Are you as tired of GOP faux outrage as we are? You've likely heard about the so-called Christians on the Republican side getting all upset that President Biden is observing International Transgender Visibility Day — simply because this year, it falls on the same day as Easter. (Or perhaps we should say, Easter falls on it, since Easter is the holiday with the date that moves.) Oh, well! Happy ITVD, everybody, and we'll see you at the White House Egg Roll tomorrow. We cats PURR.
By Miss Kubelik
After Thursday night's $26 million fundraiser in New York City, Team Biden made some important announcements about the campaign's battleground-state organization. One was that they're opening 10 (count 'em) 10 field offices in the state of North Carolina alone.
(North Carolina is a ripe opportunity for Democrats this year: Republicans have nominated a sweaty, yelling religious whackjob for Governor, and their candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction not only home-schools her kids, she's called for the public execution of the Presidents you see above.)
To put it in context, last night's haul was big that it could pay for the entire general election campaign — field and media — in the Tar Heel State. And Biden had great timing to piggy-back on the New York event and announce the field initiatives today. It will help drive the weekend conversation into the Sunday talk shows.
We cats also have some suggestions for the media's next logical steps:
And if any national newspeople would contact George W. Bush to ask him why he's been a no-show in the GOP version of last night's Radio City Music Hall event, we'd like to shake their hands and give them a Daniel Webster cigar. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
Chalk up another excellent election result for Democrats post-Dobbs. This time, it's in Alabama, right smack in the middle of its post-IVF-ruling nightmare. How sweet it is.
Yep, it's a state house race, but don't let any pundits or panicked Republicans try to minimize it. This special election took place yesterday in a GOP district because its previous representative, David Cole, resigned and pleaded guilty to voter fraud last year. (Emphasis ours.) In 2022, Cole beat Democrat Marilyn Lands by about seven points. Yesterday, Lands beat another Republican by nearly 25 points.
That's roughly a 30-point flip, for those of you doing the math at home.
In her campaign, Lands emphasized reproductive rights and, in particular, the horrifying February ruling by the Alabama State Supreme Court on in vitro fertilization, which Republicans have desperately been trying to run from ever since. She also was very open about her own abortion due to a nonviable pregnancy. In short, her platform was that women and families need to have the freedom to determine their own reproductive futures — safely and privately.
Be afraid, GOP. Be very afraid. We cats PURR.
Ronna Romney appears to be out at NBC after less than a Scaramucci.
We're happy about that, because Ronna deserves everything bad that can happen to her. But we're not rushing back to MSNBC or cable news anytime soon. The Ronna hire was not only outrageous and objectionable in and of itself, but let's be honest — the on-air uproar seemed contrived. Chuck Todd's contract ends this year, so he had nothing to lose by calling out his bosses. Kristen Welker has had no credibility since she kicked off hosting Meet the Press by interviewing Benedict Donald. Even the protests lodged by MSNBC's other anchors will not change the fact that its parent network will owe, and will pay, a lot of money to a criminal. And it's not clear that anybody in the media has learned a lesson.
Which makes us crazy. So let's focus on some other important stories that are headlining the news today.
We hope that Governor Wes Moore's first phone call this morning was to Governor Josh Shapiro, who has deep experience in quickly fixing broken things. (Knowing, of course, that the Francis Scott Key Bridge is a little bit bigger than that highway overpass in Philadelphia.) Is Maersk prepared for the staggering lawsuits that are coming their way?
The judge in Benedict Donald's Stormy Daniels criminal case has just gagged him. How sweet! As legal beagles have pointed out, while it's not unusual for judges to issue such orders in due course, Judge Juan Merchan hastened to sign and issue it today — right after Trump publicly went after Michael Cohen and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's staff. Oh, and the judge's daughter. Does Donald not realize that Merchan could send him to jail if he's convicted? (Or if he violates the gag order? Hm!)
Meanwhile, Trump is now selling "God Bless the USA" Bibles. We were all set to hack up hairballs about that until we saw Liz Cheney's snappy response: "Happy Holy Week, Donald," she tweeted at him. "Instead of selling Bibles, you should probably buy one. And read it, including Exodus 20:14." (That's the commandment that Trump broke when he had sex with Stormy Daniels.)
Finally, we debated about sharing this horrific photo of Kimberly Guilfoyle from an event at Mar-A-Lago this past weekend. But it's so symbolic of everything that's terrible about Trump and his world. Guilfoyle, who was once married to California Governor Gavin Newsom and who used to look normal, is clearly unwell. We despise her, but find this picture disturbing. And we HISS.
Tweeps are upset about the reduction in Benedict Donald's bond in his New York civil fraud case today. We can't get on that train. First, it's exhausting. Second, we have no control over what the courts do with Trump. The only action we can definitely take — and it's a big one — is to vote against him in November.
But it's a little weird how all the folks who are rending garments and gnashing teeth are ignoring the fact that Trump's $464 million judgment hasn't gone away. "Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud," Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
"The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely
inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his
organization. The $464 million judgment — plus interest — against Donald
Trump and the other defendants still stands."
Yep. And Benedict Donald has to cough up the $175 million bond in 10 days. This actually seems humiliating for him: Just days ago, he said he had the original amount in cash! But now the court has basically called him a lying non-billionaire. Expect him to go on another endless Truth Social rant in the wee hours tonight.
Meanwhile, we'd like to put in a New York-y word here. Tish James is our state Attorney General. We vote for her, and she answers to us. Her responsibilities are to enforce New York law and, in this particular case, protect the interests of New York taxpayers (us). If today's decision means that the state will get some money, as opposed to chasing down and seizing properties — a dicey proposition at best — we find this acceptable. In the meantime, we can all be pleased that Benedict Donald's first criminal trial starts April 15. We cats PURR.
By Hubie and Bertie
Democrats got some good news today: Tammy Murphy has dropped out of the Senate race in New Jersey against the uber-indicted Bob Menendez, who's in terrible shape electorally and is mad that his fellow Democrats are disgusted with him. He says he'll run as an Independent. (Who cares?) Murphy's decision clears the way in our primary for Congressman Andy Kim, who is a mensch. Kim was so appalled at how the Trump insurrectionists defiled the Capitol on January 6 that the first thing he did after calm was restored was to help clean up. He'll be a good Senator. We cats approve, and we PURR.
The funeral of the former Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney, was held in Montreal today. It was probably the most important memorial since Pierre Trudeau's in the fall of 2000. Distinguished Canadians from across the political spectrum attended, and spoke — including current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had received some important support from Mulroney last June.
Each speaker shone in his or her own way. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky was appropriately humble. And Mulroney's own voice was piped through the sanctuary, singing "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," his favorite tune. As funerals go, this one was apparently top-notch.
Sadly, current Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre didn't get the memo. In a man-on-the-street interview outside the Notre Dame basilica, Poilievre was given the softest of softballs — the opportunity to say some nice things about the deceased — and instead, standing in the falling snow next to his evidently miserable wife, he chose to make a political statement about how awful things are in Canada today. (Which they aren't.) How Trumpy — take an interview that any normal politician could have easily handled with taste and class, and turn it into a disgusting, self-promoting cauchemar.
Dude just doesn't know how to read a room. And although we were not fans of Mulroney, who was a big Ronald Reagan stan, we have to believe that he wouldn't have approved of Poilievre's behavior today, either. Poilievre may have gotten a new haircut, ditched his glasses, and now favors Steve-Jobs-type black turtlenecks — but there's no makeover that can improve his wretched personality. It's hard to believe that Canadians will overlook that in next year's elections. We cats HISS.
We cats used to watch a lot of MSNBC. Heck, it was only thanks to "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" that we were able to get through the second Bush Administration. For years, our cable boxes were set to tune directly into the channel whenever we turned them on.
But we've been watching less and less lately. The rise, fall, and re-emergence of Benedict Donald has revealed cable news for what it really is: a corporate enterprise that strives for eyeballs, clicks and likes by feeding viewers' anxiety instead of informing them — even in the face of Trump-inspired threats to democracy. MSNBC is no exception. All their talking heads and hosts — except perhaps Lawrence O'Donnell — are complicit. Even those who rail against Trump today were eager enablers eight and nine years ago. (Looking at you, Joe and Mika.)
Now, we and the network are done. NBC News has hired Ronna Romney McDaniel as an on-air commentator. Boy, are we glad we're not Jen Psaki, Rachel Maddow, Nicolle Wallace or Symone Sanders, and have to share a set with this person. (Then again, they'll probably meekly go along, because they're all part of the wink-wink-anxiety-pumping operation that lands them their giant paychecks in the first place.)
The woman who's in charge of NBC's political coverage (and whom we shall not name because she doesn't deserve it) can try to dress up the appointment as providing "an insider's perspective," and all the other silly stuff you say when you hire a normal person to join the team. But Ronna Romney helped Benedict Donald try to overturn the 2020 election. She tried to cancel our votes. We won't be watching.
Why don't they just go back to airing Trump's "shows" without fact-checking, and allow him to call into "Morning Joe" and spew garbage for 30 minutes? So long, NBC. We cats HISS, hack up multiple hairballs and dump our dirty litter boxes over Ronna Romney's head.
Another primary day yesterday. Why is Benedict Donald underperforming? Ask Stormy Daniels.
Or, if that topic makes you gag, just look at the respective Biden and Trump margins of victory from Ohio, Kansas, Illinois and Arizona and try to figure it out. (NOTE: The Florida primary was only for Republicans, and HAHAHA, Ron DeSantis came in third. Behind fellow dropout Nikki Haley. But we digress.)
President Biden's victory margins bested Trump's in every state — plus-74 percent for Biden versus plus-59 percent for Trump in Kansas, plus-74 versus plus-65 in Ohio, plus-88 versus plus-65 in Illinois, and plus-86 versus plus-59 in Arizona. Wow! — all eye-popping, but Arizona, jeez. It's a key swing state, and Benedict Donald can't get a greater-than-60-percent margin of victory there? Sounds like trouble.
In short, we're seeing a real enthusiasm deficit on the GOP side. And more of them — not just Mike Pence, Willard Romney and the Cheneys now — are saying they won't support Trump. (Senator Todd Young of Indiana is just the latest.) These continuing announcements give other Republicans permission to walk away from Donald, too.
Cable news talking heads will no doubt rhapsodize about Trump's primary victories, but if they do, they're ignoring the cracks in the Republican foundation. Biden-Harris, meanwhile, has grass-roots energy, lots of money, a record of accomplishment, and, unlike Trump, a refusal to run America down. This all seems to us like a good way to win in November. We cats PURR.
So the great Benedict Donald Bloodbath Brouhaha continues into its second day — third, if you count Saturday, when he made that awful speech in Dayton, Ohio. Jeez, Trumpsters are ruining baths now. Is nothing sacred?
As Casey Stengel would say, you could look it up — so we did. First, members of the media and the Twitterverse should learn that "bloodbath" is one word. Second, its principal definition is "a great slaughter." The definition "a major economic disaster" comes in third, usually with "market" preceding it. Nevertheless, Republicans and MAGAts are desperately trying to spin Trump's bloodbath remark as a reference to the auto industry, which, we shouldn't forget, Trump neglected during his term with a lot of empty promises.
They think this is going to fly because of Trump's habit of speaking like a mob boss (never quite explicitly saying what he means, but leaving it open for his loyal gangsters to interpret and carry out). But thanks to his obvious cognitive deterioration, Trump is no longer verbally adept enough to pull this off. His mind flits around like it never did before. Which means that his lack of specificity allows people to interpret it any way they want. (As did the Morning Schmoes, for example.)
And since Trump saluted the insurrectionists at the beginning of his show — even playing some January 6th bastardization of the national anthem — how does he deserve any benefit of the doubt? We cats HISS.
Our only problem with Mike Pence's repudiation of Benedict Donald today is that we're not sure that he represents anybody in the Republican Party anymore. The Nikki Haley voters who turned out in droves during the primaries? Yeah, we could see them mattering in the fall. But Pence? Who does he bring with him?
We're thinking, hmmm. Not really anybody. Maybe the tiny slice of evangelicals who have not sold their souls to Trump World — however many (or few) people that is. But aside from Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, we can't think of any Republican whose defiance of Donald would make a huge difference. (That said, we welcome Haley voters who might want to check that box for Biden-Harris in November.)
Unless... wait a sec. Is there a "Former Republican Vice Presidents Against Trump" club? We know one guy who would surely belong. But are any journalists planning to call Dan Quayle and ask for his opinion? We cats suggest they do, and we PURR.
Another not-great week for the GOP and the Trumpsters, and it's only Tuesday. Republican Congressman Ken Buck of the fourth district of Colorado, already not running for re-election this year, will leave Congress effective Friday, March 22.
So many hilarious sides to this.
The first is that Buck gave Preacher of the House Mike Johnson about 30 minutes' notice via a message he left on Johnson's phone. (That'll teach you not to pick up, Mike.) Meanwhile, Johnson is claiming he was completely blindsided, and intends to chat with Buck about it. (That'll teach you not to listen to your voice mail, too!)
The second is that Governor Jared Polis, being a Democrat who believes in the process, decided not to play any games — like, say, Ron DeSantis did with Alcee Hastings's seat in Florida — and immediately set a date for the special election to replace Buck: June 25, same as primary day. Fun fact: Lauren Boebert, who intended to run in the CO-04 primary since she can't possibly win in the district she currently represents, would have to resign to run in the special. Members of Congress can't represent two districts at the same time — a rule that even guardrail-crashing Republicans haven't managed to break yet.
The third is Buck's withering commentary on Johnson's out-of-control House. This session, he said today, is "the worst...of the nine years and three months I've been in Congress." HAHAHAHAHA.
And the last is that Buck's departure shaves Johnson's majority down to 218, versus 213 for the Democrats. HAHAHAHAHA again.
One final, non-Ken-Buck thought before bedtime: We cats have never rushed to jump on the bash-Merrick-Garland bandwagon. There's too much stuff that all of us outside the Department of Justice don't know, and that's how it should be — mostly, to protect defendants' rights. But after the Robert Hur spectacle on Capitol Hill today, we have to say, Garland's decision to appoint Hur Special Counsel for the Biden documents investigation is something we just don't get.
We're glad the Democrats were able to embarrass Hur — and Trump, and the ridiculous House Republicans. So it all worked out in the end. But the crap we had to endure to get to this point? It makes us HISS.
It's been both amusing and annoying to see tweeps and others scream that President Biden must immediately sack Attorney General Merrick Garland or change his 2024 running mate. Not only are both demands ridiculous, it's only eight months until November, for heaven's sake. Any major change — and we assume that means a replacement for outgoing HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge — will have to wait for next year.
But it's completely fun to watch what Benedict Donald and his merry band of traitorous minions, including daughter-in-law Lara Trump, are doing to the Republican National Committee right now. With Election Day right around the corner, they're staging an RNC "bloodbath" — firing 60 staffers and realigning the entire operation, apparently, to pay Trump's legal bills. The Trumpsters intend to completely merge the RNC's fundraising with theirs, a Republican-money version of The Fly.
And they'll kick out the door anyone who knows what they're doing in data (targeting and getting out the vote), communications (the folks who make all those campaign ads people see during football), and politics (strategizing, allocating resources, etc.). Although they swear that they'll be inviting people to reapply, don't believe it. We predict that to save money for Benedict Donald's ever-expanding legal woes, they won't replace all 60. (Under normal circumstances, new management would be hiring additional staff.)
Other than footing Trump's lawyer bills, their focus, we're sure, will be almost entirely on the Presidential race, and Republicans out in the states will have to fend for themselves. But the most alarming thing for the party? There's no time.
What's the planning for the convention? For security, hotel rooms, fundraising events? For big-donor care and feeding? Finding space at local airports for all those rich Republicans' private planes? And is it all on schedule? Or have they fired everybody working on that stuff?
George Conway may have put it best: "Total stable genius move to do this during a Presidential election cycle. No doubt that Lara will quickly replace the fired people with only the best people, as MAGA only attracts the best, and that fired staffers won’t be disgruntled and leak damaging stories to the press." We cats PURR.
It was hard to imagine that our mood could get any better after President Biden's kick-ass State of the Union. We're still on a bit of a high from it. But if we're up, Katie Britt is down, down, down.
Independent journalist Jonathan Katz released a Tik-Tok video exposing a big Britt lie in her already-excoriated State of the Union Republican response: A sex-trafficking victim she linked to Biden's border policies actually was pressed into sexual slavery back when George W. Bush was President. And her ordeal took place in Mexico, not the United States. Even Fox "News" got in her face about it this morning. No doubt about it: Britt has turned herself into a joke — or at the very least, a meme, and she'll never be able to wear that green blouse again.
Here are some other examples of bad behavior that have failed to darken our post-SOTU mood:
GOP Congresswoman and perennial attention seeker Nancy Mace got in a huge cat fight with George Stephanopoulos today when he asked her how she, a rape victim, could support adjudicated molester Benedict Donald. Her overused go-to line: "You're trying to shame me, George!" Interestingly, Mace also didn't hesitate to shame or judge E. Jean Carroll for her own response to being raped (by Donald).
Journalists have acted up, too. After days and weeks of screaming along with the ridiculous Biden-is-too-old-and-can-still-step-down chorus, Ezra Klein has had the gall to write this: "If the Joe Biden who showed up to deliver the State of the Union address last week is the Joe Biden who shows up for the rest of the campaign, you’re not going to have any more of those weak-kneed pundits suggesting he’s not up to running for re-election." Ezra — dude — you know we know, right?
Finally, now that Biden has scuttled the Republicans' wild claims about his
feebleness, they're turning to two new, desperate tacks: He must have been on
drugs! And he should replace Vice President Harris with Nikki Haley
as his running mate! The only thing more ridiculous than that idea — see the photo above, if you don't believe us — is anybody spending any time on it at all. We cats HISS.
Transvaginal Bob McDonnell, wherever he is today, must be really annoyed. When he gave the Republican response to the State of the Union address back in 2010, he fell pretty flat — but good God, if he was uninspired, at least he was normal. Not like the goofy gopher Bobby Jindal, or the overrated and ever-thirsty Baby Marco Rubio. And certainly not like whatever it was we all saw from Alabama Senator Katie Britt last night.
As one tweep we follow observed, before Thursday night, we didn't really know much about Katie Britt — and how dearly we would like to return to those halcyon days. We knew that Alabama had gone big-time downhill in its Senate representation recently, but between Katie and Tommy Tuberville, what a shock. Why was her voice so breathy? Why was she in Handmaid's Tale green? Why was she in a kitchen? Why was there nothing in that kitchen? WTF is going on?
Republicans are in a state, too. In real time last night, party leaders were calling and texting one another and screaming. "Everyone’s fucking losing it," one said. "It’s one of our biggest disasters ever."
We cats will spare you the original Britt video, because it's beyond cringeworthy. Instead, enjoy these reactions from The View. And gosh, what a night for Democrats — not only did Dark Brandon rule in the State of the Union, but the Republican response crashing and burning in such dramatic fashion? Icing on the cake. (Which is maybe a very kitchen-oriented metaphor.) Transvaginal Bob, please try to control your frustration. We cats PURR.
So yeah, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.'s State of the Union address last night was the bee's knees.
We've always had faith in Dark Brandon, so we weren't really surprised — but it was a delight nonetheless. He started out Biden-tough, citing FDR and No Ordinary Time, and got even stronger as the speech went on. Then he hung around for more than a half hour afterward, mingling with members and staff and getting caught saying amusing things on hot mics. His detail were allegedly looking at their watches, trying to move him along. Sorry, guys — he's POTUS, suck it up.
He clearly was having a marvelous time — like the Von Trapp kids frolicking in those window-curtain playclothes that Fräulein Maria made for them — and boy, did MAGA world get pissed about that. "They fumed, they pouted, they squirmed, and like Mike Johnson, they sat silently when Biden was talking about...anything good about America or the positive progress this country has made," says Mary Trump. And today, since their feeble-Biden narrative has fallen completely apart, they've resorted to saying that he was — wait for it — on drugs. (Every accusation is a confession.)
Ahead of the address, Trumpy nutcase Marjorie Taylor Greene threatened to heckle the President, and, inappropriately sporting a red MAGA cap, she did try to engage him on his walk down the aisle. But Biden short-circuited her by reacting, in the words of a particularly spot-on tweep, the way folks do with every trick-or-treater who shows up at their door. Our thought was: POTUS is a dad and a granddad, and boy, does he know how to handle toddlers.
So yes, there was heckling and backing-and-forthing. But the Republicans' bad behavior backfired on them in a significant way: It kept people watching. Most SOTUs are snoozefest laundry lists of accomplishments and proposals, which — we have to admit — even Bill Clinton couldn't pull off over 90 minutes without sending you at least once to the fridge or the bathroom. But the GOP's jibing and shouting, and Biden's gleeful engagement with it, meant that you just had to put off that trip to the litter box a little while longer. It was mesmerizing.
There were so many favorite moments, but one of the best had to be Joe's dressing-down of the Supreme Court. "In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court majority wrote the following," he said, "and with all due respect, justices, 'Women are not without electoral or political power.' You're about to realize just how much you got right about that." The room erupted, and Roberts, Biff and Gorsuch looked peeved. Good thing the execrable Samuel Alito wasn't there. President Obama freaked him out over Citizens United in 2010, and he hasn't attended another SOTU since. We cats PURR.
Once, several of our nine lives ago, we cats decided to have a unique viewing of the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz. We spent the whole movie watching Toto, and only Toto. You wouldn't believe the stuff we saw! You've got to wonder if the editors talked about snipping out the scenes in which he shook himself all over, as dogs are wont to do.
In that same spirit, we'd really like to see a compilation from last night's masterful State of the Union address of just Preacher of the House Mike Johnson, who, with his diminutive size and grimaces, seemed a glorious new incarnation of The Lollipop Guild. Bet he wished he'd never welcomed President Biden to Munchkinland.
The hijinks began even before the speech, when he stood on the dais with Vice President Kamala Harris, who from her body language obviously loathes him. (Who wouldn't, when there are reports that to make desperate small talk, Johnson asked her if her parents were dead yet?) Then when the Biden Barnburner got underway, it was clear that Johnson had decided that a continuous look of befuddlement and chagrin was the only way he was going to get through it.
Why do misanthropes bother to go into politics? Hell, even the foolish and inept Kevin McCarthy knew how to gladhand. But Johnson is so out of his depth — an idealogue who doesn't know the first thing about Joe Biden's area of expertise: "the connect." When you're a white male right-winger from gerrymandered Louisiana, you can campaign on denying people their rights in the name of God, but it doesn't mean squat when it comes to managing your fractious caucus or behaving like a decent human being in front of 330 million Americans.
Somebody get that poor man a lollipop (he probably doesn't drink). And let's put him out of his Speaker job come November. We cats PURR.
Back in the day, we cats sure dragged former Virginia Governor "Transvaginal Bob" McDonnell around, didn't we? Like he was a dead, headless mouse. Today in the Commonwealth, it's several Governors later — but if you're a Republican, just because your name isn't McDonnell doesn't mean you know what you're doing.
We're talking about Glenn Youngkin, of course, who just met an implacable brick wall in the person of Democratic State Senator Louise Lucas. Youngkin had foolishly tried to bypass her in planning to build a hugely expensive sports arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals in Alexandria, just outside DC. The facility, natch, would have been paid for by taxpayers, not by Ted Leonsis, the teams' billionaire owner.
This was a fatal mistake, because Lucas is chair of the upper chamber's Finance and Appropriations Committee. But then, Youngkin is what he is: a mediocre white man who thought he could skate around Lucas and the rest of the Democratically controlled Virginia legislature.
A bitchy Youngkin made an angry appearance today to decry the sundering of his plans, whining that after Lucas stripped the arena language out of a finance bill that the legislature will vote on in a few days, members didn't step up at the last minute to rework the budget. What poppycock. "We can’t negotiate a multibillion dollar deal in eight hours between two chambers, the Governor’s mansion and multiple private parties. It’s nonsense and it’s a press stunt," Majority Leader Scott Surovell blasted back.
(In case you're wondering, that's Senator Lucas standing on the portico of the Virginia capitol, watching Youngkin's press-avail meltdown. She's the one in the black dress, with the dot of elegant gray hair.)
Grousing Glenn may try to revive the arena deal next month, but for now, Lucas has stopped it. Funnily enough, the only person who seemed to understand how formidable she is was Leonsis, who met with her for the first time in Richmond yesterday and called her a badass. "I loved it," she said. "I thanked him." We cats agree, and we PURR.
Well! Even the Trumpy cheerleaders at The New York Times have been unable to ignore the soft underbelly of Benedict Donald's Super Tuesday wins. (Are they returning to sanity? Don't bet on it.)
Trump's problem? The suburbs hate him. That's how we would put it, but when the Times cited telling examples, it did so in its usual decorous fashion: "Mr. Trump lost suburban precincts in Virginia despite carrying the state by a staggering 28 percentage points. In North Carolina, his 51-point victory was tempered by much narrower margins in the highly educated and affluent suburbs around Charlotte and Raleigh."
Yep. Those folks didn't like him in 2020, and they still don't like him now — maybe even more so, after Dobbs, January 6, the documents scandal, and all the anti-democracy, run-down-America talk. In the last four years, Trump has done absolutely nothing to broaden his base. In fact, he's actively worked against it, not just saying and doing intemperate things but also threatening to boot everyone who isn't MAGA from the GOP. Who in politics, or just in life in general, thinks this is at all smart?
And oh, those Super Tuesday exit polls. We saw more of them today, and if there were any normal folks on Team Trump, those alarm bells would be ringing. Sixty-six percent of Haley voters said Benedict Donald was not mentally fit to be President, and 81 percent of them said they're not an automatic Republican vote in the fall. In Virginia, half of Haley supporters said they approved of Joe Biden's performance in office. Dobbs, as you'd expect, underlies nearly everything.
How wise, then, that President Biden immediately reached out to those voters to welcome them in. "Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley's supporters," his statement said. "I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my
campaign." You got that right, Mr. President. We cats PURR.
It's Super Tuesday, and we cats are sensing a bunch of opportunities.
Our first analysis is that President Biden is wiping the floor in the Democratic contests — not just embarrassing "Drop Out" Dean Phillips, but also garnering vastly more support in his contests than Benedict Donald is in his. At this point, Biden is crushing Trump in every one of his respective state contests except Oklahoma. This is the definition of enthusiasm — right, Mainstream Media?
The other metric emerging tonight is that of Republican voters who say they will not support Trump in November if he's the GOP nominee. Neat! The question is, can we capture them in the fall?
Results from individual states are still coming in, but North Carolina has just presented Democrats with a major opportunity: Republicans there have nominated a Holocaust-denying, gay-hating, school shootings harasser, and Black election denier named Mark Robinson to run against Jewish state attorney general Josh Stein. Wow, what a gift. Let's make the most of it, folks.
All in all, not a bad Super Tuesday so far. More to come, but in the meantime, we cats PURR.
We cats once had high hopes for Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who cut a distinctive figure and seemed to be one of the smartest people to serve in Congress (multiple academic degrees, impressive resume). And boy, did she own Mike Pence during her swearing in, or what? Mother's husband could barely look that confident woman in the eye.
But she definitely disappointed: Her wardrobe got weirder, and so did she. She wouldn't play ball on eliminating the filibuster, and voted against a bunch of other stuff that our side of the aisle held dear. Then last year, she left the Democratic Party to become an Independent, although still caucusing with us. But once Congressman Ruben Gallego entered the 2024 Arizona Democratic primary, she came in a weak third in all the polls, behind him and Trumpy nutcase Kari Lake.
Today, she announced she was dropping out. You could pretty much see this coming, since she wasn't obviously gearing up a re-election campaign and had raised practically no money. Gallego, on the other hand, has been a relentless fundraiser. We know this from personal experience. (Hey, Ruben, we're going to donate to you. Can you give us a little break from the texting now and then?)
One question is how this will affect Benedict Donald's decision on his running mate — assuming, of course, that in his current mental state, he even makes it to the Republican convention. We've always thought he would choose Lake. She's slavishly devoted, good-looking enough for him, totally crazy, and from an important swing state. But now that the Senate race is just her and Gallego, what will Trump do? Kristi Noem, who is not from an important swing state, is surely sitting by the phone.
If you're fed up with Sinema, you're happy to see her go. But her exit doesn’t change the election math. Whether we're talking about two-way or three-way polling, Gallego has a small but respectable lead over Lake, his expected Republican opponent. It’ll come down to whether you get involved. Donate. Write postcards. Volunteer. We cats PURR.
We cats were not very invested in the throw-Trump-off-the-ballot-in-Colorado case that the Supreme Court decided yesterday. It was amusing that the original effort was spearheaded by Republicans — just more proof of the party's fractured state — but federalism, we assumed, would prevail.
Maddening, however, that states' rights really mattered to the Supremes when it came to women's bodily autonomy. So, hypocrisy abounds. But voters have the chance to rectify that this November.
And it was also silly that the right-wing justices, minus Barrett, took an unnecessary step farther into the weeds of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, something the liberal justices bitch-slapped them for in their (mostly) concurrence. Still, that's something we can all refocus on down the road. Let's make sure in the meantime that no more insurrections happen if we can.
To that end, then, it's a relief that the 2024 election has just dodged a little more chaos for now. Benedict Donald has injected enough of it into the process already, and he promises to foment more. If he remains on state ballots while his criminal trials get sorted out, it will be one less accusation for him to fling when he loses in November (assuming that, mentally, he makes it that far). He won't be able to say the election was rigged because a patchwork of states — states he probably wasn't going to win anyway — shut him out.
It also means that nutcase Republicans in red states lose their opportunity to try to throw Biden-Harris off their ballots. You know they'd try it. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
This time of year rightly brings the Selma to Montgomery anniversary observances — and like so many earlier years, we have to mark the setbacks that the nation has endured: the Supreme Court's evisceration of the Voting Right Act and affirmative action, to name two.
Which makes this photo of the Vice President of the United States even more powerful. Would John Lewis have imagined this back in 1965? Not bloody likely, no pun intended.
Vice President Harris used today's ceremony to send a message about Gaza: Israel and Hamas need to agree to a six-week ceasefire, she said, both to get Israeli hostages home and to get food aid to Palestinians. Meanwhile, Americans need to understand that for a ceasefire to occur, there are no magic wands for the Biden Administration to wave — both Israel and Hamas must agree to it. The fact that Harris mentioned it today means that Team Biden must have thought it important and/or necessary in order to influence negotiations.
What do we cats worry about? The fact that Israel has a Prime Minister whose personal interest rests in perpetual war (and getting Trump elected again). Maybe opposition leader Benny Gantz's upcoming trip to Washington will help to shake things loose.
Meanwhile, the message of Selma is clear: People need to be free. Whether we're talking about Black Americans or Palestinians, the exhortation remains. We cats PURR.
There's a lot to quibble about the latest New York Times/Siena poll. When you see that the Times poll has Trump leading among likely voters by four points, 48 to 44 percent, you see that this is a gain of six points for Trump since December. No other polls have found a GOP surge like this — or even a GOP lead. So long story short, the Times results don't show up in other recent polls that show the race to be close and competitive. This is where thoughtful observers think the race is now.
The Times poll also has Trump winning both women and Hispanics — "an impossibility," say major analysts. Its likely voter electorate is plus-3 Republican — a silly scenario, based on the last eight Presidential elections back to 1992. "Overestimating their intensity and strength and underestimating ours was a central reason so many saw the 'red wave' that never came in 2022," says political strategist Simon Rosenberg.
But what distresses us most is that this stupid poll provides the launching pad for a zillion more stories in the MSM about how much trouble President Biden is in and we're all doomed. Ugh.
There's no question: The current state of American political journalism is embarrassing. In the old days, on-the-ground reporters like Jack Germond would insist on things like visiting actual candidate phone banks, to make sure that they knew what was really happening at the grass roots. Today, nobody does that — and the media lazily rely on methodologically compromised polls and anecdotal interviews of Trump supporters in Midwestern diners. We cats hate it, and we HISS.
