First, the revelations about the Trump White House in Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book are shocking. Many White House officials do not respect the president, and they’re quite happy to leak damaging anecdotes about him. For anyone who spent time in Washington during the Bush and Obama years — when both presidents were largely revered by their staffs — it’s a jarring change.

But it is no longer surprising. It’s been abundantly clear for a long time that President Trump is unfit for the office — and that the people who work for him somehow manage both to disdain him and to continue protecting him at the expense of the country. For more, read The Washington Post’s summary of the book and Jonathan Chait’s commentary about it for New York magazine.

The Supreme Court. The raucous opening day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing wasn’t, for the most part, about him. It was about the Republican Party’s hardball, rule-changing tactics in transforming the federal courts.

“Democrats are driving home that Republicans keep changing the rules,” Vox’s Tara Golshan wrote. In particular, Democrats yesterday were blasting the last-minute release — without time for scrutiny — of tens of thousands of documents related to Kavanaugh’s time as a White House aide during George W. Bush’s presidency.