WaPo: “In Louisiana, a state notorious for colorful politicians, Edwin Edwards blazed for half a century, a near-perpetual neon rainbow. The former Louisiana governor and U.S. congressman, 93, who died July 12 of respiratory problems, was a brazen practitioner of the corrupt-politics-as-theatrics style mastered by the legendary Depression-era demagogue Huey Long. Mr. Edwards served three…

NPR: “The city of Charlottesville, Va., removed a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Saturday, toppling a symbol that was at the center of the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017. The statue — along with another of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson that was also to be removed Saturday — will remain…

Bearing Drift: “Lee Atwater’s strategy in this quotation from Alexander Lamis’s 1984 book, The Two-Party South, is on full display in the current Republican apoplectic aneurysm over Critical Race Theory (CRT). As Sir Winston Churchill is credited with saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”  Apparently, if there isn’t a crisis to use, the modern…

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The voting rights group Stacey Abrams founded after losing the 2018 election to Gov. Brian Kemp, Fair Fight, reported Thursday that it has raised another $6 million in the past five months. That’s more than any candidate running for office in 2022, and puts the group over $100 million raised in the past…

NY Times: “As Texas Republicans prepare to force votes next week on far-reaching legislation that would introduce new restrictions on voting, Democrats are left facing a gnawing question: Should they fight or flee? The issue dominated internal discussions on video calls among Democrats in the Texas Legislature this week as lawmakers began a special session, with…

Political Wire: “A new video shows Virginia gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin (R) saying that he has to limit his antiabortion comments for fear of alienating independent voters, but that he would go “on offense” if he wins office and Republicans take a majority in the House of Delegates, the American Independent reports.”

WUNC: “In a detailed written statement, Hannah-Jones described her fond memories of studying journalism in Chapel Hill, but said she could not accept a professorship after how she was treated. She will instead accept a similar offer, with tenure, at Howard University, a private historically Black school. “I won the battle for tenure,” Hannah-Jones wrote. “But…

AP: “Indeed, the preacher-turned-politician spent the Independence Day recess hopscotching from an inland port in the conservative Appalachian foothills to liberal Atlanta’s urban microbreweries and sprawling public hospital, then the suburban defense contractors in between. At each stop, he highlighted the federal money he’s routed — or is trying to route — to his state…

The State: “Richard Quinn Sr., once a top South Carolina Republican consultant, told a state grand jury that Attorney General Alan Wilson was not paying him for drafting press statements and other documents — but that was a lie, according to a new indictment. The new 38-page indictment, issued May 20 and supervised by new…

TX Observer: “The worst may be still to come. Due to delays with the U.S. Census, lawmakers will reconvene this fall for a special session to redraw the state’s political districts.  Over the course of a decade, people move, population ebbs and flows, and demographics change. In theory, lawmakers redraw state political districts every 10…