Outside the Beltway

I know there are far graver examples of the stupidity and pettiness of our politics, but still. Via Politico: Cheney releases concession call audio in tit-for-tat with her primary foe.
Because the strategy is always about slinging BS. Via the NYT: Trump’s Shifting Explanations Follow a Familiar Playbook.
Via RawStory: Andrew Yang backpedals on Mar-a-Lago search tweets as CNN’s Jim Acosta tries to get a straight answer.
Via the NYT: Polio Is Worrying Parents. Doctors Say Vaccination Is the Answer.
This is a truly amazing story and yet another example of democratic institutions being assailed by leaders who don’t conform to norms. Via the NYT: The Secret Powers of an Australian Prime Minister, Now Revealed

The baffling arrangement apparently began with Mr. Morrison’s realization in 2020 that his government’s declaration of a “human biosecurity emergency” would give the health minister extraordinary powers to direct any citizen in the country to do anything to control the spread of Covid-19. The laws of public health essentially put the health minister above the prime minister.
So, according to a new book excerpted in the newspaper The Australian, Mr. Morrison and the country’s attorney general, Christian Porter, came up with an administrative workaround. Finding there was no constitutional block on having two ministers in charge of the same portfolio, Mr. Morrison promptly appointed himself health minister, then finance minister, to make sure he could also have a say over emergency spending.

Tab Clearing

Andrew Yang, COVID, Jim Acosta, Vaccination

7 responses to “End of the Week Tab-Clearing”

Jay L Gischer

August 19, 2022 at 12:49 pm

You would think not conceding would be a good thing to Hageman. That’s what Trump does, after all.

And the call Hageman plays A) makes no sense (Who calls someone to leave a message, says hello, then hangs up) and B) can be created by an easy edit.

This is what Wyoming R voters are endorsing. Slander your opponents as hard as you can at every turn, because that’s “fighting”. Also known as “bearing false witness”, but hey, your cause is righteous, so who cares about rules?

1
Just nutha ignint cracker

August 19, 2022 at 1:13 pm

@Jay L Gischer: Politician : Bearing false witness :: breath : life
Kathy

August 19, 2022 at 1:20 pm

@Jay L Gischer:

It seems we’re returning to days that end in y.
Gustopher

August 19, 2022 at 2:21 pm

Via RawStory: Andrew Yang backpedals on Mar-a-Lago search tweets as CNN’s Jim Acosta tries to get a straight answer.

There was another exchange recently where Yang was asked about abortion and shifted to his response of not going left or right but going forward, and would not budge or give any policies of the Forward Party.

At least Nazis stand for something.
Jay L Gischer

August 19, 2022 at 3:01 pm

In the 80’s I moved from the West Coast to the Tidewater area of Virginia, where we could see a fair bit of NC political TV ads. It was a shocking change, frankly. It was attack adds 24/7, as opposed to feel-good “isn’t our guy wonderful” stuff you saw in CA. Yes, there were attacks, but people generally believed that optimism wins.

Not to mention that the attacks dealt in innuendo, cherry-picking and suggestion, rather than bald-faced lying. I think of that as a Trump innovation. But Trump is better at this, he can be very cagy about how he advances his defamation. It’s as if he knows the defamation law really well, or something.

1
Kathy

August 19, 2022 at 3:11 pm

@Gustopher:

Perhaps Yang could follow a platform along these lines
Ken_L

August 19, 2022 at 11:32 pm

Finding there was no constitutional block on having two ministers in charge of the same portfolio …

There may not have been a constitutional block, but countless laws confer authority on ‘the Minister’. It’s unlikely the appointment of two ministers, with no mechanism to determine which one had ultimate authority under enabling legislation, would have survived a court challenge. No doubt that’s why Morrison kept it secret.