DL Open Thread: Friday, November 15, 2024
WHYY Adds Yet More Context To The House NDA Story:
Delaware House leaders are trying to distance themselves from the revelation that some staffers were pressured to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) over the past year.
Three lawmakers and a former staffer say it was newly chosen Majority Leader Kerris Evelyn Harris or former Speaker Valerie Longhurst who came up with the idea to require confidentiality agreements. The Democrats say the aides were not allowed to keep a copy of the agreements.
It’s unclear how many staffers signed NDAs. The three lawmakers said they were told an outside law firm, not House attorneys, drafted them. If so, it’s unclear how the legal work was funded.
Despite people being aware of the NDA requirements for staffers for several months, a spokesperson for the House leadership team said this issue was just recently brought to their attention and they are investigating it. The former House staffer said he’s sure whose idea it was.
“I can tell you that this is 100% solely the brainchild of the former speaker,” he said. “This is all [Longhurst].” (Uh, no, Kerri Evelyn Harris’ fingerprints are all over this. I’ll have a DL Exclusive later today to make that perfectly clear.)
The three lawmakers said Harris told them during the caucus meeting that all staff would be signing NDAs going forward. But a House spokesperson said no one under newly chosen Speaker Mimi Minor Brown will be required to sign one. Calls to Harris and Minor Brown received no response. (Well, somebody’s lying here.)
OK, kids, assuming that Longhurst and Harris hatched this plan, it is impossible to believe that Minor Mimi was unaware. Our PAL Val was the Speaker. Harris was the Majority Whip. Yet the then-Majority Leader didn’t know about this? I call bullshit. Even if she was also busy triple-dipping at Del-Tech and the University of Delaware. Regardless, the House Democratic Caucus might want to meet again to reconsider its leadership team in light of what has already come out. With more to come later today.
As was the case during his first term, Trump does not so much assemble a Cabinet as cast a reality show. He wants the members of his team to have a certain look, a certain backstory, a certain persona. He chose South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem as his nominee for homeland security secretary despite — or perhaps because of — her story about shooting her family’s puppy for misbehavior. He knows that Gaetz is widely loathed on Capitol Hill, including by fellow Republicans, and has the sneering arrogance of a professional wrestling villain. Hegseth has the square-jawed looks of a G.I. Joe action figure.
Trump’s announcement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary is in a category of its own — a cruel joke on all of us. If his conspiracy-theory distrust of vaccines ever becomes policy, children will die.
These are unserious choices that will make our nation less secure. The one exception, so far, is Trump’s pick of Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to be secretary of state; he, at least, has the requisite knowledge and experience. But I doubt he will be able to use those tools, since Trump bases his foreign policy on which foreign leaders are sufficiently obsequious in flattering him and which are not.
Matt Gaetz: ‘Overexposed Axe Body Spray And Stale Astroglide’. From a staunchly-conservative writer:
I realize that we are occasionally given to hyperbole about the untoward nature of politicians, but let me be clear: Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking drug addicted piece of shit. He is abhorrent. His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red rings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe Body Spray and stale Astroglide. The fact that he boasted on the floor to multiple colleagues in the House of Representatives of his methods of crushing Viagra and high test Red Bull to maintain his erection through his orgiastic evenings is perhaps the least offensive of his many crimes against womanhood and Christian faith. The man has less principles than your average fentanyl addicted hobo. He likes them underage and he’s not ashamed about it. Matt Gaetz isn’t just your average extreme Florida MAGA Man, he’s a hypocritical ass with the worst Botox money can buy, pursuing an ever-thinner nose and higher cheekbones at every opportunity like a Real Housewife gone mad for fillers.
Yes, I had to look up Astroglide. (Hmmm, wonder if they sell it at Walgreens…). This is so funny our very own Al could have written it. Read the whole thing.
More Port Legal Maneuverings. Jeff Bullock, who knows more than a little something about the topic, claims Delaware has been the victim of ‘misinformation’:
This week, the Diamond State Port Corp., the quasi-public entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington, filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by upriver ports against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lawsuit has successfully blocked permits necessary for the state’s planned construction of a new, $635 million container terminal at Edgemoor.
Last month, a judge presiding over the lawsuit ruled that the Army Corps had not followed its own rules in approving permits necessary for Delaware’s port plans. The ruling revoked the permits and amounted to a massive setback in Delaware’s port plans.
The state’s motion to intervene was filed by DSPC well as Enstructure. They argue that the upriver ports have “weaponized” the permitting process for their own economic benefit. In a written statement, Delaware Secretary of State Jeff Bullock said the purpose of the motion is “in part” to address what he described as misinformation promoted by Philaport.
At least a bunch of Delaware’s attorneys are getting even richer as the legal fracas continues.
What do you want to talk about?
I talked to one of the staffers who my son is friends with about this issue. They are very angry and uncomfortable and feel like they’re being targeted. I raised the idea of unionizing the legislative staff which they didn’t realize that was tried a couple of years ago. They are very interested in doing this. And I think they are going to try. I suggested they may want to reach out to Mike Begatto to bring AFSCME in.
Couldn’t agree more.
They’ve been treated like shit since Pete ‘n Val took over. It never used to be that way.
I also suggested that they request a meeting with the Meyer transition team.
Not good leadership skills to piss off your staff on Day One.
Meet the new leadership skills, same as the old leadership skills.
Lots of ink spilled about how Democrats lost because of inflation. I don’t think so. I think “inflation” was just a more acceptable excuse than “I’m a bigot” – just as it was in 1980.
If so, it’s not just racial. I don’t watch TV but just from being exposed to it elsewhere I saw that ad with what were supposedly trans people and the message that Kamala Harris was for these people.
I find the nation’s trans panic the weirdest public obsession since the Demonic Daycare scare back in the day.
Where’s Laura Wisniewski in all of this?
Apparently she’s Mimi and Kerri’s muscle and is bringing down the hammer on the staff to sign these.
For such a blue state there are so few electeds that I’d ever suggest a young person go work for. Our talent is pretty crummy.
Sounds like Kathy Jennings should give Laura a visit. She worked for Bethany too?
So the guy auditing the NASA budget also happens to own a spaceship company…. And now this:
Would never be allowed under the old rules.
If you think Dems lost because of widespread misinformation, Musk’s overpaying for Twitter now makes a lot of sense.
Musk was already deep in the government’s pockets on various tech fronts, and I don’t think anyone of either party was inclined to stop him.
Trump succeeded because most people in public life are cowards, and he knows it. I’m sure that’s one of the things Roy Cohn taught him – act aggressively and you’ll intimidate the timid into obeisance.
Which is why I think he gets most of his bizzarro cabinet picks confirmed.
Sounds as though Gaetz is the embodiment of “Family Guy”‘s Glenn Quagmire, without the charm.