The Pressure On The GOP? It's Up To Eleven.

By Hubie and Bertie

Benedict Donald spoke at the NRCC fundraising dinner last night, an event that (they say) raised billions and billions for the midterms and that gave attending Republicans multiple opportunities to pat themselves on the back. (Did losing the Florida house district that includes Mar-a-Lago get mentioned? Hmmm.)

And now, this: Sabato's Crystal Ball just moved 11 Democratic US House ratings for 2026 — and all in our direction. Eight went from "likely" Democratic to "safe" Democratic. Two went from "lean" Democratic to "likely" Democratic. One went from "toss-up" to "lean." Here are some Inside Baseball details that are especially satisfying.

The seats occupied by Democrats Pat Ryan (NY-18), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), and John Mannion (NY-22) were all flips for us in recent cycles. And now Sabato says they're safe. Take those off the table, GOP.

Republicans had been kinda hoping to pick up Angie Craig's open seat (MN-02) because she's running for Senate. Now it's likely Democratic. Looks like GOP strategists will have to do some reassessing.

Two of the 11 seats Sabato moved are in Ohio. The redistricting there was supposed to make it easier for the Republicans to pick them up. But OH-01 is the toss-up that changed to lean, and OH-13 went from lean to likely. And the seat in Western Maryland, MD-06, always appears on the GOP's wish list because it's in, well, Western Maryland. Sorry, Republicans: Sabato says it's safe for us now. 

All of this means that 1) we can focus our resources elsewhere, and 2) the Trumpsters just got slapped in the face after their big dinner last night. Now they'll have to take another look at their map and wring their hands. But that's politics: The allocation of scarce resources among competing choices. We cats PURR.

Michael Rousseau, Gagnez Votre Salaire

By Miss Kubelik

We cats get very impatient with the Francophones in Quebec who keep fretting that French is under siege and they must language-police everything. But that said, the CEO of Air Canada is a jackass.

Michael Rousseau (yep, that's a French name) recorded a short video offering condolences after the fatal jet-versus-fire-truck accident at LaGuardia on Sunday night. Except for "bonjour" and "merci," it was English-only. Okay, that's extraordinarily bad.

Several reasons: 1) One of the pilots who died in the accident was a Quebecker from Coteau-du-Lac, outside of Montreal. 2) French is the official second language of Canada, and a quarter of Canadians speak it. 3) Rousseau promised back in 2022 that he was going to learn the language after a previous controversy in which he implied he was "too busy" to do it. Hey, dude, the Prime Minister of the entire country has found time to work on his French, so why can't you?

"I'm ​very disappointed — as others are, rightly so — in this unilingual message of the CEO of Air Canada," PM Mark Carney said. "It shows a lack of judgment, a lack of compassion."

Oui. If, after four years, Rousseau hasn't learned enough French to make a four-minute video — with a teleprompter, even! — after two of his pilots sacrificed themselves to save their passengers, he doesn't deserve to be in his job and make his (one presumes) enormous salary. Aside from everything else, it's PR 101. Nous, les chats, SIFFLONS.

Sunny News From The Sunshine State

By Zamboni

The interwebs started exploding last night with election results from two state legislative districts in Florida. Normally, races like that would fly farther under the radar, but one involved the house district that's home to Benedict Donald's Temu Greenbrier. Long story short: Trump, Moose & Squirrel, and Lurch are all represented in Tallahassee now by a Democrat. (And PS: They all voted by mail.)

On the other side of the state, another Democrat upset a creepy Republican woman with tortoiseshell glasses and a penchant for dressing like something out of Laura Ashley. In spite of that, she was seen as a "rising star" in GOP circles, had oodles of money, and was predicted as late as Monday to have a 95 percent chance of victory. Instead, she was beaten by an electrician who had a lot of union support. Sweet!

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear.

Or maybe it is.

And maybe the corporate news media just keeps missing the boat. We still can't surf the headlines these days without seeing some version of "Democrats in disarray" or "Democrats in despair." But, but, but: We keep flipping these GOP state seats — 30 since the start of 2025. (Republicans: Zero.) It's enough to make the MSM start speculating not only about the US House this November, but also the US Senate. But how is that possible? They keep telling us that we have no message, and nobody likes us. Yet we keep winning.

Here's an answer: The pundits, of whom we are all heartily sick, continue to think 2026 is an election between two choices: unpopular Republicans versus unpopular Democrats. They just can't get past the Democrats' negatives — but that's short-sighted. To the non-pundit, non-MAGA universe, 2026 is a choice between autocracy at its best (and fascism at its worst) versus an imperfect party committed to the Constitutional order. So imperfect wins just about every time.

Since the Trumpsters have the media on their enemies list — and since the heads of anyone in the press will be on Donald's chopping block if he can consolidate power — we don't understand why they don't report it that way. Maybe the No Kings rallies on Saturday will wake them up? Let's hope. Meanwhile, we cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

A Royal Error

By Baxter

Nobody expected to see King Charles II in the news today, but there he was. And all because Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News either made a nearly (if not completely) understandable typo, or he really doesn't know his English monarchs.

Sherman tweeted this morning: "WH expected to announce that KING CHARLES II will make a state visit next month. Likely to include address to joint session." Okay, how is that going to work?

At first we thought maybe it was the White House that got Charles's number wrong. (They're not bright.) But on closer look, Sherman was quote-tweeting an earlier Punchbowl post that had it right. So it was Just Jake. Tweeps immediately jumped in with all sorts of Charles II jocularity. Did you know that was a thing? Apparently it is.

After a few hours, Sherman must have figured out what was going on. "King Charles III," he said. "Not Charles II. The latter died 300 years ago. Sorry." The tweet didn't really help, because the jocularity raged on. 

As everyone pointed out ad infinitum, Charles II was the 17th-century king who succeeded to the throne after the English Civil Wars. He was known for his love of opulent dress, his interest in the arts, and his spaniels. (And in Forever Amber, he was played by George Sanders, which was, take it from us, terrific casting.) Journalism's in a sorry state when we can't decide if Sherman's goof was a typo or not. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Joyeuse Saint-Patrick!

Don't ask us to explain this, but apparently the City of Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade was today — five days after March 17th — and it took place in a snowstorm. Not only that, the city's mayor, who is of Chilean descent, was out there celebrating with everyone else. This is really cool. We cats PURR.

AIPAC Crashes And Burns

By Sniffles

The midterms' primary season grinds along, and we cats have a few thoughts about the Illinois contests that took place last week. Our particular focus is the Congressional race in IL-09 — not our personal when-we-were-kittens stomping grounds, but close enough for government work, as they say.

IL-09 was one of those races that highlighted the unfortunate role of money from AIPAC — something that we've noticed is a worrying source of discord in our party. The race was to succeed able Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, who is retiring after nearly 30 years. Evanston mayor Daniel Biss came in first with 29.6 percent of the vote. Bernie Broette Kat Abughazaleh was second with 25.9 percent. AIPAC-funded candidate Laura Fine trailed embarrassingly in third place with 20 percent.

This makes us happy, because Biss's win shows us that Jewish Democratic candidates do not need to toe Benjamin Netanyahu's line to be successful. Biss, whose mother is Israeli and who has said that the current Israeli government's behavior is "appalling," has made it clear that AIPAC should not dictate America's foreign policy — and that the lobbying group's tactics against him were deceptive and undemocratic. "AIPAC found out the hard way that my district is not for sale," he said.

You know, at this point, we should just treat AIPAC today as a Republican organization. They are completely Netanyahu-Trump-aligned, and we should salute Jan Schakowski for bucking them — although we're pretty sure that she received a bunch of AIPAC money in her earlier campaigns. (Those were the good old days.) She has had a distinguished career in Congress as a loyal Pelosi lieutenant, has always encouraged and supported women to run for office, and in this race picked the most highly qualified candidate to succeed her.

The other point is that AIPAC —which once had an unassailable reputation in Washington —is now toxic. More evidence that everything Trump touches dies. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

File This For When He Goes

Will any Republicans condemn this? Or will they wear it like cheap Florsheim shoes that don't fit? We cats HISS.

For Women's History Month: Sister Rosetta Tharpe

 

Her influence on rock 'n roll is self-evident. All she needs is for white folks to recognize it. We cats salute her, and we PURR.

"This...Is London"

By Hubie and Bertie

So CBS News Radio, after nearly a century of broadcasting, is being shut down by Gen X idiot Bari Weiss, who cannot possibly understand the influence and impact of the House of Murrow on American journalism, politics, history, and culture.

"We understand how difficult this news is for our staff and their colleagues, who have worked side by side with us to cover some of the most significant stories of our time," Weiss said.

No, you don't, Bari. You absolutely don't. We cats call bullshit on that.

Weiss was born a full 40-plus years after Edward R. Murrow set the standard for on-the-scene reporting with his broadcasts from the 1940 London Blitz. The so-called Murrow Boys reported not only World War II and its aftermath, but also the McCarthy era and every story of national importance through the end of the Sixties. (When we were kittens, our dad, in fact, listened to WBBM every morning in Chicago before he went to work.) Walter Cronkite was not a Murrow Boy, but he inherited the distinguished mantle. His time, sadly, is long gone.

This raping of CBS makes us sick. Let's hope that in some future timeline, clueless fuckups like Weiss can be ejected, and its former glory restored. In the meantime, we cats HISS.

Now All They Need Is A Nobel Prize

The people of the Twin Cities have received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for their peaceful protest against the brutality of Trump and ICE. An honor they well deserve!

And just to make Benedict Donald extra-mad, the Kennedy Library Foundation is honoring Fed Chair Jerome Powell, too. We cats PURR.