SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

A PASSING TO NOTE – FROM FOX:    Roger Mudd, the longtime political correspondent and anchor for NBC and CBS who once stumped Sen. Edward Kennedy by simply asking why he wanted to be president, has died. He was 93.  CBS News says Mudd died Tuesday of complications of kidney failure at his home in McLean, Virginia.  During more than 30 years on network television, starting with CBS in 1961, Mudd covered Congress, elections and political conventions and was a frequent anchor and contributor to various specials. His career coincided with the flowering of television news, the pre-cable, pre-Internet days when the big three networks and their powerhouse ranks of reporters were the main source of news for millions of Americans.  Besides work at CBS and NBC, he did stints on PBS’s "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" and the History Channel.  When he joined Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer’s show in 1987, Mudd told The Associated Press: "I think they regard news and information and fact and opinion with a reverence and respect that really is admirable."  A reporter of the old school, probably not employable today.  He doesn't check off one of the required diversity boxes,

A ONCE-GREAT POLITICAL PARTY – FROM FOX:   The entire Nevada Democratic Party staff quit after a left-wing slate of candidates picked up seats in the party's leadership.  The party's executive director, Alana Mounce, sent an email to Judith Whitmer, who won a spot as the party's chair on Saturday, notifying Whitmer that she and other staff members were resigning.  That included the party's operations director, research director, communications director, and finance director, The Intercept reported Monday.  Whitmer had run as part of the "The NV Dems Progressive Slate," in opposition to the "The Progressive Unity Slate," run by the Democratic Party.  "We weren’t really surprised, in that we were prepared for it," Whitmer told the Intercept. "But what hit us by surprise and was sort of shocking is that for a slate that claimed that they were all about unity, and kept this false narrative of division going on throughout the entire campaign — in fact they kept intensifying that — that’s what was surprising about it, was the willingness to just walk away, instead of working with us."  Many of those who won are formal members of the Democratic Socialists of America.  They have become the real Democratic Party. 

March 9, 2021