Chris Coons could take a lesson in bipartisanship from his 22 female colleagues. All 22 of them — 17 Democrats, 5 Republicans — signed a letter to Mitch McConnell demanding the Senate move forward with reforms to the sexual harassment protocols for Congress. Specifically, they didn’t find one Republican so they could call it bipartisan — they got them all. See the difference, Chris?
As noted last evening, conservatives just can’t control their anger over the Parkland kids, and Amanda Marcotte sees method in their madness.
The census is a BFD because it’s yet another way Republicans intend to keep their minority movement in power, as Sen. Marco Rubio let slip yesterday. I’m hoping that the way he wilted in the spotlight after Parkland puts an end to the pretense that this block of balsa is presidential timber.
As with everything in Trumpworld, John Dowd’s departure is starting to look sketchy a week later. The New York Times reports he floated preemptive pardons to lawyers for Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn, meaning he could be charged with obstructing justice himself.
At this point Trump’s closest advisers are Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, so he fired his VA chief — apparently in service of privatizing the system — and replaced him with Doctor Ronny just so he’ll have someone to talk to in person. Or he could talk to his new lead attorney, a lawyer/medieval historian he found through God-bothering religious-freedom attorney Jay Sekulow.
The GOP truly is the Golden Oldies Party. From Politico:
HOUSE REPUBLICANS will take up a balanced-budget amendment when they return from recess, several sources tell us. This follows on the heels of their $1.3-trillion budget bill and their massive tax bill. WHY DO THIS NOW? Here’s what we think: It’s almost election season, and it would be helpful if GOP lawmakers could go home and be able to say they voted to support balancing the federal budget, even though they voted boosted discretionary spending by a ton, and have not touched entitlement spending, which, they have said for years, is the driver of U.S. budget deficits.
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. For example, that big chunk of Bears Ears National Monument Trump turned over to the extraction industries contains what the paleontologist who found it calls the find of a lifetime — a trove of fossils of the earliest examples of dinosaurs. The guy lost his research grant for more fieldwork because of Trump’s decision.