I clearly remember Andy E from the 1969 WS, when my Mets upset he and his Orioles. (Sorry, Birds fans. 
)
The wig comes off! 
RIP funny man.
I love that film. His characterization in JB was very interesting; firm… yet equable.
Not a celebrity in life, but probably going to become one now because of the send-off he chose:
Well dammit. I slept a little easier at night knowing he was on the hill.
I saw that this morning… I’m so saddened.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to miss the guy at all, but here’s a more balanced look from a feminist who can see at least a bit of value to his life’s work:
I’m getting a pay wall… do you have another source?
“Prime Exclusive”…not sure why.
How Elijah Cummings Helped Blow Up The Census Citizenship Question
October 17, 2019 11:43 am
The late House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) made investigating the President Trump’s census citizenship question a priority as he retook the gavel this year — and, in that probe, uncovered a key piece of evidence that helped the question’s legal challengers blow open the case.
Much has been written about the role that the files of a now-deceased GOP gerrymandering expert played in the late stages of litigation. But it was an interview done by Cummings’ committee that helped connect one of those documents to how the question was added to the 2020 census.
We’ll never know for sure whether the evidence, showing a discriminatory intent behind adding the question, was what caused Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to swing with the liberals to block the question. It was not within the record that the high court was examining.
But given that Roberts reportedly changed his vote, it’s been speculated that it might have made an impact.
More...
Regardless, Cummings’ relentless digging into the issue — even as other flashy Oversight investigations were more likely to get newspaper headlines and cable news hits — showed his commitment to voting rights.
Cummings’ investigation helped connect to the Trump administration the files that the question’s legal challengers found on the back-up drives of Thomas Hofeller, a GOP redistricting expert who died last year, which were turned over to them by his estranged daughter. They had found a document apparently written by Hofeller laying out the bogus justification — that data from the question would enhance Voting Rights Act enforcement — the Trump administration would ultimately adopt when explaining why it was adding a question.
A document including Hofeller’s ghostwritten language had previously been turned over to the legal challengers in discovery, but until they had Hofeller’s files, they were unaware who wrote it or how it got to the Justice Department, which had made the formal request for the question.
An interview by the Oversight Committee helped to further clear up the picture. The committee questioned John Gore, the DOJ official who authored the formal request, and quickly released the interview’s biggest revelation: that, while working on the request, he was given a draft of the request by Mark Neuman, an outside Commerce Department advisor.
The draft, it turned out, included the VRA justification that the legal challengers had found on Hofeller’s files. Also among Hofeller’s files was a 2015 memo he wrote concluding that a census citizenship question would be necessary to implement a redistricting overhaul that would boost Republicans by shrinking the political representation of Latinos.
Altogether the evidence showed that Hofeller was more involved in adding the question than previously known and that he pushed for it knowing that it would dilute the political power of immigrants communities, to the benefit the GOP.
The Supreme Court already had heard the case and was working on its decision when the key pieces of this puzzle emerged. But the evidence was enough for a trial court judge in Maryland to want to re-examine his findings of insufficient evidence of discriminatory intent, while a judge in New York is still considering sanctions against the Trump administration for obscuring Hofeller’s role.
With all this, it’s worth stepping back to look at the passion Cummings brought to the census investigation.
It was by no means the sexiest investigation on the Hill, as House Democrats launched their various oversight inquiries into President Trump. In scrums with Cummings, I was usually the only reporter asking him questions about the status of the investigation, as most of the Hill press was focused on the probes that directly tied back to the President.
Yet Cummings dug in and always made sure to mention it when talking about his oversight endeavors generally. He even brought it up after Michael Cohen’s bombshell public testimony.
His confrontation with the administration’s stonewalling in the census probe culminated in contempt of Congress votes on the floor for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Attorney General Bill Barr. To this day they are the only two administration figures who have been held a contempt by the full House — a sign of how significant House Democrats, led by Cummings, thought the census issue was.
“The Departments of Justice and Commerce have been engaged in a campaign to subvert our laws and the processes Congress put in place to maintain the integrity of the Census,” Cummings said at the time of the contempt vote. “The resolution before us today is about protecting our democracy. “
Does anyone know how to do a “fold” in Discourse? Thanks @anon36155390!
Thank you for posting this. It just brings home to me how valuable Cummings was in our national politics. I grieve with his district today.
We need more lock-jawed bulldogs like Elijah Cummings. The man is a legend. And of course had many other great qualities. But his focus was unreal. So sad to see him go.
