies and individuals accused of orchestrating campaigns to influence the 2016 presidential election. But his fraud scheme nevertheless landed him in the middle of the special counsel investigation.”
A source familiar with the case told Reuters that Pinedo “is referred in the charging documents as the person who helped the Russian conspirators launder money, as well as purchase Facebook ads and pay for rally supplies, through PayPal Holdings Inc.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that it’s up to President Trump to pick a potential successor for Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but the nominee won’t come from the Senate, The Hill reports.
Said McConnell: “It’s not going to come from our caucus, I can tell you that. 51-49, you can do the math. We’re not doing that.”
First lady Melania Trump says women who make accusations of sexual abuse “need to be heard” and supported, but so do men, the AP reports.
She says when there are accusations there needs to be “really hard evidence” and accusers should “show the evidence.”
A new Monmouth poll in Pennsylvania’s newly drawn 17th congressional district finds Rep. Conor Lamb (D) with a double-digit advantage over Keith Rothfus (R), 54% to 42%.
“The race stands at 55% for Lamb and 41% for Rothfus using a model that incorporates a turnout surge in Democratic precincts. A model projecting lower overall turnout shows Lamb with a 54% to 42% edge over Rothfus. These results are basically unchanged from Monmouth’s July poll.”
A new UMass Lowell/Boston Globe poll in Massachusetts finds Gov. Charlie Baker (R) leading Jay Gonzalez (D) by a stunning 39 points among likely voters, 66% to 27%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leads her Geoff Diehl (R), 56% to 31%.
First Read: “Just 23.2% of adults over 25 in Nevada have a bachelor’s degree or higher… There are just five states with a lower share — and all of them are Trump-friendly states in the American South: Louisiana (23%), Kentucky (22.7%), Arkansas (21.5%), Mississippi (21%) and West Virginia (19.6%).”
“And Nevada has the third-lowest share of women over 25 who have a bachelor’s degree or higher, also 23.2%. The others: Mississippi (22.6%), Arkansas (22.2%) and West Virginia (20.1%).”
“The recent Democrat success in Nevada — Obama in 2008 and 2012, Harry Reid in 2010 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 — has been due largely to the growing Latino vote in Nevada. But the college-educated white women that are fueling much of the Democratic resistance across the country? There aren’t as many of them in Nevada as there are in, say, the Midwest.”
A new Cincinnati Enquirer/Suffolk poll in Ohio finds Richard Cordray (D) leading Mike DeWine (R) in the race for governor, 46% to 40%.
In the U.S. Senate race, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) is crushing Jim Renacci (R), 54% to 36%.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defended Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in an AP interview in the face of criticism from President Trump saying she “certainly” would recover after voting against Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Said McConnell: “Well, she’s certainly going to recover… She’s about as strong as you could possibly be in Alaska. Nobody’s gonna beat her. I’m proud she’s in the Republican conference.”
Rolling Stone: “The ad — which was paid for by an anti-Cruz PAC and was not endorsed by his senate opponent, Beto O’Rourke — is beautiful in its simplicity, and strikes to the heart of Cruz’s campaign, which has revolved around the idea that he is more authentically Texan than his challenger.”
“In a motion to dismiss a new lawsuit accusing President Trump’s campaign team of illegally conspiring with Russian agents to disseminate stolen emails during the election, Trump campaign lawyers have tried out a new defense: free speech,” The Atlantic reports.
Trump lawyers argued that the First Amendment protects the campaign’s “right to disclose information—even stolen information—so long as (1) the speaker did not participate in the theft and (2) the information deals with matters of public concern.”
Joe Scarborough ripped Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Morning Joe for referring to protesters of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as “angry mobs,” after attendees of President Trump’s campaign rally last night chanted “lock her up” in reference to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
Said Scarborough: “Now the president of the U.S. is holding rallies where angry mobs of people are demanding to lock up a U.S. senator because they disagree with her politics. I guess due process and keeping your head, that was in vogue for Republicans last week. Mitch McConnell must be shocked at the angry mobs.”
He added: “He was a snowflake just a couple days ago, just melting on national television because of all the angry mobs. I wonder what Mitch thinks again about people talking about locking up one of his colleagues… because they disagree with her politically. That’s an angry mob, right?”
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.
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