Opinion Asa Hutchinson can continue where Liz Cheney left off & The top 10 Republican presidential candidates for 2024, ranked 4APR&14JAN23

 OFF the top of my head I really can't think of anything Asa Hutchinson and I agree on EXCEPT the need for civil politics, the rule of law, sanctity of elections, human rights, a free press and simple decency. An Asa Hutchinson-Liz Cheney ticket would give the Democratic ticket a real run for their money, it will be some time before we find out if the republicans are smart enough to realize that, especially with the list of losers they have running for or considering running for president, especially Virginia's own hayseed youngkin, pompous mike pompeo and Backpfeifengesicht Sen ted cruz rff TX. These from the Washington Post.....

 Asa Hutchinson can continue where Liz Cheney left off

April 4, 2023 at 7:45 a.m. EDT

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She is the author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump.” Twitter

Former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) — the embodiment of courage, honesty and other virtues that MAGA Republicans have abandoned — has played an essential role as national truth-teller and conscientious objector in a party gone to war against democracy. Her role as vice chair of the House Jan. 6 select committee made her Enemy No. 1 in her party, almost certainly eliminating Cheney from realistic contention for president in the near future. However, a possible GOP successor has arrived on the scene.

Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson will make a formal announcement for president soon, but in an interview with Jonathan Karl on ABC News’s “This Week,” which aired Sunday, Hutchinson announced, “I am going to be running.”

The reason he is running for president, Hutchinson said, is that he is “convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America and not simply appeal to our worst instincts.” Hutchinson said he believes that his “message of experience, of consistent conservatism, of hope for our future and solving problems that face Americans” will resonate with voters.

The problem, as he no doubt is aware, might be that such a high-minded message does not yet resonate with a MAGA primary base still marinating in the toxic brew of right-wing media propaganda, conspiracy theories and white Christian nationalism.

Unlike other announced or likely contenders, Hutchinson does not offer himself as a vessel for Trumpism-without-Trump. Like Cheney, Hutchinson has denounced election denial, warned his party about threatening the FBI and slammed Republicans for abandoning Ukraine. And while Hutchinson stresses the need for border security, he urges Americans to be “compassionate and welcoming to legal immigration.” Also akin to Cheney, Hutchinson has not hesitated to denounce former president Donald Trump and his MAGA allies for white-nationalist associations.

In his opposition to Trump, Hutchinson shouldn’t be confused with liberal-minded Republicans such as former Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. Hutchinson favored the overturning of Roe v. Wade. A former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, he is a strong opponent of marijuana legalization. He served for a time as the face of the National Rifle Association and championed tax cuts. He endorsed Republican Sarah Huckabee Sanders to succeed him as governor.

In other words, he’s a staunch conservative. But that is the point: Hutchinson (like Cheney) stands for the proposition that one can differ sharply with Democrats on policy while defending fundamental principles such as the rule of law, the sanctity of elections, human rights, a free press and simple decency.

Cheney warned her fellow Republicans, “There will come a day when President Trump is gone. But your dishonor will remain.” Hutchinson, honor intact, provides a model for a post-MAGA Republican Party, one not shackled to Trump or his mini-me imitators such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Hutchinson stands, so far, as the sole anti-Trump Republican in the 2024 field.

And yet, despite his conservative credentials, Hutchinson is not a reflexive ideologue. He cooperated with and praised President Biden’s response to the coronavirus, extended support for broadband expansion funded by legislation known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and vetoed a bill banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender children because it would create “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people.” (The veto was overridden.)

Hutchinson is, in short, the sort of Republican opponent Democrats used to face — and to a large extent, still pine for. He’s a Republican with whom they can fight as a political opponent, not an enemy of democracy; a truth-teller not cowed by MAGA cultists; and a man susceptible to reason and open to compromise. That makes him, like Cheney, an anathema in some GOP circles.

Coverage of his candidacy will no doubt devolve into snide predictions of his unelectability. Sure, his “lane” might be a narrow bike lane in a party trafficking in crazy. However, much as dissents on the current Supreme Court stand as a rebuke to the right-wing majority, the Hutchinson-Cheney message serves to prick the conscience of Republicans who still have one — offering a reminder that they are not doomed to follow a narcissistic demagogue over the cliff.

And just as today’s Supreme Court dissents become the foundation for tomorrow’s majority opinions, Hutchinson provides a stepping-stone to the revival of a saner, pro-democratic and responsible GOP. For that he deserves praise, not ridicule.

The top 10 Republican presidential candidates for 2024, ranked

January 14, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

By Aaron Blake

Aaron Blake is senior political reporter, writing for The Fix. A Minnesota native, he has also written about politics for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Hill newspaper. Twitter

The 2024 Republican presidential race is technically two months old. We say “technically” because there’s really only one candidate and very little sign that he’s running a bona fide campaign at this point. Instead, Donald Trump is making “major announcements” about NFTs and posting on social media. He just announced his first actual public campaign event … at some point later this month in South Carolina.

So where are the rest? If history is any guide, the hopefuls should start making their plans known starting in the next few weeks or months, tops. And when one gets in, the dam should break.

But history might not be such a great guide to the 2024 race. That’s because it brings some wholly unusual dynamics. On the one hand, Trump looks as vulnerable as ever to a challenge. But he’s still Trump. And basically nobody except Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis demonstrates any strength against him.

Trump and DeSantis are in a tier of their own at the top, but it’s not clear if a second tier has properly formed just below them. Plenty of Republicans have to be weighing not just whether they want to run against Trump but whether they want to wait and see what DeSantis does, lest they launch on a campaign but get immediately eclipsed by those two.

And for ambitious Republicans in those lower tiers, it’s got to be at least a little tempting to see how serious Trump is, before they come at the king. Some are making maneuvers and leaving open the possibility of a challenge, and some are even message-testing attacks on DeSantis. But you’re not in until you’re in.

So where do things stand in the prospective 2024 GOP field? Below are our bimonthly rankings of the 10 candidates we think are mostly likely to be the Republican nominee. (November’s is here.)

As usual, this takes into account how likely the individuals are to run, along with how likely they are to win if they do.

Honorable mention: Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), former congresswoman Liz Cheney (Wyo.), former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Donald Trump Jr., former White House national security adviser John Bolton, former Arizona governor Doug Ducey.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando on Feb. 25, 2022. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

10. Gov. Kristi L. Noem: This was a tough one to pick. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) falls off the list after indicating he’ll seek reelection rather than the presidency in 2024, but there’s not an obvious replacement. One thing did catch our eye recently, though: the South Dakota governor’s staff picking a fight with DeSantis. While responding to a National Review reporter’s inquiry on transgender issues, her spokesman offered what that publication described as a “an unprompted diatribe about the contrast between Noem’s and DeSantis’s records on the issue of abortion.” That diatribe questioned called into question how much DeSantis actually opposes abortion rights because he’s “hiding behind a 15-week ban.” “Does he believe that 14-week-old babies don’t have a right to live?” the spokesman asked. That should probably be understood as a pretty significant statement of intent from Noem. (Previous ranking: n/a)

9. Gov. Chris Sununu: But Noem isn’t the only one. One of the emerging potential arguments against DeSantis is that he’s too eager to use the heavy hand of government to wage the culture wars. And Sununu offered such an argument this week. “I think he’s absolutely right that the wokeness is really invading this culture in a very negative way,” Sununu said. “Now, where we might disagree is should the government come in and fix woke? Well, the government is never useful at coming in and fixing a cultural issue.” (Previous ranking: 9)

8. Nikki Haley: Haley once said she wouldn’t run against Trump if he ran again. That’s apparently out the window, with his announcing his run, but CNN reports that she doesn’t feel great urgency to make a decision at this point. (Previous ranking: 7)

7. Mike Pompeo: Few have made their designs on running as obvious as the former Trump secretary of state. But just how much of an appetite the GOP base has for him is another matter. Keep an eye on what happens when he releases his new book Jan. 24 and what kind of reception he gets on his book tour. (Previous ranking: 8)

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo sits for an interview with Fox News after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

6. Sen. Ted Cruz: Cruz was effectively the runner-up in the last open GOP presidential primary, in 2016. Since then, he has sought to align himself with Trump and focus on the large conservative market for Twitter trolling. What would he even run on in 2024, though? We’re honestly not sure. And he will be seeking reelection in 2024. He had a tough 2018 race, but Democrats might struggle to make that happen again. (Previous ranking: 6)

5. Gov. Glenn Youngkin: The lessons of Chris Christie loom large here. Youngkin is just more than a year into his term as Virginia governor, yes, but politics is often about striking while the iron is hot. Christie didn’t when he could have in 2012 and when lots of people were pleading with him to do so; he wound up an also-ran in 2016, when he was far less popular. A key part of Youngkin’s agenda did just suffer a significant potential setback, in light of Democrats winning a special state Senate election that could help them kill his attempt at a 15-week abortion ban. (Previous ranking: 4)

4. Mike Pence: It’s exceedingly rare for a former vice president to run against the former president they served with. But it’s looking increasingly likely in 2024, with Pence doing all the things you’d expect a would-be candidate to do, like making trips to South Carolina and The Villages in Florida. And his stock is arguably rising, as the party flirts with the at least partial break with Trumpism that Pence so badly needs. (Previous ranking: 3)

3. Sen. Tim Scott: Again, whether you want to call it a second or third tier, this bracket of Republicans is very amorphous at this point. But we can certainly see an argument for the senator from South Carolina having a shot to catch on in a way others like Pompeo, Cruz and Pence might not, given his personal style and compelling biography. It’s certainly notable that Trump is effectively beginning his campaign in South Carolina, where both a senator and former governor could be among his would-be usurpers. (Previous ranking: 5)

Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) speaks during a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas in November. (David Becker for the Washington Post)

2. Donald Trump: It hasn’t gotten any better for Trump since the 2022 campaign left him at perhaps his weakest political point in years. He continues to trail DeSantis in most head-to-head polls. No, the race won’t really be one-on-one — at least not initially — but those surveys still mean something: They suggest Trump could at some point run into a ceiling of support. And just because, back in 2016, that ceiling wasn’t as low as we thought doesn’t mean it doesn’t pose problems in 2024. We continue to rank him behind DeSantis and feel increasingly confident of that. (Previous ranking: 2)

1. Gov. Ron DeSantis: You know you’re the — or at least a — front-runner when your would-be opponents start coming for you even before the campaign begins. But how effectively can those Republicans actually prosecute the case against him? Noem can argue he hasn’t been forceful enough on abortion, but he’s made great pains to appeal to hard-right social conservatives on things like the coronavirus, vaccines and gay and transgender issues. (As The Post’s Philip Bump notes, these issues conveniently put him to Trump’s right.) So he’s got credibility built in. Sununu and others like former Arizona governor Doug Ducey can argue for a more limited governmental role in the culture wars, but there’s a reason few are making that case; the fervor for those culture wars is obviously very strong. Despite Trump’s political decline, his ethos of fighting with any tool available — even if it’s the government — appears to live on.

Of course, now we need to wait and make sure DeSantis is actually going to run. His book drops in late February. (Previous ranking: 1)

Texas is the latest climate wake-up call & Please sign my petition – tell Congress to take bold action to fight the climate crisis 22&20FEB21

CALLS to action from the NRDC, Our Revolution, & Sen Bernie Sanders I VT to address the corporate greed and republican politics that allowed death and destruction to happen in Texas this last week and a petition to keep the pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to take bold action to address climate change so last week is not repeated....ted cruz backpfeifengesicht

DONATE

The winter storms that barreled through Texas and other states last week are another devastating wake-up call: The climate crisis is here, and we are not prepared. As snow fell and temperatures dropped below zero in Texas, more than 4 million people lost power, and nearly 15 million have lacked safe water. Families were burning whatever they could find to keep their children from freezing; heating rocks over fire pits to take inside for warmth; dying from carbon monoxide fumes after leaving cars running for heat; and risking contracting COVID-19 by gathering in makeshift shelters rather than freezing at home. Low-income communities, Black people, and Latinos in the state have suffered most, in yet another manifestation of the environmental injustice that inflicts the greatest harm on the most vulnerable people. Learn more about the devastating impacts communities are facing in Texas — and how you can help — on NRDC's Instagram. What's happening in Texas is part of a larger story about the mounting costs and widening dangers of climate change. Here's what you need to know: While it might seem counterintuitive, scientists see a strong link between the harsh winter temperatures and the warming of the planet. Higher temperatures are disrupting the jet stream, allowing arctic air to make its way farther and faster southward than normal, bringing icy temperatures that can make winter storms more devastating. Climate-busting fossil fuels were to blame for the vast majority of power outages in the state. About 80 percent of the power outages in Texas were caused by systems that rely on gas, coal, or uranium, which provide about three-fourths of the state's electricity. Read more. Texas gets about a quarter of its electricity from wind turbines. While some turbines froze last week, when properly equipped, wind turbines perform well in cold temperatures, as they do in Canada, Sweden, and for that matter, Iowa. The extreme cold and power outages froze and burst water pipes and shut down water treatment systems, leaving millions of people without safe drinking water. This latest tragic example reveals once again a disastrous lack of preparedness to deal with drinking water emergencies in the United States. The same thing has happened over and over in recent decades — in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio, and elsewhere — after hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters, with low-income communities and communities of color hardest hit. Read more. The outages also caused a tremendous spike in health-harming, climate-warming air pollution. With no power, oil refineries along the Gulf Coast burned gas to prevent damage from taking place in their processing units, sending thousands of tons of dangerous pollution into the atmosphere. In Houston last week, energy facilities burned off over 703,000 pounds of pollutants like carbon monoxide, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide. This disaster underscores the need for the U.S. to invest even more in clean and reliable renewable energy and to prepare our energy and water infrastructure for the effects of climate change. We know we need to cut our use of fossil fuels like oil, coal, and gas in half by 2030, and stop adding more carbon pollution to the atmosphere altogether by 2050, to avert the worst of raging wildfires, floods, storms, and, yes, frigid blasts of arctic air, going forward. To prevent massive power failures and resulting devastation to vulnerable communities in the future, we must also invest in a smarter, more resilient electric grid in Texas and across the country that can withstand the extreme weather fueled by climate change. In addition, states' repeated failure to ensure access to safe drinking water during emergencies proves that our water infrastructure is not equipped to withstand the impacts of climate change, and current emergency response plans are inadequate. We need a massive, systemic overhaul. President Biden has committed to combating climate change, improving America's infrastructure, growing our clean energy economy, and ensuring clean and safe drinking water for all. Last week's storms demonstrate yet again the urgency of that work. We need systems that are built to survive severe weather — including hurricanes, flooding, and winter storms — and that have the flexibility to deliver additional power when demand spikes due to heat waves and arctic blasts. We have the technology to do it — now we need to put it into action. Read more about the devastation in Texas, what it means for our climate future, and how you can help, in my blog post on NRDC.org. Thank you for fighting alongside us for a just transition to clean energy and a safer, healthier, and better future. Sincerely,   Mitch Bernard President, NRDC

The mission of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

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 Big energy companies have been flooding Texas politicians with big money for years to get their way, and this week we got the tragic results of their corruption of our government and power grid.

Vulnerable Texans don't have access to water, old folks risk freezing to death, and rolling blackouts have turned into 4-day power failures, causing havoc. This is because oil and gas companies spent a lot of money to make sure that Texas energy is deregulated and not on the national grid.

That means that we can't borrow power from other states, and it means that the power giants don't have to spend money on making sure our power system is protected from cold winter weather.

Craig, the bottom line is this: the Texas GOP has spent YEARS taking oil money and neglecting our energy grid. Blood is now on their hands, and what's very clear is that we can't let these very dangerous people control our state.

Onward,

Jim Hightower
National Board Member

My name is Kristi, and I’m an Our Revolution organizer in Texas and have been a part of the Bernie Sanders movement from the start. In this email, I’m going to talk about how my fellow Texans are suffering because of Republican greed. I’m also going to talk about how we can beat them through organizing. Decades ago, corporations paid off politicians to support the deregulation of the Texas energy market and limit federal oversight of our energy grid. This week, like so many fellow Texans, I lost sewer and water service for days, our water pipes burst. I know many apartment complexes have been literal disaster zones. The hell we are experiencing from this storm disaster is shared by millions of Texans. Senator Ted Cruz, who gets millions of dollars from energy companies that profit from the deregulation that directly led to my misery, decided to escape Texas last night and flee to a luxury vacation resort in Mexico. To them, the suffering of millions of Texans this week is a game. Human beings froze to death, and Ted Cruz thought it was a good time for a cocktail on the beach. More than anything else, this week has strengthened my resolve as an Our Revolution Texas organizer. We can’t let these greedy sociopaths run our lives any longer. That’s why Our Revolution launched our Power To The People Campaign last night on Facebook Live to denounce the privatization and plunder of public services. We are demanding that Ted Cruz and other Texas officials resign, and we are going to fight for a Green New Deal and public energy for all, not just the privileged few. Craig - In Texas today, following an unprecedented winter storm, millions of people are without drinking water due to power failures at water treatment facilities. Millions were without electricity as a result of major disruptions to Texas's power grid and people were unable to heat their homes while temperatures were below freezing. And many experienced serious damage to their homes from frozen and burst water pipes. Let me be very clear: When we talk about the existential threat of climate change, this is what we are talking about. And unless we have the courage to take on the greed and lies of the fossil fuel industry, and transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, we will continue to experience the catastrophic effects of the climate crisis. What the scientists are telling us very clearly is that if we, and countries around the world, do not act boldly within the next few years in transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we will be leaving our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. It is past time for the United States to treat climate change like what it is: an emergency that is an existential threat to humanity that requires an urgent, massive response. The good news is that Congress will soon be taking up a second reconciliation package that will, among other things, address the climate crisis by creating millions of jobs to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy. The goal of this second reconciliation bill is to deal with the structural changes our country desperately needs and create a government that works for all of our people, not just the 1%. The bad news is that we will be going up against the fossil fuel industry, which is one of the most powerful political forces in the country with an army of lobbyists, PACs, and bought-and-sold legislators. But it is a fight that is worth having if we care about saving our planet for generations to come. The only way that we can be successful in the fight against climate change is if the American people stand up to the fossil fuel industry and make their voices heard. So I’m asking you today: Please sign my petition — tell Congress to take bold action to address the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process. We must act now before it is too late. Let's be clear. Failure to act decisively on climate change will mean more drought, more famine, more rising sea levels, more floods, more ocean acidification, more extreme weather disturbances, more disease, more strain on electrical grids, more blackouts, and more human suffering. Climate change is about our survival of the human race. But some people — including my colleagues in the Senate — will say, "Well, Bernie, how can we afford to act on climate change?" The question we should really be asking is how can we afford to do nothing while climate change causes more destruction and human suffering? The scientists have said very clearly that if we do not act boldly within the next few years to transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, the planet we leave our kids and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. I wish I could say we could address our climate crisis with a few tweaks at the edges. But I cannot say that. Now more than ever, we need Congress to have the courage to act boldly to effectively address the existential threat of climate change. We can meet the challenges of this moment AND create millions of jobs in the process. These jobs will be good-paying jobs building the new electric cars and high-speed rail systems that we need, weatherizing millions of homes and buildings, rebuilding our nation's infrastructure, and generating sustainable energy. During this difficult time in American history, we must not turn to despair. Now is the time to fundamentally rethink our national priorities and imagine the kind of country that we want to become. That means ending the disgrace of the fossil fuel industry destroying the planet to make a profit. I cannot do it alone, which is why I am asking you to say you will join me in this effort: Add your name if you agree: Congress must act immediately to address the climate crisis, transition to energy efficiency and sustainable energy, and create millions of good-paying jobs. If we are going to save our planet for future generations, now is not the time to think small. Thank you for being a part of our fight to confront the climate crisis. In solidarity, Bernie Sanders ADD YOUR NAME