Hi friends,
I’ve been bad at sending posts—no new ones since September, yikes--but am going to try to be better. Like any New Years resolution, who can say how long my determination will last.
I wanted to update you all on a few stories I’ve written in case you missed them and give you all some extra details that didn’t make it into print.
First up: inside Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell’s 36-year relationship that began in 1985. Mitch was sworn in for his first term in the Senate and Joe was sworn in for his third. There’s a lot of history there and I felt like no one had done a deep dive into it. McConnell was typically quiet. As he wrote on the first page of his memoir: “I only talk to the press if it’s to my advantage.”
Well, he apparently didn’t see advantage in talking to me—*sad face*—but I got plenty of people close to him to chat. You can read the full piece here.
Some stuff that didn’t make it into the final piece but that you may find interesting:
Mitch McConnell’s first wife is a proud liberal who recently oversaw a library collection at the liberal arts, women-only Smith College. When Elizabeth Warren was elected to the Senate in 2012, she wrote on Facebook that “she’ll be a rock star in that benighted body.”
Biden doesn’t seem sure if he thinks of McConnell as a friend. In February 2018, he told CNN “I'm a friend of Mitch McConnell's.’ In May 2019, he said: “Mitch McConnell and I have worked — we’re not friends, but we worked out every deal, remember?”
Biden has talked about recreating the spirit of bipartisan legislating that existed when he and McConnell were younger Senators. But McConnell has actually tried to recreate the Senate of his and Biden’s past before. In 2015 when he became majority leader, he made a big deal about opening up the committees, amendments process, etc. But those efforts essentially collapsed. Here’s a good NYT look at that and some stories from the time about McConnell’s “regular order" vow.
Also, if you want to understand McConnell and the judiciary, I learned a lot from watching his 1987 Senate floor speech about the defeat of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
Plus, this Biden 1984 campaign ad shows just how much he has changed along with his party. It has Biden promising a budget freeze and a constitutional amendment limiting spending. Had he succeeded in the latter effort, his new $1.9 trillion Covid relief proposal would be a non-starter.
For some lighter fare, the new King Kong vs. Godzilla trailer just dropped.
Also, as some of you may know I have been helming Politico’s Transition Playbook on the Trump-Biden transfer of power. Subscribe here!
To my genuine surprise, people like the newsletter which has been gratifying. This week was actually our best ever with subscribers and open rates. ICYMI:
What about Greg? (Greg is Biden’s first campaign manager, who is the highest ranking Biden campaign official to not get a White House job).
How Biden ruined our Cabinet predictions (we tried to be honest and open about our misses on the cabinet selections).
I published this profile of Rep. Liz Cheney just before the election. Given her vote to impeach Trump and now the potential that she’ll be pushed out of House leadership, I wanted to re-up it.
Some parts will read dated—at the time, Republicans were expected to lose House seats, not gain them (damn you, Nate Silver)—but I still think it does a decent job of using Cheney to look at the divides within the GOP. If the party descends into a civil war over Trump, Cheney and her Dad have already made clear which side they are on.
If you’re in need of good vibes, then I got the song for you.
Hope you all are staying sane in these insane times.
Alex