“I foresee an inexorable decline in the polls as Americans discover to their horror that, given the right to choose their leaders, Iraqis will choose the same sort of fundamentalist madmen that their neighbors in Iran tend to choose …
“Worse, this is likely to come at a time when the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case releases his indictments. If Patrick Fitzgerald wants to be a real SOB — and that seems to be his sole purpose in life — he could quite easily indict at least two of Bush’s key advisers for violating their oaths concerning the handling of classified information.
“If that scenario is not bleak enough for you, consider oil prices. They could keep soaring as the winter heating season begins. It was the gas crisis of winter 1974 that set the sour mood for Richard Nixon’s demise that summer. Imagine $4-a-gallon gasoline prices at the same time Bush remains bogged down in Iraq while fending off the Plame prosecution.”
Like Rudi, maybe Ron should compete on “The Masked Singer.”
That might dispel the strong scent of fascism that lingers.
But one thing we know about DeSantis —
Just like a hungry praying mantis,
He likes to eat chocolate pudding with his fingers.
“This has to stop now. This is bad for business and there is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows. The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”
— Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott in an email to Meade Cooper, executive vice president of prime time programming, regarding correspondent Eric Shawn fact-checking then-President Donald Trump’s lies after the 2020 election, reports CNN.
“I don’t remember ever doing that, I’m telling you. Maybe when I was a kid. It’s interesting, there’s a lot of people, when they go at you, sometimes they have really good ammunition, like you’re a crook, you did this, you did that. For me, they’re talking about pudding. Really? Is that the best you got? Bring it on!”
– MAGA Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis denying reports that he eats pudding with three fingers.
“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority, to do on my own anything about guns. The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, a crazy idea. They’re against that.”
— “President Biden said that he’s exhausted what he can do through executive action on gun control as he called on Congress to act following the nation’s latest mass shooting,” USA Today reports.
“If we really want to keep our children safe, we need to spend less time banning books and more time stopping the horrific gun violence in our schools.”
“The clips and headlines coming out of the rally were enough to incite panic in any Republican concerned about the party’s ability to defeat President Joe Biden. The current president should be extremely politically vulnerable: Inflation is still hurting voters and some economists are predicting a recession. And yet, rather than attack Biden for those weaknesses, Republicans are held captive to Trump’s grievances.”
Gallup: “Americans are more likely now than at any time over the past five decades to say there is more crime in their local area than there was a year ago. … The 56% of U.S. adults who report an increase in crime where they live marks a five-percentage-point uptick since last year and is the highest by two points in Gallup’s trend dating back to 1972.”
Florida is leaving up to $15 million in federal money on the table that could be used to fight gun violence, reports the Tampa Bay Times. Florida was one of only six states that did not receive funding through a new federal grant to help carry out emergency risk-protection programs. Such orders are used by law enforcement to temporarily seize guns from people suspected of being a danger to themselves or others.
A new Monmouth poll finds 44% of Democrats do not want President Biden to seek re-election, even though 74% have a favorable opinion of him. Also interesting: 51% of the Democratic electorate cannot offer a name when asked who they would like to see as the party’s nominee if Biden does not run. Among those who do have a preferred alternative, Vice President Kamala Harris (13%) is the only potential contender who registers above single digits.
A nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 54 criminal cases where Donald Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
“A group of more than 175 former federal prosecutors released an open letter denouncing Donald Trump’s incendiary attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who’s investigating the former president for hush-money payments to a porn star,” Bloomberg reports.