Tom Nichols/WaPo:
Want to save the GOP, Republicans? Vote for every Democrat on this year’s ballot.
If the GOP is going to be a credible, center-right party, Republicans have to treat the 2018 election as a parliamentary-style housecleaning.
Rather than acting like a national party, entrusted with separate but coequal branches of government, the GOP at every level and in every state has been captured by the personality cult that has congealed around President Trump, and it is now operating like a parliamentary party, utterly submissive to its erratic but powerful prime minister. Republican elected officials, from Congress to the state houses, have chosen to become little more than enablers for an out of control executive branch.
The only way to put a stop to this is to vote against the GOP in every race, at every level in 2018. It’s tough medicine. But as someone who’s voted Republican for nearly 40 years, who favors limited government and public integrity, and who believes America still needs a credible, responsible center-right party, I see no alternative.
Tom is a Republican fighting to reclaim his party. Can’t argue with his advice this time. See, for example:
There is no question we disagree on much with Never Trumpers, and maybe most things. But for now, and until Trump is gone, welcome to the coalition. See next entry as well.
Chris Truax/USA today (on the legal advisory board of Republicans for the Rule of Law ):
Trump Twitter attack on Sessions and Justice is most serious impeachment fodder yet
Placing some clear limits on Trump is in everyone’s interest, and Congress needs to take immediate steps to make its displeasure known. Perhaps it could pass a joint resolution condemning Trump’s tweet and affirming the necessity of an apolitical Justice Department.
In addition to defending the rule of law, such a resolution would help separate the sheep from the goats. Anyone in Congress who is not “brave” enough to take a public stand against turning the Justice Department into the enforcement arm of a new Committee to Re-elect the President has no business in public life.
Much has changed over the past few years, and many things we have taken for granted are now in question. But one thing we cannot allow to be normalized, one line we cannot cross, is the corruption of our justice system. No matter what.
WaPo:
Poll: Democrats regain clear advantage in midterms shaping up as referendum on President Trump
Two months ahead of the midterm elections, Democrats hold a clear advantage over Republicans in congressional vote support, with antipathy toward President Trump fueling Democratic enthusiasm, even among those in the party who stayed home four years ago, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.
The survey also points to broad unrest and frustration with the political system generally. More than 6 in 10 Americans say Trump and the Republican Party are out of touch with most people in the country. While Democrats fare better, a narrower 51 percent majority also judged them out of touch.
Registered voters say they favor the Democratic candidate over the Republican candidate in their district by 52 percent to 38 percent. That is a marked increase from the four-point edge in an April Post-ABC poll but similar to the 12-point advantage Democrats enjoyed in January.
Nate Silver/FiveThirtyEight:
Democrats Are In Their Best Position Yet To Retake The House
Although it can be a noisy indicator, the generic congressional ballot is showing Democrats in their best position since last winter, with a handful of high-quality polls (including one from our ABC News colleagues) giving them a double-digit advantage over Republicans. Meanwhile, President Trump’s approval rating — as of late Tuesday morning, an average of 40.1 percent of adults approved of his performance according to our calculation, while 54.1 percent disapproved of him — is the worst that it’s been since February.1
As a result, Republicans are in their worst position to date in our U.S. House forecast: The Classic version of our model gives them only a 1 in 5 chance of holding onto the House. Other versions of our model are slightly more optimistic for the GOP: The Deluxe version, which folds in expert ratings on a seat-by-seat basis, puts their chances at 1 in 4, while the Lite version, which uses district-level and generic ballot polls alone to make its forecasts, has them at a 3 in 10 chance. Whichever flavor of the forecast you prefer, the House is a long way from a foregone conclusion — but also a long way from being a “toss-up.”
NBC News:
MAD ABOUT TRUMP
Two Americas, both political parties in upheaval and the midterm elections around the corner. The president is smack in the middle
This special report two months before the pivotal vote examines the impact of Trumpism on both political parties — their leaders, their candidates and their activists — as well as how it’s disrupting the political culture for voters.
Trump’s 2016 election and his presidency has been a cataclysm — an abrupt and brutal destruction of the existing political order.
That’s been satisfying for Trump voters. They clamored for a top-to-bottom shake-up of the status quo. Democrats frame his victory and its aftermath as a clarion call for action, while a class of lost Republican elites hopes the president’s seizure of the GOP is an anomaly from which their beloved party will someday recover.
Through dozens of interviews, an exclusive poll, an NBC News analysis of candidate websites and more, the picture has become clear: Democrats are moving further left; Republicans are gravitating toward Trump; and the voters increasingly disdain anyone who doesn’t agree with them.
Fun and frolics from yesterday’s hearing (~70 arrests for civil disobedience):
Amber Phillips/WaPo:
Democrats’ surprise, coordinated attack to tank Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination
"This is something I've never gone through before in 15 Supreme Court nominations,” a clearly aghast Grassley said as Democrats and Republicans went back and forth for more than an hour about whether to start the hearing.
Democrats know that at the end of the day, they're probably going to be on the losing side of this Supreme Court battle. It takes a simple majority in the Senate to approve Trump's nominee to replace former justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and Republicans have a majority, though admittedly slim.
But Democrats also know how much is at stake with their base right now, on a few levels: The hearing is happening two months before an election in which Democrats have a chance to take back majorities in both chambers of Congress — and a chance to blunt any future Trump nominees who could make the court solidly conservative for a generation.
Chuck Todd/Atlantic:
It’s Time for the Press to Stop Complaining—And to Start Fighting Back
A nearly 50-year campaign of vilification, inspired by Fox News's Roger Ailes, has left many Americans distrustful of media outlets. Now, journalists need to speak up for their work.
Much of the current hand-wringing about this rise in press bashing and delegitimization has been focused on the president, who—as every reporter in America sadly knows—has declared the press the “enemy of the people.” But, like much else in the Trump era, Donald Trump didn’t start this fire; he’s only spread it to a potentially more dangerous place.
The modern campaign against the American press corps has its roots in the Nixon era. President Richard Nixon’s angry foot soldiers continued his fight against the media even after he left office.
Philip Bump/WaPo:
The problem with Todd’s essay, in which he squarely identifies the culpability of Fox News and its former head Roger Ailes, it that it’s more of an autopsy than a diagnosis. Fox News has achieved the aims Todd outlines, but it’s no longer the only problem. Todd nails Fox, but he can’t answer the most important question: What to do now?
John Stoehr:
Like most people, I reasonably expect the Democrats to take the House in November (probably the Senate, too, though that’s a riskier bet). What will they do with their new power? Pass voting reform, I hope. If voters had more say, if they were forced to have more say, the constitutional order might not now be reaching a breaking point. Paul Glastris wrote for the Washington Monthly, the best politics magazine in the country, that the Democrats should write a new voting rights act. I strongly endorse his proposal, but I don’t think it’s enough. We need mandatory voting, too
Remember, thanks to complacency among Democratic voters, the Republicans took the Senate in the 2014 midterms. (Voter turnout was historically low; it could not have been solely due to voter suppression tactics, though voter suppression tactics surely contributed to historically low turnout.) After Antonin Scalia died in 2016, the GOP refused to hold hearings for Barack Obama’s nominee. Scalia’s seat remained vacant until after Donald Trump won the presidency. With Kavanaugh, the high court’s rightward shift is complete. Imagine, Bazelon wrote, “that a Democratic Congress and president, with the public behind them, enacted Medicare for All. What would a staunchly conservative Supreme Court do?” I think you know the answer.
Seth Masket/Pacific Standard:
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM JOHN MCCAIN'S FUNERAL
The late senator's funeral had an unspoken but vital message for those who still wield power: to not wait until your time is up to speak out.
McCain's final mission in this world was to strike a blow against cruel, capricious, and corrupt government. This is entirely admirable. Here are some ideas for things McCain could have done in the few years prior to his passing that might have served this mission better:
- ENDORSE HILLARY CLINTON IN LATE 2016...
- ENDORSE AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRUMP IN THE 2016 REPUBLICAN NOMINATION PROCESS...
- RUN FOR PRESIDENT...