Great environmental news! President Biden is blocking future offshore oil and gas drilling on an additional 625 million acres, protecting wildlife-rich areas in the Bering Sea, along the West Coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and along the Eastern Seaboard.
It’s noteworthy that Biden’s move, which protects waters equivalent in size to the states of Alaska, California and Colorado, is not easily undone by Donald "Drill! Drill! Drill!" Trump.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune plants a key marker on reconciliation, telling Punchbowl News that Republicans should NOT try to overrule the Parliamentarian if certain border/tax/energy provisions are ruled invalid. He says this is akin to nuking filibuster. “People need to understand that.”
Was one of my first thoughts when news came out that Trump wanted one giant bill; they're going to throw in a LOT of shite that the Parliamentarian is going to rule out of bounds.
Wow, this surely is a historical first! The King Fredrik of Denmark has changed the Royal Coat of Arms to more prominently feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what is seen as a clear rebuke to Donald Trump.
The updated version more prominently features the polar bear and ram, which symbolize Greenland and the Faeroe Islands respectively.
The PM of Greenland came out and said he wants independence considering Trumps statements, which seems odd that he really thinks Denmark would sell. Probably has alterative motives.
For one fortnight, Delaware will have a female Governor. Tomorrow Governor John Carney (D-DE) resigns to begin his turn as Mayor of Wilmington. Despite being beaten in the Democratic primary for Governor of Delaware last year, Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long (D-DE) will serve as Governor. On 21 January, Matt Meyer (D-DE) the Governor Elect and New Castle County Executive will be sworn in as Governor. https://www.capegazette.com/article/lt-gov-bethany-hall-long-be-sworn-governor/285585
Like father, like son? Pierre Trudeau did the same in 1984, being replaced by John Turner, but that wasn't enough to save the Liberals from being pasted by Brian Mulroney's Tories.
I fully expect the Tories to win the next election. They've been out of government for one full decade now. Unfortunately Poilievre is further to the right than either Mulroney or even Harper ever was.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially announces his resignation as Liberal leader and prime minister pending the selection of a new leader,
Trudeau also said he asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, and she granted the request.
His decision will set off a competitive leadership race to replace him and find a contender to take on the Liberals' key rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, in the next federal election.
Freeland, new Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney are seen by political observers as candidates to replace him.
Members of Trudeau’s cabinet who are frequently mentioned in discussions about the party leadership include Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly; Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne; and Anita Anand, the minister in charge of transportation and internal trade.
I think the best that can be hoped for is holding the Conservatives to a minority government. So the Liberals should focus on getting as much as they can from Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Champagne might be the best one to do that.
If they can hold the Tories to a minority government then they'll happily be toasting Champagne, all right. As it is, it seems that the race is to see who can possibly lose fewer seats than Trudeau would and keep the Liberals, not BQ or NDP, as the official opposition.
Though there's little chance that NDP supplants the Liberals in that position as seemed possible for a time in the early 2010s. Jagmeet Singh ain't Jack Layton, to put it mildly.
Singh deserves more credit than he gets for the nuts and bolts governing aspect; he extracted real, tangible commitments and policies for his confidence agreements since 2019. Layton was always quite good at this too.
As an electoral/comms piece though he’s part and parcel with the identity crisis the NDP has had since Layton’s sudden and untimely death at the moment of his grandest triumph and certainly since Mulcair got caught in Justinmania’s shadow ten years ago when he otherwise could credibly have led the NDP into government
Mulcair blew it on his own. And so did the NDP, by focusing on Quebec and nominating someone who was essentially a Liberal. A lot of their 2011 voters decided to go with the real thing.
Anand and LeBlanc (and Marc Miller) are way too much of Trudeau loyalists to be the right fits. Freeland holding almost every position in his Cabinet the last decade is likely to kneecap her quite a bit
Either Joly or Champagne would have good profiles. Carney, I’m skeptical. Sean Fraser could have been a choice had he not taken the Immigration portfolio. Mark Holland has always had potential and isn’t an insider but his seat is probably long gone
I agree though that the game is to reduce the losses in the Maritimes and Quebec and hope that Polly is just a hair too extreme for 205/Lower Mainland suburbanites. But I’ll be shocked if LPC gets more than 25 seats
Glad Justin finally took his own walk in the snow. The deterioration of the LPC’s position in the last forty days was the difference between falling to 40ish seats and a 1993 extinction-level event
Chrystia Freeland, the Finance Minister and long Trudeau’s key deputy/dauphin, proactively resigned from the government in a very public, ugly fashion in which she burned her bridges with Justin and effectively accused him of lying to the public and Liberal Party about the state of the country’s economy and finances. Reading between the lines, she may have anticipated getting hurled under the bus. Immigration Minister and once-rising Star Sean Fraser exited Cabinet around the same time, too, and Trudeau’s response was essentially to reshuffle with his inner circle of yes-men like LeBlanc (his childhood best friend and Liberal royalty) becoming new key ministers
Also, as far as I’ve understood Trudeau’s never been the best at maintaining relations with unions even though he makes claims he stands on their side.
The situation in Minnesota that's described in the digest sounds disastrous, but how much power does the Speaker have in that state? Does she get to decide what bills get voted on?
Speaking of Speakers, my girlfriend was very impressed by Hakeem Jeffries' speech before he handed the gavel to the Speaker this time and is thinking about the possibility that he might be a good presidential candidate some time after he gets to be Speaker. All that is an intro to my question: Who has run for President as a sitting or former Speaker or House Minority Leader? For that matter, what about Vice President? I thought Ryan did, but I checked, and he was not yet Speaker at the time.
I don't think a House Speaker can be a viable POTUS candidate for the mere reason they'll have too much electoral baggage in their suitcase. In an era where being an "insider" is the ultimate Scarlet Letter in politics and compromise legislation is shot with daggers by respective party bases, a House Speaker is the ultimate compromising insider.
I agree, and I also think this is why long-time Senators have a poor track record of being elected to the Presidency directly from their Senate seats. I can only imagine this weighed on Obama's mind when he decided to run for President in 2008.
There's a sense to what you're saying, but there's a very strong counterargument. Two, actually. One is still sitting in the White House till January 20, and the other is the multiply-convicted felon who tried to overthrow democracy and got people killed, yet was elected to a second term. If that kind of baggage can get you elected, I don't see how we can draw conclusions about where the American people would draw the line.
And Biden was the first VP formerly a Senator to serve as POTUS since Lyndon Johnson in 1963.
The significant difference was that Biden ran for POTUS after having served as VP under Obama for eight years and having gone into academia for years after that. Johnson of course immediately became POTUS after JFK's assassination.
I wouldn't be surprised if we have an all Gubernatorial ticket in 2028. Y'all will want to watch the Gubernatorial Election here in Virginia very closely. Should #1. Abigail Spanberger win in November, #2. Virginia elect a Democratic Lieutenant Governor as well (the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are elected separately here), and #3. there are no scandals in her administration, expect her to at MINIMUM be on the shortlist for VP. She's relatively young (47), mother of three, former Congresswoman, and suburban.
I think it's way too early to handicap the race..but Walz, Shapiro, Whitman etc are clearly contenders and of course Newsom is 'available'; plus a few Senate folks(Kelly is clearly one)
Jimmy Polk of Tennessee. From his campaign song, "Hark the people rise and say, He's the one to cope with Clay. Aha such a nominee, ex-Speaker Polk of Tennessee..."
That is going far back in U.S. history. James K. Polk was an important POTUS, probably the most significant between Jackson and Lincoln.
Grant's 1st VP, Schuyler Colfax was Speaker when elected VP. James Blaine who lost to Cleveland the first time had been speaker before becoming a Senator. FDR's 1st VP, John Nance Garner was Speaker when elected VP.
BIDEN ADDS to ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY
Great environmental news! President Biden is blocking future offshore oil and gas drilling on an additional 625 million acres, protecting wildlife-rich areas in the Bering Sea, along the West Coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and along the Eastern Seaboard.
It’s noteworthy that Biden’s move, which protects waters equivalent in size to the states of Alaska, California and Colorado, is not easily undone by Donald "Drill! Drill! Drill!" Trump.
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/06/biden-offshore-oil-gas-drilling-ban
Very good. I'm sure Republicans in Congress will try to undo this, but they'll get pressure from constituents with coastal property.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune plants a key marker on reconciliation, telling Punchbowl News that Republicans should NOT try to overrule the Parliamentarian if certain border/tax/energy provisions are ruled invalid. He says this is akin to nuking filibuster. “People need to understand that.”
https://nitter.poast.org/AndrewDesiderio/status/1876279723296510285#m
Was one of my first thoughts when news came out that Trump wanted one giant bill; they're going to throw in a LOT of shite that the Parliamentarian is going to rule out of bounds.
HERALDIC REBUKE TO TRUMP
Wow, this surely is a historical first! The King Fredrik of Denmark has changed the Royal Coat of Arms to more prominently feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands – in what is seen as a clear rebuke to Donald Trump.
The updated version more prominently features the polar bear and ram, which symbolize Greenland and the Faeroe Islands respectively.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/06/danish-king-changes-coat-of-arms-in-apparent-rebuke-to-donald-trump
The PM of Greenland came out and said he wants independence considering Trumps statements, which seems odd that he really thinks Denmark would sell. Probably has alterative motives.
For one fortnight, Delaware will have a female Governor. Tomorrow Governor John Carney (D-DE) resigns to begin his turn as Mayor of Wilmington. Despite being beaten in the Democratic primary for Governor of Delaware last year, Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long (D-DE) will serve as Governor. On 21 January, Matt Meyer (D-DE) the Governor Elect and New Castle County Executive will be sworn in as Governor. https://www.capegazette.com/article/lt-gov-bethany-hall-long-be-sworn-governor/285585
Justin Trudeau resigns as Prime Minister as Canada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNa2e3povh0
Like father, like son? Pierre Trudeau did the same in 1984, being replaced by John Turner, but that wasn't enough to save the Liberals from being pasted by Brian Mulroney's Tories.
I fully expect the Tories to win the next election. They've been out of government for one full decade now. Unfortunately Poilievre is further to the right than either Mulroney or even Harper ever was.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially announces his resignation as Liberal leader and prime minister pending the selection of a new leader,
Trudeau also said he asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, and she granted the request.
His decision will set off a competitive leadership race to replace him and find a contender to take on the Liberals' key rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, in the next federal election.
Possible replacements:
Freeland, new Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney are seen by political observers as candidates to replace him.
Members of Trudeau’s cabinet who are frequently mentioned in discussions about the party leadership include Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly; Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne; and Anita Anand, the minister in charge of transportation and internal trade.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canada-trudeau-likely-resign-week-023346629.html
I think the best that can be hoped for is holding the Conservatives to a minority government. So the Liberals should focus on getting as much as they can from Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Champagne might be the best one to do that.
If they can hold the Tories to a minority government then they'll happily be toasting Champagne, all right. As it is, it seems that the race is to see who can possibly lose fewer seats than Trudeau would and keep the Liberals, not BQ or NDP, as the official opposition.
Though there's little chance that NDP supplants the Liberals in that position as seemed possible for a time in the early 2010s. Jagmeet Singh ain't Jack Layton, to put it mildly.
Singh deserves more credit than he gets for the nuts and bolts governing aspect; he extracted real, tangible commitments and policies for his confidence agreements since 2019. Layton was always quite good at this too.
As an electoral/comms piece though he’s part and parcel with the identity crisis the NDP has had since Layton’s sudden and untimely death at the moment of his grandest triumph and certainly since Mulcair got caught in Justinmania’s shadow ten years ago when he otherwise could credibly have led the NDP into government
Mulcair blew it on his own. And so did the NDP, by focusing on Quebec and nominating someone who was essentially a Liberal. A lot of their 2011 voters decided to go with the real thing.
With how 2011 shook out in QC, though, I don’t know how they couldn’t have made that province the foundation of their future plans
Anand and LeBlanc (and Marc Miller) are way too much of Trudeau loyalists to be the right fits. Freeland holding almost every position in his Cabinet the last decade is likely to kneecap her quite a bit
Either Joly or Champagne would have good profiles. Carney, I’m skeptical. Sean Fraser could have been a choice had he not taken the Immigration portfolio. Mark Holland has always had potential and isn’t an insider but his seat is probably long gone
I agree though that the game is to reduce the losses in the Maritimes and Quebec and hope that Polly is just a hair too extreme for 205/Lower Mainland suburbanites. But I’ll be shocked if LPC gets more than 25 seats
Fortunately, Garry Trudeau has no intention of resigning.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/aplus-media/vc/822add20-ac19-4ad3-969d-c15cc675cca0.__CR0,0,970,600_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg
Glad Justin finally took his own walk in the snow. The deterioration of the LPC’s position in the last forty days was the difference between falling to 40ish seats and a 1993 extinction-level event
I haven't been following Canadian politics; what happened in the last 40 days?
Chrystia Freeland, the Finance Minister and long Trudeau’s key deputy/dauphin, proactively resigned from the government in a very public, ugly fashion in which she burned her bridges with Justin and effectively accused him of lying to the public and Liberal Party about the state of the country’s economy and finances. Reading between the lines, she may have anticipated getting hurled under the bus. Immigration Minister and once-rising Star Sean Fraser exited Cabinet around the same time, too, and Trudeau’s response was essentially to reshuffle with his inner circle of yes-men like LeBlanc (his childhood best friend and Liberal royalty) becoming new key ministers
Suffice to say it did not go well
Also, as far as I’ve understood Trudeau’s never been the best at maintaining relations with unions even though he makes claims he stands on their side.
The situation in Minnesota that's described in the digest sounds disastrous, but how much power does the Speaker have in that state? Does she get to decide what bills get voted on?
The practical implications are minimal. The government was divided before and will be divided afterwards.
As Walz is still Governor, he can veto anything republicans pass with their temporary majority.
Speaking of Speakers, my girlfriend was very impressed by Hakeem Jeffries' speech before he handed the gavel to the Speaker this time and is thinking about the possibility that he might be a good presidential candidate some time after he gets to be Speaker. All that is an intro to my question: Who has run for President as a sitting or former Speaker or House Minority Leader? For that matter, what about Vice President? I thought Ryan did, but I checked, and he was not yet Speaker at the time.
I don't think a House Speaker can be a viable POTUS candidate for the mere reason they'll have too much electoral baggage in their suitcase. In an era where being an "insider" is the ultimate Scarlet Letter in politics and compromise legislation is shot with daggers by respective party bases, a House Speaker is the ultimate compromising insider.
I agree, and I also think this is why long-time Senators have a poor track record of being elected to the Presidency directly from their Senate seats. I can only imagine this weighed on Obama's mind when he decided to run for President in 2008.
There's a sense to what you're saying, but there's a very strong counterargument. Two, actually. One is still sitting in the White House till January 20, and the other is the multiply-convicted felon who tried to overthrow democracy and got people killed, yet was elected to a second term. If that kind of baggage can get you elected, I don't see how we can draw conclusions about where the American people would draw the line.
Biden had been VP though . . .that completely changes the calculus. The two times he ran as "Senator Biden from Deleware" he didn't make it to Iowa.
Exactly. He doesn't become VP, he doesn't become President. Full stop.
And Biden was the first VP formerly a Senator to serve as POTUS since Lyndon Johnson in 1963.
The significant difference was that Biden ran for POTUS after having served as VP under Obama for eight years and having gone into academia for years after that. Johnson of course immediately became POTUS after JFK's assassination.
Totally true, but there's no question that he had a very long record to try to attack.
I wouldn't be surprised if we have an all Gubernatorial ticket in 2028. Y'all will want to watch the Gubernatorial Election here in Virginia very closely. Should #1. Abigail Spanberger win in November, #2. Virginia elect a Democratic Lieutenant Governor as well (the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General are elected separately here), and #3. there are no scandals in her administration, expect her to at MINIMUM be on the shortlist for VP. She's relatively young (47), mother of three, former Congresswoman, and suburban.
Watching her, watching Gov. Shapiro.
If Shapiro's margin of victory in 2026 is huge, that's a big tell.
I think it's way too early to handicap the race..but Walz, Shapiro, Whitman etc are clearly contenders and of course Newsom is 'available'; plus a few Senate folks(Kelly is clearly one)
Witmer(auto correct)
Agreed except for Walz. Thanks to 2024, he now has the loser tag on him.
The only person I know of is Gerald Ford. He was the House Minority Leader before Nixon selected him as VP following Spiro Agnew's resignation.
Champ Clark in 1912. Actually had a majority of the delegates but needed 2/3 to win nomination. Which eventually went to Woodrow Wilson.
Jimmy Polk of Tennessee. From his campaign song, "Hark the people rise and say, He's the one to cope with Clay. Aha such a nominee, ex-Speaker Polk of Tennessee..."
That is going far back in U.S. history. James K. Polk was an important POTUS, probably the most significant between Jackson and Lincoln.
Grant's 1st VP, Schuyler Colfax was Speaker when elected VP. James Blaine who lost to Cleveland the first time had been speaker before becoming a Senator. FDR's 1st VP, John Nance Garner was Speaker when elected VP.
And Henry Clay was speaksr when he ran against JQ Adams
Gephardt is the most recent one I can think of he didn't get far in the 2004 Dem Primary.
Yes, I had forgotten about him. He was House Minority Leader from 1995-2003.
Henry Clay comes to mind; not sure about others
President Biden has an op-ed in today’s Washington Post. (Gift link below.)
"What Americans should remember about January 6th"
https://wapo.st/3W6jx4W