Andy Quinn

@EconTalker @BenSasse @jameswegmann

Trying to reach @bensasse for an EconTalk episode. He has done some extraordinary interviews recently but we would talk about some other things given that I am a president (as he was) of a small college (and later a big one) and I am a Jewish person of faith. If you have his email, please share at russroberts at gmail. Thanks!

@LPDonovan washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

.@LPDonovan nails it: "The story isn’t one rogue attorney general or one opportunistic law firm. It is a systematic effort to use state courts to impose what the democratic process won’t deliver."

I'm the subset of Millennial who caught the very last helicopter off the embassy roof of pre-smartphone childhood and adolescence. In some big ways, my high school summers were more similar to people 30–40 years older than me than 3–4 years younger.

If there had been one single attempt on President Obama's life that had come anywhere near what now routinely happens to President Trump / GOP every few months, the radical "National Conversation," weaponized SPLC-DOJ crackdown, etc. would have been unlike anything we've seen.

@jbarro @TPCarney Dems initiated the modern "judicial wars" when Ted Kennedy wanted to bork Bork. Dems initiated the Senate "nuclear war" because Harry Reid got sick of playing by the rules. At every qualitatively meaningful break point, Dems shot first.

@TPCarney Conservatives played political hardball to reshape the court and then act surprised when liberals treat it as a political branch. Why wouldn't they?

Remove conservative justices and pack the courts! The guy is a radical interested primarily in grabbing power, to wield it against the other side. This is sadly, what partisans on both sides seek.

Put some respect on the OG!

@LPDonovan Good comp.

Watching Rahm at WSJ event made me wonder how a guy with that CV (and, once upon a time, that kind of juice) wouldn't at least have some baseline relevance to the 2028 conversation. Beyond the question answering itself, the best analogue I could come up with is Newt 2012 who at least got a moment as the GOP cycled through the stages of primary grief.

My wife and I pass the same $100 bill back and forth every day. When I get home from work, she gives it to me in compensation for my labor which pays for everything we own. When we go to bed, I give it back to her as payment for taking care of our home and our children. In this way, perfect equilibrium of supply and demand in the family economy is preserved. She once suggested replacing the $100 bill with a hug and a kiss, and I quickly rebuked her for this pathetic display of false consciousness and bourgeois sentimentalism: "honey, why be partner to your own alienation?"

@AidenBuzzetti humanevents.com/2026/04/07/aid…

"The woke offices within these investing firms have not changed their entrenched personnel. The same cast of characters is just lying in wait" "President Trump and the SEC must rein in the index funds weaponizing Americans’ dollars against American values." — @AidenBuzzetti

With people speculating about SCOTUS picks (very likely without cause), it’s worth stepping back and looking at what the Court needs and not what professional activists want. A lot of people seem to long for our KBJ. That is a terrible idea. She even alienates Soto. I’d also bet money that “conservative KBJ” is the last thing Alito wants the Court saddled with. What we need is what we have needed for over a decade: our Kagan. Kagan is smart, strategic, and political. She has used this to her advantage since she got there. Kagan had a standing lunch w Kennedy. Scalia, Thomas, Alito? Nah they had other things going on and that wasn’t their style. I think her supposed influence on ACB and BK is *vastly* overstated but the fact is that she is always counting. Each of the Trump judges can match Kagan on one of her traits. Gorsuch is probably as strategic as she is. BK is as political. ACB is as smart. That’s why each is a great justice in his or her own way and the group of them has the capacity to truly shine if all shooting in the same direction. That goes to Kagan’s fourth quality, which is leadership. What we have really lacked in living memory is a conservative leader. The Chief is a leader but he’s not our leader. (As a clerk friend told me a decade ago “the Chief is playing a game, it’s just not our game.”) We have six votes. We don’t need based solo opinions. Nor should we want five justices, six opinions. We need cert grants and judgment lines and both of those will necessarily include Gorsuch, BK, and ACB. Which means the president should be looking for someone with a track record of effective leadership and ideally someone who those three will regard as formidable. What does that mean? It’s the sort of thing that can be evaluated easily enough with circuit judges and judge pickers should do it. It also means it may be worth expanding the aperture. How’s Carlos Muñiz in Florida? Or Jimmy Blacklock or Evan Young in Texas? How about Chairman Ferguson at the FTC? Conservatism should be table stakes. Same with loyalty, because, real talk, that will be a critical factor. Trump needs to control for a record of effectiveness if he wants success.

👀

I've known Jacob since we were undergraduates. He is hands-down one of the smartest, hardest-working and most completely earnest and civic-minded people I have met. @VP and the country are very lucky to have him on the wall.

"Thus the Son of God enters this lowly world. "Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp. "Existing before time began, he began to exist at a moment in time. "Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death." lectionarycentral.com/stmaryannunc/L…

"Strip away the polish and TikTok virality, and Talarico is offering the same program that has been on offer from the mainline left since the 1960s: a Christianity evacuated of its doctrinal substance and refilled with the priorities of the DNC" firstthings.com/james-talarico…

James Talarico’s woke Billy Graham shtick has the same function as Tim Walz’s trans-affirming Elmer Fudd persona. Democrats desperately want a rural/religious-coded white male who can make their most unpopular positions seem American as apple pie. x.com/TonerousHyus/s…

Another point on the lunatic USCCB brief: there are situations where the theology and beliefs of the RC Church as expressed by the bishops can matter legally (e.g. certain religious liberty cases). A brief asserting that Catholic theology should affect the outcome of this case—that also happens to make an utter hash of that theology—does real damage to the Church’s credibility in the cases where it actually needs it.

Michael Steele hilariously stated in 2009 he would bring the GOP into, quote, "urban-suburban hip-hop settings." He crashed and burned. But later, a GOP nominee and president would actually make some of those inroads. Someone remind me who that was. npr.org/sections/visib…