DOJ Refuses to Defend Rep. Brooks
Significant development in litigation over the Big Lie and its consequences.
All posts by Ned Foley
1/6/21 versus 1/6/25?
As reports of today’s select committee hearing are starting to roll in (from The NY Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, and elsewhere), I’m struck by the fact that the ongoing threat to democracy is… Continue reading
“The Limited Power of Trump’s Endorsements”
Mischiefs of Faction has new analysis of 2018 data. Their assessment: “Republican candidates looking for electoral success may want to think carefully before welcoming Trump’s endorsement.”
January 6 Select Committee Gets Started
As the committee’s hearings begin with riveting testimony of the horrific violence at the Capitol on January 6, and with much discussion about the need for the committee to figure out what caused the breach of the Capitol that day… Continue reading
Breaking round-robin ties
The USA women’s soccer team is advancing out of the preliminary round-robin stage of competition based on a “goal differential” tiebreaker used to differentiate teams with the same win-loss records. “The United States finished second in Group G on the… Continue reading
The GOP & the VRA: Frenemies?
A reader of the blog sent along a link to this article: How to Win a “Long Game”: The Voting Rights Act, the Republican Party, and the Politics of Counter‐Enforcement. Here’s the abstract:
ADRIENNE JONES and ANDREW POLSKY examine… Continue reading
Preview of select committee’s hearing
Some emphasize the division between Republicans, others the attempt by Democrats to enlist Cheney and Kinzinger in establishing a responsibly bipartisan investigation:
The Hill, Politico, Washington Post, NY Times, WSJ
NFRPP Discussion of S1/HR1
The Network for Responsible Public Policy last week hosted a discussion on the current status, and future prospects, of the For the People Act, still pending in the Senate as S1 (having been enacted by the House as HR1). Dan… Continue reading
Panic setting in over new voting rules
Politico reports on the fear among Democrats and voting rights activists that getting out the vote (GOTV) will be much harder in light of the new more restrictive voting laws being adopted in states like Georgia. The article is useful… Continue reading
Latest on Arizona’s pseudo-audit
Newsweek reports on internal divisions among participants, apparently because preliminary figures tracked officially certified results (thus confirming Biden’s victory).
Could you withstand the pressure?
Two articles, one in The Atlantic and the other in The New York Times, discuss how first-term Representative Nancy Mace–a Republican from South Carolina–initially condemned Trump for causing the January 6 insurrection, only to backtrack since then.… Continue reading
The Big Lie and January 6
The Washington Post has an overview of where things currently stand with the House’s select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. The Post says this committee’s investigation is supposed to be the “ultimate arbiter” of what happened that day. Maybe,… Continue reading
State-Districts Competitiveness Gap
Axios has a report on a data project that Election Law at Ohio State (ELOSU) is pursuing. The idea is to compare how competitive the House districts in a state are as a group versus the competitiveness of the state… Continue reading
Electoral McCarthyism on display
Politico reports on Trump’s Arizona rally. The 1950s Red Scare lasted as long as it did, from my understanding of the history, because the public was willing to be duped by the mendacity of Joe McCarthy and there wasn’t sufficient… Continue reading