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6 Feb, 5 tweets, 2 min read
"'He's the first guy taking on the grassroots activists in his own party in his own state,' said Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist who worked to defeat Trump last year."

A Lincoln Projector getting aroused by Ben Sasse's video is all you need to know. politico.com/news/2021/02/0…
"If the GOP’s fervor for the former president fades to any degree, Sasse will be better positioned than anyone to capitalize."

Imagine being so bad at understanding politics that you think Ben Sasse is what GOP voters will be craving in 2024. politico.com/news/2021/02/0…
"I spent four years shitting on the party and its last president, now give me the nomination" isn't how it works, no matter how much Viagra the media and NeverTrumpers take to turn it into reality. politico.com/news/2021/02/0…
There will be plenty of Republicans in 2024 who won't have to explain why they spent the last four years attacking the party and, by extension, its voters. And voters of no party are going to elect someone they think despises them. politico.com/news/2021/02/0…
"If the GOP's fervor for the former president fades to any degree, Sasse will be better positioned than anyone to capitalize."

When you're unaware that Ron DeSantis exists, you shouldn't be writing about politics. politico.com/news/2021/02/0…

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More from @varadmehta

Varad Mehta Profile picture
6 Feb
"The Devil Is a Sissy" (1936) is a prototypical 1930s MGM comedy-drama, but with one difference: the main characters are kids. And not just any kids, but three of the most successful child stars in history: Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney, and Jackie Cooper.
"The Devil Is a Sissy" begins with Bartholomew arriving in New York, then spends the next twenty minutes on Rooney's character, whose father is about to be "electrified." Much of the rest is about Rooney's quest, aided by Bartholomew and Cooper, to get a gravestone for his dad.
Bartholomew is ostensibly the main character, and the film's structure is provided by the stuff about his adjusting to his new life and school, ingratiating himself with the gang, and so forth. Typical kid stuff. But as in a lot of 1930s MGM fare, with some heavier elements, too.
Read 5 tweets
Varad Mehta Profile picture
16 Jan
"Non-state actors should override the decisions of the state when the state is precluded or forbidden from acting or refuses to do so" is an astonishingly anti-republican and anti-democratic argument. It is inimical to the very concepts of the state and sovereignty.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating, those are the very grounds on which this intervention is justified: "This time, technology companies acted effectively to protect the republic when the government could not."
A state which allows private entities to arrogate such powers to themselves and exercise them isn't long to be a state. Its corrosive of the basic structures of governance. Yet that's exactly what French advocates for here. time.com/5930281/right-…
Read 4 tweets
Varad Mehta Profile picture
16 Jan
"Wonder Woman 1984" was going along just fine as a perfectly mediocre comic book movie until it turned into a "Doctor Who" Christmas special at the end.
I'm still trying to figure out where Diana and Steve Trevor refueled the jet they stole. Because decommissioned jets parked at the Smithsonian usually don't have tanks with enough gas to fly to Egypt.
Also, is it just me or is "WW84" kind of anti-feminist? Diana's been sitting around for seventy years pining for her boyfriend? Really? Literally the one thing in the world she wants is a man. Granted, the man is the love of her life. But still. That seems pretty retrograde.
Read 8 tweets
Varad Mehta Profile picture
15 Jan
I usually like Woody Allen, but "Manhattan Murder Mystery" was kind of a drag. The first hour's pretty annoying, mostly because Diane Keaton is. But it picks up in the last 45 minutes once there is a murder. Leave out that and the mystery and it could be just "Manhattan."
Keaton and Allen playing a bickering couple once again makes you feel like you're in a typical Woody Allen movie. But with a mystery thrown in. The movie gets better when Alan Alda and Anjelica Houston are on screen since they're not playing their past Woody Allen characters.
"Manhattan Murder Mystery" telegraphs its inspirations a bit too obviously, too. The climax is straight out of "The Lady from Shanghai," a crucial clue is delivered with a bus billboard advertising "Vertigo," etc. The basic plot (neighbor killed wife?) is from "Rear Window." Etc.
Read 4 tweets
Varad Mehta Profile picture
14 Jan
If you thought Trump's impeachment trial would blow up Joe Biden's first hundred days, @AndrewDesiderio and @burgessev are here to tell you that . . . you're absolutely right. Seriously, if you're Team Biden, this is a nightmare scenario for you. politico.com/news/2021/01/1…
Everything requires unanimous consent, including not starting the trial an hour after Biden is inaugurated and "bifurcating" the Senate to spend a half day on Biden stuff and half a day on impeachment. Good luck getting Tommy Tuberville to agree to that. politico.com/news/2021/01/1…
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi is unlikely to wait until after Biden's inauguration to trigger the trial's start by formally transmitting the impeachment article over to the Senate."

This is news if accurate. politico.com/news/2021/01/1…
Read 5 tweets
Varad Mehta Profile picture
14 Jan
There's going to be a lot of denial about what @benshapiro wrote in today's @politico Playbook about why Republicans (and conservatives) oppose impeaching Trump, but he's absolutely correct. It's something those on the right and the left should heed. politico.com/newsletters/pl…
"Opposition to impeachment comes from a deep and abiding conservative belief that members of the opposing political tribe want their destruction, not simply to punish Trump for his behavior."

💯 politico.com/newsletters/pl…
"Republicans believe that Democrats and the overwhelmingly liberal media see impeachment as an attempt to cudgel them collectively by lumping them in with the Capitol rioters thanks to their support for Trump."

👆 politico.com/newsletters/pl…
Read 6 tweets

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