PRESENTED BY THE BOEING COMPANY
Good morning and Happy Friday! Here’s your Daily News for September 28.
1. What a day.
What Happened
- America is emotionally exhausted after that hearing yesterday.
- Christine Blasey Ford was a credible witness. Brett Kavanaugh gave a convincing defense.
- What are you supposed to do when you believe both of them and you have to judge which one’s memory is flawed?
- Around noon I was convinced Kavanaugh was toast. By 3:00 or so I thought he had saved his nomination.
- The best Democratic points: there should be an FBI investigation and this Mark Judge person should testify.
- The best Republican points: this whole thing could have been part the orginal, private investigation had committee staff not sat on the allegation and leaked it after the fact.
- It was a mess.
Why it Matters
- Kavanaugh was absolutely right about one thing: this ordeal has permanently damaged the credibility of the Senate and the Supreme Court.
- No matter which way this thing goes, a good portion of the country is going to be bitter about what happened.
- The next time the Court rules on a big case – with or without Kavanaugh’s vote – it will be easier for one side or the other to cast it as illegitimate.
- That’s really bad for the country. Really bad.
- As Mike Allen wrote this morning, “The United States of America will be three-for-three in diminished trust in its branches of government.”
What’s Next
- The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the Kavanaugh’s confirmation at 12:30 Central Time.
- It will then head to the Senate floor. Democrats can use procedural tactics to delay the vote until maybe Monday morning.
- I expect Kavanaugh to be confirmed. I expect Murkowski to vote no, but Collins and Flake to vote yes. Actually, Flake just said he would vote yes.
- In case you hadn’t heard, Alabama’s Democratic Senator Doug Jones is voting no.
2. Boom: ULA selects Blue Origin to build rocket engine in Huntsville.
- United Launch Alliance has selected Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company to build its orbital rocket engine.
- And the work will be done where it should be: North Alabama, home of the Trash Pandas.
- ULA selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 advanced booster engine to power its Vulcan Centaur rocket.
- The project is slated to create as many as 350 jobs in Huntsville. Of course, they have to win the government contract first.
- Reading between the defense industry lines here, this has the potential to block out Elon Musk’s SpaceX company in the race for space exploration.
- Read more, including what Gov. Kay Ivey and Sen. Richard Shelby had to say, HERE.
A message from the Boeing Company
- Alabama’s workforce can help power an interim solution for the U.S. Army’s need for cruise missile defense systems – and they can do it quickly and affordably.
- Boeing’s Huntsville-based Avenger system can be upgraded to get more capability into the hands of warfighters who need it.
- Find out more about Boeing’s upgraded Avenger offer HERE.
3. New Vance ad attempts to tie Parker to Moore.
- Alabama chief justice candidate Judge Bob Vance has launched a campaign ad saying Justice Tom Parker will be “another Roy Moore” if elected to head the state court system.
- It centers on Parker’s longtime association with Moore and asserts that Parker will cause the “same chaos and controversy” as Moore if elected to head the state judicial system.
- The campaign says it’s digital only for now but they plan to have it or something similar up on TV soon.
- The ad has a quote of Parker saying how he would “relish” being compared to Moore and notes the two ruled similarly in the so-called birther case that questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship.
- As noted yesterday, polling shows Vance has an uphill battle. I’ve now seen two other surveys that showed similar numbers to ALFA’s poll. So, Parker is winning.
- Will he take the bait on this and respond? Will Moore have the discipline to stay out of it?
- Anyway, read more and watch the ad HERE.
4. Robinson sentenced.
- A federal judge handed down a 33-month prison sentence Thursday to former State Rep. Oliver Robinson, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and taking bribes to use his office to oppose the expansion of an environmental cleanup site in Birmingham.
- Opposing the EPA’s attempt to expand a Superfund site to a whole different part of town isn’t illegal. But taking money to co-opt your public office to do so is, and lying to your constituents about who and what you are really working for is wrong.
- Robinson paid the court $375,000 – the amount he was given through his non-profit Oliver Robinson Foundation.
- “My people in North Birmingham, my deepest apologies. I confessed my charges and I ask forgiveness from the people of Alabama and from God. I look forward to continuing to the path of redemption with every step I take for the rest of my life,” Robinson said.
- Read more HERE.
5. API’s Snider: Count to Ten.
- The Alabama Policy Institute’s Parker Snider is channelling Thomas Jefferson in his latest column.
- “When angry, count to ten before you speak; if very angry, count to one hundred,” Jefferson is quoted as saying.
- That’s good advice, Parker writes. And we apply it to most everything except politics these days.
- Here’s an excerpt:
- “What Jefferson also understood, and what I am worried we too often forget, is that anger in politics is to be avoided and tempered, not embraced and weaponized.
- “In most spheres, we attempt to tame this emotion. For some reason, however, we give anger in politics an out. We should not be so accommodating.
- “Why? For one, anger is inherently selfish. According to Aristotle, anger is “a desire, accompanied by pain, to take apparent revenge for apparent insult.” Anger arises when we feel personally wronged, and it seeks revenge, not resolution.”
- Read his full column HERE.
Headlines.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Engine for new ULA rocket to be built in Alabama.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Vance ad says Parker will be ‘another Roy Moore.’
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Robinson sentenced to 33 months.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – GOP sets first Kavanaugh vote after hearing from accuser.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Kavanaugh denies accusations in fiery Senate showdown.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Republicans favor new federal regulations on sports gambling.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – API’s Parker Snider: Toward a less angry politics.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – Ford, Kavanaugh and a Senate hearing: a viewer’s guide.
ALABAMA DAILY NEWS – High drama in the Senate as SCOTUS hearing begins.
MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – Sen. Doug Jones to vote “no” on Kavanaugh nomination.
MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER – Tuskegee misses out on $250 million jet facility.
DOTHAN EAGLE – Participation drops at latest school restructuring forum.
DOTHAN EAGLE – Sheriff: Raid of ‘Boom Boom Room’ in Geneva County leads to two drug arrests.
DOTHAN EAGLE – Joe Siegelman, candidate for Alabama state attorney general, says politics cannot influence role.
YELLOWHAMMER NEWS – Dale Jackson: The Alabama Education Association does not care about Alabama or education
DECATUR DAILY – Habitat’s blitz build: From hardwood to a home in seven days.
DECATUR DAILY – Vance ad says Parker will be ‘another Roy Moore’.
FLORENCE TIMES DAILY – Self concerned about Alabama quality of life.
TUSCALOOSA NEWS – The unseemly rush to a vote.
ANNISTON STAR – An example of what’s important in Alabama.
ANNISTON STAR – Editor Phillip Tutor: Rogers, Hagan and Alabama’s culture.
AL.COM – Doug Jones tweets he’ll vote no on Brett Kavanaugh.
AL.COM – Freedom From Religion Foundation fires back at Roy Moore.
AL.COM – Alabama university lands near top for black student equity and success.
AL.COM – Macon County misses out on billion-dollar Air Force project.
AL.COM – Oliver Robinson sentenced to less than three years in prison.
AL.COM – Nick Saban speaks out about infant mortality in Alabama.
AL.COM – Columnist John Archibald: This bribed politician’s sentencing was like no other.
AL.COM – Columnist Kyle Whitmire: Unburdening the white man.
AL.COM – Columnist Roy Johnson: Oliver Robinson’s last lunch before getting his just dessert.
WASHINGTON POST – Charges and denials fuel an emotional hearing as Kavanaugh nomination hangs in the balance.
WASHINGTON POST – Columnist Ruth Marcus: Ford’s testimony was devastating. Kavanaugh’s was volcanic.
WASHINGTON POST – Mortgage rates soar to 7-year highs.
NEW YORK TIMES – She Said. Then He Said. Now What Will Senators Say?
NEW YORK TIMES – Right and Left React to the Kavanaugh-Blasey Hearing.
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