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In today’s edition:
WpGet the full experience.Choose your planArrowRight- McConnell’s legacy — the good, the bad and what comes after
- The Supreme Court helps Trump’s timing, if not his chances
- Self-immolation should never be celebrated
Farewell, leader
“Mitch McConnell will step down from his longtime post as Senate Republican leader in November,” humor columnist Alexandra Petri begins her reaction to Wednesday’s retirement announcement, “ ... to spend more time eroding the rights of his family.”
Alex’s satire speaks to the incandescent frustration a good chunk of America has felt for the Kentucky legislator over his 17 years as party leader. During that time, he changed chamber rules to obstruct Democrats and ran roughshod over judicial nomination norms to shove the Supreme and lower courts rightward.
McConnell “will leave a lasting mark — often not for the better,” the Editorial Board writes.
But for all the people who despised his work, many (well, some; McConnell has a 6 percent approval rating) appreciated his contributions. Among them: our columnist Marc Thiessen. He writes that McConnell and his “virtuoso acumen” leave the “pillars of American conservatism far stronger than they would have been without him.”
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Where Marc, the board and even Alex agree is that McConnell thankfully dammed a full MAGA flood of the Senate. Marc praises his old-school support of the United States’ “Reaganite leadership.” The board (like Alex) worries that what comes after him will be worse: “There might come a day, sooner than many think, when even his harshest critics miss him.”
Should that day come, they’ll know where to find him, Alex predicts: standing athwart a pickleball game in his neighborhood park, swatting down his family’s dinks.
Chaser: Even the notion that McConnell reshaped the judiciary for conservatives’ mission has its detractors. Neither party can count on the Supreme Court to be its ally, writes … hmm … Mitch McConnell.
Another delay for Trump
So what are McConnell’s shiny Supremes up to these days? According to Ruth Marcus, making “a bad situation far worse than it needed to be.”
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She’s referring to the high court’s decision Wednesday to hear Donald Trump’s unserious claim of total immunity “a leisurely seven weeks” from now. Ruth wrote earlier this month in support of the court’s taking the case — but only on an ultra-expedited timeline. The country needs Trump’s trial decided well before the election, and the Supreme Court now stands in the way.
In the meantime, Jen Rubin picks apart the court’s writ granting a hearing and sees a lot of language that disadvantages Trump. “If the Supreme Court wanted to spare Trump,” she writes, it would have asked a totally different question than the one it settled on.
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Ruth writes that things could be worse, too. For instance, she imagines that the justices on the right probably do consider their timeline on the Trump stuff expedited.
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But in the end, she writes, “this has all the hallmarks of a compromise that isn’t much of a compromise at all — no surprise given the conservative supermajority.”
McConnell!!!
More politics
The tragedy of Aaron Bushnell, the senior airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in D.C. this week to protest the war on Gaza, is just that, Ramesh Ponnuru writes: a tragedy.
“Bushnell’s suicide didn’t teach us anything,” Ramesh writes. “It didn’t, and won’t, save one life. … His death will not change U.S. policy or public opinion — and it shouldn’t.”
Ramesh explains his opposition to all instances of self-immolation, not just as a deplorable loss of life but as an exercise in futility. Those who already care about the war will not care more for Bushell’s death, he writes, and those who do not care will not be moved merely by the ferocity of a stranger’s convictions.
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Ramesh mourns for the young man and his family, but he is clear-eyed in his assessment of this dramatic act: “All that has changed is that some attention has been diverted to Bushnell’s story.”
Smartest, fastest
- I can practically see the tiny island nation of Kiribati from my house here in Hawaii — and the Chinese police reportedly operating there. An alarmed Josh Rogin writes that it’s another example of Congress leaving Pacific allies vulnerable to China’s pull.
- Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois were philosophical rivals, Ted Johnson writes, but time knits the two giants of Black history together.
- Social media companies are not the same as public utilities and should not be treated like them, Matt Bai writes.
- And happy leap day! From the news side, check out the cruise ship packed with the children (an 11-year-old 44-year-old!) of Feb. 29.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … the Bye-Ku.
The Senate’s lion
Ate everything in his way
Carnivorous stint
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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You’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
In today’s edition:
“Mitch McConnell will step down from his longtime post as Senate Republican leader in November,” humor columnist Alexandra Petri begins her reaction to Wednesday’s retirement announcement, “ ... to spend more time eroding the rights of his family.”
Alex’s satire speaks to the incandescent frustration a good chunk of America has felt for the Kentucky legislator over his 17 years as party leader. During that time, he changed chamber rules to obstruct Democrats and ran roughshod over judicial nomination norms to shove the Supreme and lower courts rightward.
McConnell “will leave a lasting mark — often not for the better,” the Editorial Board writes.
But for all the people who despised his work, many (well, some; McConnell has a 6 percent approval rating) appreciated his contributions. Among them: our columnist Marc Thiessen. He writes that McConnell and his “virtuoso acumen” leave the “pillars of American conservatism far stronger than they would have been without him.”
Where Marc, the board and even Alex agree is that McConnell thankfully dammed a full MAGA flood of the Senate. Marc praises his old-school support of the United States’ “Reaganite leadership.” The board (like Alex) worries that what comes after him will be worse: “There might come a day, sooner than many think, when even his harshest critics miss him.”
Should that day come, they’ll know where to find him, Alex predicts: standing athwart a pickleball game in his neighborhood park, swatting down his family’s dinks.
Chaser: Even the notion that McConnell reshaped the judiciary for conservatives’ mission has its detractors. Neither party can count on the Supreme Court to be its ally, writes … hmm … Mitch McConnell.
So what are McConnell’s shiny Supremes up to these days? According to Ruth Marcus, making “a bad situation far worse than it needed to be.”
She’s referring to the high court’s decision Wednesday to hear Donald Trump’s unserious claim of total immunity “a leisurely seven weeks” from now. Ruth wrote earlier this month in support of the court’s taking the case — but only on an ultra-expedited timeline. The country needs Trump’s trial decided well before the election, and the Supreme Court now stands in the way.
In the meantime, Jen Rubin picks apart the court’s writ granting a hearing and sees a lot of language that disadvantages Trump. “If the Supreme Court wanted to spare Trump,” she writes, it would have asked a totally different question than the one it settled on.
Ruth writes that things could be worse, too. For instance, she imagines that the justices on the right probably do consider their timeline on the Trump stuff expedited.
But in the end, she writes, “this has all the hallmarks of a compromise that isn’t much of a compromise at all — no surprise given the conservative supermajority.”
McConnell!!!
The tragedy of Aaron Bushnell, the senior airman who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in D.C. this week to protest the war on Gaza, is just that, Ramesh Ponnuru writes: a tragedy.
“Bushnell’s suicide didn’t teach us anything,” Ramesh writes. “It didn’t, and won’t, save one life. … His death will not change U.S. policy or public opinion — and it shouldn’t.”
Ramesh explains his opposition to all instances of self-immolation, not just as a deplorable loss of life but as an exercise in futility. Those who already care about the war will not care more for Bushell’s death, he writes, and those who do not care will not be moved merely by the ferocity of a stranger’s convictions.
Ramesh mourns for the young man and his family, but he is clear-eyed in his assessment of this dramatic act: “All that has changed is that some attention has been diverted to Bushnell’s story.”
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … the Bye-Ku.
The Senate’s lion
Ate everything in his way
Carnivorous stint
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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