DL Open Thread: Friday, October 13, 2023

Scalise Boomlet Crashes.  Looks like Jordan is up next.  We can only hope that his candidacy suffers the same fate:

The fractious Republican conference has rejected a second speaker hopeful in eight days — this time, Kevin McCarthy’s longtime heir apparent, Steve Scalise. While Republicans appear to be turning next to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), some are already airing open doubts that Jordan can pull off what the majority leader couldn’t.

Some Scalise backers are particularly incensed over how Jordan handled losing to the Louisianan after the internal election this week.

“Absolutely not,” Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), a Scalise ally, said when asked if she’d back Jordan. “Yesterday in conference, he gave the most disgraceful, ungracious — I can’t call it a concession speech — of all time. There were gasps in the room.”

Wagner then recalled another moment that lost Jordan her support. It took place during a private meeting between Scalise and Jordan, less than an hour after the majority leader won the House GOP’s internal speaker ballot. Wagner wasn’t in the room, but she remained outside in Scalise’s office and took in the immediate aftermath.

According to Wagner and other House Republicans briefed on the meeting, Jordan said to Scalise: “You get one ballot. And when you go down, you will nominate me.”

She said Scalise pushed back, arguing he had won by the conference rules, to which Jordan replied: “America wants me,” before storming out the door.

Can you say ‘Unfit to govern’?

“I Will Defend Israel, But…”:

But I’d like to say one thing clearly, before I go to battle: There’s no such thing as “unavoidable.” This war could have been avoided, and no one did enough to prevent it. Israel did not do enough to make peace; we just conquered the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, expanded the illegal settlements and imposed a long-term siege on the Gaza Strip.

I am now going to defend my country against enemies who want to kill my people. Our enemies are the deadly terrorist organizations that are being controlled by Islamic extremists.

Palestinians aren’t the enemy. The millions of Palestinians who live right here next to us, between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan, are not our enemy. Just like the majority of Israelis want to live a calm, peaceful and dignified life, so do Palestinians. Israelis and Palestinians alike have been in the grip of a religious minority for decades. On both sides, the intractable positions of a small group has dragged us into violence. It doesn’t matter who is more cruel, or more ruthless. The ideology of both have fueled this conflict, leading to the death of too many innocent civilians.

Right On Cue, Israel…:

…told some 1 million Palestinians on Friday to evacuate northern Gaza and head to the southern part of the besieged territory, an unprecedented order applying to almost half the population ahead of an expected ground invasion against the ruling Hamas militant group.

The U.N. warned that so many people fleeing en masse would be calamitous. Hamas, which staged a shocking and brutal attack on Israel nearly a week ago and has fired thousands of rockets since, dismissed it as a ploy and called on people to stay in their homes.

Robert Menendez: Foreign Agent.  In this case, Egypt:

Menendez now faces four counts stemming from his relationship with Egyptian officials. But while the initial indictment accused Menendez of doing favors which benefitted Cairo in exchange for cash and other perks, the new charge formally accuses the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of conspiring to secretly act on behalf of the Egyptian government.

TPM was first to report last month that Menendez allegedly worked against April Corley, an American roller skater who had been maimed in an accidental strike by Egyptian forces while on vacation there. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) had placed a hold on $300 million in military aid to Cairo pending a resolution to Corley’s case.

Prosecutors have now gone further than the initial federal bribery charges they brought against Menendez last month.

Now, they say that Menendez agreed to “take and took a series of acts on behalf of Egypt, including on behalf of Egyptian military and intelligence officials,” and allegedly did so with his wife, Nadine Arslanian, and New Jersey businessman Wael Hana.

Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Biden Climate Policy.  Sigh of relief:

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the “social cost of carbon,” one of the most important calculations in US climate policy, on Tuesday. The controversial metric attempts to quantify the hidden price of emitting carbon dioxide, from flood damage to health effects. The court’s surprise decision sets the stage for the Biden administration to broaden the metric’s use across federal agencies when formulating climate-related regulations.

One of President Joe Biden’s very first executive orders in January 2021 directed agencies to recalculate the social cost of carbon—currently placed at $51 a ton while the government finalizes its revised estimate. In the meantime, Republican state attorneys general have been flinging lawsuits at the administration in an attempt to block its ability to use the metric in evaluating regulations.

More Bread And Circuses From BHL.  When is she going to make a public statement about her ‘suspended’ campaign?  Her silence has become a bigger joke than Speaker Pete’s wandering in the wilderness after his pal Kathy McGuiness was convicted.  Starting to think she is just going to give herself a clean bill of health and move on.  Not gonna work.  She’s dirty. Her husband’s dirty.  Those circling the wagons around her are dirty.

What do you want to talk about?