SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT

FASCINATING – FROM THE HILL:    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) predicted former President Trump's daughter-in-law Lara will benefit from his second acquittal in an impeachment trial this weekend.   "The biggest winner of this whole impeachment trial is Lara Trump," Graham said on "Fox News Sunday." "My dear friend Richard Burr, who I like and have been friends to a long time, just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs, and I’ll certainly be behind her because she represents the future of the Republican Party.”  Burr, a Republican senator who is retiring,  voted to convict Trump on Saturday on the sole article of inciting an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol earlier this year.  I've seen and heard Lara Trump in speechmaking mode.  She's terrific.  Bright, articulate, knowledgeable.  She could win, but much depends on how the Trump name will play in North Carolina.

I'M SO SHOCKED – FROM FOX:   Minneapolis on Friday backtracked on its original push to defund the city’s police department in the wake of George Floyd’s police custody death after residents begged the city to hire more officers, citing longer response times and increased violent crime.  The City Council on Friday voted unanimously to approve $6.4 million in additional funding that police had requested.  The department says it only has 638 officers available to work — roughly 200 fewer than usual. An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave after Floyd's death and the unrest that followed.  With new recruit classes, the city anticipates it will have 674 officers available at the end of the year, with another 28 in the hiring process, the Star Tribune reported.  I'm shocked that fewer officers have resulted in higher crime.  Why, what true intellectual would think that?

February 14, 2021