(Jeff Danziger’s website)
.
.
Per Raw Story, Lindsay Graham reminds his fellow Repubs they had a better choice, but noooo….
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) predicted on Thursday that Republicans would “probably” lose the 2016 presidential race because both of the leading GOP candidates were unappealing to most voters.
After ending his 2016 bid for the Republican nomination, Graham begrudgingly decided to back Cruz, a man who he once joked about murdering. In fact, Graham said earlier this year that choosing between Cruz and Donald Trump was “like being shot or poisoned. What does it really matter?”…
Video at the link, if you’re into that sort of thing.
***********
Apart from sweet sweet schadenfreude, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
The Other Chuck
[gleeful squeal]
Baud
And after you’ve saved the party from Donald Trump, then what?
The Other Chuck
@Baud: Given the electorate’s memory, my guess is Hillary.
geg6
Lovey bit the groomer today. She’s such a bitch.
Redshift
Graham was pretty funny on The Daily Show last night. Apparently giving up on running for president has turned him into No Fucks Left To Give Lindsay.
Baud
Speaking of Trump, has he stopped doing rallies or has the conflict deescalated? I have heard any horror stories recently.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@geg6:
Not so lovey, then?
debbie
@Baud:
Exactly. They think saving the party from Trump will be enough, when what’s needed is total reform. Stop with this 100% obstruction, permanent majority mentality, Hastert rule, etc. etc. etc.
Alex.S
@Baud: A few things-
* Get re-elected. A lot of Senators and Representatives are going to be asked directly if they support Donald Trump in the general election.
* Disassociate the party from Donald Trump for the future. The biggest worry for the Republican party is not that they’ll lose in 2016 (although that’s a worry). It’s that Trump’s candidacy will cause them to lose a generation of Hispanic voters at the same level as they’ve lost generations of African-American voters.
redshirt
I’d rather be shot, I guess. But a clean shot. None of that “bleeding out” stuff I see on the TV.
Smiling Mortician
@Redshift: He was fucking hilarious, even if you don’t spot him points for being Republican.
BGinCHI
@debbie: They can’t because the Whites are losing all their Rights to the Darks and the Kids and the Foreigns.
If only it was like the past when their handbaskets were free of hells.
Baud
@debbie:
@Alex.S:
If it were just Trump, that would make sense. But their front runners are Trump and Cruz. Won’t they be reforming the GOP out of existence if they try to moderate?
Brachiator
@Baud:
I haven’t been paying close attention, but I’ve seen more stuff about Bernie and Hillary visiting California, and of course, sad stories about the Trump and Cruz wives. I have no idea where Trump is or what he is doing.
There have been unfortunate stories about how the events in Belgium “favor” Trump’s vision of protecting America.
Amir Khalid
Heck, we all saw that video clip where Ted Cruz managed to creep out his own kid.
Renie
This is what i don’t understand. If graham doesn’t like cruz why back him? Don’t these guys ever do what’s right for the country rather than what’s right for their party? They are such hypocrites.
Baud
@Brachiator: That’s good. Stories about our side are better anyway. Too bad we can’t talk about that online without devolving into a pack of vicious jackels.
muddy
@redshirt: Graham said Trump was getting shot and Cruz was poison. He said the poison was slower and there could be time for a cure or remedy.
debbie
@Baud:
What they don’t (or won’t) recognize is that Trump is a symptom, not an aberration. Judging by my brothers’ FB posts, it’s still all Obama’s fault and nothing to do with the GOP’s (ahem) principles.
Baud
@muddy: But isn’t getting shot more Second Amendmenty?
muddy
@Renie: He said he preferred Kasich, but that Kasich couldn’t win. Mumbled something sarastic about how Kasich is reasonable and thus considered unelectable.
burnspbesq
Getting ready for Monday, a.k.a. Half-Price Easter Candy Day. I iz in your base, biting the headz off all your bunniez.
Major Major Major Major
My cat was on the stove this morning.
Yes, I thought about it http://m.imgur.com/laDSDVy.
Baud
@debbie:
No offense to your family, but I have no patience for people like that. It’s not just utterly stupid, it’s abjectly cowardly to blame someone else like that.
burnspbesq
Depressing, but I’m afraid it’s probably accurate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/03/24/daily-202-why-the-campaign-to-pressure-republicans-to-confirm-merrick-garland-is-failing/56f307c4981b92a22dab8f38/
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
There’s another photo out there that seems to show Heidi dodging a kiss from him. (In the version I saw, it was side by side with a nice picture of Barack and Michelle having a nice smooch. CONTRAST.)
WindyCityCat
Meanwhile, fuck Mike Pence:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/24/pence-signs-new-abortion-restrictions-into-law-prayer/82225890/
gogol's wife
@Brachiator:
I don’t do Facebook, but a friend who does said this morning that it’s all, “This is why we need Trump!”
Thoughtful David
@Baud:
Yeah, I keep running the scenarios in my head, and I can’t see how they don’t split sometime in the next ten months except for one case: if they win the presidency and retain the Senate. Even then, I can only see them holding it together til about 2018. The internal stresses are just too high.
If they lose to Hillary they split sooner.
Problem is that throwing Trump out won’t solve the problem. Those Trump supporters ain’t goin’ away. And they’ll come after the Trump haters like Graham and Romney. Who’ll have to fight for their lives.
It will get uglier.
Percysowner
@Alex.S:
Of course if they disassociate themselves from Trump I expect him to tell his followers not to vote for him because they’re “not being fair” His a vindictive SOB and I can see him turning on anyone in the party who he thinks has crossed him. Heck, I can see him giving names for his followers to write in in place of the Republican candidates.
debbie
@Baud:
No offense taken. They restrict their comments to Facebook pretty much. Anytime we’re together and one of them starts down that road, I get in their face and don’t let up until they leave the room faster than I can follow. One brother turned into a bigoted idiot after moving to Georgia, but I don’t know what caused the other two to lose their grip.
Cermet
Graham was very funny and a bit too sharp for the audience. His joke that he is on the “Cruz Train” as in “On the crazy train” sailed over their heads. The man is a decent person and one of the very, very few thugs, I believe, that would make a passable President if a Democrat lost.None-the-less, his days are numbered especially since he wanted to not just give a vote on the President’s nominee but would most likely vote “yes”. Hope he does get an offer to be on the Daily Show, he is the ONLY thug I have ever heard that really is funny and knows how to tell real jokes.
Bill E Pilgrim
Romney is persuasive in the case for Cruz over Trump.
HT Charlie Pierce
Gin & Tonic
@burnspbesq: This is the only Easter candy worth eating at any price.
Mike J
Be prepared for the argument to start being made on election eve. Hillary doesn’t really have a mandate (even if she wins 538 EVs) because the Republicans had a lousy candidate. Therefore, her election is illegitimate and it is the duty of all Republicans to make sure she names no nominees and signs no legislation that is important to her.
Davebo
@Cermet:
It really seems like he’s trying to salvage the party but I think he’s too late.
And let’s be honest, he’s got a history and isn’t exactly milk and cookies.
Brachiator
@Alex.S:
Maybe not. A lot of people are happy with their own Congress critter (why incumbents keep getting re-elected) but hate all the other Congressmen.
But I guess that this is what scares the Beetlejuice out of the Republicans, the idea that GOP voters might actually expect Trump to become the party leader and set the full agenda. This has got to frighten them more than the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Baud
@debbie: I tend to think people fall into social networks that promote certain qualities — good or ill. I’m still not sure which way Juicers cut.
jl
Does Graham know and love the conservatism he loves and knows, as anything other than a con game?
Honest question.
jl
@Baud: Rob Ford passed away. No statement from Baud! 2016! on one of the intellectual founders of his political movement (in lifestyle and public charisma, if not policy)?
Baud
@Mike J: And misogyny. Be prepared for so much misogyny.
Baud
@jl: I’m still stoned in commemoration of his passing.
muddy
@Baud: Yes, and imagine if they needed stem cells to make his antidote. He was giddy as hell on TDS.
eric
@Davebo: are you familiar with Bernie Mac, because if so, well played.
piratedan
@debbie: but they’ve made a career out of being persecuted, I can’t see them getting off that cross so easily. I kind of expect something to rise from the ashes but leaving a throbbing swollen hump of the erstwhile hate party in place. It may take some time (say 20-30 years) and some extreme liberal overreach, but something a bit more centrist and still seemingly conservative will emerge. Somebody will finally understand that they can use those idiots as stalking horses and leverage themselves into a fulcrum of power once again. The other possibility is that they genuinely fracture and in doing so, cause said same to the Dems… creating an ultra pink pony wing, moderate centrists, religious dominionists, know-knothing america firsters firearm club, democratic socialists and corporatist wing of some party (or both).
jl
@Baud: I’ll go with rampaging misogyny dogwhistles from the GOP, except from candidate Trump, who will provide in-your-face rampaging misogyny.
The GOP already tried saying that Obama’s re-election didn’t count because conservatives didn’t like Romney that much. Obviously they will try it again: “We had a hard time coming up with PR BS, we never ran against a woman before, the 2016 election didn’t count, we should get whatever we want. QED”.
Probably only something like Baud! 2016! can save us, but it is too late for that.
Mike J
@eric: Isn’t that what they call Kraft Dinner in the Sanders household?
superpredators4hillary
She came in through the overton window, left open by a crude tycoon, but now she thumbs her bucks and wanders, to the banks by her own lagoon.
Matt McIrvin
@gogol’s wife: My Facebook feed is more “Hillary and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are stealing the nomination from Bernie!!!!”
raven
Aite, let’s get some hoop!
Matt McIrvin
@Cermet: Graham’s main shtick, though, is gibbering bed-shitting fear of Muslim terrorists. Anyone we elect at this point is probably going to keep overreaching on “Homeland Security”, but Graham would probably turn the paranoia up to 11.
bemused
@Major Major Major Major:
Brings back memories of when one of our kitties had jumped up on our stove and turned on a gas burner while we were on vacation. We now have kid/kitty proof stove knob covers.
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Via Digby, here’s a Slate article arguing that Trump’s misogyny is not merely one of his many unattractive attributes but is absolutely central to his being and always has been.
sinnedbackwards
@Alex.S: Surveys in California show that Hispanics who have grown up since the great Pete Wilson alienation episode are MORE resistant to Republicans than their parents. So the loss of “generations of voters” may be no exaggeration.
geg6
@raven:
Nope. It’s a hockey night in Pittsburgh!
Bill E Pilgrim
@Cermet:
I just about gagged reading that.
I heard Graham once around 2006 expounding on how “finally, we can have an Iraq where women are in control of their own destiny!”. He was very passionate as he said it. He was likely doing what every other uninformed FOX viewer did, confusing Iraq with Saudi Arabia or whatever one-size-fits-all image they had of “those Arabic countries”. I described what he said to a friend of mine who was from Iraq and she was aghast that Americans could be so ignorant of this place they had invaded. Women went to college, drove, worked, it was a very modern place in those terms before the invasion, she told me. I know, I said.
For some typical uninformed FOX viewer to say such things is one thing, but this was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Operations. For someone in that position to be that pig-ignorant was unconscionable.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/lindsey-graham-wrong-on-everything/
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: Maybe he’s doing so well in the primary for precisely that reason. GOP voters want someone who will hate Hillary as much as they do.
Turgidson
PSA: At the end of his most recent post at the Atlantic, Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier includes a link to his email address so that readers can chime in. I plan to write him a magnum opus on why he’s possibly the single worst political commenter out there right now, if I can find the time. Obviously he won’t post it, but I’ll at least feel like I tried to steer him toward a better path. Hopefully DougJ does something similar, or spoofs him with a Broder satire.
raven
When Jimmy Met Misty.
MomSense
@geg6:
I think our dogs are soul litter mates. The only reason my dog doesn’t bite the woman who trims her nails is because we ply her with treats throughout the process.
burnspbesq
@Matt McIrvin:
That sounds distressingly familiar. Do you also get “Bernie is actually winning and his momentum is unstoppable” and “No, we don’t have to vote for Clinton if Bernie isn’t the nominee?”
lollipopguild
@superpredators4hillary: And sung to which tune?
raven
@MomSense: Watch that video I posted. . .all the way through!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: As a memorial to Rob Ford, you’re smoking the wrong thing.
AkaDad
Choosing a slow and painful death makes no sense. I want it to be over quickly which is why I support Trump.
burnspbesq
@SiubhanDuinne:
Makes you wonder if Young Donald didn’t understand that Jack Nicholson’s character in “Carnal Knowledge” was not intended to be a role model.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ll keep trying until I get it right.
Turgidson
@Cermet:
He is definitely more of a human being than most of the braindead idiots in his party, but he is wayyyyy, wayyyyy, wayyyyyyy too much of a warmongering true-believing neocon to be trusted with control of the American military. He’s one of the very worst in the party on foreign policy and that’s saying something.
BillinGlendaleCA
@superpredators4hillary: McCartney’s and Yoko’s lawyers are on line 2.
JPL
@geg6: Must be the week.. Finch has burrs under his chin and he nipped at but didn’t bite at the groomer.. They were so apologetic.
bemused
@raven:
Love it.
JPL
@Major Major Major Major: He/she is a beauty.
raven
@bemused: I found that TEN years ago!
Mike in NC
@Bill E Pilgrim: Lindsay Graham and his fellow warmonger and BFF John McCain never met a country they didn’t want to drop bombs on and invade.
NotMax
No mention that it’s wash the poors’ feet day (Maundy Thursday) for the Jesusites?
lamh36
Zoe is here on her way to her daddy for Easter weekend.
Zoe’s getting ready to start running
Whatever you do, don’t try taking her nook and putting it in back the wrong way
MomSense
@raven:
That was great. Thank you.
Patricia Kayden
@Brachiator: “There have been unfortunate stories about how the events in Belgium “favor” Trump’s vision of protecting America.”
And what exactly is Trump’s vision of protecting America beyond spouting nonsense and expressing bigotry? From what I can surmise, President Obama has done a great job of keeping America safe. There have been no 9/11-scale terrorist attacks during his tenure, which means that he’s doing something right.
RaflW
The NBA has released quite a statement on N.C.’s new law.
http://www.si.com/nba/2016/03/24/north-carolina-anti-lgbt-law-all-star-game-charlotte
Patricia Kayden
@Major Major Major Major: Gorgeous kitty. Love the smoky coloring.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thought experiment: Imagine 2008 Barack promoting naked pix of Michelle without the word “pimp” coming to mind, and the attendant freakout from the press, and everyone else, in this racist as fuck country. PROTIP: YOU CAN’T.
debbie
@lamh36:
Cute! They really grow so fast, don’t they?
bemused
@raven:
The music was great.
Our older Samoyed, very sad after her doggy pal passed away, was so happy when we brought home another Samoyed puppy three years ago. Immediately the puppy was clearly HER baby and she has watched over her new pal ever since. Today at the vets, she was keeping a close eye on the vet when he was giving her baby shots.
sinnedbackwards
@jl: Graham runs for office in South Carolina. As they said in the comic lettercols, ’nuff said?
redshirt
@Turgidson: The Overton Window moving the other way – Republicans have become so crazed that Lindsey Graham seems one of the most sane and human of them. And it might be a fact too.
Crazy times.
Patricia Kayden
@Mike J: Hopefully the Senate will flip to Democratic control so it won’t matter if Republicans/Conservatives make those kind of stupid arguments when Secretary Clinton whoops Trump’s behind in November. She should get as much as she can done while the Democrats control the Senate since we all know that our side doesn’t vote in mid-terms.
raven
@bemused: awwww
brendancalling
Apart for pointing and laughing at the latest imbroglio with Drumpf and Lyin’ Ted, I’m going to make some vegetarian beef with broccoli for dinner, drink a beer or two, catch up on either Daredevil or Flash, and hopefully the massive pinched nerve in my neck will go away..
RaflW
The NCAA also released a statement on the matter. NCAA tournament games are set for Greensboro in 2017 and Charlotte in 2018.
“Our commitment to the fair treatment of all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, has not changed,” the NCAA’s statement reads. “It is our expectation that all people will be welcomed and treated with respect in cities that host our NCAA championships and events.”
Roger Moore
@Renie:
He might reasonably see Cruz as suboptimal but still better than Hillary. And giving up on the party is apparently a real anathema to him. I heard him give an unusually grown-up take on Trump and what he means for the party. He expected the party to lose the election with Trump as the candidate, but thought that was preferable to blowing up the party by trying to deny him the nomination if he were obviously the top candidate. I think it shows a good grasp of what matters to the party as an institution. They can demonstrably survive losing elections, but infighting can be far worse.
scav
@RaflW: Ha.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I just forced my coworkers to admire your niece. They think she’s adorable.
Shana
@geg6: The Local Living section of the WaPo, which comes out on Thursdays, always has an animal roundup. it regularly has several notices of animals biting vets assistants and groomers. Don’t feel bad.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden: RE: “There have been unfortunate stories about how the events in Belgium “favor” Trump’s vision of protecting America.”
This is where Trump is a danger. He has not put forth any coherent policy, but he has criticized the French, the Belgians, all of Europe and the US for being too weak and too stupid. He exudes the confidence of ignorance while suggesting that he knows what to do.
And people are willing to fill this vacuum with competence because they want someone who will “take care of business.” They want to see some action.
And they distrust Obama’s quieter competence because it also cautions against bigotry and fear and distrust.
There were a couple of local talk radio hosts here in Southern California essentially asking, “why do we need any Muslims here at all? They don’t assimilate and they harbor terrorists.”
Funny thing when someone like Trumps starts talking about walls. Fools don’t simply think about keeping people out. They also start thinking about who they would throw over the wall because they don’t belong.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
That’s because the wall isn’t really about the wall as a thing; it’s about dividing the world into Us and Them. The problem is that people who think like Trump are always trying to narrow the circle of Us and move more and more people into Them. They already think at least half of American citizens are Them.
Chris
@redshirt:
Don’t red shirts usually just get zapped out of existence by phaser?
Chris
@debbie:
One of your brothers must be my uncle.
I don’t mind, necessarily. The total incapacity for self-examination probably means it’ll be extremely difficult for them to reform the GOP into something more electable on the national level, at least in the immediate future.
Chris
@Bill E Pilgrim:
If I had any doubts that Cruz would lose to Trump, his securing Romney’s endorsement cured them.
RaflW
@burnspbesq: I ultimately don’t that much care if the GOP blocks SCOTUS for the duration of Obama’s term. Though it sets a bad precedent, comity and cooperation was already dead in the Senate, so we may as well have a true view of the disfunction.
What I care about is if it helps unseat Ron Johnson and the other vulnerable Repubs. Maybe I’m naive, but I think it helps.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
They die in lots of different ways: shot by phasers, strangled by deadly androids, killed in various gruesome ways by aliens, and (famously) compressed into a crystal that was then crushed into powder. ETA: Here are the truly gory details.
Bob In Portland
Kathleen
@lamh36: Somebody loves her auntie! I was hoping for a Zoe appearance.
Bob In Portland
How it works.
Matt McIrvin
@burnspbesq:
The only person really pushing the latter is someone who spent all of 2012 yelling about how liberals only voted for Obama out of white guilt.
Karen
@Thoughtful David:
And bloodier.
redshirt
@Chris: Well, death by phaser is ideal. No pain at all, just disintegration. Much better than poison, FYI!
Karen
@Matt McIrvin:
The new PUMAs.
cokane
as bad as a trump nomination is going to be the the R’s, a presidency would be worse. Just as W Bush damaged the brand badly, but much much worse.
Miss Bianca
@Roger Moore:
completely o/t but just wanted to say I enjoyed your Japan post way, way up thread stream…
mclaren
I think this is a case where you are replacing one word with another one that has a diffident meaning. This is probably fooled by your deep-seeded desire to sound educated, witch results in an attempt to prawn off an incorrect word in place of the rite one.
But if you continue doing this, such a flaunting of common social morays will eventual be seen as sorted and will make you a social piranha.
In the Monday world, of course, such miner errors usually go unnoticed. This is just as well, sense people of your elk are unlikely to tow the line grammatically irregardless of how many errors get pointed out.
A small minority of readers who care about grammar and spelling will go star-craving mad, though, curling up in the feeble position after they reed what you rite.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
It is always disappointing how the people who claim to love the US happen to hate far too many of the other people in the country.
OT from lost thread: If/when Trump loses to Hillary I am going to say that Trump got schlonged by Hillary.
…. a lot.
catclub
@cokane: I think that will be an interesting debate:
Who damaged the brand more, Trump or W. Bush?
stinger
@lamh36: How’s your sister doing? I saw she’d only raised about half of her GoFundMe amount, but am hoping her treatment is going well.
The Other Chuck
@catclub:
The only thing that would surprise me at this point is a Republican slogan that isn’t 180 degrees opposite from their actual position. You can’t even really call it hypocrisy, as that just implies failing to live up to one’s standards. It’s more … Orwellian.
The Other Chuck
@catclub: Trump damaged the brand more. Shrub and his crew damaged the country and the rest of the world more. Trump thankfully won’t get that chance, at least not beyond the damage he’s already done to our image (fuck it, we’ve been overrated as paragons for over a century) and national unity (which seems to be getting still worse).
Paul in KY
@Baud: Good point, Baud! More ‘manly’ way to go, too, also.