"Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.
"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough."
Governor Ron DeSantis may have unveiled his Florida gerrymander map, but one of its biggest critics, eight-term GOP Representative Daniel Webster, has just announced his retirement from Congress. Gee. When he was first elected, Webster was one of the craziest members of the Republican caucus. Now, he seems like one of the saner ones. That's what 25 years of gerrymandering have wrought.
However, the jury is out on the fate of DeSantis's map. Sabato's Crystal Ball rates at least one of the newly proposed GOP pickups as a toss-up, and an additional two as merely Leans Republican, throwing the whole rosy scenario into uncertainty. In short, be careful what you wish for — especially in a dicey year for Republicans like 2026.
Meanwhile, down in Texas — the seat of all these silly mid-decade reapportionment shenanigans — Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is beating both John Cornyn and Ken Paxton in head-to-head match-ups in the polls. That's fun in and of itself, but check out Talarico's eye-popping margins among Independent and self-described moderate voters: He's leading by more than 20 points with Independents, and by more than 40 with moderates.
Holy smokes! If we were Republican, we'd be freaking out right now, because the GOP primary is doing absolutely nothing to help either Cornyn or Paxton with either group. Delicious!
We Democrats have been throwing money at Texas for years now, with nothing to show for it. If you're tempted to send Talarico a contribution, we won't stop you. But bear in mind, he's been a fundraising juggernaut. Maybe spread your love around to other Democratic candidates in Ohio, North Carolina, Alaska, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Georgia right now? Then we'll get back to you. We cats PURR.
This is a super-duper arrangement of "Layla," and, if you're feeling a little frazzled, a great way to start your week. We cats PURR.
"At which point, Hillary Clinton looked up and said simply, 'Fuck the White House Correspondents' dinner.'"
By Miss Kubelik
On the eve of the ever-awful White House Correspondents Dinner, let's revisit Michelle Wolf's brilliant performance from 2018.
And let's all recall that the inside-the-Beltway journalists took great umbrage when Wolf called them out for their adoration of Donald. Sadly, nothing has changed. It may, actually, have gotten worse.
But here's one real difference between then and now: Trump, his family, and his Administration are plundering the US Treasury and fleecing foreign powers for billions.
Since the Republicans aren't inclined to do anything about it, we all have to wait for Democrats to take over — first Congress, and then the White House. At that point, we'll take a lesson from Watergate, and follow the money. In the meantime, we cats HISS.
If you're looking for something to propose in response to Benedict Donald's ridiculous Third Reich-y Washington "arch," folks on social media have the perfect solution: a towering monument to State Senator Louise Lucas, who championed the redistricting referendum that Virginia voters passed yesterday.
Republicans, who kicked off all this redistricting nonsense with their power grab in Texas (a question which, by the way, they never put directly to the voters), immediately asked the Tazewell County circuit court to pause certification of the amendment, which was granted.
But they're just delaying the inevitable. "Republicans have repeatedly taken challenges to the Virginia referendum to a local judge in the most conservative part of the state to get silly rulings that are immediately overturned on appeal," Democratic Rep. Don Beyer said. "The Virginia Supreme Court will have the last say on the referendum."
Benedict Donald must see the writing on the wall, because he's bleating about "RIGGED" elections again. What a pathetic, projecting loser. "What started in Texas didn’t stay in Texas, and what started here will
not stay here either," Senator Lucas said. "Virginia sent a
message: If you try to rig the system, we fight back. If you try to
take powers from voters, we will take it right back." Can someone please get started on that Lucas statue? Meanwhile, we cats salute her, and we PURR.
Every time we're even vaguely tempted to feel sorry for Republicans yoked to the antics of Benedict Donald, we instantly remind ourselves that they made their bed, and they must lie in it. (See above.)
They passed up so many off-ramp opportunities in the last 10 years. And now, things are much worse for them. Trump 2.0 is way more erratic and weird. MAGA is furious about the Epstein files, the war in Iran, and gas and food prices. Impeachment and the 25th amendment are openly discussed. And Donald just made the GOP's upcoming midterm massacre even bloodier — at least in our neck of the woods.
"President Donald Trump endorsed the CEO of a sticker company to fill outgoing Rep. Elise Stefanik's House seat," POLITICO reports, "[announcing] over social media Tuesday that he's backing Republican Anthony Constantino over Assemblyman Robert Smullen, the preferred nominee of the New York GOP and the state Conservative Party."
Constantino is a nutcase, and Smullen is pretty awful, too. With Trump's interference, what was already promising to be a fun Republican-on-Republican cat fight for Elsie's seat just got more delicious. And what a huge middle finger to GOP state party chair Ed (Tricia Nixon) Cox and the hapless county chairs in the district who had confidently endorsed Smullen before Sticker Mule Man jumped into the race.
As for Elsie, she's on her silly book tour, and no doubt will try to dodge questions. But Trump has just put her in another awkward position. Can she really stay silent? Reporters should hound her mercilessly.
Here's the best part: Smullen is guaranteed to be on the November ballot, on the Conservative Party line. If Constantino wins the Republican primary in June, we don't see how Democrat Blake Gendebien loses a three-way race. We cats PURR.
If you've ever had a bad boss, you can imagine how relieved staffers at the Department of Labor must feel tonight.
Because Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is out. Like Attorney General Pam Bondi before her, she is allegedly "returning to the private sector." Wherever she (God forbid) lands, you can only imagine she'll continue to terrorize employees with her boozing, her absences, her inappropriate requests, her misuse of financial and other resources, her affairs, and her handsy husband. Ugh. (And gee, drinking on the job. Can Kash Patel's defenestration be far behind?)
Meanwhile, we'll keep playing the "What If Biden Did This?" game. Can you imagine if Joe, or any Democratic President, had lost so many senior people to scandal in his first 16 months in office? The media would have a feeding frenzy. But with Trump, a new and different outrage will keep us all spinning on the hamster wheel by tomorrow. Besides, the White House press corps is about to honor Trump at their upcoming silly dinner, so they're not about to hold him to account. (Of all the years to boycott the WHCD, this is the year to boycott it the most.) We cats HISS.
(IMAGE: Now-former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer blows out candles at an office birthday party that she said under oath had never taken place. Whoops.)
