Trump shrugs at House loss as parties unite on potholes
Wow, Jeff Sessions was gone before they finished counting votes in Arizona.
Do you think Donald Trump was trying to change the subject? Everybody knew he’d get a new attorney general after the elections, but we deserve to find out who won in Florida before we go back to 24/7 presidential pandemonium.
Next year’s class of Democratic freshmen in the House is going to be incredible, with a huge range of backgrounds, ages, races and interests. Truly, I did not expect to live to hear that a fourterm Republican congressman from Kansas was defeated by a gay Native American woman who used to be a mixed martial arts fighter.
Meanwhile, Trump was celebrating the probable defeat of the only Republican African-American woman in the history of the House of Representatives. (“Mia Love gave me no love and she lost!”)
The president’s main theme was that an election in which Democrats won control of the House was actually “very close to complete victory” for his team, thanks to his unceasing efforts to rally support. This was during an 1½ hour-long press conference.
Trump was in a benevolent mood Wednesday — so much so that he got through the whole press conference without even once sniping about Hillary Clinton or Rep. Maxine Waters. And Nancy Pelosi — he and “Nancy” were going to get along great. (“It really could be a beautiful bipartisan type of situation.”)
As long as there were no, um, investigations or subpoenas for a person’s private tax returns. Which are being audited!
Do you think the president and Congress could actually accomplish anything? There’s going to be a lot of talk about matters like health care reform. But you’ll notice any optimistic predictions usually wind up at road-building.
“The one issue that Leader Pelosi and I discussed this morning is where — where there could be a possible bipartisan agreement, would be something on infrastructure,” said Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell added he was sure there would be “a lot of other things,” too. But he didn’t seem able to come up with any.
The moral is: Everybody loves pothole repair.
Before we leave the midterms behind, what was your favorite election outcome? I liked the one in Pennsylvania where Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for governor, lost to the incumbent, Tom Wolf. Wagner was the guy who did a video warning his opponent to put on a catcher’s mask because “I’m going to stomp all over your face with golf spikes.”
In several states voters gave thumbs-up to expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In Idaho, retiring Republican Gov. Butch Otter called it an “Idaho-grown solution.”
The big question now is whether we should wait until after the holidays to start discussing the 2020 election. Is Beto O’Rourke going to go on a long vacation or will he start looking really available before Thanksgiving? Does Cory Booker ever take vacations? Did anybody notice Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders won new terms this week?
Do you think any Republicans will try to run against Trump? John Kasich is certainly making himself look available. And what’s Jeff Sessions going to do with the rest of his life?
So much to do, so little time to obsess about it.
She writes for the New York Times.
Brett Kavanaugh must have been smiling as the returns came in on Election Day, because it is now clear that the Democrats’ campaign to destroy him will go down as a massive blunder. It failed to keep Kavanaugh off the court. It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the Senate. And it gave Republicans an expanded Senate majority that will allow them to confirm an even more conservative justice next time around.
Today, Kavanaugh sits on the Supreme Court hearing cases. Meanwhile, Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Claire McCaskill of Missouri are packing up their Senate
He writes for the Washington Post.