22 October 20
We Can’t Afford the Luxury of Failure
When we said no to the corporations and the moneyed interests we canceled our “option to fail.” The same could be said of the times in which we live. We finish our funding-drives and we prevail because we must.
In peace and solidarity.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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22 October 20
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FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Democrats Can't Resist Starting Fires in Their Own Backyards
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "This is what makes me crazy about Democrats. By all available evidence, things are sailing right along."
Too much of the Republican Party is too nuts. Don't talk to me about a "team of rivals."
his is what makes me crazy about Democrats. By all available evidence, things are sailing right along. Joe Biden has the lead in a race that hasn't moved an inch since New Year's. The Senate majority is now in the hazard. Contributions are flooding in. Veteran Republicans are holding a couple of press conferences a day to announce their support for the Democratic ticket. The Bring Us Together message is selling all over the country. This is a good thing. But, with their ingrained instinct to gild their own lily, the Democrats let out a list of possible Cabinet appointments guaranteed to inflame unnecessarily their own base. From Politico:
Nevertheless, one person close to the Biden transition said it remains “a priority to have options” from different parts of the ideological spectrum for the former vice president to consider. That person and another official familiar with the transition deliberations confirmed to POLITICO that Biden staffers are analyzing some Republicans’ backgrounds and resumes as they compile shortlists of candidates for high-profile Cabinet positions. The goal is to have some GOP options among the finalists that Biden would choose from after the election. Among the names being floated for possible Biden Cabinet posts are Meg Whitman, the CEO of Quibi and former CEO of eBay, and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, both of whom spoke at August’s Democratic National Convention. Massachusetts GOP Gov. Charlie Baker and former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) have also been mentioned, as has former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who resigned from Congress in 2018 and became a lobbyist.
(Not that I'd be entirely averse to crowbarring Baker out of the Corner Office up here. That would open up the possibility of Governor Maura Healey and, therefore, Attorney General Joseph P. Kennedy III. Winning!)
Leave aside for the moment the entirely justified fear that a prospective Biden administration may make the same mistake the Obama administration did—that of assuming the possibility of a good-faith partnership with a Republican Party far gone into its prion disease. Why release a specific list of names now when things are going so well? John Kasich is still an adherent of the Balanced Budget Amendment, the second-worst idea in American politics. (There's also the matter of 250G's of Russian money that the Dallas Morning News reported went into his 2016 presidential campaign.) Jeff Flake was last seen hiding in an elevator when a woman confronted him over Christine Blasey Ford's accusation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. (Flake also was a charter member of the Deeply Troubled Caucus, and he quit rather than stand for re-election.) My point is that leaking not merely the possibility of GOP Cabinet choices, but also leaking specific names guarantees you will have several specific fires to put out in your own backyard instead of one big—if, at this point, largely theoretical—one.
“This plays to Joe Biden’s comfort zone,” said one former Republican member of Congress who is close to the Biden transition. “If you’re Joe Biden, of course you’re going to want to expand your base a little bit, show some outreach to the other side.”
Meanwhile, even a guy from the Third Way kiddie pool is dubious about the political advantage of making this known because too much of the Republican Party is too nuts. Also, the first person who uses the phrase "Team Of Rivals" in this context has to go to Pundit Jail for six months. You have been warned.
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