Yes, there was an election with important Democratic wins, but the best analysis and punditry are yet to come. For now, there’s:
WaPo:
Republicans wake to a blue Virginia
Republicans awoke Wednesday to a stark new political reality in Virginia after losing majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, a sweeping defeat that solidifies Democratic control over the state capital for the first time in a generation.
Depleted by President Trump’s floundering approval rating in Virginia, the Republicans’ defeat was a new low for a party that has not won a statewide race since Bob McDonnell became governor in 2009.
Yeah, we made it happen to you in a state you carried by 30 points.
WaPo:
Kentucky outcome embarrasses Trump and worries many Republicans ahead of 2020
Democrats’ claim of victory Tuesday in Kentucky’s gubernatorial race, as well as the Democratic takeover of the Virginia state legislature, left Republicans stumbling and increasingly uncertain about their own political fates next year tied to an embattled and unpopular president.
So good morning Congressional Republicans!!!!!
Feeling better? Has the fever broken? Ready to save your own necks?
But for now, this is the news:
Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent/WaPo:
Gordon Sondland just gave us this scandal’s smoking quid pro quo
The House Intelligence Committee just released transcripts of testimony by Ambassadors Kurt Volker and Gordon Sondland, two central players in the Ukraine scandal. While both accounts are full of fascinating and appalling details, the real blockbuster came in the form of an appended statement from Sondland in which he clarified his testimony on key points.
For context, recall that there were two things Ukraine wanted from the United States: nearly $400 million in military aid that President Trump had frozen, and a White House meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In his testimony, Sondland notes that this meeting was conditioned on Zelensky agreeing to make a public anti-corruption statement, a demand that had been communicated to him by Trump personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Extortion. Clear as crystal.
Adam Schiff/USA Today:
Trump betrayed America. Soon the public will hear from patriots who defended it.
The Ukraine call was one piece of a larger operation to redirect US foreign policy to benefit Trump’s personal interests, not the national interest.
Americans will hear directly from dedicated and patriotic public servants about how they became aware that U.S. foreign policy had been subverted for the president’s personal political interests, how they responded and how the president’s scheme jeopardizes our national security. These hearings will be different than those in the past, and, I believe, more illuminating. Instead of five-minute rounds of questioning, the format will provide equal and extended periods of questioning by professional staff or the chairman and ranking member of the Intelligence Committee to draw out key facts in a narrative format.
Amber Phillips/WaPo:
‘Extremely unfortunate:' Why officials like Kurt Volker seemed to find Trump’s Ukraine policy so troubling
A recurring theme among those who have testified in the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump is that his administration was politicizing Ukraine foreign policy.
But why does that matter? It can be hard to grasp if you’re not involved in or don’t have a fundamental understanding of foreign policy and national security principles.
Transcripts of testimony released this week from two former Trump administration officials, both of whom resigned right as this inquiry was heating up, explain why they were troubled by what was happening around them in ways that get at the heart of why the House has launched an impeachment inquiry.
Nate Cohn/NY Times:
A Sliver of the Electorate Could Decide 2020. Here’s What These Voters Want.
A demographically disparate group values both moderation and great change.
The poll adds a new mix of characters to the quadrennial cast of swing voters, like a somewhat conservative, college-educated suburban man who does not approve of the president’s performance, but strongly opposes a single-payer health system. Or a young man, perhaps even black or Latino, who is not conservative on policy but resents his generation’s stringent cultural norms and appreciates the president’s defiant critique of political correctness.
For now, these persuadable voters in battleground states have a favorable view of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, but not of Elizabeth Warren, our polling shows…
The size of that persuadable pool depends on how they are defined. Although there is reason to think some voters have more of a partisan lean than they realize, let’s call the 15 percent who are still thinking of voting for Mr. Trump or a Democrat the potentially persuadable.
As a group they are 57 percent male and 72 percent white, and 35 percent have college degrees. Most, 69 percent, say they usually vote for a mix of both Democratic and Republican candidates. Among those who voted in 2016, 48 percent say they voted for Mr. Trump, 33 percent for Hillary Clinton, and 19 percent for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein or no one. Those who voted in the midterm election voted for the Republican congressional candidate by one point.
These potentially persuadable voters are divided on major issues like single-payer health care, immigration and taxes. But they are fairly clear about what they would like from a Democrat. They prefer, by 82 percent to 11 percent, one who promises to find common ground over one who promises to fight for a progressive agenda; and they prefer a moderate over a liberal, 75 percent to 19 percent.
Over all, 40 percent describe themselves as conservative, compared with 16 percent who say they’re liberal. Forty percent are moderate.
Will Bunch/Philly.com:
From Deadspin to picket lines at GM and in Chicago, a moral workplace is 2020’s stealth issue
And as the spirit of rebellion spreads from the picket line to the cubicle farm, it’s also becoming a below-the-radar issue on the 2020 campaign for control of the White House and Congress. It reflects the growing awareness that the need to cling to employer-provided health insurance and pay for an overpriced university education — either for your kids, or the weight of your own college debt — isn’t just tough economics. It’s a form of social control.
“Medicare for All means freedom, including freedom to strike,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the Democrats’ top-tier 2020 White House hopefuls, tweeted in response to the GM walkout. Indeed, the looming election is in many ways a challenge to the economic regime of a modern workplace where labor has been weakened and bosses hold most of the cards.
And the under-the-radar scandal we have been following (I hate the idea that US farmers are screwed twice by this administration: trade war hurts them, aid goes to crooks instead of them. From WaPo:
This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. Now it wants to conquer America.
The company’s explosive growth through acquisitions over the past decade has been a dominant factor in the consolidation of the meat industry.
A dozen years ago, JBS did not own a single U.S. meat plant. Today, JBS and three other food companies control about 85 percent of beef production. JBS and Tyson Foods control about 40 percent of the poultry market. And JBS and three other companies control nearly 70 percent of the pork market.
JBS and the large multinational meat companies, including Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and Cargill, use their size and global presence to create efficiencies that enable them to produce a variety of quality foods at a lower price. But many agricultural economists and food marketing analysts say when so few companies control the market, they can drive smaller operators out of business, reducing competition and sometimes raising prices for consumers.
Mood: