Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.
Michael Tomasky/The New Republic:
Trump’s Bible Stunt Isn’t Brilliant. It’s Insanely Desperate.
Are “the rubes” finally on to Trump?
It’s endless. Or is it? Trump’s fundraising has taken a nosedive. His small-donor numbers are below where they once were. NBC News recently reported that donations to Trump of $200 or less are down 62.5 percent against 2019. He’s still raised a lot; I don’t want to mislead you here. The New York Times recently reported that Trump has more small donors than Joe Biden in some key swing states. But Biden has raised more from small donors overall, according to OpenSecrets. And in the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, Trump had $33.5 million cash on hand and Biden reported having $71 million. That was March 20, before Thursday night’s Radio City Music Hall event with Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, where Biden raked in $26 million.
A reminder that rubes come in all socioeconomic statuses:
Crisis Over Haredi Military Service Exemptions Is a Seismic Event for Israel’s Politics
The ultra-Orthodox parties might stay in the government even if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to get a law passed exempting all yeshiva students from military service, but they will likely be consigned to a long period in opposition after the next election
The refusal of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis to accept any compromise that would limit the number of exemptions of young Haredi men, at a time of war that is severely testing the Israel Defense Forces’ personnel capacity, has dragged the serving Israeli public to the limits of its patience. Even Netanyahu’s fully right-wing governing coalition can no longer withstand the pressure.
Netanyahu personally has no problem passing into law any abomination that the Haredi politicians demand of him, as long as it guarantees his Knesset majority. He is used to sacrificing Israel’s future on the altar of his political survival. Most Likud lawmakers are the same. But within the party there remain a handful of members who, if not for the future of the state, then for the future of the party and their own public careers, will join Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in opposing an exemption bill.
Even if Netanyahu were to succeed in cajoling and threatening the necessary majority to vote in favor in the Knesset’s next session, it is by now clear that there is no wording of the exemption bill the Haredi parties will accept that would meet the High Court of Justice’s basic standard of equality.
In ‘historic’ step, High Court orders halt to yeshiva funds for students eligible for draft
Attorney General tells court army will be obligated to begin drafting Haredi men on April 1; judges shoot down PM’s request for 30 more days to settle matter
A government resolution from June 2023 instructing the IDF to temporarily not draft Haredi students despite the expiration of a law governing the matter will itself expire at midnight on March 31.
The court decision, which goes into effect April 1, comes after the government delayed for days the submission of a proposal to the court for plans to increase ultra-Orthodox military enlistment, and constitutes a sharp indication from the judges that their patience with repeated attempts to put off decisions on the matter is finally running out
Josh Marshall/TPM:
Is the GOP Gonna Break Down?
I don’t think we can count out the possibility that a combination of demoralization and division, structural breakdown and insufficient funding could lead to a dramatic underperformance in GOP congressional and other campaigns this year. Again, I’m not predicting this. I definitely would not bet on it. There’s a very decent chance Republicans could have a trifecta next year, though I’m increasingly dubious about their chances in the House. We can just look back to 2016. The presidential campaign was a total clown show, led by three different campaign managers in succession. Congressional candidates wavered back and forth over what to do about their presidential candidate. And yet, when the dust settled Republicans controlled everything.
But it’s sort of like playing Jenga. After you pull a few pieces out of the tower it starts to get unstable. That’s just a fact. And they’ve already pulled out a few pieces. To use a slightly different metaphor, that mix of division, committee breakdown and underfunding can catalyze each other. But back to Jenga. You can only pull out so many pieces.
Va. Gov. Youngkin arrived like a GOP star, but arena failure clouds legacy
The plan’s failure wipes out a significant legacy-making opportunity for a novice politician who burst onto the scene in 2021 and drew national attention as a fresh Republican face. In his first two years in office, Youngkin enjoyed state coffers overflowing with federal pandemic relief funds and a friendly GOP-controlled House of Delegates. But as the clock winds down on his four-year term, the governor has lost the legislature to Democrats and seen his priorities slip away.
“He’s a total lame duck right now,” said Robert Holsworth, a Richmond political analyst who has studied Virginia governors for decades. “He has shown tremendous political inexperience.”
John Stoehr/The Editorial Board:
Blaming a bridge collapse on ‘DEI’ is part of a pattern of malice
That’s what you need to know.
I’m being facetious, but only slightly, and I’m being only slightly facetious for a reason. Two reasons, actually. One, there’s no point in respecting people who care less about bad things happening (and what to do about them) than the fact that bad things justify, to them, why they hate marginalized people. While most people saw the collapse and felt compassion, they saw it and felt a surge of free-floating animus.
The other point? There’s no point in respecting what they say, either. We have a bad habit of getting into a trap with these people. They lie about something, anything – eg, DEI is why the bridge collapsed – and we defend that thing, as if that’s going to stop them. They don’t care about what they say, not enough to avoid sounding stupid, so why should the rest of us care more than they do about what they say?
Cameron Joseph/CJR:
The Ronna McDaniel incident reveals a deeper dilemma for journalism
The NBC bosses stumbled into this lose-lose situation partly because of internal tensions that news outlets have long faced. It’s been eight and a half years since Donald Trump descended that golden escalator and lodged himself at the center of US politics—and media organizations are still struggling with how to fairly cover him. How do you accurately report on a politician whose allegiance to democracy is as suspect as his track record with the truth—while treating him, his team, and his supporters fairly? How do reporters call out alarming situations or point out falsehoods for what they are, without burning bridges with the sources who can actually reveal where those ideas are coming from? How do you find people who genuinely have insights into Trump’s thinking and knowledge of his operation’s decision-making, without giving his false claims a bullhorn?
Cliff Schecter’s take on the Bible thing: