Top O’ the Briefing
Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Estorzon often felt as if he were a jug of backwoods moonshine bobbing along in a sea of pear Schnapps.
In these most bitterly divided political times here in the United States, it’s rare to be surprised by anything that happens on the other side, especially if you write about the news five days a week. Yeah, the Democrats keep finding new lows to hit, but the novelty bled out of that a long time ago. For the most part, we know what we’re getting from the Dems.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that so many mediocrities have failed upwards and become power players in the Democratic Party. They’re not capable of doing anything that is original enough to surprise anyone. That’s really been on full display during this latest government shutdown. The two Democratic leaders in Congress — Charles Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies — have simply been belching up tired talking points that haven’t had any of the effect that they want them to. Dullards to the end, they have been doing the same thing every day for over a month.
The one exception to the lack of surprises is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. I mean, we all got this one wrong. And not by a little bit.
When Fetterman first came into the Senate after flipping the retiring Republican Pat Toomey’s seat in the Red Trickle 2022 midterms, we were all convinced that he was a left-of-left commie. All of the weirdness of his first several months in office didn’t help anything. He kept showing up for work dressed like Woody Harrelson’s weed dealer. Then he disappeared for what we were all convinced was another stroke (he had one during the primaries) that the Dems were covering up to hang onto their slim majority.
He was apparently taking a break for major depression, which just goes to show what even limited exposure to Chuck Schumer can do (I had to).
Anyway, it was all a lot, and didn’t do anything to disabuse us of our notions about Fetterman’s politics.
Something strange began to happen during the Democrats’ disintegration last year. The Senator who began his career with a public mental health break started sounding far more sane than any of his Democratic colleagues. Low bar, true, especially when the guy at the top has lost it. The more Fetterman talked, however, the more he reminded us of an earlier time in American politics. A time when every word out of a Democrat’s mouth wasn’t bat-guano crazy. A time when conversations across the political aisle could be had and, even if the two sides still disagreed, they didn’t hate each other.
I’m old enough to remember those times.
Fetterman has not been toeing the Democratic company line regarding the shutdown, and he’s getting louder about it. This is from something Matt wrote over the weekend:
John Fetterman is done playing nice. The Pennsylvania senator has decided to light his own colleagues on fire over the ongoing government shutdown—and frankly, it’s about time someone did. While Senate Democrats have spent the past month pretending the crisis is all the GOP’s fault, Fetterman has blown up that narrative by calling it what it is: self-inflicted chaos.
In a stunning interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, Fetterman didn’t just criticize the Democratic Party line—he bulldozed it. “Americans are not leverage,” he said, as food assistance programs teetered on collapse with SNAP benefits hours away from drying up. “This is not some sh—y gameshow about who’s winning or whatever.”
That’s gonna leave a mark.
It’s the Democrats who have repeatedly refused to fund all of the things that they pretend they’re worried about not being funded. Everyone knows that. They’ve even brought in His High Holiness the Lightbringer Barack Obama to blame Republicans for the shutdown, but it’s not working. If we are going to end this madness anytime soon, more Democrats are going to have to start being as honest and outraged as Fetterman.
Fetterman also wandered off the reservation with some remarks in a recent interview about California Governor Gavin Newsom, which Matt also wrote about.
While it’s fun remembering olden times when Fetterman acts like a Democrat from the 20th century, I don’t have any high hopes about a permanent return to what uses to be normalcy. What impresses me about Fetterman is that he’s still pretty far left on most issues. We were right about most of it. He’s just willing to consider options that stray away from mundane Democratic National Committee talking points.
He also may be considerate of Pennsylvania’s recent shift away from blue state status to something more purple. A United States Senator who pays attention to all of his constituents? That would be really old school.
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The Mailbag of Magnificence
OK, I’ll get to a couple or a few today just to get back in the habit. Honestly, I’m sleep-deprived after that World Series. That was exhausting just to watch if you were a hardcore fan of either of those teams. I don’t think I ever caught up on my after the 18-inning game last Monday. We’ll begin with this one from David in Pennsylvania, who was responding to my MB about John Brennan a couple of weeks ago:
I enjoy reading your column. Just got done the Brennan one. No question he’s the worst of them , simply because he’s so unlikable.
That’s always been my feeling about Brennan. Obviously, I don’t know any of the Russiagate players personally, but I always got the feeling that if I did, Brennan would still be my least favorite. He’s just so smarmy. He’s probably a super bad drunk, too.
Here’s more from PA, this time from Doug:
Kruiser Love the briefing and I really enjoyed the Friday episode. The Carson clips were legendary. I always loved the Carnac the Magnificent skits. Great way to start every day.
Thank you, I’m glad you’re enjoying the trips down Memory Lane. YouTube has a LOT of Carson stuff, including full episodes. Sometimes when I’m looking for clips for the Briefing, I’ll go down a rabbit hole for a while and get behind schedule. Worth it every time though.
Friend of the Briefing Brice weighs in on our wonderful Republican women:
Not only are our women good at dishing it out and defending themselves… a 2017 study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information… part of the National Institute of Health… no right wing group considering their affiliation with Dr Anthony Kevorkian Fauci… concluded “Utilizing measures of attractiveness across multiple surveys, we examine the relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs. Controlling for socioeconomic status, we find that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican.” So… we have the smart ladies and the attractive ladies… even though I’ll concede Democrats have a few outliers.
You know, when I was in my twenties and early thirties, I rarely knew how the women I dated voted. It just didn’t come up then, even if we went out for a long time. It wasn’t until my former spouse and mother of my child and I got serious that we talked politics. In 1992, her parents were toying with the idea of voting for Ross Perot instead of HW. She asked for advice about what to say to them. I said, “I don’t know. As monumentally screwed up as my family can be, I never have to worry about my parents not voting Republican in a presidential election.
We will finish up with this email about Tucker Carlson from Ron:
Tucker is famous for the faces he mugs at guests who say dumb things. My theory is that he’s always been ready to dish up whatever will sell for him. The only difference is that now there are so many broadcasts and pods etc on the right that he’s going outside normal conservatarian bounds to seek clicks.
This is why I’m glad I wrote about it and asked the question. I’ve been hearing or reading variations on this since then. As I wrote, I never paid much attention to Tucker when he was at FNC, largely because I never watched much FNC. It’s obviously working for him as a business model; it’s just a shame that he can’t be more of an ally to conservatives.
That’s it for this week! Let’s see if I can do two Mondays in a row now. Keep those cards and letters coming!
Everything Isn’t Awful
Monday mood after that World Series.
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