HuffPost:
Midwestern Republicans Try To Kneecap New Democratic Governors
In Wisconsin and Michigan, GOP legislatures aren’t taking the party’s losses well
Lame-duck Republican legislatures in two Midwestern states where Democrats seized key state offices in November are trying to kneecap the incoming leaders and change election rules, aiming to consolidate GOP power despite the election results.
In Wisconsin, Republicans aim to limit early voting, change the date of the state’s presidential primary to help a conservative member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court win re-election, limit the governor’s ability to make certain appointments and block Gov.-elect Tony Evers from eliminating a state economic development agency.
To the east, Michigan’s GOP legislators are looking to limit the power of the state’s attorney general and secretary of state over lawsuits and campaign finance reforms. Democrats will take over from Republicans in the two offices.
So what happened yesterday? Flynn sentencing (and Manafort Friday and Cohen next week and word is much will be made public). The Khashoggi Senate hearings were a disaster for Jared and the White House, and NC09 was further exposed for the fraud that it is, while Wisconsin and Michigan do power grabs. Oh, and the market crashed. Interesting day.
The piece linked in the tweet above is really, really good:
When I asked [Speaker] Ryan’s office why he was joining in the efforts of his party’s least credible members, including President Donald Trump, to undermine confidence in the integrity of the vote — without a shred of evidence that something’s awry — a spokesman pointed me to a previous statement delivered to the Hill newspaper, saying Ryan “did not and does not dispute the results of the election.”
Good to know that when the speaker of the House pours kerosene on conspiracy theories, he’s not rooting for the republic to burn down.
WaPo:
Democrats could refuse to seat North Carolina Republican, Hoyer says
The probe has delayed the certification of Harris’s narrow victory in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, and the state officials could decide to call for a new election. Harris and Democrat Dan McCready are separated by 905 votes, according to unofficial returns.
But Hoyer’s comments throw into doubt whether, if Harris’s win is ultimately certified, he would be sworn in as a member.
And why should they? NC 09 is a case of election fraud. C’mon, Republicans. That is your issue, isn’t it?
Dan Kaufman/NY Times:
Wisconsin Is About to Make a Huge Mistake
The lame duck, heavily gerrymandered Republican Legislature plans to vote on Tuesday to limit the powers of the incoming governor and attorney general, who are — surprise — Democrats.
Apart from stripping powers from other branches of government, the legislation aims to decrease voter turnout by imposing a two-week limit on early voting, despite the fact that a federal judge struck down a similar Wisconsin law in 2016 on the ground that it was racially discriminatory. When Democrats swept statewide offices in November, it was mostly the result of record turnout in Dane and Milwaukee counties, Wisconsin’s two largest, both of which allow early voting to begin roughly six weeks before an election.
“The legislature is the most representative branch in government,” Mr. Vos and Mr. Fitzgerald wrote in a joint statement after the bills were released. It was meant to serve as a justification, but in Wisconsin, at least since 2011, that has not been true: That year, at a law office across the street from the state capitol, Republicans drew new redistricting maps, in secret and without input from a single Democrat or member of the public. In 2016, a federal court ruled the maps so excessively partisan as to be unconstitutional, the first time a court had made such a ruling on partisan grounds in thirty years. (Earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts, ruling that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.)
Donald P. Moynihan/WaPo:
Wisconsin Republicans are trying to subvert the will of the voters. They’re part of a larger trend.
This is part of a distinctly partisan and anti-democratic trend in state politics: When Republicans lose, they turn away from democratic processes and the will of the people. The impact of the proposed changes are on a par with Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s signature Act 10, which effectively destroyed public-sector unions and incited bitter polarization in the state .
The new power grab brazenly subverts the outcome of the election. For example, Walker and his opponent, Tony Evers (D), repeatedly clashed on Walker’s decision to join a lawsuit attacking Obamacare, prompting Evers to promise that he would withdraw from the lawsuit if elected. Given the clear contrast between the candidates, the now-governor-elect has a mandate to do so, but the proposed legislation would remove Evers’s power to act on that mandate.
Ari Berman/Mother Jones:
Republicans Brazenly Gut Voting Rights in Lame Duck Before They Lose Power
Four states are taking unprecedented steps to strip power from Democrats and make it harder to vote.
On Friday afternoon, Wisconsin’s Republican-held Legislature introduced a 141-page bill to strip two newly elected Democratic officials, incoming Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, of core powers before they take office. In addition, the bill would make it harder for Wisconsinites to vote by cutting early voting and preventing Evers from making the state’s voter ID law less restrictive.
Currently, Wisconsin counties can decide when to begin the early voting period. Democratic cities like Madison and Milwaukee began early voting six weeks before the election in 2018 and saw record turnout. The new bill would limit the early voting period to just two weeks across Wisconsin.
The new effort to cut early voting is similar to a previous law that was struck down by a federal court. In 2014, Wisconsin’s Legislature cut early voting from 30 days to 12, reduced early voting hours on nights and weekends, and restricted early voting to one location per municipality, hampering voters in large urban areas. A federal judge ruled in 2016 that the early voting cuts “intentionally discriminate on the basis of race” and had been passed “to suppress the reliably Democratic vote of Milwaukee’s African Americans.”
After the law was overturned, jurisdictions in Wisconsin, particularly in places like Madison and Milwaukee, expanded early voting locations and hours, leading to record turnout in 2016 and 2018. Democrats have pledged to sue if the new law is passed by the Legislature on Tuesday.
Michelle Goldberg/NY Times:
Why Does Alex Acosta Still Have a Job?
The cabinet official’s connection to a shady deal for an alleged child molester.
It is the perverse good fortune of Alexander Acosta, Donald Trump’s secretary of labor, to be part of an administration so spectacularly corrupt that it’s simply impossible to give all its scandals the attention they deserve.
Last Wednesday, The Miami Herald published a blockbuster multipart exposé about how the justice system failed the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, a rich, politically connected financier who appears to have abused underage girls on a near-industrial scale. The investigation, more than a year in the making, described Epstein as running a sort of child molestation pyramid scheme, in which girls — some in middle school — would be recruited to give Epstein “massages” at his Palm Beach mansion, pressured into sex acts, then coerced into bringing him yet more girls. The Herald reported that Epstein was also suspected of trafficking girls from overseas.
What’s shocking is not just the lurid details and human devastation of his alleged crimes, but the way he was able to use his money to escape serious consequences, thanks in part to Acosta, then Miami’s top federal prosecutor. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Acosta took extraordinary measures to let Epstein — and, crucially, other unnamed people — off the hook.
Mr. Bone Saw, you say? Ah, that Jared Kushner. What a hidden genius. His guiding hand not only supports MBS, but directs how the WH responds. No wonder senators are pissed.
As for how well that blue wave is still going …
Tom Nichols/USA Today with a security conservative’s view of the Michael Flynn sentencing:
It is unwise to speculate too rashly on what special counsel Robert Mueller’s sentencing memo for General Michael Flynn means at this point, especially since the most tantalizing parts are redacted. But three things are important.
First, it’s good that Flynn is not going to jail. For people incensed about the Russia scandal, and I am one of them, it will be difficult to accept that the man who called for locking up Hillary Clinton (and who famously said that “if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail today") will escape incarceration for serious crimes against the United States.
But vengeance is not justice. As the sentencing memo noted, “senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards,” but also that Flynn had “accepted responsibility for his unlawful conduct” and was clearly cooperating with Mueller. Unlike the other rogues, liars, and halfwits caught by Mueller, Flynn lived a distinguished life of service before he went off the rails and got sucked into the morality-destroying vortex that continuously surrounds Donald Trump…
Second, we should realize that the redactions are a positive sign in themselves. Mueller and other Justice Department agencies are holding back details that pertain to multiple investigations underway by multiple offices. This means Mueller has found important matters pertaining not only to Russia and possible collusion, but that he has uncovered criminal matters that need referral to other agencies, all of which will continue their work even if Mueller is fired tomorrow…
Third, Mueller has left clues about where he might go. Flynn provided “firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials,” the report says — with further details redacted. But this likely means Mueller believes Flynn, and could be using Flynn’s statements to check the veracity of others in the White House.
IOW there’s plenty of there there, and the Trump crime family should take note.
Click on Rudy Giuliani’s link.