I knew MSNBC would need to find something new to do with its time after the Mueller report cleared Trump of collusion.

I did not know that that new thing would be dunking on Democrats. Over their vote on the Green New Deal, of all things.

Words you won’t often read here: Katy Tur is correct. I made the same point yesterday about 2020 Dems trying to have it both ways on the vote, being “half-pregnant” on the GND by endorsing it publicly and then hedging their bets by voting present on the Senate floor. The best Hirono can do to justify it is note that McConnell held the vote to try to divide Democrats. Right — because the legislation itself is divisive. Left-wing panderers like the 2020 field and remake-the-world imbeciles like AOC think it’s just grand, or pretend to for their own electoral purposes; moderates with purpler constituencies back home look at the cost and the goofy excesses about farting cows and run screaming. Nothing aggravates the tension within Team Blue between the progressive sans-culottes and the centrist freshmen who actually knocked off Republicans in last year’s midterms like the GND. (Well, maybe Ilhan Omar riffing on dual loyalty does.) If you don’t like having to take a tough vote on it, don’t promote it incessantly and basically dare McConnell to call your bluff.

For fark’s sake, Hirono even makes a point here of noting that the legislation is “an aspirational document that says we recognize the science behind climate change unlike Trump and the Republicans.” If it’s merely aspirational, all the more reason to cowboy up and vote for it. Defend it on those grounds on the trail: “I voted yes to signal that global warming is an urgent priority and that no proposal, however ambitious, should be ruled out at first blush.” Then, when you’re inevitably confronted about the $93 trillion price tag, you can change the subject to white privilege or whatever.

While we’re on the subject of MSNBC, the news wires are full this morning with pieces about the network’s Mueller misfortune, in case your schadenfreude itch still hasn’t been fully scratched.

Maddow, who has consistently vied for the first or second top-rated cable news program, was sixth on Monday evening, down almost 500,000 total viewers from the previous Monday, as was MSNBC’s second top-rated program in primetime, The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell… According to network insiders, viewers can expect to hear less about Trump’s alleged collusion with Russians—which Barr has declared an investigative dead end—both from the cable outlet’s anchors and its paid contributors… “Time to pivot to 2020,” they said.

“There are shows that built their identity around this,” said one journalist to Vanity Fair about MSNBC’s predicament. “Where does that go?” It goes to the Democratic presidential primary, of course. And to reminding viewers occasionally that Mazie Hirono is a bad senator even by 2019 standards.