PLATNER, ISRAEL, MORNING.

LIFE AND NEWS NOTES FROM A CHILDLESS CAT LADY BEAVERING AWAY IN ONE OF THE SUB-BASEMENTS OF THE MINISTRY OF SNARK: Graham Platner
Article: Goldberg, Michelle (7/6/26) Lessons from the Graham Platner disaster. New York Times.
• Michelle Goldberg, opinion writer for the NYT, characterizes Platner’s race a “shameful catastrophe.”
• Platner has denied the accusation.
• “The Platner campaign represented an electoral insurgency against the Democratic Party; now there are going to be furious recriminations against those who launched it.”
• Goldberg blames Platner most of all for putting everyone in this situation. Goldberg also blames the “progressive operatives who recruited Platner and were so infatuated with his identity.” They failed to do their due diligence. The WSJ reported that his campaign didn’t want to pay for a thorough background check.
• She also blames Chuck Schmer, who wanted to stop Platner and so tried to clear the field for his candidate, Janet Mills, Maine’s 78 year old governor. This cleared the field to that Platner could fill the vacuum.
• Another populist candidate, Dan Kleban, considered running but was made to believe that if he ran, Democrats in Washington would make it difficult for him because they were supporting Mills.

Wednesday 8 July 2026
It was beautiful here this morning, standing on the dock, watching the egrets fend for breakfast with our oldest cat, Jake da Mouth. There was a gentle breeze which displaced the usual insufferable daily heat. It was lovely.
Rahm Emanuel is in Tel Aviv, Israel telling Palestinians and Israelis they will “never have their way.” I have no idea what the deal is here, but it has to do with advancing Emanual’s career. That’s for sure. I will repeat what I tweeted something like a year ago: “The last thing the Democratic Party needs is Rahm Emanuel.” Emanuel replied, but I don’t remember what he said. It wasn’t nice, however, and he wasn’t interested in my reasoning.
Shorts:
· Trump says the cease fire is over.
· In addition, he noted:
· The “Islamic Republic of Japan.”
· The fact that he was “number 1 at tic toc.”
· He then repeatedly asked the press, while holding his hand out gesturing to Zelensky who was sitting beside him: “Do you have a question for President Putin.”

Article: Pequeno, Sara (7/8/26) “I was wrong about Graham Platner…” USA Today.
· “The candidate has lost any grace he had earned through his politics.”
· “Democrats…have abandoned Platner.”
· Jenny Racicot, alluded to the alleged assault in an article in the New York Times, but then went further in an interview with Politico. (Note: She felt that another of Platner’s accusers had been treated unfairly because she (the other accuser) was a Republican and political motives were ascribed to her.)
· Platner is still denying the accusations.
· The reporter, Pequeno, writes that she wrote previously that she was “willing to overlook the thornier areas of Platner’s past.” She says that Platner also “won me over” with his “perceived willingness to take accountability for previous wrongdoings.” She sees him no longer willing to do this.
· The Democratic party is the only one having these conversations.
Article: Sommerfeldt, Chris and Erin Doherty (7/8/26) “Platner campaign quietly polls…” Politico.
· Platner’s staff is quietly polling to see who might be best to replace him. Included were match ups between Collins and former Maine state Senate President Troy Jackson, and Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows. Jackson is a former Platner ally and he tested best of those considered.
· Platner also canceled all planned fundraisers.
· Wen Platner’s team contacted the Maine Democratic Party to consult over a replacement, it resulted in “a conversation that turned contentious.”
· The party says they are committed to an “open, transparent and inclusive” process to select a replacement and stressed that no candidate would be chosen by just one individual campaign.
· On Wednesday, campaign manager Ben Chin sent a text message to volunteers “accusing the state party of bringing in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee” and effectively cutting the Platner team out. They want to make sure that an establishment-picked candidate doesn’t take Platner’s place.
· The state party reacted as if they had been attacked, accusing the Platner campaign of “distracting from the job of defeating Susan Collins.”
Podcast: (7/8/26) “How a must-win race…imploded.” Apple News Today.
· Apple News calls it “nothing short of a political earthquake.” Nothing in state law dictates a particular path of choosing a replacement.
· Since there is not enough time to put this before the voters it would have to be a situation in which “party elites effectively choose a candidate that they want…”
· The party backed candidate Janet Mills was already rejected by the voters in the primary.
· The details of this “political earthquake” mimic those of a larger split within the Democratic party.
· (Note: It is obvious Democratic voters are furious with the party elite and recent votes demonstrate that they want someone who is new and different.)
· The party is saying, this is what happens when you get somebody new and different, Graham Platner. The “You” in this sentence is the left wing of the party.
Article: Merica, Dan, alexei Koseff and Joanna slater (7/7/26) “Democratic factions vie…” Washington Post.
· The establishment wing of the party blames the Platner campaign for jeopardizing their chances to beat Collins. They are, therefore, not exactly thrilled about the idea of the Platner campaign having a say in who would replace Platner.
· (Note: But, Planter is the only candidate who has been picked by the people of Maine. Whatever he has done, it can be argued that he should have some say about the politics of his replacement. Otherwise, the situation is one with which the Democratic base is all to familiar, and which has generated real anger and distrust of the party elite. Anybody they choose will have that taint. The only way to get away from that is to allow the Platner campaign to have a say, and present a united front with the Platner campaign. This looks impossible at the moment.)
· Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson has characterized the Planter campaign’s efforts as an “attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like.” Murphy-Anderson said tht the Platner campaign has “no role.”
· Planter and other left wing interests want to ensure that if Platner leaves “his replacement is ideologically aligned with Platner’s progressive politics.”
· (Of all the irritating, failure prone, annlying of the Democratic elite, Neera Tanden, head of the Center for American Progress, responded in a typical manner: “People who got us into this mess – who vouched for this candidate after three different scandals and kept telling us there were going to be no more – may want to take a break from Main strategiving” she said in a social media post.
· All this exposes the lack of trust between the party and the base and what is referred to as the “insurgent wing” represented by Platner.
· Potential candidates: Nirav Shah, a former Maine health official who finished second in a gubernatorial primary. He proposed a televised debate and multiple town halls as a process for replacing Platner. He is “viewed skeptically” by some of Platner’s supporters.
· Troy Jackson, who also ran in the gubernatorial primary is a former state Senate President. Many of Platner’s supports have gravitated to him.
· Jackson told a reporter that he would be the best person to replace Platner.
· Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) texted that Jackson share Planter’s “opposition to foreign wars, support for Medicate for all and focus on removing money from politics.
· One interviewee in Main said: “Platner may be over, bur the campaign isn’t over.” John Raby, 82, said ‘felt like somebody had punched me in the gut.” (Note: I have to admit to feeling that way myself.)
Article: “Several possible Platner replacements are saying ‘no thanks.” Portland Press Herald.
· “Platner often spoke on the campaign trial about engaging in a “politics of power”; Unswerving advocates of the working class had to seize control of American government from the political establishment, Republicans and Democrats alike.” (Note: this explains Neera Tanden’s ire.)
· Often mentioned is Professor Heather Cox Richardson, but she has declined.
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