Politico:
Senate GOP tries one last time to repeal Obamacare
McConnell and his lieutenants will gauge support for the bill this week in private party meetings.
Republicans say McConnell won’t bring up the bill if there is any chance of failure, given the dramatic collapse in the summer.
“McConnell would like something to pass. But he also knows that getting 50 to vote for that is a challenge,” said a Republican aide tracking the bill. “They show him it has 50, he'll schedule a vote.”
What’s driving them? Fear of failure. Why does that matter? Because at this point they do not care what is in the bill. At all.
To them, it doesn’t matter how horrendous it is. It only matters if it passes.
Let’s be clear about one other thing: this has nothing to do with Bernie’s Medicare for All bill, or ‘taking our eye off the ball” or any silly stuff like that. Cassidy-Graham predated Bernie’s bill presentation, and so did the feeling of R humiliation. They are independent events. Let’s hope Bernie’s move is the one with staying power.
Politico:
‘I Want to Explode’ — A Roger Ailes Protégé Bares His Soul
Joe Lindsley was as close to the late Fox News chairman as anybody. Now, for the first time, he’s giving his account of their dramatic split.
No one wanted to publish his book, which is a tad flakey. But still… the idea that Fox news is actually news — and that it is accepted as such by non-Fox reporters — has been a disaster for America.
Click the link or the tweet, read the thread.
Tampa Bay Times:
How a bill requiring Florida nursing homes to have backup AC died
The legislation passed almost unanimously in the House of Representatives, but was derailed in the Senate.
"The Legislature is horrible when it comes to everything that doesn't have a tragedy behind it," said then-Rep. Dan Gelber, who sponsored the legislation in the House. "They have one now."
"Now that there are dead residents in an unthinkable tragedy, they'll probably solve the problem," added Gelber, who is a candidate for mayor in Miami Beach.
Some things never change.
Thomas B. Edsall/NY Times:
Trump Says Jump. His Supporters Ask, How High?
Third, and most significant, if the Barber-Pope, Broockman-Daniels and Achen-Bartels conclusions are right, American politics is less a competition of ideas and more a struggle between two teams.
In other words, insofar as elections have become primal struggles, and political competition has devolved into an atavistic spectacle, the prospect for a return to a politics of compromise and consensus approaches zero, no matter what temporary accommodations professional politicians make.
If it’s a struggle between two teams, the onus is on you to try and not make stupid mistakes for your team. That’s the simplest way to look at primaries: one candidate’s side telling the other not to make a stupid mistake by picking your candidate, and instead, pick mine. But after the primary this shit has got to stop. Divided teams lose. So stop challenging everything when you lose a primary. Win next time, or back the winner.
I suppose the same is true for elections, to a point. We’ll see what Bobby Three Sticks has to say about it. But note that my objections to Trump aren’t that he didn’t win. It’s that he sucks as a president and as a person. I’ll leave it to Mueller to challenge his legitimacy.
Al Hunt/Bloomberg:
An Infrastructure Deal Should Be Easy, But Isn't
Roads and bridges need fixing. There's White House and congressional support. Pork for all! It's not enough.
"We talked about different issues but [Trump] really emphasized infrastructure and was open to putting it together with tax reform," [Rep] Gottheimer [D-NJ] said. "There are a lot of tough questions but at least it's an encouraging first step."
It should be. But a heavy dose of skepticism is appropriate in today's polarized Washington, now more dysfunctional than ever under an inexperienced and inexpert administration led by an unreliable president.
"Everyone is talking a good game and everyone knows the needs, but the problem is where to get the money," said Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman and Transportation Secretary under President Barack Obama and a forceful infrastructure advocate. "You can't do it chintzy."
Mike Huckabee’s got a new gig. The former Arkansas governor will kick off a new show on Trinity Broadcasting Network in October, featuring music, faith, and some good old-fashioned politics. He’ll have an auspicious first guest: Donald Trump.
This planned appearance makes perfect sense in the Trump world of power and influence. The president reportedly thrives on television, but his own appearances have been more tailored to reach a core audience: white Christians. He has appeared on a number of Christian shows, doing interviews with Raymond Arroyo of the Catholic network EWTN and the Christian Broadcasting Network titan Pat Robertson.
Trump’s base.
religiondispatches.org:
People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch this month published an important report by RD contributor (and PFAW senior fellow) Peter Montgomery, offering a compelling portrait of a group that calls itself POTUS Shield (which also stands for “Prophetic Order of the United States”).
The report itself is required reading for anyone interested in better understanding the contours of the unflinching support President Trump continues to enjoy from right-wing conservative Christians, especially white evangelicals.
I called Peter for some background. What follows is our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, about POTUS Shield’s roots in the New Apostolic Reformation, the “unholy alliance” between more traditional religious right groups and the Pentecostal leaders of POTUS Shield, and why, despite Trump’s dedication to demonstrating his moral depravity, these “prayer warriors” still stand shoulder to shoulder with this president.
Jay Rosen:
Normalizing Trump: An incredibly brief explainer
If nothing the president says can be trusted, reporting what the president says becomes absurd. You can still do it, but it’s hard to respect what you are doing. If the president doesn’t know anything, the solemnity of the presidency becomes a joke. That’s painful. If they can, people flee that kind of pain. In political journalism there is enough room for interpretive maneuver to do just that.
This is “normalization.” This is what “tonight he became president” is about. This is why he’s called “transactional,” why a turn to bipartisanship is right now being test-marketed by headline writers. This is why “deal-making” is said to be afoot when there is barely any evidence of a deal.
What they have to report brings ruin to what they have to respect. So they occasionally revise it into something they can respect: at least a little.