Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Inside the Growing Threat Facing America's Supreme Court

Transcript

Inside the Growing Threat Facing America's Supreme Court · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
0:06
Speaker 1: to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
0:08
Speaker 1: National Review.
0:10
Speaker 2: Free martinis coming up, So glad to have you with
0:14
Speaker 2: us for the Wednesday edition of the Three Martini Lunch.
0:17
Speaker 2: A whole lot to get to today, including one of
0:19
Speaker 2: our frequent guest hosts and one of our martinis. Possibly
0:23
Speaker 2: some progress in addressing the Mitch McConnell Tom Kine Junior
0:28
Speaker 2: type situations and these unexplained long term absences, but we'll
0:32
Speaker 2: see if that actually becomes law. But there is a
0:34
Speaker 2: bill now to do that. We'll get to that in
0:35
Speaker 2: our chaser, and we'll also talk about the mad Democratic
0:39
Speaker 2: scramble in Maine to get a Democrat in that Senate
0:42
Speaker 2: race now that Graham Platner is out. But we start
0:44
Speaker 2: with yesterday's events up on Capitol Hill. And you know,
0:47
Speaker 2: one of the things we've talked about, Jim a number
0:49
Speaker 2: of times, especially as it's related to specific threats to
0:52
Speaker 2: Justice Kavanaugh at the time of the Dobbs League Amy
0:55
Speaker 2: Coney Barrett in a couple different ways, but most recently
0:57
Speaker 2: the swatting incident, two different at least that I know
1:01
Speaker 2: of Supreme Court justice is actually testified on Capitol Hill yesterday,
1:04
Speaker 2: which doesn't happen a lot, just as Amy Cony Barrett,
1:06
Speaker 2: as well as Justice Elena Kagan. And here's what Barrett said,
1:11
Speaker 2: a couple different examples of what she and her family
1:13
Speaker 2: have been through as it relates to threats concerning different decisions.
1:17
Speaker 3: So I thought I would just share a little bit
1:18
Speaker 3: about how the threats have affected me and my family personally.
1:23
Speaker 3: They have required me to my children to think about
1:27
Speaker 3: and see things that children should not have to see
1:29
Speaker 3: or think about. One example is when threats to my
1:33
Speaker 3: life were particularly intense a few years ago, around the
1:36
Speaker 3: time of the dobs Leek, my security details sent me
1:39
Speaker 3: home with a bulletproof vest and I carried it into
1:41
Speaker 3: my house, put it into my bedroom, dropped it down
1:44
Speaker 3: on a table, turned around, and my twelve year old
1:46
Speaker 3: son was standing in the doorway of my bedroom and
1:49
Speaker 3: he wanted to know what it was and why I
1:51
Speaker 3: had it. And I didn't know how to respond because
1:54
Speaker 3: maybe I lack imagination, but I didn't expect that performing
1:58
Speaker 3: this service was going to put me in the position
2:00
Speaker 3: of explaining to my children what a bulletproof fest was
2:03
Speaker 3: and why I had to wear one. It's also been
2:06
Speaker 3: reported in the news that roughly six weeks ago, I
2:09
Speaker 3: was the victim of a swatting incident. At that point,
2:13
Speaker 3: my teenage son, one of my teenage sons, opened the
2:16
Speaker 3: door to go out with friends and saw in our
2:20
Speaker 3: street it was full of police cars who had responded
2:24
Speaker 3: to a false report of gunshots and raised voices in
2:28
Speaker 3: my home. I was very, very grateful that I had
2:31
Speaker 3: Supreme Court police outside my home because they were able
2:34
Speaker 3: to stop and meet with and explain to the county
2:37
Speaker 3: police that it had been a false alarm, and so
2:39
Speaker 3: the police did not actually attempt to.
2:42
Speaker 2: Enter our home, and so the threats come in from
2:44
Speaker 2: the crazy. She also says she's gotten packages with the
2:46
Speaker 2: name of that son of the judge in New Jersey.
2:49
Speaker 2: The son was murdered, but the person was trying to
2:51
Speaker 2: kill the judge of New Jersey a number of years ago.
2:53
Speaker 2: That's obviously pretty chilling. Susan Collins, Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
2:58
Speaker 2: That's foreshadowing the main center, so talk about in a
3:00
Speaker 2: little bit. But she was talking yesterday, how you know
3:03
Speaker 2: the crazy people are the ones that carry out the threats,
3:05
Speaker 2: but the rhetoric of people in power, including the Democratic
3:09
Speaker 2: leader of the US Senate Democrats, Chuck Schumer, who she
3:13
Speaker 2: didn't mention by name, but we all know about this
3:15
Speaker 2: quote here Susan Collins.
3:16
Speaker 4: For example, a senator stood in front of the Supreme
3:21
Speaker 4: Court building and called out two members by name, saying
3:26
Speaker 4: that they had released the world when and that they
3:30
Speaker 4: will pay the price. Other public officials have called the
3:35
Speaker 4: court corrupt, out of control.
3:39
Speaker 2: So Jim, some people will try to both sides this,
3:41
Speaker 2: and you know, sometimes it gets uncomfortable when a decision
3:44
Speaker 2: doesn't go Trump's way, and he'll say, you know, I
3:47
Speaker 2: wish I'd never nominated these people. This is terrible. There
3:51
Speaker 2: were certainly some comments and reaction to the birthright citizenship
3:54
Speaker 2: decision directed a justice spirit from the right that were
3:57
Speaker 2: not great, But in terms of the actual physical threats
4:00
Speaker 2: to people, I don't see this as being even you know,
4:04
Speaker 2: when I don't remember a liberal justice ever facing a
4:07
Speaker 2: threat like we've seen from Justice Barrett or we've seen
4:10
Speaker 2: from Justice Kavanaugh. The only one I can remember is
4:11
Speaker 2: when Justice Bryer got attacked when he was on vacation
4:14
Speaker 2: down in the Caribbean and I'm pretty sure that wasn't
4:16
Speaker 2: some far right person, and so good for Collins for
4:19
Speaker 2: calling out Schumer on that very veiled or not so
4:22
Speaker 2: veiled reference to Chuck Schumer, and good for Barrett and
4:25
Speaker 2: Kagan for coming forward to talk about it.
4:27
Speaker 5: I wish we did not have to spend as much
4:29
Speaker 5: as we did and put as much resources as we
4:32
Speaker 5: must into in protecting Supreme Court justices, but this is
4:35
Speaker 5: now an inevitable consequence of this relentless campaign of personal demonization,
4:42
Speaker 5: sometimes just from your garden variety activists, sometimes from ideologues,
4:45
Speaker 5: but also sometimes from folks like Chuck Schumer. To the
4:48
Speaker 5: best of my knowledge, Chuck Schumer has never really explained
4:50
Speaker 5: what he meant when he said you will reap the whirlwind,
4:53
Speaker 5: you will pay the price. Newsflash, Supreme Court justices serve
4:57
Speaker 5: until they want to retire or in some cases, until
5:00
Speaker 5: they die. So how will they reap the whirlwind? How
5:04
Speaker 5: will they be? They can't get fired, they're not gonna
5:06
Speaker 5: get impeached, They're they're not going to get they don't
5:08
Speaker 5: have to run for reelection. So, Chuck, when you say that,
5:13
Speaker 5: how did you envision them paying that price? Like we
5:15
Speaker 5: did not say someone will shoot you. But also this
5:18
Speaker 5: kind of that vague wording leaves that open when I
5:21
Speaker 5: say the relentless personal demonization. It was David Souter. It
5:25
Speaker 5: was one of those justices from when you and I
5:27
Speaker 5: were in our considerably younger days. But they said like
5:29
Speaker 5: he could walk down the street unrecognized, and that You know,
5:33
Speaker 5: a lot of Supreme Court justices, for their enormous power
5:35
Speaker 5: in our constitutional system, we're really not very well known.
5:40
Speaker 5: Maybe once in a while they give a law school
5:42
Speaker 5: commencement address or something like that, or do an interview
5:46
Speaker 5: or something, but really, by and large, they did not
5:48
Speaker 5: keep very high profile. These Now a lot of justices
5:52
Speaker 5: have written autobiographies, and that's that's their right, it's pre
5:55
Speaker 5: it's their they can do interviews. But this does mean
5:58
Speaker 5: that their faces are more out there, more recognizable. When
6:02
Speaker 5: you mentioned one of the other justices, I believe Ruth
6:03
Speaker 5: Bader Ginsburg got mugged once. Thankfully she was okay, but
6:06
Speaker 5: it was one of those things where she was not
6:08
Speaker 5: targeted for being a Supreme Court justice. She used to
6:10
Speaker 5: targeted by being a little old lady that the mugger
6:12
Speaker 5: thought would be pretty easy, uh, to make a victim
6:15
Speaker 5: up again, thankfully she was not physically harmed very badly.
6:18
Speaker 5: But that's a sign about like it is almost an
6:21
Speaker 5: inevitable consequence of the fact that Supreme Court justices are
6:24
Speaker 5: now more visible, and we have a proud tradition of
6:28
Speaker 5: a robust defense the First Amendment in this country, and
6:31
Speaker 5: we should keep that. However, I think there's a very
6:33
Speaker 5: big difference between showing up the Supreme Court where they
6:35
Speaker 5: work and saying, Supreme Court Justice, you stink your decisions
6:39
Speaker 5: are bad, I hate you, blah blah. That's the you
6:42
Speaker 5: have a First Amendment right to say all that stuff.
6:43
Speaker 5: I think it really changes at somebody's house, I really think,
6:46
Speaker 5: besides the fact that their house is private property. Yeah,
6:49
Speaker 5: obviously the sidewalk the street are But because there was
6:53
Speaker 5: a time where somebody had asked me, do you know
6:54
Speaker 5: where Supreme Court justices live, I'd have no idea. Somewhere
6:58
Speaker 5: in the suburbs of Washington, but without much clear on that.
7:01
Speaker 5: Apparently it's now very common knowledge. And one of the
7:03
Speaker 5: ways it's common knowledge about whether it's from Court justices
7:05
Speaker 5: live is not just the police presence outside their house,
7:08
Speaker 5: but the fact that you know, particularly for Kavanaugh, particularly
7:10
Speaker 5: for the conservative justices or strict constructionists or whatever the
7:14
Speaker 5: Trump appointed justices. Protesters are outside their home regularly, and
7:19
Speaker 5: I think this is a bad idea. And again I
7:21
Speaker 5: don't want to restrict the First Amendment. I don't want
7:23
Speaker 5: to say that you're not allowed to do this. It
7:24
Speaker 5: would be helpful if folks would say, you know, that's
7:27
Speaker 5: not appropriate. They're taking their kids to the school bus,
7:29
Speaker 5: they're just going to grocery shopping. They're allowed to have
7:32
Speaker 5: some time off the clock. They're allowed to have some
7:35
Speaker 5: time which they're ordered to be ordinary people when they're
7:38
Speaker 5: doing their jobs. You can protest them all you want.
7:40
Speaker 5: You know, you have every right in the world to
7:42
Speaker 5: do that.
7:43
Speaker 2: That used to be.
7:44
Speaker 5: There's no law that did it. This was an unwritten law,
7:47
Speaker 5: unwritten rule that that is apparently just eroded in this time.
7:50
Speaker 5: And I don't generally believe this is a attracting crazy people,
7:54
Speaker 5: and be this constant sense that well, Amy Cony, Barrett
7:58
Speaker 5: and these other they're destroying America, destroying the country, destroying everything.
8:01
Speaker 5: Like well, if you constantly talk about them as if
8:04
Speaker 5: they're the greatest menace that ever existed, sooner or later,
8:07
Speaker 5: some nutjob out there is going to say, ah, I'm
8:09
Speaker 5: going to be a hero. I'm going to be the
8:11
Speaker 5: one who's going to do something, And we've had people
8:12
Speaker 5: break into the justice houses and stuff like that, so
8:15
Speaker 5: really unfortunately we need this, I think it was. But
8:18
Speaker 5: also by the way, he was very wise to send
8:21
Speaker 5: Barrett and Kagan. I think that the fact that both
8:24
Speaker 5: of them were talking about their experiences kind of indicates
8:27
Speaker 5: the degree to which this is not just one side
8:30
Speaker 5: whining or something like that. Something really is broken in
8:32
Speaker 5: our political culture and it's time to stop. It's time
8:35
Speaker 5: to make our arguments within the context of the court,
8:40
Speaker 5: not in this full scale demonization that the idea of
8:42
Speaker 5: the world will be a better place when some of
8:43
Speaker 5: these people were dead. I can't stand a bunch of
8:46
Speaker 5: these justices, but I want them to live to be
8:48
Speaker 5: one hundred. If they were tired, I wouldn't mind, but
8:50
Speaker 5: that's their choice.
8:52
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and I think there's a difference there too.
8:53
Speaker 2: When justices disappoint us, particularly ones appointed by Republicans, you know, like, arn,
8:59
Speaker 2: we didn't do that one right, David Suitter being a
9:01
Speaker 2: perfect example of that. John Paul Stevens being another obviously
9:05
Speaker 2: years ago, and like, oh, we got to do better
9:07
Speaker 2: next time there's a Republican and there's a vacancy, whereas
9:09
Speaker 2: Democrats get a bunch of decisions now in later years
9:12
Speaker 2: that they don't like, and it's like, oh, the entire
9:14
Speaker 2: institution is corrupt, the pillars of democracy are crumbling, and
9:17
Speaker 2: if we don't change it radically, our entire system is collapsing.
9:21
Speaker 5: They want to impeach them, or add a whole bunch
9:24
Speaker 5: more to nullify their votes, to water down their votes.
9:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's some arguments from the right that maybe
9:29
Speaker 2: it's these threats, or maybe it's you know, political pressure
9:32
Speaker 2: or whatever that people like Barrett then vote the way
9:35
Speaker 2: they did on birthright citizenship. I don't think that's the case,
9:38
Speaker 2: because she did vote in favor of the majority when
9:41
Speaker 2: it came to TPS and the Haitians in Ohio and
9:44
Speaker 2: other things like that. So I don't think you can
9:46
Speaker 2: make that stretch just because you don't like the decision.
9:49
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, if only there was some way
9:50
Speaker 5: the justices could lay out in writing why they decided
9:54
Speaker 5: the way they did, and what their reasoning was, and
9:57
Speaker 5: what arguments they found compelling in which ones If a
10:00
Speaker 5: I just I wish they would write these things. Oh wait,
10:02
Speaker 5: they do every single time, so yes.
10:04
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's justice doesn't necessarily right on every case.
10:08
Speaker 2: But if they don't write a concurrence opinion, then they
10:11
Speaker 2: pretty much agree with the majority or minority opinion, so
10:15
Speaker 2: you still know what they think. All right. Well, more
10:18
Speaker 2: on Maine in just a second, and who Susan Collins
10:21
Speaker 2: might be facing in November, because we still don't know.
10:24
Speaker 2: But let's talk about your business. The business at the
10:27
Speaker 2: Supreme Court has obviously gotten very tense lately, but when
10:30
Speaker 2: it comes to your efforts to attract and keep customers,
10:34
Speaker 2: being in constant communication with them replying quickly, just having
10:37
Speaker 2: a great relationship depends on having a great communication system.
10:40
Speaker 2: And that's why today's episode is brought to you by
10:42
Speaker 2: QUO spelled QUO, the business phone system built so you
10:46
Speaker 2: never miss a call.
10:47
Speaker 5: It always hurts to lose a customer, but it really
10:50
Speaker 5: stings when you lose a customer because nobody called them back.
10:53
Speaker 5: That is when you're like, you know, it's leaving money
10:55
Speaker 5: on the table. With QUO, all of your calls, texts,
10:59
Speaker 5: and voicemails in one place, so anyone on your team
11:02
Speaker 5: can pick up a conversation. See the full history and
11:05
Speaker 5: respond fast. Quote is the number one rated business phone
11:08
Speaker 5: system on G two. It's trusted by more than ninety
11:11
Speaker 5: thousand businesses who rely on it to stay reachable and
11:14
Speaker 5: look professional every single day.
11:16
Speaker 2: Money is on the line, and always say hello with Quote.
11:19
Speaker 2: Try Quote for free plus get twenty percent off your
11:22
Speaker 2: first six months when you go to quote dot com
11:25
Speaker 2: slash three mL. That's quo dot com slash three mL. Quote.
11:30
Speaker 2: No missed calls, no missed customers. All right, Jim, we
11:38
Speaker 2: know about the orderly process that will happen in South
11:41
Speaker 2: Carolina to select a new Republican nominee for US Senate
11:44
Speaker 2: since the tragic death of Lindsay Graham on Saturday. But
11:48
Speaker 2: in Maine, of course, the Democratic Party nominated Graham Blattner
11:51
Speaker 2: for US Senate back on June ninth, despite the mountain
11:55
Speaker 2: of allegations and scandals surrounding him, and then of course
11:59
Speaker 2: the political story came out the party forced them to
12:02
Speaker 2: leave the race, and now they've got to find someone new,
12:04
Speaker 2: and they've got to do it in pretty short order.
12:06
Speaker 2: CNN explaining this process. Now, unlike South Carolina, this isn't
12:10
Speaker 2: part of the law. I think the Democratic Party is
12:11
Speaker 2: just making this up as they go along. County party
12:14
Speaker 2: chairs inundated with calls, an endless stream of Google sign
12:17
Speaker 2: up forms and spreadsheets, and a disgraced former nominee looming
12:20
Speaker 2: over it, all haunting the party's hopes of starting anew
12:24
Speaker 2: the snap Democratic election to replace Graham Platner and face
12:26
Speaker 2: Republican Senator Susan Collins, this falls off to a hectic
12:29
Speaker 2: and dramatic start. The implosion of Plattner's campaign left Maine
12:33
Speaker 2: Democrats scrambling to create a highly unorthodox process that reflects
12:37
Speaker 2: the high stakes for the battle to win control of
12:39
Speaker 2: the Senate. So on July twenty fifth, just fifteen days
12:43
Speaker 2: after Platner formally dropped out six hundred and one delegates,
12:46
Speaker 2: we'll meet in Bangor, Maine to vote on a new nominee.
12:49
Speaker 2: Most of the delegates, about five hundred of them, will
12:51
Speaker 2: be picked this weekend at county meetings across Maine. The
12:54
Speaker 2: other one hundred one delegates will automatically come from Maine's
12:57
Speaker 2: Democratic State Committee, and they are all ready being heavily courted.
13:01
Speaker 2: I think those are the super delegates, Jim, if they're
13:03
Speaker 2: already in place, but at least eight candidates are rushing
13:06
Speaker 2: to collect enough signatures to qualify for the convention and
13:08
Speaker 2: assemble slates of delegates to vote for them. And so
13:13
Speaker 2: one of the candidates, Jordan Wood, says, we're in a
13:15
Speaker 2: perilous situation. There's no perfect way to deal with an
13:18
Speaker 2: unprecedented situation like this, and Jim, no matter what happens here,
13:22
Speaker 2: I think it's basically the party apparatus is going to
13:26
Speaker 2: choose this nominee. I mean, Plattner was crowing about how
13:29
Speaker 2: he got a record number of primary votes. I think
13:31
Speaker 2: it was over one hundred and fifty thousand. Now six
13:33
Speaker 2: hundred people they're going to decide this, and I think
13:35
Speaker 2: those one hundred and one state committee people they're going
13:38
Speaker 2: to have a lot to say about it. Greg.
13:40
Speaker 5: I don't want to speak in your behalf, but if
13:42
Speaker 5: I were to encounter a typical main Democratic primary voter,
13:47
Speaker 5: I would want to take a rolled up newspaper and
13:49
Speaker 5: whack them gently. See bad, bad voter, bad voter, Do
13:53
Speaker 5: stop voting for nazis bad call, very very bad call.
13:56
Speaker 2: Yes, But after saying.
13:58
Speaker 5: That, I would feel a mall Q or two of
14:00
Speaker 5: sympathy for them, because this is you know, they have
14:02
Speaker 5: found themselves and perhaps a somewhat predictable circumstance, but still
14:06
Speaker 5: one that is understandably frustrating. There are three factors that
14:09
Speaker 5: I think are really going into this. One is about
14:12
Speaker 5: two years ago the switch from Joe Biden to Kamala
14:15
Speaker 5: Harris after Biden had won the primary in which nobody
14:18
Speaker 5: had run except for Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips, and I
14:24
Speaker 5: remember correctly, Yeah, Florida Democrats canceled the primary. They just
14:28
Speaker 5: didn't have one. They said that he didn't file his
14:29
Speaker 5: papers in time. He disputed it. But the idea is
14:31
Speaker 5: like Biden's our nominee. We're not going to have any
14:34
Speaker 5: discussion about this. And there was this talk about, oh,
14:38
Speaker 5: could they do, could somebody challenge her at the convention
14:41
Speaker 5: or something, and it ended up being really no, it
14:43
Speaker 5: was just a coronation. It was a handing of the
14:45
Speaker 5: nomination from one person to the next. Second one was like, look,
14:49
Speaker 5: there were plenty of warnings about platinum. That's one of
14:51
Speaker 5: the reasons I'm whapping people with the newspaper. By the way,
14:54
Speaker 5: for those you're advocating violence, no, I'm wrapping them with
14:57
Speaker 5: the newspaper. It's not going to hurt them too much.
14:59
Speaker 5: But just this recognition like this was not unforeseeable. Sometimes
15:04
Speaker 5: I'll talk in a moment Lindsay grahmassing away. Nobody expected
15:06
Speaker 5: to happen, right, Sometimes a candidate is no longer available
15:10
Speaker 5: for a genuinely shocking reason that no one could have foreseen.
15:13
Speaker 5: In this case, there were not merely red flags. There
15:16
Speaker 5: were red flags with a white circle and a little
15:19
Speaker 5: squiggle in the middle, now like a swastika, like there
15:22
Speaker 5: were all kinds of signs that Platner was going to
15:24
Speaker 5: become untenable and low and behold he did so, then
15:27
Speaker 5: you'll but the third thing is again this contrast with
15:30
Speaker 5: South Carolina, where Lindsey Graham has passed away and the
15:34
Speaker 5: state of South Carolina has laws into place to say, okay,
15:36
Speaker 5: if it's this close to the primary, you appoint somebody
15:39
Speaker 5: for the remainder of the term. And they just did
15:41
Speaker 5: with Lindsey Graham's sister. There you have a very quick
15:44
Speaker 5: and abbreviated primary, you have a very quick and abbreviated
15:47
Speaker 5: runoff if you need one, and then you've got your
15:49
Speaker 5: candidates in November. And I think if you're a main
15:52
Speaker 5: Democratic primary voter, You're like, wait a second, why do
15:55
Speaker 5: South Carolinian Republicans get to pick their candidate to replacement
16:00
Speaker 5: our guy for very different reasons and we now don't
16:03
Speaker 5: get a say in this. The other last thought is that, like,
16:06
Speaker 5: look for a way back, when I went back and
16:08
Speaker 5: I checked at the beginning of the cycle, my bosses
16:11
Speaker 5: at the Washington Post said, could you pick a race
16:13
Speaker 5: that you think a candidate to watch in the twenty
16:16
Speaker 5: twenty six cycle. I picked Susan Collins because I knew
16:19
Speaker 5: that this was going to be one where every six
16:22
Speaker 5: years Democrats are convinced they're knocking her off. She always
16:24
Speaker 5: not only does she win, she tends to win by
16:26
Speaker 5: a wide margin. I figured we would have something like this.
16:29
Speaker 5: First of all, Greg, do you think I picked a
16:31
Speaker 5: dramatic race?
16:32
Speaker 2: Yes? To follow up, yes, all right, But.
16:35
Speaker 5: The second thing is that I don't want to tell listeners, Ah,
16:37
Speaker 5: Susan Collins has got this wrapped up. It's mid July.
16:41
Speaker 5: Lock can happen between now and November, and literally we
16:43
Speaker 5: don't know who the Democratic nominee is. Not only not,
16:45
Speaker 5: I don't think they're like we have a sense of
16:46
Speaker 5: who the front runner is because like again we're having
16:49
Speaker 5: this weird process in which it's selected. You know, it's
16:52
Speaker 5: always hard to knock off an incumbent. It's hard to
16:55
Speaker 5: knock off a long time incumbent. It's hard to knock
16:57
Speaker 5: off in a long time incumbent who's the current chair
17:00
Speaker 5: of the Appropriations Committee, who can bring back as much
17:03
Speaker 5: pork to the state as you want. So like Susan
17:05
Speaker 5: Collins was going to be tough in any kind of circumstance.
17:08
Speaker 5: I am sure whoever the Democrats end up nominating. Yeah,
17:11
Speaker 5: we'll get an initial influx of a ton of money,
17:13
Speaker 5: but that's like it's mid July, and whoever it is
17:17
Speaker 5: not going to get started till the end of July.
17:18
Speaker 5: That's a lot of ground to make up, now, yes,
17:21
Speaker 5: is it? You know, the political environment is not great
17:23
Speaker 5: for Republicans and all that stuff. But I think if
17:26
Speaker 5: you're a Democrat, you're like, you're really mad that you
17:29
Speaker 5: probably botched your chance to beat Susan Collins. And with
17:32
Speaker 5: that the odds of controlling the Senate in January are
17:35
Speaker 5: dramatically lower.
17:36
Speaker 2: Well, we'll see who they nominate. Troy Jackson, this guy
17:39
Speaker 2: who had been joined at the hip as a goobernatorial
17:41
Speaker 2: candidate with Graham Plattner now trying to pick up all
17:44
Speaker 2: those voters, but again only six hundred of them are
17:46
Speaker 2: showing up at this thing. The main law basically only
17:50
Speaker 2: allowed for okay, on July thirteenth. This candidate is locked
17:54
Speaker 2: in on the ballot. So between the primary and that
17:56
Speaker 2: day is your only chance to get rid of them,
17:58
Speaker 2: which they did, and then you have to have a
18:00
Speaker 2: new candidate by July twenty seventh. All of the rest
18:02
Speaker 2: of this is is just made up. So this process
18:06
Speaker 2: was created out of whole cloth. We'll see what happens.
18:09
Speaker 2: You know, there's going to be a debate and obviously
18:11
Speaker 2: some wrangling at the convention, but we'll again six hundred
18:15
Speaker 2: people deciding all this and I'm sure it'll get pretty
18:17
Speaker 2: ugly between now and July twenty fifth, I guess is
18:19
Speaker 2: when they're going to sort all this out. So good time.
18:23
Speaker 5: Whether they like it or not, Main Democrats have to
18:25
Speaker 5: be patient. You can't replace a guy like Graham platin
18:28
Speaker 5: or overnight. You have to do it one goose step
18:29
Speaker 5: at a time.
18:32
Speaker 2: Very good, very good. All right, Well, if you're on
18:36
Speaker 2: the campaign trail again in Maine or maybe South Carolina.
18:39
Speaker 2: Making sure that you get all the nutrients you need
18:41
Speaker 2: could be a little bit challenging. Finding healthy meals while
18:44
Speaker 2: you're going from stop to stop has never been very easy,
18:47
Speaker 2: and so AG one is the perfect solution to all
18:50
Speaker 2: of this. You can get all the nutrients you need
18:53
Speaker 2: by just taking a scoop of AG one, put it
18:55
Speaker 2: in the glass with water, put ice in there, put
18:58
Speaker 2: other things if you want to flavor. Its fine by itself,
19:01
Speaker 2: and then you'll know you already have everything you need
19:03
Speaker 2: nutrient wise by that day.
19:05
Speaker 5: Don't let anybody fool you. You can't get everything you
19:07
Speaker 5: need from oysters or from an oystermin Oh sorry, and oystermen.
19:11
Speaker 5: Since the only was doing this part time and his
19:13
Speaker 5: only client was his mom. But that's okay, that's fine. Look,
19:16
Speaker 5: now you want to take care of your health. AG
19:18
Speaker 5: one is a daily health drink with multi vitamin pre
19:21
Speaker 5: and probiotics, superfoods, and antioxidants all in one scoop. Just
19:25
Speaker 5: eight ounces of water and you're gonna get seventy five
19:28
Speaker 5: ingredients clinically shown to support gut hell, fill in common
19:32
Speaker 5: nutrient gaps, and improve your key nutrient levels within three months.
19:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, so even if you're not on the campaign trail.
19:37
Speaker 2: It's just a great way to make sure that you're
19:39
Speaker 2: getting everything you need every single day. So head to
19:42
Speaker 2: drinkag one dot com slash three mL and get a
19:44
Speaker 2: free AG one travel case along with seven free AG
19:48
Speaker 2: one travel packs and you're welcome kit when you sign
19:50
Speaker 2: up for your first ag one subscription offer valid while
19:53
Speaker 2: supplies last. That's drinkag one dot com slash three mL.
20:03
Speaker 2: All right, Jim, on to our third martini. Now this
20:05
Speaker 2: is actually a good martini. Frequent guest host when Jim
20:08
Speaker 2: is out is an as stepment of the Independent Women's
20:10
Speaker 2: Forum and yesterday and has found herself testifying on Capitol Hill,
20:14
Speaker 2: and one of the issues that she talks about a
20:17
Speaker 2: lot when she's here, but also in her work with
20:19
Speaker 2: the Independent Women's Forum is discrimination and specifically DEI. Of course,
20:25
Speaker 2: we've had discrimination problems in a number of different directions
20:27
Speaker 2: over the history of our country. But the left right now,
20:30
Speaker 2: of course, thinks that it needs to either right the
20:33
Speaker 2: wrongs of the past or you know, there's an oppressive
20:36
Speaker 2: sense still among some demographics in this country, and so
20:40
Speaker 2: they need to continue to advance other people a little
20:42
Speaker 2: bit artificially, and that's where you know diversity, equity and
20:46
Speaker 2: inclusion policies come in. But and as yesterday on Capitol Hill,
20:49
Speaker 2: making it very clear, anytime you're discriminating against any race,
20:53
Speaker 2: you're wrong.
20:54
Speaker 1: In no era in my lifetime have more strides been
20:58
Speaker 1: made towards the American ideal being judged by merit rather
21:01
Speaker 1: than immutable characteristics. It's a simple ideal, but rare and
21:05
Speaker 1: one no less worth fighting for now that discrimination is
21:08
Speaker 1: against whites and being laundered under the gauzy terms of diversity,
21:11
Speaker 1: equity and inclusion than it was during the first wave
21:14
Speaker 1: of the civil rights movement, when racial discrimination was implemented
21:18
Speaker 1: against blacks. As Chief Justice Roberts memorily put it back
21:21
Speaker 1: in two thousand and seven, the way to stop discrimination
21:23
Speaker 1: on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on
21:26
Speaker 1: the basis of race. There is no diversity exception to this,
21:30
Speaker 1: just colorblind principle of our law. No matter our race,
21:33
Speaker 1: Americans should expect to be judged fairly and on the merits,
21:36
Speaker 1: not on the basis of skin color, religion, or sex.
21:40
Speaker 1: We can either have civil rights and just treatment for
21:42
Speaker 1: every American, or we can have a legalized racial hierarchy
21:45
Speaker 1: system and balkanize resentful politics that puts us at each
21:48
Speaker 1: other's throats.
21:49
Speaker 2: Well amen to that and Jim. Of course, the identity
21:52
Speaker 2: politics has been a huge part of the left for
21:54
Speaker 2: a long time now. Some of them are trying to
21:56
Speaker 2: walk it back, others are still trying to ride it forward.
21:58
Speaker 2: And if they get back into power, I think it's
22:00
Speaker 2: probably going to look a lot like the Biden administration
22:03
Speaker 2: over those awful four years on that issue and many others.
22:06
Speaker 2: But it's good to have clarity on this issue. And
22:08
Speaker 2: I think in as Brody yesterday, yeah, I.
22:10
Speaker 5: Was going to say, look, advocates for affirmative action almost
22:13
Speaker 5: always want to have the debate through euphisms and buzzwords
22:17
Speaker 5: and slogans, and almost never want to have it through
22:20
Speaker 5: specifics and data, And what are the different standards if
22:24
Speaker 5: you're trying to do this in the name of diversity. Look, everyone,
22:27
Speaker 5: whether it's a university, whether it's a business or anything
22:30
Speaker 5: you want. Everyone wants to have a place where everyone
22:32
Speaker 5: feels welcome, where everyone feels like everyone has a fair
22:36
Speaker 5: shot at getting into getting a chance to participate. That's fine.
22:40
Speaker 5: The problem is when you lower the standards for one group,
22:43
Speaker 5: and you raise the standards for another group. And this
22:44
Speaker 5: has happened at university after university. If the SAT scores
22:48
Speaker 5: for Whites, Asians, Latinos, blacks, and every other demographic you
22:52
Speaker 5: want to put in there, if they're all around the same,
22:55
Speaker 5: no one would have any objection. If the GPA is
22:57
Speaker 5: required to get into these things, we're about the same.
23:00
Speaker 5: Nobody would have any problem with this. The problem is
23:02
Speaker 5: every time you look under the hood of an affirmative
23:04
Speaker 5: action program. First of all, let's point out it's not
23:07
Speaker 5: the whites get screwed the most. It's Asian Americans who
23:09
Speaker 5: are generally off the charts in terms of their GPAs,
23:12
Speaker 5: SAT scores, all the stuff that they're bringing there. But
23:15
Speaker 5: the problem is there's just too many of them, and
23:16
Speaker 5: we can't have that many. We can't know, so we
23:18
Speaker 5: need to have fewer of them. And they actually kind
23:21
Speaker 5: of get punished by being Asian white. So it's a
23:23
Speaker 5: certain level. Then you look at the SAT scores and
23:26
Speaker 5: GPAs for Hispanics and Latinos. Now, look, everybody wants to
23:31
Speaker 5: see Hispanics and Latinos and African Americans.
23:34
Speaker 2: Succeed, right.
23:35
Speaker 5: However, putting them into universities where they're probably not up
23:39
Speaker 5: to the caliber, or they're going to have a hard
23:41
Speaker 5: time with the workload, or they're gonna have a heart
23:43
Speaker 5: like you're actually not helping them. You're actually making them
23:45
Speaker 5: more likely they're going to drop out. And if they
23:47
Speaker 5: were a little bit less, okay, fine, I think all
23:49
Speaker 5: people could live with it. But when they are dramatically less,
23:52
Speaker 5: and that has been the case every time they looked
23:54
Speaker 5: under the hood, every time the universe, like university started realizing,
23:57
Speaker 5: oh wow, this really looks bad. So they came up
23:59
Speaker 5: with a very effective solution. Greg they stop revealing the numbers. Yeah,
24:03
Speaker 5: I feel the problem went away. It's their Unsurprisingly, the
24:07
Speaker 5: number of people who managed to complete their four year
24:09
Speaker 5: degrees undergraduate, the number of people who managed to complete
24:11
Speaker 5: law school, medical school, all that kind of stuff, drop
24:13
Speaker 5: out rates for minority students, particularly Latinos and blacks or
24:16
Speaker 5: significantly higher. That's really unfortunate. I don't think anyone is
24:20
Speaker 5: helped by that. But I don't think it helps them.
24:22
Speaker 5: I don't think it helps society. You obviously wanted these
24:24
Speaker 5: people to become doctors, lawyers and college graduates and all
24:27
Speaker 5: that kind of stuff. You are not helping them by
24:30
Speaker 5: holding them to a lower standard. You want to give
24:32
Speaker 5: them a leg up earlier in life, We want to
24:34
Speaker 5: give them extra resources you.
24:34
Speaker 2: Want to get.
24:35
Speaker 5: Fine, fine, But when you do this, when you say
24:37
Speaker 5: we have this standard for this group of people based
24:39
Speaker 5: on the color of their skin, and we have this
24:40
Speaker 5: lower standard for this group of people, first of all,
24:43
Speaker 5: it probably you know, look, people can see as pallid
24:46
Speaker 5: as I am. I've not had a chance to walk
24:48
Speaker 5: a mile on those moccasins, but I suspect that being
24:51
Speaker 5: thought of as a token, being thought of as someone
24:53
Speaker 5: who isn't really as good as everyone else and was
24:56
Speaker 5: just let in the door in order to make the
24:58
Speaker 5: place look more diverse, that must be really insulting. That
25:01
Speaker 5: must must really eat at you, and you must always
25:04
Speaker 5: that that's terrible. So what if we got rid of
25:06
Speaker 5: that and we just basically let everybody in based on
25:08
Speaker 5: their merits? Now, would you have potentially less diversity? Yeah,
25:12
Speaker 5: that would stick. But the solution and they've had this
25:14
Speaker 5: argument about the schools up in New York City where
25:16
Speaker 5: they have various gifted programs, and the most advanced was
25:20
Speaker 5: that you know, they exceptionally small minority unfortunately are African
25:23
Speaker 5: American students. And some people are clearly we need to
25:26
Speaker 5: change the standards, and other people say, whoa whoho, why
25:28
Speaker 5: aren't we getting African American kids to ace the test?
25:31
Speaker 5: We know they're capable of this. Why are we not
25:34
Speaker 5: holding them to that higher standard? Why are we not
25:36
Speaker 5: teaching them? Why are we not getting up to the level.
25:38
Speaker 5: That's how you actually improve things. You don't improve things
25:41
Speaker 5: by lowering the standards. You don't help people by lowering
25:44
Speaker 5: the bar. And we've been talking about this as we're
25:46
Speaker 5: blue in the face for several generations now, so good
25:48
Speaker 5: for Anez. And again, you know, everybody likes to talk
25:51
Speaker 5: about this in this airy, touchy feely language. Nobody actually
25:56
Speaker 5: wants to look under the hood and look at the
25:57
Speaker 5: actual numbers, the SAT scores and stuff like that. So
26:00
Speaker 5: good for you in as good luck, But I don't
26:02
Speaker 5: expect things will change anytime soon.
26:04
Speaker 2: No, because the last argument for the reason that they're
26:06
Speaker 2: not necessarily receiving the same scores as other demographics is
26:09
Speaker 2: that they're oppressed somehow, and that you know, the majority
26:12
Speaker 2: is the oppressor and all that sort of thing. And
26:14
Speaker 2: so you know, the Trump administrations had a bunch of
26:16
Speaker 2: these executive orders supposedly trying to end DEI, and then
26:19
Speaker 2: these institutions say, oh, yeah, they're all done. No, we're
26:22
Speaker 2: not doing that anymore. They're still doing it, they're just
26:24
Speaker 2: renamed it. And so then you got to you gotta
26:26
Speaker 2: address it in another way. But on and on it goes.
26:29
Speaker 2: All right, Well, we've talked a lot about lawmakers not
26:31
Speaker 2: only not being at work in Congress, but not even
26:34
Speaker 2: explaining why they're not being in Congress. Well that changed soon. Well,
26:38
Speaker 2: one lawmaker wants to we'll talk about in a second,
26:45
Speaker 2: all right. Jim tom Kine Junior of New Jersey missed
26:48
Speaker 2: a lot of work months, finally came back and after
26:52
Speaker 2: not saying anything about why, said he was dealing with depression.
26:55
Speaker 2: Mitch McConnell had some sort of medical emergency on June fourteenth.
26:59
Speaker 2: We have one photo from this past weekend that suggests
27:02
Speaker 2: he's at least alive, and we've also had the stories
27:05
Speaker 2: of his phone conversations, but no video and anything like that.
27:09
Speaker 2: And so there's still a lot of people out there,
27:10
Speaker 2: particularly on the left, to want a special election in
27:13
Speaker 2: Kentucky because they are still convinced Mitch McConnell's dead. But anyway,
27:17
Speaker 2: when it comes to being transparent with the public about
27:20
Speaker 2: what's going on with the lawmaker's health, New York Democrat
27:23
Speaker 2: Richie Torres is preparing what he calls the Duty of
27:26
Speaker 2: Transparency Act, which would require any lawmaker missing votes for
27:29
Speaker 2: three weeks to file a disclosure statement with the House
27:32
Speaker 2: or Senate Ethics Committee. Axios first had this story. Under
27:36
Speaker 2: the draft, members would not have to reveal a diagnosis
27:39
Speaker 2: or medical records, but they would have to say whether
27:41
Speaker 2: they can perform official duties remotely, estimate the length of
27:44
Speaker 2: the absence, and name a point of contact in their office.
27:48
Speaker 2: The disclosures would be posted publicly online within forty eight hours.
27:51
Speaker 2: In offices unable to project a return date could say
27:54
Speaker 2: so and provide updates every thirty days. Members who failed
27:57
Speaker 2: to file would be referred to the appropriate ethics Jim,
28:01
Speaker 2: I find this pretty tolerant, actually giving thirty day increments
28:04
Speaker 2: to update people. But apparently even that would be an
28:08
Speaker 2: upgrade from where we are right now. So what do
28:09
Speaker 2: you think of this? Is this going to get this?
28:11
Speaker 5: This all strikes me as entirely reasonable. This isn't saying
28:14
Speaker 5: like God forbid a lawmaker has a stroke. It doesn't
28:17
Speaker 5: say you can't you immediately have to resign. It doesn't
28:20
Speaker 5: say that you need to get into nitty gritty personal
28:24
Speaker 5: medical detail. But always say is like, what are you
28:26
Speaker 5: dealing with? And you know, sometimes there are problems that
28:29
Speaker 5: are broad in society based. Look, this comes after the
28:34
Speaker 5: Biden presidency, which we discussed a little bit earlier. This
28:36
Speaker 5: comes after Tom Keen and it was like, what three months,
28:39
Speaker 5: four months? It was a long time. This was not
28:41
Speaker 5: you know, your typical Oh I had a bad flu
28:44
Speaker 5: or something like that. And this comes after McConnell, and
28:46
Speaker 5: I think that you know, guys, this is on you.
28:50
Speaker 5: This is because of your particular decisions. And you know,
28:54
Speaker 5: most jobs you need to tell your boss while you're
28:56
Speaker 5: not at work. And your boss may you may have
28:59
Speaker 5: the sick days, may not have the sick days, you
29:01
Speaker 5: may have to take personal time, you may have to
29:02
Speaker 5: leave of absite like, but you have to inform them. The
29:05
Speaker 5: idea that you're just not gonna tell people why you're
29:07
Speaker 5: not at work is absolutely ridiculous and so good luck
29:11
Speaker 5: with this. I think this, you know, there's good chances
29:12
Speaker 5: will become law, and again the public can be very
29:15
Speaker 5: sympathetic to Like, hell, all of us have health problems
29:18
Speaker 5: at one point or other. That clock is ticking on
29:20
Speaker 5: all of us. But I think it's entirely reasonable. If
29:23
Speaker 5: you're getting paid by the taxpayers, you got to tell
29:25
Speaker 5: people why you're not at work and give at least
29:27
Speaker 5: some estimate of when you think you're gonna be able
29:29
Speaker 5: to back to your your regular duties.
29:32
Speaker 2: Well, we'll see what kind of support this gets. He's
29:34
Speaker 2: just rolled it out, but given what's just happened, I
29:37
Speaker 2: think there's probably gonna be a decent amount of support
29:39
Speaker 2: for it. Maybe with some tweaks. We'll see. Jim, have
29:41
Speaker 2: a great day. See tomorrow, See tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty,
29:44
Speaker 2: National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so
29:46
Speaker 2: much for being with us today. Please be sure to
29:49
Speaker 2: subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch. If you don't already,
29:51
Speaker 2: tell your friends about us as well, we'd love to
29:52
Speaker 2: have them listening. Thanks also for your five star ratings
29:55
Speaker 2: and your kind reviews. Please keep those reviews coming. They
29:57
Speaker 2: really do help us out a lot. Get us on
29:59
Speaker 2: your home device is all you have to say is
30:01
Speaker 2: play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both on x
30:04
Speaker 2: He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at Greg Corumbas and follow
30:06
Speaker 2: Three Martini Lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have a terrific Wednesday.
30:10
Speaker 2: Join us again Thursday for the next three Martini Lunch