It'll look really good when these guys refuse to even meet with a nominee who will no doubt look different from them pic.twitter.com/RO4fUnTqhX
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) February 23, 2016
Somebody is gonna stagger out of this all-night high-stakes poker game wearing only their soiled undies, and I don’t think it will President Obama. Because, you know, that’s what the record would indicate. From TPM:
Key Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee emerged from a closed door meeting in Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office Tuesday united in their determination not to consider any nominee to replace Antonin Scalia until the next president takes office…
When asked if they would start the process after the new president took office or if they would consider doing it in the lame duck session, Cornyn replied “No, after the next president is selected. That way the American people have a voice in the process.”
The Republican members of the Judiciary Commitee were unanimous in agreeing not to move forward with any Obama nominee for the Supreme Court, said Cornyn, who was in the meeting. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who was not in the meeting, later said that GOP senators were told at their weekly lunch that the Judiciary Committee Republicans were in unanimous agreement on the strategy.
Meanwhile, Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and the rest of the committee Republicans sent a letter to McConnell outlining their plan to block any Obama nominee for Scalia’s seat…
***********
So, what’s on the agenda as we await (& wait & wait — they’re being hand-tallied) the Nevada GOP caucus results later this evening?
.@ChuckGrassley: No #SCOTUS hearing "based on constitutional principle and born of a necessity to protect the will of the American people."
— Todd Zwillich (@toddzwillich) February 23, 2016
Guess who doesn’t give a f*ck about the Constitution when it gets in their way? https://t.co/eaY6Welgxd
— David Roberts (@drvox) February 23, 2016
Usually when people refuse to do their job, they get fired. #smh https://t.co/ft3LNdcMBw
— Emily Mann (@emannphd) February 23, 2016
"Let's risk our careers on a chance to see who President Trump picks." https://t.co/LYyfHsw7nm
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 23, 2016
Roger Moore
And McConnell isn’t even sure he’ll do anything with the next president’s appointee, either. I guess letting the people have a say in the nomination only counts if Mitch McConnell approves of their choice.
chopper
and what “constitutional principle” is that, chuck?
jl
@Roger Moore: Thanks for the link. I thought I saw that too.
If the GOPers start to threaten that they won’t consider any SCOTUS nominee next term unless they have both the WH and the Senate, I think that is definitely a ‘please proceed, GOP Seantors’ situation. At some point that kind of attempt at a political coup will rouse general voters.
I suppose the GOP figures this will rile up their rabid base, and their base is so insensate that only air horns will work. But at some point the noise will rouse opposing voting blocs too. African-Americans and Hispanics might wonder what will happen to their voting rights, or those of their children, for example.
smintheus
Anybody else remember about a year ago when Republican leaders swore up and down that they’d use their new majority in the Senate to prove that Republicans could govern responsibly and show that the GOP is more than the party of “NO”?
Major Major Major Major
I caught young Samwise in the “most interesting cat” pose so I had to make this http://imgur.com/a/Haam6
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Nah, they just need to turn their (government purchased) hearing aids up.
chopper
@BillinGlendaleCA:
great. now obama’s giving people aids.
Gimlet
The President could declare that the next order of business is selecting a replacement for the SC. Then, he could veto every piece of legislation that crosses his desk until then.
Lolis
This makes me shake with rage. It is sad and depressing what Republicans are doing to our country. I hope your take on it is right, but it is still a very bad precedent, and shows a lack of disregard for the president and half the country. The media is just incredibly shitty and willing to push anything the GOP does as acceptable and “both sides.” I wrote very nasty but clever emails to my senators, Cruz and Cornyn.
Mike J
Anyone have a cannon?
RaflW
@Gimlet: I am unaware of any legislating that is planned for the entire remaining 2016 Senate session.
ETA: There could be a Dentists are Nice People proclamation pending. Who knows??
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Lolis:
You poor thing.
WarMunchkin
@jl:
Without exception, every time I have seen this sentence, in some form, about the GOP, it has been met with a complete and utter shellacking by reality.
1. No matter what the GOP does, the fundamentals of electoral politics will not magically change as a result of those actions.
2. Winning elections will not happen as a consequence of the general public turning against Republicans. Nobody inclined to vote Republican turns against a Republican. (I mean, it might happen over time.)
3. Both sides, no matter what, will always be seen as doing the proverbial ‘it’.
I’m not in a good mood. Samantha Bee and John Oliver did not help.
bystander
I hate repubs. That is all.
Redshift
@Gimlet: The only problem with that tactic is that they don’t really do legislation any more either.
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: Mine doesn’t do shit for me.
Fair Economist
Polling predicts a good night for Trump tonight.
JMG
Just wait until November. If the election is at all close, look for states with Republican legislatures that voted Democratic to select Republicans to the Electoral College instead.
Major Major Major Major
@Redshift: I believe Obama could continuously call them into session (during election season!) until they relented so they could go back to grifting already.
Benw
The American people already had a voice in the process: we elected Obama. Suck on that, Republicans.
Here’s my inevitably wrong prediction. Right around the time the Republican freakout over Obama closing Gitmo peters out (about 2:15 pm EST next Thursday), Obama will announce a sane, well-vetted liberal judge as his nominee. The Republicans will try to fire up the Outrage-O-matic *again* but they won’t be able to get it up to full-roar so soon. When it doesn’t catch, the brave Republican Senators will find themselves alone with the bag looking like fools. At that point I’d say they have a better than even chance of folding.
dedc79
I think the last 23 years, Republicans have been testing the tolerance of the American people the way the velociraptors kept checking the electrified fence in Jurassic Park. They did it with the Clinton impeachment hearings, with Bush v. Gore, with the Bush AG scandal, social security “reform”, the govt shutdowns and debt ceiling fights, and now this. They push and prod and then wait and see if there are any consequences.
Too often, particularly in more recent years, the message the American people have been sending back is “We may not like what Republicans are doing, but we don’t care enough to do much about it.” Unless a majority of Americans truly mobilize on this issue of Obama being permitted to proceed with exercising his constitutional powers, signal their anger, their willingness to punish the GOP at the polls (and not just once, but for the foreseeable future), the raptors are going to run wild.
Gimlet
@RaflW:
Somewhere there has to be a budget.brewing.
After a respectful time, he could have the DoJ investigate suspected improprieties of big donors, politicians and open-secret criminal corporations. He could also begin moving troops out of certain domestic locations and put them along with their economic impact elsewhere.
Hildebrand
I hope Obama nominates someone tomorrow. Someone boring and sensible. Someone wholly competent and perfect for the job. Hmm, sounds like everything Obama has essentially ever done with his judicial picks. Still, I hope he does it tomorrow.
Cacti
@Fair Economist:
Fivethirtyeight has Trump at a 64% favorite, with a projected 37.1% of the vote.
As long as the not-Trumps keep splitting the not-Trump vote, he can keep skating to wins with less than 40% of the vote, where he’s been stuck for about the last 6-months now.
Brachiator
With all the craziness over Trump Ascendant and the Senate morons promising Supreme Court obstructionism, I forgot about the Nevada caucus this evening.
I think I will have a media moratorium. During my morning commute, I listened to an absolutely asinine public radio program in which the hosts and guests talked about how “the media” underestimated Trump by treating him as an entertainment sideshow. They also noted how the Huffington Post (really?) got heat for putting Trump’s early actions in their entertainment section.
OK. But then these same dopes blamed the media for legitimizing Trump, totally dismissing any appeal he has to voters.
A later segment was even more jaw droppingly stupid, about a study that suggested that half the population would be short sighted by 2050. Even though the interview guest clearly and repeatedly said that there were a number of factors responsible for this, including industrialization, he host kept asking, “well, shouldn’t we reduce the amount of time our kids look at computer screens?”
The science story itself is pretty interesting: Half the world to be short-sighted by 2050
Baud
@Cacti:
I only care about who finishes second. Or, better yet, third.
JPL
@Baud: haha.. That’s your opening cuz the second and third place finishers are definitely not winning. You could finish first and a half.
Helen
The new FaceBook right wing meme is “What???? We’re invoking the ‘Biden Rule'”
Whatevs. Hillary will get the pick.
les
@Roger Moore:
Hey, that’s been the Repub standard since at least GWB decided letting the Palestinians vote wasn’t so neat. An improvement, maybe sorta, from the good old days when we just made sure the guy we liked won. Or maybe not an improvement, from the Repub point of view.
scav
@JPL: Nah. 3 3/4s is the sweet spot for getting through.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This kind of shit has been happening so often that we’ve come to think of it as more or less ordinary; but it’s worth keeping in mind that the last time a political party behaved this recklessly, and with such contempt for our system and for the will of the majority of citizens, it was the Democratic Party right before the Civil war. I’d like tho think we can head this shit off before we come to that, but I don’t feel confident.
RaflW
@Gimlet: Budget agreement in Oct. of 2015 punts to Sept. 2017!
The Senate can pretty meet for 5 minute pro-forma sessions the absolute minimum number of days to prevent recess appointments (and you can count me among watchers who think Obama will not try that for SCOTUS anyway), and do f*k all till the election … and beyond.
Baud
@JPL: I’d ideally like to finish in π’th place.
JPL
@Helen: Well if we remember right, Biden said that the President should consult with congress. If we remember right, the selections were confirmed. I think that’s all the President is asking. Even the President led a failed attempt to filibuster, but it was a failed attempt.
Brachiator
@Cacti:
I saw a GOP moron on one of the Sunday shows smirking about how Trump’s appeal seemed to be capped at 30 percent or so. But what does this matter if a chunk of the upcoming primaries are “winner take all?”
And there is nothing that says that Trump has to stay stuck at this level of vote getting.
At some point, Baby Rubio and the Terrible Cruz have to win more primaries. It is not sufficient for them to brag about being number 2 or 3.
les
@Major Major Major Major:
They already never go out of session, lest the Obummer sneak through a lower court judge or an assistant to the associate secretary of some department they don’t like. Like, all of them, Katie.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Helen:
I hope you are posting the whole clip so they can hear Biden is actually saying the opposite of what the wingnuts think. The story has been completely debunked but that has never stopped the goopers in the past. Just have to keep pointing at the truth & hope to catch a couple with an IQ above room temp
PsiFighter37
This makes me so goddamn furious.
What I hope happens is that the Democrats retake the Senate, and then Obama rams through his pick in the 2 weeks that overlap the new Senate and his presidency. Give the Republicans a nice big middle finger to seat Justice Srinivasan as he heads back to Chitown.
Of course the media will be too callow to actually say anything about this. “BOTH SIDES DO IT!!!1!1!11”
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel:
Ours ain’t much better, honey!
RaflW
@JPL: And even a successful filibuster, had it happened, would have been the Senate behaving as if the phone had at least rung. McConnell has put his line on Silent for the next 300+ days.
Gimlet
@RaflW:
Plenty of other things.
Release the torture videos, name names and start prosecuting Bushies responsible all he way up the chain. Then start with war crimes.
Trumps “torture works, do worse” would never have happened if Obama had gone after them.
Helen
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
I did. Directly from the Motivational Biden FB page. Not that they’ll click.
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
Speaking of BS that won’t go away the local news wieners ran a story about a car fire & a bible that ‘miraculously’ survived when the care was destroyed. We could argue whether that is news but apparently in todays media it is. What can’t be argued is that this baloney has been floating around the Internet for years (and probably mimeographed sheets before that).
Having had a house fire I can tell you that it takes a long time to burn a book so it wouldn’t be a miracle even if it actually had happened.
JPL
@RaflW: That’s my thinking. To compare it to anything that occurred in the past is simply bullshit. There is only one amendment that they care about, and we know what that is.
pseudonymous in nc
The calculus shifts when the GOP Senate carcass has to hitch its wagon behind El Trumpio and say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on whether it would give a hearing to the choice of its party’s presidential nominee. PBO knows this.
#doyourdamnjob
Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)
@Lolis:
Makes me not feel so bad about Klobuchar. Sure am glad to have Franken.
max
@jl: At some point that kind of attempt at a political coup will rouse general voters.
‘Not Republican American voters’.
Them invoking the ‘Biden rule’ is some horseshit about what Biden said in 1992, wherein a conservative justice could up and resign and let Bush appoint a successor before the election. Biden said, nuh uh. Didn’t happen, was a speculative thought floated by people like Limbaugh and whatnot.
If RBG decided to resign immediately on the theory she could get a Dem replacement before the general then they’d have an argument for the Biden rule.
Random death is not an out. Obama will appoint a justice, and the Senate will hear it or not. No doubt about that.
Question is, is if they’re prepared to go this far, why don’t the recess until December? The Obama can do recess appointments and they can campaign against his appointments but they don’t have to vote anything. All recess appointments would expire in early 2017.
OR. They could just decide to leave the Senate chamber, go home and secede. It’s been done! I’d even let them avoid resigning (which the Confederate senators did because they were honorable men about that kind of thing), Then we’ll see if it works out better for them a second time.
max
[‘Then want to play this game, then by God let’s see it. Call.’]
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Steve in the ATL:
True, but Isakson and Perdue lack the national profile enjoyed [sic] by Cornyn and Cruz, so the laughing and pointing is quantitatively different.
WaterGirl
@Mike J: Mike, are you still here? I have a question for you.
Major Major Major Major
@les: I thiiiiink, forget the cite and don’t have time to peruse, that in extreme situations he can require their physical presence. Don’t recall it in the constitution (“each chamber…” Etc) so it might just be one of those norms that republicans conveniently forget.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: I sent Isakson a nasty note.. I’m surprised that I haven’t heard back.
Adam L Silverman
@RaflW: They have to do a CR, an omnibus spending bill, or individual appropriations for FY 2017. My impression is that neither Speaker Ryan nor any of the Senate GOP leaders want to reopen the fight with the House Freedom Caucus, so despite what the House Appropriations Committee Chairman says, and the committee does, they’re either going to do a CR or omnibus in line with the Budget Agreement of DEC 2015. That’s really all they have to do. They need to do either an AUMF or a Declaration of War for dealing with IS, but that’s going nowhere even as they kvetch about the problem. And they need to do a major infrastructure financing overhaul and spending authorization, but I doubt that will ever happen.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: One thing I will say for our horrible Georgia Republicans: they don’t let the true believers get too much power. At the end of the day, the chamber of commerce types make the decisions. It’s always moneyed interests uber alles. Don’t think we would elect a Cruz type. Cornyn? Yeah, probably, but not Cruz.
Of course, I haven’t voted for a winning candidate here in a LONG time.
Ksmiami
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): UNLESS and until the Democratic party starts delineating that the GOP is actually a treasonous poison forthe US, no one will understand how dangerous they are to the whole system. Just repeat it everywhere all the time. I want the GOP decimated
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
Lucky. They’d just disappoint you.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
(From Anne Laurie’s TPM link, top):
I keep thinking of the dozens of “Repeal Obamacare” bills — 50+ at this point, isn’t it? — not one of which was going to “go anywhere” and the Republicans knew that perfectly well. From jump.
jl
@max: I hope we do not have to depend on Republican voters in the general election.
If Obama nominates a great nominee, and Senate sits on it, and they keep making noise about not appointing anyone until both WH and Senate in GOP hands, then the question is how Democratic and Democratic leaning independents react in terms of turnout and votes.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: The Chamber went against Perdue and how did that work out? Last I looked he was Senator.
Baud
@Ksmiami: Nah, then people will complain that the Dems need to give them something to vote FOR. We’ve been down this road.
Adam L Silverman
@WarMunchkin: That is part of Senator McConnell’s strategy. He learned very quickly that the Senatorial GOP at least never gets punished and that the shifts in majority have more to do with turnout – presidential/national year vs mid term, than whether anyone in the US is actually happy with what the GOP is doing in the Senate. And he tethered his leadership position to this assessment. It has paid off for him, so there is no point in changing until or unless he gets evidence/information that invalidates his assessment and the assumptions that it is based upon. It is important to remember that movement conservatism’s argument is that 1) we don’t need the Federal government to do much, everything should really be done at the state level and some at the local and 2) government is terrible and doesn’t work, especially the Federal government, which reinforces point 1. If this is what you’re selling, than making it so that government doesn’t work, if you have that ability, is a major influencer of your sales and marketing.
Davis X. Machina
Look at it from their point of view — it stands to reason that an associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court ought at a minimum be an American, and not, you know, a Democrat…
A largely regional party with a disproportionately heavy representation in Congress considers the wrong party being in the White House sufficient, if not yet necessary, grounds for civil war?
Party like it’s 1859.
(What’s so infuriating is that they have the votes to defeat any nominee outright.This isn’t just bullshit — it’s gratuitous bullshit.)
NotMax
@Brachiator
A great chunk of humanity has been abjectly and overtly shortsighted throughout history with no present day diminishment of same..
Now, if we’re talking about being near-sighted, that’s a whole ‘nother ball o’ wax.
(Yes, realize short-sighted is a Britishism. Just having a bit of fun with it.)
trollhattan
@Schlemazel (parmesan rancor):
“Hallelujah, mah Dallas phone book done survived this
cartruck fahr!”“Great, dad…what’s a ‘phone book’?”
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Davis X. Machina:
Perfect.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
What was it McConnell said back in 2010… “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Lovely man.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator:
tRump will be more than happy with them WINNING! at second or third place.
Adam L Silverman
@Gimlet: There won’t be a Force relocation. While that would seem to be an effective lever, it isn’t. Remember those Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines have families. Its hard enough on them moving every several years, but an unplanned for, politically punitive, set of permanent changes of station would be a disaster.
Davis X. Machina
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: I mean, when the House refused in the antebellum period to even receive slavery-related petitions — the Gag Rule — the votes were always there to defeat whatever the petitioners sought, provided that someone could even be found to turn the petition into a bill or resolution. Gratuitous, in other words
We have all been here before, as CSNY used to sing.
Von Clausewitz was right, but backwards. Politics is nothing but the continuation of (civil) war by other means.
RaflW
@Adam L Silverman: So if I boil this down, they do a CR. That’s it. Sum and total of legislatin’ in 2016. They should get about $12 in pay.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL:
His aides probably printed it out, stuffed the paper into a plastic bottle, and threw it into a nature preserve.
ruemara
Tonight’s agenda? A little workout, a little ultrasound. Over $800, not including technician fee, to have a little peace of mind. And this does not include the delay of several days in getting one. Worlds best healthcare, indeed. Of course, there’s no particular reason why running a slime coated wand over my leg would cost $800for the mere privilege of having a slime coated wand run over my leg.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: The GOP strategy depends on their ability to hide their role in sabotaging ability of government to help ordinary people, and if they cannot hide it to shift blame.
It will be much harder to do those while patently preventing any SCOTUS nominee from even being considered. That is why they are trying to cement absurd BS about precedents in he public mind.
Dragging out some out-of-context and ill-phrased shit Biden said (like he doesn’t have a reputation for saying ill-phrased shit?) and calling it the ‘Biden Precedent’ shows how desperate they are. Their other idiot trial balloons to justify their outrageous obstruction haven;t worked with the public.
So, nice move that McConnell can’t help yapping about he might not even consider a nominee next term unless a WH and Senate GOP majority.
The GOP can get hurt if they can’t hide their tricks. If they get enough heat,and especially if it looks like it will hurt their chance to hold the Senate, they’ll turn on a dime and confirm a good nominee. Having zero principles allows one to do that kind of thing.
Davis X. Machina
@RaflW: How many of them live on their salaries, anyways?
MomSense
Oh dog, I can’t believe what I am seeing on MSNBC. They are showing the clips of der Trump’s rally where he talks about how in the old days the protester would be carried out in a stretcher and wanting to punch him in the face. Matthews just called on Steele who laughed about der Trump being “authentic” ha ha ha. On the previous show Not Halperin but the other one ( yeah that’s what I call him) called it “colloquial humor”. Really? This is just Trump being Trump now?
We need a Murrow. Who is going to call this what it is? Will any journalist step forward to do some truth telling?
Also, too I’m getting lots of questions from people about the Supreme Court nomination mess. NPR pretty much covered this from the beginning as though the Republican spin about how Obama should let the next President nominate was a legitimate argument. I’m keeping my cool and explaining patiently the constitutional instruction but the narrative was set early on this. I’m hoping we can at least motivate the partisans to be more engaged in this election.
With all the confidence the Repubkicans have about the next election, I’ve decided to volunteer to do voter protection. I’ve done this before and will find out where I’m needed this time.
Fuck. Voter suppression, subverting the constitution, fascism, Republican front runner tap dancing on the inciting violence line. I don’t want to have any regrets the day after the election about whether or not I did all I could to stop this madness.
Baud
@ruemara:
Hope you get that peace of mind.
beltane
@Davis X. Machina:
Yes. They could easily have come up with plausible bullshit to avoid confirming anyone Obama nominated. Instead, they chose open defiance, a kind of legislative version of firing on Ft. Sumpter. Since the standard response of the public to Republican malfeasance is “Congress sucks. Why bother voting.”, it’s not unlikely they will suffer any consequences for their behavior.
Bobby Thomson
@Cacti:
I think that’s overblown. We’ve reached the point now where he just gets stronger as people drop out. Apparently he wound up picking up most of Jeb’s voters – go figure. For the not-Trumps to coalesce around an alternative, there has to be a candidate worth coalescing around. There isn’t. It’s a bunch of bums, all with much lower ceilings than Trump.
Baud
@MomSense: You’re the best.
MomSense
@ruemara:
What happened?
MomSense
@Baud:
I’m just pissed off.
Adam L Silverman
@RaflW: I have long argued that if you wanted to see these fine folks, both in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Country Club or in the People’s House, get focused on actually solving real problems for real people, then you have to take away all their perqs, reduce their pay to no more than the median income, remove their paid healthcare, their guaranteed pensions after serving a minimum amount of time, paid vacations, travel per diem, etc. That would very, very quickly concentrate most of their minds.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Very true. I meant to “translate” it into Amurrican English, but forgot after I pasted the reference.
JPL
@MomSense: It would be interesting to see how many of us aren’t pissed off. All of them Katie, I suppose.
bemused
Obama brings up closing Gitmo once more and the rightwing is freaking out again, ridiculous Issa even comparing it to Trail of Tears. I know Republicans don’t want any Obama objectives to happen but they look like the hugest panty wetters ever. How many of their voter base are really afraid of Gitmo prisoners being to American max security prisons?
NobodySpecial
@trollhattan: And they did. One term of eight years. I love the way McConnell fucks up every GOP wet dream they come up with, personally.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: Yeah, but Perdue isn’t a true believer–he’s just another corporate whore
Mike J
@WaterGirl: I’ve been in and out. What’s up?
Ultraviolet Thunder
I’m actually fine with this politically. Yes, it hurts the country not to have a functioning Supreme Court. But it’s far from the worst thing that the GOP has done to us. And of all the stubborn mule obstructive moves they’ve pulled, this is the one that could hurt them the worst. If Obama played this showdown for keeps he’d have a highly qualified minority that nobody could object to (and a lot of voters could relate to) up front and center. With the GOP standing in his way. I would be political Armageddon in November.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: He is a true believer though..
Germy
@dedc79:
Some good writing and analysis there. Front-page quality.
MomSense
@JPL:
Collins said she is willing to consider a nomination. She only said this to sound “moderate” because she is fully confident McConnell won’t let it happen.
MomSense
@trollhattan:
He actually said it on January 20, 2009.
Benw
@ruemara: hope your leg’s okay.
Germy
@bemused: I saw one of the Repubs interviewed on BBC News America and he complained that Obama’s Gitmo proposal was only nine pages. He mocked it for being so short; said a cell phone bill had more pages. And yet those same assholes complained about the ACA and all those pages.
So whatever Obama does, they’ll criticize. Too many pages, not enough pages…
MomSense
@bemused:
The Reoublicans don’t want to close it. They want to expand it. They want to fill it full of moar terrorists. Bunch of death eaters. I better practice my Patronus charm. I’ve already got the chocolate.
dedc79
@Germy: Thanks!
Benw
@Germy: bunch of Goldilocks motherfuckers. “This President is too black. This President is not black enough.” May they get eaten by bears.
Germy
@Benw:
Hungry polar bears.
Or hungry hungry hippos.
jl
@MomSense: I don’t listen to NPR, I find everything about it infuriating. I don’t remember when it was worth anything, maybe I am too young to remember (and I am not young).
But, you must be in red hued territory if most people you talk with swallow the BS. Polling says 58 percent of public wants hearings and a vote on Obama nomination.
Majority of Public Wants Senate to Act on Obama’s Court Nominee
http://www.people-press.org/2016/02/22/majority-of-public-wants-senate-to-act-on-obamas-court-nominee/
raven
@JPL: Not the same guy. Sonny-David.
Germy
@jl: NPR is referred to as “Nice Polite Republicans” around here.
My wife puts on “Marketplace” sometimes, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from throwing the radio out the window.
Archon
The crazy part to all this is that there is a non-zero chance Republicans will have complete control of the Federal government next year.
DCF
@Germy:
Agreed…here’s a soundtrack worthy of the post….
Pearl Jam – Even Flow (Live Hyde Park ’10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F59PX-K8PwE
SIA
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: Well hell, what about us? Isakson & that other guy…Purdue. Poor us. :-(
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: I disagree. That would, if anything, increase the level of corruption. One of the reasons there is so much corruption in Ukraine is because official government pay, at all levels, is laughable. So everyone looks for every angle to supplement their income.
boatboy_srq
@Germy: The word count is off (too high/low). The margins are too wide/narrow. It’s in English. There will always be some fault to be found.
Weren’t both their last budget proposal and their vaunted healthcare alternative something like nine double-spaced pages?
Germy
What… happened to McConnell? Didn’t he start out marching for civil rights in the early ’60s? Or did I dream that?
bemused
@MomSense:
That makes me furious. They are abetting Trump’s incitement of the violent tendencies of his supporters.
@MomSense:
Of course they want to expand it. Punishment, harsh punishment is always their answer to everything they hate or fear. A friend sent me a Vox piece on what is common to all Trump fans: their authoritarianism.
raven
@SIA: Perdue, and before hm that punk ass draft dodging motherfucker Chambliss.
Steve in the ATL
@Germy:
If so, then he is a hardcore liberal today. One thing I’ve learned from our new Bernista visitors is that your politics and worldview today are set by whatever you did in the ’60’s and ’70’s and do not change and no one ever learns anything and no one ever evolves.
boatboy_srq
@jl: I don’t pay much attention to Now Presenting Republicans either. But then I’m in WAMU territory, and they’ve succumbed to Beltway attitudes.
Davis X. Machina
@Archon: Well, those contradictions don’t heighten themselves, you know. Look on the bright side. This will simply hasten the revolution.
Patricia Kayden
@Roger Moore: Why not? Why should Republicans do their job when no one holds them accountable and there are zero consequences for their obstructionism? They get away with not doing their jobs because the American people are fine with how they’ve treated this President. I’m dying to see how they’ll treat Secretary Clinton. While I’ll be sad when President Obama leaves office, I’ll be happy that he will no longer have to put up with these Republican idiots on a daily basis. They will be someone else’s problem.
boatboy_srq
@bemused: Expand it, and privatise it.
jl
@Archon: The money bags who pay the GOP are used to a non-zero chance of losing. They don’t like having to deal with just a non-zero chance of winning.
@NobodySpecial:
” I love the way McConnell fucks up every GOP wet dream they come up with, personally. ”
I read about McConnell’s history some time ago. He must be one of the most cynical slugs without a shred of principle ever in the Senate. Was a thoroughly moderate, in some ways even slightly center-left GOPer. He had an epiphany when Reagan won the Presidency, which I guess was to do whatever it takes to gain and keep power and feather his nest.
Probably he is OK with Senate GOPers because the states are not gerrymandered and they have to worry about general elections. I wonder whether he gives one rat shit about anything he says. I doubt it. Whatever he says is just whatever words he needs to say today, and which will mean absolutely nothing if another course best suits his advantage tomorrow.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden:
I’m up for the challenge.
raven
@Patricia Kayden: “I’m dying to see how they’ll treat Secretary Clinton.”
Really?
Patricia Kayden
@bemused: “How many of their voter base are really afraid of Gitmo prisoners being to American max security prisons?”
I assume that all of their racist base are terrified of having brown “terrorists” in mainland America. Their fear is silly so it really doesn’t matter. It’s not as if these prisoners will be transferred to minimum security prisons.
JPL
@raven: After the Sandy Hook murders, I wrote to both Isakson and Chambliss about taxing the heck out of ammo . Isakson’s office said thanks for the note but Chambliss’ office sent a response suggesting that he was looking into doing something like that. Of course, nothing happened and he retired, but at least he didn’t blow my ideas off. Lots of folks avoided the war..
Avoiding the war was a bipartisan effort.. One of my brothers was put on a bus like you, and the other volunteered to drop bombs on Hanoi.
Archon
@Davis X. Machina:
After how recklessly Republicans have behaved if the electorate rewards them in November and they win they will show absolutely no restraint on implementing their agenda.
Frankly I wouldn’t blame them either, nobody will be able to say they were fooled by the Republicans or on what the stakes were.
Steve in the ATL
@JPL: I volunteered for Max Cleland, so I took that ratfucking by Chambliss very personally
Patricia Kayden
@raven: Yes really. I assume Democrats will rally around Secretary Clinton more than they’ve rallied around President Obama. Plus, as a White person, she won’t have people questioning her very citizenship and legitimacy to hold office. It just feels as if President Obama is by himself during these spats with Republicans.
I don’t believe we’ll see the level of disrespect against a President Hillary Clinton which we’ve seen against President Obama. Perhaps I am wrong but it seems like every day since he’s been President, Obama has had to square off against Republicans, including being called a liar during his first SOTU. The level of disrespect has been unprecedented and I don’t think any argument can be made that it isn’t based on his race.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: LOL. I’m sure you are.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: I had a Cleland sign, and understand your feelings, but also heard from someone on his campaign about sexual harassment. It was a good source. Strange though..
MomSense
@bemused:
We wonder why voters don’t hold them accountable and yet we watch the media cover for them time and time again.
Frank Wilhoit
@Patricia Kayden: Wait and watch. My prediction is…well, you don’t want to know all of my predictions, each of which carries my greatest reluctance along with it; but to your specific point, a hypothetical Democratic President being inaugurated in 2017 would be faced with even greater intransigence by the Congress, even greater demonization by the Republican propaganda machine, and even greater economic sabotage by the business community.
Germy
@Frank Wilhoit: They want HRC arrested, for god’s sake.
alan
@Archon: yup, and and when they do we become an authoritarian country: no filibuster on bills, justices or anything, so all their crackpot bullshit will pass in the ‘New 100 Days’, complete with 4 new SC Jeebus Justices and a new media ‘Fairness Doctrine’, a la Russia Today. Voter ID will be a Southern Baptists birth cert or a gun permit, two votes if you have both!
Baud
Kevin Drum
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
I wanted to watch the Dem SC Town Hall tonight, but silly CNN has a limited-time streaming app that cuts me off after 10 minutes. I was prepared to drop a couple of bucks and sign up for their streaming service, but they don’t want to offer that to anyone who doesn’t already have a TV. I do not have a TV, consequently I do not have any of the names and passwords they require. What a stupid business model. You’d think CNN would love to attract “new” viewers like me who might be enticed to sign up for the more expensive package after sampling the streaming, but nooooo.
My gruntle, it is dissed. And I’d love to see a shiny new thread to talk about the Town Hall (Dems) and Nevada caucuses (Thugs). Thanks in advance.
Cacti
@Bobby Thomson:
Both of them?
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Davis X. Machina:
Yes, I knew exactly what you meant by “gratuitous.” The parallels are both obvious and ominous.
Germy
raven
@Patricia Kayden: good luck with that
Eric S.
@bemused: The Base? All of them. They are all fear-based voters.
RaflW
@Davis X. Machina: Maybe Sanders?
RaflW
@MomSense:
All it takes for evil to triumph is for spineless jerks to smile and offer platitudes.
Or something like that.
RaflW
()
SIA
@raven: Chambliss. May he roast on a slowly turning spit in hell.
bemused
@MomSense:
It’s a circle of wingnuttery. The Republican base is filled with fear, hate and anger. The Republican legislators and those running for office play the base. The media aids and abets. And the circle spins on and on.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: I think the issue is how he referred to Senator Cleland in his campaign against him. The same Senator Cleland that left three limbs in Vietnam while Senator Chambliss was avoiding service and harm’s way back at home.
stinger
@Steve in the ATL: Grassley and Ernst. Top that!
JPL
@Adam L Silverman: I realize that and he’s correct the ads were terrible.
My point was that Cleland was not necessarily a clean candidate, but we all have cobwebs.
nutella
@Adam L Silverman:
It’s happened before. Massachusetts was the only state to vote against Nixon in 1972. He punished MA and its neighbors by moving all the New England naval personnel (except the War College in Newport) to southern states.
ETA: But Obama won’t do something like that because he’s not an asshole.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@raven:
I think they’re cousins, aren’t they? Not really interested enough right now to look it up….
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@raven:
I loathed him for what he did to Max Cleland.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@Adam L Silverman:
There was at least one ad in which Cleland basically morphed into Bin Laden. Just shameful, that whole campaign.
2002 was a tough midterm.
mclaren
Agreed.
Here’s an interesting article in the Yale Law Journal that bears on the issue:
“Can the President Appoint Principal Executive Officers Without a Senate Confirmation Vote?” Matthew C. Stephenson, 122 Yale L.J. 940 (2013).
mclaren
@smintheus:
It’s true, though. The Republican have shown that the GOP is more than the party of “NO.”
The Republicans have proven that the GOP is the party of “FUCK NO!”
mclaren
@Gimlet:
Actually, there’s solid legal grounding for president Obama to take the senate’s refusal to hold hearings on his Supreme Court nominee as “silentia consenit,” i.e., “silence gives consent,” and announce that if the senate does not hold hearings on and confirm or deny or nominee within some fixed time period (say, 30 days), Obama will appoint the nominee directly to the court and instruct federal marshals to seat the appointee and clear away anyone attempting to obstruct that lawful process.
Let’s see what the senate could do about that.
mclaren
Insightful article in The New York Times about how this latest GOP escalation is just the next predictable move in a series of increasingly partisan attacks on Democratic presidents:
Source: “Before Scalia’s Death, a Clash Between G.O.P. and Obama Over Appellate Judges,” Charlie Savage, The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2016.