Good Saturday morning, except for
1. Those in Japan, where it is Saturday night.
2. New England sports fans, whose Celtics are now down 0-2 to something (or someones) called “the Heat.”
3. Those Wide World of Newsers who would like to see a lot of essential reading in today’s edition.
I’ve looked through many articles and processed Twitter as if I were reading “The Canterbury Tales” and there just isn’t very much to share with you.
After distilling it all down, there are four interesting story lines for you to check in on, and then you can head out to enjoy the day.
1. THE ARRIVAL
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2. THE FISCAL/DEBT CEILING TALKS
Friday’s on-off-on negotiations between the White House and Team McCarthy have not instilled tons of optimism in most quarters.
Here is my latest list of some of the items that must get done for there to be a deal:
A. All relevant parties must truly believe that June 1 is the deadline.
B. All relevant parties must truly believe that the 14th Amendment is not a way out.
C. The question of tax increases (a/k/a “revenue enhancements”) needs to come on or off the table, decisively.
(Which hasn’t happened yet, per the Associated Press: “White House communications director Ben LaBolt said Saturday that Any serious budget negotiation must include discussion both of spending and of revenues, but Republicans have refused to discuss revenue.’”)
D. The White House and congressional Democrats have to stop guessing at Speaker McCarthy’s intentions and vote getting capacities – and start talking to him in honest detail about these matters.
(On this point, here are the scariest two sentences in all the latest coverage, via Politico: “Privately, the White House shares some of the progressives’ anxiety that McCarthy will balk at the last minute, or prove unable to sell his conference on whatever deal is reached. But officials believe they have no choice but to forge ahead.”)
E. Political analyst AOC’s warning about the absence of a serious Republican whip count (let alone the necessary bipartisan, bicameral whip count) needs to be heeded:
“Kevin McCarthy does not know how many votes he has,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO Playbook in an interview. “He can’t even go to the White House and say, ‘If you give me this, I will have X votes; if you give me that, I’ll have Y votes.”
F. President Biden and McCarthy need to learn to trust each other, jointly stare down the extremes, and find a way to balance the equities involved in the biggest ticket items (spending levels, spending cap durations, the length of the debt ceiling raise, the level of cleanliness of the debt ceiling raise, a House-Senate legislative strategy, to name a few of the larger ones).
The last words on this go to the Negotiator/Closer-in-Chief, still in Japan and a day away from what could be an epic press conference, currently scheduled for 5:15am Wilmington Standard Time Sunday morning:
President Biden on Saturday brushed off noisy statements issued by both sides in the debt and spending talks gripping Washington, dismissing them as little more than the posturing typical of any negotiation and expressing confidence that he will still be able to strike a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Speaking on the sidelines of a summit meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Biden told reporters that he was not worried about the debt talks back home. “Not at all,” he said. He later added, “I still believe we’ll be able to avoid a default and get something decent done.” (New York Times)
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3. THE RON DESANTIS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
A roundtable with Granite State legislative leaders, a private meeting with Chris Sununu, and a Red Arrow Diner stop all went off without a hitch – and with a #fitn retail effort gold star added to the work sheet by the Washington Post:
He leaned into retail politics, stopping to give one lawmaker’s baby a kiss before sitting down. Later, at the Red Arrow Diner — a cramped, classic campaign stop in Manchester — DeSantis talked up his policies to receptive voters, lingering for a bit with each customer as he made his way down the counter. Sometimes criticized as stiff, the governor was all smiles as he asked children questions and mentioned his family.
“Four, okay, that’s a great age,” he said to one child.
“That looks good — my kids would be devouring those fries, I know that,” DeSantis said later.
4. THE TEAM DESANTIS PICKS ITS BATTLES
The Sunshine State topper’s high command has begun engaging more on various incoming, including, in the current news cycle:
A. Trying to convince the skeptics that the Disney Orlando Metroplex project cancellations had nothing to do with Bob Iger wanting to teach the world who is boss.
B. Pushing back on the Politico profile of Casey DeSantis as sexist, false, and reliant on hostile and unqualified sources.
C. The oldest play in the GOP playbook: “firing back” at Al Sharpton:
DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin slammed Sharpton for using his eulogy to attack the governor.
“Democrats never miss an opportunity to take a political jab and try to further divide our country — even at a funeral,” Griffin told Fox News Digital. “Save your breath, Rev. Sharpton. These attacks simply don’t work on Governor DeSantis. He is not afraid to speak the truth.” (New York Post)
Combined effectiveness rating for all three efforts: *** out of *****.
NB: The New York Times takes a run and a shot at DeSantis’ use of murkily funded private plane travel, which goes nowhere and/but is yet another reminder (as if we needed another reminder…) that we are all about to see an extraordinarily large number of “investigative” pieces about Ron DeSantis, including many fueled by opposition research lobbed lovingly over newsroom transoms, and many that will try to paint him as a Florida swamp creature beholden to special interests. How much pushback there is going to be interesting, and, increasingly, important.
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