Senate
February 11, 2025 — John Hinderaker

Tulsi Gabbard’s nomination as Director of National Intelligence advanced last night on a 52-46 vote. The final vote on her confirmation, which Democrats have delayed as long as they can, will be late tomorrow night. It is not in doubt, and J.D. Vance is out of the country, as his vote will not be needed to break a tie. I think Gabbard is an excellent choice for this role. Senator
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January 30, 2025 — John Hinderaker

The Senate continues to conduct hearings on President Trump’s key nominations. So far, most have gotten through easily–not surprising, since Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage in that body. The only nominee that the Democrats have seriously tried to block, to date, is Pete Hegseth. Happily, they failed. But now several of Trump’s most controversial nominees–controversial meaning that the New York Times and The Washington Post really, really hate them–have taken
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January 30, 2025 — Scott Johnson

Senator Bernie Sanders has given us a historic moment of Senate cross-examination in the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. confirmation hearing. Sanders posed a question that will rank up there in the annals of Senate history with the question attorney Joseph Welch posed to Joe McCarthy in the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954: “Have you no sense of decency?” Sanders nailed RFK with the question: “Are you supportive of these onesies?” He
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January 24, 2025 — John Hinderaker

When the Senate voted 51-49 yesterday to advance Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense, I assumed he was in. But I learned earlier today that there was grave doubt about his confirmation, because two more Republican senators–in addition to Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski–were likely to vote No. So tonight’s vote held plenty of suspense. Only when Thom Tillis of North Carolina announced that he was a Yes did
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January 15, 2025 — John Hinderaker

Several of Donald Trump’s most important cabinet nominees have now undergone confirmation hearings. I have watched them live in bits and pieces as I have been able, and have seen many clips posted here and elsewhere. Some obvious common threads emerge. First, Trump’s nominees have uniformly done well. Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio and Chris Wright have all come across as competent and likable, in contrast to most of
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January 14, 2025 — Scott Johnson

I wrote about my own association with Pete Hegseth in “Pete Hegseth reports for duty” and “I drank with Pete.” I wish him Godspeed in his Senate confirmation hearing to serve as Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration. The confirmation hearing commenced this morning. I have taken a look at highlights and lowlights posted on Twitter by Vigilant Fox. Senator Tim Kaine brought us a low low lowlight. If
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December 8, 2024 — Scott Johnson

I support President Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Pete is an old acquaintance whom we first heard from at Power Line by email with respect to his service guarding the worst of the worst at Guantanamo. Thereafter he wrote us long reports from Afghanistan during his service there. Pete’s skills, experience, and native intelligence could make him a terrific Secretary of Defense. When it comes to
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December 6, 2024 — John Hinderaker

The dominant fact of 21st century political life is the Great Sort–Americans separating themselves into increasingly distinct camps, red and blue, by state. This has obvious implications for the Senate. Kyle Kondik has an interesting analysis at
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December 6, 2024 — John Hinderaker

The Democrats have mounted a smear campaign against Pete Hegseth. With Matt Gaetz gone, he appears to be their number one target. The smears have involved Hegseth’s relationships with women and allegations of excessive drinking. But there are problems with the Democrats’ campaign: the allegations are anonymous, and thus in the realm of rumor. And they are nearly all old, and generally contradicted by others who are willing to go
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December 4, 2024 — John Hinderaker

The Hill reported, an hour or two ago, that Pete Hegseth’s nomination as Secretary of Defense is “sinking fast in the Senate.” Senate Republicans say Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s choice to head the Defense Department, faces a very tough path to confirmation in the Senate and his bleak prospects have been communicated directly to the Trump transition team, which is now mulling other options. Senate sources say there is a
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November 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Mitch McConnell is retiring, prompting an election in the GOP Senate caucus to select a new leader. For reasons that were not clear to me, Florida’s Rick Scott was the favorite of some MAGA Republicans. But the caucus elected John Thune, who served as Whip under McConnell. In an interview with Breitbart, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson had some strikingly candid comments about the contest for Majority Leader. I have a
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November 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson

We have followed the post-election theater in Pennsylvania’s Senate race. As the AP recognized three weeks ago, GOP challenger Dave McCormick defeated incumbent Democrat nullity Bob Casey. Yesterday Casey finally conceded the race, but not before the recount began. This is how it stood when Casey pulled the plug: The concession comes days into a pricey recount that Casey could have waived. He gained just four votes from the first
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November 21, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Bucks County elections board chairman Diane Ellis-Marseglia declared last week that “in this country and people violate laws any time they want.” Apparently expanding on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court “precedent” to which she referred, she explained: “So for me, if I violate this law, it’s because I want a court to pay attention to it.” So stating, she voted to count hundreds of deficient mail and provisional ballots (video below).
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November 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is soon to become Senate Minority Leader. The competition is stiff, but Schumer must be one of the most vile and conscienceless Democrats in contemporary politics. He has certainly earned recognition in the Department of Evil Clowns. He should be enough all by himself to turn a decent person off to politics. I have occasionally documented his offenses against public decency or ordered thought in
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November 19, 2024 — Scott Johnson

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has a good reputation and may be going places if the Democratic Party ever rids itself of the anti-Semitism that has burrowed into its heart. I think he would have sold out Israel in a heartbeat if he had run with Harris, but he’s Jewish. Following the Harris line wouldn’t have been enough to appeal to the crowd Harris sought to appease. Yesterday afternoon the Pennsylvanian
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November 17, 2024 — John Hinderaker

Last night I was on the terrific Outsiders show on Sky News Australia with hosts Rowan Dean, Rita Panahi and James Morrow. In this appearance, we talked about the warm reception that Donald Trump got in the White House from Joe Biden; how the Democrats got stuck with Kamala Harris as their nominee; and how the Democrats are trying to steal a Senate seat in Pennsylvania. I think you will
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November 15, 2024 — John Hinderaker

We try to be polite in talking about our political opponents, but sometimes it is impossible. Some of them are–there is no other way to put it–morons. Such as Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat from Hawaii. I can’t find a good clip of her comments during Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on bump stocks, but here is a report: Hirono began her opening remarks by referencing an earlier hearing in which
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