Daily Kos

• Today's comic by Mark Fiore is The saint of small type:
  
  
• What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...
  

  • How could a man who loved me so much want to kill me, by Susan Grigsby
  • Too much of a good thing, by DarkSyde
  • From North Carolina to Mississippi to the U.S. Senate: Hiram R. Revels, the first black senator, by Denise Oliver Velez
  • Did we lose the War on Terror on 9/11, by Mark E Andersen
  • Late uproar over CEO Martin Shkreli extortion for old drug show why alternative media needed, by Egberto Willies
  • Jeb! flat wrong on 'creeping multiculturalism.' Today's immigrants are integrating as fast as ever, by Ian Reifowitz
  • Sanders wants to eliminate private prisons - big, but still not enough, by Josie Duffy

• This must be making Republicans sad:
  

  The world’s largest economy expanded more than previously forecast in the second quarter, boosted by gains in consumer spending and construction that may help the U.S. withstand a global slowdown.

  Gross domestic product rose at a 3.9 percent annualized rate, compared with a prior estimate of 3.7 percent, Commerce Department figures showed Friday in Washington.

• That Bill Cosby still had 'em to be taken away is appalling:
  

  In the latest setback over his sex assault allegations, a pair of colleges have rescinded honorary degrees awarded to him years ago.

  Fordham University in New York and Marquette University in Wisconsin announced Thursday they had pulled the degrees given to the comedian to honor him.

• In case you were wondering:

  The panda born last month at the Washington Zoo is named Bei Bei, FLOTUS and Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan announce.

  — Byron Tau (@ByronTau) September 25, 2015

• On today's Kagro in the Morning show: There we were, talking Peak Trump & Rubio's Rise, when John Boehner resigned! Next, we find religious tests are everywhere, a Maine mayor has a plan to shame takers (but only poor ones), and even a guy too crazy for the Oath Keepers.
  
  Find us on iTunes | Find us on Stitcher | RSS | Donate to support the show!
• According to a study that will appear in the Loyola University of New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law, if you want to avoid the death penalty, don't murder a white person. The study, which focuses on Louisiana has some serious statistics. Team Blackness also discussed Michael B. Jordan's controversial comments and shady actions after turning of their dash cam from some Chicago cops.
  
  

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Next Monday afternoon, the Senate will vote on a "clean" stop-gap funding bill to keep government operating after October 1, a funding bill that includes Planned Parenthood money. Provided Mitch McConnell can keep presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and Rand Paul bottled up, that bill should pass the Senate.

Then House Speaker John Boehner has to get to work on it, which is now complicated by his impending resignation. Thursday night, prior to his shocking announcement Friday morning, leadership cobbled together a plan—promising that they'll get a Planned Parenthood defunding bill on President Obama's desk to veto by using reconciliation, the budget tool that only requires 51 Senate votes. Now he just has to sell it, a matter that will be confused by his departure.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., emerged from Boehner’s office Thursday afternoon insisting Republicans would lose close to 50 votes on any bill that doesn’t strip funding for the embattled women’s health organization, meaning leaders would have to rely on Democrats to keep government open beyond Sept. 30, when current funding expires. […]

An aide with GOP leadership said Boehner and other leaders are committed to “making sure we advance the pro-life cause,” “significantly ramping up our oversight and investigative activities” and “sending more pro-life measures to the Senate and urging [senators] to vote on them.”

Accordingly, markups of a reconciliation bill in the House committees of jurisdiction would begin next week, senior Republican aides confirmed to CQ Roll Call.

Leadership also said there would be a vote on a separate bill next week that would allow states to exclude providers that perform abortions, such as Planned Parenthood, from Medicaid contracts.

Now that's all a little bit up in the air. But since he is staying until October 30, this plan should still be in place, since they've only got a few days to work all this out. Boehner's leaving also gives him all the room he needs to negotiate with Democrats to get a clean funding bill passed and to leave the hard-liners in the dust. But that's going to partly depend on who in the leadership team is angling to replace him and whether they think they need the hardliners.

Aside from all the palace drama, this does clarify what this is really about—taking health care away from low-income women. It's also pretty clear that no matter what Boehner does, he's going to have those 50 or so Republicans who want nothing less than a shutdown and a more direct confrontation with President Obama. They are being whipped by Heritage Action against what they say is a "show vote," since Obama would just veto it. Shut down, they contend, is the only way to make this happen. With or without Boehner, that's been their position all along.

Which is all depressingly familiar if you followed the lead up to the October 2013 shutdown. In the words of the immortal, recently passed Yogi Bera, it's deja vu all over again.

Sign if you agree: Democrats must stand strong. No cuts to Planned Parenthood. No government shutdowns.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by David Nir So yeah, that happened—John Boehner's resigning. He's the first speaker of the House to depart mid-term since Newt Gingrich successfully stoked the book-buying "scandal" that forced out Democrat Jim Wright in 1989, and the first ever, we believe, to quit mid-term for no reason other than to work on his golf game. While about 85 percent of the commentary so far has been just "holy #*$%!," and most of the balance has focused on what will happen in the ranks of the House GOP leadership, there's a tiny sliver of folks interested in the electoral ramifications of Boehner's arrivederci maneuver. If you are, too, then you're one of us.

Unfortunately for special election fans, Boehner's congressional district—Ohio's 8th, tucked into the southwestern corner of the state along the border with Indiana, just north of Cincinnati—is safely Republican, having gone for Mitt Romney by a 62-36 margin in 2012. But that means we could see a competitive, perhaps even explosive, intra-GOP battle to succeed The Great Orange One. Indeed, according to Roll Call's Emily Cahn, that primary would likely coincide with next year's presidential primary, so turnout should be a lot higher than usual.

Cahn (one of the best Great Mentioners in the business) also suggests a bunch of potential candidates: state Senate President Keith Faber (OH); state Sens. Bill Coley (OH), Chris Widener (WA), and Bill Beagle (OH); former state Sen. Gary Cates; and Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones. USA Today's Gregory Korte cites unspecified "buzz" that Faber could "inherit" Boehner's seat, and it's certainly possible the establishment could rally around a single candidate and freeze out any insurgents (as we recently saw in IL-18). That would be quite the ironic legacy for a guy who was ground down so bitterly by angry outsiders.

Speaking of pissed-off people, Nathan Gonzales adds one interesting name to the pile, ex-Rep. Steve Austria. Austria was a member of the class of 2008 who found himself without a chair when the music stopped following redistricting: Boehner, in fact, deliberately sacrificed Austria's seat to create a Democratic vote sink in Columbus, thereby protecting the rest of Ohio's Republican delegation. If Austria's still smarting, he'd have an avenue to try to seek redemption, since about 19 percent of Boehner's seat was carved out of Austria's old district.

So far no one's offered any comments on the record—everyone's probably still in shock at the news. But democracy marches forward, with or without John Boehner!

No one was happier than Ted Cruz at the news of John Boehner's demise. He stopped just short of praising Jesus Friday while speaking at the Values Voters summit.

"You want to know how much each of you terrify Washington?" Mr Cruz asked the audience of grassroots evangelical conservative at this annual conference. "Yesterday, John Boehner was Speaker of the House. Y'all come to town and somehow that changes."

"My only request," he quipped, "is, can you come more often?"

Here's a few other reactions from the GOP.

Marco Rubio: You're history, John John.

"Just a few minutes ago Speaker Boehner announced that he will be resigning.  And with all due respect to people that serve in government – it is important at this moment with respect to him and the service that he’s provided to our country – it’s not about him or anybody else. And I’m not here today to bash anyone. But the time has come to turn the page. The time has come to turn the page and allow a new generation of leadership in this country."

Jeb! Bush: It was God's plan.

“John Boehner dedicated his life to public service. Bringing the Holy Father to Congress was a fitting cap to a great career.”

Chris Christie: Meh.

"I admire @SpeakerBoehner for his dedication and service to this country. He’s a good man and I wish him well."

After bailing earlier Friday morning, soon-to-be former Speaker of the House John Boehner will be speaking to the press shortly. Follow his remarks here.

For more on his shocking announcement, see here, here, here and here.

10:08 AM PT: Boehner opens by singing "My, oh my, what a wonderful day," and then starts a laundry list of Republican accomplishments (pause to laugh).

10:10 AM PT: Reiterates that he originally planned to only serve two terms as speaker, but Eric Cantor's primary loss changed his mind. Says he then planned to leave at end of year, but "it's become clear" that the long fight over his speakership would do "irreparable harm."

10:10 AM PT: Says he woke up this morning and decided "Today's the day I'm going to do this. Simple as that."

10:12 AM PT: So far, no tears.

10:13 AM PT: While acknowledging that he was emotional yesterday, he said the pope's visit didn't bring about his decision. (Now getting choked up, talking about pope-moment ... okay, actual tears now.)

10:15 AM PT: Says the "turmoil"—about efforts to oust him—was just bad for the party, but that he had plenty of people who were still following him and he's proud of what he's accomplished. Says there is still a lot of work to be done and says impending retirement won't change his decision-making process.

10:19 AM PT: Describes the Republican conference's reaction as "shocked." Said he had to tell Kevin McCarthy five times before he believed him. Says he thinks McCarthy would be an excellent speaker. Also notes that his wife's reaction was to say "good."

10:21 AM PT: On how the new speaker could avoid future pitfalls: to "respect the institution ... do the right thing." No word on how that will help future speaker avoid said pitfalls.

10:25 AM PT: Finishes up by saying he's resigning for the right reasons, sings a few bars of "I think we've established that a  lot of people don't know how to spell "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," and that was it.

Speaker John Boehner is resigning in large part because his House Republican caucus is in ungovernable disarray. Which means the leadership elections to replace him and whoever moves up to replace him should be enormous fun of the sort that depletes world popcorn stockpiles. One big move on that front is that House Majority Whip Steve Scalise reportedly plans to run for majority leader.

If you can't quite place the name Steve Scalise, I'll make it easy for you: He's the member of House Republican leadership who spoke to a David Duke-founded white supremacist group in 2002, and before and after that accumulated quite the record of racially suspect votes in the state legislature. Despite those revelations, he remained a member in good standing of Republican leadership, and now:

House staff members, who asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Scalise is preparing a run for majority leader.

That means likely candidates for House speaker are current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who has been leading a coalition of conservative members insisting that Boehner and other GOP leaders take a hard line on defunding Planned Parenthood, even it means a government shutdown.

It's too bad Scalise isn't really going for it by running for speaker, but still—a serious candidate for majority leader who used to bill himself as "David Duke without the baggage."

House Speaker John Boehner's shocking resignation on the cusp of a government shutdown leaves a great deal up in the air, starting with what happens to government on October 1.

Note that Boehner will remain in office until October 30, which means he will shepherd through whatever plan leadership has decided upon to get it done. At this point, he could leave the hard-liners in the dust and work with the rest of his conference and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and pass his clean stop-gap, short-term funding bill. He's taking the fall, then, and the subsequent speaker—early consensus says it will be Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy—isn't tainted. Except if it is McCarthy, he's part of the team that created this "show vote" that the problem children are so upset about. So it's not a given that we'll avoid a shutdown.

Then, if we do and Boehner leaves at the end of October, there's still a total shit show of shutdown and catastrophe possibilities: long-term funding, a long-term transportation bill, and the mac daddy—the debt ceiling. So what happens now in his leadership team will play out in how all of that comes down sometime probably in November. You'd like to think that he's thought all that through, but since he reportedly didn't even give advanced notice to McCarthy that he was resigning, I don't think you can count on him having thought that through.

There's also the possibility that it won't be so easy to decide on McCarthy as the next speaker and there will be a real food fight. Some of the most extreme of the extremists seem to think they've got the goods, so you could see continued splintering and ongoing drama there. If McCarthy has to make promises to quell that, expect there not to be a whole lot of change in how the House is being run.

And just a thought about the other side of the Hill. Ted Cruz has a scalp now, since it's been his ongoing machinations with the House hardliners that has led to this. So, Mitch McConnell, watch your back.

Twitter. Love it or hate it, it brings out the funniest in people at moments like this. Here are some our favorite reactions so far to the news that John Boehner is quitting as speaker of the House and resigning from Congress:

Prediction for new House leadership - the living will envy the dead

— Kyle Kondik (@kkondik) September 25, 2015

Boehner retirement & threat of him exiting Washington prompts DC-area bars to go into surge pricing

— David Dayen (@ddayen) September 25, 2015

Eric Cantor must be going out of his mind. #soclose

— James Pindell (@JamesPindell) September 25, 2015

Boehner's approval on our last national poll- 16/68. 26/58 even with Republicans: http://t.co/...

— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) September 25, 2015

Exclusive footage of Boehner after telling colleagues he was resigning. MUST CREDIT. pic.twitter.com/YbY5QCmamr

— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) September 25, 2015

Developing: House Republicans create job.

— Dave Stroup (@DaveStroup) September 25, 2015

Got some more good ones? Post 'em in comments in honor of His Departing High Orange One!

Jeb! Bush channeled Mitt Romney Thursday night in response to a question about how he plans to "include" black voters and "get them to vote for you." He could do it, he said (check out the video below the fold), because of his sterling record on school privatization and because:

"Our message is one of hope and aspiration," he said at the East Cooper Republican Women’s Club annual Shrimp Dinner. "It isn't one of division and get in line and we'll take care of you with free stuff. Our message is one that is uplifting -- that says you can achieve earned success."

Yeah ... I'm pretty sure that's a message that will work better with white Republicans than with African-American members of any party. Not because black voters want to be promised "free stuff," but because the implication is so insulting. Because the "free stuff" Bush is so dismissive of is the most basic duty of a society toward its struggling members. Because Republicans like Bush keep incomes low and then make low-income people pay in shame for the help they need. Because there's a little history here:

Jeb Bush plans win black votes by not offering us "free stuff" — you mean like the 246 years of uncompensated labor we gave you all?

— jelani cobb (@jelani9) September 25, 2015

Or by "free" were you referring to the federal housing subsidies that this country gave to whites for decades while excluding us entirely?

— jelani cobb (@jelani9) September 25, 2015

Back in 2012, Mitt Romney used the exact same words, saying "But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy—more free stuff." And both times, it was about posturing for rich white people who want their racism comfortably veiled, pretending to have a message of uplift while really having a message of keeping people down not with policies that don't look discriminatory on the face but are discriminatory in effect.

House Speaker John Boehner will speak shortly about his decision to leave Congress.

7:27 AM PT: If he ever shows up, you can watch a livestream here.

7:47 AM PT (Barbara Morrill): After a long wait, Boehner has left the building and will not be addressing reporters.

Whoa, and other expressions of stunned disbelief:

Speaker John A. Boehner will resign from Congress and give up his House seat at the end of October, according to aides in his office.

There was a lot of talk about a challenge to unseat Boehner as speaker, and widespread questions about whether he could survive that, but that he's resigning from Congress—and not at the end of this term but at the end of next month—is shocking news.

6:45 AM PT: Boehner's office issues a statement:

Speaker Boehner believes that the first job of any Speaker is to protect this institution and, as we saw yesterday with the Holy Father, it is the one thing that unites and inspires us all.

The Speaker's plan was to serve only through the end of last year. Leader Cantor's loss in his primary changed that calculation.

The Speaker believes putting members through prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable damage to the institution.

He is proud of what this majority has accomplished, and his Speakership, but for the good of the Republican Conference and the institution, he will resign the Speakership and his seat in Congress, effective October 30.

7:00 AM PT:

MASSIVE APPLAUSE -- still going on -- and standing ovation as Rubio announces Boehner's resignation at VVS

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) September 25, 2015

7:03 AM PT:

Boehner's approval on our last national poll- 16/68. 26/58 even with Republicans: http://t.co/...

— PublicPolicyPolling (@ppppolls) September 25, 2015

7:15 AM PT: Go here for a liveblog of Boehner's press conference on his resignation.

7:24 AM PT (David Nir): Unfortunately, John Boehner's congressional district (Ohio's 8th) is safely Republican—it went for Mitt Romney by a 62-36 margin in 2012. But hey, no matter what happens, at least we'll be rid of His High Orangeness.

8:13 AM PT (David Nir): Boehner's shocking resignation is bringing out the funny in a lot of folks. We're rounding up the best and funniest tweets here.

Reposted from Daily Kos Elections by Jeff Singer Leading Off:

• LA-Gov: While state Rep. John Bel Edwards looks like a longshot to win this fall's gubernatorial contest in dark red Louisiana, a new poll is arguing that he has what it takes to turn the governor's mansion blue. On behalf of Gumbo PAC, PPP takes a look at a hypothetical Nov. 21 runoff between Edwards and GOP Sen. David Vitter and gives Edwards a shockingly strong 50-38 lead. Vitter posts a horrible 34-51 favorable rating while Edwards is on positive ground at 35-27.

PPP also finds Edwards competitive against two other Republicans, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne and Public Service Commissioner Scott Angelle: Edwards is tied 40-40 with Angelle and trails Dardenne just 42-40. But according to this survey, a Vitter-Edwards runoff is the most likely outcome. In the Oct. 24 jungle primary, PPP sees Edwards and Vitter taking the first and second place spots with 28 and 27 percent of the vote respectively, while Angelle and Dardenne are far behind with 15 and 14 percent. Most other polls concur, showing Vitter and Edwards easily advancing to the runoff, but a few have seen Angelle within striking distance of denying one of them a spot in November.

An Edwards victory would be nothing short of miraculous: Louisiana booted three-term Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu 56-44 just last year, and Edwards hasn't been raising nearly as much money as any of his GOP foes. But as with any surprise poll, there are a lot of caveats. We haven't seen many runoff polls here in a long time, so there's not much to compare to. In fact, you have to go all the back to June to find such a survey, when Republican pollster MarblePort gave Vitter a 50-38 advantage on Edwards. Gumbo PAC markets itself as a non-partisan anti-Vitter group, but it's run by a former state Democratic Party executive director, so they have an incentive to show that Team Blue is still alive and kicking on the bayou.

One other problem for Edwards is that his positive image with voters is due to the fact that no one's bothered to attack him yet. Right now, Vitter is blasting his two Republican rivals and they've hit back, but the GOP has left Edwards alone. Team Red's contenders believe that they'll have a better shot in a runoff against Edwards than against a fellow Republican, so it's in their collective interest to leave Edwards be for now. But in a November runoff, we can count on the GOP spending big to link Edwards to Obama, who has never been popular in the Pelican State.

One other thing worth looking at is the contrast between the jungle primary numbers and the hypothetical runoffs. In the primary, the three Republicans take a combined 56 percent of the vote while Edwards only reaches 28. But in the head-to-head runoff matchups, Edwards manages to takes at least 40 percent against both Angelle and Dardenne, and, of course, 50 against Vitter. Why would so many voters express support for Republicans in the primary but go soft in the runoff? There's no good explanation for that. Put another way, if Vitter makes it to the second round, Edwards will need Angelle and Dardenne backers to switch to him instead of staying with the GOP. That'll be extremely difficult.

If Democrats are going to score a win in November, they'll need Edwards to face a damaged Republican. The last few weeks have been dominated by questions about Vitter's 2007 prostitution scandal, so Team Blue may very well get their wish. But Edwards is also going to need to prove that he can do what even the once-formidable Landrieu couldn't do and hold on after the GOP tries to turn the contest into a referendum on national politics. PPP's survey offers a ray of hope, but even if it's accurate now, a lot will change by the runoff.