MORNING MESSAGE
Senator Warren Persists, We Persist
Trump’s
attacks on the judiciary are also on that slippery slope toward autocracy. How
do we fight this? The lesson for us is that we must keep up the resistance. Like
Warren, we must persist. The people are on our side.
SESSIONS CONFIRMED, PRICE NExT
USA
Today previews “5 big issues where Sessions may have an immediate impact”:
“Trump won’t need to worry about having to coax his new attorney general into
enforcing his immigration ban … Civil rights advocates have expressed doubts
that Sessions will make [voting rights] cases a priority … Sessions will take
over the Justice Department’s lawsuit against North Carolina’s [law] limiting
protections for transgender people … the Justice Department is expected to take
a much less aggressive approach to police reform…”
Confirmation
vote for Tom Price cued up for Friday. The Hill: “Senators voted 51-48 to
pass a procedural step in Price’s nomination, setting up a final confirmation
vote for Friday morning … One GOP lawmaker said Price’s nomination was more
important than those for other Cabinet posts — such as the secretary of
Education — because it will allow their healthcare reform plans to move
ahead.”
PUZDER HEARING SCHEDULED
Puzder
files paperwork, hearing scheduled. Reuters: “The U.S. Senate panel tasked
with vetting labor secretary nominee and fast-food executive Andrew Puzder will
hold his confirmation hearing on Feb.16, now that his ethics paperwork has been
submitted … Tentative plans for Puzder’s hearing have been repeatedly postponed
amid delays with a review by the Office of Government Ethics. Those stem from
the complexities surrounding how Puzder will divest himself from CKE
Restaurants…”
Bloomberg
explores the worldview of Andy Puzder: “A former senior manager and a
franchisee, both of whom left the company with agreements not to speak publicly,
describe [Carl’s Jr.] culture as patriarchal, and Puzder as someone who tends to
view the women around him as ‘the help.’ … Puzder’s business experience has been
largely in a low-wage, low-margin industry built on a franchise model that tends
to shift profits upward and responsibility downward … Like Trump, Puzder
promotes a nostalgic vision that occludes the reality of the American permanent
low-wage workforce while enjoying the profits of the complex globalized
world.”
Puzder
faced with new lawsuit. LAT: “According to the lawsuit, the
Carpinteria-based company uses ‘no-hire’ agreements in an effort to keep workers
from seeking raises by threatening to go to another franchisee.”
SCHUMER PREDICTS REsISTANCE
Sen.
Schumer signals more resistance in Time interview: “I’ll certainly talk to
[Trump] and if there’s a need, I’ll call him, but right now, it looks like I’m
going to be spending more time opposed …. He’s moving to the hard-right on issue
after issue after issue … What he’s doing now is not what the American people
voted for.”
House
Dems to work on economic message at retreat. W. Post: “Pelosi met this week
with a large group of those Democrats who have been agitating for agenda items
that appeal beyond the liberal base. Their goal is an economic message that can
appeal to the more than 40 percent of voters in union households who voted for
Trump … kicking off the retreat, Pelosi cited several economic issues that came
out of her meeting with the group of mostly Rust Belt Democrats, including
Trump’s campaign pledges to promote a massive infrastructure bill and to
renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement…”
Third
Way addresses Dem retreat. W. Post: “…they’ll hear ‘Perspectives’ from the
vice president of Third Way, a prominent centrist think tank … ‘For House
Democrats to seek advice from a Wall Street-funded think tank that preaches
timidity, that shows them learning the exactly wrong lesson in the Trump era,’
said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee …
[Third Way’s Jim Kessler] will make the case that the Democratic Party needs to
grow geographically, demographically and ideologically — not move decisively to
the left — to regain power.”
DEMS QUESTION OBAMA'S MOVEMENT BUILDING
Dems
debate failure of movement building during Obama. Politico: “…now that Obama
and the political operation that succeeded his campaign, Organizing For Action,
have expressed interest in playing a role in the task of rebuilding, it’s
sparking pitched debates over how much blame he deserves for the gradual
hollowing out of a party that now has less control of state elected positions
than at any other time in nearly a century … the wariness — expressed by nearly
three dozen Democrats in interviews — also threatens to create a divide between
Obama’s loyalists and the rest of the party.”
Micah
Sifry delves into the lost promise of OFA in The New Republic: “Instead of
mobilizing his unprecedented grassroots machine to pressure obstructionist
lawmakers, support state and local candidates who shared his vision, and counter
the Tea Party, Obama mothballed his campaign operation, bottling it up inside
the Democratic National Committee. It was the seminal mistake of his
presidency…”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Conservatives
believe Trump can be convinced to cut retirement security. The Hill: “Rep.
Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said Democratic
efforts to tie Trump to campaign comments about preserving entitlement programs
miss the mark, and that his talks with Trump show the president is prepared to
back entitlement reform so long as current beneficiaries don’t see their
benefits cut.”
Dakota
Access Pipeline opponents fight on. ABC: “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said
it will ‘challenge any easement decision’ on the grounds that the Environmental
Impact Statement was ‘wrongfully terminated.’ The tribe said it will also
‘demand a fair, accurate and lawful Environmental Impact Statement to identify
true risks to its treaty rights, including its water supply and sacred places.’
If the Dakota Access Pipeline is successfully completed and begins operating,
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said it will ‘seek to shut the pipeline operations
down.’ The tribe also announced a ‘Native Nations March on Washington’ scheduled
for March 10…”
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