7. Republicans who hate polls will love the latest Gallup poll that shows Republicans at their highest favorability in seven years
— Forty-five percent of Americans view the Republican Party positively, which is a nine-point gain from last September’s poll. It is the highest since the party registered a 47 percent favorability rating in January 2011 after taking the House in 2010.
— Not only are the polls at a peak for Republicans, but they are also seen as more favorable than Democrats for the first time since Republicans captured the Senate in 2014.
6. While lottery, gaming and sports gambling remain low-key campaign issues, they will be up next legislative session
— There is no question that the Alabama legislature will be considering additional revenue sources in the form of sports gambling and lottery in the next legislative session, but a recent report made it appear the Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon was leaning towards bringing the bill towards the floor.
— Earlier reports quoted the speaker as saying, “I can say for sure that you’ll see a lottery bill in the first session coming up,” but he released a statement Monday making it clear that he will not be leading the charge. It read, “As far as I am aware, no lottery bills have been drafted, pre-filed, or even discussed in any detail among members.”
5. The Associated Press looks at the Alabama governor’s race and it does not look good for Walt Maddox
— The AP breaks the race down as a battle between our gun-loving, abortion-hating Governor Ivey and Maddox’s plan to expand Medicaid and gambling.
— Locally, the media continues to do puff pieces on Walt Maddox, refusing to ask him how he will pay for any of his plans but continuing to pretend he has a chance and generally ignoring the fact that he has no clue what he is talking about.
4. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was totally going to quit, and now he is totally about to get fired. But he is safe
— Yesterday morning, journalists were abuzz with scoops about the resignation of Rosenstein because he either joked or suggested wearing a wire to capture the president’s behavior. They followed him to the White House for his confrontation with the president who was not there.
— Now there is a meeting between the two on Thursday. If Trump fires Rosenstein, there is a succession plan in place and Solicitor General Noel Francisco becomes the deputy AG. If he quits, Trump just gets to appoint a replacement to oversee the Russia probe.
3. Democrats’ delay tactics were used to buy time so they could goad another sexual assault accuser to take their weak allegation against Judge Brett Kavanaugh out into the open
— Ronan Farrow, who has penned multiple sexual assault news stories, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the only reason this is a story is because “Senate Democrats came looking for this claim. She did not flag this” This marks the second person Senate Democrats pushed out into the open with questionable, at best, claims of sexual abuse.
— The New York Times couldn’t move forward with these reports. They interviewed multiple individuals and chose not to run the story, so the authors shopped the story to the New Yorker.
2. President Donald Trump calls Kavanaugh accusations the “one of the most unfair things,” Ford’s attorneys start hedging. Kavanaugh and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fight on
— The President continued to stand by his nominee for the Supreme Court, calling the attacks on him “totally political” and pushing for a quick vote. He added, “I am with Judge Kavanaugh and I look forward to a vote.”
— Senate Majority Leader said repeatedly on the floor of the Senate that these accusations were a “smear campaign,” showing he is ready to fight, and that Kavanaugh will get an up or down vote.
1. The Roy Moore-ing of Kavanaugh is complete, it could work
— Although Republicans caved on Roy Moore and gave Alabama’s caretaker junior Senator Doug Jones a job, they emboldened Democrat dirty-tricks, media misinformation, last-second garbage and now a new claim by Michael Avenatti.
— Despite the fact that the allegations are decades old, they have no actual corroboration, the media pretend they are “credible” and continue to pound away on Senate Republicans and Kavanaugh, although Kavanaugh did a much better job defending himself from the onslaught on Fox News Monday evening saying, “I’m not going anywhere.“
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