Alex MacGillis, at TNR, has a couple suggestions for the Senator from Mississippi:
… It is hard to overstate the significance and historical ironies of black Mississippians crossing party lines to rescue a senior member of the state’s Republican establishment. Voting patterns are more divided by race in Mississippi than anywhere else in the country, to a degree that is reminiscent of ethnically-based parties in the developing world. The state’s black voters are as reliably Democratic as anywhere, but there are also more of them than in any other state—more than 37 percent of the population—making their monolithic voting tendencies all the more conspicuous. Meanwhile, white voters in Mississippi have become nearly as monolithically Republican in national elections. (And yes, there is a correlation between the size of southern states’ African-American population and the extent to which their white voters flock to the Republican Party.) In 2008, Barack Obama won a mere 11 percent of white voters in Mississippi; John Kerry did barely better than that four years earlier…
In reaching out to black voters in recent days, Cochran touted his support for the farm bill, for federal education funding, for the food-stamp program. But the GOP establishment’s debt requires a grander statement of gratitude than that. There’s the John Conyers bill calling for a study of slavery reparations—what measure is more suitable than that to be linked to an election in the state that was the headquarters of King Cotton? But if that’s a bridge too far, here are two other possibilities. Mississippi has rejected the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, thus leaving uncovered 300,000 of its residents, most of them African-American—a classic example of the ways in which the state’s large racial minority has suffered at the hands of the state’s monolithically white and Republican power structure. Might Cochran and, more importantly, Haley Barbour call on their allies in Jackson to rethink that rejection of gobs of federal funds just waiting to be deployed in their impoverished state?
Or this: There is a movement afoot in Washington to pass new protections for the voting rights of minorities in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of key elements of the Voting Rights Act. Is there any more fitting way for Thad Cochran to express recognition of the role that African-American voters played in his survival—in the face of threats of voter intimidation from his Republican opponent—than to guarantee that black voters in Mississippi and elsewhere are unencumbered in their access to the polls? I don’t recall Cochran speaking up loudly in opposition when Mississippi passed a stringent voter ID law not long ago. Better late than never, Senator.
KG
don’t forget the unicorn ponies and puppies
ETA: I say this for two reason… first, I highly doubt that many who crossed the line (or whatever the figure of speech is) to vote for him in the run off will be voting for him in the general. so, he’s not going to care. second, if Cochran did anything like this, he’d probably face more revolt from his supposed base. granted, it’s the right thing to do, but when was the last time a Republican Senator did the right thing?
rikyrah
John Boehner’s Lawsuit Is The First Step In A Republican Plot to Impeach Obama
By: Jason Easley
Wednesday, June, 25th, 2014, 1:42 pm
It was only a matter of time until the other shoe dropped after word leaked out that Speaker of the House John Boehner is planning on suing President Obama. It turns out, the lawsuit is the first step in a plan to impeach the president if Republicans take back the Senate.
Yesterday, Boehner told his fellow House Republicans that he will be suing President Obama over his use of executive orders. Boehner didn’t know which executive orders he would sue over, but he is certain that he will be suing. On its surface, the lawsuit looks like more Republican sour grapes over the fact that Barack Obama is president, but Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post started putting a few pieces together, and what is emerging is a plan to impeach Obama.
Capehart writes what everyone knows about the Republican plan to crush President Obama, “The plan all along has been to crash the Obama agenda and then climb on top of the wreckage and seize power. Not only are Republicans complicit in the “failures” they rail against, but they are also the reason the president has had to resort to executive action to get some things done. Even (George) Will agrees Obama is within his authority to do this. He just doesn’t like the degree to which he has done it.”
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/06/25/john-boehners-lawsuit-step-republican-plot-impeach-president-obama.html
D58826
@KG: and the flying pigs
Baud
Everyone knows that what blacks in Mississippi want more than anything is protection from voter fraud.
Patricia Kayden
Cochran won’t do a thing. I understand why Black Mississippians voted for him to ensure that the more odious McDaniel didn’t win. But what a choice! Literally Cochran was the lesser evil.
KG
@rikyrah: do they realize that a case like that would have to go to the Supreme Court before they could really claim he violated the law? And do they realize that Obama would likely no longer be president by the time the Supreme Court decided it? (unless of course, their worst/best fantasies of the true tyranny of Obama is true) And mostly, is there not only lawyer either on their staffs or in their caucus who might point out that the most obvious result of a case like this would be for the court to dismiss it under the political thicket doctrine?
hildebrand
@rikyrah: This pisses me off to no end. Go home, Boehner, you’re drunk, and a fool, and a knave, and incompetent. Why don’t you try actually governing, you cheap fuck? If you did, maybe Obama wouldn’t have to run the damn place by himself – and even then, he isn’t in the way that you are kvetching about. Wanker.
Kristin
@rikyrah: Speaking of sore losers.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: “The plan all along has been to crash the Obama agenda and then climb on top of the wreckage and seize power.”
I don’t understand. How would Repubs seize power even if they were able to impeach President Obama (if they win the majority this November in the Senate)?
srv
Them Black Panthers forcing that RINO White Man on us all has sure riled up some feathers in the internets.
JeffG in DONE!:
Proceed, Winguts!
James E. Powell
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Cochran or anybody else in the Party of Lincoln to do anything good with the Voting Rights Act.
When people of color turn out to vote, the Republicans have very little chance of winning the White House. That’s why the Roberts court ignored the “original meaning” and the “original intent” of the fifteenth amendment and gutted the Voting Rights Act. That’s why there is no chance that any congress will pass anything to put things back like they were.
Higgs Boson's Mate
And don’t we wish that it would be so.
muddy
@Patricia Kayden: They thought Boehner was next in line. They forgot about Joe!
Amir Khalid
Alex MacGillis knows those positions would be politically toxic for Cochran, who would have a very bumpy ride for the next six years even if he plans to hang it up afterwards. He’s just trolling the Senator, isn’t he?
HR Progressive
Look, I don’t expect Thad Cochran to become the White Reverend Al Sharpton overnight or anything, but if he/his campaign was smart enough to know he had a shot at winning by reminding Black voters that he’s done beneficial things for them, he/his campaign ought to be smart enough to know that they at least have to throw a proverbial bone to these unlikely voters.
Even if he says “Hey, let’s fix the VRA” and John Boehner is too busy throwing a temper tantrum to do anything about it…he can at least say he tried.
If you’re going to be nakedly political to win, you can at least be as nakedly political in victory towards those who powered you across the finish line.
D58826
Following the links to Capehart’s column
Unless there are 67 votes in the Senate, they can impeach but they can’t convict. I’m not sure that the goal really is to remove Obama from office, after all then they would have Biden. Biden would have the advantage of incumbency going into the 2016 election. They want to impeach, add the ‘impeached’ asterisk after Obama’s name and then continue to flog him for the rest of his term. He’ll be a lame duck under any circumstance. Of course after impeaching two successive Democratic presidents maybe history will view the act as a badge of honor rather than shame. The Big Dog is certainly more popular than any member of the GOP.
KG
@srv: that the protein wisdom guy? i used to read that blog regularly, don’t remember it being that stupid. i love that “representative government” only exists if their candidate wins.
ETA: ok, just went over to his blog. the bitching about open primaries is just pure win…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: I think Boehner is doing this 1) to harass Obama 2) to appease the base while kicking Impeachment down the road. Talking about the Lawless President is great for fund-raising, actual Impeachment would blow up on them.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@KG: Any court in which that case is filed is going to look for the chance to say “Political question,” and punt the case as far and as fast and it can.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s dumb, though rikrah. It’s a dumb move. Nothing will drive Democratic turnout more than a trumped up impeachment sideshow.
They can’t do it more than once and they already did it. Shit, it didn’t even work that one time.
They’re casting around for something to replace the failed “repeal Obamacare” strategy and that’s what they came up with? They’re going to sue him?
James E. Powell
@KG:
I am going to suggest, with respect, that you are wrong. The federal courts, or at least the parts controlled by the Republican Party & the Federalist Society, are more than willing to take on political issues. They are more than willing to ignore years of precedent to do damage to the Obama administration. Their program is “Destroy this [insert racist epithet]” and they can and will use any means necessary. Look at what they’ve already accomplished.
This lawsuit business is just a backstreet way of impeaching Obama without actually impeaching him. The country, and perhaps more important, the Villagers, remember the last time Republicans impeached a Democrat for no good reason. The Republicans can’t go there. The also can’t appoint a special prosecutor. So they file a lawsuit, which will be a constant source of “new information” leaked anonymously, so that they can have a Big Story about this apparently Lawless President every two Sundays or so until January 2017.
They really have nothing more to offer the country than that.
David Koch
I guess Putin is the “manly”, bare-chested “leader” the GOP thought he was.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Blerg. Boehner’s threat of a lawsuit is about being able to claim to his caucus that he’s doing something. If anything, it’s an attempt to forestall impeachment by doing something else. Boehner presumably recognizes that impeachment is a political loser, but he’s too cowardly to come out and say it to the teabaggers.
pluege
I don’t get why anyone would think cochran would in anyway be beholden to or appreciative of Blacks? He is a republican. Blacks won’t vote for him against the Democrat in the fall – he win without the Black vote. Being a good republican he is sure to say ‘screw you’ to the MS Black voters.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Actual attorneys are free to correct me, but I believe that civil suits allow for nearly unlimited discovery. Paging Darryl Issa!
D58826
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): I wouldn’t be so sure. The Washington DC federal district judges had no problem finding for Ken Star during the Clinton years right down the line. Even SCOTUS decided 9-0 that suing the president was no big deal. There have been a number of cases (hobby Lobby being the latest) in which an out of deep deep right field comes a legal theory that the experts laugh at. But since it hurts the democrats the deeply politicized Roberts court is happy to go along with it. l
David Koch
This is a pretty accurate picture of the TeaOP
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: I’m also reminded of Boehner’s lawsuit to try to force Obama to enforce DOMA ( think that was the goal? it didn’t and doesn’t really matter)– spending a lot of TAXPAYER DOLLARS on Republican campaigns. If we made a verb, it could be “they’re christie-ing”
RSR
hahahaha….sorry, Anne. I hope to be proven wrong.
KG
@srv: oh, looks like i was looking at a different post. the one i just read ends with him basically saying that he’s going to work on the local level to try and get a constitutional convention called. something tells me that a constitutional convention would not work out very well for wing nuts… i mean, the last time we had one they were only supposed to make some basic modifications to the Articles of Confederation
Kay
@James E. Powell:
It’s not without precedent. Both Rick Santorum and Mike DeWine showed interest in voting rights as late as 2006.
In fact, slimy Mitt Romney used it against Santorum in the 2012 Ohio primary which led DeWine to withdraw his endorsement of Romney.
There is a fundy Christian faction of voting people. They have been silenced on the Right but I think they relate on that issue because of the role of AA religious leaders in the civil rights movement.
It was interesting when it happened, but of course now all that nuance is just gone in the GOP.
max
That’s about the only thing you might could expect from him. He isn’t running for another term, so the pissing off the Tea Party thing doesn’t matter so much. Given the age he is, I fully expect he thinks of himself as a proper Mississippi gentlemen, so we’ll see if he has any sense of noblesse oblige at all.
But he won’t do anything like that until after November. He is going to try and win the regular election now.
@KG: that the protein wisdom guy? i used to read that blog regularly, don’t remember it being that stupid.
I do!
max
[‘Jump back to 2002, see if it gets any better.’]
srv
@David Koch:
He’s like a modern day George Washington, renouncing his kingly powers – in contrast to Marxist King Obama.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
It’ll be kicked out on standing.
schrodinger's cat
I have to agree with Kay, this lawsuit against Obama is a pretty dumb idea politically which will not play well beyond the base.
KG
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: it has to be “reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.” so, it’s not completely unlimited, but it’s damn close.
@James E. Powell: it will depend on the judges, to be sure. but most district court (trial court) judges aren’t going to be interested in a case like this. they typically have important work to be doing. it’s why the vast majority of them threw out the birther cases, regardless of where they were on the ideological/jurisprudence spectrum. the case will likely be filed in the federal district or in the DC district. no matter what happens at the district court level, it’ll be appealed. depending on how it is resolved at the district court level, what the circuit court (and then the Supreme Court) can do will be limited. and my guess is that the circuit court (depending on who ends up on the panel) will not be interested in the bullshit either.
Ash Can
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh, that Alex MacGillis. He’s such a kidder.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@D58826: A fight between the two political branches over the way a law is implemented is a text book political question from which the courts run away.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
IOW, Republican standard operating procedure.
rikyrah
Did anyone else watch Tyrant on FX?
SatanicPanic
@KG: He already lost the angry teapartiers and it’s not like he’s going to run again. What does he have to lose?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@rikyrah: Moi. It looks like a fictionalized account of how Bashir al-Assad came to power.
schrodinger's cat
To combat the crazy, your Wednesday moment of Zen, not to be confused with the Zen kitteh.
gbear
@Amir Khalid: Is there any situation that deserves trolling more than this primary result? David Corn’s trolling of the teabaggers last night was a hoot, and Senator Cochran should be reminded every day from now on about this debt he owes, even if it is just to troll him.
D58826
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Under normal circumstances I would agree. In fact under normal circumstances the issue would never even be raised. However these aren’t normal circumstances. The hatred for Obama run so deep on the right that some judge will at least have hearings that will give the GOP their headlines. I’m not sure if he is still on the bench but remember the district judge who was passing around the cartoon about Obama’s mother sleeping with a dog. I bet he’d love to hear that case. The conventional wisdom was that Ken Star would not go poking around in Clinton’s sex life and if he did send up a referral it would be on serious issues not Monica and the blue dress. We all remember how that turned out.
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
It’s just nuts to keep trying to overturn elections.
Jesus. This is now a political strategy?
All they do in political reporting is compare/contrast.
The entire thing will be conducted within the context of the last one.
Old Dan and Little Ann
The Jerkey Boys. Maybe I can sue for punitive damages.
Sue everbody!
Morzer
This is one of those times when English really needs a single word to express absolute and utter negation that goes beyond “No”.
Anoniminous
@Baud:
That’s what I thought but IANAL so WTFDIK?
trollhattan
@Morzer:
“Nyet!” in Vlad’s accent is the best I can do.
Baud
@Anoniminous:
You knew enough not to become a lawyer.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Baud: Ha!
Morzer
@trollhattan:
If you could spin on your jackbooted heel and toss your hair as you say it, that might just about fit the bill.
Cacti
@rikyrah:
Yes, I’m still clutching my boy parts at the thought of what happened during the car ride at the end.
KG
@Morzer: “fuckno”?
schrodinger's cat
@efgoldman: The Republicans in office are as terrified of their base perhaps even more than we are. This is the red meat the tiger they are riding on demands.
Morzer
@schrodinger’s cat:
John Boehner’s fortune cookie:
“Today is a good day for starving the beast you rode in on”.
Little Boots
@schrodinger’s cat:
DOOMED, but not yet.
Anoniminous
@Baud:
My involvement with the Legal Biz is to run away as fast and far as humanly possible.
MikeJ
@Baud:
Pity the defendant in the trial I wasn’t picked to be on the jury for today didn’t have a better lawyer. Domestic abuse case. Judge asks if anybody has ever had any experience with this type of case. 8 out of 40 people say they were victims. Prosecutor then spends the next half hour asking each of them to tell their stories there in front of the rest of the prospective jurors. The woman next to me broke down in tears. So everybody who might be on the jury got a ABC after school special on the horrors of domestic abuse before even being seated. Not a peep out of the defense. Why not just dismiss all 8 at the first sign?
D58826
@Kay: Two points
1. The GOP doesn’t view it as overturning an election because they have never accepted the legitimacy of the Obama presidency. Just like they never accepted a Clinton presidency (past or future).
2. This is a bit like the nuclear standoff between the US and the USSR. Every one knew the weapons could not be used but if someone had made one little mistake ….
well in this case they file their suit and something totally unexpected comes out of the woodwork (think Monica) and blows up the system. Given the conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth, Benghazi, the debt limit, etc many in the base are past reasonable thinking.
Little Boots
@efgoldman:
concern trolling, with a vengeance. they don’t have a shot, but still, good for trying.
Morzer
@efgoldman:
Rickey Cole? Cole as in.. well, you know who? That Cole?
Truly the vast recovering Republican internet conspiracy is a wonder and a marvel.
JPL
The local CBS station covered the lawsuit fair and balanced by pointing out that the President signed fewer executive orders than anyone except G.W’s papa.
Kay
@efgoldman:
It just seems really obvious to me.
“Give us the Senate and we’ll impeach!”
The lawsuit is remotely related to the plan, but not really. The lawsuit coukd be interpreted as “we don’t have jack shit to say and need something”
Obama is actually campaigning on executive actions. I read his speech to the Middle Class Summit and the entire thing was a recitation of administrative actions ( and funding) they’re using to get around “Republicans in Congress”
If he’s worried about a lawsuit he sure isn’t showing it.
Anoniminous
On the face of it, this is such an obviously stupid move I cannot wrap my mind around it. Why does Drunk Orange Man think this is something he wants or needs to do?
Morzer
@Anoniminous:
Evidence suggests that this is probably your answer.
lamh36
Before Dirty Dancing blew my teeenage heart (RIP Patrick Swayze), there was Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile. Mahn, I LOVE those movies.
I’m watching Jewel of the Nile right now.
Wow, Kathleen Turner sure was a beaut back in the day. And man who remembers when Michael Douglas was this young heartthrob? Of the two, Micheal Douglas still looks rather good for his age. I’m sorry, but I can’t really say the same about Kathleen Turner. That once “smoky” voice now sounds like she smokes a pack an hour. I wonder if she’s had some throat issues?
when I was a teenager, I discovered historical romance novels and I have been hook to trashy romance novels ever since (I’m more into contemporary/paranormal trashy romance now…LOL).
Romancing The Stone and Jewel of the Nile are basically the romance novels I loved as a teen brought to life.
D58826
@Anoniminous: He likes the big corner office and wants to keep his job
Little Boots
@lamh36:
there is something about dirty dancing.
I might just be trying to annoy Omnes, but I don’t think that’s it. it really was fun, and awful, and fun.
Hal
I say Boehner should go for impeachment. First black President of the US being impeached by an almost all white vote. Black voters will remember, and Hillary can ride right into the White House. A Clinton impeachment did not work out for the Republicans. The public was against removing Clinton, and many forget, the minute Larry Flint started offering money for the private follies of members of Congress, the Senate very quickly wrapped up proceedings. If Boehner is dumb enough to try this again with the history of the previous impeachment so well known, then it is his folly.
EDIT: It also just occurred to me that perhaps Boehner is trying to distract tea partiers who might be pissed at Cochran’s win with a little red meat for them to feast on. His way of seeming tough, and maybe pay back to black voters who voted for Cochran, even if Boehner was not opposed to him in the first place.
Kay
@D58826:
Oh, I get that. I get that they have told their base Obama is “lawless” and they have to fire them up for a midterm.
I think it’s dumb because Democrats have a base TOO. They always forget that part.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kay: Even if the GOP wins the Senate in 2014 (Dog forbid, knock on wood, etc.), they cannot get the 2/3 majority to convict.
kindness
Anyone who thinks that Thad is going to pivot and support programs we might like should give up sniffing glue.
Sure, Thad pitched himself to black folk for this one but his pivot will be right back to white for the general & when he wins he’s still going to be and vote like a conservative Repub.
Morzer
@Hal:
An impeachment led by Boehner will be a Slam Drunk for Obama to crush.
schrodinger's cat
@lamh36: Heh I too loved Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze in that movie as a teen.*swoon*
Morzer
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
But remember, the GOP believes that Democrats only get 3/5 of the vote, so they’ve probably convinced themselves that they just need 1 more Senator to get that magical 2/3.
D58826
@Kay: A base that all to often is AWOL in the midterms – remember 2010
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@D58826: that’s pretty much it, from what I gather. At one point, the boozy old Rotarian mediocrity was said to have delusions of being a historic, even an historic, figure, like Reed or Longworth. Now he just wants that big office.
Morzer
Whe you’ve lost Neil Cavuto, it’s probably a good idea to skulk off into the shrubbery and pretend you weren’t serious:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cavuto-bachmann-shouting-boehner-lawsuit
Little Boots
@Morzer:
sadly the single worst, most unpopular congress in history will probably be re-elected and the best we can hope for is that the singe worst party in history will not also take the Senate.
yay, merica.
Anoniminous
@Morzer:
I guess.
Little Boots
I don’t regret my crazy, my annoying, or my foolish.
but my typos are really getting on my damn nerves.
Morzer
@Little Boots:
I really do believe that the pressure is building behind the dam the GOP have constructed out of vote suppression and gerrymandering. We aren’t there yet, but some day that thing is going to blow apart into smithereens amid much wailing and gnashing of wingnut teeth.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I recorded it but I haven’t watched it yet. What did you think?
Anoniminous
@D58826:
If the TeaBaggers had the votes they’d have tossed his ass already. (IMO, YMMV)
@efgoldman:
This makes the most amount of sense. But the country is moving to the Left as the GOP moves Right. How long do they think their gerrymandering can last? It’s already shaky. They are getting to the point were they are going to start losing two votes in the middle for every vote they maintain on the Right.
danielx
Thad Cochrane channeling Josef Stalin:
“Gratitude is a disease of dogs.”
Little Boots
@Morzer:
black people are PISSED. I know that. and many who didn’t, will vote, like 2012.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
QFT
KG
@Morzer: defund the executive? So, shut down the government… Again? Because, that’s worked so well for them in the past.
Little Boots
@KG:
so silly, so stupid. so safe.
what is wrong with this damn country?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think his Cassiusses and Brutusses (Cantor until recently, Ryan, a couple others) have seen the beast they let loose and don’t want the big office anymore . I wonder whose idea this lawsuit was? Hard for me to believe Boehner is anything but a figurehead at his point, Denny Hastert with no Delay, just a bunch of people spinning plates to keep the Baggers more or less contained.
KG
@Little Boots: honestly? Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson was impeached, and Reconstruction was stopped well short of what it should have been.
And First Amendment aside, the confederacy should have been treated how the Nazis are treated in Germany
JustRuss
@Little Boots: I caught Point Break on the telly the other night, another great Bad Swayze movie, and good fun until everybody starts getting killed. I worked at the hotel where they held the press junket for the movie, the whole staff was terrified of Gary Busey.
Kay
@D58826:
I don’t think it’s 2010. Their base was rabid in 2010.
Our “base” doesn’t stay home. We have a different problem than they do. We need voters who are “sporadic” – they’re hard to reach in midterms.
The Obama campaign in 2012 was a straight-up grind. It was labor-intensive.
They quite literally found them one by one and turned them out. That’s hard to do without the blanket coverage and national buzz of a national Prez campaign.
We did exactly the same here for a school bond campaign. We needed 400 low income voters who send their kids to public schools. We had to go to their houses, twice. They are distracted with things like “living on 15k a year” and “working weird shifts” and “moving every 6 months” :)
Morzer
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Behave yourselves today and we’ll give you twice as many impeachments tomorrow!”
Little Boots
@KG:
but they weren’t. and we are in this phase in this country, where we continually re elect useless morons to congress, again and again and again. it is pathetic. but for now, thems the rules.
eventually we’ll wake up. we do. but it takes awhile.
Hal
@JustRuss:
I wonder how they would feel about his Amazon Fire TV commercial? Now that is terrifying.
Little Boots
@JustRuss:
heh, you were ahead of the curve. now everyone gets to be terrified of gary busey.
Liquid
@lamh36: “Omar is very bad man!”
Morzer
@Kay:
They certainly are trying to rabidify their base with nonsense like Benghazi, but I have some doubts that they are as unified as they were in 2010. There seems to be an awful lot of mutual suspicion among the teabaggerati with cries of betrayal on a daily basis.
Roger Moore
@Anoniminous:
At least through the next election, and that’s the one they’re most worried about. They’re mortgaging the future for the present, which makes some sense given their age profile. It’s not just the gerrymandering, though; attempts at voter suppression are the same general thing. They’re digging themselves a big hole with the voters they’re trying to suppress, which is a short term strategy. It’s also a big reason why the Democrats need to put a revamp of the VRA at the very top of their priority list. If they can get control for long enough to pass a VRA with teeth, they’ll be in a much better position to keep that control.
Morzer
@efgoldman:
Looters and moochers is the current term of art for those people, if I remember the latest version of the Atwater Protocol correctly.
gbear
@Morzer:
Bachmann has experience with this. When she was in the MN Senate, both the house and senate got so pissed off with Jesse Ventura’s antics (he was a pretty good governor for the first two years but then went horribly off the rails when his ego re-emerged) that they cut a shit-ton of funding out of executive branch departments. Hundreds of state employees got laid off. I was one of them.
Iowa Old Lady
There’s a pretty good possibility that the R base doesn’t know you need a 2/3 vote in the Senate to convict on impeachment and think they can succeed with a simple majority. Heck, there’s a good possibility some members of Congress think that. The stupidity of some of our elected officials has been one of the most disappointing discoveries of my adult life.
Anne Laurie
@lamh36: If you’ve never seen American Dreamer, you should definitely seek it out!
Probably my favorite fake-out “ending” of all time…
Little Boots
@Iowa Old Lady:
they’re all Id. they truly don’t care, I think.
Kay
@D58826:
I know what you’re saying. At some point I just get tired of threats. The threat becomes the control mechanism.
What are we supposed to do with this new threat? Whatever it is, I’m not doing it.
Morzer
@Iowa Old Lady:
AFAICT, the R base is stuck at the stage of wanting cookies now, right now, or they’re going to throw a tantrum and make themselves sick and you’ll be sorry you made them do it when it’s too late.
lamh36
@Anne Laurie: ooh, I’ll have to check Netflix or Amaxon Prime for it
Morzer
The Uruguayan Football Association seem to be learning from the teabaggers:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/25/luis-suarez-uruguay-fight-against-ban
Vince
I just read this and wanted to share: Story
It’s a horrifying story of yet another no-knock SWAT raid in the war on some drugs.
gbear
@efgoldman: …but I’d bet Bachmann doesn’t know that. I’m glad she’s retiring but I hope her new job gets her the hell out of MN. They should move to TX so that Marcus can open a gay-conversion clinic where they are still welcome.
Kay
@efgoldman:
I couldn’t disagree with them more, though.
If this is a representative system og government then those are the voters.
I think we’d have a better country if MORE 15k a year people voted, because that woukd better reflect THIS actual country rather than a romantic narrative version.
They don’t much like the actual existing country, is how I see that. I’m okay with the real thing.
Little Boots
@gbear:
that is one of those injustices that will never be remedied.
sorry that happened.
ranchandsyrup
Some twitter funzos: after claiming that the GOP is uber and the dems the taxi commission, Grover Norquist follows up by claiming that Hey Joe by Hendrix is a pro 2nd amendment and pro family song.
https://twitter.com/grovernorquist/status/481963335231889408
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: Hear, hear! cowering in fear at their every insanity achieves nothing.
PaulW
Here’s the interesting thing: if Cochran pursues something like this, he could well secure enough votes away from the Democratic challenger in such a way that he could stymie McDaniel’s likely independent run (he refused to concede the runoff results, right?) for the Senate…
gbear
@Little Boots: @efgoldman: It’s OK. I found a new job with the state a few years later. I’m still there.
lamh36
deleted
rda909
@JPL: That number for King Bush the 1st of course is only for 4 years. If you take just President Obama’s first 4 years, he is by far the lowest user of Executive Orders in many, many generations. But make sure “journalists” at every major TV network and newspaper never hear about this, because they won’t be able to pump their Boner lawsuit and impeachment insinuation fairly tales.
vhh
@rikyrah: Please take a look at the Wikipedia entry on Executive Orders, which shows them going back to the mid 1800s. You will see that Obama in his first term issued fewer of them than ANY president in his first term in the 20th century. He has so far in his second term issued them at an even smaller rate. His two term total is likely to be much less than those of either of the Bushes or Reagan. I submit that impeachment based on executive orders is unlikely to get very far, and even if the GOP wins the best but still weak majority they might get in the Senate and votes on party line, they will fall way short of two-thirds. And make utter fools of themselves right before the 2016 election. So bring it on.
gbear
@ranchandsyrup: What a stupid thing for Grover to say. The responses are great.
Little Boots
@gbear:
actually, I am really glad to hear that.
hate when stupid shit costs people.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Rather those are the people who are eligible to vote; the question is how many of them actually manage to do so. They’re the kind of potential voters who would be helped the most by expanded voting options: vote by mail, early voting, etc.
Morzer
@gbear:
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
I do it to conservative male lawyers with abortion. I’m sick of threats.
They have 5 justices. Overturn. Get on with it.
They immediately start hemming and hawing. If they had the courage of their convictions they would demand their Team O Five there get on with it.
Little Boots
@Kay:
damn, take no prisoners. ever.
Little Boots
I warned omnes, and now I must fulfill, for no reason whatsoever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SLWzZoDmhg
Morzer
@Little Boots:
I love the remake of Dirty Dancing with John Cole in the lead role.
I predict a glorious box-office triumph for Naked Mopping this fall.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
I agree! I love early vote. It won’t be an advantage in 2016, though.
Republicans have low income voters too.
Younger lower income white males.
They’re on to the early vote thing. They’ll pour money into it in 2016.
Republicans here think they didn’t turn out low income white males for Romney and I agree. Partly that was Romney though. To say he “didn’t connect” is an understatement. I watched a 2 hoyr documentary about him and he’s a complete mystery to me. I could nit stop watching. He is somehow outside…himself. He’s Mitt Romney watching “Mitt Romney”
Howard Beale IV
@ranchandsyrup: Norquist is an anarchist. Anyone who says they want to shrink the government small enough so they can drown it in the bathtub should be forever tarred and feathered as such.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
I don’t know if having more poor voters would necessarily help the Democrats, but I do think it would help the country. If people earning less than $15K/year voted at the same rate as people earning more than $100K, politicians in both parties would start to take their concerns more seriously.
schrodinger's cat
@Kay: I have done it to conservative economists, who argue against raising the minimum wage. Well wouldn’t the best case scenario in their world then be making people work for nothing at all?
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: Curiously, it is upside down in India, the poor vote while the middle class is apathetic. However with inflation close to 10% I saw a lot of purple fingers, rich, poor and everyone in between, this time around.
rikyrah
@Cacti:
I know. that blew my mind. It was literally a W-T-F moment.
wow.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
I’m sure you saw that poly-sci study.
They have no political influence in Congress. I’m a 100k voter (combined! not me alone!) but I think my interests align more with them than with the other crowd. They must. I find myself asking them to vote constantly and I’m not particularly self-sacrificing :)
If we could even see 50% of 30k voter turnout it would be a better country.
Voting is a habit, among other things. My 20 year old is not “political” but I think he’s “a voter” now. Good! It’ll be a better “referendum” if he’s counted. More true.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I was ready for it to be totally insulting and stereotypical, and I thought I wouldn’t make it through the first episode. The last twist within the last five minutes blew my mind and totally made me reset what I had assumed the entire previous hour fifteen minutes. It made me realize that this show could go in many directions, and with what they did in that last five minutes, they would all be plausible.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That sounds intriguing!
FlipYrWhig
@srv: doesn’t it seem like every Godlstein post is right on the verge of using the actual phrase “rue the day”? (As seen in Real Genius.)
CONGRATULATIONS!
This will never happen.
Thad Cochran’s last act in this world will be to punch someone poorer than him in the face.
Anyone who voted for him is a sucker. The Tea Party brownshirt who was challenging him wouldn’t have done one single thing different, save for spew his racism and bile in public where it needs, frankly, to be heard, instead of in quiet rooms like the “Good Sentaor” Cochran does.
Chris
@efgoldman:
Well, that at least they haven’t forgotten, hence the new
poll taxvoter suppressionanti-voter fraud laws popping up all over the place.Chris
@KG:
Quoted for truth.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So this is the wierd way the GOP finds it’s way back into the mainstream?
Someguy
I can’t imagine black voters piling on board for that old racist Thad.
Now, Republicans manufacturing a bunch of fraudulent votes and packing ballot boxes in black areas,in order to make it look like black voters saved the day, that I can imagine.
cokane
it would have been better for progressives if Cochran had lost. I’m sorry but anyone who thinks Cochran will do anything substantive to advance any progressive cause one iota is delusional. McDaniels or whatever would have been better because he would have said some crazy shit during the campaign and maybe hurt other races by creating a national controversy. As it is, we have another Republican who will oppose 99.9% of anything Prez Obama or Prez Clinton tries to do. Even if he sticks his neck out on some issue, not enough R’s are going to join him to make a difference.
Matt McIrvin
@Patricia Kayden: They couldn’t convict him in a Senate trial anyway; they won’t have the supermajority. There would need to be some behavior on Obama’s part so egregious that a lot of Democrats would defect, and there’s no such thing happening.
I think the idea is to repeat 1998-2000: throw enough poo that, even if it doesn’t hurt Obama, it somehow hurts the election chances of Obama’s Democratic successor. But the charges against Obama are too stupid to even get the kind of popular traction that the Monica Lewinsky scandal did, and presumably the 2016 Democratic nominee won’t score the own goal that Gore did by actually getting spooked and running away from Clinton.