Four years ago, when longtime Pittsburgh Democrat Mike Doyle retired from Congress, a left-wing legislator named Summer Lee won the primary to replace him.
asserted
legislator → retire → him
Republicans nominated a local politician from the suburbs to face her who had a fortuitous name: Mike Doyle.
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who → nominate → name
Some voters were perplexed.
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voters → perplex → ?
The new Doyle’s lawn signs called him “the right Mike” without explicitly identifying him as a Republican — a moniker that would be a non-starter in the safely Democratic seat.
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that → call → seat
Local Democrats got worried calls, asking why Lee was running against their beloved liberal congressman.
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Lee → get → congressman
The Democrat Doyle called an emergency press conference to clarify that he was not the Republican Doyle: “My name is on the ballot, but it’s not me.”
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it → call → ballot
Lee won, albeit by a smaller margin than other Democrats in her district had in the past.
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Democrats → win → past
Nothing else came of the story.
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Nothing → come → story
There was no federal investigation of the Doyle scheme; no demands not to seat Doyle if he won; no statement from the governor saying that he might not certify the election.
uncertain
he → be → election
All of that has unfolded in Alaska this cycle.
asserted
All → unfold → Alaska
The clandestine Democratic effort to recruit a candidate who shares the name of the state’s incumbent Republican senator could have major implications for what happens after Tuesday.
uncertain
what → recruit → Tuesday
The plot’s exposure damaged Democrat Mary Peltola, knocking her off-message, and now threatens her party’s chances of winning control of the Senate.
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exposure → damage → Senate
President Donald Trump’s administration is investigating, and also sued to block the certification of the results should Sullivan lose — though a federal judge tossed out the suit over the weekend.
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judge → investigate → weekend
Those efforts, along with the announcement of investigations into candidates within 60 days of the vote, show how the Trump administration is jettisoning unwritten norms at the Justice Department.
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administration → show → Department
The Alaska mess is weighing heavily on Democrats who hope to win control of Congress tomorrow.
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who → weigh → Congress
Victory in either chamber would mean a two-year license on oversight powers, empowering Democrats to subpoena the Trump administration and its allies in the private sector.
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Victory → mean → sector
There is a thirst for vengeance among some Democrats that is testing their public stance that they must restore standards blown up by Trump.
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they → be → Trump
There’s also a shared sense, among most Democrats, that following those standards has gotten them nothing, while Republicans have benefitted from bending the rules.
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Republicans → ’ → rules
“Donald Trump and [House Oversight Committee Chairman] James Comer have basically written a playbook on how to politicize investigations and attack political enemies and weaponize government,” said Robert Garcia, the California Democrat who is in line to lead the House Oversight Committee in a Democratic majority.
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who → write → majority
His whole job is just to grift for the president.”
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job → grift → president
The argument over which party first used “lawfare” to get what it wanted is an old one.
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it → use → what
Democrats have long celebrated the Watergate investigation as an example of the Constitution and US legal system working as designed.
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Constitution → celebrate → example
Republicans are more likely to call the episode a coup against a president who’d just won a landslide.
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who → call → landslide
But the current debate begins, like so many irritating conversations, with the 2016 election.
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debate → begin → election
For all of Hillary Clinton’s errors, like telling coal miners that their jobs would vanish if she won, Democrats largely believe that she would have won the election against Trump had the FBI not abandoned its “60 day rule” and announced an 11th hour investigation into emails found on Huma Abedin’s laptop.
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FBI → tell → laptop
Some believe that Barack Obama acted too timidly when Republicans refused to co-sign a letter warning of Russian interference in that campaign.
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Republicans → believe → campaign
Nobody has ever accused Trump of acting timidly.
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Nobody → accuse → Trump
Ten years on, his Justice Department is still probing the origins of the Russia investigation into his first campaign.
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Department → probe → campaign
When Joe Biden replaced Trump, he kept on the US attorney who was investigating his son.
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who → replace → son
When Trump replaced Biden, he sacked the prosecutors who’d worked on post-Jan. 6 investigations.
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who → replace → investigations
Democrats felt like suckers.
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Democrats → feel → suckers
Biden publicly promised that his Justice Department would act independently.
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Department → promise → ?
Privately, he was resentful of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s choices to hold off on investigating Trump until November 2022, after Republicans were more or less united in denouncing any Trump probe as “lawfare.”
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Republicans → hold → lawfare
This is on many Democratic minds as they watch the Justice Department in Alaska — even though it’s not the only race where one party meddled in a way that might confuse voters.
uncertain
that → watch → voters
In Maine, a conservative PAC is sending out mail for a left-wing spoiler candidate for governor.
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PAC → send → governor
In Ohio, a conservative PAC is doing the same for a socialist Senate candidate who could threaten Democrat Sherrod Brown’s chances.
uncertain
who → do → chances
In Nevada, a conservative PAC… okay, you get the point.
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you → get → point
“They’re obsessed with meddling in elections,” Garcia said.
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Garcia → obsess → elections
“We have to put in place new rules and a new standard to get things back to a place where we don’t have the president trying to rig elections constantly.”
asserted
president → have → elections
In Pennsylvania, when I asked Gov. Josh Shapiro how Democrats should respond to Trump’s Justice Department, he was hopeful they would be the “party of law and order” — by showing that this was not the way to use the government’s bottomless resources.
asserted
this → ask → resources
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
