SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET: 

PROMISE KEPT – FROM THE POLITICO:   Two House Committees on Monday asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Hillary Clinton perjured herself on the email controversy while testifying before Benghazi Committee investigators in October.  Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chafe (R-Utah) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) sent the referral to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, asking him to probe claims Clinton made during the hearing last fall that have proved false.   Chaffetz promised last week that he'd do this, and he's kept his word.  It's more trouble for Hillary, with a possible perjury charge resulting.  However, let's be realistic.  It's highly unlikely that Loretta Lynch's Justice Department will do anything that would hurt Hillary's election chances.

BAYH AND BAYH – FROM THE HILL:   Former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh’s decision to jump into the Indiana Senate race has upended the battle for the Senate majority in 2016 by expanding the map for Democrats.  The former senator’s impending decision to run for Senate, confirmed by a source familiar with the plan, comes after the party’s previous nominee, former Rep. Baron Hill, stepped aside Monday.  It’s the Democratic Party’s answer to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whose surprise announcement to run for reelection last month made him the instant favorite in a seat Democrats had hoped to flip.  Bayh’s move upends the strategy for a seat many saw as an easy win for the GOP.  Democrats need to gain four seats to retake the Senate majority in November if they retain the White House, and five if they do not.   Bayh comes from a famous political family.  He is popular, and one of the few sane Democrats around.  If elected, he becomes an instant presidential contender for 2020, should Hillary not be elected in November.  Problem is, the Democratic Party isn't looking for sane moderates.

DISGRACEFUL – FROM THE HILL:   Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) said Friday that if the Department of Justice had been investigating the Orlando nightclub shooter instead of her, the 49 people killed in the massacre there last month would still be alive.  Brown was charged with 24 counts of fraud late last week, after being accused of using a college scholarship fund as “a personal slush fund.”  “These are the same agents that was not able to do a thorough investigation of [shooter Omar Mateen], and we ended up with 50 people dead,” Brown said. Mateen was shot and killed by police at the scene of the Orlando nightclub attack, bringing the total death toll to 50.   Brown’s lawyer echoed those sentiments.  “Perhaps had it chosen to devote its resources more thoughtfully, 50 innocent people would be alive today,” Elizabeth White said, according to First Coast News.  Prosecutors allege that the Florida lawmaker and her chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, used her office to solicit hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to the fake charity.  On Sunday, Brown seemed to draw parallels from her situation to the shootings of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling and the police officers in Dallas.  “Two black men were needlessly gunned down by police; five Dallas police officers were slain by a demented man, and on Friday I had to appear in federal court,” she wrote on her blog, as reported by BuzzFeed News. “I’m not the first black elected official to be persecuted and, sad to say, I won’t be the last.”   Easy winner of the Urgent Agenda bad-taste award for 2016.

July 11, 2016