Get More Smarter on Wednesday (September 5)

At the very least, we promise not to make you any dumber. It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The Washington Post has the latest on Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh:

In his first morning fielding questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kavanaugh refused to answer an inquiry about whether a president must respond to a subpoena, an issue that could come before the Supreme Court in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“I can’t give you an answer on that hypothetical question,” he told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

Feinstein had asked Kavanaugh about his views on investigations involving a sitting president. In the 1990s, Kavanaugh was a member of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s team investigating President Bill Clinton, and took a hard line on questioning the president about what he called lies and “revolting behavior” involving intern Monica Lewinsky.

As James Hohmann writes for the Washington Post, Kavanaugh’s first day of hearings on Tuesday demonstrated the “institutional decline” of the U.S. Senate.

 
► Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh made other disconcerting headlines on Tuesday when he apparently refused to shake the hand of the father of a student killed in the Parkland High School shooting in Florida.
 

► The latest fundraising numbers for Colorado legislative races are now available, and the news is not good for Senate Republicans.

► The League of Conservation Voters is spending big bucks on a new ad targeting Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora) over his poor record on environmental issues. As Ernest Luning writes for the publication formerly known as the Colorado Statesman:

LCV Victory Fund, the political arm of the League of Conservation Voters, plans to spend $663,000 on the 30-second ad, which all but accuses Coffman of causing “cancer, asthma, and heart and lung disease” by voting to let donors “spew dangerous toxins” into the air and water. As ominous music plays over grainy images of belching smokestacks, the ad also ties Coffman to President Donald Trump, dubbed “the worst polluter of all.”

The ad — LCV’s first in a House race this cycle — is slated to run for two weeks on broadcast and cable channels, the group said.

Coffman campaign spokesperson Tyler Sandberg tried to point to one of Coffman’s regular fence-sitting positions on the environment, but that argument against the LCV ad didn’t work out:

While Sandberg listed Coffman’s vote last month against a Republican-sponsored amendment to gut the EPA’s rules on methane emissions as an example of bucking his party to side with the environment, Roberts dismissed the argument, pointing to a Coffman vote in favor of the same amendment a year ago.

► Democrat Jared Polis is promoting a new economic message in his bid for Governor.

► We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Nobody rides fences quite like Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Aurora).