“Senate Democrats plan to hammer President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over his views on abortion and presidential power in hearings starting on Tuesday, but the conservative judge looks likely to be confirmed,” Reuters reports.
”Trump’s fellow Republicans hold narrow majority control of the Senate so they can approve Kavanaugh if they stay united. So far, there were no signs of defections, with the Senate likely to vote by the end of the month.”
“Sen. John McCain’s life took on a fierce urgency after he was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017, and he moved quickly to complete his final projects even as his health challenges sequestered him at his family home near Sedona,” a close friend told the Arizona Republic.
“McCain also never gave up hope that he might someday return to the U.S. Senate and until his April surgery for an intestinal infection related to diverticulitis was plotting a possible Capitol Hill comeback.”
”McCain was determined to plan his own memorial services, write a final book with his longtime collaborator and former chief of staff Mark Salter, participate in an HBO documentary about his career, and clear out a portion of the Cornville property that had been overgrown with brush and trees.“
The HuffPost got a copy of the first album from Texas U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke’s punk band Foss and concludes, “It’s not bad at all.”
The recording came from former bandmate Cedric Bixler-Zavala who said he stands behind O’Rourke: “I truly believe Beto to be the answer. He really gives a fuck.”
Texas Republicans mocked the cover of the album in a tweet last week.
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Randy Bryce (D), who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Speaker Paul Ryan, tweets that his opponent, Bryan Steil (R), “just released three minutes of silent B roll footage in hopes a right wing Super PAC would use it to make an ad for him.”
He adds: “They haven’t made one yet, so we made one for them.”
Rick Hasen: “By the time President Donald Trump runs for reelection in 2020, he might be able to accept unlimited campaign contributions to support his bid, thanks to his nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. Documents released ahead of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings this week that date from his time in George W. Bush’s White House reveal that the judge just might be ready to strike down what’s left of federal law limiting contributions to candidates, as a First Amendment violation. There are two cases heading to the Supreme Court that would allow him to do just that.”
“I don’t care about my legacy. I’ll be dead.”
— Rudy Giuliani, in an interview with the New Yorker.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) rebuked President Trump’s latest attack against the Department of Justice for pursuing criminal charges against two Republican congressmen, The Hill reports.
Said Sasse: “The United States is not some banana republic with a two-tiered system of justice – one for the majority party and one for the minority party.”
He added: “These two men have been charged with crimes because of evidence, not because of who the President was when the investigations began. Instead of commenting on ongoing investigations and prosecutions, the job of the President of the United States is to defend the Constitution and protect the impartial administration of justice.”
Politico: “Monday’s parade kicked off what will be an intense, nine-week stretch of campaigning for Democratic candidates in the midterms, but also an extended gut check of whether the country has an appetite for another Biden run—and for him to decide if he has the appetite to make one.”
“But here, in a part of the country that helped tip the 2016 election to Donald Trump but has since delivered Democrats their only House special election win, this is what a potential 2020 bid would look like: classic retail campaigning in parts of the country where Democrats have atrophied and which Hillary Clinton wrote off. When he was finished marching, Biden huddled with union head United Steelworkers president Leo Girard. There was even a videographer on the payroll catching every interaction, and a young man from the Republican attack group America Rising following along with his own camera, mumbling questions and then remarking with staged wonder into the camera that Biden wouldn’t answer them.”
President Trump stepped up his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, suggesting the Department of Justice put Republicans in midterm jeopardy with recent indictments of two GOP congressmen, the AP reports.
In his latest broadside against the Justice Department’s traditional independence, Trump tweeted that “Obama era investigations, of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publicized charge, just ahead of the Mid-Terms, by the Jeff Sessions Justice Department.”
He added: “Two easy wins now in doubt because there is not enough time. Good job Jeff…”
Axios: “This sets up a bigger crisis than we might have imagined if, as expected, he eventually fires Sessions. How do you find a replacement A.G. who is both confirmable and the modern incarnation of Roy Cohn that Trump openly yearns for?”
“I should only be so lucky.”
— President Trump, on Twitter, responding to former Secretary of State John Kerry not ruling out another presidential bid.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) lit into President Trump calling him a “pathological liar” who “works night and day on behalf of his fellow billionaires,” Politico reports.
Added Sanders: “And most reprehensible, we have a president who is not doing what almost every president in American history has done: When you make it into the Oval Office, you understand you’ve got a sacred responsibility to bring the American people together. Today we have a president who for cheap political reasons is trying to divide us up.”
Rudy Giuliani told the New Yorker that President Trump’s legal team may invoke executive privilege to prevent special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report from being released to the public.
Said Giuliani: “I’m sure we will.”
“Stay in the room, demand answers and keep pointing out that they have not given the material that was expected to the committee.”
— Former Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by MSNBC, on how Democrats should handle the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Dan Balz: “The first key is to protect all or virtually all those vulnerable incumbents. Bruce Mehlman, who worked in the Bush White House, suggests that’s not out of the question. He did a study looking at 333 Senate races in 10 midterm elections dating back to 1978. He concluded that what matters most ‘is not being from the party that holds the White House, regardless of a state’s partisan lean.'”
“If Democrats manage to protect their incumbents, they only have to win two more seats. Prospects are considered best — but not certain — in Nevada and Arizona, followed by Tennessee. A long shot is Texas, where Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke has captured the imaginations of Democrats like no other candidate this year. He is giving Republican Sen. Ted Cruz a strong challenge but is still the underdog.”
This looks very good: The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics by Dan Kaufman.
NPR: “Yes, Obama had won there twice, but his wins stood in stark contrast to what was going on in the state during his years in office — a drastic rightward shift in the state’s power arrangements from the top statewide jobs to the local precinct level. Second, Kaufman argues that what’s been happening in Wisconsin has historical significance because it made the state a model for conservative activists who, with corporate backing, were remarkably successful in reversing the state’s deeper tradition of progressive populism that dates from the 1800s.”
“Democrats are expressing alarm over the Trump White House decision to claim executive privilege and withhold some 100,000 pages of documents from Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s time with the George W. Bush administration,” ABC News reports.
“More than 400,000 other pages have been handed over to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Democrats say the withheld documents would give details and color to Kavanaugh’s time as White House Counsel in the Bush White House — when he was involved in some of its most controversial decisions and judicial nominations.”
“It’s a time Democrats say is key in giving context to his time as a partisan Republican.”
“Heading into the midterm elections, the most volatile candidate this year isn’t on the ballot,” CBS News reports.
“But President Trump still loves to take his freewheeling political stylings on the road on behalf of his fellow Republicans and he’s raring to go for the sprint to Nov. 6.”
“His eagerness to campaign for candidates — and protect his political flank — has led Republican officials and Mr. Trump’s political team to devise a strategy for managing the president’s time. It’s designed to keep him in places where he can be helpful. They’re also determined to try to manage his unpredictability so the party’s strongest asset in turning out core GOP voters doesn’t end up doing damage instead.”
“There’s a constant effort to keep him on best behavior.”
Mike Allen: “Like the quiet planning by presidential candidates for their hoped-for transition to office, House Democrats are already choreographing their opening moves if — as looks likely — they get the gavel back in the midterm elections.”
“The strategy is being driven by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the likely speaker if her party regains the majority. The first three legislative packages will cover health-care costs, $1 trillion in federal infrastructure investment, and ethics and lobbying reform.”
“Democrats are playing down talk of impeachment. But depending on the contents of Robert Mueller’s report, that could well become a transcendent issue for the new Congress. Democratic leaders have been clear that impeachment isn’t happening unless it’s bipartisan — that Mueller’s findings are definitive, and Republicans voice support for the i-word.”
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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