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The US Senate has grown contemptible… and other commentary

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From the right: A Factory of Suspicion and Contempt The Senate’s role as a deliberative body assumes “a certain level of competence, collegiality and goodwill…
From the right: A Factory of Suspicion and Contempt
The Senate’s role as a deliberative body assumes “a certain level of competence, collegiality and goodwill among its members” — none of which has been displayed by lead Judiciary Committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein, asserts The Washington Post’s Michael Gerson. Waiting until the end of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to leak the allegation against him “blindsided Feinstein’s colleagues, denied the nominee a proper chance to confront the accusation and launched an important public issue under a partisan cloud.” Yet Republicans, too, “have demonstrated an undeniable ruthlessness in the Supreme Court nomination process.” Small wonder that both sides of the political aisle now largely view the Senate with little more than “suspicion and contempt.”
Political scribe: What Next for Andrew Cuomo?
Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg is talking yet again about running for president, and City Journal’s Bob McManus speculates on what this would mean for a presumably re-elected Gov. Cuomo. He seems “well-positioned” to run himself, but beyond the prospect of Bloomberg spending millions on the race, Cuomo also faces some “potential vexations” — namely, the “emergence of a tougher brand of left-wing politicking” in last week’s legislative primaries. For all of Cynthia Nixon’s charges, Cuomo “has for most part governed from the center.” And he knows that New York “is just one market correction removed from a budget crisis that will rival those of the past,” so “he can’t be looking forward to the coming legislative session.” Moreover, “historically, third terms are not kind to New York incumbents.”
Conservative: No ‘Concern’ Over Past Dem Sex Assaults
Power Line Blog’s Paul Mirengoff finds it “amusing, in a sickening sort of way,” to hear Senate Democrats refuse to support a Supreme Court nominee they say has been “credibly” accused of assaulting a woman in high school. Because none of them have complained about Democratic colleagues “credibly accused of, and in at least two cases admitting, assaulting women.” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s ex-wife was hit with a restraining order after she said he “threw her up against a wall and showed ‘physical violence and [an] abusive nature.’ ” Delaware Sen. Tom Carper “admits he gave his ex-wife a black eye.” New Jersey Sen. Cory “Spartacus” Booker wrote about groping a friend while in high school. And Rep. Keith Ellison, “credibly accused of assaulting two women as an adult,” remains the Democratic nominee for Minnesota attorney general.
Liberal take: The Problem With All Those Lefty Profs
In recent years, notes Bloomberg’s Cass Sunstein, “concern has grown over what many people see as a left-of-center political bias at colleges and universities.” And that seems to be borne out by an “eye-popping” recent study by a Brooklyn College professor of the political affiliations of faculty at 51 of the top-rated liberal-arts colleges. It found not one university or academic field with more Republicans than Democrats. Moreover, “over a third of them had no Republicans at all.” That, says Sunstein, is “genuinely disturbing,” especially in fields like history, political science and law, “where the professor’s political perspective might well make a difference.” Because “if academic hiring is skewed along ideological lines, the march toward uniformity” and the prevailing orthodoxy “might be self-reinforcing.”
Senator: We Need More Advanced Nuclear Reactors
Ever since the first peaceful reactor (in Arco, Idaho) went online in 1955, the United States has been the global nuclear-industry leader. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) at the Washington Examiner warns that our domestic fleet of reactors — 104 in recent years, all safely generating clean energy,” with “plans for many more on the horizon” — is “not growing, but shrinking.” Fact is, those plans “have mostly been shelved,” with only two new reactors under construction. Aging plants are being “economically challenged” by competition from natural gas and subsidized renewables; others are being closed prematurely. This means we’re losing a source of clean energy, even as US electricity needs are forecast to grow 29 percent by 2040. Even more problematic, our nuclear leadership is being threatened by “countries that could put world security interests at risk.”
— Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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