Guess Who Came to Dinner

From NBC NEWS:

WASHINGTON — As federal workers file out of the State Department at the end of a Washington workday, an elite group is often just arriving in the marbled, flag-lined lobby: Billionaire CEOs, Supreme Court justices, political heavyweights and ambassadors arrive in evening attire as they’re escorted by private elevator to dinner with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Until the coronavirus shut them down in March, the gatherings were known as “Madison Dinners” — elaborate, unpublicized affairs that Pompeo and his wife, Susan Pompeo, began in 2018 and held regularly in the historic Diplomatic Reception Rooms on the government’s dime.

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Concerned Sue and Sad Lisa have BS all sewn up

From Dahlia Lithwick at SLATE:

Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski Think Donald Trump Is No Longer a Danger

On Wednesday, the Senate [voted] to acquit President Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress following a marathon few days of speeches, half of which came from Republican senators justifying their votes to acquit. Having listened through the hodgepodge of whataboutism, process complaints, and occasional outright fascism, one hesitates to focus on Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins because their reputations as GOP “moderates” have always been more a stylist’s branding choice than reality, and because holding Republican women in power to a higher standard than men has never redounded to the benefit of anyone, including women. But when powerful women who should see through the gaslighting instead pick up the proffered gaslighting torch and set small brushfires, it’s worth taking note.

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One for the books

From Bloomberg:

The president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., airs some of the family’s grievances over the probe into Russian 2016 election meddling — and many other topics, including Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize — in a new book.

…snip…

“Turns out I’m not a Russian agent after all!” Trump Jr., 41, writes in “Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us,” to be published Nov. 5, according to an advance copy of the part political screed, part autobiography seen by Bloomberg News.

It can’t possibly be as good as the memoir he, Ivanka and Eric wrote together.

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Biden Their Time

From Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post:

It’s long past time that media outlets stop hyping the story line that former vice president Joe Biden did something untoward regarding Ukraine. Last week New York Times reporter Ken Vogel called Ukraine a “significant liability” for Biden and teased that “there is a story here.” Vogel added: “We’ve told some of it. There is more to be told. We are going to continue to sort of pull that back.”

In fact, there never was any “liability” whatsoever and the “more to be told” has turned out to be “nothing to be told.” When it came time to put the facts in print, Vogel reported: “As The New York Times reported this spring, no evidence has surfaced that the former vice president intentionally tried to help his son by pressing for the prosecutor’s dismissal. In fact, some of the vice president’s former associates said he never did anything to deter other efforts to go after the oligarch, Mykola Zlochevsky.” Vogel omits mention that the spring report came under a misleading headline and that the admission there was no “there there” only came after paragraph upon paragraph suggesting Biden had some kind of problem.

At any rate, the jig is up, and it’s time for reporters without any proof to cease attempting to convert this into a Biden scandal.

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Fox no longer guarding the hen…I mean, White House?

From The Wrap:

After a summer spent lashing out at his once-favorite network, President Donald Trump hit Fox News again Wednesday morning for what he called “terrible” coverage of Democrats, prompting response from at least one of the channel’s high-ranking anchors.

“The New FoxNews is letting millions of GREAT people down!” he wrote in a series of tweets that chastised the network’s on-air coverage of Democrats. “We have to start looking for a new News Outlet. Fox isn’t working for us anymore!”

Fox News has not issued a comment but senior political analyst Brit Hume wrote back, “Fox News isn’t supposed to work for you.”

It isn’t?

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Purls of Wisdom?

From THE HILL:

Vanity Fair faced sharp criticism on Wednesday from supporters of Hillary Clinton after the magazine posted a video with “New Year’s resolutions” for the former presidential candidate that included retiring from politics.

A video posted on the magazine’s Twitter account Tuesday featured Vanity Fair writers suggesting new hobbies for the 2016 Democratic nominee, including “knitting” and taking “more photos in the woods.”

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War of Words? No, War of Turds

From Bloomberg Politics:

Stephen Bannon said in his first public remarks since his ouster from White House role as chief strategist that he will be “going to war” for President Donald Trump, warning that he will continue to press the populist cause against the political and corporate establishment.

Kids, whatever happens, just remember that Steve Bannon didn’t ride in on his high horse;  the drunken pile of offal rode in on a Rethuglican elephant! He’s one of their own, so when the clowns Alt-right puts up their statue of their war hero, they need to get it alt-right.

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Side Effects

From ShareBlue:

Mike Pence continued his attempt to cover up for Donald Trump’s refusal to directly rebuke racial terrorism committed in his name, but when challenged by a reporter on his claim that Trump had forcefully spoken out, he instead complained about “many in the media.”

Trump has refused to call out the white supremacists and Nazis who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, and who killed a young woman. Instead he referred to “many sides” being involved in the case.

Maybe instead of complaining about “many in the media,” Pence should complain about Nazis and alt-right white supremacists like Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, et al who swarm all over the West Wing.

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