The Nicole Sandler Show

A bit of what's news for now

A new week begins, with the hope that Thursday's season finale of the January 6 hearings is a blockbuster that finally shocks the sleepwalking portion of the nation into reality. Much happened since we last spoke, including Joe Manchin's latest act of sabotage against the Democratic Party and the people of this country. (That's what Bernie Sanders called it, and I agree). So, we'll recap some of the latest news, and then welcome DC journalist Mark Leibovich to the show. He spent over a decade at the NY Times, and this year moved to The Atlantic. And his fourth book was just released last week, called "Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission"...

A b it of what's news, for now

A bit of what's news for now

Howie Klein has been joining me for a weekly conversation for well over 10 years now. The one consistent theme through the years has been the push to elect more progressives to Congress. The results rival every roller coaster you've ever ridden. Progressives pick up a few seats, but also lose some. And while the fight should be against the Republicans, we're too often beating back attacks from the establishment Democrats who, in many cases, should have retired years earlier to let younger candidates step up to shape their own futures. Today, Howie and I are joined by Representative Marie Newman who, two years ago, unseated perennial conservadem Dan Lapinksi. Finally, a progressive takes out the 'Democrat' who voted most often with the Republicans. But she was a target in her primary for the establishment/conservaDems. This time, they aligned with big money from AIPAC and a shady dark money PAC (that many allege is affiliated with Speaker wanna be Hakim Jefferies), and they defeated Newman in her primary with another incumbent, the more centrist Sean Casten. But now, there's a new development in the story.... Casten returned the money from AIPAC -- after accepting their help to defeat Marie Newman, he's now dissing them? We'll try to get to the bottom of it all today on the show with Marie Newman and Howie Klein...

A bit of what's news for now

And actually, everything has been broken for a very long time. It just keeps getting worse. The question is whether or not we can fix it. Cynicole says no... maybe we'll explore that today, or we'll talk about all of the things that are broken beyond repair. But today's guest actually has some ideas. David Pepper is a lawyer, author, and the former chair of the Ohio Democratic party. He guested on this program last year to discuss his new book, "Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines" which is summed up by the appropriated line, "it's the statehouses, stupid." I invited him to join us today after reading his 22 Tweet thread about the Guarantee Clause in the US Constitution-- and how invoking that could possibly save what's left of this experiment in democracy.

A bit of what's news, for now

Today was the 7th of the hearings put on by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. The witnesses today were to former acolytes of the former guy, a former Oath Keepers spokesman, and one of the insurrectionists who said he marched to the Capitol because Trump told him to. Today on the show, we'll review today's hearing.. Your calls, as usual, are welcome!

A bit of what's news for now