January 25, 2019 10:26 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (January 25)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Roger Stone channels Richard Nixon. Let’s “Get More Smarter.” If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► Longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone has been arrested by the FBI after being indicted as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion and obstruction of justice. As CNN’s Chris Cillizza explains, this is a YUGE deal:

The indictment and arrest of longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone Friday morning in Florida fills in a big missing piece of the emerging picture that special counsel Robert Mueller is painting: The Trump campaign actively sought to communicate and coordinate with WikiLeaks in regard to stolen emails aimed at damaging Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Here’s more from the Washington Post, including Stone’s reference to the “Godfather” movies:

The most politically explosive allegation in special counsel Bob Mueller’s seven-count indictment of Roger Stone — who was arrested early Friday morning during an FBI raid of his home in Florida — is that he lied to Congress when he denied discussing his advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ email dumps with anyone involved in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign…

…Prosecutors say Stone made repeated references to “The Godfather: Part II” in December 2017 as he pushed an unnamed “Person 2” to not tell the truth to the House Intelligence Committee so he could cover up his role. “People close to the case said Person 2 is New York comedian Randy Credico,” per Rosalind Helderman, Devlin Barrett and John Wagner.

► On Day 35 of the federal government shutdown, the airports began to buckle. As the New York Times reports:

Significant flight delays were rippling across the Northeast on Friday because of a shortage of air traffic controllers as a result of the government shutdown, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The delays were cascading along the Eastern Seaboard, reaching as far north as Boston. But La Guardia was the only airport that had been closed off to departing flights from other cities because it was so crowded with planes taking off and landing on a weekday morning. Delays on flights into La Guardia were averaging almost an hour and a half, the F.A.A. said.

► The Senate held votes on two bills Thursday aimed at (theoretically) ending the government shutdown, but both pieces of legislation were DOA. From the Washington Post:

Senate leaders scrambled Friday in search of a deal that would satisfy President Trump on border security and end the partial government shutdown as major delays at airports around the country produced a heightened sense of urgency.

“We’re still working on it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in an interview outside his office when asked if an agreement might emerge Friday with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) did a very Gardner-esque thing by voting YES on both failed bills. As Westword notes:

Gardner issued a statement praising President Trump’s weekend proposal to end the government shutdown, which asks for Democrats to give him $5.7 billion for his Mexico border wall/collection of steel slats in exchange for a three-year reprieve involving participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Gardner voted for it and the rival Democratic measure that would have ended the ongoing partial federal shutdown without funding the wall.

Talk about trying to have it both ways. [Pols emphasis]

Some 800,000 federal workers will miss another paycheck today.

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is making national headlines after going OFF on the Senate floor Thursday in response to a nonsense speech from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. As The Denver Post explains:

“I seldom, as you know, rise on this floor to contradict somebody on the other side,” Bennet said during a floor speech. “I have worked very hard over the years to work in a bipartisan way with the presiding officer, with my Republican colleagues, but these crocodile tears that the senator from Texas is crying for first responders are too hard for me to take.”

Cruz took the floor ahead of Thursday’s failed votes on two different bills to reopen the government and urged Democrats to vote for a bill to appropriate the money needed to pay federal workers during the shutdown.

That bothered Bennet because the Texas Republican led a charge to shut down the federal government in 2013 over funding for the Affordable Care Act. That 16-day shutdown coincided with the aftermath of a deadly flood that killed eight people in Colorado, and Bennet said the government’s closure delayed relief efforts.

 
Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► The ongoing federal government shutdown is fraying political nerves among Senate Republicans, as the Washington Post reports:

Republican senators clashed with one another and confronted Vice President Pence inside a private luncheon on Thursday, as anger hit a boiling point over the longest government shutdown in history.

“This is your fault,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at one point, according to two Republicans who attended the lunch and witnessed the exchange…[Pols emphasis]

…The outbursts highlighted the toll the shutdown has taken on Republican lawmakers, who are dealing with growing concerns from constituents and blame from Democrats, all while facing pressure from conservatives to stand with Trump in his demand for money to build a wall on the border with Mexico.

The White House appears to have no real plan for ending the shutdown, though leaks about a potential “emergency declaration” from President Trump continue to circulate.

► It’s long past time that local media outlets stop praising Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) for pretending to be doing something about the government shutdown. We can also stop pretending that Gardner has a track record of opposing shutdowns as political maneuvers.

► Freshman Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) has been added to the Democratic ranks on the House Natural Resources Committee. Last week Neguse was appointed to serve on the House Judiciary Committee.

► Trump supporters who regret voting for the big orange guy are lining up to express their frustration.

► State Rep. Lori Saine (R-Weld County) just can’t stop digging holes for herself. From 9News:

On Thursday, after she left a committee hearing, Next with Kyle Clark was able to interview Saine and ask her if she stands by those comments that lynchings were based on political affiliation and not race.

“If you look back at that time, you will find a lot of evidence of that. I was trying to bracket, not only the reconstruction area, but I was also trying to bracket the decade after, and that was when there was a huge spike in those executions, not only for white Americans, but black Americans,” said Saine. “It meant no way to downplay that two-thirds of those executions were directed toward African Americans. It was no way meant to downplay the horrors. I can’t even imagine that time period. It was probably as close to hell as you can get without actually stepping foot in hell. There’s [sic] martyrs of all colors when we’re talking about civil justice, and I know Martin Luther King would not want us to go backwards.”

We’re almost to the point where we feel bad for House Republicans who have to deal with Saine.

Almost.

► The communications and PR folks at Denver Public Schools are off to a terrible start when it comes to messaging about a looming teacher strike.

► Three Republican bills intended to make it easier to have guns everywhere were promptly killed in a legislative committee by House Democrats.

► Broomfield residents are joining together in an effort to fight “forced pool” oil and gas drilling in their neighborhoods.

► The toll-road in Jefferson County that nobody wants refuses to die.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► State Rep. Hugh McKean (R-Larimer County) believes that schools should be teaching kids about how to hunt animals.

► Of course Dr. Chaps would rush to defend Iowa Rep. Steve King.

ICYMI

► Ironically for anti-government Republicans, the current government shutdown is demonstrating exactly why the government is so important.

► Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Statler” Ross doesn’t understand why unpaid federal employees might need to use the services of a food bank. 

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