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Montana Republican Greg Gianforte Is Sentenced in Assault on Reporter New York Times Greg Gianforte, a Montana Republican, was sentenced on Monday to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger management classes for assaulting a reporter the night before he won a seat in the House of Representatives last month. Appearing in ... and more »

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Montana Republican Greg Gianforte Is Sentenced in Assault on Reporter - New York Times

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidates Tom Perriello (front) and Ralph Northam. CREDIT: AP Photo/Steve Helber

This morning, I woke up, showered, walked my dog, then drove to the local high school to vote in Virginias primary election. Hopefully, I will get to vote for the same candidate I voted for today in Novembers general election.

But theres one thing I wont be able to vote for this election cyclea government that is actually capable of implementing policies favored by the Democratic Party. Thanks in large part to aggressive gerrymandering in the Virginia House of Delegates, I will get to choose between total Republican dominance of my home state or gridlock.

Virginia is an increasingly blue state. Hillary Clinton won the state by over five points. President Obama won it twice. The current governor, Terry McAuliffe, is a former chair of the Democratic National Committee. Both Democratic candidates in todays primaryformer Rep. Tom Perriello and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northamare strongly favored over their likely Republican opponent in the general election.

Yet the GOP holds 66 seats in the states 100 seat House of Delegates. In 2013, the same year that Democrats swept all three of Virginias statewide offices, the GOP won 67 seats in the state house.

What this means is that, if a Republican wins this Novembers gubernatorial race, that Republican is highly likely to have a GOP state house and senate that will enact the full Republican agenda. Voter suppression, draconian budgets, pro-discrimination laws dressed up as religious liberty and similar legislation are all likely to follow.

If you want to know what this looks like, take a look at North Carolina. Or Louisiana. Or Kansas. Or Texas.

Meanwhile, if Perriello or Northam win, it will be nearly impossible for Virginias voters to elect a Democratic House of Delegateseven if a majority of those voters cast a ballot for a Democratic candidate. That means that major Democratic priorities like expanding Medicaid, protecting voting rights, reducing gun violence, and environmental protection will almost certainly receive no support from the state legislature.

Republicans can go to the polls dreaming of the kind of state governance that they most desire. Democrats can only hope to ward off an outcome that they hate. That not only gives Republicans a serious advantage in the policy sphere, it also is likely to demoralize Democrats on Election Daypotentially swinging the result.

Of course, that doesnt mean that voting in the Virginia gubernatorial election is futile. At the federal level, the difference between the Obama administration and the Trump administration is immense, even if Obama spent most of his time in office with a Republican House of Representatives. The difference between a fully-empowered Republican governor and a weakened Democrat would be equally significant.

The next governor of Virginia, moreover, will sit during the next redistricting cycleso they will have the power to veto a bill that tries to entrench gerrymandering in the House of Delegates even further.

But, barring an utter landslide, theres one thing that isnt on the ballot this Novembera fair choice between Democrats and Republicans.

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Virginia's aggressive gerrymandering means voters can have Republican rule or nothing - ThinkProgress

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

From left, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senior Adviser to President Donald Trump Jared Kushner as they wait for the President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to begin their meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

This article originally appeared at The Huffington Post. Subscribe here.

Dear Messrs. Ryan, McConnell, Pence, and Priebus,

Its now pretty clear that President Trump, one way or another, will be removed from office. Events and James Comeys testimony have established an open-and-shut case of obstruction of justice.

Trump tried to get Comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn; then when Comey refused, Trump fired him. It doesnt get any clearer than that. Not even in Watergate.

In addition, details of the Trump campaigns collusion with the Russians successful efforts to undermine the 2016 election have yet to come out from the special prosecutors investigation. When they do, they wont be pretty; nor will the details of Trumps repeated co-mingling of his business interests with his official business as president.

There is also the fact that Trump is plainly insane. We can argue about the diagnosisserious people have proposed everything from dementia to neurosyphilisbut this is clearly not a man in his right mind. His competence in speaking is steadily deteriorating, as shown by expert comparisons of his clear sentences two decades ago with his near-gibberish in recent weeks and months.

Trump is so damaged that he cant even seriously act in his own self-interest because he cant remember his lies from day to day. His impulsivity regularly undermines yesterdays spin and last weeks alibi.

So Id like to appeal to you both as patriots and as partisans.

The first appeal is simple. This man should not be president of the United States. The 25th Amendment, on grounds of serious impairment, is the most straightforward way to get him out. It is basically a coup by the cabinet, ratified by a two-thirds majority of Congress.

This is something that happens in other democracies all the time, and is about to happen in Britain because of Prime Minister Teresa Mays political lapses. But Trumps lapses are far more serious.

As the mess in Qatar indicates, Trumps plain confusion and lack of serious attention to complex foreign policy issues could cause disastrous national security consequences. He could get us all blown up. I am not privy to your private conversations, of course, but I assume Trumps madness does come up.

Weighing against that is Trumps usefulness to you as Republican conservatives. With him in the White House, you can pass legislation that Trump will sign, get him to issue executive orders furthering your agenda, get conservatives appointed to courtsand as my colleague Paul Starr has observed, the more vulnerable Trump is, the more captive he is to your protection.

On the other hand, Trump is so thoroughly out of his mind that he may not grasp that. I assume that your partisanship, for now at least, outweighs your patriotism. That is a shamehistory will judge you harshly, assuming that we are not all blown to bits.

So let me appeal next to your self-interest.

Trump will go sooner or latereither his obstruction of justice, corruption, and plain treason will become so flagrant that some of your Republican colleagues will begin breaking ranks. Or if they dont, you will be handing the Democrats a massive victory in 2018 and 2020, as you share responsibility and blame for the national catastrophe of the Trump presidency.

You would be much better offand so would the countryif you got Trump out in the next few months, and then sought to regroup under President Pence.

I realize, of course, that Im not a disinterested observer. As the co-editor of a leading progressive journal, I hope that you pay the full consequences of sticking with Trump. But as a political analyst, I think that with Pence youd at least have a fighting chance to hold on to power; and with Trump, youd have no chance.

I may be a sometime partisan, but Im enough of a patriot that I hope that you decide to oust Trump, if not on grounds of patriotism then on grounds of partisanship. And as fellow human beings, we should all be averse to getting blown up.

Yours truly,

Robert Kuttner

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An Open Letter to the Republican Leadership - The American Prospect - The American Prospect

Tue., June 13, 2017, 12:25 p.m.

Candidates in Georgias 6th Congressional District race Republican Karen Handel, left, and Democrat Jon Ossoff prepare to debate Tuesday, June 6, 2017, in Atlanta. The two meet in a June 20 special election. (Branden Camp / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

WASHINGTON House GOP leaders warned their rank-and-file members Tuesday of the potential for heavy midterm losses next year that could cost Republicans their majority, and they urged renewed attention and focus to a positive agenda and message.

The warning was aimed at encouraging lawmakers to stay focused and not be chasing all the different other shiny objects, according to Republican Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina.

It comes a week ahead of a special election in Georgia, where Democrats are spending heavily to contest what should be a safe Republican seat. The outcome will be seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump and whether Democrats can capitalize on the excitement of their base to get wins in GOP-leaning districts next year.

House leaders reminded lawmakers that historically the presidents party loses 30-plus House seats in first-term midterms, according to members present. Democrats need to pick up 24 seats to take the House. GOP leaders issued their warning in a closed-door meeting held away from the Capitol so they could discuss politics and fundraising, which are not supposed to be mixed with official business under ethics rules.

The 18 cycle is going to be our first real test out of the box after a change in administration so we have to do our jobs, we need to be fundamentally sound, we need to have our game face on every day and we need to be developing the right resources, said Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, a leadership ally. The message from leadership, and I think its a very appropriate message, is we arent going to take anything for granted.

There is concern among Republicans over the outcome next week in the Georgia district previously held by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The district has long been in GOP hands, but Democrats are pouring in resources to try to get a win for their neophyte candidate, Jon Ossoff, over Republican Karen Handel. Its become the most expensive House race in history.

In Tuesdays meeting lawmakers were shown polling data indicating the race was tied, they said. They claimed optimism even as they argued a GOP loss in Georgia shouldnt be over-interpreted. Republicans also suffered a near-loss recently in a special election in heavily Republican Montana, although their candidate ended up winning even after a last-minute assault charge.

If we dont win the seat I dont know that it qualifies as a sign of whats to come, it could be an outlier, Womack said of the Georgia race.

The House GOP focus on the looming midterm struggle comes with scrutiny of the Trump administration over Russia connections at a fever pitch. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was testifying Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, and Republicans have been struggling to stay focused on their agenda and draw attention to it.

Thus far, they have not realized their marquee goals of passing major health care or tax legislation, but argue they arent getting the attention and credit they should for smaller yet still significant bills like one on reforming the Veterans Affairs administration that the House is passing this week.

Lets put this all in perspective. We are focused on solving peoples problems, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Tuesday when asked about scuttlebutt that the president could be considering firing the special prosecutor on the Russia investigation.

Im not saying this isnt important. These investigations are important. They need to be independent. They need to be thorough. They need to go where the facts go, Ryan said. But we also have a duty to serve the people that elected us to fix the problems that theyre confronting in their daily lives, and thats what were doing.

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House Republicans brace for potential 2018 midterm losses - The Spokesman-Review

America should thank Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

After his election in 2010, the hard-right Republican launchedthe state on an adventure in conservative policymaking by slashing personal income taxes in what came to be known as the Kansas Experiment. It was an effort to show that running a state according to conservative economic orthodoxy would deliver jobs and growth that would in turn offset the lost tax revenue.

The experiment failed spectacularly. Since Brownback took office, Kansas growth and employment have both lagged behind the country as a whole. In 2016, economic output in the state was up a scant 0.2 percent compared to growth of 1.5 percent nationally. During Brownbacks tenure as governor, employment in Kansas is up about 6 percent half that of the U.S.

The tax cuts also hurt the states finances, shrinking revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars and helping to open up a budget deficit of roughly $900 million over the next two fiscal years. Kansas has tried to make up for the shortfall by repeatedly raiding the states highway fund meant for infrastructure improvements, skimping on pension contributions, and cutting education spending.

Predictably, those tactics have proved wildly unpopular. In April, a poll showed 66 percent of Kansans disapproved of Brownbacks performance as governor, making him the second-most-unpopular governor in the country, behind only New Jerseys embattled Chris Christie.

After an influx of moderate, anti-Brownback Republicans were elected to the state legislature in 2016, Kansas decided enough was enough. Earlier this month, legislators overrode Brownbacks veto of a large tax increase set to raise $600 million a public acknowledgement that the people of Kansas no longer want to be governed as Republican guinea pigs.

But the states turn away from Brownbackism was more than yet another illustration of the fact that tax cuts arent a foolproof way to boost economic growth. Kansas also shows that American politics are not necessarily destined to become more and more extreme.

Brownback never hid what he intended to do as governor of Kansas, and his supporters got what they voted for. After a few years, however, they learned that what they voted for was an economic mess. Having tried extreme right-wing economic policy and seen the damage it inflicted, they then changed their minds and voted for moderate lawmakers.

This is how a healthy democracy works. But in recent years, American democracy has become increasingly unhealthy, in part because Americans have been shielded from the impact of the policies for which they claim to be voting. As a result, the conservative wing of the American electorate has failed to correct and continues on an increasingly extreme course.

For example, Republicans regained control of Congress in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession, empowering tea partiers who were focused on cutting back government spending a crucial component of the economic recovery and setting off a string of destabilizing fights over the U.S. debt.

These fights amounted to mini-crises that slowed the recovery. But they didnt push the economy back into recession, thanks in large part to extraordinary efforts by the Federal Reserve to effectively bail out the economy and keep interest rates at historically low levels. Effectively, the Fed an unelected quasi-independent branch of the government managed to shield the economy from the impact of what people actually voted for.

Then theres Obamacare. Many people in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio were able to obtain health care coverage thanks to President Barack Obamas signature law. A few years later, many of these same people voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, a candidate who ran on an explicit promise to do away with Obamacare.

Some didnt realize their health care was, in fact, Obamacare, while others took Trump at his word that hed come up with something terrific to replace it. But no doubt many didnt believe they would actually feel the effects of the policy for which they voted because of the checks the legislative process puts on a president.Even one whose party controls both houses of Congress.

It should be pretty easy for Republicans to run the country the way they want right now, yet the first several months of the Trump administration have shown the GOP is having difficulty enacting major legislation.

That doesnt mean the party is backing off its agenda. House Republicans pushed through a plan to undo the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, the financial overhaul designed to make the banking system safer after the financial crisis. And all signs indicate that Senate Republicans are serious about producing a bill that would effectively destroy Obamacare, resulting in millions of Americans losing their health insurance.

But the lack of major legislation in the early days of the Trump administration does suggest that Republicans dont want to set off a broader Brownbackian backlash. One could argue thats politically savvy. And in the short term, its probably better for the country if policy doesnt lurch toward the extreme right.

But over the long term, American democracy needs a fundamental course-correction to a more moderate path. And one way to temper the current Republican appetite for extreme policies may be if America, like Kansas, gets a good look at what those policies do when actually put into practice.

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Kansas' shattered economy shows that democracy can still work - VICE News