Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

So many bastards, so little time.

I was promised a recession.

T R E 4 5 O N

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

No Justins, No Peace

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

This blog will pay for itself.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

He really is that stupid.

After roe, women are no longer free.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Post-SotU Open Thread

Post-SotU Open Thread

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From the NYTimes:

In the wake of their electoral drubbing in November, Republicans sought an image reboot at President Obama’s State of the Union address, a new face that would be both more positive and less strident, youthful and multicultural but also quietly constructive and respectful…

Mr. Nugent, the gun-rights brawler, sat stone-faced high up in the House spectators’ gallery as the president pressed an agenda that went far beyond gun control. Invited to watch as the guest of another firebrand, Steve Stockman, a Republican representative from Texas, his crossed arms and stern visage seemed to capture the conflict still lurking within the Republican Party as its leaders look to expand their appeal.

There were no shouts of “you lie!” Tuesday night, no overt moments of disrespect beyond the usual partisan responses to policy. But in a House chamber filled conspicuously with the victims of gun violence and family members still grieving for lost loved ones, Mr. Nugent seemed like a provocation, a saber-toothed tiger invited to a garden party…

The lasting image of Mr. Rubio’s address may not have been his youthful face and stately backdrop but an odd lurch off camera mid-speech for a quick drink of water. He recovered from the glitch, but it marred an otherwise smooth performance.

But before Mr. Rubio spoke from the well-appointed Capitol cloisters of House Speaker John A. Boehner, the speaker grabbed attention when he told reporters that he would like “a little foreplay first” from the president before embracing a path to citizenship for undocumented workers in an immigration bill….

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    SatanicPanic

    I tuned in for Marco’s rebuttal long enough to hear “and that’s why we need a balanced budget amendment” BZZT, changed the channel. So much for new ideas from this bunch.

  2. 2.

    RaflW

    Boehner also looked like a total chump/asshole for not standing for the 102 year old when she was given props for standing in line six hours to vote.

    Y’know, tan-man, old white people voting is still kinda what you guys need. You should show a little gratitude for having been, ummm, elected.

  5. 5.

    dance around in your bones

    So that’s all ballsy Nuge could come up with? A stern visage and crossed arms? As I believe they say in Texas “all hat and no cattle”. How many days does he have left until he’s “in jail or dead”?

    Ah, and that “a little foreplay first” bit from Boner should go down in history. As I said in the last thread, talk about sublimation.

  7. 7.

    Cacti

    He recovered from the glitch, but it marred an otherwise smooth performance.

    Nice turd polishing, librul NY Times.

  11. 11.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    I remember Jindal and Bachmann being bad, but I don’t remember a single thing either of them said. Not even the tone, really (though if I remember right Jindal’s was partly famous for not really having much tone at all). I’ll remember Rubio’s combo of 27%er talking points and bitchy tone about how mean Obama is for as long as I remember that water sip. Can you imagine how badly Marco would get crushed in a debate with anyone who could win the Dem nomination?

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    Hello, I’m Marco Rubio, and I support violence against women.

    Ola, soy Marco Rubio, y estoy a favor de la violencia contra mujeres.

  15. 15.

    Mike E

    Missed it all, but read it here.

    Though I don’t believe Rand Paul dipped his sack in a steaming mug, I DO know writers at The Onion and Comedy Central wish they envisioned such a scenario. Well played.

  16. 16.

    handsmile

    @RaflW:

    Yes, one of the most unforgettable and unforgivable moments of the evening. Absolutely disgusting and disrespectful behavior by the Congressional leader of the Republican party. This is an incident for which Boehner should be tormented.

    The GOP, in so much of the behavior and in so many of the remarks by figures such as Boehner, Rubio, Stockman, Graham, Scalia et al, just covered itself in shit tonight.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: We all know how important water is to a healthy diet. Someone fergot to suggest to poor Marco that MAYBE the time to hydrate is right before going on camera. In front of millions. To give your party’s major speech of the year.

  19. 19.

    Paddy

    @Yutsano: They have a heads up on most of PBO’s speech, don’t they have time to do more than one take, or even edit the damn thing? It’s the 21st ferchristsakes.

  21. 21.

    Dan

    ‘the speaker grabbed attention when he told reporters that he would like “a little foreplay first” from the president before embracing a path to citizenship for undocumented workers…’

    We’ll have to get his wife to corroborate.

  22. 22.

    bad Jim

    Everett Dirksen would probably never have said “Slow down. Slow down. How about a little foreplay?” to a reporter, so it looks like there’s been some progress over the years.

  23. 23.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Yutsano: Based on Young Marco’s stage presence and demeanor, maybe it was decided that it was better to risk needing a sip during a speech than taking one beforehand and pissing his pants.

  25. 25.

    cmorenc

    Speaking of Rand Paul, what happened with his planned SOTU response #2 following Rubio? I couldn’t stay with even all of Rubio’s babbling, but figured I’d see reportage of it in the blogs.

  26. 26.

    Suzanne

    @Yutsano: It wouldn’t have looked so weird if he had sipped discreetly from a glass. That’s normal during a speech. But to drink from a bottle with a label located so far away that the camera had to follow him as he moved made him look like a real doofus.

  27. 27.

    smurfobot

    @Dan: Might have well said, “Before I get bent over…”
    Totally ridiculous on all counts”.
    Saying your going to get “Fucked” in the end.

  29. 29.

    El Cid

    I think Tom Coburn’s new image as evil alternative universe bearded Tom Coburn was interesting, though I’m wondering how this one would be evil-er, or maybe just more cranky.

  30. 30.

    Violet

    @Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Jindal’s most memorable comment was his slamming of money spent on volcano monitoring. Not long after that Alaska had some volcano rumble. Then the Iceland volcano disrupted air travel. Volcano monitoring? Who needs it?

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    @Suzanne

    Also too, it did seem that it has been drummed repeatedly into his head to NOT look away from the camera (a la Bachmann).

    Except for the briefest moment to make sure he grabbed the bottle (or maybe to ensure he didn’t drop it), his eyes stay right on the camera while bending over and straightening up.

    Bizarre, almost animatronic.

    As was that creepy pasted-on rictus at the end.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    @Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: I considered this as a possibility. But they wanted their rising star front and centre tonight, so they damned the torpedoes and full steam ahead they went. Right into the rocks.

    @Suzanne: I’ve given speeches in front of crowds and always had a glass of water for sipping right under the podium. The trick is you sip. Chugging risks you taking too much in and choking. I was shocked since he chugged that water like he’d been in the desert for a week or something.

  36. 36.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Violet: Ah yes, I remember that now. Then again, in Jindal’s defense, when has Louisiana ever had a need to monitor a possible natural disaster? Oh…

  37. 37.

    Suffern ACE

    @Suzanne: Yep. Miss Manners would definitely scold the advance team for putting the bottle in an inconvenient place and serving something to the Senator in its original packaging.

    I’m guessing that Rubio is used to speaking in front of an audience where people don’t notice those things because they are far away and maybe getting some applause when he can sip away.

  38. 38.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    To me the water thing wasn’t even the worst of it. It just punctuated how God awful the whole thing was. The only thing missing was BENGHAZI! It was all catch phrases and slogans for his base, hedged with contradictions that attempted to make him not look like a hypocrite (on student loans and Medicare) and delivered in the same tone a two year old adopts upon the discovery of the power of the word NO

  39. 39.

    Cacti

    Paul Ryan slurped down the water like a thirsty dog during the VPOTUS debate too.

    These young GOPers just aren’t very polished liars.

  40. 40.

    Violet

    @Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: It was the perfect example of the Republican mindset: If it doesn’t affect me personally, it’s not important. Nevermind that Jindal’s state desperately needs national help with hurricane monitoring…which is the exact equivalent of volcano monitoring for those states with volcanoes. Louisiana doesn’t have volcanoes, so why spend money on monitoring them.

    The defining characteristic of Republicans seems to be a lack of empathy. I think that’s also how sociopaths are identified.

  41. 41.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Cacti: Indeed. I remember my folks first seeing Clinton on the teevee in the ’92 primaries and calling him the ultimate used car salesman. They did have a point, the man can sell. These guys couldn’t survive on a used car lot, even without a conscience.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    @Cacti:

    Key word “young.” These people have grown up inside a Republican echo chamber that just didn’t exist for the previous generation. Needing to be presentable for the people outside of it just doesn’t compute for them.

  46. 46.

    Suffern ACE

    Increasing the minimum wage might be a good idea. I don’t know about indexing it. But it might be a good idea.

  47. 47.

    Cacti

    Did anyone else catch Tweety mentioning that he voted for C+ Augustus back in 2000, thinking he’d be “common sense”?

    Puke.

  49. 49.

    Cacti

    @Suffern ACE:

    Increasing the minimum wage might be a good idea. I don’t know about indexing it. But it might be a good idea

    Minimum wage peaked in value in 1968 and has steadily declined ever since.

    Had it kept pace with inflation, it would currently be $10.58/hour.

  50. 50.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Man, I can’t wait to see all my various wingnut barometers freaking out about LIBRUL MEDIA BIAS if anybody even mentions Rubio’s water grab.

  52. 52.

    Yutsano

    @Suffern ACE: Minimum wage is indexed in WA and sits at $9.19, the highest in the nation. It’s possibly one of our most progressive laws and shock of shocks they still open businesses here.

  54. 54.

    TheMightyTrowel

    finally watching the enhanced version now on whitehouse.gov. Love that they got the ‘not impressed’ photo with PBO into it. They were ‘not impressed’ at the gender-based pay gap. AWESOME.

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    …the speaker grabbed attention when he told reporters that he would like “a little foreplay first” from the president…

    Well sure, who doesn’t like foreplay before they get fucked?

  56. 56.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @amk:
    Considering that Herman Cain delivered the Tea Party response last year and Bachmann delivered it the year before that I’m guessing that the being the TP’s responder is not a stepping stone to the White House.

  57. 57.

    Joel

    Dehydration is part of the nervous/adrenergic response. People who are trained at this stuff (like, you know, politicians) shouldn’t get dehydrated like that.

  58. 58.

    dance around in your bones

    @Cacti:

    Ola, soy Marco Rubio, y estoy a favor de la violencia contra mujeres.

    Just FYI, Hola means hello, and Ola means wave (or sudden appearance of a large amount of something – which in Rubio’s case could be a large amount of bullshit).

  59. 59.

    TriassicSands

    Rubio’s speech was a study in Free Lunchism. If we’d just get rid of government and cut taxes we can have the biggest military in the universe and provide our elderly and poor with all they need by privatizing our safety net.

    He’s neat and cute and the same kind of empty-headed bozo that populates today’s Modern Republican Party.

  61. 61.

    dance around in your bones

    @Cacti:

    Oh, no worries – just my inner español pedant creeping out in the wee hours :)

    I should go to bed. These SOTU threads have been quite entertaining.

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