Turning and turning in the widening gyre. The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold — Yeats
Max Boot/WaPo:
The political center is fighting back
This can be a dispiriting time to follow U.S. politics — especially for someone of my classical liberal (a.k.a. conservative) views. President Trump is the most unethical, unhinged and openly racist president in modern history, and yet he still maintains the support of roughly 40 percent of voters and 85 percent of Republicans. GOP leaders know how awful he is but are too cowardly to speak out. Congressional candidates are actually echoing many of Trump’s most offensive and authoritarian statements, from his calls to lock up Hillary Clinton to his attacks on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. It’s hard to know who is worse — Trump himself or his many enablers.
If there is any silver lining to this dark cloud hanging over our democracy, it is that Trump’s outrageous behavior is provoking opposition from a growing number of good-government groups. Both the center-left and center-right are mobilizing and — best of all — they are cooperating, because they realize that their policy differences fade into insignificance at a time when our core institutions and norms are under assault.
Greg Sargent/WaPo
Why did Paul Ryan dismiss the House chaplain?
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has dismissed the House chaplain, outraging Catholics in the lower chamber, and this morning’s speculation has centered on a prayer offered by the chaplain that was critical of the GOP tax law. In that prayer, Rev. Patrick J. Conroy urged members of the House to ensure that “there are not winners and losers” under the new law, but rather “benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
In an interview this morning, Democratic Rep. Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia said that Conroy told him he thought this prayer was a cause of his dismissal. “He speculated that this might be the reason,” Connolly told me. Conroy has publicly made similar suggestions elsewhere, and Ryan’s office has refused to explain the decision.
“A Catholic priest, a Jesuit like the Pope, committed to the social justice doctrine of the church, mildly encouraged members to keep fairness in mind as we contemplated the tax bill,” Connolly told me. “It reminds me of the line in Henry II, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?'”
Politico:
“Ryan bungled this. It’s entirely his prerogative to fire the chaplain, but without any public airing of grievances, it caught everyone off guard,” said one senior GOP aide.
Perhaps even more surprising, the controversy didn’t really gain steam until several days after Conroy announced his resignation. Conroy submitted his resignation letter — noting in the missive it was requested by Ryan — on April 16. But members didn’t start raising the issue until 10 days later, when word spread that Conroy was forced out by Ryan and didn’t actually want to retire.
One Republican lawmaker called the whole thing “stupid” and argued that it showed evidence of bias in the GOP Conference against Catholics. The person said some lawmakers wanted a more energetic person to minister to them and someone who could relate to having a wife and family.
“Now it’s Catholics versus Evangelicals,” the person said. “They want someone who is more Billy Graham.
Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
It is time to call Republicans’ bluff on Mueller protection
Republicans deserve the avalanche of criticism they have gotten for refusing to check the executive branch, whether it be on foreign emoluments, the Russia probe or on the confirmations of unfit nominees. When members do their job — as did a group of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted to protect special counsel Robert S. Mueller III — they deserve to be singled out for praise. Take note, then, and relay your appreciation (by emails, phone calls or in-person meetings) to Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), and especially the committee’s chairman, Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), who brought up the bill in committee despite warnings from the majority leader that the bill would not get a floor vote.
Thread by Stephen Dennis:
Hatch said the word “impeachment” again today.
Sasse said “politically suicidal”
Cornyn said “disastrous”
All talking about potential consequences if Trump fired Mueller.
All 3 voted against bill protecting Mueller’s job, saying it would be unconstitutional.
Alternative 6 Republicans supported was a nonbinding sense of the Senate resolution backing Mueller.
Many Republicans - including Hatch, Cornyn, Kennedy - insist Trump won’t fire Mueller - while sending rhetorical brushback pitches warning of dire consequences for his presidency if he does.
NY Times:
For Many, Life in Trump’s Orbit Ends in a Crash Landing
Over many decades, people who have entered Mr. Trump’s circle have discovered that they are bit actors in a movie he sees himself starring in.
“People are not people to him, they are instruments of his ego. And when they serve his ego, they survive, and when they don’t, they pass into the night,” said Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter on “The Art of the Deal,” Mr. Trump’s first book. “Ultimately, the fate of anyone who casts their lot with Trump is — you are passing through. And I just can’t think of anybody for whom it is not true.”
Jack O’Donnell, the former president of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, and a vocal critic of his former boss, said many people have cycled through his world remarkably quickly without leaving much of an impression on Mr. Trump.
“This is an individual who completely lacks compassion and empathy, and therefore the recycling of people, people crashing and burning, it means nothing to him,” Mr. O’Donnell said. “He might put on a public frown for a day because he’s upset that, in his mind, the admiral got railroaded out. But Trump couldn’t care less about the admiral.”
It’s so weird to see things written now that we have known and talked about since well before the election (but we’re bloggers so what do we know?) Well, as Felix Frankfurter said, “Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late”.
Susan Glasser/New Yorker:
Dear President Macron: Le Bromance with Trump Won’t End Well
Just ask congressional Republicans.
So, for now, aside from Corker and a handful of others, like the Judiciary gang of four, most of the President’s elected G.O.P. critics remain anonymous informants, such as Erickson’s congressman, or public NeverTrumpers, who are fêted by liberals and promoted in the media but shunned by those who still have to win reëlection and fear Trump’s power with the all-important Party base. “Republicans in this age of Trump in the Senate have faced unusual pressures because the President has delivered on core priorities for them: a tax cut, conservative judicial nominees, a dramatic deregulation agenda,” Senator Coons told me when I asked about the very palpable pressures on his Republican colleagues. “On the other hand, there is this erratic behavior and the constant drumbeat of questions about him and his appointees. There is a significant dissonance for Republicans between this unconventional and at times chaotic President and his delivery on many of their core agenda items.”
Amy Walter/Cook:
If Democrats Are Doing so Great, Why Don't They Have a Bigger Lead on Generic Ballot?
What does this mean? It means that Republicans are "coming home." Even in a terrible year for the GOP, they are not going to perform much worse in the national vote than 43-44 percent. In 2006, for example, Republicans took 44 percent of the national House vote, even as many polls leading up to Election Day showed Republicans in the high-30’s. In 2008, an even more politically horrific year for the GOP, Republicans garnered 43 percent of the national House vote. In both cases, Republican voters, many reluctantly, "came home" to the GOP in the end. What’s happening now is that these voters are coming home sooner. Given our intense polarization, and a president and a news media that fans those partisan flames, this shouldn’t be all that surprising.
The question for the fall, of course, is where those who currently put themselves in the "undecided" category break. We know these voters are much less engaged in politics. They are less attached to party and partisanship. We lump this group into the category called "independents." And, here’s what we know about them: they don’t like Trump. Overall, about one-third to 40 percent of self-described independent voters approve of the job Trump is doing as president. And, as we know, how you feel about the president is correlated very closely to how you vote in a mid-term election.
Of course, the center has its limits: