Can You Believe?
Can you believe Bannon and Trump blaming Mitch McConnell for Roy Moore’s defeat? Or Trump claiming the results show he was right to back Luther Strange? Strange indeed.
Can you believe Mitch McConnell rushing a vote on the GOP tax bill before Senator-elect Doug Jones can be seated? Seven years ago, when Republican Scott Brown won a special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, Harry Reid did the right thing: he postponed crucial votes on the Affordable Care Act until Brown was seated, even though it made breaking the Republican filibuster that much harder.
Hits and Misses – the week’s best and worst moves
Hit of the Week: Doug Jones’s historic victory, which showed how Democrats can win when we communicate our message of hope, fairness, and unity to all people regardless of their zip code or their party.
Miss of the Week: Trump’s disgusting misogynistic tweet about Senator Gillibrand. We keep using the phrase “a new low,” but Trump goes ever lower.
Hot House Race of the Week
Mimi Walters might not be as high on the list of vulnerable GOP House members as Darrell Issa or Dana Rohrabacher, but they at least had the political sense to vote against the GOP tax bill. Walters was one of the bill’s earliest supporters and voted for it even after she learned how much it hurt her constituents, particularly by slashing deductions for mortgage interest and state & local taxes (SALT). She then claimed that GOP leadership had assured her that “changes will be made to the final version of tax reform legislation to benefit Orange County residents.” Good luck with that: The median price of a home in her 45 Congressional District is $799,000, and 46.4% of her constituents took the SALT deduction last year. We must resist and replace Mimi Walters, who is playing a leading role in hurting her own constituents.
Finally…
Of the many lessons to be learned from Alabama, the most valuable may be e pluribus unum. Democrats honor our diversity and unite around our shared principles. As in Virginia, Alabamians – Democrats, Republicans, and independents – came together to support a candidate who fit the state. I know that Alabama is a conservative state, and I might not agree with its new senator on every vote. But we share the common values of decency, tolerance, fairness, and opportunity for all.