Chuck’s Commentary - No Incentive For Congress To End Shutdown + Trump Wants A Violent Confrontation With Protestors

little nervous that this would be glitchy. The government shut down because we have these poor TSA agents are working without knowing if they're going to get a paycheck on time, and air traffic controllers so the idea of sickouts longer lines. Although that was true, then you hit the old mechanical issue. I'm in a small airport, so you know there's not

many alternatives when you run into those things. But yeah, I was pushing the travel karma luck with my three straight weekends there, so perhaps perhaps I should be lucky that it wasn't too bad and survivable. Before I get and I will share some football. Of course, Today's Monday, I got my podcast time machine. We're going to go back to October nineteen ninety one, probably the single most

televised Senate hearing in my lifetime. I might argue it's an interesting debate we can have on that, which gets

brings me to the government shutdown. Right, we're starting, We're getting more polling. I'm gonna it is what we've seen, and look, I wish there'd be more consistent ways of asking these questions. There's no I think on this one, there's no right way. Do you ask who's to blame for the shutdown? Do you give three punches or excuse me, four punches the Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans, Donald Trump, everybody? Do you do three punches Congressional Democrats, Donald Trump and

Congressional Republicans both for everybody? So there's not a I could argue both sides of that case. I think for now it really feels as if, because they're politically sticking together, you have the congressional Democrats and you have President Trump and Congressional Republicans. And what you're seeing is, while there certainly is a slight a slight plurality, and most of

the polling giving more blame to the Republicans and the Democrats. It's not a slam dup. And there's a good chunk of voters depending on that.

happy that they're fighting. And who's Donald Trump and the congressional Republicans worried about the thirty percent that are blaming everybody. Maybe the thirty percent that are blaming them. By the way, about about twenty eight to thirty percent blame their Democrats. They're mostly Republicans, right, Are they worried about that or are they worried about the twenty eight to thirty percent that blame the Democrats? And essentially, you know their base

and they want to continue to stoke the base. And my concern is right now that the incentives right, The incentives are for everybody here to be listening to their bases. There is not an incentive here to listen to the

middle because I think the rock and the hard place.

it be you know, some certain people cut out. But the point is if the Democrats wanted to say, hey, we got what we wanted, and more importantly, we've got another deadline to hold them in check, they can declare

victory right now. But it wouldn't satisfy I understand why they're not doing it, though I might if they're asking my advice, I might do it, and I would do it because I think right now the weaponization that Russell Voight is doing, you know, and I do sense that some Democrats think, hey, Donald Trump and Russell void Will will go too far in their sort of targeted cuts at Democratic priorities or trying to harm Democratic voters.

either of their minds. But I do think these little targeted things, frankly, some of them are probably going to be illegal, and some of them are probably going to get not going to be able to survive a court challenge.

to an end. And that is that is going to be. First of all, you'll have a missed paycheck of congressional staffers.

That's an issue. Yes, they're going to get back pay, but that might be a way to remind their bosses. I already told you the other day about how the last shutdown essentially ended thanks to sickouts of air traffic controllers and TSA agents who were not thrilled with the idea that they were having to work without knowing for sure when they were going to get paid next. So if you look at the actual demands that have been made,

if the Democrats wanted a clear victory, they can. The problem is they don't know how to communicate this to their base. And you know, Schumer's had a tough time communicating this to the I think he's been not the best spokesperson to have on this. It's you know, if you're wondering what Mike Johnson is up to, why he decided to keep the house out they're jamming the Senate, you know in his mind is he doesn't want to have to hold another vote. It's very hard to get

all of his Republicans. So he's got a cleed cr out the door. And it's like, you guys figure it out in the Senate.

understand where he's coming from. But mostly this is about, hey, this is a Senate issue, and you guys have to handle this pure and simple and really there are you know, this is the thing. There are two ways this could get resolved in the Senate. The other thing is Republicans can end this tomorrow. If they really wanted to open the government, they'd have to get rid of the filibuster. But they have fifty votes to do this. That would be consequential. It is pretty clear John Thune has said

he doesn't want to go there at all. For what it's worth, there's a small little growing I don't want to say it's disgruntledment among Senate Republicans with Thune, but there's a bunch of Senate Republicans that wish Thune could protect them more.

the MAGA movement or Donald Trump that they don't want to have to cast. Three of them, in particular, were really tough for them to cast those confirmation votes for, in particular for Pete hag Seth and Bobby Kennedy Jr. And that is something where there are some Republican centers, not all, not a majority, but a couple who think Fune could have done more to protect them from having to make that vote and could have killed it right, that he could have worked behind the scenes and done that.

I'm not sure to be fair to to to to John Thune on this one. You know he was he he got the job despite mega skepticism of him. I think deep down there's a whole bunch of folks in magaworld who know he's not really one of them. And he did have Rick Scott sitting out there who was sort of waiting to pounce, And there could have easily been a sort of a Grasstops uprising on the on the in the in the sort of Internet mega movement that could have made Thune's life miserable had he held

up some of these confirmations. So I'm not sure it was it's as easy said and done, but there is just you're starting to see fatigue among republic Senate Republicans. The terriff issue is really starting to take a toll, particularly in the Midwestern states, and the farm guys are really struggling with this. In fact, I've got a couple of little updates I'm gonna give you later as soon as I'm done with the with with where I think

this government shutdown is going. But at the end of the day, that the Democratic dilemma really is, it does come down to they're gonna they're gonna have to disappoint, They're gonna they're gonna cave here at some point, right they have to.

in organ right now, that's not an insignificant moment. And Steven Miller's bizarre anti unconstitutional reaction to this, to attack a Trump appointed judge by the way, as an insurrectionist.

some of the language that Stephen Miller uses on social media, but it should be quite alarming to the entire judiciary, and it's not helpful, and he ought to be actually read the opinion apologizes for digressing on this. You got

to read the opinion from the judge in Oregon. Essentially the judges saying Donald Trump's words are don't match what you guys are saying in your court filings and what you're claiming here, and essentially what he's saying is undermining the entire rationale that Stephen Miller was in venting to try to get the military in the National Guard in

some of these cities, in Portland in particular. So I don't it sort of is amusing to me that Miller doesn't realize his own words are also making an appeal that much harder to win. Because we see what the real motivation is. I mean, they are trying to incite a confrontation. They want a violent confrontation between protesters, ICE

agents and the National Guard. It appears that's what they're looking for, and they're using the ruse of you know it is really disconcerting and it's you know one. It feels like they're looking for any excuse to just ramp up enforcement, and that is something we ought to be concerned about here.

received there. But going back to the shutdown politics here, what's happening in Oregon and what's happening there is also having an impact on the frustrated progressive base that feels as if the Democrats aren't fighting enough, and so if the government has been shut down over Obamacare subsidies. Well, there's a path here, But is this really why Democrats

force this confrontation? It's it is starting to look that obviously that I think it's obvious now this was what's the best thing you could say to swing voters as to why you shut down the government? Oh, Obamacare subsidies. But that is not what the progressive base is interested.

And sure they'll certainly be happy that if this is done, but it's not going to be seen as a victory. And in fact, I've seen some Democrats argue, leave it to congressional Democrats to help Republicans minimize their problems in the election year, meaning by by advance by agreeing to an extension of Obamacare subsidies, with the Republicans forcing them to do this. Now you're saying you're taking the issue

off the table for twenty twenty six. But this of course gets to are you there to govern or are you there to pundicize and just politicize everything? Right, And that gets back to the same thing I was talking about the other day, which is the adult in the room vote. All right, maybe the adult in the room

voter is not a base Republican voter. And it is not a base Democratic voter, but the voter that's looking for the adult party is the one that says, oh, okay, use this moment to do something that helps everybody, versus no, take advantage of this moment, exploit it so that you can gain political power.

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my hot takes hot totty Takes, and I thought, well, my problem is is that I'm not very good at like the thirty second hot take, right, I'm not very good at giving you the stephen A. Smith bs argument of the day, right, the invented argument about the Dallas Cowboys, good or bad?

people to miss. This is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the six months going through August from August in the six months previous ending in August,

so far, prices for audio equipment have risen by fourteen percent. Prices for dresses are up eight percent. Tools, hardware and other supplies in that under that umbrella are already have risen by five percent, because most of those goods are important. And what happened was you had a lot of small businesses and large businesses by products before the tariffs kicked in. They built up some inventories, but those inventories are now gone, and so now we're starting to see the price increases

are going in starting in October. For instance, Ashley Furniture, so you've probably heard of Ashley Fern. They're the world's largest furniture manufacturer. They've already they put a notice in an industry publication called home News. Now again this is a courtesy of my friends at the Financial Times, that they plan to raise prices for a majority of their

products from three and a half to twelve percent starting yesterday. Okay, so this is what I mean when in the sort of the quarter kicks in and you're going to see new decisions on pricing. And this is where the tariffs get put in. The car parts retailer AutoZone, they already have indicated to aid lists that there's probably going to be more price rises as the full impact of tariffs

go in. I've told you about coffee prices. They continue to surge because of the fifty of the fifty percent tariffs that have been applied to Brazil over the president's obsession with Despite proclaiming that they're American first and they're not going to get involved in anybody else's politics. They don't get involved in anybody else's politics unless they care about everybody else's politics in this case because of the whole Bolsonnaro situation. There and here's something where there's these

hidden tariff costs in everything that you have at the grocery store. Tariff's on imported tin plate steel is also driving up the price of food cans. So even if the product the progresso soup, the Goya beans, even if the food itself is produced here, the tin can, the can that is in your grocery store costs more and they've had to raise the price of that.

this comes from the Lincoln Journal Star of the weekend. They have had a fifty two percent drop. This was just through June, Okay, Nebraska soybean experts, we're down fifteen percent. Overall, there's been a drop in exports to China of fifty two percent. This is why the farmers are reeling right now, particularly soybean farmers. And guess what, you grow soybeans all over the country. So this is a lot of states that are being impacted by this. This is why Donald

Trump's talking about some sort of rebate. But do keep in mind as the right tries to call tries to take this the Democratic Socialist Johan Mamdani and essentially use it to define the Democratic Party as socialists. The person executing socialistic like policies right now is Donald Trump right in order, you know, he's you know, basically having to pay farmers to to for crops that are not going to get used. Right. But that is that's government support. That is a form you know, by any other name.

Let's see, if it were a democratic administry doing this, you would hear some conservatives crying socialism on this. And of course I haven't gotten into Intel and some of the other stuff that we've already see that there is certainly we've heard. I mean, the Ken Griffin, the head of the large, the large private equity fund, the Citadel,

he's gotten really vocal about this. He does not like what the Trump administration has been doing, how quickly they get involved in private enterprise and sort of put their finger on the scales, picking winners and losers, whether it's who gets to own TikTok intel, what Navidia is doing

with chips to China and things like this. So it is again as we start name calling everybody doing the socialists and the fascists and all this left right name calling just realize on the issue of socialism, Donald Trump has his own form of it that he is executing right now. Socialism for the business world, socialism for con stituency groups that he believes are important to him. On that front, two other notes out there. One, Japan is

going to have its first female prime minister. I do think it's worth noting that the first woman to break through and break that glass ceiling is somebody who's more conservative, somebody who's more hawkish, somebody who's on the right, somebody who's feeling to conservatives, somebody who calls Maggie Thatcher one of her heroes. It's it's interesting when when we've seen West Western like democracies elect their you know, break the

gender glass ceiling. Uh, it does seem as if because the most skeptical voters of women in executive office are usually on the right, having a woman come from the right is sometimes the fast your path of getting a

woman in leadership. Again, see Maggie Thatcher on that front.

something to something to think about there. If it wasn't for the government shutdown, the fact that there is a very dubious claim that the president is making in order to bomb these these boats coming out of Venezuela, claiming that these are terrorists, claiming that this is self defense. There is really this. It's it's a political trap that they are trying to set right, which is, oh, you're you're, you're,

you're trying to go soft on the drug cartels. But there is no due process for these folks.

be unconstitutional. These definitely seem extra judicial. But here's the more important thing. Even if if the Trump administration finds a way to thread this where they can claim some legality to it because they've designated these cartels as terrorist organizations, which in and of itself is sort of a very subjective process, and that they can somehow make the rhetorical case that these drugs that are being brought in or killing our citizens. So it's certainly unpopular, right what what

these cartels are doing. But the example we're setting, right we you know, when you when you see a guy like Bouque in El Salvador, when you see a guy like are Dowan, when you see Frankly, you know, when we don't have we're in the United States of America, and when we don't behave in small, d democratic ways, when we don't essentially abide by, when we don't treat everybody in the world the same way we're supposed to treat our own citizens, things like do process, search and seizure.

Because I just want a simple explanation, why haven't we boarded any of these boats? Wouldn't we learn a hell of a lot more information about what these cartels are up to by actually a boarding these boats, arresting these folks, seizing the product, learning a hell of a lot more about there about how all of this works, about how the routes work, about it, how the business works, just

sort of you know, showing off. I mean, it's it's

just sort of life isn't a video game. But the Secretary of Defense, Pete hag Set is out there putting on social It seems like everything is designed for some sort of social media virality moment, right, And so he goes out there as if they're like he's, you know, General Eisenhower executing D Day and he and he puts up this picture satellite video of the destruction of one of these boats, claiming that that we we have the intelligence that that that confirms these folks are cartel members

and they're bringing these deadly drugs into the United States. This isn't a game. And what we're doing is we're giving a moral permission slip to thugs and dictators around the world want to be thugs, want to be dictators. And we're behaving no differently than what Europe is saying the way Putin is behaving right now in Eastern Europe.

I know, politically this isn't easy because you know, it is our constitution, all of our rights, all of laws are done to protect sometimes some morally questionable people. Okay, but that's the whole point of our constitutions, the whole point of our system, innocent until proven guilty. And when we don't behave that way around the world all the time, and we sort of invent new ways to kill people and claim claim some a different authority to do it, it's it's it's not going to help us have any

sort of influence. You know, this is not what somebody who wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize. This is not how somebody who wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize behaves on that for what it's worth. So it's if what I do think, if it wasn't for the government shutdown, that this this would be a bigger deal. But you also have you know, this is what happens when the legislative branch isn't acting as a check. This is an important moment for the Congress to be acting

as a check. I'm hearing all sorts of complaints from my from my sources on Capitol Hill, but none of them want to go public because none of them want to look like they're on the side of Maduro in Venezuela, are on.

twenty twenty two. He sent these text messages to another he was in the It was a delegate in the State Assembly at the time in Virginia, and he sent some messages to a Republican delegate named Kerry Corner. Corner spelled coy n e R. And in these texts he imagined scenarios he doesn't like the then House Assembly Speaker Todd Gilbert. And in these texts, Jones imagines comparing the speaker of the Republican Assembly Todd Gilbert, Adolf Hitler, and Paul Pott. And he said if he had two bullets

and those were the three people. He said, Gilbert gets two bullets to the head, what's this in a text message to a fellow delegate, and then they go on and he says it's something else and had to do with a dispute over gun policy, and he sort of fantasized about Gilbert having to deal with a child being shot. And he also and he texted, only when people feel

pain personally do they move on policy. And it came across as if he was hoping Gilbert's kids that Gilbert would experience the death of his own kids be a firearms And then he also said things like he referred to urinating on graves of deceased political figures. He said, if those guys died before me, I will go to their funerals to piss on their graves. All of this was publicized in the National Review. What was fascinating to

fault Watch was at first Jones came out, never didn't confirm or deny the text, just simply said people get overheated on you know, SA say crazy, you know, sometimes say weird stuff on text. But this is being weaponized and attacking the National Review because they're right of center publication. I can just tell you. Audrey Fahlberg, who's the reporter here, is a straight up reporter. She works in National Review, but she is she is big Jay journalists. I've known her,

I've had her on my panels previously. She's she's going to have her ducks in a row. Well, she had her ducks in a row.

rationale for what he was saying at the time. So this was not this was not a heat of the moment thing it's causing It is sort of one of these This is a quintessential October surprise. In fact, the story hit on October second, so welcome to October, right, and election days in November, so it is a quintessential October surprise. In the polling in Virginia, the governor's race has been it's the dominant race. Yes, it is, it is, and most polling is at Abigail's Bamberger, the Democrat over

Winston Earl Sears anywhere from seven to ten points. There's a few polls that have had Ad Spamburger further ahead.

But the two races beneath the state wide race for the lieutenant governor. In the state wide race for Attorney General, where j Jones is has been, Democrats have held smaller leads anywhere from four points in the in the LG race to six points in the AG race. J Jones been winning. Now of the three nominees for office, Jason Mireis, the sitting Attorney General, is the only incumbent running for the same office. Right the incumbent lieutenant governors Winston Earl Sears,

she's running for governor. So there's there's an open race for the lieutenant governorship, an open race for the governorship.

I'm surprised some Democrats haven't. I mean, remember it wasn't that long ago when Ralph Northam was caught doing blackface. It was Democrats that we're calling on Democrat Ralph Northam to get out. Now we're seeing and this is in many ways the Trump effect. Right Trump, there is the MAGA movement, never apologize all this stuff, and you're starting to see more on the left sort of adopt the

same mindset. So there's been condemnation of what he said, but it's been this, well, he's got to try to earn the voters he's he should go out there and keep apologizing and earn voter trust. The problem is this is a somebody running to be a law ahead of a law enforcement agency, and you've got these things out there. You may he may have to prosecute somebody for a political hate crime. This is not this back This background

of his is going to make it. It's going to make it a little bit harder for him to have to have. Uh.

just exploit anything they can find to prove that. You know, the other side is more violent than than our than than our side politically, whoever our side is in the in the in the back and forth on this, I'm would like to see some folks just simply say violence is bad, hard stop. Sometimes it comes too much from the right, and sometimes it comes too much from the left.

I don't want it at all, and we should be hoping our leaders just want to turn the temperature down and hold people accountable that are calling for an exploiting violence. I'll just say politically, if the governor's race were closer, I think Spandberger probably would have called for him to get out.

it's the left responding to the right. I know there are some of my conservative friends out there, and says, no, no, no, no, the right was only reacting to the left. Enough. Right, that's not the point here we are, And I do worry we are over that each radicalizing moment only radicalizes the other side just as much. And this is a disturbing situation. But I'm going to be this Virginia ag race,

does it have a trickle up effect. It's interesting Donald Trump could have really weaponized it and tried to harm the top of the ticket. It was interesting that he

chose not to. He doesn't seem to be that interested in helping Winston Earl Sears on this front. I think they are interested in helping me RS. So he is a bit more of I think, a bit more Trump friendly than she's been. But it's going to be interesting to see, is there do you what do voters do on this one? If you were not a fan of the right, your center left, you're uncomfortable with what Jay Jones did, maybe you don't like me? RS? What do you do?

no major Democrats are calling for Jones to get out. Look, it would be conceding race and just and that's what you have to just sort of realize what's happening here is that winning the race is more important than I'm more high right, that's American politics in twenty twenty five.

my history lesson of the week. So it's all about finding important historical things that have happened in this So

for this week, it was October sixth through the twelfth, and so we're going to go back in the toodcast time machine. October eleventh, nineteen ninety one. It is the day that a woman named Anita Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about being sexually harassed in the workplace by the a nominee for the Supreme Court named Judge

Clarence Thomas. It was a packed Senate Judiciary room. She was a young law professor at the moment, Anita Hill, She's sitting before an all male Senate Judiciary committee, not a single woman senator. I think at the time you had Barbara mcculsky in the Senate. Nancy Cassabam and I

think that was it at the time. But there was no women on the Judiciary committee themselves, and she was prepared to testify under oath about her former boss, Clarence Thomas for three days. The country stopped. This is a

you know, so this is nineteen ninety one. This is peak cap This is sort of we just got through the Gulf War, which was peak cable television, and this was sort of right there right this was you know, this was and for about a five to six year period, you know, you had you had the Gulf War one, you had the Thomas hearings, and then we got to OJ Simpson in ninety four. But it was this was

the sort of the peak of cable television. But this is before social media, this is before smartphones, before the me too movement. And I might now argue, and this

is something I'd like you guys to ponder and I'd love to get your reacted that this is the Anita Hill testimony. Is is is consequential culturally into society as the Billy g King Bobby Riggs tennis match in the seventies when it when it came to gender equality and to at least the fight for gender equality on this front. But let me go back through a little bit. Because of the situation, what's amazing is that we even had

an open Supreme Court seat. So third good Marshal, who was the first African American nominated the Supreme Court by Lyndon Johnson, he decided to retire in June of ninety one with a Republican president. But this tells you what the political climate.

This was the lone African American and the Supreme Court. Now Bush had already successfully nominated and confirmed David Suitor to replace Justice Brennan. Suitor was already showing signs that he wasn't the conservative that John Soon Nunu, who was Bush's chief of staff at the time. This is Johnson U, senior former governor of New Hampshire, father of Chris Snunu and Johnny sun Nunu who have frequently talked about for New Hampshire politics. David Suitor was a New Hampshire guy

and Snunu vouched for him. And you know, he was quickly already seen as not conservative enough for conservatives, so they weren't going to screw this up this time. They were going to find a conservative. And there was a young African American conservative that was being groomed. He had been fast truck. Clarence Thomas was on the d C circuit, which is the place that you fast track Supreme Court nominees.

Forty three years old, very young at the time. He only had one year of judicial experiences, but he had a long resume working in both the Reagan and Bush administrations. EEOC is where he was working when Anita Hill ended up testifying about her time there, and it was it was during that time. I mean, this is sort of the irony right. Thomas was serving as chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC. This is the agency that

investigates workplace discribination. But there he was skeptical of affirmative action and he was already he was.

They were in September. They were pretty low key, you know, he did what most Supreme Court nominees do, said little. When asked about Roe v. Wade, he claimed he'd never really discussed it. Obviously people didn't believe that, but he was not going to answer the question. And this was sort of this became the norm for Supreme Court justice nominees going forward. But his was a This was a

democratic led committee. The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time was a Delaware senator named Joseph Arbiden. The committee deadlock seven to seven, believe it or not. On the first round of the hearings, all six Republicans and one Democrat, Dennis Deaconcini of Arizona at the time, voted yes on the nomination. Now Deaconcini would eventually vote no on Thomas's nomination. He claimed that he voted yes simply to allow the committee to be deadlocked so that

it could go to the floor of the Senate. In a deadlock, you can vote the committee after they deadlocked

whether to recommend Thomas for the job, to the floor of the Senate. With the deadlock, then they vote to let the Senate decide. And then came the new story. In October sixth, two reporters, Nina Totenberg over at MPR Tim Phelps over at Newsday broke the bombshell allegations from Anita Hill. This happened on October sixth, so things move fast, these allegations. She shared her story with the FBI weeks earlier.

This was not This was something that was already happening, and it finally finally sort of made it into the public record. So quickly the Senate had to reopen hearings October eleventh, nineteen ninety one. The entire worldwide, nobody was watching the Thomas hearings the first time. Everybody watched the Thomas hearings the second time. Clarence Thomas forty three, Nita Hill, thirty five years old. She was soft spoken, she was deliberate. She was pretty nervous. You could see it. She testified

that when she worked for Thomas at the Department of Education and later at EEOC, she claimed he made repeated sexual remarks, graphically talked about pornography, talked about body parts, and then of course one of the there were two sort of sticky viral things said during this hearing that that sort of became in the cultural lexicon for a while.

One was pubic hair on my coke can, which Orne Hatch would argue was misremembered from The Exorcist, and then a Corno film that he supposedly described in the workplace called Long Dong Silver.

it's really important. I think people understand that there was rhetorically talk of equal treatment of women in the workplace, but that didn't mean it was really happening. You know, my mother was worked in the seventies. The stories she would tell about the way men treated her in the workplace, We've all seen it. My wife's had her share of stories that she has shared with me over the years.

This has been a you know, we can claim it's our grandfather's generation that were worse than our father's generation,

that are worse than our generation, and that are worse.

was remembering from the movie The Exorcist. Alan Simpson warned her that she'd face a campaign to destroy her reputation,

and women were pissed. They were galvanized by this, understandably, but it was the first time that sexual harassment was really talked about publicly right there for everybody and everybody.

to think for themselves. And look, there weren't many. There weren't any African Americans on that set of judiciary panel either alone women. And he made he made a lot

of He went up there and made it, hey, I'm being attacked because I'm a conservative black man.

it flipped. It was effective politically. So on October fifteenth, four days after she testifies, the Senate confirms Thomas fifty two to forty eight, a bipartisan vote. And again, Republican president, Democratic Senate, you had eleven Democrats voted with the Republicans to confirm Thomas. Most of them were in the South. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, Rick Shelby and Alabama was a Democrat, then he would switch parties in ninety four, but this

was ninety one. David Bourne of Oklahoma, John Brove of Louisiana, how Efflin of Alabama, Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, Sam Nunn of Georgia, Terry Sandford of North Carolina. And then you'll said Alan Dixon and Harry Reid. So they were the s votes. Now, interestingly, two Republicans voted Noah Thomas.

Two Republican senators at the time, Low Wyker of Connecticut who would later leave the Republican Party and win a governorship in Connecticut as an independent, and Jim Jefferts, a Republican for Ramont who would later leave the party, switch parties and give the Democrats fifty to fifty Senate control control of the Senate during the the second Bush term. At the time you did have those Southern senators. There

were sort of two theories of the cases. Why did most of the Southern Democratic senators vote to confirm Thomas. One is a lot of them a lot of them thought that some of them thought there was a political thought out there that African Americans would be upset if they voted against putting another African American on the court, even though most African Americans were actually against the Thomas nomination more on political grounds, on ideological grounds. So there

was a little bit of that. But the fact is these were all conservative Democrats, and many of them today could not get nominations. There were very much this is

the Southern Conservative. There's sort of the last bastion of those few other footnotes on this. Anita Hill's never forgiven Joe Biden for how she was treated look Biden. Ever, Biden obviously held the hearing, he chaired the hearing, but she always felt that he didn't protect her very well. The way the hearings were held put her in vulnerable positions. When he ran for president the third time, he called.

she paid a terrible price. But she still pretty pointed in her critique and that Biden's desire for bipartisan to Korma ninety one came at the expense she believes of justice and fairness to her. But look that those hearings, while he got confirmed, it triggered the first year of the woman In ninety two, you had women democratic nominees all over the country. More women were elected to the US Senate in that year than any year previous ever. And the slow march towards equality of gender equity in

politics began after those hearings, and over time you have seen an increased number of women in politics to the point where you've had the state of Nevada had a majority of women in the legislature. More women than men were serving in the Nevada legislature.

actually won a to your seat. When she won that seat. There you had Democratic women nominee who would lose. One would lose to Arlen Spector, a woman named lynn Yeakel, but a nominee in Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, Geraldine Ferraro running for the Senate in New York. So it was I remember that Democratic convention that was a huge statement. Barbara Boxer in particular would say she probably wouldn't have run for the Senate had it not been for the Anita Hill hearings.

So it really did supercharge a generation of women to go into politics. It really empowered Emily's List. And it's just a consequential, just extraordinarily consequential moment, and they're still reverb today and with when it comes to gender equity, it's always two steps forward, one step back, And maybe I'm saying that from a male perspective. I think my wife would sometimes say it's three steps forward, two and

a half steps back. She will acknowledge there's incremental progress, but it's it's not the leaps in the bounds that I think that that many women thought we would be be at by now considering what happened in October ninety one. But I do think the Anita Hill hearings, they're that there's still incredibly consequential. But you know, one other footnote

on that. So Third Good Marshal. You know, these days, right with the there's still some there's still some frustration on the left that Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't retire while there was a Democratic president while Obama was president to guarantee that her seat. With the other way, there was none of that conversation around Thirdgod Marshal. Ironically, he would end up dying four days after Bill Clinton took the oath of office nineteen ninety three. All right, there's your podcast,

time machine. Now I'm gonna do a couple of I'm gonna sneak in two questions. I've gone a long today because I'm gonna do my little football update as well, so let me get.

I you know, I kind of think that's laughable. I mean, I think hag Seth is just isn't going to go anywhere. I don't think there would even be a ton of military support for him. I really don't. I think there's I think that he's just not I mean, he's proven to be even more unqualif fight for this job, then folks anticipated. But hey, this is the Donald Trump effect, right, A lot of people now think, hey, why not me? I'm looking at you, Paul fine baumb for you a Senate.

I do think this is the Trump effect where it just made everybody think, Hey, I got a closet full of skeletons. It doesn't matter, does it. I can go viral. I've got this money person or this constituency or this quirkiness, And so what if I lose, I'll make money on the speaking circuit, or I'll make money being a podcaster. By the way, I wouldn't rule out Howard Lucknick running. I mean, I think I think he's gotten the bug. I think his ego is just inflating as we go.

So it could be quite this sort of maga knife fight, which maybe how Glenn Youngkin ends.

they really mean? I'd love your take. Are there are these ideals too rigid? Or are they the very thing holding it all together? Look, I mean you're I feel like I'm we're each preaching to each other on this right. I think when you governed by ends, justify the means. You know, there's never I was really disturbed right when it was a Senator Cynthia Lummas who says, I'm a First Amendment person, but sometimes you've got to suspend them. No, there's no sometimes, right, the Bill of Rights is the

Bill of rights? You know, there is no sometimes the Constitution is there? There is no sometimes? And you know this is I continue to believe that in the next ten years we are going to see more folks, more serious reformers, left right and center, pushing for a constitutional convention realizing that we got to put we got to put more of these rules in the constitution, not less. We got to probably put some of these norms that we thought everybody was going to bide by and make

them constitutional amendments. And we've if there is going to be bending, then propose an amendment. Don't bend it, right, propose an amendment, and let's see if if, if, this is the way we have it. But I think we need a good civics lesson on the Constitution, a good reminder that that's that's our rule book, and that's you know, there is no suspending or bending or any of those things.

And then when you start to do it, you're you're only rationalizing your political opponents to do the same thing. And when we go about this and again it goes back, our incentives are horrible. So you know, ultimately, I do think this begins with electoral reform. If we're tired of these horrible decisions being made by ideologues, then we have to change the incentives for the electorate, change the incentives for politicians so they're not so ideologically rigid when they govern.

Right now, they get away with it because they have found the voters that want them to. If we can have more voters involved in this process of who decides who's our leaders, because right now we don't. We need more voters involved in these decisions, not less. And until we get more voters involved with the decisions of electing our leaders, we're going to have more and more of this and justifies the means thwarting of the Constitution.

Let's see what Florida does against Texas, A and m for what it's worth. So you know, but I'm I'm personally as a fan, I don't want Miami rank number one yet.

So but I have to tell you, I feel pretty good about my Hurricanes, and I just hope they get it chance to prove it in the playoff and let's see what they do.

getting in their hands. A four touchdown game is afore against Florida State on the road. It's Heisman moment that I might argue ruben Bain for Heisman, and I have a feeling if Miami had.

diabos were not as welcome at Clemson. James Franklin's were not as welcome at Penn State. These are two very good coaches who need a change of scenery. These are high level coaches. I don't think that they should be

you know, look, Franklin just it's an unexplainable loss. It reminds me of the last six years of Miami seasons, where where when we lost one game, it immediately we lost a second game, right that that was the sort of for whatever the previous coaching staffs just couldn't seem to figure out how to get over losses, and one loss created a second and that's what this one felt.

one twenty two. They score a touchdown, and they decide not to go for two, but kick the extra point to go up thirty eight twenty two and go up sixteen. I was like screaming for them. Now I had Cincinnati on the money line. I just wanted them to win, but I was screaming for them, go for two, go up. If you get it, you're up seventeen. You're up three scores. If you miss it, you're still up fifteen. They still got to get at least one two point conversion. You're

still up two scores. But if it's sixteen, you know it's two scores. The difference in in fifteen and sixteen at that point is nothing, but the difference between fifth, sixteen and seventeen is everything anyway. And Iowa States just the type of team that and sure enough got to thirty eight thirty and it shouldn't have been. There could have been thirty nine to thirty and it wouldn't have mattered.

If they got the ball back one more time, they wouldn't have had a chance to tie the game anyway, just I was watching that game while waiting for the Ford State game, and I wanted that out there, big bummer. I want a quick, big bummer for the University of Maryland. I'm always hopeful that the DMV here will become more excited about college football. And it only happens if Maryland can be sustainably good, or if UVA or Virginia Tech

gets good again. And while UVA is playing the part, and maybe there's a Miami UVA ACC title game in our future. Maryland Maryland again, they blew a twenty point lead, lose to Washington, and now they're a meme man Maryland. This is like the umpteenth time they start out undefeated in September. Literally the calendar changes to October, and like

the government, they shut down. It's a bummer on Maryland because I got a lot of Maryland friends who swear Maryland could be a good college football program, if only so another fun week. I am not traveling to the next Miami game, as tempting as it might be, but I'm a little bit exhausted. I'm taking a couple of week break, but i still got a couple more on the calendar. I'm going to SMU, going to homecoming for Syracuse. Might sneak in one more. We'll see you, know, this

middle aged guy and these little puddle jumpers. I'll admit I'm getting a little bit attired, So with that, I'm going to sneak in some rest. I'll see you in about forty eight hours until we upload again.