Friday Talking Points -- Welcome, FCOTUS Willow Biden!

[ChrisWeigant]

We have always been a total sucker for "First Pets," we fully admit. Especially First Cats. So we simply must begin this weekly roundup by extending our warmest welcome to newly-announced First Cat Willow Biden. From the New York Times announcement:

After keeping the nation on tenterhooks since even before taking office, the Biden White House announced on Friday that a gray cat named Willow had joined the first family, more than a year after the plucky farm feline from Pennsylvania caught the eye of the first lady, Jill Biden, while she was on the stump for her husband.

"Willow made quite an impression on Dr. Biden in 2020 when she jumped up on the stage and interrupted her remarks during a campaign stop," said Michael LaRosa, the first lady's spokesman. "Seeing their immediate bond, the owner of the farm knew that Willow belonged with Dr. Biden."

Willow is named after the first lady's hometown, Willow Grove, Pa.

First Lady Jill posted some more photos of Willow on Twitter, for those interested. Now we'll all just have to wait and see if White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was right when she predicted last year (when asked when the promised First Cat was going to appear): "We know the cat will break the internet."

Meow!

(Ahem.) With that out of the way, let's move on to the lesser (and less adorable) news of the week, as it were.

President Joe Biden got some fantastic economic news this week, with the release of the yearly gross domestic product growth numbers. The final quarter of 2021 saw a whopping 6.9 percent growth, bringing the yearly figure (after adjusting for inflation, mind you) up to 5.7 percent -- higher than it has been since 1984.

Of course, this proves once again that Republican fear-mongering was wrong all along. Inflation still remains way too high, but as the article points out:

Which is why it's always important to remember that there's an alternate history of the pandemic we avoided, one in which the government didn't act as aggressively as it did. Would we be better off right now if inflation were at 2 percent but tens of millions more Americans were out of work, hundreds of thousands more businesses had gone bankrupt, and state and local governments had made brutal cuts to services?

Obviously not. [We wrote in more depth about the numbers yesterday, if anyone is interested in reading more.]

Biden saw one more good number in the news this week, as Obamacare marketplace health insurance policy signups reached 14.5 million -- two million more than in any previous year.

Also on the healthcare front, although you might not have heard it on the evening news (where the policy across all the networks seems to be: "Only report bad pandemic news!" ), the Omicron wave has definitively crested nationwide. Two weeks ago, the average daily cases hit a staggering mark, at over 800,000 new cases per day. Now this has fallen below 600,000 -- still frighteningly high, but better by one-fourth than it was in mid-January. Different states and regions of the country are progressing at various rates (the Northeast is doing the best currently, since they were the first area heavily affected by Omicron), but the spike should happen everywhere within the next week or so. Which is good news indeed, for all of us.

Over in a different branch of the federal government, the big news was the announcement (which got scooped a day early) of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's impending retirement. This will allow President Biden to make his first nomination to the high court and will (thankfully) preserve the already-precarious ideological balance on the court, at 6-3 conservative (which is bad, but is far better than 7-2, you've got to admit...).

President Biden reaffirmed a campaign promise he had made, and said he would be nominating the first-ever Black woman to the Supreme Court. The heads of the right-wing media, predictably, exploded upon hearing this news. The best possible rejoinder to all the idiotic "affirmative action" nonsense from conservatives came from Amy Klobuchar:

Senate Democrats say they are happy to defend Biden's decision and make a larger case for diversity in the courts. Asked about the attacks in an interview Thursday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) quickly noted that Ronald Reagan pledged to nominate a woman to the high court during his 1980 presidential campaign -- a pledge he made good on with the confirmation of Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981.

Excellent point, Senator!

And there's even some good news for Democrats in the third branch of government, as the fears of being swamped in the midterms solely because of aggressive Republican gerrymandering in the redistricting process seem not so fearsome anymore:

Democrats braced for disaster when state legislatures began redrawing congressional maps, fearing that Republican dominance of statehouses would tilt power away from them for the next decade.

But as the redistricting process reaches its final stages, that anxiety is beginning to ease.

For Democrats, the worst case scenario of losing well over a dozen seats in the U.S. House appears unlikely to happen.

Whew! Part of this is because Republicans are more interested in locking in current districts -- many of which are trending more Democratic as the suburbs shift away from the GOP, but also because of some Democratic "aggressive map drawing of their own." For once, Democrats are actually fighting fire with fire, which is a pleasant thing to see.

In other news, while we are waiting for our awards section to comment on this specifically, we had to say the most hilariously idiotic comment of the week from a Republican (in a week where there was some stiff competition indeed, as we'll get to in a moment) came from Representative Jim Banks, who clutched some imaginary pearls after President Biden got caught on a hot microphone calling a Fox reporter a "stupid son of a bitch." Banks tweeted out: "Have we ever seen a President attack and malign the free press like Joe Biden has??"

The internet responded, mostly by pointing out the hard cold fact that you'd have to have been in a coma for five or six years, or perhaps just be suffering from acute amnesia, to have said something this monumentally tone-deaf after pretty much every single comment Donald Trump has ever made about the media (whom he liked to call the "enemy of the people" ).

In other "hilarity ensued on the internet" news, the newly-sworn-in Republican governor of Virginia set up a hotline for people to call in any and all complaints about public schoolteachers making any children "uncomfortable" by teaching the actual truth about race relations in this country. This led to plenty of spoofing, such as one comment that reported Albus Dumbledore for his comments on "mudbloods," but our favorite was easily:

I have heard reports that schools in Virginia are teaching ARABIC NUMERALS!!! I fear that we've become so focused on exposing Critical Race Theory in public education that we've forgotten all about creeping Sharia Law. Please address this matter immediately.

And we have to say, we also found hilarious the report that the Supreme Court had taken a pass on hearing an appeal to a case that Kevin McCarthy had lost, which tried to force House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get rid of the "proxy" (absentee) voting she set up for the House of Representatives at the start of the pandemic. Here is why yet another Republican fight against commonsense health measures seemed so funny to us (emphasis added):

Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is the last rank-and-file lawmaker on McCarthy's lawsuit after more than 150 Republicans removed their names -- many have themselves voted by proxy as the pandemic has dragged into another calendar year. Roy told Politico in December that the removal of names didn't impact the constitutional argument he and McCarthy are trying to make, but acknowledged that having plaintiffs who used the proxy voting process could have hurt the party's argument.

To sum up: they started with at least 151 rank-and-file GOP members listed as plaintiffs, and now they're down to one -- because the rest of them came to their senses and realized this was a smart thing to do. But that didn't stop McCarthy from soldiering on, of course!

And finally, while this didn't rise to the level of "most hilariously idiotic" Republican comment of the week, it certainly deserves some sort of special mention:

West Virginia governor Jim Justice on Thursday touted his state's progress on economic development, spoke about the pandemic and compared the temperature of state versus national politics.

West Virginia's doubters, Justice said as he concluded his state of the state address, could kiss his dog, Babydog's, "hiney."

"They never believed in West Virginia, that we could do it," he said.

"They told every bad joke in the world about us," Justice continued. "So following that standpoint, Babydog tells Bette Midler and all those out there, kiss her hiney." He then held Babydog up in the air, showing the room her behind.

Justice was referring to a Dec. 20 tweet from the actress, Midler, who expressed animosity towards Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) after he said he was a "no" on President Joe Biden's Build Back Better legislation.

"He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia," Midler said in the tweet. "Poor, illiterate and strung out."

If that version of the story isn't enough for you, HuffPost has the "money shot" photo, in case anyone's interested.

But enough silliness, let's move on to the awards, shall we?





Well, if we were biased, we'd have to hand the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award to First Cat Willow Biden. But she's not officially a Democrat (a Democat?) and she really hasn't done anything other than look pretty regal for some adorable photos, so we'll have to wait on this one.

We do have an Honorable Mention for the Arizona Democratic Party, for formally censuring one of their own senators, Kyrsten Sinema. Here's the story:

The Arizona Democratic Party's Executive Board held a meeting on Saturday morning to discuss action against the senator, and ultimately the board formally censured Sinema "as a result of her failure to do whatever it takes to ensure the health of our democracy."

"I want to be clear, the Arizona Democratic Party is a diverse coalition with plenty of room for policy disagreements, however on the matter of the filibuster and the urgency to protect voting rights, we have been crystal clear," ADP Chair Raquel Terán said in a statement following the decision.

"In the choice between an archaic legislative norm and protecting Arizonans' right to vote, we choose the latter, and we always will," Terán continued, adding that Arizona Republicans are in the midst of trying to "push restrictive legislation" that would make it harder to vote.

Senator Bernie Sanders wasted no time expressing his approval for this action, and we'd like to add our applause as well. Votes should have consequences.

But instead, we are going to award the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award for a seemingly-contradictory reason. Before the Trumpian Era, we might well have decided that this deserved our other weekly award, in fact. But times change, and the bar for what is acceptable has been lowered so far down it has now essentially disappeared.

So we'd like to award this week's MIDOTW to President Joe Biden, for his "hot mic" snark when finishing up a meeting with the White House press. The reporter from Fox, Peter Doocy, shouted out what he probably considered a cute and clever "gotcha" style question, and Biden responded sotto voce. Or so he thought. Here's what happened:

The exchange came as reporters were being ushered away from a brief appearance by Mr. Biden in the East Room. Mr. Doocy called out a question: "Do you think inflation is a political liability in the midterms?"

Mr. Biden's patience was low. And the volume was up.

"It's a great asset," the president said in a sarcastic tone, seemingly to himself. "More inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch."

Part of the reason we're awarding Biden the MIDOTW is for how he handled the situation afterwards. We have no idea what was actually said, but it must have been pretty good:

On Monday night, Mr. Doocy said on Fox News that the president called his cellphone about an hour after the incident and, in his words, "cleared the air."

"He said, 'It's nothing personal, pal,'" Mr. Doocy told the host Sean Hannity. "We were talking about just, kind of, moving forward. And I made sure to tell him that I'm always going to try to ask something different than what everybody else is asking, and he said, 'You got to.'"

When Mr. Hannity pressed on whether Mr. Biden had apologized, Mr. Doocy laughed and demurred. "Sean, the world is on the brink of, like, World War III right now with all this stuff going on," he said. "I appreciate that the president took a couple minutes out this evening while he was still at the desk to give me a call and clear the air."

That is extraordinary, from a Fox News reporter, you've got to admit. So that call must have gone really well.

The second reason we think Biden's comment deserves an award is because such comments not only humanize Biden to an extent that nothing else he says does, but in fact because such comments are some of his most memorable -- as Politico helpfully pointed out:

The whole encounter -- including Doocy’s genial refusal to get all huffy about Biden’s flash of huffiness -- was in its own way quite winning. It was also a reminder of how many memorable Biden moments feature casual profanity or bursts of authentic emotion amid the pervasive phoniness of contemporary politics.

There was the famous time when he whispered to President Barack Obama at a White House podium that the passage of health care reform was "a big fucking deal." Or when he told an Iowa voter who pressed him on his ethical and physical fitness for the presidency that, "You're a damn liar, man," before challenging him to a pushup contest. Perhaps Biden's most memorable moment during the fall 2020 presidential debates was when he responded to former President Donald Trump's incessant interruptions by rasping, "Will you shut up, man?"

The article even ends with an amusing suggestion:

Which brings us back to Biden’s penchant for the occasional f-bomb or growling encounter. Let's see if polls show that others enjoyed the Doocy exchange as much as I did. If so, perhaps it's time for Biden to cancel the tired tradition of recognizing American heroes at the State of the Union in favor of a new approach: I'd like to recognize in the audience tonight Al Miller, an inventory manager from Zanesville, Ohio. He's basically a decent guy, but when he's blathering about politics even his friends think he's full of shit. C'mon, give me a break, man, and put a sock in it.

So whether you disapprove of Biden's snarky comment or whether it made you burst out laughing, you've got to admit that it was indeed authentic Biden. And authenticity is one of the most powerful political assets any politician can have.

So for his snide side comment this week (and for his gracious handling of it afterwards), we have to say Joe Biden has indeed earned the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Congratulate President Joe Biden on his official contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]





For once, it was one of those weeks when we just weren't all that disappointed in any Democrats anywhere. Even Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema seemed to be ready to vote to confirm whomever Joe Biden nominates to the Supreme Court (which is an enormous relief, of course).

So we are officially putting this week's Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week award back on the shelf until next week, unless anyone's got a nomination of their own to make down in the comments.




Volume 648 (1/28/22)

We're back to more-traditional talking points this week, with half of them encouraging Democrats to toot their own horn and spread some good news, and the other half pointing out the vacuity of the Republican position on just about everything, these days.

Enjoy!



Since Ronald Reagan was in office

Toot your own horn, Democrats! Enough with the doom and gloom! Proclaim the good news!

"Joe Biden and congressional Democrats singlehandedly -- without one Republican vote -- passed an emergency COVID relief bill right after he got into office. And now the results are plain for all to see. In 2021 the American economy grew at a faster pace than it has grown since Ronald Reagan was in office. Not even Bill Clinton's booming economy matches the Biden economy. In the final quarter of the year -- even with the Delta wave and the start of the Omicron wave -- the economy grew by an astounding 6.9 percent. Overall -- and please note, this is after inflation has been subtracted from the mix -- the economy grew at a jaw-dropping 5.7 percent. You know, I remember when Donald Trump promised he'd grow the American economy by six percent per year... but he never even got close to that, for his entire term. It took Joe Biden and the Democrats to get it done."



Unemployment approaching record lows, too

Actually, there are multiple horns for Democrats to toot right now.

"The unemployment rate is now once again under four percent, just as it was before the pandemic hit. This is an enormous achievement, and one that none of the economic gurus predicted when Biden took office. We've still got four-tenths of a percent to go to get back to where things were before COVID hit, but the expectation was at this point we'd still be seeing five or six percent unemployment -- not 3.9. People are working, wages are up, and more and more people are quitting their jobs to take better jobs. That's an extraordinary achievement in one year's time, especially considering where we all were in the pandemic at this time last year."



More affordable health care, too

This one joins the chorus, too.

"You know what else the Democratic-passed COVID relief bill did? It increased the subsidies for people buying health insurance on the Obamacare marketplaces. Out here in California they are running ads informing the public that more than 70 percent of those who get subsidies are now getting their health insurance for less than ten bucks a month. That was made possible by Democrats -- with zero help from Republicans. And it is working beyond anyone's expectations. Signups on the Obamacare marketplaces have already hit 14.5 million this year, which is over two million more than ever before. Democrats are continuing to make health care affordable for millions, while Republicans fight it every step of the way."



Omicron recedes

This isn't so much a Democratic political issue, just one where the mainstream media reporters need a rather large nudge (to stop ignoring).

"The best recent news, however, is that the Omicron wave of COVID has now crested nationwide. New cases per day are down by one-fourth from the peak two weeks ago. Not every state has seen the peak yet, and hospitalizations and deaths are both lagging figures so they may not statistically peak for a little while, but the good news is that the light at the end of this tunnel is now clearly in sight. This wave moved incredibly fast through the population, but it was less lethal than Delta, as more and more Americans got vaccinated and boosted. And the best news of all is that Omicron has now almost entirely eradicated the spread of Delta -- over 99 percent of new cases are Omicron. It has been a long hard two years, but barring any deadlier variants appearing, we could finally be very close to getting fully back to normal."



Another hypocrite heard from

Let's move on to what Republicans have been up to, shall we? He isn't the first, we've already pointed out others previously -- and we fully expect there will be more of these to come before the election season is over.

"Senator Rick Scott this week tried to claim credit for infrastructure projects in Florida that will be funded by a bill he did not vote for. In a photo-op tour of Army Corps of Engineer projects around Lake Okeechobee, Scott said he was 'proud' to help secure 'an unprecedented one billion dollars for Everglades restoration, the largest single amount ever allocated by the federal government.' The only problem with this was, when the bill came up for a vote, Scott was singing a different tune: 'We have to stop this reckless spending and live within our means. This bill is not paid for, and that's wrong.' So, Senator, is it 'reckless spending' or an unprecedented and welcome billion bucks from the federal government for your state? Surely it can't be both... right? I mean, you'd have to be a total flaming hypocrite to try to claim credit for something you voted against!"



They got nothin'...

It really should come as no surprise, though, that Republicans are trying to run on what Democrats have actually accomplished.

"President Joe Biden is right -- what is the Republican Party for? The leader of the Senate Republicans, when asked what his party's agenda would be for the midterms as they try to take back control of the houses of Congress, answered: 'That is a very good question. I'll let you know when we take it back.' In other words, Biden is right. They got nothin', period. Maybe we should call it the 'Seinfeld campaign strategy' -- a political agenda about nothing."



...Except indifference and cruelty, of course.

Maybe it's best they don't tell voters what they're actually for, though.

"Senator Ron Johnson recently admitted what we've been saying all along: Republicans are heartless anti-family skinflints who care absolutely nothing about investing in the future, or parents, or children. Think I'm overstating that? Here's what he had to say, about the Democratic proposal to subsidize child care for parents: 'People decide to have families and become parents; that's something they need to consider when they make that choice. I've never really felt it was society's responsibility to take care of other people's children.' That's it in a nutshell, folks. Every Republican candidate for office everywhere should now be asked whether he or she agrees with Senator Scrooge or not. My guess is that most will refuse to answer, because they truly don't want voters to figure out what their party does stand for."




Chris Weigant blogs at: ChrisWeigant.com
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