I zipped through the papers this morning....no news there (unless it's the coronavirus).
Without a big surprise today, the president will be acquitted of "inappropriate" behavior (Sen. Lamar Alexander's word). The consequences?
1. The Democrats plus the Socialist will gradually winnow the field for the opposition to Trump in November. Who can really pull it off?
2. The Republican Senators, especially Collins, Murkowski, Booker, (except, Alexander who is retiring) will face uphill re-election battles. Here's hoping Leader McConnell will too. The whole party should get a shellacking in November. Likely? Unlikely?
3. Sycophant Dershowitz should be disbarred, even if he is appointed the next AG.
4. The Democratic National Committee is virtually brain dead. Can it be resuscitated?
5. The mirror being held up in the U.S. today: the Swamp is rising.
6. Here's to a better new day, November 4! Save the Republic. If we can.
George Conway at the WashPost gets it.
Don't let the defense fool you. This impeachment is all about corruption.
I just heard Dershowitz' "public interest" argument against impeachment. It would have been a great time for a pie-in-the-face. Where are those pie-in-the-face guys when you need them? Jailed, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI like the pie in the face idea. Or better yet, a bucket of slime. I was a bad mom who let my kids watch "You Can't Do That on Television". Buckets of slime frequently made an appearance.
DeleteYeah, cream pies are useful. For that matter, what ever happened to the "ice bucket challenge"?
DeleteI especially agree with your #5.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the George Conway link; he tells it like it is. Can't help wondering if he and KellyAnne will stay married once this is all over. They must have some awkward dinner table discussions. Or maybe they don't have discussions.
Of course corruption is the whole point. The articles of impeachment are just the tip of the iceberg. I wonder if it would have made any difference if the House had broadened their case. Probably not.
About your #4, I'm not arguing that they're not brain dead. But what would you particularly like to see them do differently?
Brain Dead DNC: They mess up in 2016 by allowing Hillary Clinton to be their candidate early. They're messing up in 2020 by turning the nominating process over to pollsters and people willing to gamble on a candidate.
DeleteWe Chicagoan have said this before: what was wrong with pols in smoky rooms that sorted through the possible candidates, casting aside the ne'er do wells, ego maniacs, and people who would strangle their mothers for an inheritance. They would decide who was electable because they knew their constituents.
Okay..no longer white guys only; okay no smoking; and by definition some ego maniacs would be allowed.
Most professions have exams and "boards" that you have to pass to work in that profession; in some cases hurdles to even apply to study in a program. Think LSATs, MCATs, etc. A presidential candidate is applying to run the country. Seems like they ought to be able to pass some type of basic competency evaluation. That would weed out a whole bunch of them. Including Trump.
DeleteYeah,I don't know why they seemed to settle on HRC early on. Guess they thought it was her turn, or something. That usually doesn't work out the way they want it to.
HRC turned out to run a bad campaign. If she had had more competition early on, the staff, the strategy and the message might have improved. I have always thought it was a bad idea to marginalize Bill Clinton. He was the real pol in the family and he would have likely steered the campaign away from some goofy slogans and toward better choices in campaigning (e.g., Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania). Hillary Clinton should become a case study on how not to run a campaign when a woman.
DeleteMaybe I'm a little vehement on this because my better half sat through 2016 admiring her speeches, her style, her campaign. I told him it wasn't working. Yes, I voted her (what choice did I have?) but I was right about the campaign and about the candidate. He gave them an A; I say a D was generous.
And, since were on the subject, Hillary Clinton's vendetta against Sanders will be grist for the Trump campaign. If you can't say something nice, keep quiet.
DeleteThat is "since we're on the subject."
DeleteYes, Trump has already tweeted about how Bernie is getting shafted again.
DeleteGeorge Conway is the Cassandra of the GOP, I fear. Let it re-organize as a more inclusive Capitalist Party and marginalize the deplorable back to their survivalist enclaves.
ReplyDeleteThe DNC seems to be proving the old maxim I pointed out about the Sanders-Warren squabble: Surround a bunch of leftists with enemies, and they will turn on each other. And all of these people are left of center to some degree. I don't think they're fixable, and I think in 20 years, Democrats will have split into the Greens and Democratic Socialists.
Since my preferred way to decide the presidency in November--a cage fight between Booker and Trump in tights--seems unlikely, I'd say it's down to Bernie for the Dems who are super pissed and Biden for the Dems who are weary and depressed. The DNC will make sure it's Biden.
If Hillary and Obama campaign for Biden I suppose he could win, but I don't think it's likely.
I think Klobuchar is the best choice. She had a narcissistic, alcoholic father, and I think she understands Trump and his methods. I also think she is most likely to be able to use some tough love to get Congress to sober up, put their clothes back on, and get back to serious work. But she has no momentum in Iowa, and if she can't get traction out here in the Midwest, she's done elsewhere.
Maybe Biden would pick her as a running mate?
Ugh, too much coffee this afternokn.
I think what you say about both the Republican and Democratic parties fragmenting is true. I can count at least six parties within our supposed two party system. No wonder we can't reach a consensus.
DeleteI'd vote for Klobuchar. But our primary is so late it'll all be a done deal by then. I don't think any of the Dem candidates are horrible people (compared to Trump!) I just hope one of them can beat him.
One of the Bernie putdowns is that, how dare he, an independent, insinuate himself into the Democratic Party as a presidential candidate. Well, with the two party system, the only way he can get in the game is to run for the Democratic nomination. With instant runoff voting, he could run as a democratic socialist and leave the corporatist Democrats do what they want. I think we need four to six parties, if only to distribute power.
DeleteWell, we have now than six parties (The Rent Is Too Damn High Party was a personal favorite), but they have failed to dislodge the hold that the Dems and GOP have, as well as the notion that "you're throwing your vote away" if you vote for a "third-party" candidate. Maybe this will change. Several parties could force compromise and better ideas. Or deepen factions and tear us apart.
DeleteIf they had actually acquitted the president today, it could have been a sort of double-witching day, what with Brexit going into effect.
ReplyDeleteThe worst news I heard today was a 15 second item on the News Hour that the US is loosening its ban on landmines. Depressing! Oh, and there is a new list of countries whose immigrants we're now banning, at least for certain categories of permissions.
Actually, as I plunk this out one letter at a time on my dumb phone, Judy Woodruff is announcing that the Senate is taking the weekend off, with the acquittal ("Exoneration!") coming on Wednesday. Think that's what I just heard.
Jim, You missed the unveiling of Trump's plan to give the states more control over Medicaid so they can chop more poor people off the rolls.
DeleteI think Trump does this stuff deliberately to torture "bleeding heart liberals" and as payback for impeaching him: More landmines and legless children! Make people stay in their huts in their sh*t hole countries! You mess with me any more, and next I'll legalize shooting dolphins at Sea World and start televising executions.
DeleteNPR said it was unclear why the reversal on landmines. Reporters were unable to find anybody in the Pentagon who had asked for this change or thought it was a good idea.
Then there was his praise for Pompeo's screaming obscenities at Mary Louise Kelly: "I think you did a good job on her, actually. That's good, thank you, Mike, great."
It is all coming down to: "Yes, he did all those things you think are terrible. But we love him anyway. So there!"
ReplyDeleteI think I could accept a second Trump term if it began with a McConnell-less Senate under Democratic control. (Even as I write that I think "Churck Schumer." Sigh.)
It will be interesting (and probably depressing) to see if Trump is acquitted but censured in any way. I cling to the hope that Republicans can see what Trump really is, but they're willing to take the crazy to dismantle regulations and make sure they don't get primaried.
DeleteThe weasel wing of the Republican Party (the other wing being those who honestly believe in all the crap) is hiding behind kicking the can to the voters in November. Cf. Lamar Alexander, who is retiring anyway. Remember, Trump started his re-election campaign the day after he took office. The Magnificent Can Kick effectively negates the impeachment clause. And proves that even weasel wing Republicans can be ignored by the nutty wing.
DeleteHere's a piece by Carl Hulse NYTimes, "One Skeptical, Senate Republicans are all in on Trump."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/31/us/trump-impeachment-senate-republicans.html
Lisa Murkowski's alibi: She does nor want to drag Justice Roberts into the fray and make the Supreme Court as fractious as the Congress. Where has she been? The SC is part and parcel of the Trump Takeover.
What we have here is the infinite capacity of the human brain to find excuses for doing the very, very wrong thing. It sounds like Monday will be a round-up of Republican Senators excusing their vote by saying the President did what "they" say, but......
My fantasy: Trump's Tuesday State of the Union speech will be so overweeningly narcissistic that Wednesday's Senate vote on impeachment will drag enough conflicted Republicans over the finish line to vote "out, out damn spot."
Hulse headline: "Once skeptical.....
ReplyDeleteHulse was on Washington Week last night and looked exhausted. He does a good job delineating the GOP shift towards a GOP United Party of Trump, but I still don't understand why they have all jumped on board. All I can figure is that his approval rate among Republican constituents is very high, and that scares them off standing up to him.
DeleteWaPo tries to explain why here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-center-of-the-orbit-endangered-republicans-go-all-in-on-trump/2020/01/31/154b2b38-4376-11ea-aa6a-083d01b3ed18_story.html
DeleteDang, those are two depressing articles. Trump has successfully completed the mind-meld. He owns the Republican politicians. They are now Stepford Wives.
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ReplyDelete