Morning Thread

It's morning in America!

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Virginia Results

Find them here. And a bunch of other results of interest!

Happy Hour Thread

Apologizing for my bad blog post that ruined Terry Mac's election chances.

Excellent Lawyering

A special master's report has been made public in the Rudy Giuliani and Victorian Toensing privilege case.

According to the report, Giuliani only asserted privilege as to *three* of the 2,226 files. The special master reserved decision on those files and released 2,223 to feds. pic.twitter.com/iiv34VeO6y

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 2, 2021

If you're gonna claim bogus privilege, might as well go for it. Ah well.

Takes From 2004

Not picking on Greg, but "we" screamed this for years and largely gave up. A broader messaging apparatus can't be controlled and the Dems hate anything they can't control. Go out on any limb and they'll saw it off as quickly as they can.

But this duplicity has benefited from a hidden assist. For months, Youngkin and his allies have pumped that raw right-wing sewage directly into the minds of the GOP base, behind the backs of moderate swing voters, via a right-wing media network that has no rival on the Democratic side.

Democrats will have to reckon with this. Whether Democrat Terry McAuliffe wins or loses — it will be very close either way — this race highlights this lopsided communications imbalance with unique clarity.

Various attempts in The Blog Era always ended up going into somebody's failson's pocket with little to show for it. The Blog Era is over but the challenge is the same as it was.

Afternoon Thread

Somehow skipped lunch.

Do Clap Popular Clap Things Clap

Paid family and medical leave for new parents:
Support 70%
Oppose 20%
.
Allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices:
Support 72%
Oppose 15%
.
Adding dental and vision benefits to Medicare:
Support 82%
Oppose 11%

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) November 2, 2021

(narrator: they are not going to do them)

Power

It's vogue to focus on the supposedly ridiculous actions of elite college student councils, the electorally unhelpful slogans of protesters, the overly woke orientation programs of corporate HR, and of course the people who call me a shithead on twitter, but I humbly suggest that the president and the controlling party of Congress have a wee bit more power than those people over both policy and communications and perhaps should generally be our focus.

Gangs

You might remember the various Senate "Gangs of 8 (or 6 or 10 or whatever)" that popped up occasionally, when the "moderates" who are at best stupid and generally quite corrupt decide that only they can Save The World. They spend weeks having closed door meetings, occasionally meeting for photo shoots, after which they tell the political journalists who live for that stuff just how much they love smelling each other's farts, the very best farts America has to offer. Impossible to find groups of people with more self-regard, quite convinced that their bit of substanceless theater has entranced the people of America.

The Manchin show has been like that, except just Manchin. 

The Politics Show

We all experience in different ways, of course, but some of it filters out to everybody, even mostly nonpolitical people. Months of the Manchin show is not a good show! No one has the science of irregular and swing voters down, but there's no one who has enjoyed this particular clown show.

Of course I want good policy to pass, but from a purely cynical how-to-win-the-next-election perspective (also important!), it's the shitty show that matters more than the subtance of moving target policies.

Tell your senators to shut the fuck up, is what I'm saying.

Tuesday

Morning. Lose in Virgina and it's Jayapal's fault, win in Virginia and it's the result of the genius consultants who ran the campaign. They'll deserve a raise!

Monday Night

Rock on.

Seems Like A Bad Idea

Doesn't seem like a good idea to pass that one bill without the other one! But who am I to question my betters?

Rep Ro Khanna on CNN says progressives are ready to vote for both bills this week despite Manchin’s remarks today. He says they’ll take the leap of faith because Biden has assured them he can deliver the Senate on the Dem spending bill

— Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) November 1, 2021

Happy Hour Thread

HAPPY!!!

Selling Out

Hah, not me, no one's offering.

Still I get (no this is not about ME, jokes aside) how people toil away in dogooder nonprofits, or as Congressional staffers for The Good Ones, or in executive agencies, and see all the worst people thwarting good things and getting rewarded for it, having your idealism be crushed, and just saying, "ah, fuck it, I'm the sucker here. Time to cash out."

I Shit On Your Efforts

It's my job, yes, but I'm still annoyed that I "have to" pay attention to this type of bullshit. Manchin's wasting my time, too!

Preening senators trying to be the heroes of their own stories, and cable news playing along, is not what "politics" should be. It shouldn't be some stupid cable news drama, and if anyone is wondering why Biden's poll numbers are slipping, it actually isn't because they've failed to pass the bills, it's because people have been listening to this stupid show for months now and they're annoyed and bored by it. The babble of useless assholes is all they hear.

Manchin just dumped all over it, again. Good, I guess, as it hopefully prevents the Charlie Browns in the House from running to kick the football.

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Jayapal: "We now feel like we have what we need. We are taking the president's word at the fact that he believes he can get 50 votes in the Senate. And I hope that the two senators that we've been waiting on these months ... understand that this is a leap of faith."

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 1, 2021

Hope to be wrong, but suspect this is what we will see soon.

America's Worst Reporters

Jeremy Peters.

The World Is Flat

I’m now reporting from Edinburgh in Scotland where 20,000 world leaders and delegates have gathered for the COP26 Climate Summit. COP, by the way, stands for “Conference of the Parties.” It’s the 26th time they have gathered to discuss and take action on this critical issue. pic.twitter.com/BGTAeU5cBy

— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) November 1, 2021

(COP26 is in Glasgow.)

(Dana Delany and Andy Richter)