Take the win, for heaven’s sake
Inexperienced Republican candidates are threatening to cost Mitch McConnell a long-anticipated Senate majority in this year’s midterms.
The big picture: The GOP roster is filled with Trump-endorsed celebrities who’ve never run political campaigns — former NFL star Herschel Walker in Georgia, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and best-selling author J.D. Vance in Ohio.
Driving the news: The winner in this week’s Arizona’s GOP contest, Blake Masters — a venture capitalist who ran an unconventional primary comparing his candidacy to a tech startup — has resisted hiring political strategists to help tailor his message for a general election, according to Republican sources familiar with his campaign.
Why it matters: Despite a favorable political environment for Republicans, these nominees are trailing in recent public polls.
Meantime, since Saturday night Senate Democrats have toiled their way through vote-a-rama on the Inflation Reduction Act (Washington Post):
More than 13 hours into a slow-moving debate, party lawmakers appeared on track to deliver the political centerpiece of President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda. The looming vote marked an astonishing coda to months of infighting in the Democratic ranks among liberals pushing ambitious economic reforms and the more cautious centrists.
Dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the proposal makes good on Democrats’ years-old pledge to try to reduce seniors’ prescription drug costs. It also authorizes the largest-ever single burst of spending to tackle global warming, totaling roughly $370 billion, with the goal of boosting clean energy and reducing planet-warming emissions by 40 percent by 2030.
There is plenty more to crow about in the bill scaled down from Joe Biden’s Build Back Better package. Is it everything on the progressive wish list? No. But for heaven’s sake, take the win and don’t piss and moan about what couldn’t get by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. If Democrats hope to do more they’ll have to hold the House and Senate in November. Cheer for them delivering for the American people. (Fingers crossed for the bill that could pass the Senate as early as today.)
It’s not enough for Republicans to shoot themselves in the foot. Democrats need to shout their successes from rooftops and campaign like crazy … while reminding Americans at every turn that the Party of Lincoln has lost its faith and its soul. It is now the party of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán, and the twice-impeached coup plotter Donald Trump. Or worse.
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