Good morning,

Whoa: Colin Powell died. Of Covid-related complications. He was 84 and fully vaccinated. For the moment, let’s remember the good, like the time he went on Meet the Press and defended Barack Obama against racist attacks and false suggestions that he was Muslim. It’s worth watching this under-two-minute clip in which Powell says no, he’s not, but so what if he were? “Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America.”

What is going on with the Democrats? This is getting really old. From Punchbowl News Monday morning (subscription only): “There’s daily staff-level discussions between House and Senate leadership aides and committee staffers, along with White House officials, but no one seems willing to make the tough political decisions required in order to reduce a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package to the $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion level that [Joe] Manchin, [Kyrsten] Sinema and other moderates will accept. [Nancy] Pelosi seems like she’s ready to do it, although so far, Senate Majority LeaderChuck Schumer and the White House aren’t willing to go along with House Democrats’ positions on the legislation. At this point, while the message publicly is that there’s ‘progress’ in the discussions, it doesn’t appear to match what’s happening behind the scenes.”

Um, somebody had better make those “tough decisions,” hadn’t they? Surface transportation funding runs out at the end of the month. That’s why Pelosi mentioned an October 31 deadline. 

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe campaigned with Stacey Abrams Sunday in northern Virginia. A video statement from Kamala Harris was sent out to 300 Black churches in the Hampton Roads area. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance-Bottoms hosted an event in Richmond. Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin put out a statement calling Abrams and Bottoms “‘defund the police’ radicals.” So the race is going to the usual predictable place in the closing weeks.

Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 points. Ten. Hillary Clinton won it by nearly six. This would seem to suggest that the Democratic base is solid enough for McAuliffe to eke out a win. The questions are (a) turnout and (b) whether Youngkin’s commercials suggesting (falsely) that McAuliffe wants to silence parents who object to critical race theory will land in places like Loudoun County.

Bill Clinton is out of the hospital. Every time he has a health scare, I am reminded: He is three years younger than the president.

At NewRepublic.com today, Jo Livingstone takes stock of Succession, as the third season debuts. Molly Osberg has a terrific piece on why service workers are at the end of their ropes. Timothy Noah looks ahead to the House January 6 committee’s upcoming vote to hold Steven Bannon in contempt—and back over the dubious history of the concept of “executive privilege.” And Michael Cohen isn’t buying the foreign policy “credibility” argument with respect to Biden and Afghanistan.

Hang in there,

Michael Tomasky, editor

Friday’s political history question: There haven’t been many close Supreme Court confirmations over the past century. Brett Kavanaugh’s 50–48 margin was the narrowest successful vote on a justice since 1881. During that same period, Amy Coney Barrett’s 52–48 vote is the second closest, which tied her with this other Supreme Court justice who was confirmed on this day in … an unnamed year at some point in the twentieth century. (Can’t make it too easy on you!)

Answer: Thirty years ago, on October 15, 1991, the Senate voted to confirm Clarence Thomas by a 52–48 margin. Vice President Dan Quayle returned to Washington in case he was needed to break a tied vote, but 11 Democrats sided with all but two Republicans to confirm Thomas. His three decades on the bench make him the longest-serving member of the current court. While he is well known, at least until recent years, for his general silence from the bench, as our Matt Ford wrote in 2019, he’s “always one of the court’s most prolific writers,” and with the post-Trump supermajority on the court, his unorthodox legal views are gaining increasing sway.

Friday’s bonus pop music and politics question: This week marked the fortieth anniversary of Prince’s classic album Controversy. Three years later, Prince released a dirty ditty that shocked one public figure, leading to the creation of parental advisory stickers on cassettes and CDs. What famous political spouse got upset about which particular Prince song?

Answer: Prince’s late-1970s and early ’80s albums were not particularly subtle about their sexual content. (“Little Red Corvette,” is, umm, not just about a car.) But it wasn’t until Tipper Gore bought her preteen daughter a copy of Purple Rain and heard “Darling Nicki” that his music became a national political matter. The song’s descriptions of masturbation prompted Gore to co-found the Parents Music Resource Center. In September 1985, she even testified before a Senate committee alongside Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider (also with mellow rock star John Denver on the anti-censorship side). 

Little did Gore know, 25 years later she would create a parental advisory moment at her husband’s presidential convention.

Today’s political history question: Thomas Jefferson was the second governor of Virginia. Who was the first? Hint: You know his name. He was kind of a second-tier Founding Father best known for one famous quote.

Bonus history–pop culture question: The Clean Water Act became law on this day in 1972. What incident sparked the movement that led to this law, and which recording artist memorialized it in what song?