Harold Meyerson surveys the post-California landscape, and hopes Democrats are able to "build on" both Mrs. Clinton's victory in securing the Presidential nomination and Mr. Sanders's victory in "the battle of ideas." But I fear how Democrats will "build on both victories" is to co-opt the Sandernistas and offer them the same narrow choice between a weak legislative agenda and the spectre of far-right dominance, even though this strategy has achieved disaster both in 1994 and 2010 (and will likely do so again in 2018). Republicans will happily cooperate by squealing like pigs at every perceived insult.
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) loses her House primary to another sitting Republican House Rep, George Holding. Ms. Ellmers started out as a far-right teabagger, but in just six years the right has portrayed her as a sellout for very, very miniscule sins (like being chummy with House leadership, or is that what she wanted House leadership to think?). Certainly redistricting helped doom her and that was probably the point, but mainly Ms. Ellmers has fallen victim to incessant swordfighting over Who's More Conservative, swordfighting that likely won't end even after an actual rabid raccoon wins a House seat.
Gary Legum, writing at Salon, tells us about that time Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) helped keep a hold on an Obama nominee for Ambassador to the Bahamas until the nominee died of leukemia. He kept the hold going, apparently, because it was "a way to inflict special pain on the President." Gosh, Sen. Cotton, all out of adult diapers? Seriously, if Arkansas Democrats ever figure out how to be populists, they could use this event to send Mr. Cotton back to the oblivion he so richly deserves.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid apparently has a serious jones to put Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the ticket with Hillary Clinton, but doesn't want to lose her Senate seat (Massachusetts's Republican Governor would get to pick her successor, at least in the short term). I still wonder who will be the first "liberal" media hack to question whether Hillary Clinton should have a male on her ticket for "balance," even though no one has ever asked a similar question with a male at the top of the ticket. My money's on Chuck Todd.
Finally, Donald Trump is so terrible that Matt Bai can skewer him. The crux of Mr. Bai's analysis -- that Mr. Trump is "a man tragically enslaved to his own neediness," and his "insecurity is not a manageable motivator" but "the black hole that consumes him" and, potentially, the Republican party -- is entirely apt, but I doubt it will actually consume the GOP, not just because the GOP can poop money whenever it likes, but because Trump supporters have been voting GOP for many years, and the "insurgent" candidacy of Mr. Trump is just another way to keep them involved without them suspecting they've been had.
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