Other than her stiff presentation (she always looks so lawyerly and stiff during these press conferences, which is such a marked contrast when she can be very warm and personable when she is candid) and the fact that she had a look like she was gonna cut someone by the time she was done, I thought she did what she should have done a while back. Explained why she chose to use one account (convenience- something everyone can understand), explained what was meant by the regulations and her interpretation of it, and basically set the stage for right-wing overreach. If I had wished one thing, it would have for her to have been less formal and more charming throughout most of it and then summoned some righteous anger when they kept pushing her about whether or not she would let someone go through her personal email. A firm “No, personal means personal and I am not letting Republicans go sniffing through my underwear drawer like they have been for three decades” would have gone a long way.
The most important thing she did, IMHO, was say that in retrospect, she would have used two accounts, which is essentially admitting she made a mistake, and reasonable and rational people understand how we all wish we had done something different and recognize that often times we do things for convenience and not out of malice. I also think this will shut up those one the left who were pulling their hair out (ie: ME and DiFi and others).
Now it is just time to sit back and watch the wingnuts go overboard, which they undoubtedly will. And lock the Begala/Carville/Davis asshole brigade in a closet and don’t let them in front of fucking cameras, for fuck’s sake, unless it is Carville taking time to explain how he is still married to that awful woman he calls his wife.
jl
I missed the press conference. Not charming enough for Cole? Not much info in that statement.
I am reflecting on the different approaches that Cole and DiFi have of ‘pulling their hair out’ in public.
Edit: I am glad that HRC did well. If Cole is pleased, she must have done pretty good.
EriktheRed
And this is why I said after the last Hill post that I wasn’t gonna start panicking.
Violet
Didn’t see it but this:
Good Lord, yes.
Mike J
I was surprised when she admitted she had already picked out the dildos for the White House winter festival tree. Sort of a step beyond measuring for curtains.
Cacti
@jl:
She lacks the likeable everyman charisma of a Chris Christie, JC’s ideal candidate.
fuckwit
Hmm, I’m starting to see why some folks are getting whiffs of misogyny from you. Why slag that goofy schmuck’s wife? And why bust out a tone/charm argument against HRC… it reeks of “smile for me honey”.
These are dangerous waters that all of us, left and right, male and female, will be wading through over the next 2, possibly 10 years. A lot of bad sides of people will come out. A lot of lessons about male privilege and the radically different experience and standards for men and women will come out.
I hope that we on the left learn the lessons (especially we loudmouthed, argumentative, middle-aged men, and pronto), and the right wingers cut themselves to shreds on this stuff. HRC will be a lightning rod for the right, sure, but I don’t want us to get zapped. For us, she should be a great learning experience… especially learning what not to do and what not to say.
As a dude took me aside to advise me during the 2012 campaign when I said something cluelessly insensitve: “we’re on the same team, just word to the wise here…. ’nuff said”.
Patricia Kayden
Didn’t watch the press conference but good to know that she didn’t eat a live baby. She should be fine. I hope Dems rally around her and squash this email “scandal”.
EriktheRed
@Mike J: You owe me a new keyboard and monitor.
Pogonip
Since you can no longer discuss the Clinton campaign, how about a pupdate with pictures?
We just got a HORRID new e-mail system where I work; if State’s is anything like ours , I don’t blame any State employee for using her own e-mail.
John Cole +0
@fuckwit: I said she looked stiff and lawerly in this setting in oppositiong to how she normaly can be very pleasant in other settings.
Look how Obama always seems more relaxed in press conferences.
Forget it, I give up. I say she did a good job and still get slagged. I could say she is the greatest person on the planet and will be the best President in the world and Cacti would come in and tell me I’m sexist for taking this long to come to that conclusion.
Fucking trolls.
cahuenga
Bring this up from the last thread as I don’t buy the “convenience” argument, simply because – history:
Hillary was a Senator during the Bush Email Fiasco. She knew what was expected and knew it was a liability should it become public. She was also fully aware of the advantages as a future candidate for higher office – Namely, sanitizing rights to her official record… if needed.
The practice of retaining control of which official documents you are willing to release (to your employer!) has been SOP for many with future political aspirations going back at least since the reign of Prince George of Codpiece. This is nothing new. In fact the electorate seems to be encouraging the practice.
Mandalay
I thought that was the highlight of the show, and a shot across the bow to all those tough talking Republican candidates.
She certainly wasn’t statesmanlike, but she gave the impression that if you mess with her she will fuck you up very badly. No bad thing in a Democrat seeking the presidency, and also an appropriate warning to the uppity Villagers.
Violet
@fuckwit:
Because she’s a Republican operative and is on television as a pundit quite a bit, and as such she’s a public figure, which means who she is and what she does are fair game for discussion. My opinion is that she’s horrid. Cannot imagine being associated with her in any way, certainly not by choice.
Pogonip
@Patricia Kayden: Didn’t realize she was on a diet!
SatanicPanic
Aww does this mean the blog slapfight is over?
David Koch
Hillary did make a big fashion mistake by wearing a gold “Original Gangsta” medallion with blue pinstripe hightop sneakers..
Thank goodness Joan Rivers wasn’t alive to see that.
kindness
If I was Carville and married to that Harpy I’d volunteer to get locked in a closet.
@Mike J: Wait till you see the custom China set Hillary wants.
Pogonip
@Mike J: So THAT’S what “Festivus” is all about!
socraticsilence
There was only one real error in the questions she answered (the one account per device thing, which actually may have been true at the time but looks odd now). The question she dodged is– unlike the email thing– an issue of substance and not semantics– on the Clinton Global Intiative and possible conflicts of interest from foreign donors, but that would require real reporting so I doubt it comes to anything.
eemom
@John Cole +0:
Yeah, but at least a woman that you made a FPer would never take a cheap misogynist/sexist shot like that at you….
Emma
@John Cole +0: Look, John. You’ve run into a minefield. Many, many women, myself included, have been told by condescending pricks that we should be more “personable,” “charming,” “approachable,” “accommodating,” etc. etc. Those words have come to be seen by women as synonyms for “powerless,’ because what said prick usually meant is “don’t speak up while the men are talking.”
Capisce? It ain’t you, so much as the messages the words send.
Pogonip
@SatanicPanic: Not in our lifetime.
Cacti
@cahuenga:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but, who gives a shit?
EJ
Didn’t watch the press conference, because Hillary’s really lost me with this one.
I don’t care if you’re selling vacuum cleaners or running the State Department. You’ve got your work email and your personal email. Everyone knows this. At least all the little people do; apparently that rule doesn’t apply if you’re a Clinton.
David Koch
Hillary made news when she said “Obama would win a 3rd term if he wanted, not only because he’s been the greatest President in my lifetime, but once you go black, you don’t go back”.
SatanicPanic
@kindness: Those two cartoon villains look-alikes are made for each other, I’m not sure I can take a position on which of them is worse. Or slimier. yuuuuuuuck
David Koch
Hillary’s presser was going well, until the end, when she went “Gone Girl” and pulled a knife from her boot and slit andrea mitchell’s throat.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it distracts the media from her main message.
Cacti
@John Cole +0:
I’ve never called you sexist, Cole.
Just an ex-Republican stooge who still obediently foams at the mouth any time they say boo about the Clintons.
But commenting on her demeanor was kind of bordering on it.
muddy
She started out with the *first question* having quite a laugh. ??? Did I watch the same thing?
Roger Moore
@Patricia Kayden:
OK, but did she skull fuck a kitten? We won’t know for sure that she’s serious until she skull fucks a kitten.
SatanicPanic
@EJ: Yes, let’s judge our presidential candidates by how well they follow the employee handbook
gogol's wife
@Emma:
(woman speaking) You don’t think that being charming is a prerequisite for anyone running for President, male or female? I think it’s fair game for comment. (I didn’t see the press conference, but I have noticed that she can be extremely charming or not so much, depending on the occasion.)
fuckwit
@John Cole +0: Don’t give up dude. I’ve been there. I’ve hated getting called on shit like that. It always felt nitpicky and stupid to me and like nobody would just give me a fucking break. Then one day I got it. The circumstances were not pleasant, and I occasionally have to re-learn the lesson, but I got it. Yeah yeah, Obama always looks more relaxed and at ease, and he’s got that nice deep voice. Short answer: we’re playing at the lowest difficulty level.
Patricia Kayden
@Pogonip: That diet will promptly end when she wins in November 2016. You just wait.
Pogonip
@Emma:I beg to differ. Catching more flies with honey than with vinegar is a good approach for everyone, especially in politics. How do you know (a) he wasn’t giving guys the same advice and (b) that you didn’t need the advice? Often the advice that makes us angriest is the advice we most need.
Josie
@fuckwit:
Why slag that goofy schmuck’s wife?
Violet
I think just in general it’s good Hillary had a press conference. Handling a press conference well is a skill and it’s good for her to practice and improve her skills. If she doesn’t have any primary opponents, or not ones that go very far, she’ll be rusty on a lot of things like that before the main campaign starts. That won’t serve her well in the general.
max
And lock the Begala/Carville/Davis asshole brigade in a closet and don’t let them in front of fucking cameras, for fuck’s sake, unless it is Carville taking time to explain how he is still married to that awful woman he calls his wife.
This is always sound advice.
Now it is just time to sit back and watch the wingnuts go overboard, which they undoubtedly will.
Benghazi. BBBBBBBBBBENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
Because. It. All. Makes. Sense.
max
[‘Did they save Vince Foster’s brain?’]
Germy Shoemangler
from the New Yawk Times:
Early Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton’s potential opponents had already tried to capitalize on the opportunity to push her off message.
Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida sent an email to reporters reminding them of his disclosure of personal emails and provided links to news articles criticizing Mrs. Clinton for a lack of transparency.
Dave C
Did any intrepid reporter ask HRC if she planned to seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. President?
Mike J
@Pogonip: In case you thought I was just doing an over the top parody of Republicans, remember they really accused her of that.
JCJ
@Mike J:
Is she buying new ones or just planning to reuse the ones from Bill’s time as president?
muddy
@Pogonip: Have you ever tested the vinegar and honey thing in the kitchen? I can’t think how it came to be a saying, except that someone wants to say, “Be sweet, dear…”
Patricia Kayden
@EJ: So this was all it took? Oh dear.
I have to say that this is all feeling like Salon.com back in 2008 when I used to read it faithfully. I recall there was a comments war between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters. It got really heated — to the point that I thought whoever won the Democratic nomination would be doomed. I guess this is something to be expected every 4 years in liberal circles.
Amir Khalid
@JCJ:
I think that depends on whether the used ones are of sentimental value or associated with, um, unpleasant memories.
Mandalay
There was absolutely nothing wrong with what DiFi did. The State Dept and the Administration were getting pounded by the media while Clinton hid, and DiFi correctly said that Clinton, as the frontrunner for president, was going to have to address the issue – she wasn’t remotely “pulling her hair out”, and she wasn’t criticizing what Clinton had or had not done.
In fact, for all we know, Clinton would not have spoken today had it not been for DiFi’s comments. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Boxer, Pelosi and Feinstein drew straws to see which of them would speak about this to the media.
Kropadope
@Emma:
And when the same things are said about, let’s say Al Gore, John Kerry, Martin O’Malley, Mike Dukakis?
ETA: Maybe in your experience, those terms were used to put down women. But growing up in the age of tabloid television news, this appears to be simply what is expected of politicians generally.
Josie
@Josie: ETA: FYWP. I do not have permission to edit my post.
It switched my block quote with my comment, but you probably figured that out already.
Gin & Tonic
@Germy Shoemangler: Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida sent an email to reporters reminding them of his disclosure of personal emails
Did he also remind them he’s such a fucking dumbass he didn’t redact the sensitive personal information from those e-mails?
Patricia Kayden
@Germy Shoemangler: But Jeb didn’t reveal all of his emails.
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/03/05/new-york-times-digs-in-on-email-double-standard/202773
Kropadope
@Dave C:
No, just if the email issue would affect her decision.
Cacti
@Kropadope:
And how does that square with Cole’s admiration of Chris Christie’s political chops?
JCJ
@Amir Khalid:
So, you don’t think she’ll be hanging any of the cigars Bill shared with Monica?
Belafon
@EJ: Or a Powell, or every SoS before Kerry.
Starfish
I think that releasing meta-data for the messages that she is not releasing could be nice. For example, she could potentially give the name of who she sent a message to and time stamps and potentially a title unless she titles her messages things like “What a douche bag” or “Was John Boehner drunk?” or things like that.
muddy
@Kropadope: Do people use those particular words though? Or do they tell men to be more forceful, and not take any shit. More accomodating, really? c’mon.
FlipYrWhig
@EJ:
I’m ashamed to admit that I have repeatedly used my work email to remind my wife (at work) about a TV show we’ll watch later. I crossed the streams, dammit! Just like Hillary Clinton! *runs away sobbing*
Kropadope
@Cacti: Maybe he is a fan of the archetype “asshole with a heart of gold.” Maybe he misinterpreted Chris Christie as fitting this archetype.
Peale
@Mandalay: They woud have sent her an e-mail, but then they realized that she had given them an yahoo mail address that she obviously hasn’t checked since 1997.
Amir Khalid
@JCJ:
I suspect not.
geg6
@John Cole +0:
I’m just going to complain that you have not sent me or posted here a picture of my future pup, Lovey, that I can show off to all my co-workers and FB friends. Seriously pissing me off, Cole. ;-)
Richard Bottoms
>John Cole was being kind in what he said about her. You have obviously >never seen her in action on a talk show.
Nor do I gave one molecule of a fuck.
Beat the Republicans, win the White House is the the goal, the only goal, and the only thing that matters.
When you crybabies get that through your head, and devote all of your time to applying rhetorical lead pipes to the heads of Republicans we will win.
There are no good Republicans, no moderate Republicans, no sensible Republicans, and pragmatists we can work with Republicans.
What there is folks is a party the majority of which are anti-science lunatics who must be defeated for every office at every level everywhere each and every election until Democrats control the three branches of government.
Your queasiness about Hillary, and your fatigue about Bill, and your disappointment about the professorial nature of Obama counts for and matters exactly zero. Voting straight Democrat every election along with the lazy whiny ass “disaffected progressive” friends you need to drag to the polls is what maters.
FlipYrWhig
@cahuenga:
What is “the Bush email fiasco”? Is there some world I’m not privy to where people endlessly swap exciting tales of email policy?
srv
I’m still confused how PUMA’s are going to be the new Hillary haters.
What’s a PUMA troll going to do?
muddy
@FlipYrWhig: A long time ago I had one application that did both email and usenet. I accidentally posted a bunch of personal medical information to usenet because I was in the wrong pane. More than once, derp.
Peej01
@Germy Shoemangler: did Bush also mention that he left a lot of things in those emails that he should have redacted?
geg6
@fuckwit:
Because she’s Mary Matalin and, if there is any justice in the world, she should be slagged every day for the rest of her life?
Peale
@FlipYrWhig: Worse for me, I’ve never updated a few of my personal accounts from 20 years ago when the only e-mail I had was work e-mail. (who could afford the extravagance of an AOL account and the extra phone line needed to run a modem properly. Not this boy.)
geg6
@EJ:
I don’t. I don’t use my personal email. Ever. I’ve never even checked it.
Peale
@geg6: Yeah. I don’t get the sudden defense to circle the wagons around Mary Matalin. It’s not like she’d be there for you…
Keith G
@fuckwit:
Holy fuck fuckwit!
This has already been addressed, but I want to emphasize this point:
Mary Matalin is perhaps the most viperous, lying, ass pustule on the talking head circuit. How can you not know this???? Not every critique of a woman come from misogyny.
Dear lord.
Kropadope
@muddy:
For guys it may depend on the party. Obama’s tendency to accommodation probably helped win him the Democratic primary, that’s what got him my vote. Republicans want Democratic men to be more accommodating too, but that’s more in the sense of “spread your cheeks wider.”
FlipYrWhig
@muddy: Doh!
Germy Shoemangler
@Patricia Kayden: That doesn’t stop him from pretending he did. He really has no shame.
Emma
@Pogonip: Wonderful. You are now going to mansplain to me how I felt while being dismissed by a jackass who couldn’t do his job and expected me to do it while doing my own. Thanks for being a perfect example of the condescending prick.
Iowa Old Lady
@Richard Bottoms: You are my hero.
Mr IOL sends me stuff on his work email, but because I was a state employee, I never did personal stuff on my university account. I was too afraid a hostile legislature would want to know what I was doing with the funding they gave.
Peale
@FlipYrWhig: A lot of e-mails disappeared without backup. Congress punished bush by sending a hurricane and inciting an unexpected civil war in Iraq.
Emma
@Kropadope: Ah. Another one. No. When it’s said of men it’s meant to place them in a “womanly” position. Less masculine. Or don’t you remember the “earth tones” bs?
FlipYrWhig
@Peale: I just realized the email that auto-populates under my nym in the comment app is an account I never, ever check. Strangely enough, I set it up some time ago and stopped paying attention to it as long as it kept working.
David Koch
I think Hillary went too far wearing a blouse that showed off her side-boobs.
geg6
@Richard Bottoms:
Can’t find anything to disagree with here. But you do realize that this is a liberal/progressive blog? It’s what they do.
FlipYrWhig
@Peale: I remember two of those three events.
Kropadope
@Emma: I just think being personable and approachable is good advice for anyone anywhere…except maybe bouncers and Secret Service agents.
cahuenga
@FlipYrWhig:
Sorry. Assumed a minimum of political history knowledge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_White_House_email_controversy
muddy
@Kropadope: Whether you liked that Obama seemed accommodating is not the point. What the other party would like in their sick fantasies is not the point.
The point was, when are men advised to “be more accommodating”? Is this a meme I have missed? An Anti-Chamberlain sort of thing perhaps. I remember people thinking Kerry was kind of stiff, but no one was saying, Be more charming! Smile!
Mandalay
@Richard Bottoms:
This is a really stupid notion that is gaining traction and needs to be killed ASAP. There are a gazillion other things that really matter, including:
– Doing the right thing, not the expedient thing.
– Having a real vision of the direction the nation should be taking, and picking the right policies to run on.
– Having a truly progressive agenda, rather than one that is a tenth of an inch to the left of the Republican candidate.
– Standing up for what President Obama has done.
– Fighting to win back the Senate.
– Fighting to win back some seats in the House.
– Getting more Democrats as governors.
If you make winning the White House the only thing that matters you have lost all perspective, and risk ending up with nothing.
muddy
@Emma: +1
Kropadope
@muddy:
Right, they just criticized him for being wooden, uncharismatic, boring, etc. Assuming, as I do, that they wanted him to be less not-charming, then they wanted him to me more….?
Violet
@Emma: It’s like “bossy.” No one calls men “bossy.” That’s reserved for women and girls. “Charming” is more often used to describe women. “Charismatic” is what men are called. Women can also be described as charismatic but it’s less likely to see a man described as charming.
Nevertheless, as a woman running for president, and who would be the first female president, Hillary will have to walk that tightrope and appear “approachable” and “charming” all while being “tough” but not “bossy.” It’s a challenge for women in positions of power for sure.
FlipYrWhig
@cahuenga: So, in other words, part of the U.S. Attorney purge story, not a standalone “missing Bush email story.” This story not being about either missing records or a subsidiary to some other more important controversy about the use of power, I fear the parallel escaped me. And I’ll just say again, unless this story becomes something beyond “Didja hear Hillary Clinton used a different email address than she was supposed to?” it’s going nowhere and will be remembered by nobody.
The Moar You Know
@fuckwit: We did a very poor job WRT President Obama in that respect, still are. Maybe we won’t be quite so awful with Hillary. And yes, the right (unless we run interference for them) will absolutely destroy themselves among female voters in their haste to be the first ones to show that uppity bitch who’s the man of the house!
cckids
@fuckwit:
Are you serious?? You’ve seen/heard Matalin, haven’t you? Slagging on her is NOT because she is female, it is because she is simply one of the most vile, mendacious creatures ever found in US politics.
ETA:, or as Violet said first at #13.
The Dangerman
I’ve heard about the “ClintonEmail.com” domain, the server, and a Blackberry.
Pardon my ignorance, but does a Blackberry even go through the server?
Mike E
@Richard Bottoms: How’s your cat herding business going?
The Moar You Know
@Violet: Such a bunch of crap you women get saddled with. I ride herd on a bunch of assholes at this job – all guys – and I sure would like it if they were either “approachable” or even remotely charming, but they never will be and it’s not relevant to their job duties, and no one gives a fuck.
And frankly, it’s not relevant to being president either. Christ, look at Nixon. He was about as approachable and charming as a chainsaw stuck in the “on” position. Did that matter? Not at all. Very effective president before he went insane.
Pogonip
@Violet: I rather like Hilary’s thoughtful, serious demeanor. Much better than your regular phony-friendly politician.
Gin & Tonic
@The Dangerman: Yes. There is an actual mail store somewhere; some place where the 55k or more messages actually reside. Blackberry (the device) does not (or did not in 2008) have the storage capacity, and Blackberry (the service) is just for transport, not storage.
The Moar You Know
@The Dangerman: Yes. Either Blackberry’s or someone else’s, but all email goes through a server. Usually a few of them.
cahuenga
@FlipYrWhig:
This story is about the appropriation of official records for purposes of filtering or sanitize rights at a later date, should that be necessary. It’s common now, all the kids are doing it. Jeb’s mail was on a private server, I think Walker’s were too.
It’s also a clear moral dilemma. And anyone can see why.
Mary G
I didn’t see it, but sounds like she did OK. Cole, I don’t think you are a misogynist, FWIW.
Since the polls seem to be showing that the public consider this a big nothingburger, I am ready to move on. She ought to do well in the Presidential debates against whichever schmuck the other side settles for. A smart, tough woman who’s not afraid to be a bitch is just what the doctor ordered in that situation.
Violet
@The Moar You Know: It was a different time. The mainstream press was the only coverage of candidates and elected officials and they were more deferential, at least until Watergate blew up. The media landscape is so 24/7 these days and with social media and a camera and video device in almost everyone’s pocket, there’s no down time for a candidate. I’m not sure Nixon could get elected today but I could be wrong.
The Dangerman
@Gin & Tonic:
OK, thanks; I thought Blackberry had their own account/domain (“[email protected]”) and stored in their own system (like, for example, Gmail or Yahoo).
The Moar You Know
@Mandalay: You missed his other point…BEAT THE REPUBLICANS. At any rate, you are wrong. Your way is the way of Democratic defeat that we’ve been tied to since Johnson. I am fucking sick of it.
Bottoms is right.
Debate it with someone else if you have a problem with my viewpoint. Preferably an inanimate object that won’t die of boredom listening to stupid preachiness.
Kropadope
@The Moar You Know: He was pretty insane and busy sowing the seeds of his downfall before he was even elected. However, he was elected in a time before people could get saturation coverage of a candidate. Maybe with a little more exposure, people would have figured out he was squirrely before electing him.
Adam
@David Koch:
You have to admit that she did pull off the hot pink Mohawk though. Must be the cheekbones.
aimai
The whole thing, Cole, was a tempest in a teapot and the conflicting but hysterical cries from the Democrats (like you) which were either “she should get out in front of it!” to “she’d better not overreact!” to “Hope she doesnt dignify it with a response” to “ohmygodshe’s doooooomed because she let 24 hours go by without rushing to the press” are just so dumb, so did you people learn fucking nothing from the last thirty years?
There will always, always, always be lines of attack on every political figure. Most of them, in the case of the Clintons, will be entirely made up. Far be it from our press to attack them for not being liberal enough. The attacks will always be from the right and always be more or less entirely manufactured. Thank god HRC and Clinton won’t make the mistake Obama has always made in thinking that this can’t be happening or that you can negotiate with these assholes.
waspuppet
I didn’t see it yet, but I already know:
1) The “tough” Ted Cruz/Trey Gowdy wing of the GOP will respond “She took a WEEK to come up with THAT weak response?!? She could’ve come up with that off the top of her head the minute this broke! This just confirms that she was personally responsible for BENGHAZI and thus nothing will pass Congress until we have months of hearings on this completely unexplored topic. INPEACH!”
2) The “polite” wing of the GOP – Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd – will respond, “She took a week to come up with that weak response? Any normal human being would’ve come up with that off the top of her head the minute this broke. Well, OK I guess, but you can’t possibly be thinking of letting such a deeply weird human being become the president of my country.”
3) The “tough” wing will call it “sometimes-rambling”; the “polite” wing will call it “wide-ranging.”
4) Both sides will say it “raises more questions than it answers.”
The end. Until next time.
Violet
@Mary G:
Women are going to enjoy watching her do that.
FlipYrWhig
@cahuenga:
Uh, not yet it isn’t. That’s way, way ahead of any facts we know. It takes as confirmed the existence of the homebrew server, the location of the homebrew server, and the nefarious purpose for the homebrew server. Which is several consecutive leaps.
Mike J
@Mandalay: No. Everything else is a nice bonus. Keeping the WH is the goal,
2022 is the first chance to win the house, and that’s only if we control statehouses in 2020. Everything until then is basically a holding action to prevent the New Deal being rolled back.
Kropadope
@The Moar You Know: No, your way is the way of Democratic defeat that we are tied to because of Johnson. Ethics matter and if ethics cease to matter to a large portion of a party structure (see the Republicans), then that organization will become corrupt and, in the case of political parties, can do enormous damage to our nation.
samiam
Once again according to totally not Republican anymore Cole, the most important political issue of our times is Hillarys emails because….reasons.
Not a peep out of him over Republicans sending a letter to Iran trying to subvert the presidents authority. That’s just a minor thing blown out of proportion.
Thinks that make you go hmmmm.
Pogonip
@Emma: Well, I am in awe of your logic, but I will tell you that your remark caught my eye because I too was once told to talk less and listen more, and I too was hopping mad. But you know what? The lady was right. I took her advice and it benefited me.
It might be fun to be a condescending prick, but alas, I lack the equipment. I wish you well and wish you the best of luck. With your attitude, you’ll need it. I myself found that once I started listening, including to things I would rather not hear, life became not only more interesting but easier.
From what you say, you’re the best at what you do. I hope your boss agrees and when the layoffs come that giant chip on your shoulder doesn’t get you booted. When a boss is deciding whom to boot, very often it comes down to personalities.
Why not make an effort, if not to get rid of the chip entirely, to at least lay it aside for a day or two? See what happens. And let us know. We care.
Elie
Hey — late to the thread but it sounds like she did good. That is all that I care about. Hope she is laying out her approach for when this happens again — which you all know it will.
So, when is she going to declare she wants this thing? Why wait? Yes, it will signal open season, but shit, lets get her going! Maybe they think that there is a down side to announcing too early? Maybe– I can wait as long as her eventual answer is “yes”. What else could it be?
Germy Shoemangler
Okay, here is what I don’t understand:
I read the David Brock piece at CNN. Made perfect sense to me. Why didn’t Hillary make the same arguments? Why did she say it was a mistake, I was wrong, etc. ?
jacel
Meanwhile, when this XKCD strip on email was published recently, I didn’t realize that it was darn close to being a portrait of Sen. Graham.
http://xkcd.com/1467/
Mary G
@Violet: I’m imagining a seance where we contact the spirits of Molly Ivins and Ann Richards to coach her debate prep. We can dream!
Sherparick
@John Cole +0: Only thing I can say as a lawyer is that 45 years of training and experience of being on guard in adversarial proceeding are hard to shake (and Hilary v. the Washington Press Corps is by definition adversarial). One prefers to be stiff and on your guard when dealing with this pit of snakes (imagine Ragnar Lokbrork looking down at Aelle’s snake pit, and you can basically see Hilary looking a the Washington Press Corps – and that press corps from Ed Henry to Ron Fournier to Susan Page basically all want to be the snake that give her the fatal bite – Ron Fournier definitely is developing a strong resemblance to a pit viper.)
Speaking of vipers, both Steve M. at “No More Mister Nice Blog” http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2015/03/are-republicans-even-interested-in.html and Driftglass http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2015/03/modern-conservatisms-greatest-strength.html nail the nihilism of the Modern Conservative Neo-Confederate Movement.
from Steve M “…The long-term goal is for Republicans to get control of the entire government. Then they’ll legislate like crazy, with no Democratic input, in three areas: lining the pockets of the rich, driving foreign policy in the direction of more and more war, and giving social conservatives and gun nuts pretty much everything they want. (The last item is to keep the voters reelecting Republicans so Republicans can keep pursuing the first two items.)
But until that opportunity comes, Republicans don’t care about advancing an agenda. They just care about keeping their fans pumped up and enraged. ” (PS: If you can afford drop by Driftglass because and put a few nickels in the till as he finds himself “between jobs” – as they say.)
Patricia Kayden
@Richard Bottoms: “Beat the Republicans, win the White House is the the goal, the only goal, and the only thing that matters.”
AMEN!! We need to tweet this out a million times. This is all that matters. All. That. Matters.
Pogonip
@David Koch: That was what made me ( and probably Viillago) decide to vote for her!
Mike J
@Patricia Kayden: Why should I be concerned about millions of people having health care or women making their own decisions if it means that I can’t let everyone know I’m more pure than they are?
Violet
@Mary G: Yes! And can we add to it the Joe Biden of the 2012 debate? He was great fun to watch. “Diamond Joe” took over The Onion’s Twitter feed for that. Hilarious.
Kropadope
@Mike J: The party of responsible governance needs standards if people are going to entrust them with those responsibilities. If people are given more cause to distrust the government generally and Democrats in particular, your going to find vanishingly fewer opportunities to do things like improve healthcare access.
Tree With Water
“Convenience’ is pretty thin by my lights, but O.K. She might have added that individuals have no business whatsoever with control over public documents- which is the sticking point with me. And I’m with you that legitimate displays of pique occasioned by stupid questions is both proper and becoming in a politician. Of course, the flip side of that coin is personified in trembling Lindsey Graham, fearer of shadows and senator from that most chicken-shit of states, South Carolina. After all, who else but a state full of sniveling chickens-shits would ever vote to send that scaredee cat to the senate of the United States? I can’t decide which is the bigger joke: the man, or the people?
seaboogie
@kindness: @Mike J
I hope she goes all Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” with the China pattern.
Pogonip
@Violet: I just can’t see anything particularly bitchy about Hilary. Where do people get this? From when she snapped at the Congressman in the Benghazi hearing? Granted that wasn’t her finest moment, but we’re all entitled to a bad day or two. Usually she seems pretty even-tempered; after all, she never threw her husband out of the house. ( I wonder, is it legal for an aggrieved spouse to throw the President out of the private White House living quarters?)
That Benghazi hearing cost her quite a few female votes where I work. The men were more forgiving, but then most of them weren’t planning to vote for her anyway. Me, I agreed it was certainly not her finest moment but I wasn’t going to write her off.
I want to complain again about FYAutocorrect. I typed “wadn’t,” above, and FY Autocorrect would have let it go!
Germy Shoemangler
AP headline:
“Clinton: I should’ve used government email”
Last line of AP story:
“Clinton said she emailed her State Department colleagues on their government accounts and therefore expected her communications would be archived. Her office says the material turned over to the State Department last year represents 90 percent of her communications. But because Clinton was operating her own email server, only she and her closest aides know that for sure.”
So the average voter (who only scans mainstream stories and doesn’t study balloon-juice or media matters) comes away with the opinion “she admits she did something wrong.”
And the ratfckers high five each other.
Patricia Kayden
@Mike J: As if any politician is pure.
Let’s just pray that Democrats scream their lungs out at Secretary Clinton on blogs like this but go out and vote for her in November 2016. We don’t have to love her to understand that she’ll be a better President than the scary guys on the Right. And yes, to many of us, Republicans are scary. I assume that if Republicans get the White House, they’ll rush laws through to push their anti-minority, anti-women, anti-gay, anti-poor people policies. Plus, they will push wars as their foreign policy.
If Democrats want a more progressive candidate, then push the party to the left — like how the Tea Baggers have pushed the GOP to the right.
Tommy
I don’t usually get mad at Bill or Hillary. But they set up their own server in their house. Do you think they were like, cool weekend project. Nope. They knew what they were doing. Not going to give them a pass here.
Emma
@Pogonip: So, if you’re female, you’re the kind that thinks every time some jerk tries to “put you in your place” he’s doing you a favor?
And no, jerk, I don’t think I’m THE BEST at what I do. As in most professions, I’m better than some, worse than others. You know, reading comprehension matters. Context matters. I said a man who couldn’t do his job and expected me to do it used the “approachable” “friendly” “personable” bs on me. Your attack was very similar to his, actually: “chip on my shoulder,” “never take advice”. Yadda yadda.
You do have the “fake concern” down to an art, though. Congratulations.
Steeplejack
Good one from Borowitz at The New Yorker: “Joe Biden Releases Both E-Mails Written While Vice President.”
Bonus: “Iran Offers to Mediate Talks Between Republicans and Obama.”
Pogonip
@Emma: I wish you well.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Ha!
Ha!
Pogonip
@Emma: Reading comprehension matters. The person who gave me the good advice was female (I know very few male ladies). Goodbye and I wish you the best.
Tree With Water
@Tommy: Yeah, of course they knew. I should have said “thin unto transparency”. But as the laws allow it, it boils down to shame on us all.
Belafon
@Tommy: She was allowed to use her own account. What are you not going to give her a pass on?
Bystander
I think when you’re refuting accusations of wrongdoing, seriositude is the way to go. Being charming could seem less than forthright and would leave her open to looking frivolous. But I get wanting to see this for the inconsequential sideshow that it is.
As much as I agree with Richard Bottoms, it’s difficult watching another Clinton handing the ammo to the Merrye Family that is the repub party. (If I could figure out how to link, I would link to the imdb page for “Spiderbaby”.)
beltane
Now that this is done, can we go back to discussing the Republicans’ treachery regarding Iran? Governors Jindal and Perry have also signed onto the letter.
Ruviana
@Violet: Can’t explain it but there was a song about it….
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Pogonip: Ye gods, you just made me think of something.
What if *shudder* State was using *cringe* Lotus Notes?
That could explain a whole hell of a lot….
Baud
How the hell do the Saints trade Jimmy Graham to Seattle?!?!?!
Bobby Thomson
@Kropadope: just as long as said asshole has a penis.
eemom
@Richard Bottoms:
And we won’t get it if Hillz fucks it up — including, potentially, with respect to “nothingburger” shit that could have been avoided. Read the Waldman piece Mary G. linked to on the last post.
The fact that people aren’t paying enough attention in fucking March 2015 for the e-mail thing to affect her poll ratings says absolutely nothing about the disaster she could wreak if she runs a shit campaign against that republican. It blows my mind that no one seems to get this.
Just Some Fuckhead
I can’t decide who I hate more, Hillary Clinton or John Cole. Hmm, let me keep reading the comments.
dedc79
Consecutive blog posts on The Corner:
Hillary: ‘I Chose Not to Keep’ My Private E-mails
Two Weeks Ago, Hillary Said She Used Two Phones
The Clintons: Royalty Without Nobility
‘Clintons Gonna Clinton’
Hillary Deleted Emails After State Dept. Demanded Them
How the Clean Air Act Holds Back the American Economy
Hillary: Catch Me if You Can
Gowdy Calls on Hillary to Testify ‘At Least Twice’ Before Benghazi Committee
Wait, Doesn’t Bill Clinton Not Use Email?
Shameless
Hillary Threw Down the Gauntlet
Clinton Emails: The Security Issue
ETA: Yes, you read that correctly. They took a break from Hillary bashing to briefly rail against the Clean Air Act.
Tree With Water
@Baud: If Bradford stays healthy, look out for the Eagles.
Pogonip
How does Hilary poll with working, non-college, lower-middle, whatever you want to call us, women? She’s got the college-degree crowd sewn up, for sure–but are there enough of them? I worry that Democratic strategists’ ignoring us will sentence the nation to decades of Republican rule, and frankly, I can’t afford those jerks, not to mention that their attitude towards medical care may sentence us all to star in ‘”The Stand.”. Democrats have pretty well written off non-college men and I fear that if they write off us, their female counterparts, they’re just writing off too darn many voters.
Iowa Old Lady
And Trey Gowdy says HRC raised more questions than she answered. He needs some sort of macro to produce that for him.
Tommy
@Belafon: That she went around government records acts. I use my name here. My first name as a username. My email my entire name. Anything I say here I will say to your face. When you set up a second email address it screams out to me. I am a nobody. When you do that as the Sectary of State or the former first lady questions are asked.
Pogonip
@dedc79: Well, somebody besides Cole is interested in it!
Baud
@Tree With Water: Saints may need to look out for everybody without Graham.
Baud
@Tommy:
I don’t follow any of that logic.
Tommy
@Baud: You stand behind what you write. Very simple.
Pogonip
@Just Some Fuckhead: Tough choice, ain’t it?
max
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Ye gods, you just made me think of something. What if *shudder* State was using *cringe* Lotus Notes?
Oh, c’mon, surely those are MS Exchange people.
max
[‘Outlook:Bad.’]
Turgidson
@Violet:
Not just women. I, y-chromosome and all, am eagerly anticipating the chance to watch Hillary deliver a verbal atomic wedgie to Jeb or Scottie or whoever when they try to mansplain something to her on a topic they know fuckall about. It’s going to be glorious.
Baud
@Tommy: How does that relate to Hillary?
Pogonip
@beltane: Man’s work is from sun to sun but critiquing Cole is never done!
max
I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign
I just noticed the tag, BTW, and yes. Yes you can’t.
max
[‘Anytime you start agreeing with Mark Halperin, you’re probably wrong.’]
Baud
@max:
I like the “no longer,” as if there was some golden age when it was possible.
Tommy
@Baud: I am about 100% sure I never savaged Hillary here. Not even sure how what I wrote relates to Hillary in a rude manner.
Violet
@Tommy: Who’s saying Hillary Clinton isn’t standing behind everything she writes?
She has a right to have a personal email address–as many as she wants, actually. You want her buying things from Amazon using a State Department email? The issue is using a personal email for government business. That’s all.
Have no idea what you’re saying with this comment: @Tommy:
Pogonip
@Patricia Kayden: It’d be hard to do that as both parties are tools of Wall Street; remember, Clinton signed NAFTA and Obama’s pushing TPP even as we speak. Where I see a difference between the parties is basic governance, maintaining some minimal level of public service; the Democrats are corrupt but they’ll at least try to keep the infrastructure from crumbling any further, whereas the Republicans seem to want it to all fall apart.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@max: I’d rather have Exchange than Notes. Any fucking day.
Only thing I liked about Notes was the heiroglyph pattern generated while you typed in your password.
Baud
@Tommy:
Ok, man. I’m totally lost now.
Violet
@Tommy: How does Baud asking
lead you to:
Where was there any suggestion of “savaging Hillary” or anything about what you wrote being rude? Seemed like a reasonable question to me. I don’t understand what you wrote or how it relates to Hillary either.
Pogonip
@Violet: I agree; I don’t care if she’s using .gov or hotmail.com; if she signed it that’s good enough for me.
And in the unlikely event she’s reading this, my apologies, Mrs. Clinton, for calling you Hilary and not Hillary.
Pogonip
We can has puppies now?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Pogonip:
If that’s the case, aren’t you and Emma talking about two completely different situations? It’s one thing for one woman to take another woman aside and tell her how she’s coming across. It’s a completely different thing for a man to tell a woman that she needs to be more charming and deferential to him. That’s the kind of situation that Emma was talking about.
beltane
I am not a Hillary fan, and I sincerely wish there were other viable choices out there right now. However, the Clintons seem to thrive campaigning under a cloud of scandal. It’s what makes their boat float. I’m not worried, I’m just tired of it all.
Pogonip
@beltane: Hear, hear! More puppies, less campaign!
Redshift
@max: We’re talking about technology levels dictated by federal procurement. You may be looking at the wrong century for example of just how bad it could be.
FlipYrWhig
@Violet: @Baud: Do you really want Tommy to explain things to you? Tommy’s whole shtick is the plain-spoken guy with simple declarative sentences and minimal punctuation. Tommy says what he means. Stands by it. Also his dad was no nonsense. His town has Republicans. Heck there are good schools there.
geg6
@Tommy:
So the server was at her house and not a cloud server, as all the articles I’ve read have speculated? She said that exactly?
Most of the tech people I know have said that is ridiculous and almost certainly not what they did. But maybe you are right.
Either way, I have no idea, still, why this is a big deal. Apparently it’s been SOP for SoSes until Kerry. And this supposedly common idea that everyone in the world except me and Hillary Clinton uses multiple email addresses is so foreign to me that I’m wondering if I woke up in an alternate universe or something. That is not how it is in my world and among my friends and family.
Baud
@FlipYrWhig: I typically understand what he’s saying, plain spoken or not. Today, I’m thoroughly confused.
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): No need to be so reasonable about it.
Actually, she didn’t take me aside. It was a meeting and she said, ” You know , God gave you two ears and one mouth; why don’t you try listening twice as much as you talk?”. Once I got over being mad ( everybody laughed) I realized she was right. Except for Balloon Juice. God–er, Cole–gave us Balloon Juice so we could sound off.
beltane
@Pogonip: The Clintons will wear you out if you don’t pace yourself. I was a young woman during the Clinton administration; the drama didn’t exhaust me so much. Now it’s too much.
Villago Delenda Est
This phrase excludes:
1. All Rethuglicans
2. All wingtards
3. All of the vermin of the Village.
So, the stupidity will continue, indefinitely.
Hilfy
Did John Boehner do Hillary’s makeup for this presser? Her skin tone looked as orange as he usually looks.
Or was it my TV acting up?
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet: Carville has no possible excuse for sleeping with a Sith Apprentice, sleeping with the Bellatrix Lestrange of the American right wing.
No excuse at all. And no redemption for such an act.
FlipYrWhig
@Baud: I think he’s making a point about duplicity, only it’s backwards, because the whole point of the (non)story is that Clinton used one email for too many purposes, not multiple emails for multiple purposes. And the shtick wears me out.
Pogonip
@beltane: I give her points for not throwing Bill’s clothes out on the White House lawn and him after them. Granted, for all we know it’s a marriage of convenience, but she’s still entitled to at least the appearance of respect from her husband.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: Thank you. There will be a daily installment of stupidity from now on so we may as well get used to it. It is not going to stop-ever.
SiubhanDuinne
@max:
Oh, nicely played, Sir!
Pogonip
@beltane: Oh, swell. Instead of pupdates, we get crapdates.
Eric S.
@Richard Bottoms: I wish this were not true, but it is.
I do not think the email issue is a nothingburger. There are issues of transperancy, record keeping, and security. But it is blown all the hell out of proportion.
In a primary where Clinton has an opponent this is an item that will play in to my decision. In a general where Clinton is opposed by a Republican… Well I live in Chicago. I’ll vote early and often for Clinton.
beltane
BBC’s adaptation of Wolf Hall will be airing on PBS stations next month. As full of drama and intrigue as it promises to be, it is no match for the Clinton saga.
max
@Redshift: We’re talking about technology levels dictated by federal procurement. You may be looking at the wrong century for example of just how bad it could be.
Oh, God. You may be right. They’re using Groupwise for Netware, aren’t they?
max
[‘Could it be?’]
Violet
@FlipYrWhig: @Baud: Yeah, I’m thoroughly confused as well. “Stand behind what she writes?” Who said she didn’t? She just wrote it on some non-.gov email account.
muddy
@Villago Delenda Est: I picture them hissing at one another like reptiles as they do it.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t have a problem if he’s just sleeping with her. People have different sexual tastes. But he married her. They have kids together. That’s a whole other level of horror. I cannot even fathom…
LT
The “convenience” comment is 100% bullshit that every reporter should be all over.
She could OF COURSE use a private amil and government email on one device – adn without any logging in or out. What bullshit. And since she HAS to know this – she is flat out lying.
Bill Arnold
@Sherparick:
Also, they will appoint as many Conservatives as possible to the courts. Elections have consequences.
The sad thing is that wingnuts, if pressed, will say, and believe, similar things about Democrats, not acknowledging that Democrats are much a less disciplined/bigger tent party, even given the rise of the Tea Party.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack:
Most excellent!
Violet
@max: Perhaps you’re onto something as to why Lindsey Graham doesn’t use email–the computers are so old they don’t connect to the internet. Still using fax technology.
EriktheRed
@The Moar You Know:
What do you mean by this:
?
geg6
@Violet:
To be honest, we have been told by university tech services, university attorneys and by consultants hired by the university to use faxing for any paperwork of a confidential nature, not email. Faxing via landline is apparently much more secure than anything online.
Violet
@geg6: Yeah, I think that’s why medical records have to be faxed and not sent via email. Of course these days faxes are often done by uploading to some general server and then faxing, so I’m not sure what the difference is.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet: I have a problem with them sleeping together IF, as alleged, he shares his client information as pillow talk with her, who of course being an agent of evil in the Bond villain sense, will of course share whatever she learns with her vile master, the Dark Lord. Sort of like Snape babbling Trelawny’s prophecy to the Dark Lord, to Snape’s eternal regret. At least Snape showed regret for his actions…no indication that Carville ever has.
Villago Delenda Est
@LT: Yes, but the technologically illiterate twits of the Village don’t know that. They’re far too busy stuffing their pieholes with cocktail weenies.
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est: Of course Carville hasn’t shown regret. He married her. Shudder.
David Koch
@Baud:
Thanks Obama.
max
@Baud: I like the “no longer,” as if there was some golden age when it was possible.
We takes our Coles as a good as they get. You know Sully is just twitching up a storm right now. The DOOM OF MEN IS AT HAND. THE EMAILS WILL KILL US ALL.
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I’d rather have Exchange than Notes. Any fucking day.
Say an old version from 1999 running on Win2k?
max
[‘It can always get worse.’]
Tree With Water
@Baud: Drew Brees isn’t getting any younger (or taller) either. Throw in the current ownership soap opera, and the Saints have definitely entered slippery slide territory.
Baud
@Tree With Water: Yeah, Twitter is abuzz that Brees will be traded as well.
LT
@Villago Delenda Est: Yeah, I don’t even believe that. There might be some. But far from all.
Pogonip
Still nothing new? This is unacceptable! Juicers of America, Canada, and Malaysia, unite! You have nothing to lose but this stupid topic! Demand cute pictures!
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet:
In my former job I attnded a number of quasi-governmental sub-national conferences (Southern Legislators, Southern Governors, and national organizations when they happened to convene in one of the southern states we covered). More times than I can count, the organizers invited Mr and Mrs Matalin-Carville to serve as keynoters. Their he-said-she-said, Dem-vs.-Rep shtick was mildly amusing the first time (ca. 1994). After that, it just sounded rehearsed and phoned-in and unfunny. They are both grifters first, partisans second, and useful human beings (a very distant) third.
Pogonip
@geg6: I’d go for real security. Put the thing in an envelope, slap a stamp on it, and mail it.
Richard Bottoms
@Mandalay: You know you raise some important points.
All of which I forgot about because I got distracted wondering if I had forgotten to do something today, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant to rhetorically shove a red hot poker up the ass of a GOP politician today?
Because the amount of time I spend worrying about whether my guy is warm, personable or dripping with WASP’y goodness is exactly zero.
I think about how can I embarrass a Republican with his own words. Is there a bad thing that occurred anywhere on the planet Earth that somehow is tied to some GOP asshole and can I make him or her spend the rest of the day and part of tomorrow explaining how their most recent idiotic vote didn’t contribute to it.
There is nothing that matters more than finding anvils to throw to drowning Republicans.
Nothing.
There are no good Republicans.
There are no bad Democrats.
There is only goal, one task, one mission, one unifying thing Democrats need to be working towards: Winning the House, the Senate and the White House on 2016.
No being nice and sportsman like, not rehashing old fights, old wounds, and most importantly not expecting our candidate to be perfect with an unassailable past and a perfect liberal sword with which to smite the assholes on the Right.
Beat these motherfuckers. Because frankly they deserve it, every single misogynistic, anti-science, anti-choice, pro-coal racist homophobic one of them. Twice over.
Baud
@Pogonip: I’ve already got pictures of myself all over the place. I’m satiated.
Cervantes
If you were her, to what extent do you think you would be “candid” with the press corps?
Pogonip
I wonder if the two-party system hasn’t run its course. Here’s a site full of yellow dog Democrats and they still aren’t thrilled with their likely candidate, and I have looked at a few yellow dog Republican sites and they aren’t thrilled with any of their potential candidates. I wonder what other method we could use? I thought of proposing a national burping contest, but realized that if that method were used, one of Cole’s frat boys would be the next president, and it would be difficult for him to lead the nation AND get his homework done. What else might we try?
Baud
@Pogonip: Political blogs are not a representative cross-section of America. Especially liberal blogs.
Roger Moore
@Violet:
It’s always possible that her public persona is just a shtick, and she’s perfectly pleasant in person. I would actually suspect something like that is the case; it has to be exhausting to be as awful all the time as those people are on camera.
Pogonip
@Baud: No, they’re not, but they are representative of each side’s yellow dog voters.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@max:
I don’t think you understand just how much I loathe Notes.
No one warned the poor IT guy that the new draftsman/technician moonlighted as computer support, and he thought my growing horror as he tried to walk me through “how to use the client” was because I was new to email. That is, until I asked him, “Are you sure I can’t just use elm?”
geg6
@Violet:
We were told to use a fax on a landline only.
@Pogonip:
If I did that, no one’s student aid would ever get processed. Ever. Or their veterans educational benefits. It would take five days for verification paperwork to get from my campus to the main campus where the verification team is. Or to the VA regional processing center in Buffalo. No thanks, I’ll do what the experts tell me.
wasabi gasp
Tommy is the canary in the cole mine. Hillary will befuddle us all.
Mike J
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: mutt4evar
MazeDancer
@Richard Bottoms:
Great reminder rant.
So, as you said, get out there and elect the Dem. Everywhere. Doesn’t matter who it is. Or if you like them or not.
Please have that standing by to copy and paste as needed during the upcoming election season.. I am among those who need the reminder about Mrs. Clinton. Though, Mr. Obama does not make me feel anything but blessed to have had such a President in my lifetime. Even when I don’t agree with him
There was no reason for Hillary to wait a week to have this press conference. She makes me scream at her ineptitude mostly caused by “there are no rules for Clintons” attitude. She is only sort of “likeable enough” when she is not relaxed.
This is not about my personal preferences for the sale ability of charming, it is part of my worry that she doesn’t have the skills to combat the media trying to put a Republican in the White House.
And you know the GOP are going to have a woman on the ticket.
Doesn’t matter. Work for the Dem. Everywhere.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’ve been working on a song I call “There’ll never be a woman in the White House” but I’m struggling with the tune. Ideas, anyone?
Pogonip
Maybe we could have an actual dog, yellow or otherwise, as president? It would liven up foreign relations.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Ukraine treaties NATO aggression blah blah blah.
PRESIDENT LILY: Woof!
On the other hand, she might put her paw print on anything if he comes to the meeting with goodies. Let me re-think that burping contest.
geg6
@Roger Moore:
I agree. They do seem to love each other and happy in their marriage. I’ll never understand it, but there it is.
Pogonip
@geg6: I kinda sorta recall reading that al-Qaeda foxes the U.S. gov’t by using the mail and carrier pigeons. I hope it’s not true.
Renie
@Richard Bottoms: Excellent post!!!
geg6
@MazeDancer:
Yes, yes, YES!
JPL
@Just Some Fuckhead: You are so bad! lol
try this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWyordkvD0k
Violet
@geg6:
Is that a digital landline or an old fashioned wired phone line?
Pogonip
@Just Some Fuckhead: “Nessun dorma”?
Corner Stone
@LT: One email to rule them all, and in the darkness, bind them.
Elie
@eemom:
No — I definitely get it. Aint much I can do about it, but I definitely get it….I am just hoping for the best because what is plan B? I just hope she gets/stays real serious about running this thing right AND that she has the fortitude and toughness to get it done.
Mike J
BREAKING: Jury finds Pharrell, Thicke copied Marvin Gaye song for ‘Blurred Lines,’ awards $7.3 million.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Roger Moore:
My working theory has always been that they are both people who love to argue, and they’re able to get that bug out of their systems by arguing in the political arena rather than the more destructive domestic arena of arguing about laundry, dinner, etc. IIRC, she was twice married to men who shared her political views before she married Carville.
Pogonip
@Baud: Yeah, but are you floofy?
That reminds me. Cole was threatening to post a video of Steve playing with the Howls. Did I miss it? If so, can someone please me refer me to it?
geg6
@Pogonip:
The lawyers say that mail can get lost or stolen. I work with very sensitive personal information and they say landlines are the most secure. Maybe not for terrorists, whose lines are undoubtedly tapped, but for protecting the tax, Social Security, veterans records, medical and mental health records, employment records and dozens of other docs I work with every day, it’s the best method.
Corner Stone
@Tommy:
Maybe you can carpool to the polls with your Republican voting parents this next go round?
Cervantes
@fuckwit:
Precisely.
EriktheRed
@Villago Delenda Est:
She ain’t called Lady MacCheney for nothin’, ya know.
Corner Stone
@FlipYrWhig:
Excuse the fuck outta me?
Roger Moore
@Pogonip:
Well, Osama bin Laden apparently used some very complex communications routines to avoid giving away his location. When he wanted to send an email, he would give it to a courier who would travel a long way away and send it from a cyber-cafe. That kind of thing can keep a sophisticated opponent like NSA from being able to track you down, but it seriously degrades your own effectiveness.
geg6
@Violet:
You’d have to talk to the campus tech people. That is not in my knowledge base.
Pogonip
@geg6: This is interesting because a lot of phone co’s are eliminating landlines!
wasabi gasp
@Just Some Fuckhead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcawnRIyeok
Pogonip
@muddy: That’s cats. Reptiles are pretty quiet.
I pulled in the other night to see 2members of the local cat collection busy making new cats. I waited till the Tom climbed on the female and was just about to grab the back of her neck with his teeth, and then hit the horn. :D
Culture of Truth
I just tuned into Hardball and they are outraged and calling her another Nixon.
Actually this is good news since from now on we’ll all get access to all public officials’ e-mails and other communications, including Republican House members, Senators and Governors.
Roger Moore
@geg6:
That may actually be true, but it’s sad if it is. Good quality email encryption is available, especially if you’re sending information to a recognized recipient. This kind of thing is exactly what public key encryption was intended for.
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
That was mean. How would you like it if a cat did that to you? ;)
Culture of Truth
This is weird for me because I’m hardly a Clinton fan but her critics are generally just so much worse.
Corner Stone
@Culture of Truth: I loved how Tweety said, “She did everything she needed to do. Except answer the question”
Just Some Fuckhead
@Culture of Truth: I’ve been skipping the first 30 minutes of Hardball since DomainGate broke.
Baud
@Pogonip: Maybe.
@Culture of Truth: The same could be said by people who aren’t Obama fans.
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: It didn’t help in the long run; all 6 females are pregnant. I think my neighbor will not be able to afford the cat collection much longer, though; the public utilities around here were recently “deregulated” ( put on a laissez-faire basis) and so everyone’s bills have doubled.
Lavocat
One of the worst things to ever happen to the Democratic Party was Clan Clinton.
Now, they’ve got the whole damned party acting as one, as apologists for Her Majesty, The Annointed One.
I am sooooooooooo damned glad I left that political party to become an independent.
This woman (and her husband) can’t be trusted in anything that they do. They are pathological on so many levels.
But, hey, so glad to hear that she so forthrightly exonerated herself from any possible wrongdoing.
shelley
Looks like Verizon has dumped the Weather Channel. Gosh, no more shots of Jim Cantore having an orgasm over ‘thunder snow.’
And John, the last pup pictures were on Sunday. Feeling withdrawals.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth: The sooner Sylvester catches Tweety and turns him into a light snack, the better.
Culture of Truth
@Baud: Generally speaking, that’s as much true, or more so. But I have no conflict because I’m an Obama fan.
Pogonip
@shelley: Hear, hear! ( About the pupdates. Since we no longer have cable I am neutral on the Weathet Channel. I get my weather the way God intended: local news and the Internet.)
Pogonip
@Lavocat: If we must have a party system, more parties are desperately needed. I was sorry the Coffee Party never took off; they’re exactly what’s needed. Probably they need a catchier name, such as the Wild Party.
srv
Monitize, baby!
Mike J
In case you think the US has a monopoly on stupidity, Twat Gear craphole Jeremy Clarkson was suspended for physically assaulting a producer, then tweets gloating remarks that he bumped Labour pols out of the top news slot.
Pogonip
@srv: What does “cisgender” mean (please, God, not another long acronym)?
Baud
@Culture of Truth: As am I. And all the stupid crap Obama faced from both the right and the left made me a bigger fan. If that’s what Hillary gets and she handles it well, that’s a plus in my book.
Josie
@Richard Bottoms: You are attacking an innocent woman. My remark referred to Mary Matalin I am a Hillary Clinton supporter, although I’ve been seriously pissed at Bill for a long time. I think she must be a saint or a very strong woman to put up with him all these years.
srv
@Pogonip: Any answer would be bigoted.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: Ah-ha! FY Autocorrect didn’t catch “weathet,” either! So what, I ask, fucking good is it?
I’m voting for whoever campaigns to outlaw Autocorrect.
Culture of Truth
@Baud: Yes, but it will take shit like this to turn me into a Clinton “supporter.” God help me.
@mikej Clarkson was skating on thin ice. Can he really get by punching a fellow employee / boss ?
Just Some Fuckhead
49 Ronin vs. 47 Republicans – who wins?
Corner Stone
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
He hates people like you, and with good reason. He doesn’t get paid to accommodate the one-offs.
Kropadope
@Just Some Fuckhead: Well, the Republicans are outnumbered, but their screaming bullshit is one of the most potent weapons I’ve ever seen.
Baud
@Just Some Fuckhead: Everybody.
Germy Shoemangler
@Amir Khalid: that has been done to me. Our cat will often yell because we close our door, and she wants in. She doesn’t like closed bedroom doors, and doesn’t care if the humanz want to be intimate.
muddy
@Mike J: He reminds me of Bill O’Reilly. Same physical type, same bullying attitude.
Germy Shoemangler
@Germy Shoemangler: i call it “catus interruptus”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
You are a very special flower, like an orchid sprinkled in fairy dust.
@Culture of Truth: I’m thinking that it will be Golden Girls jokes and dark Benghazi fantasies that create the excitement for Hillary, to say nothing of “traditional marriage”, Rick Santorum, Huckabee, Ben Carson (at this point you gotta figure he’s gonna get the Eastwood slot at least) and whatever parade of fools they come up with.
max
@Violet: Is that a digital landline or an old fashioned wired phone line?
Communicating with a fax is a point to point interface. Even if you use a digital line, the voice data for phone networks is encoded inside IP packets, but it’s not in an easily hacked and intercepted form. (The technical term is ‘tunneling’ of one form or another.) And of course, the fax data is carried over voice. So it would be fax transmission tones packed inside voice data and then the voice data is stored inside a packet. Even if they capture some of the packets it would be hard to get the entire fax transmission. (Unless it’s the NSA.)
Email has to go through an email server and emails aren’t encrypted and so on. Much easier to intercept on the way – or the sending or receiving servers can be hacked.
max
[‘Fax is much closer to sending a snail mail. Sending an email is closer to yelling to your neighbor across the street.’]
Elizabelle
Listening to the conclusion of PBS Newshour: Hillary Clinton CONCEDED she made a mistake and DESTROYED THOUSANDS of emails.
And they had “independent” Matthew Dowd — with a severe case of Hillary Derangement Syndrome — on to discuss the issue with Hillary Rosen, who did a pretty good job of batting down his more bizarre comments. (Along lines of Matthew: “That’s why most of the country does not like or trust Hillary” and Rosen “Actually, according to polls, they do.”)
NPR is Nice Polite Republicans.
PBS News Hour: what’s a good slogan for them?
muddy
@Germy Shoemangler: Better than having the cat leap on to go for a ride.
eemom
@Baud:
wrt “handles it well,” that’s a big if ya got there.
Germy Shoemangler
@muddy: She would never do that. She would just stare disapprovingly.
She doesn’t like the staff fraternizing.
muddy
@Elizabelle: “We’ve been unbalanced since MacNeil left.”
Baud
@eemom: I’m still trying to decide if physical violence meets that standard.
burnspbesq
If nothing else, Secretary Clinton sure is click-bait.
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
Cis is the opposite of trans. So I guess a cisgendered person is what a transgendered person is not; i.e. falls into either category of the traditional male/female gender binary in all respects.
Just Some Fuckhead
I just watched HRC’s press conference. No word on whether or not she conspired with a Nigerian UN official to smuggle money out of Nigeria.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Amir, I think the front pagers are refusing to put up new posts in an effort to convince you that you need to accept front pager status.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Don’t start that again. (Rolls eyes.)
Corner Stone
I’m still wondering why HRC didn’t just throw her panties down on the podium and say, “Is this good enough for you, fuckers?”
Baud
@Corner Stone: Gotta save something for the debates with Bush.
Bobby Thomson
@Pogonip: the “both sides do it” party? Yeah, fuck them.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: Oh, OK. But I’d really like a new thread.
Corner Stone
So the Saints don’t really give a shit about making the playoffs this year, then?
Corner Stone
Sometimes earning a paycheck just isn’t fucking worth it. I have totes missed most of this free agent frenzy bullshit.
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
I think Jeremy Clarkson reckons the BBC doesn’t dare sack him. At six foot five, he’s the biggest star of their top international hit.
Baud
@Corner Stone: Or any other year in the near future.
Corner Stone
I like Brian Hoyer and all, but he’s probably not the answer for Texans QB.
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: Aw, come on. If you can’t think of anything, you can always put up “What’s on the agenda?” like the others do when they’re stuck for an idea.
Corner Stone
Man, the Browns are going to have to draft a QB in the 1st round for like the eleventy draft in a row?
Carolinus
Excerpts from John Stewart’s GQ interview on Obama. It hearkens back to the bizarre juxtaposition of his uber caustic Obama Daily Show sit down followed shortly by his fawning interview with Bill, where he kept suggesting he’d have handled everything so much better. In the GQ Q & A he can’t say if Obama has been a good President, though he sure lurvs him some Bill:
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2015-03/9/jon-stewart-interview-alastair-campbell-barack-obama
He also slags on Al Gore, and suggests even the wunderkind Bill Clinton couldn’t have saved him from himself:
Pogonip
I just got a message from my union urging me to urge my Congressthing to oppose the TPP, which of course I will continue to do. That very same union will also, schizophrenically, urge me to vote Democratic! They don’t have much choice. People who work for a living would be crazy to vote Republican–but, with the top Democrat pushing the TPP as hard as he can, we’re only slightly less crazy to vote Democratic. More parties are desperately needed, as is campaign finance reform. But the only 3rd party that’s shown any staying power is the loony Tea Party. I wish I had a solution.
srv
@Carolinus: Bill was the First Black President.
It’s funny people don’t remember how that came about, and were shocked with what’s happened to Obama.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: No disrespect intended to honest schizophrenics, by the way.
Elizabelle
@Mike J: Glad to see that. Very first time I heard song, I thought “Marvin Gaye?”
Elizabelle
300 comments dead ahead.
New thread please? Perhaps with some puppy action?
Pogonip
@Baud: Your remark reminded me of a funny picture I have, a big-ass warship. Caption: “90,000 Tons of Diplomacy.”
Amir Khalid
@Carolinus:
Maybe Jon Stewart would have liked to see more noble failure from Obama. A wiser person might be happy enough with Obama’s record of actual achievement.
Carolinus
@srv:
I forgot to include this winner from Stewart:
Apparently Obama didn’t give it his all or something.
Pogonip
@max: That’s a good explanation. (You know it’s good when even someone as dumb as I understood it.). Thank you!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I would say they view it through great nostalgia. There’s so much willful naiveté in those remarks it’s tough to swallow. “competence”? Has St Stewart forgotten that Bubba’s support was crucial to Dumbya selling us the Iraq War? Glass-Steagal, Jon? Ask your brother about it.
So Obama’s a failure? Spoken like a multi-millionaire with good Viacom health insurance, and no understanding of climate change and what Obama’s done about it. The eternally smug, hipster David Broder. Or maybe given his Clinton worship and desperate desire to be fair to both sides, the hipster Joe Klein.
dww44
I had to fly right past the 200 plus comments to say thanks to John. I love this post. It harkens bag to my early days on this blog when I would frequently crack up at what he wrote. Thanks, John, for putting this whole issue/non-issue in perspective for me. In case you’re interested Carville and wife Matalin wrote a book a couple of years ago about their life in New Orleans. She does come across a little more human and a little less mean in it. Admittedly it was not meant to be any sort of serious political tome.
I do think Hillary may have read Paul Waldman’s piece over at The American Prospect that was linked from here yesterday and took his advice about how to repay liberals who’ve stood by the Clinton’s all these years. As he pointed out, there’s almost always been a kernel of truth in the faux Clinton scandals and that she really does have to be better because of all that’s gone before.
Pogonip
Pleas for a pupdate having gone unanswered, I say we head for Cole’s house and view the little sweeties in person! Amir, will you lead us?
schrodinger's cat
John you have posted endlessly and breathlessly about e-mail gate but what about Cottongate? Surely, writing love letters to a member of the axis of evil is decidedly worse?
catclub
Bill and Hillary have been tested by the GOP hate machine for almost 25 years. They are each more popular now than they started out. They are battle tested and US public approved. Never mind what the pundits say about crises and controversy.
Mandalay
@Carolinus:
Jon Stewart can go fuck himself with a rusty pitchfork.
another Holocene human
@David Koch: lol @ work, you bastard!
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
You need someone who lives a bit closer to West Virginia than I do.
Corner Stone
So the Pats don’t think they have a chance to repeat next year, then?
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: Meh. You go far enough east, you’ll land in West Virginia eventually.
NobodySpecial
@Richard Bottoms: Yeah, except all the exit polling they’ve done doesn’t show it’s ‘disaffected progressives’ who aren’t hitting the polls in off-election years, but rather squishes who can’t be bothered to care about Democratic positions when there’s not a President on the ballot, and the Reagan Democrats who love them so.
Not to mention the idiocy of focusing only on the Presidency, and forgetting about all the state elections that allow them to pack the Congress so Democrats have hardly a chance of controlling the House.
Ripley
Please write legibly:
I am / am not a fan of Hillary Clinton (circle best answer); if she seeks the presidency, I will / will not vote for her (circle best answer). If I do vote for her, I will / will not hold my nose (circle best answer) while I do so.
Please return 1000 copies of the completed form to John Cole at the email address provided above, with a $100 check made payable to the Vote / Don’t Vote Hillary campaign (circle best answer).
EriktheRed
@NobodySpecial:
Yup, unfortunately I live with one of the millions of examples of this. My young-adult daughter is chomping at the bit to vote for Hillary but doesn’t give two craps about any other office and doesn’t even care about most issues beyond gender. In fact, for a good part of last year, she thought Hillary was running for Prez, not realizing it was a midterm.
Damn depressing, I tell ya.
Richard Bottoms
@NobodySpecial: I’m sorry I couldn’t hear you over all the whining. Besides I was too busy thinking about what can I do to fuck with a Republican, any Republican tomorrow to care.
Let’s start with that traitorous letter to Iran, Jesus thank you.
Get the GOP own on their knees and then proceed to kick them in the balls you back stabbing, weak kneed pillocks.
Time to get out the dildo of doom, the one with the splinters and zero lube boys. We need to fuck the Republicans for this craven act until they’re bleeding from the political rectum then hand them some salt.
Because in case you didn’t notice even the New York Daily News had them on the cover for this one. I know it’s not polite to kick a man when he’s down, but then I’m not very polite.
Kay
I heard clips on the car radio and she sounded fine.
I think she probably benefits from how negative the build-up (always) is with her, because you expect some kind of dodging, cartoonish shady character and then she just sounds like a normal person.
different-church-lady
I won’t say “CHEW TOY” this time because a presser actually is something worth posting about.
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: To Darth Hoodie, football players are interchangeable parts.
Corner Stone
@different-church-lady: Sure, and all that. But losing Wilfork and Revis?
Cervantes
@Richard Bottoms:
I saw that you are a fan of Marvel Comics.
PhilbertDesanex
@The Moar You Know: agreed. High thoughts all, and hen we accomplish the first 4 out of 7 we’ll be as morally as pure as one can be while still eating shit.
The GOP will shove whoever across the line anyway they can, and that’s how they are on top.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: What was the tell? The dildo of doom?
seaboogie
@Just Some Fuckhead: Stairway to Heaven.
Ltshinysides
@Richard Bottoms: I like this guy
AxelFoley
@Mandalay:
Gonna have to co-sign on this.
myiq2xu
Watching John Cole try to support and defend Hillary despite 20+ years of Clinton Derangement Syndrome is like watching a man reluctantly sell his soul to the Devil.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Didn’t need a tell. He advertises it.