OUT: Nancy Pelosi. IN: Gubernatorial Aspirant Elise Stefanik. Warnings to GOP: Continetti and Strassel. Harsh: Can’t Put Gender Identity on Passports. And More
Nancy the Ripper announced yesterday that she will not seek re-election to Congress, ending a “storied political career” with an unwrinkled brow, at the sprightly age of 85. Diabetics are warned to keep away from the high saccharine content of MSM farewells to the former Speaker of the House.
The New York Times, for example, came up with “To Americans, Pelosi Was the House Speaker. To San Francisco, She Was Mom.” From the same outlet, another mom-themed report: “The Rise of Nancy Pelosi: From Stay-at-Home Mom to Speaker of the House.”
President Trump spared no words in ushering off stage the women who recently called him “vile” and “the worst creature on earth.” “Nancy Pelosi Prepares for Sad Future of Outsider Trading,” trumpets the Babylon Bee.
Elsewhere, the news is not as cheery. Travelers must brace for turmoil and inconvenience as flight cuts necessitated by the government shutdown kick in at airports around the nation. “Democrats Don’t Mind Your Flight Delays” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial:
Most folks on Capitol Hill were optimistic this week about a deal to end the month-long government shutdown, which has accomplished nothing. But behold the cynicism of Democrats, who now want to exploit their Tuesday election victories to prolong the dysfunction at the public’s expense. …
The proles languishing on the tarmac for hours can take heart—your suffering is an assist to the Democratic brand. You may miss Thanksgiving this year when you see that red “canceled” notice on the departures board, but rest easy that you helped Democrats stir up their voting base for the 2026 midterms.
Democrats are also suddenly nonplussed about lapsing food-stamp benefits or government subsidized preschool. Democrats declare that these are cherished national priorities any time the GOP suggests reforms for better incentives or the most modest spending restraint.
While emboldened Dems seem to be digging in on the shutdown, Fox’s terrific Chad Pergram sees signs of movement coming from an emerging GOP plan to end the shutdown. But it’s all very preliminary. President Trump’s call to kill the filibuster to open the government has met with resistance. “The filibuster is a wall against a Mamdani-inspired socialist dystopia,” Washington Post conservative columnist Marc Thiessen argues. “Democrats’ off-year wins remind us why the filibuster is needed,” the Washington Examiner explains.
What about those off-year wins?
Matthew Continetti argues that 2025 election results spell doom for Republicans in 2026 if they don’t get serious about the economy in a Wall Street Journal op-ed headlined “Trump’s GOP Is Losing Independents“:
Republicans enter the midterm cycle shouldering two related burdens: economic dissatisfaction arising from high prices and a revolt among independents. …
The president rarely talks affordability. He prefers to announce that inflation is dead and defeated. He points to falling gasoline prices. Yet relief is fleeting. It can’t compensate for the rising cost of groceries, housing and healthcare. What’s more, his policies that restrict the supply of goods and labor, such as tariffs and mass deportations, make the problem worse. So does badgering the Fed to cut rates before inflation is tamed….
The country doesn’t wait for parties to get their act together. It chooses the alternative. If Republicans fail, big-government populists in both parties will run roughshod over confused and ambivalent incumbents. It won’t just be the economy that suffers. America will too.
Former World Bank head David Malpass, meanwhile, gives the Federal Reserve a big helping of blame for the “affordability crisis.” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel says it’s “time to reset the GOP clock”:
Here’s what time it is: Time for a GOP gut check. Time to set aside the play-it-by-ear triumphalism of the past year—and come up with a plan. …
Even this White House’s trademark initiatives—the things it talks about with some relative regularity—roll out like a drunk exiting a kegger. Tariff uncertainty has been a hit to the economy. But try keeping track of what to like or dislike, much less process merit. Would that be the 35% levy on Canada of a Friday? Or the 45% of a Saturday, after the president watched a commercial? Or the 50% on metals, or the 25% on autos (with exceptions)? Or the 30.7% . . . 40.7% . . . 135%—wait, no, the 58% (?) rate on China? Maybe it’s just easier to believe—as many a shopper or small business now does—the left’s simple premise that all this is costing you money.
This day-by-day approach to governance extends to the Republican Congress….
Veteran political reporter Michael Barone sees bad news for the GOP and warnings for both parties in the election results. Hope for the Republicans could come from an unexpected direction, Barone proposes:
A Supreme Court rebuff to Trump could turn out to be a political gift to the Trump Republican Party. Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April thrust his job approval downward, and 3% inflation, which, though low, can be plausibly linked to continuing tariffs, provides a basis, as Mamdani has shown, for Democratic campaigns. Also, should Trump acquiesce to an adverse Supreme Court decision, as Truman did 73 years ago, voters’ fears of an authoritarian presidency will be mitigated.
Though entirely expected, the victory of socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York sent the most shockwaves through the system. Reason’s J.D. Tuccille writes that Mamdani’s win suggests a “socialist future” for the Democratic Party. Robby Soave of the same publication says it “would be a mistake to underemphasize the radical nature of Mamdani’s ideology” and highlights the Mayor-elect’s BFF, Hasan Piker, who opines that it’s a tragedy that the U.S. won the Cold War.
But there’s a new development in New York politics. Rep. Elise Stefanik announces today that she is running for Governor of New York to “clean up Kathy Hochul’s catastrophe.” Larry Kudlow asks, “Can Elise Stefanik and Jessica Tisch Save New York?” Jessica Tisch is New York City’s respected Police Commissioner.
President Trump is trying to “make America thin again,” as Rich Lowry puts it in the New York Post. Lowry writes:
President Donald Trump this week cut deals with the drug-makers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to increase access to obesity drugs in a major benefit to American public health.
The agreements are a win-win-win — good for consumers, good for the companies and good for Trump.
One of the most irrational superstitions of our time is that Big Pharma, which has for decades been routinely delivering near-miraculous therapeutics to extend and improve our lives, is a public enemy.
There was some Oval Office drama (well, there often is) when a guest fainted during the obesity drugs presentation. Meanwhile, he won his battle over whether you can put an imaginary sex on your passport.
The mess at Heritage over President Kevin Roberts’ statement on Tucker Carlson continues. This is the best synopsis I have seen of what happened. It has spurred a debate on conservative principles between the revered Robby George and John Zmirak.
The Free Press addresses the Heritage controversy both in Nellie Bowles’s Friday commentary and “The Real Split on the Right: Influencers Versus Conservatives,” by Batya Ungar-Sargon. Another important piece not to be missed: John Kass’ column on the illegal alien trucker who killed family friends of Kass and who should not have been able to obtain a driver’s license.
And I leave you this Friday morning with my choice for …
Quote of the Week:
“We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve and no concern too small for it to care about.”
– New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani
Ominous.
