That headline is my subtle way of letting everyone know I'm essentially taking today off. It's been an eventful week already, and there's nothing like a minor holiday to glom onto in order to take a break, right? So I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Flag Day today!

The flag is back in the news, also in a fairly minor way. The conservative fake-rage machine cranked up into high dudgeon mode this week over a celebration of Pride Month at the White House, which included a display of the current iteration of the "rainbow flag" that has long been a symbol of the struggle for L.G.B.T.Q. rights. They complained about the pride flag being displayed at all, and a subset of them got fake-irate over a "violation of the U.S. Flag Code" (which it actually wasn't, as there was another U.S. flag being flown above, on the roof of the White House).

Continue Reading »

Scene Two of the "Donald Trump Indictment Circus" happened today, and things just keep getting more and more surreal. For instance, on the way from the courthouse to the airport, Trump made a quick campaign stop. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

I must confess that I'm somewhat at a loss for words today, as I sit waiting to see whether the networks will cover Trump's "indictment party" speech live, when he gets back to his New Jersey golf club. He's not just going to give what he will see as a triumphant speech, he's also holding a fundraiser. Because Trump never misses a chance at grifting his rubes one more time.

It made me all wonder how long it would take before such an event was not treated as breaking news and became so mundane and unnewsworthy that the networks barely covered it at all. Instead of commercial-free hours of watching a pathetically small crowd outside a courthouse (since cameras aren't allowed inside), could Trump eventually instead just get a brief mention on the evening news? "In other news, Donald Trump sat through his twelfth arraignment today, on another 52 felony charges, bringing the total number of crimes he has been charged with up to 479. In the world of sports...."

Continue Reading »

Donald Trump will be tried in two places. I am not speaking of the fact that he's now been indicted on two sets of felony criminal charges, one in New York and one in a federal court down in Florida, but rather of the two arenas where he will be making his own case: in a court of law and in the court of public opinion.

Politically, the fresh new round of indictments will boost Trump, at least in the short term. He's well aware of this, as he will be holding his first fundraiser for his presidential campaign tomorrow night -- right after his (second) arraignment in court. This is not backing away from his legal problems, it is instead leaning into it all in a big way. Trump will also most likely get a boost in Republican primary polling as well, as a "rally 'round the flag" effect -- which indeed also happened after his first indictment. The whole "Wahhhh! I'm the world's biggest victim!" schtick is going to pay off for Trump's campaign, once again.

Continue Reading »

Program Note: We are pre-empting today's entire Friday Talking Points column because of the historic nature of what has happened yesterday and today. Truth be told, by the time we were finished reading this morning's news, we were exhausted. And the scoops just kept coming as the day wore on. The indictment was unsealed and publicly released. The special counsel made a very brief public statement. The full scope of the case was revealed, and the country is still processing the information. So although there were a few other minor political stories last week, none of them are even in the same ballpark as what is happening in South Florida right now. Which is why all we have to offer up today is a rather free-floating rant on where we as a nation now find ourselves. We will return to this column's regular format next week, but for now we just couldn't focus on anything other than this developing story.

For the first time in American history, a former president of the United States has been indicted on federal charges -- 37 individual felonies. That is an extraordinary statement to make, but that's not surprising, since nothing about Donald Trump can ever be called "ordinary."

At first glance, it sounds like a James Bond story: classified top-secret documents, information on nuclear secrets, a Pentagon attack plan against a foreign country. But when you dig a little deeper, it sounds not like Bond but rather Mr. Bean... or perhaps even the Three Stooges.

Continue Reading »

There were two notable deaths in the world of politics today, both of which inspire such strong negative feelings within me that I have to step outside the norm of: "De mortuis nihil nisi bonum." Both of these men were odious creatures in their own right, with one of them far more odious than the other. But the more odious one -- Pat Robertson -- is being adequately vilified elsewhere today, and I had a column all ready to go for the other one anyway, so this (repeat) column is dedicated to the memory of President Ronald Reagan's secretary of the Interior, James Watt. This column was published eight years ago, and thankfully the nation has made great progress since then. It was written to celebrate only the third state (Alaska, after Colorado and Washington) and Washington D.C. legalizing the recreational usage of marijuana. Today, that tally stands at 23 states plus D.C.

But D.C. joining the ranks of fully-legalized states was memorable for me for a different reason, because it made me want to salute those who had fought -- right at the top -- for legalization, all the way back when newspapers actually (and non-ironically) would use the phrase: "[The protesters] used dope." Because a brave few souls would celebrate Independence Day each year by truckin' on down to the White House and firing up some weed within full view of the leader of the country -- at a time when doing so (on federal property, no less) could lead to serious jail time.

These "smoke-ins" (as they were called) were, for the most part, peaceful political protests. Also for the most part, they were mostly ignored by society at large, back when there were only three national television networks, and the print media was almost as constricted. But one year, all of a sudden the pot smokers indirectly caused a huge political screw-up. And the man responsible for that (self-inflicted) screw-up was James Watt. So in memoriam we decided to re-run the article we wrote about all of it eight years ago.

Originally published February 27, 2015

The 1960s gave birth to the concept of the "sit-in," as well as other related protest events such as "teach-ins" or even "die-ins." But today we're going to focus on one particular event which isn't all that well known outside of the Washington Beltway: the "smoke-in." Specifically, the annual D.C. Smoke-In held every year on July Fourth.

Continue Reading »

[Editorial Note: OK, guilty as charged. Sometimes the temptation to run a double-meaning "...Is Revolting" headline is just too much for me to resist. Hence today's title. Mea culpa and all that sort of thing. Ahem.]

It's hard not to poke at least a little bit of fun at Speaker Kevin McCarthy's problems with the most fractious and unruly members of his caucus right now, since the whole episode is such weak tea compared to the strength the Freedom Caucus and the whole MAGA faction were supposed to have leveraged over McCarthy. They haven't exactly turned into paper tigers, but I've read more than one article in the past 24 hours which used the term "defanged," which seems about right.

Continue Reading »

Seventy-nine years ago today, the forces of the free world attacked the fascist Nazi regime in northern France. This year, the Ukrainian military is marking the anniversary of D-Day by starting their own counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces. Back here at home, Chris Christie will be announcing his bid to take on Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. There are obvious moral parallels that can be drawn between these events, but today we're going to leave that to others (for the most part).

Instead let's take a look at what Christie's chances are for either winning the nomination or at least successfully taking Donald Trump out of the running. Others are also examining this today, but from what I've read so far, most of them are getting a few things wrong in their analysis.

Continue Reading »

Mike Pence made it official today by filing his paperwork to launch his 2024 presidential bid. He will hold a public announcement event on Wednesday, in Des Moines, Iowa. Pence has close to a zero percent chance of winning the Republican nomination, with his chances for possibly reprising his role as vice president hovering at somewhat less than zero. There doesn't seem to be any viable path forward for Pence, which seemingly everyone but Pence can clearly see.

Pence won't be running a vanity campaign. Everyone already knows his name, after all. The only possible explanations for him believing he has a shot at the nomination are that he is either completely delusional, or perhaps chasing some "divinely-inspired" pipe dream. To put this another way, I could see Mike Pence thinking that God is thinking that Mike Pence should be the next president of the United States. Other than those two, though, there doesn't seem to be any explanation for Pence being in the race.

Continue Reading »

And so it all ended with a whimper and not a bang. President Joe Biden will sign the bill passed by both houses of Congress to increase the debt ceiling until after the 2024 elections. The bill is a clear victory for Biden, since it contains very little (virtually any) of the initial Republican budget-slashing demands. But Biden couldn't come out and say how good a deal he got from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy until now, because if he had done so it would have fed into the resistance by the farthest-right members of Congress, but now that the bill has safely been passed Biden has scheduled an Oval Office address for later today (7:00 PM, Eastern Time). We should note this is too late for anything he says to be addressed or included here in this column, but we will definitely be watching Biden speak later on today. [Editorial Note: we did listen to Biden's address, and we know it may be hard to believe, but we had picked out our "Crisis Averted" headline before Biden used the phrase tonight.]

All week long, the hurdles were cleared. Over the Memorial Day weekend the deal was announced and then publicly revealed, then after the week began the House voted and the Senate followed. The parliamentary stumbling blocks were easily cleared during the entire process. The most remarkable thing about the week was how downright low-key it was, at least looking back on it. Two party leaders hammered out a deal, both sides claimed it was as good a deal as they were going to get, and then the votes were impressively bipartisan in both houses. In the House, the vote was 314 to 117, with 149 Republicans voting for it (over two-thirds of them). More Democrats voted for it than Republicans, showing that Biden was successful in getting a good deal for his party. The Senate vote was 63 to 36, with only 17 Republicans voting for it, but for these days that's still pretty impressive.

One thing we would bet our bottom dollar will be included in Biden's address tonight: bragging about how he has fulfilled one of his campaign promises in a big way, by bringing bipartisanship back to Washington. Even with divided control of Congress, Biden still got a fairly good deal that all the centrists in both parties wound up supporting. He will doubtlessly present this as a very good thing for the country at large, and he'll mostly be right.

Continue Reading »

Can Donald Trump be defeated in the Republican presidential primaries? The safe answer, if one were inclined to place a bet at this stage of the game, is a pretty clear "No." Trump is absolutely dominating the GOP field, and only one challenger has made any sort of splash in the public polling. In what will no doubt become a recurring theme, I read today the first article bemoaning how many challengers are now jumping in the race to try to de-throne Trump (titled, amusingly enough: "Return Of The Republican Clown Car"). Dire warnings that the 2024 race could mirror the 2016 race are already being muttered, as more and more Republican hopefuls either officially toss their hats in the ring or just contemplate a run from the sidelines. But to me, the crucial question which will determine if any one Republican can beat Trump or not won't depend on how many of them run, but how many of them are still left running when the voters start to head to the polls. Because if Trump is to be beat, the only way it will happen is if there are only a few candidates left standing by Super Tuesday. Ideally: Trump and one other. Any more added to the mix would reduce the chances of any one of them would have of actually besting Trump.

The problem, of course, with this facile reading of things is the political ego necessary to launch a presidential run in the first place. The qualities that convince a person that they are the best GOP choice to run are not conducive to selflessness and "doing what's best for the party" in the midst of a fierce campaign. Imagining several candidates altruistically deciding: "Well, I gave it a good shot but obviously Candidate X has a much better chance of beating Trump, so I will withdraw from the race and throw my support behind them" is somewhat of a stretch, you'll have to admit. But that's the only way Trump could actually be beat, most likely.

Continue Reading »