Insight: “All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.” —H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Friendly fire I: “My guess is the majority of Americans with a net worth of $50 to $300 million would get a tax cut under the Build Back Better plan with a full repeal of SALT. The bill would do more for the super-rich than it does for climate change, childcare or preschool. That’s obscene.” —Jason Furman, former chairman of Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers

Friendly fire II: “What went wrong is stupid wokeness. Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey. Look at Long Island. Buffalo. Look at Minneapolis. Even look at Seattle, Washington. I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this ‘take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools’ — people see that. And it really has a suppressive effect on all across the country on Democrats. Some of these people need to go to a woke detox center or something.” —James Carville

Squirrel! “People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things, from COVID to school to jobs to a whole range of things and the cost of a gallon of gasoline. And so if I’m able to pass and sign into the law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly.” —Joe Biden’s pivot from why Demos performed badly in Virginia to what will fix it

Non sequitur: “These rising fuel prices in fossil fuels tell us why we’ve got to go down on diversifying our fuel supply to go for clean.” —Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

Missing context: “The gas prices, of course, are based upon a global oil market. That oil market is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is OPEC.” —Jennifer Granholm (“Lady, YOU GUYS are the ones who decided to shut down all American energy production in order to ship billions of barrels of oil on cargo ships across the world’s oceans from mostly totalitarian countries! Stop blaming OPEC!” —Joel Abbott)

Race bait I: “Part of the problem with the Obama coalition, unfortunately, you know, are — there are a lot of Americans who don’t want to deal with the history. They don’t want to deal with it and they might have voted for Obama but they’re in that coalition too. But when confronted with the opportunity to say, ‘Who really was Thomas Jefferson?’ they don’t want to. And so they’ll leave the coalition in a heartbeat.” —MSNBC’s Joy Reid

Race bait II: “The exit polls showed that … the coronavirus … was a very — of not importance to many voters. It was education, which is code for white parents don’t like the idea of teaching about race.” —Joy Reid

Race bait III: “Critical Race Theory is … the most … eloquent, quite frankly, iteration of the southern strategy and a way, quite frankly, to tribalize an election and tribalize an electorate in way to … drive up the white vote.” —MSNBC political analyst Cornell Belcher

Race bait IV: “The only reason that we’re talking about Critical Race Theory is because Glenn Youngkin had 18 months to convince people that he was not a fire-breathing, horns-out-of-his-skull racist.” —MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson

Race bait V/BIG Lie I: “Someone who came across as less of a moderate voice might not have been able to pull off the Critical Race Theory thing because they might just come across like a flat-out racist. I think Youngkin … was able to convince voters, including a lot of those white women voters, you know, that he’s not a racist and he thinks race should be taught but it just shouldn’t be this Critical Race Theory, which of course doesn’t exist.” —former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe

The BIG Lie II: “[Youngkin] worshipped at the altar of Donald Trump on Fox News. He flew an insurrection flag at his rallies. … He did not really put much distance between himself and Donald Trump on the big lie or the deadly insurrection. … The real ominous thing is that Critical Race Theory, which isn’t real, turned the suburbs 15 points to the Trump insurrection-endorsed Republican.” —MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace

The BIG Lie III: “Trump-approved Republican Glenn Youngkin’s closing message to Virginia voters has almost singularly focused on weaponizing race, stoking hysteria over the coded boogeyman of Critical Race Theory, which is not currently taught in any Virginia public school.” —Joy Reid

The BIG Lie IV: “[CRT] was a phony issue. It certainly is in Virginia, where it isn’t taught. But people believe what they want to believe.” —University of Virginia Center for Politics professor Larry Sabato

The BIG Lie V: “Critical Race Theory was a lie. And I think we need to go on offense a little bit and Terry McAuliffe tried to do this. Say it’s a lie. They know it’s a lie. But are you scared for your kids to learn about slavery or lynching or housing discrimination?” —David Plouffe

And last… “Every swing-state Democrat rep is terrified right now. Do the math on a 15 point swing to the GOP nationwide.” —Will Chamberlain