Georgia Six Day

Georgia Six: It’s election day in Georgia and the race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel is expected to be a squeaker.  The Republicans have thrown everything they have at Ossoff, branding the mild mannered moderate as a left wing radical with San Francisco values, whatever those are.  They’ve exploited the Alexandria Virginia shooting so much so that they’ve been chastised by Representative Scalise from his hospital bed, though given his politics he’s probably secretly pleased with the invocation of his shooting as long as it results in a Republican win. Also, a right wing tweeter has been attacking Ossoff relentlessly for everything and anything.  Besides being a Democrat in a Republican district, Ossoff’s chief liability is that though he  grew up in the Georgia Six district he lives outside of it, closer to where his fiancée attends medical school, he plans to move once she graduates.  Ossoff can’t vote in the election so if he loses by one vote he will have only himself to blame.  Getting much less attention, a special election is also taking place today in South Carolina.  Democrat Archie Parnell, a former Goldman Sachs executive is running against Republican Ralph Norman for Budget Director Mick Mulvaney’s former seat.  This district is so overwhelmingly Republican that a Democratic victory would be a huge upset and is not expected but assuming he wins, Norman’s margin of victory will be closely scrutinized.     

No Care Trumpcare:  Senate Majority Leader McConnell is still putting the finishing touches on his Trumpcare plan and holding the terms of the bill close to his chest.  No one knows what’s in it but McConnell is still planning to bring it to a vote next week providing no more than ten hours for floor debate.  Democrats who are justifiably outraged are in the process of staging a Senate floor slow down.  They are attempting to clog the floor with personal and constituent health care testimonials in order to throw a wrench into the process and to impede any other Senate business.  Nevertheless McConnell persists and his devious plan just might work. Yesterday, the Democrats named a candidate to run against Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada in his upcoming election.  Heller is considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans seeking reelection and the Democrats want him to feel the consequences of voting for a health care plan that defunds his state, a participant in the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.  Others are watching Georgia Six carefully, viewing it as a referendum on Trump and Trumpcare.

Press Gaggle:  Spicer and his press team have been minimizing their on air time. Yesterday, Spicer held a gaggle instead of a full press conference; correspondents were allowed to tape the presentation but only for their notes, the audio was not available for public consumption.  During the gaggle, Spicer said that everyone in the government serves at the pleasure of the president, a veiled threat intended to remind Special Counsel Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein that, despite the consequences, they can be fired at any time.  Spicer again indicated that Trump may disclose whether the tapes that he claims to have of his conversations with former FBI Director Comey actually exist, “maybe” by the end of the week which conveniently coincides with the date that the House Intelligence Committee set as their deadline for receiving the illusory tapes.  It’s possible that Friday will also be the last day that we see or hear from Spicer who has been interviewing candidates to serve as his replacement.  He will either be nominated to serve as the Ambassador to Ireland or move up to Communications Director, assuming he doesn’t disappear altogether.  Spicer, like Mueller and Rosenstein, serves at the discretion of Trump.

He Found His Voice:  Kushner has a voice, it’s monotonic but he can talk.  He presented an overview of plans to update and rationalize the government’s somewhat antiquated technology platforms to a group of technology leaders yesterday because, with Infrastructure Week and Workforce Week completed, the White House has now moved on to Technology Week. Having successfully revamped the technology infrastructure, Kushner is off to Israel to work on his Middle East peace plan.  No indication if he has hired his new legal representation yet, but expectations are that whoever he picks, it will be someone with lots of trial experience which is a good thing because Special Counsel Mueller has just bolstered his team by adding Andrew Weissman, a take no prisoners lawyer who headed the Enron investigation.   

The Russia Investigation Goes On:  While much recent attention has been on Trump and the possibility that he obstructed justice when he fired Comey, the Russian meddling investigation continues on unimpeded.  The US Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has issued a subpoena to former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his wife for additional records and correspondence.   Notably, the US Attorney for the Eastern District is Dana Boente, third in line in the Justice Department hierarchy and the guy that Trump would have to go to if both Rosenstein and Brand ever refuse any command to fire Special Counsel Mueller.  Former security adviser Flynn’s problems continue to increase too.  Democratic Congressmen Cummings and Engel, ranking members of the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees, are questioning Flynn’s failure to report details of a 2015 trip to Saudi Arabia and Israel, where he represented a client who wanted to build nuclear reactors in the region, on his disclosure forms. Falsifying disclosure documents is a felony and Flynn’s omissions are adding up.  

International Complications:  Sadly, former North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier died yesterday.  Warmbier’s death, while not unexpected, is likely to add to US tensions with North Korea. Trump says that we will “handle it” but beyond adding sanctions, which haven’t worked to date, there is little that he can do to punish North Korea for their gross mistreatment of Warmbier. Tensions are also increasing in the air space over Syria.  The Russians have taken down the “deconfliction line” intended to prevent inadvertent clashes between US and Russian planes in response to the recent shooting down of a Syrian bomber jet by the US.  Less dire, but diplomatically absurd, Trump still hasn’t said anything about the killing and injuring of Muslims outside of a Mosque in London.  Killing of Muslims by non-Muslims doesn’t fall into his preferred narrative.