Friday Talking Points -- History In The Making

[ChrisWeigant]

History was made this week, as Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black woman ever confirmed to a seat on the Supreme Court. It's rare that such a milestone is reached, and it is unquestionably worth celebrating when it does finally happen. Especially since the first Black woman ever to become vice president was the one presiding over the Senate as it cast this historic vote.

In unrelated news, the nation's first Black president visited the White House this week for the first time in five years to give a speech at a signing ceremony for an executive order which will close a loophole in the Affordable Care Act. This will provide access to health insurance for more than one million Americans, so it is also well worth celebrating.

Congress even actually managed to do something this week, too (right before disappearing for yet another multi-week vacation), as the Senate unanimously passed two bills sanctioning Russia for its brutal invasion of Ukraine which are now heading to President Joe Biden's desk. For all the talk from Republicans about Biden somehow "moving too slowly" on aid to Ukraine, it's worth noting that this is the first time Congress has gotten its act together on the crisis since before it began. All previous attempts to legislate any sanctions or aid at all have failed, due to Republican resistance.

And in a little-noticed highpoint to the week, a Republican governor spoke to the lighthearted Gridiron Club dinner and called Donald Trump "crazy." Well, he actually went a bit further than that (note: emphasis and substitution with dashes are both in original):

[New Hampshire Governor Chris] Sununu set up his joke at the Gridiron dinner by citing the possibility that Trump would return to the presidency after the 2024 election. He cited the "experience," "passion" and "sense of integrity" [Donald] Trump demonstrated in his tweets.

"Nah, I'm just kidding," Sununu said. "He's f---ing crazy."

Sununu added: "The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And I'll say it this way: I don't think he's so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain't getting out."

Sununu was the featured Republican jokester at the event, while Representative Jamie Raskin spoke for Democrats. Raskin began with: "That was a total riot, by which I mean a normal tourist visit. I haven't heard a Republican use the f-word that much since the Nixon administration."

Meanwhile, it is becoming more and more evident that Trump's new social media network "Truth Social" is going down in flames. Executives are fleeing the sinking ship like the rats they are, but so far Devin Nunes has stuck around to supervise the miserable failure.

In other Trumpian news, both Jared and Ivanka have now testified before the January 6th committee.

So all in all, a pretty good week all around!

The Senate confirmation vote for Jackson was actually surprisingly bipartisan, with three Republicans (Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney) joining with all the Democrats in making history. Of course, some Republicans were not happy about this at all, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted in disgust:

Murkowski, Collins, and Romney are pro-pedophile.

They just voted for #KBJ.

Now, you'd think that would almost automatically win the "stupidest and most vile thing a Republican said all week" award, but she had plenty of competition this week. Like this gem from Lauren Boebert:

Next year, the woke Disney lobbyists will ask Congress to extend Micky [sic] Mouse's trademark.

I think not.

Of course, many chimed in to point out that there's a whole song that just about everybody knows by heart that teaches exactly how to spell Mickey's name correctly, but the real facepalm part of Boebert's comment is that she was quite likely talking about Mickey's copyright, not his trademark. And the obvious fact that Republicans have now completely gotten on board with the idea of "using government power to punish corporations for exercising their free speech rights," which is just downright bizarre when you consider how hard the GOP fought to create this right in the first place. Free speech for corporations (and lots of campaign donations from them, of course) is fine and good, as long as they agree with you -- but woe to those corporations who don't. And, proving for the umpteenth time that pretty much anything the Republicans ever accuse Democrats of is nothing more than pure projection, what Boebert is obviously rooting for is to "cancel" Mickey Mouse. Or "Micky"... whatever....

Then there was this, from Representative Lisa McClain, who has only served 14 months and has already developed the ability to just shamelessly lie, straight through her teeth. As a warmup speaker at a Trump rally, she told the whopper that Osama Bin Laden was killed while Donald Trump was president (it was actually Barack Obama), and spewed this jaw-dropping falsehood as well: "We went from an economy that was booming to a shambles. What we have now is a shambles. It's a complete mess. Unemployment? Forty-year high." Um, no. It's the opposite, in fact -- unemployment is approaching an all-time low.

Greene had to up her game, obviously, which she did with this other entry for the stupidest thing a Republican did or said this week. We find that we cannot improve upon the level of snark in the Daily Beast report about it, so here you go:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) downplayed the violence at the Capitol, voted against awarding congressional medals to Capitol Police officers injured in the insurrection, and ranted that the agency is like the "gazpacho" (presumably a reference to Nazi Germany's Gestapo). But now she wants to them to devote resources to investigating comedian Jimmy Kimmel's joke that Will Smith should slap her. "[T]his threat of violence against me by @jimmykimmel has been filed with the @CapitolPolice," she tweeted Wednesday. Greene has, among other things, harassed a school shooting survivor, posted a mock-up pic of her holding a machine gun near lawmakers' heads, and liked a Facebook post about executing Democrats.

Maybe we should just start calling it the "Utterly Shameless GOP Award," for brevity's sake. Or, in this last case, maybe the "GOP Snowflake Award"?

Let's see, what else has been going on? Top Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino were both held in contempt by the House of Representatives and referred to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution, adding their names to the list of those who feel they have some sort of right to just blatantly ignore subpoenas (spoiler: they don't).

But we're in such a good mood this week that we think we'll end it by noting that there was some "fox news" from the U.S. Capitol this week, as an actual fox was finally caught who had been aggressively biting people for days. Upon testing the fox was discovered to be rabid and had to be put down. [Readers should feel free to make their own comparisons with the capitalized version of that phrase which appeared in quotes. Ahem.]





Since (as we have previously noted) Ketanji Brown Jackson is supposed to be apolitical, we cannot in good conscience give her an award with "Democrat" in the title. We could give the nod to Joe Biden for nominating her or for Barack Obama for finally appearing at the White House again, but this week we've got something better.

Two Democrats this week, speaking from their respective chambers of Congress, showed how Democrats should be painting the Republican Party in general, and individual members in particular.

The first came from Representative Jamie Raskin, but we're going to save the actual content of what he said for the talking points section, so we'll just hand him an Honorable Mention and move on.

The second is the hands-down winner of the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week, Senator Brian Schatz of Hawai'i. He spoke during the debate over the two anti-Russia measures (which both eventually passed unanimously), and he absolutely dismantled the supposed opposition to the idea of sanctioning Russia which came from Senator Josh Hawley. The entire video is well worth watching, even though it is over two minutes long.

For those who don't have the time, here is the full text of what Schatz had to say:

So, what Senator [Josh] Hawley wants is to go through his litany of criticisms of the Biden administration, and the truth is that every senator has that right without blocking the logistics guy from the Department of Defense. He could've brought his floor charts out here and given a withering speech about all of the things he thought went wrong.

But he's doing a very specific thing. He is damaging the Department of Defense. We have senior D.o.D. leaders, we have the Armed Services Committee coming to us and saying, "I don't know what to tell him, I don't know how to satisfy him, but he is blocking the staffing of the senior leadership at the Department of Defense."

And this comes from a guy who raised his fist in solidarity with the insurrectionists. And this comes from a guy who, before the Russian invasion, suggested that maybe it would be wise for Zelenskyy to make a few concessions about Ukraine and their willingness to join NATO. This comes from a guy who just about a month ago voted against Ukraine aid! He's saying it's going too slow. He voted "no"! He voted "no" on Ukraine aid and now he has the gall to say it's going too slow!

And this final insult is that until, what, Secretary [Lloyd] Austin resigns? That's not a serious request. People used to come to me during the Trump administration all the time. "Do you think Trump should resign? Do you think Tillerson should resign?"

That's a stupid -- "Of course I think all the people I disagree should quit their jobs and be replaced with people I love. Of course I think they should all resign." That's not how this world works. That is not a reasonable request from a United States senator that "Until the secretary of defense quits his job, I'm going to block all of his nominees." That's preposterous!

And coming from a person who exonerated Donald Trump for extorting Zelenskyy for withholding lethal aid? They withheld lethal aid until, unless Zelenskyy would release false smears against Joe Biden's son. And then he voted to exonerate President Trump for this. And so spare me the new solidarity with the Ukrainians and with the free world because this man's record is exactly the opposite.

I yield the floor.

When interviewed later, Schatz described what the writer called the "loudness gap" between how the two parties manage to get their messages out to the people:

"Democrats need to make more noise," Sen. Brian Schatz told me. "We have to scream from the rooftops, because this is a battle for the free world now."

. . .

Schatz, for his part, points to some vexing complications. Biden was elected president in part to turn down the volume in our politics, and surely moderate voters want this. But one side hasn't gone along.

"The central selling proposition for a lot of moderate voters was that they could put Biden in place and then stop worrying about politics," Schatz told me. Yet the noise from "the MAGA movement continues to grow."

This obliges Democrats to raise the noise level themselves, Schatz continued, particularly when occasions such as this Hawley moment present themselves.

"Voters who pay a normal amount of attention to our politics take their cues from elected officials as to how outrageous something is," Schatz told me. "If we don't seem particularly perturbed," he continued, then they'll assume that a given standoff or situation is "no big deal."

He's right. Democrats need to rediscover the power of righteous indignation and shout it from the rooftops much more often and effectively than they have so far managed to do.

We're with Schatz: let's close the loudness gap. The media is just never going to address this stuff unless you draw their attention to it in dramatic fashion. Which Schatz did, admirably well. Which is why he's our easy choice this week for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week.

[Congratulate Senator Brian Schatz on his Senate contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]





We were all prepared to hand the Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week to Andrew Cuomo this week, but as it turns out he did not actually file the necessary paperwork to throw his hat into the ring in the Democratic primary for governor (his old job), so we are left without anyone to give the award to.

No other Democrat massively disappointed us this week, so we're putting the award back on the shelf until next week, unless (as usual) someone's got a nomination to suggest in the comments.




Volume 657 (4/8/22)

Our talking points are fairly negative this week, perhaps to counterbalance the positive nature of the rest of this column. Enjoy responsibly, and we'll try to be a bit more upbeat next week, we promise.



History calls, only three Republicans answer

Obviously, this is the biggest political news of the week.

"I am proud and pleased to see the first Black woman successfully confirmed to the highest court in the land, as are tens of millions of my fellow Americans. We made history this week, smashed a glass ceiling, and Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to make the Supreme Court a lot more representative of what America truly looks like. The Republican Party -- what was once a very long time ago the 'Party of Lincoln' -- fought this nomination tooth and nail, however. When history called, only three Republican senators answered. The other 47 are now on the record on the wrong side of history, plain and simple. The attacks against her nomination sunk to a new low and were both scurrilous and completely unjustified. She weathered this storm with poise and composure, which are exactly the qualities I would like to see more of on the high court. I just hope that a day comes when the Republican Party realizes what a huge mistake it made this week by standing firmly against progress and against Black women, but I'm not exactly going to hold my breath waiting for it, if you know what I mean."



The Trump-Putin axis

This is where we return to the aforementioned Jamie Raskin.

"While Jamie Raskin was speaking in support of legislation to punish Russia for its inhuman invasion of Ukraine, he was actually heckled by (you guessed it) Marjorie Taylor Greene. His response was, and I quote:"

The gentlelady said something about the Russian hoax -- I accept the heckling, Mr. Speaker. If she wants to continue to stand with Vladimir Putin and his brutal, bloody invasion against the people of Ukraine, she is free to do so, and we understand there is a strong Trump-Putin axis in the gentlelady's party.

"He's right. That's exactly what it is -- a Trump-Putin axis. And it has infected the Republican Party to an alarming degree. This week a nonbinding resolution was passed by the House stating America's support for both NATO and for democracy. An astounding 63 Republicans voted against it. This should be shocking, but these days -- sadly -- it is not. It is just another indication of the moral decay which has infected the GOP right down to its very core. The Trump-Putin axis within the Republican Party is wrong, it is frightening, and it is downright dangerous, period."



Fraud, fear, and fascism

Raskin wasn't the only one coming up with brilliant snappy slogans this week.

"Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison had a different way of putting it this week, one that also gets right to the heart of the matter. He condemned the Republican Party as a whole by stating: 'It is a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism.' That sounds like overblown rhetoric or hyperbole, but upon examination it is neither. It is the honest truth, these days. Republicans not only believe that anything they can do to grab or retain political power is fair game, but that when they do get such power they should begin exercising it by punishing their political enemies to the absolute maximum. The way to tell whether their party's leader is lying is to note whether his lips are moving or not. They have doubled down on the Big Lie that caused the January 6th insurrection. They are absolutely shameless in proclaiming up is down and that their emperor's new clothes are gorgeous, instead of non-existent. The entire substance of their campaign strategy is to whip up fear over non-existent boogiemen they use to scare the voters. So Harrison is right -- the Republican Party these days is built entirely upon fraud, fear, and fascism, and nobody should be shy in calling it out."



No moral redlines at all

They'll even prove it, if you listen closely.

"Mitch McConnell was interviewed this week and asked point-blank where his moral redlines were. He had no answer. None. He was prompted to explain how he could reconcile denouncing Donald Trump's 'disgraceful dereliction of duty' on January 6th and stating baldly that Trump was 'practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day' with now being able to support him if he becomes the 2024 nominee of his party. Again, McConnell had no answer to this at all. There it is in plain language, folks -- McConnell and far too many of his fellow Republicans will put party over country in a heartbeat. Nothing matters to them but gaining political power. There simply are no Republican moral redlines left -- anything goes, as long as it is coming from a fellow Republican. This is so disgraceful and disgusting it is hard to even find the words to describe such spinelessness and ruthlessness, but that's what the leader of the Senate GOP just flat-out admitted."



More voting fraud found!

When it comes to projection, this one just seems to keep popping back up over and over again.

"The Republican Party is convinced that if they just look hard enough, somehow they'll find a widespread conspiracy to commit massive voter fraud. Well, of course the 'massive' part just doesn't exist, but what's interesting to me is that as more individual cases of voter fraud appear, all of them seem to be committed by Republican voters. And not just anonymous voters either, but ones very close to the Republican leadership. A few weeks ago it was revealed that Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, is under investigation for committing fraud by registering to vote in North Carolina when he had no residence there at all. This week we find that another former Trump administration official voted twice in the 2016 primary -- in two different states! At the time, he was Chris Christie's campaign director, so it's pretty hard to argue he didn't understand the voting laws. He's now running for a House seat, because no Republican is ever going to denounce any actual voter fraud coming from within their own party -- they're too busy looking for some non-existent grand conspiracy by Democrats. Whenever Republicans loudly accuse Democrats of anything underhanded, it's a pretty sure bet it's nothing more than projection, because they feel so guilty about stuff they themselves are wantonly doing."



Speaking of projection...

This one is ugly and brutal -- but Democrats certainly weren't the ones who opened this can of worms, so it has to be seen as fair game at this point.

"In the Supreme Court hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson, the phrase 'child porn' was used a total of 165 times. Also mentioned repeatedly were 'pedophile' and 'predators' and 'prepubescent.' Contrast that to the sentence handed down this week to a former Republican National Committee aide and GOP staffer who admitted to being part of a child porn trading ring, possessing over 150 child porn videos, both receiving and distributing such images, seeking out images of the rape of children (some as young as babies), and fantasizing online about killing children while abusing them. He will spend the next twelve-and-a-half years in prison -- a sentence handed down by a judge appointed by a Democrat. So maybe if Republicans are obsessed with jailing kiddie porn criminals, perhaps they should clean their own house first."



Hard to imagine...

Speaking of unspeakable images...

"This week, Ted Cruz spoke about an upcoming appearance he will be making at Yale University. At first he seemed to suggest that the university would require him to be in a 'smoking jacket with maybe a Sherlock Holmes pipe and maybe some Madeira,' but then he mused about what he really envisioned: 'Or, I don't know, has it gone more hippie than that? Like, nude and taking peyote or something?' Trust us, Ted, nobody wants to see that. In fact there are many who are already convinced you are the personification of a bad acid trip -- so please, for everyone's sake, keep away from the psychedelics and keep your damn clothes on. Please!"




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
Follow Chris on Twitter: ChrisWeigant
Full archives of FTP columns: FridayTalkingPoints.com

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Thanks for posting on DU, Chris!

Your "news->opinion pieces" are spot on....as far as my 69YO brain can absorb and process information.

Question to you.

Was distressed and saddened to read about Eric Boehlert's tragic death. We all lost a voice of reason when it was needed most.

So, I got to thinking. - Is there a clearing house of authors that I can support.....say, I have $500.00 to spend on multiple writers,,,,,is there an Act Blue type aggregator site where I could look at a menu of excellent choices and invest in, say 5 or 10 people, whose opinion I value? Not a news org or company, per se, but a peer group of intelligent authors under one marketplace.

Someone should make this a reality. Maybe Act Blue?

[ChrisWeigant]

2. thanks... and "I'm not sure"...

Thanks for the kind words!

I'm not sure if what you're looking for actually exists or not, but I agree with you that maybe it should. I do take donations on my page (use "donations" in the top menu or click the little icon on the right side), but I have no idea if there is a clearinghouse of like-minded independent writers or not, sorry.

In any case, thanks again for the compliments! I too will miss Eric Boehlert, he was indeed a voice of reason in a chaotic world.

-CW