On today’s BradCast: We have a lot to catch up from over the weekend, and callers with lots of opinions to go with it. [Audio link to show follows below.]
But, first up today, both a Republican federal court panel and the U.S. Supreme Court both rejected Pennsylvania Republican lawmaker’s last ditch attempt to block a new U.S. House map forced upon them by the state Supreme Court in February after the previous map enacted in 2011 was determined to be an unlawful partisan gerrymander in violation of the state’s Constitution. Those were the last chances for the state GOP to restore the unlawful maps — which had given them a 13 to 5 advantage in U.S. House seats over the past three elections — before the candidate filing deadline for the 2018 primary elections in the largely 50/50 swing-state.
At the same time, voters head to the polls in Illinois on Tuesday for the second primary of the crucial 2018 mid-terms. Among the contested races is a primary challenge by progressive Marie Newman to longtime, very right-wing Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in IL’s 3rd Congressional district. The race is said to be statistically tied, as Lipinski fights for his political life, and as the winner of Tuesday’s primary in the very “blue” area of Chicago will likely go on to win in November, since the GOP, literally, has only a proud neo-Nazi running on the ballot for the Republican nomination.
But concerns about Illinois’ computerized voting, tabulation and registration system continue to haunt officials and undermine democracy and voter confidence — justifiably. The state’s voter registration system was breached during the 2016 election, and remains wildly vulnerable along with the state’s voting and tabulation systems. Despite purported concerns of “Russian interference”, little has changed in any of our nation’s easily hacked, oft-failed electoral systems following the 2016 election.
Then: On last Friday’s show, we noted that nobody in the Trump Admin had yet been fired that day. But, shortly after airtime, FBI Deputy Director and former Acting Director Andrew McCabe was fired just two days shy of receiving his lifetime pension after 21 years of service to the Bureau.
We discuss the reasons he was said to have been fired and the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who officially fired him) was supposed to have recused himself from the matter. Nonetheless, Donald Trump rejoiced at the news via Twitter — since McCabe is a witness against Trump’s apparent attempted obstruction of justice in the firing of FBI Director James Comey — before turning his wrath back against Comey and, for the first time on Twitter, Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Is a newly emboldened Trump preparing again to fire Mueller? If he does, will Congressional Republicans do anything to block him? And what, for that matter, will the American people do — if anything — in response to what many (over-confidently) believe would be a Constitutional crisis? We open the phone lines to talk about all of that and much more on today’s BradCast!…
I’m hoping for some good reporting on any “red-shifts” that may appear in some of the upcoming elections.
In the Dem Primaries, it will appear as a “purple-shift” (versus the exit poll or final pre-election poll), if it happens.
Will there be a “red-shift” when the GOP faces the Dems in important elections?
I’m counting on BradBlog to cover it, if it happens.