Monday News & Notes
SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 -- PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, SPEAKING TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS DECLARES A 'WAR ON TERROR,' 2001
•Today at https://thehustings.news, go to the home page debate on what last week’s California recall election means for the future of the Republican Party under Donald Trump. Jessica Gottlieb opines from the left, with Bryan Williams on the right. Tip: Read the center column first.
•Canada holds “snap” federal elections today. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the elections two years early, in hopes of building his Liberal Party’s numbers in Parliament, but Canadian polls say the party may actually lose strength and threaten Trudeau’s leadership.
•The United Nations 76th General Assembly holds its annual gathering this week in New York City, beginning Tuesday.
•Pfizer BioNTech reports Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children 5 years old and up, says NPR’s Morning Edition.
Senate Democrats Can’t Attach Immigration to Budget Reconciliation – The Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, has ruled that Democrats cannot attach to the $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation package an immigration plan that would give several categories of immigrants permanent residence and possible U.S. citizenship, the Associated Press reports. The ruling ends Senate Democrats’ hopes that immigration reform could be passed by a simple majority vote along with the rest of budget reconciliation. Instead, any separate immigration bill will need 60 votes, including 10 Republicans, to avoid a filibuster.
Note: Fate of immigration reform passes back to the Republicans, again. How has that worked out for the last 20 or so years?
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Politico Scoop: Sinema Hands Biden Ultimatum on Budget – Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, reportedly told President Biden last Wednesday she will not back his $3.5-trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation package if the House fails to vote for, and pass, the $1.2-trillion infrastructure plan by Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA, September 27 deadline, according to Politico. Sinema is one of two Senate Democrats – the other is West Virginia’s Joe Manchin III, of course – who could torpedo the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill, needing just 50 votes to pass.
PoliticoPlaybook further notes there are at least 10 moderate Democratic House members playing hardball over infrastructure vs. reconciliation, including Rep. Kurt Schrader, of Oregon. “If they delay the vote,” Schrader told Playbook, referring to progressive House Democrats, “or it goes down – then I think you can kiss reconciliation goodbye. Reconciliation would be dead.”
Note: Finally, outward signs that moderate House Democrats are playing hardball with the progs. The White House’s weakened position on its agenda following the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan is almost certainly fortifying the moderates’ position.
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Cassidy Looks Forward—In an interview Sunday with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, with Todd using the decision by Rep. Anthony Gonzales, R-OH, not to seek re-election and former President Trump describing the representative as “a grandstanding RINO, not respected in D.C. who voted for the unhinged, unconstitutional, illegal impeachment witch hunt” as the setup, Cassidy made several comments which seem to indicate that there are some in the Republican Party who are not focusing on grievances of days past, as these following quotes indicate:
•“The broader question, frankly, is do Republicans continue to relitigate 2020, or do we look to the forward -- look forward with a positive agenda? If we relitigate 2020 over and over again, it won't change the result in 2020, but we're sure to lose in 2024.”
•“And so if we don't answer to voters in a positive way, we lose. It's kind of a market-based economy, and it's ruthless. If all you do is talk about the past, you're yesterday's news. If you talk about the future in a way which gives a positive alternative to a Biden administration, whether it's inflation, Afghanistan, immigration -- I could go on -- which is failing, then we win. Now, folks can choose to be bullied and relitigate. We can choose to go forward and win. I choose to go forward and serve my constituents.”
•“Politicians are not victims. We choose who we answer to. Either you can choose to answer to someone who is off-screen, if you will, or you can choose to answer to your constituents, your state, your country.”
•“If we relitigate the past, we lose. We've got to speak about the future.”
•“Again, if we relitigate an election from 2020, we lose. I'm about winning.”
Note: Cassidy was one of seven senators who voted to impeach Trump during his second impeachment trial. Cassidy was re-elected to the Senate in 2020 so he has no immediate concern vis-à-vis his own position.
It is interesting to note that statements like these, as well as reports that there are several Republican politicians who are grumbling that Trump won’t leave the stage, the deflated protest that was “Justice for J6,” and Gavin Newsom’s convincing showing in the recall election, may indicate that when the Republicans get serious about 2022 and 2024 Trump may not be the force to be reckoned with that he is now — or has been, up until now.
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And Yet, Trump Wants a New Republican Senate Leader – Flying in the face of Sen. Cassidy’s comments above, Donald Trump is shopping for a new Senate leader to depose Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, The Wall Street Journal reports. Here’s a surprise: No one wants it. There’s “little appetite” to replace McConnell, even among such Trump sycophants as Sen. Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama, who has already declined, the Journal says.
McConnell, whose eighth term as GOP Senate leader runs to January 2023, voted against Trump’s second impeachment conviction. But his relationship with Trump has been frosty, to say the least, since the minority leader denounced the former president in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor. McConnell holds Trump’s constant repeat of his Big Lie responsible for his own demotion from majority leader after two Democrats took Georgia’s Senate seats, pushing Democrats into the majority, in the January runoffs.
Note: The WSJ report notes that Trump has raised $102 million in political cash in the first six months of the year but hasn’t paid any of it off to GOP candidates. The newspaper also notes that Trump’s discussions “risk driving a deeper wedge” between McConnell and Trump. One of the savviest Capitol Hill strategists, McConnell must now be considering whether holding firm against President Biden’s agenda, or whether negotiating for better bi-partisanship is his better path to firming up his power. We’d bet on the former. And while Trump allegedly wants his previous job back, too, given how that’s been working out, odds are McConnell is not overly concerned.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash