SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

MANY PEOPLE ARE WORRIED – FROM FOX:   Following the bitterly partisan, acrimonious confirmation battle over Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned in an interview on Tuesday that heated political rhetoric has the potential to turn deadly.  "I fear that there's going to be an assassination," Paul told a Kentucky radio show. "I really worry that somebody is going to be killed, and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation ... they have to realize they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence."  Paul's wife, Kelley, revealed in a Breitbart News interview on Friday that she sleeps with a "loaded gun by my bed," has updated her home's security system and has "deadbolts all around my house." Kelley also wrote an op-ed published by CNN in which she called on Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to tone down his rhetoric; in June, Booker called on his supporters to  “get up in the face of congresspeople.”  I share this concern.  Remember that Republican lawmakers were fired on at a baseball field in Virginia.  It's not if, but when, if the heated rhetoric continues. 

BIAS?  WHAT BIAS?  – FROM MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER:  In four weeks, Americans go to the polls for the midterm elections that the news media are casting as a referendum on the Trump presidency. Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history — 92 percent negative, vs. just eight percent positive.  For this report, MRC analysts reviewed all 1,007 evening news stories (1,960 minutes of airtime) about the Trump administration on ABC, CBS and NBC from June 1 to September 30, tallying the coverage of each topic and all evaluative comments made by anchors, reporters and non-partisan sources (such as voters or experts).  The results show that, over the past four months, nearly two-thirds of evening news coverage of the Trump presidency has been focused on just five main topics: the Russia investigation; immigration policy; the Kavanaugh nomination; North Korea diplomacy; and U.S. relations with Russia. The networks’ coverage of all of these topics has been highly negative, while bright spots for the administration such as the booming economy received extremely little coverage (less than one percent of the four-month total).  This doesn't surprise me.  Journalism as we know it is fading away.  Or, maybe more accurately, it is committing suicide.

IN HOT WATER IN ALASKA – FROM DAILYWIRE.COM:   The Alaska Republican party has requested that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) submit any information she has that might dissuade them from reprimanding her for opposing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  As AP reports, “Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock says the committee could decide to issue a statement. Or he says it could withdraw support of Murkowski, encourage party officials to look for a replacement and ask that she not seek re-election as a Republican.”  Babcock noted that the Alaska GOP has, in the past, withdrawn support for other Republicans who caucused with Democrats.  After Murkowski voted against cloture last Friday, indicating she would vote against him in the senate vote for confirmation to the Supreme Court, Babcock said he was "surprised." He added, "It's significant enough that I'm going to convene the whole state central committee, which is about 80 grassroots volunteers around the state, and we'll start drafting what our response should be.”  Murkowski is less than loved among Alaska Republicans.  There is talk that former Governor Sarah Palin may run against her for the GOP Senate nomination in 2022, but that's a long way off.

October 9, 2018