Closing the pot-luck tabs ... 

I will soon reintroduce legislation to make blocking a highway intentionally a federal crime. First Hamas supporters, now illegals and their enablers, are stopping traffic. To make America safe again, we must have law and order. https://t.co/cAp8Z5nUbI

— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) February 2, 2025

Ed: I'm not a fan of expanding federal crimes. This protest took place on 101 rather than a federal interstate highway. As infuriating as these are, they are matters for local law enforcement and public officials. How would the federal government enforce this law anyway, except through local agencies? Besides, these are useful to remind everyone how radical and/or incompetent local and state leadership is in California and LA.

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The leading super PAC supporting House Democrats in next year’s midterm elections announced on Monday the creation of a $50 million fund to better appeal to working-class voters, calling the task a critical part of any path to take the majority in 2026.

“We’re laying a marker down now,” Mike Smith, the president of the group, the House Majority PAC, said in an interview. “This is a priority.”

Ed: How about getting the idiots off the roads? That might help. What would help more is to stop doing performative DEI at the DNC. As long as that nonsense continues, they could spend $500 million and it still wouldn't help. How much cash did Kamala Harris run through, anyway?

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🚨Senator Susan Collins announces that she will support Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. pic.twitter.com/BnrH5XVdrT

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 3, 2025

Ed: She hinted at this last week, but I'm still a little surprised. This makes it tougher for other Senate Republicans to hold out. 

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For those Democrats who think a rapid-response war room or massive get-out-the-vote efforts will restore the party to its previous highs, the authors provide a bracing and provocative analysis. “This renewal involves more than communications, organization, and mobilization,” they write. “It will require the party to ask itself hard questions about the reasons for its dwindling support among groups it has long taken for granted, to reflect on declining public confidence in government as a vehicle of progress and to think anew about its policy agenda in an era of rapid change, at home and abroad.”

The fracturing of the Democratic coalition represents a major challenge. Though the decline in working-class support for Democrats started decades ago, the Trump era has accelerated it and expanded it beyond White working-class voters to working-class Hispanic and Black voters, particularly men.

Ed: It will require the Democrat Party to stop being the Weirdo Party. Honestly, it's pretty much that simple. At least, that would provide a good start. 

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🚨Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth:

"Where are you gonna put Tren de Aragua before you send them all the way back? How about a maximum security prison like Guantanamo Bay?!" pic.twitter.com/CfwqvvY5KI

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 3, 2025

Ed: I'm not a huge fan of using Gitmo for this, just in terms of the logistics. Better to build a facility in the desert here. Gitmo should really be used for clearly military/war purposes rather than criminal-justice subjects. 

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President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents.

The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues.

Ed: The Dept of Ed operates under an enabling statute, and Republicans have to repeal that law to truly close it down. I covered this in my VIP column on USAID. Just as with that, though, the administration can wind down a lot of operations in the meantime and force Congress to negotiate. 

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NEW: Karoline Leavitt highlights the waste and abuse of USAID, lists the top 4 most insane priorities.

"Here's the reason why Elon Musk and others have been taking a look."

1. "$1.5M to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces."

2. "$70k for a production of a DEI musical in… pic.twitter.com/E0eKZCCYz3

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 3, 2025

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Kamala Harris’s campaign paid nearly $100,000 to a shell company for former president Barack Obama to travel to events and roughly $60,000 to rapper Cardi B, who said she "didn’t get a dollar" to appear alongside the failed presidential candidate.

Harris for President paid $95,576 to Renegade44, LLC. for "travel" expenses and $58,867 to Washpoppin, Inc. for "campaign event production," according to campaign records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Public records show the firms are owned by Obama and Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Cephus, respectively.

Ed: I don't have an issue with reimbursing campaign surrogates for travel, but ... $95,000? How many trips did Obama make to speak at Harris events? And isn't he wealthy beyond Croesus these days anyway? Cardi B did pretty well off of Democrat donors, too. 

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Joe Biden has signed with Creative Artists Agency in all areas, the agency said Monday.

“President Biden is one of America’s most respected and influential voices in national and global affairs,” Richard Lovett, co-chairman of CAA, said today of the agency’s former and now present client. “His lifelong commitment to public service is one of unity, optimism, dignity, and possibility. We are profoundly honored to partner with him again.” 

Ed: To do what? Have the Easter Bunny ghostwrite a book for him? If the Biden family puts this senile old man on the speech circuit, shame on them.