Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The lights are all blinking red.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

In my day, never was longer.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

When I was faster i was always behind.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Come on, man.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Today’s Republican Display of Their Affinity for the Constitution

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  2. 2.

    Violet

    If they can’t impeach President Obama they’ll go after every one of his people in every way they can.

  3. 3.

    Ash Can

    Who cares? The W Bush cabal proved that the executive branch can ignore any and all of Congress’s hearings, subpoenas, requests, demands, or whatever. Fuck ’em.

  5. 5.

    Morzer

    @Violet:

    They’ve gone after Obama’s people from the first day of his presidency. Aided, sometimes, by the eternal weakness of too many Democrats.

  6. 6.

    BGinCHI

    To be held in contempt by the contemptible is should be exculpatory. Free Lois Lerner!

  7. 7.

    liberal

    @Violet: it’s not just that. They hate the IRS, so for them it’s a triple win: attacks Obama, the IRS, and promotes the fraudulent claim that big bad gubmint victimizes right-wing nutjobs unfairly.

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ash Can: That is not what happened here. A person has every right to assert his or her Constitutional rights at any time. It does not appear that they offered her immunity. Given that, she has no obligation to testify.

  10. 10.

    Morzer

    @liberal:

    Even war has its rules – and I very much fear that Obama is not going to be as mockingly dismissive of the teabagger crazies as the situation demands.

  11. 11.

    Frankensteinbeck

    It appears that this citation of contempt goes to the Justice Department to decide if and how they want to prosecute it. Presumably a lawyer will go ‘We will not prosecute it because there is no case to make against her.’ End of that story.

    Reading the article this comes from, it’s truly freakish how the Washington Post bends over backwards to describe this all as reasonable, normal government behavior and not a pathetic witch hunt by the most partisan House in over a hundred years.

  12. 12.

    liberal

    @Morzer: lol. As Krugman so keenly observed, the Republican Party is a revolutionary power (as defined by Kissinger). The point being that they don’t follow rules, and upend all sorts of norms.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    What this really is, is an attempt to spend someone into giving up and saying what the committee wants to hear. The best thing that can be done is to establish and contribute to a defense fund. The lawyers defending her may be doing it pro bono but they are still incurring litigation expenses.

  18. 18.

    Redshift

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It appears that this citation of contempt goes to the Justice Department to decide if and how they want to prosecute it. Presumably a lawyer will go ‘We will not prosecute it because there is no case to make against her.’ End of that story.

    And then they’ll have many months of railing about an administration coverup, followed by a contempt citation against Eric Holder for being black, just in time for the election

  19. 19.

    Citizen_X

    What “Fifth Amendment rights,” Cole?

    There are only three amendments: the First (“You can’t ever criticize me”), the Holy Second, Peace Be Upon It, and the Tenth (“States can do whatever they want”). Any others you hear about are Communist lies.

  20. 20.

    Kropadope

    @Citizen_X: Oh, you mean the “originalist” version of the Constitution? No, sorry the originalists are working off the Articles of Confederation.

  22. 22.

    Bobby B.

    I have a feeling those same shrivelled white faces will be in congress 50 years from now. Has The Corporation given them the elixer of immortality?

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bobby B.:

    I have a feeling those same shrivelled white faces will be in congress 50 years from now.

    Why do you feel that? You don’t see any changes happening?

  24. 24.

    scav

    Hmmmm, does thus mean they’re officially handing sharp tools to be used against all the fifth-hugging Christie minions? Or, are they merely in a snit that the tradionalist sudden onset amnesia excuse wasn’t proffered instead?

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SatanicPanic: I happen to like both songs, but I suspect that Ian Broudie may have unintentionally grabbed a bit of the New Order riff.

  27. 27.

    ? Martin

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It appears that this citation of contempt goes to the Justice Department to decide if and how they want to prosecute it.

    If the GOP were serious about any of this, they’d have the Sergeant at Arms arrest her and put her in the Congress jail. They themselves have stated that Holder can’t be trusted to uphold the rule of law, so why entrust him to do it in this case?

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    John Cole @ Top:

    Lois Lerner was just held in contempt of congress for exercising her fifth amendment rights.

    This is more proof that the Republican jackasses (but I repeat myself) investigating the IRS so-called scandal know that there’s nothing there. If they really thought Lerner’s testimony would lead to higher ranking officials, they’d give her immunity in a heartbeat.

    Since the Republican Reps. are dicking around with nonsensical contempt charges instead of giving Lerner immunity, we now know how much they believe their own conspiracy horseshit: i.e., not at all.

  32. 32.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t think a chord progression has copyright protection, ever. Look how many blues songs share the same chord progression. Even many classical works share underlying chord progressions.

    Musicians borrow from others all the time, especially in improvisation. My formal training ended in the 1960s, but I have a piano in the living room today. If the music of today couldn’t reuse the historic music of the past, we couldn’t have new music. There are only so many chords, and there are specific ways those chords work together in western music.

  33. 33.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JGabriel: The only people who are in contempt, as far as I’m concern, are those voting to hold this woman in contempt.

    I’d say invite them to a red wedding, but then I’d be in trouble with the Gods for violating the rules of hospitality.

  34. 34.

    Marc

    @Citizen_X:

    There are only three amendments: the First (“You can’t ever criticize me”), the Holy Second, Peace Be Upon It, and the Tenth (“States can do whatever they want”). Any others you hear about are Communist lies.

    Fun fact: the Bill of Rights was written in trinary.

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: The chord progression isn’t much to speak of, but in the bit you’re talking about, I think it’s more than the chord progression: the accompaniment sounds like the melody of the chorus of “Love Vigilantes”. But it’s a pretty short passage of a just a few notes, maybe not enough to build a case on.

  37. 37.

    LAC

    @JGabriel: very true. But I guess it gives Issa a chance to shake his fist and work himself into a righteous lather for c-span cameras. Asshats….

  38. 38.

    dopey-o

    @Matt McIrvin:

    …. it’s a pretty short passage of a just a few notes, maybe not enough to build a case on.

    FAIR USE, MUTHAF**KERS!

  39. 39.

    beergoggles

    wtf is up with the Dems siding with the assholes on this? I get so pissed when our side does this.. gah.. I’m seriously turning into a firebagger.

  40. 40.

    phineas

    She should have invoked her Second Amendment remedies. They would have given her the medal of honor.

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