Goodbye to Justice Souter.

I'm seeing "David H. Souter, Republican Justice Who Allied With Court’s Liberal Wing, Dies at 85/He left conservatives bitterly disappointed with his migration from right to left, leading to the cry of “no more Souters'" (NYT)(free-access link).

A shy man who never married and who much preferred an evening alone with a good book to a night in the company of Washington insiders, Justice Souter retired at the unusually young age of 69 to return to his beloved home state.... He turned down all the opportunities for foreign travel that other justices accepted eagerly.... No one who had Boston needed Paris, he would say.

"Iowa Democrats will surrender their first-in-the-nation caucuses next year, party officials said Friday..."

"... while Democrats in New Hampshire — still fighting with the Democratic National Committee — moved closer to holding a rogue primary. Iowa’s influential perch within the Democratic Party formally came to an end in a windowless hotel ballroom here, where members of the Democratic National Committee voted to accept Iowa’s plan to release its presidential preference numbers on March 5, Super Tuesday. Iowa officials said they will lobby for an earlier nominating contest in 2028...."

Politico reports.

Hotel ballrooms are always windowless, aren't they? Might as well mention that there were floors and a ceiling, and yet, the word "windowless" made me feel that the scene was terribly dreary. And... in retrospect, everything I've ever experienced in a hotel ballroom feels dreary. 

Why do we accept that these places are called "ballrooms," when "ballroom" — without "hotel" in front of it — calls to mind something like this:

But here's to you, Iowa, for giving up your place in the grand tradition. It was institutionalized racism, and you knew it. Now, back to the farm or whatever it is you do over there. Our years of caring about you (and your damned ethanol) are over... or, oh, no, there are still those miserable Republicans tromping about in that heartland of yours.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire clings to what's left of its once-proud first-in-the-nation tradition, which is so little that to adhere to it is — as Politico has it — to deserve to be called "rogue."

"It’s like asking New York to move the Statue of Liberty from New York to Florida. I mean, that’s not going to happen. And it’s not going to happen that we’re going to change state law."

Said  John Lynch, the former governor of New Hampshire, quoted in "Democrats Overhaul Party’s Primary Calendar, Upending a Political Tradition/The proposal radically reshapes the way the party picks its presidential nominees, putting more racially diverse states at the front of the line" (NYT).

The headline says the Democrats have already done the upending, overhauling, and radical reshaping, but isn't it merely an offer that the states may accept or decline? Is it an offer-they-can't-refuse type of offer? 

I'm seeing shaming of New Hampshire. One D.N.C. member scoffed at that idea that New Hampshire has a "divine right of privilege" to go first.  What matters is "what the party says it wants in its process." Yes, but they want the state to run a primary. Do they think they have a "divine right of privilege" to tell the states when to schedule votes?

The new first state would be South Carolina — a state that hasn't gone blue in a presidential election since 1976 — chosen because it's Joe Biden's preference. It was the state that saved his candidacy in 2020. Its legislature is solidly dominated by Republicans. 

"If I run, there are forces within the Democratic Party who would be trying to invisibilize me."

"I think they will have an easier time invisibilizing me if I run third party. If I do run, and I run as a Democrat, I will be more inconvenient to the people who need to be inconvenienced."

Said the charmingly glib Marianne Williamson, quoted in "Potential Biden challenger Marianne Williamson heads to New Hampshire/The visit comes as state Democrats warn the ongoing showdown over primary dates 'will create an opening for an insurgent candidate' that could embarrass the president" (WaPo).

I love the quote. Great repetition of 2 cool words beginning with "i" — "invisibilize" and "inconvenien- t/ced." Invisibilizing as the defense to inconveniencing. And the way to fight invisibility is to be more inconvenient. Another way to fight invisibility is to say intriguing, interesting things.

"In 2003, Free Staters chose New Hampshire, with its deep vein of conservatism and 'Live Free or Die' motto, as their prospective homeland..."

"... and more than 19,000 people have since signed a pledge to move to the state, organizers said.... The porcupines, so called because they portray themselves as harmless until provoked, have built a statewide support network for newcomers and member families already here. Porcupine real-estate agents help find housing for the arrivals, others steer them to jobs, and weekly meetups, from pub gatherings to knitting circles, have sprung up across the state.... Parents also have been invited to a discussion on the 'Battle Over Raising Your Child.' 'Your rulers would like to do you the "favor" of taking your children off your hands to "educate" them (with a heavy dose of learning to revere their authority),' its summary read.... Free State leaders... said the group is a big tent whose members range from radicals to pragmatists. The unifying strand... 'is the nonaggression principle, which is an ethical stance that says you cannot force people to do things against their will.'"

From "Free Staters seek to undo New Hampshire government from within" (Boston Globe).

The article relies heavily on quotes from one Free State Project board member, Jeremy Kauffman:

"On every trail leading to the high country in the Whites, there are signs prominently posted that state, 'STOP. The area ahead has the worst weather in America. Many have died there...'"

"'... from exposure, even in the summer. Turn back now if the weather is bad.' The high country forecast for last weekend was for snow, ice, and winds over 60 mph. It was accurate.... I've only been hiking the Whites for about 50 years, so I'm still learning about them, but I have learned through hard experience to respect the Presidential Range in particular. Last weekend was clearly a time to stay low. My condolences to this man's family.

That's the highest rated comment on "Hiker who texted his wife he was ‘in trouble’ dies after rescue" (WaPo). 

"Whites" = White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.

Life in New Hampshire.

The Merrimack Police Department in New Hampshire is asking for residents to look out for a missing forty pound, four year old African Serval named Spartacus that is a family pet and legally owned and permitted. pic.twitter.com/6Qexuv8cuf

— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) September 11, 2020

Note: The serval has been found.

For more on servals, here's the Wikipedia article. I see: "The association of servals with human beings dates to the time of Ancient Egypt. Servals are depicted as gifts or traded objects from Nubia in Egyptian art. Like many other species of felid, servals are occasionally kept as pets, although their wild nature means that ownership of servals is regulated in most countries."

"It was while in the lower house of Congress that Franklin Pierce took that stand on the slavery question from which he has never since swerved a hair’s breadth."

"He fully recognized, by his votes and by his voice, the rights pledged to the South by the Constitution.... [W]hen the first imperceptible movement of agitation had grown to be almost a convulsion, his course was still the same. Nor did he ever shun the obloquy that sometimes threatened to pursue the northern man who dared to love that great and sacred reality — his whole, united, native country — better than the mistiness of a philanthropic theory.... With his view of the whole subject, whether looking at it through the medium of his conscience, his feelings, or his intellect, it was impossible for him not to take his stand as the unshaken advocate of Union, and of the mutual steps of compromise which that great object unquestionably demanded.... Those northern men, therefore, who deem the great causes of human welfare as represented and involved in this present hostility against southern institutions, and who conceive that the world stands still except so far as that goes forward,— these, it may be allowed, can scarcely give their sympathy or their confidence to the subject of this memoir. But there is still another view, and probably as wise a one. It looks upon slavery as one of those evils which divine Providence does not leave to be remedied by human contrivances, but which, in its own good time, by some means impossible to be anticipated, but of the simplest and easiest operation, when all its uses shall have been fulfilled, it causes to vanish like a dream. There is no instance, in all history, of the human will and intellect having perfected any great moral reform by methods which it adapted to that end; but the progress of the world, at every step, leaves some evil or wrong on the path behind it, which the wisest of mankind, of their own set purpose, could never have found the way to rectify."

From "The Life of Franklin Pierce" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, consulted on the occasion of the University of New Hampshire's idea that maybe it ought to rename its Franklin Pierce Law School.

“It’s the Klobuchar miracle,” I say out loud.

Watching some super early returns.

“Klomentum,” Meade says.

UPDATE: At 6:46 CT, Gloria Borger said “Klomentum” on CNN.

UPDATE 2: “Klomentum” has been around since before Meade independently coined it. Not trying to claim first.

UPDTE 3: Michael Bennet and Andrew Yang have dropped out.

AND: Steyer is out. ADDED: I heard that on tv, but I am not seeing it in print, so I doubt it.

ALSO: My son John looks back on the Yang performance in the debates.

Kamala Harris is terribly awkward when asked about Jussie Smollett.

She acts as though she doesn't remember what she tweeted, then, when reminded that she called it "an attempted modern-day lynching," she looks back (at 0:27) as if to seek help from somebody (perhaps that grim, frowning woman behind her), then turns forward again, says "sorry" and giggles. She giggled in response to the idea of lynching!

Then she partly composes herself, lifts her eyebrows halfway up her forehead and says "ummm, uh, uh, okay" and otherwise stalls for 10 seconds before coming out with "The facts are still unfolding," which struck me as ridiculous considering that she didn't wait for facts to unfold before declaring it "an attempted modern-day lynching," so she's making it seem as though she'll jump to a conclusion when she likes where she can go and will take refuge in restraint when she doesn't like it.

She should at least withdraw her original statement or try to justify it as something that expressed her genuine feeling of shock at the idea of a hateful attack.

She adds "I'm very concerned and obviously..." and then this edit of the video ends. I think, based on this NYT report — "Kamala Harris Faces Questions About ‘Democratic Socialist’ Label and Jussie Smollett in N.H. Debut" — that the next thing she said was that there should be an investigation. Why wasn't that obvious back when she was tweeting "modern-day lynching"?

More from the Times article:

Senator Kamala Harris visited New Hampshire on Monday for the first time in her life, and quickly experienced the realities of being a presidential candidate.... New Hampshire has a long history of favoring New England candidates. Despite Mr. Sanders’s popularity here — he won 60 percent of the vote in the 2016 primary — Ms. Harris distanced herself from him at an earlier event in Concord. Asked if she would have to tack to the left like Mr. Sanders to do well in New Hampshire, she drew a line in the sand.

“The people of New Hampshire will tell me what’s required to compete in New Hampshire, but I will tell you I am not a democratic socialist,” she said....

The audience... responded heartily to her veiled references to President Trump, whom she did not name. They rose to their feet and cheered when she denounced “his vanity project,” the wall on the southern border with Mexico....

"This place sounds great. The only thing Keene needs more than a great Pho place is a sense of humor."

Said a commenter, quoted in "A New Hampshire city council is miffed by ‘Pho Keene Great’ restaurant name" (WaPo).

"We have 2.7 percent unemployment, an opioid crisis that has significantly impacted employability and the reality of an aging population that will absolutely require direct service care at some point."

Said a professor quoted in "New Hampshire, 94 Percent White, Asks: How Do You Diversify a Whole State?" (NYT).

"How Do You Diversify a Whole State?" is one question. Why do you want to diversify the whole state? is another. And it is the question the quote I picked out seems to answer. The state needs a lot of health-care workers to tend to the existing sick and unemployable population.

Why is there so little talk about the leaked transcripts of Trump's phone conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia?

The Washington Post must have thought it was worth it to drop these full transcripts. They had to worry about criticism, exposing the confidential communications of the President with world leaders, undermining the power and prestige of the American presidency. They had to have thought it was worth doing. Why dump all this verbiage? Did they think the sheer amount of material would have a devastating impact?

I thought we were going to see many, many articles picking into the details here, but the story seems to have already blown over. On the front page of the NYT website, the only reference to the transcripts is a little teaser under the heading "More in Politics." Coming in third after "Kushner Firm Said to Be Under Inquiry Over Visa Program" and "Trump Cites Familiar Argument in Ban on Transgender Troops" is "Trump Called New Hampshire a ‘Drug-Infested Den.’" Trump's calling New Hampshire a ‘Drug-Infested Den'" is incredibly inconsequential, but it's what I broke out too when I was reading the news yesterday.

Why are we not seeing more? I noticed some stories claiming the transcripts show Trump is an idiot, but every day I see stories saying Trump is an idiot. And from what I've read of the transcripts (not every word), I don't think they show idiocy, and I think they're going to take careful reading to understand how Trump was trying to work with the 2 leaders. I suspect that Trump-haters who undertook serious study of the language have decided it's best not to try, that a close examination of the text will only help Trump, and therefore the transcripts have rapidly become a non-story.

Now, I'm going to read the transcript with Peña Nieto, and I'll update to tell you what I'm seeing.

ADDED: I'm reading the whole transcript and dropping my thoughts here as I go. I'm amazed at how long each man talks when he gets his turn to speak. Nieto, speaking Spanish, goes first and quickly gets to looking for a solution to the disagreement about Mexico paying for the wall. He sees potential for "a win-win situation" if the 2 countries are "creative" about it.

Trump compliments Peña Nieto and talks about tariffs as a solution to the trade deficit. He goes on at length about it, and finally it's Peña Nieto who brings up the wall again:

Let me tell you that the best virtual wall that I think we can build between our two countries is to make sure that both countries have economic development.

Trump then takes up the subject of the wall. When times are good in Mexico, yes, there's a "virtual wall," but the real wall is needed for when there are tough times, he says. "We have enough people coming across, we want to stop it cold." Then he switches to the subject of what is obviously a shared interest with Mexico, drug gang warfare:

"I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den."

Said Donald Trump, according to a transcript — which leaked to the public today — of a conversation with the president of Mexico that took place last January.

“The drug lords in Mexico are knocking the hell out of our country... They are sending drugs to Chicago, Los Angeles and to New York... Up in New Hampshire — I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den — is coming from the southern border.”

Here's the level of Democratic Party media savvy, trying to foment outrage:

How about this @realDonaldTrump, does this seem like a "drug-infested den?" #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/65VuXb41T4

— NH Democratic Party (@NHDems) August 3, 2017

Yes, it's pretty. They've got that fall foliage, so how could they — why would they? — use drugs?

More on the leaking of the transcripts (with Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Australia) here (NYT).

That picture demands a song:

Hey people, all aboard the drug train!
The tracks are new and there is a new town!
On the drug train, have a nice day
On the drug train, come up and get onboard
I used to know all the sights til I got onboard the drug train
I'm gonna chug it out to get onboard...
There's lots to do on a drug train
Drinks and drivin' and slipping and sliding
With all of your friends on the drug train
Whoa the drug train woo hoo
The drug train woo hoo...

"I can tell you that this issue of busing voters into New Hampshire is widely known by anyone who's worked in New Hampshire politics."

"It's very real. It's very serious. This morning, on this show, is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence.... I'm saying anybody—George, go to New Hampshire. Talk to anybody who has worked in politics there for a long time. Everybody is aware of the problem in New Hampshire."

Said Stephen Miller. He was talking to George Stephanopoulos, who kept asking for evidence, when all he needed to do was go to New Hampshire and ask anybody.... everybody in New Hampshire knows.

Did Scott Walker just endorse Donald Trump?

The headline in the Wisconsin State Journal is "Scott Walker says Republicans could win Wisconsin with Donald Trump."

But Walker seems to have just been responding to reporters who were on the scene in Wisconsin last night to cover the Democratic candidates' debate and looking for insight into which candidates might do well in Wisconsin. The Democratic candidate has taken Wisconsin in every election in the last 30 years. You have to go back to Ronald Reagan to get a GOP winner. So who cares about Wisconsin? But the governor is Republican and both houses of the legislature are Republican. What's keeping a Republican from winning Wisconsin?

Walker did say he thought Trump could win Wisconsin — but couldn't Kasich? couldn't Bush? couldn't Rubio? I don't understand the context. Why single out Trump? Is there some thought that we the people of Wisconsin could take a special liking to the mogul with the New York accent? I would think a pleasant midwestern-y guy like Kasich would suit us better.

“There’s no doubt it will be a challenge,” Walker told reporters.... Walker noted some of the other candidates are faring better against Clinton in the polls than Trump, but he also said polls can go up and down.

I'm guessing the context was that Trump would be a harder sell in Wisconsin than Kasich, Bush, or Rubio. 

He emphasized turnout will also be a factor, especially if Sanders supporters aren’t happy about the nomination process.

“If, in the end, Hillary Clinton prevails, but a lot of particularly young voters feel disenfranchised because of the whole superdelegate process, they may not vote for a Republican, but they may vote for a third party or not vote at all,” Walker said.

That's the old conventional wisdom about low turnout helping the GOP applied to the scenario in which Democrats got passionate about a candidate who they think was cheated out of the nomination.

Walker said he was "glad the Republicans don’t have something like (superdelegates) so that it’s really reflective of how people vote in the respective state." Trump won big in NH and got a corresponding number of delegates. Sanders won big in NH and, because of superdelegates, Hillary seems to be getting the same total. The superdelegate approach was designed to control the effect of an upstart outsider like Sanders/Trump. So if, in the end, Trump gets through and Sanders does not, how will people vote? That seems to be what Walker was talking about. Republicans will probably end up with Trump, because of the nature of their process, and won't that be challenging, given that the Democrats have built moderation into their process and will likely succeed in putting up their normal-seeming candidate.

Walker has not endorsed a candidate for president, but he has not ruled out doing so before the April 5 Wisconsin primary. Walker and Trump clashed in the final debate before the governor dropped out of the race on Sept. 21. In his speech announcing that he would be ending his campaign, Walker said he had been called to lead by clearing the field “so a positive, conservative message can rise to the top of the field. I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to do the same so that voters can focus on the limited number of candidates who can offer a positive, conservative alternative to the current front-runner,” Walker said at the time.

So, I assume Walker is absolutely not endorsing Trump. I infer that he wants one of the normal-seeming Republicans to go up against normal-seeming Hillary. And then the Republicans win because everyone's bored and alienated, and it's a low turnout, the dreary condition that gets us another Republican President. And life will go on as usual. We'll have our normalcy.

It's some kind of revolution in New Hampshire...

... as far as I can tell, watching the pre-returns CNN. It's a lefty thing, I think. They're very jazzed up about Bernie Sanders. But what about Donald Trump? Isn't that a revolution too?

ADDED: Trump, winning by 18% or so, plays the song "Revolution."

"Leave my daughter alone," said 2003 Jeb. But 2016 Jeb is not leaving her alone.

"As a father, I have felt the heartbreak of drug abuse. I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail," said Jeb Bush. "It wasn’t easy, and it became very public when I was governor of Florida, making things even more difficult for Noelle. She went through hell, so did her mom, and so did I."

She went through hell, but why not use her as a means to the end of getting votes in a state (New Hampshire) ravaged by drug abuse? I'm questioning Jeb's judgment. He raised a daughter who, for whatever reason, fell into this problem/chose this course. But she's "in recovery" and she seems to have kept out of the news for quite a while. Shouldn't she be left alone? Back when she was arrested, there were articles like “Noelle Bush: A victim or princess?” and “Royal rehab: Nonviolent drug offenders should get the Bush treatment.” And Jeb complained:

In 2003, Mr. Bush grew frustrated with a Miami Herald reporter, according to emails obtained by The New York Times through a public records request. “The only reason you wrote the piece or were told to write the piece is that my struggling daughter is the child of the governor,” Mr. Bush chided the reporter. “It won’t matter in the whole scheme of things, but I wish the media would leave my daughter alone. It would make it a whole lot easy for her to recover and live a life full of hope and promise.”

"Leave my daughter alone," said 2003 Jeb. But 2016 Jeb is not leaving her alone.

Clinton laconic in Laconia.

"Hillary Clinton left some young fans upset Thursday in New Hampshire after she canceled a planned appearance at a Boys & Girls Club location in Laconia, New Hampshire. Between 30 to 35 children who participate in the club's programs, all of them between 5 and13 years old, waited, and waited, and waited. They had written letters to the former secretary of state and devised questions to ask her. They drew her pictures and painted welcome signs.... Clinton was in Laconia to speak at a public forum about drug addiction. But instead of meeting the kids, her campaign whisked her off to a separate speaking engagement at a different Boys & Girls Club location in Concord, 30 miles away."

laconic (adj.)

"concise, abrupt," 1580s, probably via Latin Laconicus, from Greek Lakonikos, from Lakon "person from Lakonia," the district around Sparta in southern Greece in ancient times, whose inhabitants were famously proud of their brevity of speech. When Philip of Macedon threatened them with, "If I enter Laconia, I will raze Sparta to the ground," the Spartans' reply was, "If."

Meanwhile, also in New Hampshire, the other woman, Carly Fiorina, is topping a poll.

Drudge pushes Walker.

The link under the picture goes to WKOW's "Walker gets standing ovation in NH, but most in attendance still undecided."

Other links at the top of Drudge:

1. "THRONGS OF SUPPORTERS GREET GOV..." goes to the Weekly Standard: "Throngs of Supporters, Media Greet Walker in New Hampshire/Presidential candidate talks of riding his Harley in N.H.." That comes with a 6-minute video:




2. "TESTS MESSAGE IN $1 SWEATER..." goes to The Hill's "Walker tests his message in New Hampshire":

In his first trip to the second-in-the-nation presidential nominating state since 2012, Walker donned a sweater he said he bought for a buck from Kohl's, a big retailer founded in his home state, and cast himself as an executive willing to roll up his sleeves to streamline government and protect the homeland.

3. "JEB JABS 'FRONTRUNNER'..." goes to The Boston Herald's "Jeb Bush takes jab at Scott Walker as both continue N.H. tour""

“I’m not a candidate. I don’t think — maybe he is — I don’t know. You can’t be a front-runner until you start running,” Bush said after touring Integra Biosciences here yesterday.

Bush’s remarks were in response to Walker’s comments earlier this week to Breitbart News. He said President Obama’s recent criticism of Wisconsin’s so-called “right to work” law “suggests maybe we’re the front-runner if somebody is taking an active interest in what a state governor is doing, particularly in light of the fact that we’re not the only one.”

4. "Early Intensity In Race..." goes to the NYT's "New Hampshire, Shaping Up as Free-for-All, Gets Early G.O.P. Attention": At the link, a photo of Jeb, grim-faced and surrounded by grim-faced media types poking microphones at him, and a photo of Walker, smiling in a baseball cap and listening to one person at the  New Hampshire Republicans' 2016 Kickoff Grassroots Training at Concord High School. Key sentence: "Talking to a motorcycle aficionado afterward, he even mused about coming back to campaign here on his Harley-Davidson."

5. "Does road to White House start in Wisconsin?" goes to the Weekly Standard's John MacCormack's "See Scott Run/Does the road to the White House start in Wisconsin?"

Do you know who isn’t an ordinary person? Hillary Clinton. “Saying you’re broke when you’ve got two homes, or you’re making a quarter of a million dollars a speech, or you haven’t driven a car in 18 years, those are all things that I think further embolden that theory that someone like Hillary Clinton who is of Washington—who lives in Washington, who worked for the last term for President Obama in Washington, who served in the Senate in Washington, who lived in the White House in Washington, who spent the early days of her career in Washington—this is someone who embodies Washington,” Walker told me during our March 8 interview. (Like an ordinary guy, Walker sometimes says a word like “embolden” when he means “emphasize.”)