As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
Jennifer Bendery and Igor Bobic highlight how Democrats will approach the confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, which begin this morning:
Democrats see public pressure as key to their strategy for derailing the process. They plan to grill Barrett, who is currently a conservative U.S. appeals court judge, on her record of opposition to the Affordable Care Act, Roe v. Wade, gun restrictions, environmental regulations and worker rights.
They’ll also hammer the point that it is unprecedented to confirm a Supreme Court nominee weeks before a presidential election and that what’s driving the urgency is that President Donald Trump wants Barrett on the court before Nov. 3 in the event the election results are close, and the Supreme Court has to declare the winner.
“You can expect ... the Affordable Care, the rush to fill this nomination and the protection which the president believes he’s buying with this nominee is a starting point for virtually every Democratic senator on the committee,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters Friday.
This is "court packing," Moscow Mitch McConnell style. What Democrats should do after January 20 is "court balancing," both with the Supreme Court and the lower courts. Republican Never Trumper Stuart Stevens has it right:
The problems Republicans have on issue of court expansion is the same they have on the debt, opposition to dictators, free trade, character, personal responsibility. Having lied about each, they have no moral standing on any. You made that deal with Trump. Now you live with it.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) October 10, 2020
Olivia Nuzzi writes about how the entire "presidency" of Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump is a superspreading event, just as he plans daily campaign events. It's a long, but very good read; here's a snippet:
... “They aren’t even considering what happens when he’s feeling worse than he’s feeling now, when he’s hopped up full of steroids and other performance enhancers. He’s on the sort of drugs you’d see with a Tour de France rider in the mid-’90s!” Another way to say this, the former White House official said, was that the president is “hopped up on more drugs than a Belgian racing pigeon.” In keeping with the bird theme, this person said the president’s illness was proof that “the chickens are coming home to roost.”
“Going back to 2016,” this person added, “you always had these warnings from the Clinton camp and Democrats and the Never-Trump Republicans that, if he takes office and if a crisis hits, it’s gonna be a mess. But people don’t really vote on that when there’s not a crisis. People think, A crisis isn’t gonna happen! May as well vote for the guy with a good tax policy. Suddenly, this happens, and you always assume it won’t happen to you, but when you act like that, bad things happen!”
Nuzzi has much more on the self- destructive madness that propels COVID Donnie and, by extension, those around him to risk both their personal and political lives.
COVID Donnie's disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic is, of course, the number one issue in this election. Following their debate, when Sen. Kamala Harris eviscerated Mike "Lord of the Flies" Pence's risible "we have a plan" for affordable health care by stating "They're coming for you," it should be clear that, after bungling a killer pandemic response, the Trumpers will be mindlessly compounding that tragedy by trying to kill Obamacare. Bad move:
Three years after the late Sen. John McCain turned thumbs down on the effort to repeal Obamacare in Congress, Trump offers a three-part health care pitch:
- Part 1: he has all but eliminated Obamacare already.
- Part 2: His cheaper alternative preserves Obamacare's most popular features.
- Part 3: as a result, a Supreme Court decision to erase the entire law would represent "a big win" for the country.
Unfortunately for Trump, voters have seen that parts one and two are both false. And that makes part three a dangerous pre-existing condition for Trump and other Republican candidates during the closing weeks of the 2020 campaign.
All have decided they will vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden this time, choices they say were either made or reinforced in recent weeks as Trump has stumbled through a disastrous stretch that has included embarrassing leaks about his comments disparaging military members, a ridiculed debate performance and a Rose Garden ceremony that some describe as a superspreader for a deadly virus.
In the homestretch of the 2020 campaign, there has been little good news for the incumbent. And that is showing up as an ominous turn for him in the polls as Biden consolidates support. What had been a steady national lead for Biden in the high single digits during the late summer has expanded to 12 points in early October, according to a Washington Post polling average.
COVID Donnie is well aware of this, which is why he's campaigning manically, regardless of the health effects on himself or his mouth- breathing cultists. Problem is, the more he's out there, the more he turns off voters and juices Democratic turnout. Sad!
As always, a trip over to Infidel 753's link round-up is highly recommended for a much more comprehensive array of topics of interest. Checking his posts out on a regular basis is also highly recommended.
