Ordinary Discourse?

The New Legitimacy: On Friday, as expected the RNC censured Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, slamming them for their roles on the January 6^th Committee, saying they are participating in “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” Immediately after the NY Times accurately reported on the content of the RNC’s statement and the characterization of the violent insurrectionists as just ordinary Joes and Janes talking politics, RNC head Ronna Romney McDaniel, who long ago stopped using her RINO tainted middle name, slapped back, accusing the NY Times of lying about the “legitimate discourse” characterization.  It’s not clear if she was just attempting to gaslight, taking a page from her exalted leader the FG, or whether she really failed to read her own organization’s remarks in their entirety, but whatever, it didn’t go over as she intended.  Pushback was immediate, not just from the NY Times, but from the Twitter verse and Democrats, who were gleeful to have a new talking point to add to their campaign ads, and also from a few Republicans, a group that included McDaniel’s uncle/Utah Senator Mitt Romney and the other usual suspects like Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski,  Maryland’s Governors Hogan and Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson, neither of whom are running for reelection because of their states’ term limits, and former Governor Chris Christie, the presidential wannabee currently shilling for ABC.  As to Murkowski, over the weekend she received a very public, as in live on CNN, endorsement from Joe Manchin.  Manchin endorsed Susan Collins in 2020 so his across the aisle nod wasn’t a surprise and anyway its very unlikely that a Democrat could win in Alaska. Also, Murkowski who is likely to vote for Joe Biden’s SCOTUS nominee, needs all the help she can get as the FG who has endorsed her primary opponent has targeted her for extinction.    

Mother Approved? Also on Friday, speaking at a Federalist Society meeting in Florida former Vice President Pence finally said what he should have said more than a year ago, that the FG’s assertions that he had the right to overturn the election were wrong, adding that “the presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone” and that there was no idea more “un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president." The responses to Pence’s remarks were also as expected, the Federalist Society audience, up the three frighteningly conservative Supreme Court Justices that the morally flawed but who really cared FG delivered, greeted Pence’s speech with applause, the mainstream press complimented him as if finally talking truth was a heroic act and most Democrats and left leaning media wanted to know what took him so long. Naturally, the FG issued a statement slamming Pence and his on again off again BFF Steve Bannon called Pence a “stone-cold coward” for saying the FG was wrong about a vice president’s ability to overturn the election.  In one respect, Bannon is right, given how long it took him to say what he should have said last year, Pence is a coward.  The big question now is whether the response to the RNC’s characterization of the violent insurrectionists as ordinary people engaged in run of the mill political discourse combined with Pence’s speech mark the turning point back to sanity for the Republican Party. Well, forget about it, as already the avidly pro FG David Bossie who is distressed that the RNC “only” censured Kinzinger and Cheney rather than kicked them out altogether is looking to unseat Ronna McDaniel and given how she blew the messaging on the Kinzinger/Cheney censure he might succeed in pushing her out.  Getting back to SCOTUS, one of the FGs newbies, Justice Gorsuch, spoke behind doors at the Federalist meeting, apparently he owes them for getting him on the Court.  Also, via some recently uncovered communication between Ginni Thomas, Clarence’s wife, and a Ron DeSantis aide, we learned that Justice Thomas communicates regularly, or so she said in her note, with the Florida Governor.  So much for the Court not acting politically.  Also worth noting, the FG who is not known for spreading largesse, sent $1 million of his PAC money to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows conservative non-profit group, a gift that could explain why Meadows stopped cooperating with the January 6^th Committee.

Gerry Who:  It turns out that when they apply themselves, Democrats are good at gerrymandering too, so even though population shifts have resulted in red states gaining House seats at the expense of blue ones, Democrats are likely to pick up a few seats as a result of redistricting. Also a number of state courts, including one in North Carolina, have thrown out some brazen attempts by Republicans to completely eliminate Democratic districts, particularly those made up of people of color.  Don’t get too excited, the political pundit class and the oddsmakers still expect that Republicans will retake the House during the 2022 midterms because apparently the nation really needs people like Gym Jordan, and Margie Q chairing committees. As to redistricting, New York is one of the states where Republicans are expected to come up short a few seats. One of those is the Staten Island seat that moderate Democrat Max Rose lost to Republican Nicole Malliotakis in 2020. The district which will be gaining some “blue” areas is now expected to be ripe for a Democratic pick up in 2022.  Rose, a veteran whose moderate politics make him reasonably attractive to some traditional Staten Islanders has already announced that he’s running but he may face a challenger from the left as former Mayor Bill de Blasio appears to be testing the waters to see how his left leaning politics and charm, well maybe not his charm, would work in the newly constructed district.  Poor Bill, his presidential run was an embarrassment, his gubernatorial run fizzled fast so now he’s on to Staten Island, the former strong hold of Rudy “Colludy” Giuliani.

And More:  Putin and Xi are showing a unified front these days maybe because Xi would like to do to Taiwan what we all fear Vlad is about to do to Ukraine.  As to Vlad’s Ukraine plans, though diplomacy is still ongoing, things appear to be heating up on the border though its unlikely that Vlad will invade during the Olympics as that would be rude to Xi, even ruder than the public snooze he took while attending an Olympic event.  Spotify remains committed to Joe Rogan because $100 million is a lot of dough but around 100 of his episodes have been taken down, not just because of Rogan’s promulgation of anti-vax information but also because of his frequent use of the “N” word and maybe even because of some of his more misogynistic comments. Omicron continues to wain though at 2500, US daily deaths remain high. Sadly, fueled by low vaccination rates, total US deaths now exceed 900,000 and are still heading up.  We should hear more about the vaccine for the very young set shortly but the data may be confusing as the two dose regimen may not be adequately protective for older members of the young group.