Thursday Open Thread [10.1.2015]

WISCONSIN–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY—Marquette: Trump 20, Carson 16, Rubio 14, Fiorina 11, Bush 7, Cruz 5, Paul 5, Kasich 3, Huckabee 3, Christie 3, Jindal 1, Santorum 1, Graham 0,
WISCONSIN–PRESIDENT–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY—Marquette: Clinton 42, Sanders 30, Biden 17, O’Malley 1, Webb 0, Chafee 0
WISCONSIN–PRESIDENT–CLINTON V. GOP—Marquette:

Clinton 50, Trump 36
Clinton 51, Bush 38
Clinton 48, Rubio 40

KENTUCKY–GOVERNOR–Courier-Journal/SurveyUSA: Conway (D) 42, Bevin (R) 37, Curtis (I) 7
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY—USAT/Suffolk: Trump 23, Carson 13, Fiorina 13, Rubio 9, Bush 8, Cruz 6, Kasich 2, Huckabee 2, Paul 2, Christie 1, Jindal 1, Graham 1, Santorum 0, Pataki 0

Sen. Bernie Sanders “raised more than $24 million for his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in the last three months, a significant sum that was fueled by a torrid pace of online donations: more than a million so far,” the New York Times reports.

“Sanders advisers, in announcing the fund-raising tally on Wednesday night, also said that the senator had more than $25 million in cash on hand.”

The New York Times wonders if Kevin McCarthy is ready to be Speaker. Short answer: No.

“In just the past 48 hours, the man who longs to be speaker of the House insulted the man he would replace, Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, and suggested that a taxpayer-funded committee to investigate the terror attack in Benghazi was designed to harm the political fortunes of Hillary Clinton. The remark was a gift-wrapped gaffe for Democrats, who will now spend the week before Mr. McCarthy’s effort to be elected speaker painting him as a partisan hack.”

That gaffe also ends the Benghazi investigation forever (for it is now officially a partisan witch hunt, admitted as such by the Speaker-apparent), and immunizes Hillary from any other allegations whatsoever from the GOP. Good work, Kevin McCarthy. What’s his address? I want to send a thank you note.

“I want to continue to be a Republican because it annoys them.” — Colin Powell, quoted by the Daily Mail, noting that the “the party has shifted much further right than where the country is.”

Love it.

Vice President Joe Biden “has extended his window for deciding whether to jump into the 2016 presidential campaign, several Democrats say, allowing the contest to play out even longer before he answers one of the biggest questions hanging over the race for the White House,” CNN reports.

“He is not preparing for the first Democratic debate on October 13 in Las Vegas and is not expected to participate, people close to him say, because he feels no pressure to reach a decision by then. He is likely to reveal his plans in the second half of October.”

Sigh. This is starting to get really annoying Joe, and I say that as someone who might be disposed to supporting you. You have less than 50 days to file for the New Hampshire primary. Are you gonna blow by that deadline too?

Sh*t or get off the pot.

First Read: “”It’s the beginning of October, and we can’t stress enough how big the month will be for Hillary Clinton — and, by extension, the Democratic Party. Oct. 13 brings us the first Democratic presidential debate. Hillary’s testimony before the House Benghazi committee is on Oct. 22. Two days later, she (as well as the other Democrats in the field) speaks at the Iowa Jefferson-Jackson Dinner — the same venue where then-candidate Barack Obama turned out his presidential fortunes in 2007. And October is the month where we SHOULD get an answer to whether or not Joe Biden is running.”

“Bottom line: This is going to be a decisive month for Hillary, especially given that she’s been stuck in a negative feedback loop over the past three months (Emails! Falling poll numbers! Biden! Emails! Falling poll numbers! Biden!). If she somehow doesn’t end up as the Democratic nominee, we’ll likely be able to trace it back to the events in October. Conversely, if she does wind up as the nominee — and remains the candidate to beat in the general — we’ll likely be able to trace it back to the events in October.”

She started off the month by getting a HUGE gift. And her latest email batch makes her look humorous and light.

So, last night 91 Republicans and all of the Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a clean (i.e. no Planned Parenthood defuning) Continuing Resolution to fund the government until December 1. That means 151 Republicans voted to shut down the federal government. Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief when they shouldn’t be. Because come the end of November, when we are faced with a shutdown again, we also have the debt ceiling deadline (i.e. it will need to be raised).

Roll Call:

Before Dec. 11, Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate will have to negotiate new spending levels to replace sequestration, as Obama has said he would veto any long-term spending bill that adheres to current caps. Republicans will still likely fight to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, and they might also demand leaders try to extract concessions from the White House as a condition of raising the debt limit, which must be dealt with soon.

Yeah, well, good luck with all that. And you will have a GOP caucus that is angry that Benghazi!!! is over too.

Here is some more on the best the GOP has to offer in the House: Speaker-apparent Kevin McCarthy.

EJ Dionne:

But McCarthy’s statement gave Democrats what they have long sought: a rather strong public hint that this investigation was never on the level. “This stunning concession from Rep. McCarthy reveals the truth that Republicans never dared admit in public,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the committee’s ranking Democrat. “The core Republican goal in establishing the Benghazi committee was always to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and never to conduct an evenhanded search for the facts.” Clinton’s defenders hope McCarthy’s statement might prod the media to pay attention to the current behavior of the accusers and not just the past behavior of the accused.

McCarthy’s admission once again ratified the writer Michael Kinsley’s long-ago but still brilliant observation that a gaffe occurs “when a politician tells the truth — some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” But why did McCarthy do it? Consider the nature of the House Republican Party he’d like to lead.

Simon Maloy:

This is an archetypal example of the Kinsley Gaffe: a politician accidentally uttering a truthful statement. Anyone who’s paid even cursory attention to the GOP’s treatment of the Benghazi attacks will likely have already concluded that the party’s interest in the matter is linked to Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. But it’s still bracing to see one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington come right out and brag about how he and his colleagues set up a taxpayer-funded investigation to damage the political prospects of the opposition party’s leading presidential candidate. It’s downright scandalous, and precisely the sort of political corruption that Republicans argue is at the heart of the Obama administration’s response to Benghazi.

No less remarkable is the fact that McCarthy offered up the politicized Benghazi investigation as an “example” of how he would conduct business as Speaker of the House. He just put it right out there and told Sean Hannity that the McCarthy Congress will be a series of investigations aimed at hurting the Democrats’ chances of electoral success.

He’s also impugned what little credibility Benghazi committee chair Trey Gowdy enjoys, and he’s given critics of the committee all the reason they need to trash the committee as a disreputable and untrustworthy exercise in partisan scapegoating. One Democratic member of the Benghazi committee had already called for the investigation to be shut down, and other Democrats are doing the same in the aftermath of McCarthy’s remarks.

Pat Garofolo:

Every time something goes awry in the Middle East, Obama’s detractors break into a chorus of “do more.” But “more” still wouldn’t solve anything. Syria is embroiled in a long, brutal civil war, with a number of sects each controlling its own territory. The country as we know it is probably history no matter which way the war ends; people who could be friendly to the U.S. and in a position to emerge victorious are few and far between. Anyone who says that some simple intervention will turn the tide against Assad and end the bloodshed – “just implement a no-fly zone,” “train the right rebels,” “Obama needs to lead” – is peddling snake oil.

Actually committing to unseating Assad and then preventing someone even worse from swooping in after him would require a huge number of lives and who knows how much money, and there’s no indication that, even with such a commitment, the U.S. could actually accomplish its goals. (Again, see Iraq.) Obama can’t undo decades of grievances and years of bloodletting by simply waving an ObamaWand.