Bad Vibes at the Border

Why is everything so screwed up?

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Sarah left The Dispatch Podcast and now there’s no speaker of the House. What went wrong? Steve and Jonah join the flagship host’s return to discuss the speakership battle, Joe Biden’s Trump-era border wall, and corruption writ large. Also:

-Small dollar donor problems

-Democratic blame game

-Anti-transparency in government

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  1. Toadzky

    Sarah, my biggest reaction on the Biden dog stuff is around the lack of accountability. I have a large working dog myself (Tibetan mastiff) and she's escaped a few times and scared my neighbors, but had never bitten anyone. My wife got charged with a misdemeanor over it and my dog has been labeled "aggressive", meaning she will be put down if she escapes again regardless of whether there are any biting incidents.

    Yet for some reason, the President has a dog that has bitten repeatedly and there's no requirement to put it down or any other consequences. It's just another example of the powerful people being above the law.

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  2. Francislyo

    I appreciated Jonah's and Steve's explanations of why the Democrats did not save McCarthy's Speakership. From the historical precedent on how parties vote, to considering all the harm he's done to the nation with his support of the election conspiracy, attempts to kneecap any Jan 6th Congressional investigation, and his elevation and normalization of Trump and MAGA when we thought we were escaping them. To this I add that McCarthy has been instrumental in the transformation of many ordinary Republicans into true believers who spout hate-filled demonization of Democrats as evil global elites who sacrifice children and drink their blood. Many of our families are living with the fallout from McCarthy's ambition.

    After the Democrats bailed him out twice, I expected McCarthy to continue his new-found responsible governing, to offer something to moderate Democrats that could help moderate Republicans. I thought he would put aid for Ukraine, or the impeachment inquiry up for a vote of the House. But No - the day after their 2nd bailout of McCarthy, he went on CBS to excoriate the *Democrats* for Jan 6th AND blame *them* for the shutdown crisis. Then he let us know that he would continue to hold the nation hostage to MAGA whims. (He would prevent aid to Ukraine until the House, the Senate And the president acceded to MAGA demands).

    When an off-ramp presented itself next day - surprise, surprise: Democrats joined the Republican motion to vacate.

    I am so hopeful that we can finally be rid of the MAGA veto that McCarthy has held us under! But we have to take the necessary steps.

    The first step was deposing McCarthy: fait accompli.

    Next step: the ball is in the Republicans' court now. Democrats cannot single-handedly toss out our MAGA overlords, installed and supported by the Republicans. But it would take only ~5 brave Republicans to work with Democrats to elect a moderate Republican (ex: Brian Fitzpatrick) as speaker.

    It's time to end the tyranny of the small rabid delusional group that McCarthy placed over us merely for party and personal gain.

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  3. Pohl

    Electing and ousting a speaker are different, so all Jonah’s been saying lately on this should be understood with that caveat. As I’ve said elsewhere, saving McCarthy would not be a case of Dems crossing over to elect someone from a new majority. Now, there’s a slim chance they all get to enjoy the sweet, sweet leadership of Jim Jordan.

    And I’m definitely with Steve on transparency in Congress. Bozos may act better when the cameras aren’t tempting them, but decent people tend to act decently when watched. There already seem to be sufficient rules for closing committee hearings. Let the rest see daylight. Anyway, electing better people is usually the best remedy.

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  4. That's Hedley!

    Just a quick, and likely minor, note on the weaponization of politics discussion -- you should be clear that the "bringing" of the NY fraud case is not good support for this. What struck me is that the discussion seemed to take an aspect of the case -- pursuit of draconian remedy of corporate dissolution (which is the only issue Marcus discussed) -- and then conflate it a bit as to whether the case should have been brought in the first instance. It may have started over the vagueness of "this" in Sarah's statement that "If it wasn't Donald Trump, this wouldn't be happening." Let's be clear that, while there is certainly fodder for weaponization arguments, the NY fraud case is likely a weaker support for it - perhaps apart from the break-up remedy (which btw has been stayed for now). The case arose out of Cohen's congressional testimony that the Trump org routinely overstated value. True or not, most prosecutors/regulatory authorities would not sit on their hands after such a public statement and not at least investigate. And it seems at least from the complaint that there was more than sufficient indications of, uh, excessive misstatements.

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    Ben Connelly

    Another good line, Sarah: “Just because you sound nice when you say them, doesn’t make [these policies] good.”

    One of the great divides between conservatism and progressivism/populism in a nutshell. I’m a conservative because I’ve believed as long as I can remember that what sounded nice and what was good were two very different things.

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    Ben Connelly

    Sarah’s comment around 12 minutes in about small donors was maybe the most insightful way of putting it that I’ve ever heard. I’ve listened to Jonah and Yuval and all of you rant about small donors for years and totally agree, but somehow that framing really stood out to me (paraphrase):

    “People assumed that small donors would be more representative than large donors because everyone has $20 and most people don’t have $20k to give to political candidates. But while most people have $20 most people don’t give $20 to political candidates, so it’s still an incredibly unrepresentative group of people who are donating money to candidates.”

    That seems a much more appealing way to frame it for people who remain unconvinced by Jonah’s point. Rather than come off as condescending, it reminds people that small donors aren’t just “average citizens.”

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  7. Sunilsaha2

    I enjoy The Dispatch and I'm glad Sarah is back. But as a left of center moderate the constant Biden bashing is getting old. So much time spent on his dog. Zero time spent on the front runner of the Republican party ...

    insinuating that General Mark Milley deserves to be put to death
    saying shoplifters should be immediately shot
    revealing sensitive information about nuclear submarines after leaving office
    joking about the hammer attack that left Paul Pelosi with a fractured skull

    But Biden must be mean because of his dog's behavior even though we really know very little about the dog or how Biden treats him.

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    1. Eazy-E

      I think it's healthy to avoid turning every episode of every podcast into The Trump Show. I am tired of hearing about him and seeing him. I want him to go away.

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      1. Sunilsaha2

        Me too. But he will almost certainly be the Republican nominee and has a strong chance of being our next President as well. I don't think he can be ignored.

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    2. Sunilsaha2

      p.s. Did you see those job numbers? Also, kind of cool how Biden has been publicly supporting Zelensky, right?

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  8. Echack

    Here's some conlaw red meat for Sarah.

    In looking over the Presidential Succession Act page on Wikipedia, there is an interesting point brought up by some conlaw scholars. The addition of the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate may be unconstitutional.

    From the article: "There are concerns regarding the constitutionality of having members of Congress in the line of succession. The Constitution's Succession Clause—Article II, Section 1, Clause 6—specifies that only an "Officer" may be designated as a Presidential successor. Constitutional scholars from James Madison to the present day have argued that the term "Officer" refers to an "Officer of the United States", a term of art that excludes members of Congress. "

    Also, there is this issue:
    "The current act is also controversial because it provides that an officer who is acting as president due to the disability or failure to qualify of an officer higher in the order of succession does so only until the other officer's disability or disqualification is removed. If this happens, the previously entitled officer can "bump" the person then acting as president.[28] During testimony in 2004 before the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, Akhil Reed Amar stated that this provision violates "the Succession Clause, which says that an officer named by Congress shall 'act as President ... until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected'".[44]"

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      Marc Frischhertz

      This analysis would also seem to support the conclusion that the president of the United States is an “officer“ of the United States as used in the 14th amendment

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  9. P Satter

    For anyone who has not heard, Biden's dog has been removed from the White House. He would probably be a lovely dog on a sheep farm or with a very active and attentive owner.
    In fairness, I did hear about the biting incidents on other mainstream news sites, including my local Portland, Oregon ones. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents would all be for happy, nonbiting dogs. Pets are supposed to make presidents more relatable with the public, and this was turning into a PR nightmare. One would assume feedback from the Secret Service, if not an ultimatum over the biting.
    The Bidens have a cat named Willow, a gray tabby from Pennsylvania. I hope for everyone's sake, they leave the pet count at one cat. I am sure Willow, the Secret Service, and the White House staff would all agree.

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    1. Echack

      He's a German Shepherd. Train him up as a drug sniffing dog for when Hunter comes to visit.

      (Yes, I'm being snarky.)

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  10. Dhetzel1

    Apologies if this was mentioned in previous comments, but to Sarah's point about the interim speaker being third in line to the presidency: with the way it is set up, that person fulfilling the interim role is removed from the line of succession the same way an acting Cabinet member would be. If the Interim House speaker was in the line of succession, I wholeheartedly agree that would be a major constitutional issue.

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