Putin’s Bromance

There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.

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A perfect storm of congressional battles has formed over the upcoming legislative session, just as the grown ups are leaving. Mike is joined by Steve and Jonah to discuss the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden and:

-Biden’s problematic Iranian prisoner deal

-Kim Jong Un and Putin now BFFs?

-Biden needs a nap

Show notes:

–The Morning Dispatch: A Rogue State Visit

-Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns: This Will Not Pass

–The Dispatch Podcast with Martin and Burns

-Mike Warren’s impeachment reporting featuring Rep. Ken Buck

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Comments (38)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Clove53

    I'm going to start calling the non-serious, performance-oriented politicians "The Shallow State." Who's with me?

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  2. ErrantThoughts

    You guys hit on it on the end but you did hit on it.

    Put your strategist hats on. If think Biden is not all there and won't be the best campaigner but also think Harris can't beat Trump, what course of action puts you in the best position to beat Trump.

    If you dump Harris and don't nominate a black man or woman you have a high likelihood of losing a not insignificant number of black voters. The 2024 race is going to be close, how much support can the Dems afford to lose?

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  3. Pohl

    As I said over at TMD, the Dem commenters are oddly fatalistic about Biden, many even taking for granted that he’s the best shot at defeating Trump. I hope they are wrong, but his replacement could be worse, even if younger. Pete Buttigieg? Lol/gag.

    I’m Team Biden only because he is NotTrump/TrumpLite, and I can’t see anyone of either party having a better foreign-policy team. Even if this means, heaven forfend, something should happen to him in office. Still, Dems, can’t you, at LEAST, replace Kamala? C’mon, man!

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    1. ErrantThoughts

      If Biden isn't the nominee the Dems either have to go with Harris or a black man or woman or they risk losing black support in what is likely to be a close election. Who are the Dems going to go with, Cory Booker?

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      1. Pohl

        So, going forward, there needs to be a black person on the ticket? That’s new, and dumb.

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        1. ErrantThoughts

          That's what you got from what I wrote?

          If the top of the ticket is removed and the person next on the ticket is skipped over then supporters of the person skipped over may feel Aggrieved.

          To continue their support giving them something is reasonable.

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          1. Pohl

            Did you not write there has to be a black person on the ticket? Why? Are they interchangeable? If Kamala goes, anyone competent can replace her. Granted, if Dems judge that will keep some of their voters home, they should think twice. You may, sadly, be correct.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Russkiejedi

    Was anyone able to find the New Republic piece Jonah mentioned with the story about Biden’s proposal to send money to Iran after 9/11 to let them know we don’t blame them?

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  5. Michel95

    Steve needs to come with terms with the destructive role Paul Ryan played during his years in Congress. Trump comes into office wanting loads of additional spending and Ryan drove through a big tax cut for corporations and the richest (that's not a Democratic talking point; it's what happened). Doing that and then wringing your hands about deficits doesn't pass the laugh test.

    His ideas on Social Security reform had like 10% public support. He was never going to force those through, and trying to instead of more pragmatic approaches to addressing the problem was just another way of not addressing the problem.

    Paul Ryan was just another Republican telling people they could have as much government as they want and they wouldn't have a to pay for it. Having a bunch of divorced-from-political-reality ideas about how to solve the problem (and divorced from economic reality as well) doesn't make one a serious legislator.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ben Connelly

      Paul Ryan was one of the only serious people on the subject of social security

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  6. Sunilsaha2

    This was one of the more painful episodes for me as a slightly left of center moderate. Almost the entire thing was Biden bashing.

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      Russkiejedi

      LOL, it’s richly deserved. As is the Trump and Republican bashing you probably came for.

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  7. Richard Kennedy

    Re: Michael’s last observation about seniors. I’m 70 now. Dad is 93. All my life Dad could play my older brother and he still can. He looks 75. However…
    He’s in a volunteer heavy retirement community and he at one time estimated he was putting in 40 hours a week well after he needed to and finally cut back. He created the present CCTV system that has been in use for most of this century, but the one thing he kept going with was transportation. When shuttling folks to and from the big urban center 45 minutes away, he would always ask his charges to point out any driving concerns they had. And no one did. *To him*.

    Fall of 2021 he moved to Assisted Living. There were many signs that he was not what he used to be. One thing his social worker emphasized to me when I was there helping the transition was *folks were sharing to her and management that they were concerned about little things with respect to driving*!

    This brings up two things. Yes, seniors who are the most loyal voters are watching this and see what they see. Who knows, it might affect their votes even though at this point we will be stuck with two (2) erratic, overly self confident, and self absorbed old men (each in their own way of course). But also, can it be that those around them and close to them not tasked specifically with monitoring these things on a daily basis won’t confront either of them with what they see? Obviously, Trump would fire the poor soul and then smear the person as incompetent. Biden might just blow the professional off and appeal to the confidence his staff has in him. Very suboptimal my friends.

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      Aylene Wright

      Although I am not comfortable going into detail, I can sadly relate to your experience regarding seeing family members age. Sometimes, the decline is quite precipitous.

      Note that although Mitch McConnell is "of an age" with Biden, that no one was questioning his mental capacity at all, until those recent two public "freezing" episodes.

      On the other hand, Feinstein seems to have declined quite steadily and slowly over the past decade, although certainly her recent acute illness may have precipitated her decline, at least to the point that her aides couldn't cover it up anymore.

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      1. Pohl

        Not to mention Pelosi. Give me a break with these egomaniacal oldsters. Go sit on a porch somewhere; you’re not indispensable. Far from it. As an aside, I hate when Jonah refers to them as the “grownups.” He just will not let go of his mythical McConnell, whose name should never be spoken without mentioning his utter failure in Trump’s second impeachment.

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    Jaylarson430

    Great discussion today. On the Biden age issue I agree as a retiree and Republican that Biden’s age is definitely concerning. But conversely how many retirees would never vote for Trump to go back in the White House? Big dilemma that both parties need to recognize.

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      Bryson DeAwesome

      do a poll in the Villages in FL .... results would be heavily for Trump

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    Pastorfbt

    Regarding the closing discussion about Biden's competency, look at Peggy Noonan's piece in today's WSJ. She's had a couple on the subject recently and whatever else you may think of her work these have been pretty spot on.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    On the extended foreign policy discussion and criticism of both the left and parts of the right for compartmentalizing foreign policy. My question for Steve and Jonah would be please point me to any coherent foreign policy that is not compartmentalized in some respects?

    Foreign policy is by its very nature compartmentalized because absent war, we have no power or authority to compel other countries to do everything that we would want them to do, instead, those things are compartmentalized and ranked in order of importance.

    For example, the United States wants something from Iran, in addition to hostages, and that is to delay the date upon which it obtains a nuclear weapon. Therefore, the United States may be willing to provide things to Iran, despite our significant disagreements with its conduct.

    I would say, all administrations have taken a similar position with regard to Saudi Arabia. Over the years we want their oil, or we don’t want them to turn off the pump and increase global prices. So the United States acts friendly with them, even though nearly all the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi.

    Reasonable minds can certainly disagreed with any of Biden or Trump’s or Bush’s foreign policy decisions. However, simply attacking it as compartmentalized is in my opinion, a bad faith, argument, since foreign policy by its very nature is compartmentalized. Let’s not forget the United States has a one China policy. Why?

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