'BradCast' 4/13/2018 (Guest: Author David Faris of Roosevelt University)
On one of the ugliest political days in recent memory, we fight our way out of the slime to look beyond the near horizon for how progressives can change structural impediments in our political system. But first, we cover Donald Trump's stunning pardon of felon and former Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, and his enraged tarring of\xa0 former Republican FBI Director James Comey as a "liar\u201d and a "slime ball". Looking towards a brighter future, DAVID FARIS, political science professor at Roosevelt University and author of the new book, 'It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics', outlines a number of radical ideas for a progressive institutional restructuring of our democracy which, he says, can and should be carried out as soon as Democrats regain control of the House, Senate and White House. The "procedural proposals\u201d he describes include statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, breaking California into several smaller states, and transformation of our federal judiciary, among several others. Faris argues his proposals are no more radical than ideas that Republicans have been instituting for decades and plan to implement in the near future, unless they are blocked from doing so. Also today:\xa0 the U.S. Senate confirms former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler as second in command at the EPA, who would take charge of the agency should embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt exit. Wealthy Trump donor Elliot Broidy steps down as the RNC's deputy finance chair after revelations that he paid a Playboy playmate $1.6 million to keep quiet about an affair \u2013 brokered by Donald Trump's personal attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen, whose office and residences were raided at the beginning of the week.