2022 Election
April 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker
My colleague Bill Glahn has taken a dive into the data now available on political spending in Minnesota during the 2022 election cycle. He has written several posts on his research at AmericanExperiment.org. Bill’s most recent findings are disturbing: 23 of America’s richest billionaire families donated to Minnesota Democrats (DFL) in the past three years. Collectively, they donated over $6.2 million to the MN DFL in that time. These 23
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April 26, 2023 — John Hinderaker
I have never known Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as anything other than an anti-vaxxer. In my eyes, that has always been a negative, although I am more open-minded on the subject after the covid fiasco. But that isn’t why I think Kennedy may actually bring some value to the Democratic primary race. Check out this tweet from earlier today. It refers to the Twitter files that Scott wrote about here:
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April 10, 2023 — John Hinderaker
American Experiment’s Bill Glahn has done a detailed analysis of campaign finance in Minnesota’s 2022 election cycle. He provided links to his findings here. In this Twitter thread, he sums up his thoughts about the structural advantages that Democrats enjoy in Minnesota, and, to one degree or another, across much of the United States. If you sometimes wonder how a party whose ideas are so awful can remain electorally competitive,
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March 6, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The New York Times sends out an email each morning; you can view today’s, by David Leonhardt, here. The email is headed: Asian American voters, like Latinos, have shifted toward the Republican Party since 2018. Why? Rather than Why, some would ask, What took them so long? But let’s enjoy the good news: In the past two elections — 2020 and 2022 — Asian Americans have moved toward the right,
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February 27, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Social media is awash right now with wild rumors about the condition of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has been hospitalized for depression—a hospitalization that will apparently last a month or longer. We should await some facts or other kinds of confirmation before drawing conclusions about nefarious political calculations, but it is confirmed that his wife and children have fled the country to “avoid media attention.” I don’t know much
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February 23, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Students of ancient history may recall that the campaign of then Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman released two letters from physicians who vouched for Fetterman’s fitness to serve following the stroke he suffered last year just before the Pennsylvania primary. The first such letter was released on June 3 under the signature of Dr. Ramesh Chandra. The second such letter was released just before the general election in mid-October under
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February 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I was extremely disappointed when Dr. Oz won the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate GOP primary over David McCormick — by 900 hundred votes out of nearly 900,000 cast, with the invaluable support of Donald Trump. I was inspired to express my disgust by adapting the famous translation of one of the Roman poet Martial’s epigrams to fit the occasion when McCormick conceded on June 3. What a farce. Pennsylvania conducted its
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January 11, 2023 — Scott Johnson
AP congressional reporter Farnoush Amiri report via Twitter (below) that Speaker Kevin McCarthy will follow through on his promise to remove Reps. Eric Swalwell (Intelligence), Adam Schiff (Intelligence), and Ilhan Omar (Foreign Affairs) from their committee assignments. Of the three, I think Schiff is the worst. He should be tarred and feathered and run out of town for abuse of his position as Intelligence Committee chairman to perpetuate the Russia
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January 5, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Unless I am mistaken about the order of things, the impasse over selecting the next Speaker of the House will end very soon for a simple reason: since no members can be officially sworn in until there is a Speaker, it means none of them can draw a paycheck. That will tend to concentrate the mind of many House members. I am not as averse to the current general scene
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January 4, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The humiliation of Kevin McCarthy as he stands for Speaker of the House represents the humiliation of the Republican Party. It is humiliation wrought by a fringe that is greatly enjoying its attention. If you have any doubt of the humiliation, consider the ecstatic mainstream media coverage of the show. They love it. What accounts for their joy? I think I have a pretty good fix on it. If that
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January 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward
I have no idea how the impasse in the House is going to end, but wild rumors and speculation are the coin of the realm right now. On social media there is great fascination over a short clip showing Matt Gaetz speaking with her worship Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What were they talking about? The folks at Bad Lip Reading have figured it out (click on the second video here): What they
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January 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward
As of this writing, Kevin McCarthy has lost two rounds of voting to be the next Speaker of the House, something that hasn’t occurred in a century. Nineteen Republicans voted for someone else in both votes (McCarthy could only lose five votes). One interesting wrinkle though is that in the first round, the renegade GOP votes were split between Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs, but in the second round all
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December 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I detect Seth Lipsky’s characteristic prose and train of thought in the New York Sun editorial “Yes, Virginia–There Is a Santos Clause.” Seth’s hand in the editorial makes sense: he is the editor of the Sun. The subject of the editorial is the post-election discovery that Rep.-elect George Santos is not who he said he was. The subhead summarizes the gist of the editorial: “All the falsehoods George Santos is
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December 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I invited Arizona attorney Jack Clifford to finish up his reporting for us on Kari Lake’s election trial with a comment on the judge’s Christmas Eve decision dismissing Lake’s lawsuit. The AP story on it is here. Jack writes: I write to share my final thoughts on the Lake v. Hobbs litigation. As always, these thoughts are my own and are not written on behalf of any client or my
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December 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. He has lived, worked, and voted in Maricopa County, Arizona since 2014. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs trial that concluded yesterday. The AP’s story on the second day of trial is here. Jack’s day 1 report is here. This is Jack’s day 2 report: As before my comments are my own personal
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December 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Attorney John A. “Jack” Clifford is of counsel with Merchant & Gould. P.C. I developed a healthy respect for Jack many years ago when we represented adverse parties in an intellectual property dispute. He sends us this report on the Lake v. Hobbs et al. trial that opened yesterday. The AP’s story on the first day of trial is here. Jack reports that this is what he learned watching day
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December 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson have made it a mission to expose the Biden family corruption at whose apex sits President Biden. Their various reports, speeches, and correspondence are all accessible here. Most recently, they summarized the fruits of their research in this letter letter dated October 26, 2022 (“[t]he letter summarizes key elements of the Biden family’s engagements with individuals linked to the Chinese communist party and Chinese
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