Pelosi Gives Biden A Win

After Tuesday's drubbing at the polls, it was clear that the Democratic leadership felt the need for a win.  The infrastructure bill had already passed in the Senate back in August, by a vote of 69 to 30, with nineteen Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in order to pass the measure.  

But the proposal stalled in the House when the progressives declared that they would vote against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill unless the President's Build Back Better plan, the so-called "human infrastructure" bill, passed first.  Speaker Pelosi was perfectly willing to defer to the progressives, and not bring the infrastructure bill to a floor vote - until Tuesday.  Biden's Build Back Better bill was originally put forward as a $3.5 trillion measure.  With objections from within their own party, the Democrats scaled that back to $1.75 trillion.  However, the analysis from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School suggested that the true cost could exceed $4 trillion.

With the Congressional Budget Office not having scored the Build Back Better plan, and with progressives still holding out for Build Back Better to be voted on first, Pelosi divorced herself from the left-wing of her party and held a vote on the infrastructure bill.  

Six "Squad" members (Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ayanna Pressley and Jamaal Bowman) still refused to vote for the infrastructure bill.  So Pelosi had to depend on 13 Republicans to get the bill passed.  My guess is that she did not want to have to rely on Republicans.  The bipartisan votes in the House and Senate likely undermine one of the Democrats' election talking points for next year, that only their party cares about repairing our infrastructure. 

And the political necessity of getting a win weakened the influence of the Squad. 

Republicans Bounce Back!

The biggest upset on election day 2021 was, of course, in Virginia.  Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat, and former governor, Terry McAuliffe.  If, as former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill famously said, "all politics is local," then McAuliffe ran a terrible campaign.  McAuliffe repeatedly spoke as if he was running against Trump, even referring to the Republican candidate as Trumpkin.  But voters knew this election was not about Trump.  

Nor did McAuliffe help himself when he opined that "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."  It also did not help when he lied about critical race theory (CRT), saying that it has "never been taught" in Virginia's public schools.  That was an easily proven lie, given that the expression "critical race theory" is on the Virginia Department of Education website, and apparently was when McAuliffe had been governor.  (Per reporting by Fox.)

Fox also reported that in July one school district in Virginia spent over $30,000 for training administrators in CRT.  And, McAuliffe asserted, with the now commonly heard refrain, that those who oppose CRT are engaging in a "racist dog whistle."  NBC reported that Youngkin won with a two point, 66,000 vote margin, 50.6% to 48.6%, and 1,663, 249 votes to 1,596,840 votes.  

Democrats, and their supporters in the mainstream media, continued to lie about the election days later.  Howard Dean, former Vermont Governor and head of the DNC, Tweeted:  "Racism still works in Virginia."  As education was a considerable issue in the Virginia election, MSNBC commentator Joy Reid declared:  "'Education'...is code for white parents (who) don't like the idea of teaching about race."  Another MSNBC commentator said:  "This is about the fact that a good chunk of voters out there are okay with white supremacy."

What lying, reprehensible people.  Republicans have not won the governor's race in Virginia since 2009.  So the voters were not racist in 2013 and 2017 when Democrats won?  They were not racist in 2020 when Biden won Virginia's electoral votes by 10 points?  And these very same racist voters elected a black woman, Winsome Sears, as Lt. Gov.  And they elected Jason Miyares, of Cuban heritage, to be the state's attorney general.  Said Dee Duncan, President of the Republican State Leadership Committee, "Fifty-seven percent of the candidates that we ran in flips in Virginia were either female or minority candidates and that is something that we're incredibly proud of."  Those racist misogynists!   

Here was Winsome Sears celebrating her victory:  "I'm telling you that what you are looking at is the American Dream.  When I joined the Marine Corps, I was still Jamaican.  But this country had done so much for me, I was willing, willing, to die for this country."  Compare and contrast with Somali immigrant Ilhan Omar.  

Republicans in Virginia also succeeded in taking the House of Delegates.  Prior to the election the Democrats controlled that part of the state legislature by 55 seats to 45 seats.  After the election last Tuesday, Republicans now control the House of Delegates, 52 seats to 48 seats.  

While Republicans did not take the governor's race in NJ from Democrat incumbent Phil Murphy, the race was far tighter than predicted.    Biden won NJ by 16 points in 2020.  Murphy won by 2.6% on Tuesday, 50.9% to 48.3%.  1,285,351 votes to 1,219,906 votes.  And the defund the police movement did poorly.  In Minneapolis, 56% of the voters rejected replacing the police department with a department of public safety.  And conservatives did well nationally by winning school board seats in various cities across the country, with parents letting school boards know what they think of critical race theory being taught in public schools.   

With voters rebelling against the idea that all aspects of society should be viewed through a racial lens, perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of a new Tea Party movement.           

 

A Postscript to the 10/31/21 Post on The Biden Administration and Israel

Recall that the Biden Administration is intent on opening a Palestinian consulate on Israeli soil in Jerusalem.  However, there has been some pushback from Congress; at least from some Republicans in Congress.

Thirty-four Senate Republicans introduced a bill that would block Biden from opening a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem.  

And some 200 House Republicans signed off on a letter to Biden making clear their objections:  "We write today to express our strong opposition to your administration's proposal to reopen the US consulate general in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem, that would provide separate diplomatic outreach to the Palestinians...(which) would be inconsistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 by promoting division of Jerusalem."  

The letter went on to describe the proposed Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem as "unacceptable, shameful, and wrong."  Indeed.  After Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, other countries followed with moving their embassies.  It is beyond outrageous that Biden believes he has the right to do this.  The effect of such a move would serve to support the Palestinians' view that they have a right to any part of Jerusalem.  But it does demonstrate, once again, which party today will consistently have Israel's back.