We begin today’s roundup with Michael Tomasky and his piece at The Daily Beast on the West Virginia GOP Senate primary. Tomasky grew up in West Virginia and offers his perspective:
West Virginia has been beaten and battered. There’s not much life in the southern part of the state. I have a friend who told me that he’d heard of people moving out of the state who were unable to sell their houses, just left them. [...] So Blankenship, who’s been out of the game since the 2010 disaster, “has successfully pointed out that he created jobs and that in his absence these jobs have ceased to exist,” McAteer says. “It’s not true, but it doesn’t matter. If you’re a guy who’s out of work and you hear that, maybe it makes a certain sense to you.”
I suppose so. But there’s more to it than that. McAteer ascribes to Blankenship voters a rational motive, as if they’re reasoning this through. Maybe they are to some extent. But I think it’s more emotional. We’ve seen it before. What made Alabama Republicans nominate an accused pederast? Anger at the establishment. You call Roy Moore a perv? Well, if you hate him, that’s good enough for me, they said. I’m for him. Same with Blankenship. Same, for that matter, with Trump.
If Blankenship wins tonight, where does this stop? Because this is not a West Virginia thing. This is a GOP thing. Who’s next, an actual murderer? As long as he just killed a liberal, and not a “real” American, why not?
Here’s Dana Milbank’s analysis The Washington Post:
Whether or not the president stops Blankenship, the West Virginia GOP primary confirms that this sort of vulgar demagoguery is becoming routine. Trump’s election was no aberration. Rather, he exploited deep problems in American politics that had been building for years — and others, following his example, will exploit those same problems after he’s gone.
Turning to the assault allegations against New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman, The New York Times editorial board calls for a replacement that will hold those in power accountable for their actions:
Under state law, the Senate and Assembly will jointly choose Mr. Schneiderman’s replacement, effectively giving the power to his fellow Democrats. Later, voters will go to the polls in the Democratic primary, and have their say about who would face the Republican candidate in November. Whoever serves in this important office should be tough and independent, willing to stand up to Mr. Trump and Mr. Cuomo and — it should go without saying, but now it needs to be said — be a decent human being.
Anyone involved in the effort to replace Mr. Schneiderman should remember: No one is above the law.
On the topic of Trump’s legal strategy, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson examines Rudy Giuliani’s chaotic takeover of Trump’s legal strategy:
There is madness in Rudolph W. Giuliani’s incoherence on behalf of President Trump, but there is also method. He’s following the Trump playbook: Confuse, distract, provoke and flood the zone with factoids and truthiness until nobody can be sure what’s real and what’s not.
And on a final note, Edward Morrissey at The Week writes about “America’s appalling about-face on refugees”:
Twenty years ago, many Honduran refugees were "temporarily" admitted to the U.S. after Hurricane Mitch turned their country upside down. The program under which they sought refuge fell into a bureaucratic and legislative blindspot for two decades. Now, a sudden interest in fixing that problem threatens to make their lives — and our country — even worse. [...]
These refugees complied with the law, settled into American communities, and raised families here. Many of them started their own businesses, bought property, and continue to provide for extended families in their native land. They relied on American law to contribute to our communities, and expected American law to give them a measure of certainty.