MAYOR’s COMMS SHUFFLE NOW URLACHER SEEKS RE-ELECTION TEACHER TALKS STALL, KIDS STILL HOME
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Lori Lightfoot’s communications office for nearly 18 months, is leaving, and
Kate LeFurgy, deputy director of the office, is stepping up.
“Kate has played a critical part in navigating our city through the enormous challenges of the last year,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “She is fiercely committed to our mission of building a transparent, responsive city government that reflects the experience and needs of our residents, and I’m thrilled to have her stepping into this leadership role.”
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The Beltway and nation are tense ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration at noon today, as the threat of violence and President Donald Trump’s pending impeachment trial loom over the historic transition of power. Here’s how Washington is kicking off the new political era.
Rioters gather on the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday in Washington. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Sometimes, I make mistakes. And then there are times I’m so wrong that it boggles the mind.
A year ago I wrote a column about the Bank Credit Analyst’s prediction of possible “black swans” for 2020, specifically what might happen in the event a Democrat were to win the White House. In it I wrote:
“Biden could tack left to gain support, or one of the actual progressives, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, could win. That would be viewed as an ‘existential threat’ by Trump’s supporters. BCA suggests that a Trump loss to a progressive Democrat could provoke a violent reaction, analogous to secession by the Confederacy after the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.”
The news value in this critique is simply that it’s AOC making it, not the substance of the critique itself. For years now, House Democrats have grumbled sotto voce to reporters about the stranglehold on leadership maintained by the geriatrics in their caucus. It’s been Nancy, Steny Hoyer, and James Clyburn at the top for ages, leaving ambitious next-gen backbenchers with few opportunities to learn the ropes of how to manage a caucus. Who can blame someone like Cedric Richmond for bailing out of Pelosistan, knowing his path to the top is blocked, and taking a job with the Biden White House instead? Who would fault Ben Ray Lujan, a potential Speaker of the House, for throwing in the towel and running for Senate instead?