Joe Klein: “In my book about the evils of political consulting, Politics Lost, I described one of the great descents in the history of negative advertising. The mad genius Pat Caddell was running Senator Alan Cranston’s 1986 re-election campaign in California. There was a problem: Focus groups

A few thoughts for the end of the week.

38 North: “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is more dangerous than it has been at any time since early June 1950.”

“House Freedom Caucus member Eli Crane has joined a growing number of GOP hardliners putting House Speaker Mike Johnson on notice that his job could be on the line if he doesn’t do more to secure conservative priorities,” The Messenger reports. Said Crane: “If things continue to go the way that

“Donald Trump is endorsing an effort by news organizations to provide live television coverage of his trial on federal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,” Politico reports. “In a bombastic legal filing submitted late Friday to the judge who’s