

Catching up:
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio gets 22 years, longest Jan. 6 sentence yet
Trump's comments risk tainting jury pool in federal election subversion case, special counsel says
Pence takes on the populism Trump inspired - The Washington Post
G.O.P. Impeachment Threats in Wisconsin Whip Up a Political Firestorm - The New York Times
Happy Wednesday.
The Hammer Philosophy of Government
In Tuesdayās podcast, Will Saletan and I discuss the Wisconsin GOPās end-run around democracy, Elon Muskās embrace of antisemitic tropes, and the impeachment of Texas AG Ken Paxton.
I also make a prediction about the next big monument in D.C.
You can listen to the whole thing here.
The debate over Biden
For the most part I agree with JVLās argument that (1) Yes, Biden is old and could lose, AND (2) Thereās really no better option at the moment.
But itās still a conversation we canāt avoid.
**
Over at Politico, former Obama hand Jim Messina pushes back against the āBiden bed wetting.ā He makes the case that:
The economic fundamentals are strong.
Abortion is a major X factor.
The election is a choice, not a wish.
Pressed on the dismal voter views of Biden, Messina said he is confident the qualms will wash away as the horse race takes shape. āItās a choice between two parties, two ideologies, between two people,ā he said. āAnd that choice matters. ⦠People didnāt see the Democratic turnout in 2022 coming.ā And while Messina assumes itās a Biden-Trump rematch, he argues that even another GOP nominee can be painted as extreme and Trump-y.
His major caveat: A possible third-party spoiler.
āI donāt care what they do. I donāt care how much money they spend. I donāt care who their nominee is. Theyāre going to get zero electoral votes. The question is who do they take the votes from?ā Messina said. āYou just canāt split away votes if you want to beat Donald Trump. And I just cannot overstate how crucial it is to make sure that we donāt create a vehicle that takes enough votes up to elect Donald Trump.ā
**
Now for the counterpoints
The legendary Joe Klein writes in his (quite excellent) newsletter, The Sanity Clause:
Iāve known Biden for more than 30 years and he has had bad momentsāthe Clarence Thomas hearings, for exampleābut he has almost always acted from a foundation of sanity and pragmatic politics rather than ideology. His presidency has been like that, for the most part.
So itās sad to watch him now, past his sell-by date. His campaign seems creaky, contrivedāthis whole, lame Bidenomics pitch is an apt metaphor. Old Joe was out on Labor Day, trying to be enthusiastic, touting his economic record, shouting āJobs!ā while the public was moaning, āPrices!ā (It is a conundrum: inflation is ādownāāthe Fed seems to be gliding toward a soft landing, a real featābut prices are up, higher than last year, every trip to the market a shockeroo, and so neither Biden nor Jay Powell are getting the credit they deserve for slowing its course.)
And there are all the things the President wonāt talk about: Immigration, education (especially charter schools, supported by the vast majority of Democrats), fentanyl, Trump, Hunter. He is running as a void: he isnāt Trump. That may be enough to win, but Iām sensingāor maybe itās just me feeling thisāa growing frustration among Democrats. A growing desire forā¦energy. Biden is a ghost of what the country needs right nowā¦.
His alternatives? ā[There] is a fascinating generation of Democratic governors on the horizonāNewsom, Michiganās Gretchen Whitmer, Coloradoās Jared Polis, Pennsylvaniaās Josh Shapiroā¦and around the next corner, Marylandās charismatic Wes Moore.ā Klein thinks any of them could beat Trump.
**
Bret Stephens in the NYT reminds us: āWhy So Many Americans Are So Down on Bidenā
The news isnāt all that good. Americans are unsettled by things that are not always visible in headlines or statistics but are easy enough to see.
Easy to see is the average price of a dozen eggs: up 38 percent between January 2022 and May of this year. And white bread: up 25 percent. And a whole chicken: up 18 percent. As for the retail price of gasoline, itās up 63 percent since January 2021, the month Biden became president.
Yet none of these increases make it into what economists call the core rate of inflation, which excludes food and energy. The inflation ordinary people experience in everyday life is not the one the government prefers to highlight.
Easy to see is the frequent collapse of public order on American streetsā¦
Easy to see are tents under overpasses, from the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York to the I-5 in Seattle. And the zombified addicts passed out on sidewalks in practically every city and town. And the pharmacies with everyday items under lock and key to prevent shoplifting. And women with infants strapped to their backs, hawking candy or gum at busy intersections. And news reports of brazen car thefts, which have skyrocketed this year.
āThere is a great deal of ruin in a nation,ā Adam Smith said. Not all the ruin mentioned above is Bidenās fault, and none of it is irreversible. But thereās much more ruin than his apologists ā blinkered by selective statistics and too confident about the presidentās chances next year ā care to admit.
Meet you in Texas?
September 21-23 our friends at the Texas Tribune are hosting their annual festival of ideas, TribFest, in downtown Austin, Texasāand theyāve invited Charlie, Mona, Tim, and Bill to join the program too.
At TribFest you can expect bright minds with bold ideas across three days of must-see programming. Attendees can expect to hear from leaders, innovators and change-makers from the worlds of politics, government, media, tech and beyond.
Meet The Bulwark: On Saturday, September 23 The Bulwark will be on the stage at St. Davidās Church for a morning of politics followed by a meet-and-greet with Bill, Mona, Charlie, and Tim.
9:15am Charlie will host the panel Trump Ever After with Bret Stephens, Olivia Nuzzi, Alexi McCammond, and Ben Terris. Crail Hall, St. Davidās Church
10:45am Tim will join The Florida Man panel moderated by Jane Coaston and with Molly Ball, Marc Caputo and Nicholas Nehamas. Crail Hall, St. Davidās Church
12:30pm No Bull From The Bulwark featuring Mona, Bill, Tim and Charlie and moderated by Evan Smith. Crail Hall, St. Davidās Church
1:30pm Bulwark Meet-and-Greet. St. Davidās Church.
2:30pm Bill joins the recording of the "Talking Feds" Podcast with Harry Littman and featuring David French, Jason Kander, and Jennifer Palmieri. Omni Hotel Downtown, Trademark Ballroom
Bulwark readers can get $30 off a general admissions ticket with the code BULWARK-TTF23.
We hope to see many of you in Austin on September 21-23 for TribFest. Weād love to hear from you if you plan on goingāsimply reply to the email and drop us a note.
Quick Hits
1. The Super PACs Are Worthless. Donors Should Stop Torching Their Cash.
Tim Miller writes in the Bulwark:
Sending paid door knockers and inside-the-box TV ads into that environment is just pissing into the storm.
The best investment that Republican billionaires considering whether to fund Haley or Scott or DeSantis or Pence could make at this stage is redirecting their resources to lower-ballot candidates or general-election efforts to stop Trump (a boy can dream). Or just pouring that money into their charitable causes du jour. Because what they are doing now aināt working.
My hunch, though? I suspect the GOP donors and strategists behind these PACs will triple down on the exact same approach that has failed the last two times they tried it.
Trump might be the crazy oneābut you know what they say about the definition of insanity.
2. Trump Disqualification: How Feasible (or Radical) Is It?
Kim Wehle examines the arguments over the 14th Amendment.
A DEBATE HAS EMERGED as to whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bans Donald Trump from running for president given his role in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Section 3 of the amendment specifically states that āNo person shall . . . hold any office, civil or military, under the United States . . . who, having previously taken an oath . . . as an officer of the United States . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereofā (emphasis added). Anyone with a basic command of English can read this language and conclude that Trumpās deliberate, multi-tiered efforts to use the powers of the presidency to wrest the 2020 election from the lawful winnerāa ruse that culminated in bloodshed, gallows erected to hang the vice president, multiple deaths, and prison sentences for participantsāqualifies.
But as a legal matter, the question is loaded with ambiguities:
What constitutes an āinsurrection or rebellionā?
Who gets to decideāvoters, Congress, state legislatures, or the Supreme Court?
3. Clarence Thomasās Flimsy Defense
Dennis Aftergut in the Bulwark:
LAST WEEK, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE Clarence Thomas, following a ninety-day extension, filed a yachtload of corrections in his financial reporting forms for 2022 and previous years.
The accompanying six-page statement from his lawyer, Elliot S. Berke, deserves scrutiny because of the strategy it adopts: that the best defense to an embarrassing story is a good offense.
Berke goes full Trump. He attempts to convert Thomas, who made the errors, into a victim of his criticsā āhatred for his [conservative] judicial philosophy.ā
Cheap Shots
**
As we keep finding ways and words to fixate upon Joe Biden's personal attributes rather than focus on his record as President, someone please remind me: a) how old Donald Trump is; b) what Donald Trump's physical health appears to be; c) what Donald Trump's state of mind is; and d) what level of respect Donald Trump shows for democracy, human rights, and fundamental decency. Not all necessarily in that order.
Count me among those who are growing more than fatigued at seeing the so-called political experts keep holding Biden to a different level of scrutiny than Trump on fundamental matters of age, health, and biology, at the expense of what Biden has been done since January 2021 to make our lives better and what the Democrats' plan is for the future (compared to the GOP roadmap of ... more Trump).
If it's a Kamala Harris issue, let's say it out loud and make it an objective point of analysis. Same if it is about left- to far left-leaning policy proposals, as opposed to the GOP's roadmap of ... more Trump. And so on. But the incessant ageism thing without equal time on Trump's own personal geriatric and health issues, and the lack of focus on what the GOP isn't offering the rest of us for the future, is becoming a "look, squirrel!" moment for those of us who want balance and a higher sense of perspective to what is shaping up to be perhaps the most important presidential election in American history next year. Let's go there instead, please and thank you.
Can someone explain to me how The Bulwark/tenured pundits like Joe Klein and Bret Stephens' aimless wishcasting for somebody other than Biden is any different than Conservative Inc.'s aimless wishcasting for somebody other than Trump?