That’s one of the inescapable conclusions one can draw from congressional Republicans’ compliant response to President Trump’s blatant unconstitutional power grabs. They hate big government more than they love constitutional niceties. …. Sorry, it has to be said. We’re living through truly historic days in America.  

P.S. – The NYT has a handy-dandy list of the dizzying array of Trump’s orders and actions since Jan. 20, some of them legitimate exercises in powers, many of them not.  

P.S. II – Scot Lehigh at the Globe has more on Trump’s power grab. Scot’s not counting on congressional Republicans to stop our king wannabe.

The Globe’s Joan Vennochi has an excellent column on Josh Kraft’s pluses and minuses as a new mayoral candidate. I liked this graf from Joan’s piece regarding Mayor Wu:

“But Kraft also knows that Wu’s biggest weakness is not policy. It’s the perception of how she goes about implementing it. As he said in his speech, “We have a leader that just does not listen. Too often, Mayor Wu acts as if she alone has all the answers. Whether it’s housing, schools, neighborhood services, or bike lanes, instead of listening to community voices … too often she’s tuning them out.”

Wu’s a true-believer progressive, that’s for sure. She’s not a flexible, pragmatic progressive like Gov Maura Healey. That’s one of my biggest gripes about the mayor. …

I was somewhat impressed by Josh Kraft’s launch of his mayoral campaign yesterday. He didn’t look and sound like a newcomer to politics. No rookie stumbles and gaffes, etc. Instead, he sounded confident and prepared as he spoke to the cameras with an obligatory diverse group of supporters in the background. … OK, so that’s a style-over-substance view. But Contrarian Boston’s Scott Van Vooris was also impressed by his first-day focus on housing costs. “He’s sure picked a great issue to run on,” he writes. … The Globe’s Adrian Walker questions whether going all negative on Mayor Wu is enough to win in the fall. … And Wu is already hitting back at Kraft’s newfound Boston residency, as the Herald reports. …

My money’s still on Wu, an incumbent with a proven track record of winning citywide elections. She’s vulnerable. But not that vulnerable.

This doesn’t look like a recovery to me. The BBJ has the details. … Mayor Wu, take note. 

As Democrats gathered in D.C. this past weekend to select a new DNC chair, there was no shortage of media stories and columns about what ails the party. Check out some of the weekend headlines. From the NYT: “Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities.” … From Rahm Emanuel at the Post: “Democrats have become the party of permissiveness. That’s ballot box poison.” … From Michael Bloomberg at the WSJ: “Democratic Politicians Are in Denial on the Education Crisis.” … And back to the NYT: “‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump.”

Update – From the Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait, post-DNC conference:

“The good news about the DNC, for those who prefer that the country have a politically viable alternative to the authoritarian personality cult currently running it, is that the official Democratic Party has little power. The DNC does not set the party’s message, nor will it determine its next presidential candidate. The bad news is that the official party’s influence is so meager, in part because the party has largely ceded it to a collection of progressive activist groups.”

I just loved this passage from Peggy Noonan’s latest column at the WSJ:

“As I watched (the tech titans) at the inauguration I abstracted. It was like Elon is passing the solid gold phone to Mark Zuckerberg, who nods and passes it to Jeff Bezos, who passes it to Sam Altman, who marvels at its weight and shine.

“That of course is taken from the scene in ‘The Godfather Part II’ in which the American business behemoths sit at a conference table in the palace of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, as he communicates they’re safe with him because he loves business.”

Is there something in the water at the WSJ? First, an editorial lauding Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Now this editorial blasting President Trump’s tariffs on our top three trading partners. … Of course, it’s not the water (I think). But it is a rare example these days of a conservative business institution standing up to Trump on principle. And it’s a Rupert Murdoch-owned institution. … If only Murdoch’s Fox News would follow suit. But Fox’s business model requires constant us-versus-them outrage and divisiveness, so you’re not going to see much change there. … Btw: Here’s the Globe’s man-bites-dog story on the WSJ’s editorial on Warren.

Update – From the AP at WCVB: “Trump says Americans could feel ‘some pain’ from his new tariffs that are triggering a trade war.”