A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Josh and Kate discuss the looming government shutdown, Donald Trump’s abortion politics and the Senate’s dress code.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, essentially frozen out by President Biden, is back in laudatory mode. In a long withheld sit-down with the President yesterday Netanyahu told Biden, “Under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia.” Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s longtime chief agit-prop guy and hype man, says it could be a “reverse 9/11” for the U.S. That sounds kind of weird frankly and not necessarily something you’d want, given that 9/11 and everything that happened after it kinda sucked. But what he means is that whereas 9/11 led to one disaster after another for the U.S. in the region, this Israel-Saudi peace deal would make everything in the region suddenly awesome for the U.S.
But who are we kidding here exactly?
Read MoreThere was a revealing bit of news today on the Republican government shutdown front. Punchbowl reported that Republicans are debating whether “to move the CR debate away from spending levels and toward border security.” This sounds tactical and a bit in the weeds until you realize this means House Republicans are considering changing the reason for creating a government shut down crisis in the first place. The idea is supposed to be that the GOP right is so hardline on spending that they’re pushing to shut the government down unless they get even more spending cuts than they agreed to back in May. But now they’re saying, forget about the spending stuff we’ve decided to shut the government down over “border security” instead. Who knew the budget stuff was so easy to solve? It illustrates perfectly what most of us already know, which is that policy issues are just an excuse to shut the government down because it’s something Republicans like to do. Otherwise you can’t change your reason in the middle of the whole thing.
Don’t worry. I’ve made my points about Biden and Harris not getting dropped from the 2024 ticket. Here I just want to address a few responses from readers that I found notable. TPM Reader JA argues not so much that I’m wrong on the merits but that I’m suggesting that there are some kind of “forces” or laws that govern presidential tickets. On the contrary, each presidency is unique and needs to be taken on its own internal dynamics, says JA. JA doesn’t say this directly but one of the best rejoinders to any discussion like this is that we simply have too small a sample set, whenever we’re talking about presidential politics, to make categorical judgments or statements.
Read MoreAs noted below, there are clear, obvious and available ways to take Donald Trump apart on abortion rights. But one thing that completely won’t work is thinking he’s going to face some kind of pro-life rebellion in the Republican primary. That’s how Ron DeSantis apparently thinks this is going to work, attacking Trump for getting ready to sell out the pro-life base. But there’s no one to sell out. The pro-life movement – as opposed to the bans in various states – is in a state of irreversible collapse. Really everybody involved in GOP primary politics knows that. You know it’s over when Mike Pence says Republicans need to elect a bible-believing, evangelical purist and then declares his support for a national 15 week ban.
Read MoreI’m still seeing articles about how Dems or the White House are worried Trump is going to muddy the waters about abortion. Worry and reacting to Donald Trump is in fact not the only way to encounter life. Democrats should be happy to spend the next fourteen months debating with Donald Trump whether he wants a 6 week national ban or an 8 week ban. If he’s really forgotten that he’s the “most pro-life President ever” who single-handedly overturned Roe by appointing three diehard abortion opponents, then by all means get him to demand his obediant and gerrymandered state legislatures to ditch all the state bans altogether.
READ MOREOver at the velvet rope publication Puck, Peter Hamby has a good post puncturing the inane chatter that Kamala Harris will be or should be replaced as Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate. This is a kind of sub-genre of “Biden stand down” discourse, a kind of thinking man’s artisanal small batch whiskey of definitely-not-going-to-happen ideas. Hamby actually finds that there is a political scientist, George Sirgiovanni, who has done a formal study of the history of Dump the Veep talk: the gist is that the chatter happens basically every time things look shaky for the incumbent and the Veep absolutely never gets dumped. Yes, it’s happened in the distant past. But not in the modern history of the presidency or vice presidency. It doesn’t happen. So stop trying to make fetch a thing.
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Everyone is aflutter today over news that Donald Trump suddenly thinks Ron DeSantis’s six week abortion ban in Florida is “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” Hapless reporters and commentators are running around asking whether Trump is now pro-choice, whether he’s going to steal Democrats’ big issue out from under them. At least some Democrats seem to be worried about this too.
READ MOREI couldn’t figure out why Wisconsin Republicans wouldn’t impeach newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz since their epic gerrymander basically makes them immune from whatever voters think. Then I saw state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos surprise every one with a purported proposal for “non-partisan” redistricting. It certainly seemed like a show of weakness. Like they weren’t so confident in their ability to impeach her after all. So I talked to the head of the state Democratic Party Ben Wikler to see what he thinks is going on.
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Oy vey, Oy vey, Oy vey: ProPublica has yet another big new reveal on the ethically challenged Clarence Thomas.
In the latest installment in its Thomas series, ProPublica unearths evidence of the Supreme Court justice playing footsies with the Koch brothers and their donor network at its annual winter conference in California in 2018.
House GOP In Total And Utter Chaos: The GOP-controlled House left town yesterday with no path forward on government funding and a shutdown looming when the fiscal year ends a week from tomorrow.
David Brooks Is At It Again: The dunking on David Brooks over a tweet damn near broke the internet.
Josh and Kate discuss the looming government shutdown, Donald Trump’s abortion politics and the Senate’s dress code.
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As he has pursued the unprecedented and complex case against former President Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Special Counsel Jack Smith has had help from a longtime colleague. Joseph “J.P.” Cooney is a veteran federal prosecutor with a deep distaste for corruption and a hard charging approach.
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