How many Harvard grads does it take to get a senator elected?

Graham Platner dropped out of the US Senate race in Maine last night, two days after Politico reported on sexual assault allegations against him. The Democratic Party now has two weeks to pick a replacement. I still think satirist Jeff Maurer has the best explanation of how we got here: letting a pair of Harvard grads who have never gotten anyone elected recruit the candidate without even cursory vetting.

Maurer's column today introduces the Youngs to the tale of The Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn, MP ("Your Party"-Islington North), who single-handedly did almost as much damage to the Labour Party as Boris Johnson did to the Tories:

Corbyn was mostly known for hard-left positions such as supporting nationalization of industry, opposing cuts to anything ever for any reason, and having a bunch of interactions with groups like Hezbollah that made you think “Why’d you take that meeting?”

Corbyn’s time as leader was rocky. On the big issue of his day — Brexit — Corbyn waffled. Though he led a party that was firmly — often obnoxiously — pro-Europe, Corbyn had long held the leftist belief that international commerce is a capitalist plot and all goods should be made by the three trade guilds that established dominance in 1605. Corbyn was hostile to the Blairite policies that were responsible for Labour’s last extended spell of success. And he had the typical leftist trouble vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, meaning: He had to deflect (never-proven) allegations that he was a paid Russian agent by arguing that his long history of extremely credulous pro-Soviet statements was provided entirely pro bono.

I can tell you, while gesturing sadly towards my history degree, that most people don't read history. I can also tell you that most people born after 1996 don't read¹.

In other failures of historical analysis this week:

• Jen Rubin thinks Democrats got the Platner thing right: "A willingness to promptly and unequivocally 'police your own side' (an anathema in MAGA circles, where nothing outweighs cultist loyalty) will help distinguish real leaders from the perennially timid pols forever looking over their shoulders."
• Brian Beutler, on the other hand, frets that "the Democratic Party has lost control of itself more completely than at any time I can remember."
• Josh Marshall responds to Matt Yglesias to reinforce his actual point, that Democrats have to have an actual plan for what we'll do when we return to power, because we are likely to do so in 2½ years.
• US Attorney and OAFPOTUS appointee Andrew Boutros didn't mean to violate a Federal magistrate judge's order, Scout's honor!, but the judge in question still wants his ass in her courtroom today.
• Another Chicago judge has ruled that a law prohibiting cannabis dispensaries from opening within 450 m (1,500 ft) of each other is a real law that must be obeyed. (In fairness, the case is a bit more nuanced.)
• Perennial Illinois Republican gubenatorial candidate Darren Bailey has temporarily moved to the South Loop, despite having previously referred to Chicago as a "hellhole."
• Radley Balko examines the current state of racism in law-enforcement and is unhappy.
• Paul Krugman looks at the economics of climate change and is very unhappy.
• Will large language models change the way we speak?

Finally, 84-year-old US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) remains in hospital, bollixing up Senate business and generating rumors that he's mostly² or completely dead.