Too Little, Too Late?

Are the House Select Committee’s subpoenas of five Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “too little, too late”? or well-timed to set up June 9 public hearings on the January 6 Capitol insurrection between midterm primaries and November 8?

Submit your comments on this page, or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are left or right.

Other issues Friday …

•Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) holds up an otherwise bi-partisan-supported Ukrainian aid package.

•Elon Musk places his purchase of Twitter on hold. Good for civil discourse?

•U.S. gas prices hit another record.

Scroll down for more news and commentary, including …

•Sweden’s application to join NATO, and Russia’s reaction.

•SCOTUS’ likely ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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…meanwhile…

(FRI 5/13/22)

Paul putsch … Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has single-handedly held up a $39.8-billion military and humanitarian aid package to Ukraine that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had hoped to quickly pass through the Senate Thursday. Paul, often identified with the pro-Putin wing of the far-right GOP, wants to expand an Afghanistan inspector general role to oversee U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to The Hill.

The Senate is expected to vote on the package next week.

•••

Trump to Twitter must wait … Tesla CEO Elon Musk has placed his $44-billion takeover of Twitter on temporary hold to make sure the social media outlet’s claims that fake accounts (bots) “do indeed represent less than 5%” of Twitter’s users, as the company estimates. The real number is important because those bots do not buy advertising.

Musk, who earlier in the week said that Donald J. Trump would be allowed back on Twitter under his ownership, later Friday morning tweeted; “Still committed to acquisition.” Unless, of course, that was a Musk bot.

•••

Another gas price record … The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular hit another high Friday, at $4.432 per gallon, AAA reports. A week ago, the average hit $4.279, and it compares with $3.028 per gallon a year ago.

•••

Five House Select Committee Subpoenas … Two inevitable reactions to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection subpoenas of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans come from opposite ends of the political spectrum; 1.) Are the subpoenas, as Stephanie Ruhl suggested on MSNBC’s The Eleventh Hour “too little, too late”?, and 2.) If/when Republicans take back control of the House, they’re going to turn the tables and come after Hunter Biden. Perhaps even President Biden, himself, who could face impeachment for the 8%-plus annual inflation rate. This is Tucker Carlson-style what-about-ism to the extreme.

Beside McCarthy, who has been asked to appear before the committee on May 31, the other Republican House members who were subpoenaed Thursday are, of course, Jim Jordan, of Ohio (May 27), Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania (May 26), Andy Biggs, of Arizona (May 26) and Mo Brooks, of Alabama (May 31). No one other than perhaps the committee expects they will honor their subpoenas, which the panel issued after the six Congress members declined requests to appear – McCarthy already has said he will not show up.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has made it clear that the panel has abundant evidence from about 1,000 witnesses already questioned. With all the hard lifting apparently complete, Thompson’s plan to begin public hearings June 9 could prove fairly well-timed coming between primary season and the November midterms.

Despite McCarthy’s repeated complaints that the whole Select Committee process is nothing more than politics, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the ranking of two Republicans on the committee – whom McCarthy stripped of her House GOP leadership role last year -- was among panel members pushing hardest for the subpoenas, Politico reports in a scoop citing sources Friday.

Cheney told reporters that issuing the subpoenas “was not a decision that was taken lightly” (per The Washington Post).

“It’s a reflection of how important and serious the investigation is and how grave the attack on the Capitol was.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Subpoena for Hunter Biden?

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and five other Republicans in the House will ignore the Select Committee’s subpoenas to appear for questioning over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Should they appear, or should Democrats fear the GOP will turn the tables if/when they win a majority of the House of Representatives this November?

Submit your comments on this page, or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are right or left.

Other issues Friday …

•Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) holds up an otherwise bi-partisan-supported Ukrainian aid package.

•Elon Musk places his purchase of Twitter on hold, potentially delaying Donald J. Trump’s return.

•U.S. gas prices hit another record.

Scroll down for more news and commentary, including …

•Sweden’s application to join NATO and Russia’s reaction.

•SCOTUS’ likely ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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On the Left

…meanwhile…

Finland to NATO … Finland, which has an 830-mile border with Russia must apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “without delay,” President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Thursday, per The Guardian.

In a daily call to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finnish application to the military bloc is “definitely” a threat to Russia and would not make Europe or the world more stable, Reuters reports.

Define ‘stable’: Meanwhile, the UN says the scale of unlawful killings in Ukraine is “shocking” (The Guardian, again). NATO appears ready to fast-track previously neutral countries, including Finland and Denmark, for membership.

The Trumpian upshot: Where would NATO, Ukraine and the U.S. be today if Donald J. Trump’s attitude toward NATO had prevailed?

•••

Turns out there was attempted voter fraud … Trump attorney John Eastman tried to convince Pennsylvania state Rep. Russell H. Diamond, a Republican, to apply a mathematical equation to reject ballots at a “prorated amount” in order to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, The New York Times reports. The NYT filed a public records request to release Eastman’s emails from his former employer, the University of Colorado Boulder.

Mail-in ballots were the source of contention in the state. On election night, November 3, 2020, Trump had a big lead there, but after outstanding votes were counted primarily from Democratic-leaning areas including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Biden was declared winner of Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes, by November 6. The following day Rudy Giuliani held a press conference for the Trump campaign alleging voter fraud against the incumbent, at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia.

Eastman wrote to Diamond that Trump’s legal team had presented “ample evidence of sufficient anomalies and illegal votes to have turned the election from Trump to Biden,” at public hearings across the nation, including Pennsylvania. Diamond countered with a response that Trump’s lawyers had not presented sufficiently strong evidence of fraud, the NYT says.

•••

Manchin votes with the GOP … Dog bites man. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted with 50 Republicans to defeat, 51-49 a bill to ensure abortion rights that was expected to die by filibuster but will live on as an issue for the November midterms (per NPR). Manchin is said to favor abortion rights with more limits than in the bill, as do

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who were considered to be two potential swing votes for the Democrats, but also voted against the bill.

•••

‘First’ cases in North Korea … The Hermit Kingdom’s capital, Pyongyang, confirmed its first COVID-19 cases Thursday, though experts have long doubted the country’s claims that it had gone this long in avoiding the pandemic, according to The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, back home: The White House has issued a proclamation on remembering the 1 million Americans lost to COVID-19 so far (a number we will officially reach within a few days). President Biden says in the proclamation “we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible.”--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

On the Right

Disagree, or agree, with our center-column take on where NATO would be today if Donald J. Trump was president?

Other news up for discussion:

•Latest revelation on John Eastman’s attempt to overturn Pennsylvania for Trump.

•Senate’s abortion rights bill.

Email comments on these and other recent issues covered by The Hustings to editors@thehustings.news, and list yourself as “right” or “left” in the subject line, or click on the headline at the top of this column and then enter your comments on that page.

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What’s Left

Scroll down to read our discussion of the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, with commentary by contributing pundit Jim McCraw, plus Timothy Magrath on Florida’s culture wars.

Join the no echo-chamber, no-trolling conversation on these and other political news issues. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or leave a comment for moderation by clicking the tab in this column.

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…meanwhile…

(WED 5/11/22)

Very, very, very slight inflationary relief in April … The Consumer Price Index was up 0.3% in April, compared with 1.2% in March, to lower the annual inflation rate to 8.3% before seasonal adjustment, compared with 8.5% the previous month. Shelter, food, airline fares and new car and truck prices led the inflation numbers, though as you can see from the chart above, gasoline/diesel prices at the pump, which are determined by global oil prices, are the greatest factor in raising prices. [TIP: Click on "Meanwhile" headline to see larger copy of the CPI chart. Then click on The Hustings banner to return to three-column format.]

•••

Biden’s inflation jawbone … President Biden tried to pre-empt Wednesday’s inflation numbers with a Tuesday White House address, telling Americans; “I know you’ve got to be frustrated. I know. I can taste it.”

He compared his administration’s lowering of the federal deficit after four years of deficit increases under his predecessor (whom he did not directly name) and blasted “extreme MAGA” Republican proposals to “raise taxes” on 75 million Americans and of constant GOP threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, singling out Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Scott has suggested Biden resign over the inflation rate.

Biden promoted minimum tax rates on corporations and billionaires in his stalled Bring Back Better bill, saying the “last thing we should be thinking about is rewarding corporations” for windfall profits from inflation. “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure corporations pay their fair share.”

Note: With fast-approaching midterms likely to dampen any remaining prospects of advancing his BBB, Biden continues to push for overturning 40 years of “trickle-down” Reaganomics as Republicans of all stripes accuse the president of giving in to progressive, “socialist” Democrats in Congress.

•••

Latest anti-Trump audio … after the January 6 Capitol insurrection comes from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has since become one of the more prominent “traditional” Republicans to express loyalty to ex-President Trump. According to the latest recording released by NYT reporters and co-authors of This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, Graham, speaking from a secure location as Capitol police were still clearing MAGA rioters from the building said the “best person to have” in the White House was Joe Biden, not Donald J. Trump.

Retraction: Graham told CNN Tuesday “The Joe Biden we see as president is not the Joe Biden we saw in the Senate. He’s pursued a far-left agenda as president.”

Note: We’d guess the GOP that Biden sees from the White House is not the GOP he saw in the Senate.

Hearings date set: House Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has announced that after gathering lots of evidence and recordings of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the panel will begin public hearings on June 9.

•••

Reed Can’t Wait … Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) announced his resignation Tuesday, half a year ahead of the midterms, citing “extremism” in the House of Representatives. In March 2021 he was accused of sexual harassment of a lobbyist and said he would not seek re-election this November. A moderate, Reed also had resigned as chair of the bi-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Reed has joined the Prime Policy Group as a lobbyist.

•••

Trump’s count is 1-1 in West Virginia, Nebraska primaries … Trump endorsee Alexander Mooney beat David McKinley, 51.9% to 37.9%, for the GOP nomination for West Virginia’s second Congressional district in Tuesday’s primaries according to Ballotpedia. Both candidates are incumbents, having been squeezed into the same district after West Virginia lost a seat from the 2020 U.S. Census, and McKinley was one of 19 House Republicans who supported President Biden’s $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill last year.

Mooney faces Democratic candidate Barry Wendell in November.

Elsewhere in WV: Republican Carol Miller faces Democrat Eugene Watson for the House District 1 seat.

In Nebraska: Ex-President Trump lost the Republican gubernatorial primary, where his choice, Charles Herbster, with 29.2% lost to Jim Pillen’s 33.9%. Pillen was endorsed by current Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is term-limited, and Herbster faced allegations in a Nebraska Examiner story that he groped or sexually assaulted eight women since 2017. A third Republican, Brett Lindstrom, earned 26.7% of the primary vote.

Pullen faces Democratic candidate Carol Blood and Libertarian candidate Scott Zimmerman in November.

For Nebraska’s House District 1, Republican Mike Flood faces Democrat Patty Pansing; for District 2, it’s incumbent Republican Don Bacon versus Democrat Tony Vargas; and in District 3, it’s incumbent Republican Adrian Smith versus the Legalize Marijuana Now Party candidate Mark Elworth Jr.

According to Newsweek, Herbster’s loss to Pillen breaks Trump’s 55-0 winning streak in GOP primary endorsements to date.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

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(TUE 5/10/22)

Tweet Trump's return? ... Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he will lift Twitter's ban of ex-President Donald J. Trump if his $44-billion deal to buy the social media platform happens, The Hill reports. "I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme," Musk said at the Financial Times' "Future of the Car" event.

•••

More aid for Ukraine … The House of Representatives and Senate could vote as early as Tuesday to approve a $39.7 billion package of additional aid to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s attack, Reuters reports. President Biden had requested $33 billion, but congressional Democrats added in $3.4 billion in additional military aid and $3.4 billion in additional humanitarian aid.

The additional funds come after Russian President Vladmir Putin held a subdued Victory Day Monday, which some Kremlinologists take as a sign the country will continue to withdraw from most of its neighbor, including Kyiv, even as it intensifies battles in the separatist eastern region of Donbas.

•••

Gas prices hit ‘record’ high … Gasoline prices in the U.S. have hit another record high, $4.374/gallon, Tuesday according to AAA. That’s up from $4.204/gallon a week ago, and $2.967/gallon a year ago. The “record high” is qualified – adjusted for inflation, gas prices were higher during The Great Recession.

President Biden is scheduled to present his plan to fight inflation and “lower costs to working families” from the White House Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

•••

Democracy loses the Philippines … Not that it was thriving under Rodrigo Duterte, but Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr., offspring of the country’s 1970s/80s dictator and an infamous shoe collector, won Monday’s presidential race with a much wider margin than expected. Marcos was supposed to narrowly beat his closest challenger, but according to the unofficial vote count (to be confirmed Tuesday) he garnered more than 30.5 million to the “champion of human rights and reforms” Vice President Leni Robredo’s 14.5 million votes, Politico reports. Third-place Manny Pacquiao, a boxing legend in The Philippines, earned just 3.5 million votes.

Sara Duterte, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, leads a separate vice- presidential vote. Her father is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for allegedly killing thousands during his anti-drug crackdown.

Facebook strikes again: Marcos Jr.’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., declared martial law as president, from 1972 to 1981. The family allegedly stole more than $10 billion before the Marcoses fled the Philippines in 1986 and have never been held accountable, according to The Recount. Marcos Jr. and his family have been “restoring” Ferdinand Sr. and wife Imelda’s reputation with false history, especially on social media site Facebook in the months and years leading up to Monday’s elections, according to several news reports.

Can’t happen here, right?: Whatever happens to the MAGA movement in November 2024 – and keeping in mind ex-President Trump still owns the GOP – Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric are still allowed on Facebook and Twitter.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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What's Up... MON 5/9/22

Today … Russian President Vladimir Putin held forth over his country’s Victory Day celebrating its win over Nazi Germany in World War II, NPR reports, and we won’t bother here to repeat his lies from his speech. NPR does note, however, that Putin did not announce plans to intensify his war on Ukraine. His troops have retreated for now from Kyiv and are concentrating on Eastern Ukraine.

Tuesday … Nebraska and West Virginia hold primaries for the November midterm elections (per Ballotpedia).

Wednesday … Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a federal abortion rights bill that would supercede the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill will fail along party lines with Democrats lacking the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the vote will give Democratic senators up for re-election and challengers to Republicans in November’s midterms campaign advertising fodder. A similar bill passed by the House of Representatives last September failed in the Senate last February, The Guardian notes.

Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves refused to rule out banning emergency contraceptive pills and IUDs in his state speaking on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.

•••

Never mind Trump’s presidential library … A presidential library could be built specializing in post-Trump presidency books, from loyalist Mark Meadows’ The Chief’s Chief to never-Trumper-again John Bolton’s The Room Where it Happened: A Memoir. Latest, and easily one of the most explosive is Mark Esper’s A Sacred Oath: A Defense Secretary in Extraordinary Times.

One of the first questions CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Esper on a 60 Minutes feature interview Sunday was; Why wait until you can sell books to tell us this?

Fair question, and Esper’s response seems like a fair answer: Warning the world about such anti-democratic insanity as then-President Trump suggesting the late-May/early-June 2020 George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., be declared an insurrection and the National Guard be called in to shoot protesters in the kneecaps, and that Trump wanted to use the military to conduct a “secret” military strike against drug cartels south of the Mexican border, would have resulted in the former host of The Apprentice telling him “you’re fired.” Esper told O’Donnell he couldn’t count on his replacement being as diligent in pushing back against Trump’s MAGA thinking.

Esper said that he and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to “swat down” such Trumpian suggestions on a weekly basis. Milley, who continues as Joint Chiefs chairman under the Biden administration and Esper were both embarrassed to be conned into a political photo op with Trump when he held up a bible at St. John’s Church near the White House, an account backed up by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book, Peril.

Note: Thus Esper’s excuse for withholding stories of Trump’s anti-democratic propensity get a pass, and his memoir serves as yet another warning of what could still come from a GOP filled with pro-Trump midterm election candidates.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

Scroll down to read our discussion of the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, with commentary by pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay and contributing pundit Bryan Williams, plus R.J. Caster on Florida’s culture wars.

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No Echo-Chambers

The Hustings is committed to providing a safe online space for your civil comments on the latest news and politics, whether you are liberal or conservative. Read our center-column story on the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll (“New poll affirms abortion rights support”) and tell us your opinion using the Comments tab on this page (subject to moderation) or email editors@thehustings.news.

Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, please note in your comments whether you consider yourself “liberal” or “conservative.”

Also in this column…

•Contributing pundit Jim McCraw on the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade.

•Guest pundit Timothy Magrath on Florida’s culture wars (page 2).

•Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects for becoming next House speaker after leaked recordings of his post-January 6 comments on removing Donald J. Trump from the White House (page 2).

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…meanwhile…

(FRI 5/6/22)

Another good jobs report … The U.S. economy added another 428,000 jobs in April to keep the employment market tight, with unemployment steady at 3.6%, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Biggest job gains, as usual, were in the leisure, hospitality, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing industries and wages were up, though not by enough to overcome the highest inflation in 40 years.

•••

New poll affirms abortion rights support … We’ve heard for years that most Americans support abortion rights, and now that we’re on the precipice of the Supreme Court likely overturning Roe v. Wade, Democrats can have some confidence from a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that they have an issue that can push back on the expectation that the GOP will take back House and Senate majorities in the midterms.

Reuters/Ipsos says 63% of 998 adults interviewed online after May 3 are likely to support a candidate who would support a law giving all Americans a legal right to abortion, in order to replace Roe if it is struck down by the Supreme Court.

Split by political parties, 78% of Democrats said they would support a pro-abortion rights candidate, 49% of Republicans agreed, and 59% of independents agreed.

The Democratic National Committee’s lingering problem, of course, is whether a sufficient number of independents and most Democrats are as passionate about their “pro-choice” position as the 51% of Republicans who would not support such a candidate due to their “pro-life” stand. It must be noted that hard-right conservatives have also been floating the possibility of a federal law that would prohibit abortion in the U.S.

Reuters/Ipsos parsed out support for Roe v. Wade with these follow-ups…

•33% say they would be angry if SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade, including…

•51% of Democrats.

•24% of Republicans.

•25% of independents.

•29% of Americans say they would be “afraid” if SCOTUS overturns.

•40% of Democrats agree.

•22% of Republicans agree.

•23% of independents agree.

Finally, 54% of Democrats say the U.S. would become a “worse” place to live if Roe v. Wade is overturned, versus 43% of Republicans and 42% of independents.

White House announces new press secretary … Karine Jean-Pierre becomes the first-ever Black White House press secretary, replacing Jen Psaki, who is leaving for MSNBC. Jean-Pierre currently is deputy press secretary and has filled in for Psaki when she was out with COVID-19.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

No War Zone

Elon Musk had this to say about the company he’s about to buy for $44 billion: “Twitter’s a war zone. If someone’s going to jump in the war zone it’s like ‘okay, let’s go!.’”

Consider this the No War Zone, a safe place for your conservative- or liberal-leaning opinions. Leave your comments here on the leaked Supreme Court draft that wouild reverse Roe v. Wade, whether pro-life or pro-choice (see “New poll affirms abortion rights support” in Friday’s center-column) or email them to editors@thehustings.news and as long as they’re civil and respectful, we’ll post them on this page (please note whether you consider yourself “left” or “right”). No echo-chambers, no trolling.

Also in this column:

•Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “Stare Decisis: Look Away. I Need a Job.”

•Contributing pundit Bryan Williams on the leaked majority opinion draft and what it means for the Democrats this midterm.

•Macaulay and on page 2 guest pundit R.J. Caster with different conservative takes on Florida’s culture wars.

•Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects for becoming next House speaker after leaked recordings of his post-January 6 comments on removing Donald J. Trump from the White House (page 2).

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What’s Up

In the right column Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay addresses the veracity of Donald J. Trump’s Supreme Court justices.

Scroll down to read Jim McCraw on the left, and Bryan Williams on the right on that leaked Supreme Court draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade.

Everyone is talking about it. You can comment on it with a comment to editors@thehustings.news.

Scroll down further to read our coverage of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s culture wars, with Timothy Magrath in the left column and R.J. Caster on the right.

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…meanwhile…

(THU 5/5/22)

Intense interest ... The Federal Reserve has certified a half-percentage point interest rate increase in its effort to stem inflation (per The Wall Street Journal), chairman Jerome Powell (above) announced Wednesday. The annual inflation rate was 8.5% for the 12 months ending March 31.

Markets reacted with enthusiasm, not the expected response from Wall Street for an interest rate hike, which usually occurs a quarter-point at a time rather than half a point. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.81% Wednesday and the “tech-heavy” NASDAQ rose 3.19%, while the Democratic National Committee’s prospects for staunching the long-expected Republican takeover of Congress in the midterms is down. It looks to be coming down to inflation and gas prices versus SCOTUS and abortion.

•••

About that Vance victory … Wednesday morning quarterbacking of Tuesday’s Ohio primary elections will spill into the weekend op-ed pages and Sunday morning’s political talk shows. The New York Times Thursday chalks up Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance’s narrow win in the GOP primary for Rob Portman’s U.S. Senate seat to loving exposure on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight and right-wing Silicon Valley titan/Gawker-killer Peter Thiel’s $15 million worth of campaign contributions. This appears to be the largest amount ever to a single Senate candidate by an individual megadonor, according to the NYT.

But in Karl Rove’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal; “Vance’s Ohio Senate Victory Isn’t a Big Win for Trump,” the author maintains that Thiel’s donation of $3.5 million out of that $15 million total to Vance’s SuperPAC after Trump’s late endorsement is what put him over the top. Third-place GOP candidate Matt Dolan made much bigger gains in the last two weeks of the campaign, Rove says.

Upshot: All the top Republicans in the primary were pro-MAGA. As a celebrity who flipped on his circa 2016 never-Trumper position, Vance was the one to get the nod from the former president. Whether Vance can grow his following beyond the MAGA base this November will depend heavily on inflation and gasoline prices, and on whether SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Stare Decisis: Look Away. I Need the Job

By Stephen Macaulay

One of the characteristics of those who have been affected by the Trump Force Field of Political Behavior is that they will say or do anything in order to obtain or maintain their jobs.

Does anyone doubt that there were extreme cases of groveling among those who would have otherwise been characterized as standing for probity (e.g., Lindsey Graham) or family (e.g., Ted Cruz)? Graham went from his, in 2015, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell” to figuratively shaving the man’s back. Ted Cruz, after Trump threw serious shade at Heidi Cruz, called Trump “a sniveling coward.” Subsequently, if there was any sniveling, Cruz held the Kleenex under Trump’s nose.

The reason they and many others bow and scrape so much that they’ve developed moral kyphosis is simply because they want to keep their source of income. There is an evident fear that if they go against their Dear Leader they will find the Base, which is like some sort of red-colored mob of Dementors, driving them from what they apparently imagine is a sinecure.

Potential examples of those who apparently think that it is okay to blatantly lie —because later they can either deny it or defect it, something that Trump did with absolute abandon -- (The Washington Post calculated the number of lies being 30,573 over his presidency) — are Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom indicated, during their respective confirmation hearings, that Roe v. Wade was established precedent. Settled law.

As Gorsuch said during his hearings, “Part of the value of precedent – and it has lots of value, it has value in and of itself, because it is our history and our history has value intrinsically. But it also has an instrumental value in this sense: it adds to the determinacy of law.

“Once a case is settled, that adds to the determinacy of the law

“What was once a hotly contested issue is no longer a hotly contested issue. We move forward.”

Kavanaugh said during his hearing, “As a general proposition, I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade.”

So let’s say that the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion about Roe will stand with just a few minor copy edits.

What of what those two men said in front of senators and the American public?

When Supreme Court justices can be documented dissemblers, democracy has an exceedingly severe problem.

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

Nowadays, even the sun is cast in the shadow of lies.

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