Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

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

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

In my day, never was longer.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

In after Baud. Damn.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Long Read: “SAD! Campaign gurus for Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio…”

Long Read: “SAD! Campaign gurus for Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio…”

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Sam Stein, at HuffPo, on three of the individuals at the forefront of those responsible for getting us (and the GOP) into the current predicament…

It’s been roughly 40 days since Donald Trump became the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party, and the mere fact of it hasn’t come to feel any less weird, or any less scary. It also means that the three people I had coffee and pastries with last Wednesday morning—Danny Diaz (Jeb Bush’s campaign manager), Jeff Roe (Ted Cruz’s campaign manager) and Alex Conant (Marco Rubio’s communications director)—have been able to process what the hell happened.

Well-compensated, highly intelligent and very publicly defeated, each one of them is still angry, both at Trump and at the media. Each one of them has theories about how we got to this very disconcerting place in American political history. And not one of them is prepared to vote for Trump.

The stories they told me over a 90-minute conversation at a bar called Black Jack in Washington DC provided an entirely different view of the campaign and of elite Republican thinking. They spoke with unusual candor about which strategies they pushed that they now regret, how they believe network executives conspired against their candidates, what a disaster the Republican convention will be and why a Hillary Clinton blowout may be upon us. This is what it’s like to lose to Donald Trump….

There were a bunch of times when people were like, “Well, this is going to do him in.” Like when he said John McCain wasn’t a war hero, or the Megyn Kelly menstruating comment, or making fun of a disabled reporter. Which one made you say, “This guy is smoked”?

Jeff Roe [Cruz]: All of the above. There was a time when you wondered if the bug was going to meet the windshield or not. But everything was brand-consistent. His brand was being politically incorrect: He’s saying everything that you’ve always wanted to say. You might not like it, but he’s speaking for you. He’s the billionaire blue-collar guy. That’s why this Mexican judge thing is different. That’s him looking out for himself, instead of him looking out for you.

Danny Diaz [Bush]: What’s different now is the electorate. He’s playing to a much broader field of people than he was in the primaries…

Let’s be nice to each other for a minute. What was a strategic decision that a rival campaign made that impressed you?

Jeff Roe [Cruz]: Bush’s manhandling of Romney was pretty impressive. I think Mitt was a big question mark at that point in the race. Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, was flirting with the idea of entering the race in January 2015 but ultimately decided against it. He would have walked in with a ton of credibility, a ton of dough, a ton of institutional support, and really swamped that lane. It was interesting to watch how Bush was making donors saddle up. It was very clearly aimed at one dude.

Alex Conant [Rubio]: I would agree. I thought the early days with Jeb’s campaign, when he was able to lock down the Florida establishment and the Florida donor base—not only did that continue to be a long-term problem for us, it was very effectively done. And then I think the Cruz campaign showed an amazing amount of discipline through the summer. Partnering with Trump at the Iran rally was a really smart move. Our campaign manager said last fall that he thought the Cruz campaign was the best-run campaign in the race, and I think that held throughout…

Isn’t the issue that there was a broader collective action problem among the non-Trump campaigns? Everyone wanted to be the last guy standing against him.

Roe: I think so. Our strategy required us to be head-to-head against him. And when your strategy requires somebody else doing something, that’s a pretty weak strategy.

Was there any backchannel communication to team up against Trump?

Diaz: Look, there’s always backchannel communication. But I think it would’ve taken more than one or two campaigns. I think the campaigns would’ve all needed to come together to say, “Hey, there’s a line in the sand here that’s been drawn, and we need to come together to vote someone off the island.”

Conant: In a typical election cycle you wouldn’t need all the campaigns to make that agreement. It would just be recognized by all of them that Trump is a huge threat, not just to the collective but to each campaign, and they would all target him in their own way and put an immense amount of pressure on him and his team. And that just never happened. He got a free pass from most of the other campaigns…

[Trump]’s clearly broken a lot of norms. He can seem dirtier than we’re used to.

Roe: I don’t know if it’s dirty or not. Some of it’s OK. We were getting to be kind of pansies in politics. People used to shoot each other on the Senate floor, you know.

That happened like once or twice.

Roe: Politics used to be more anonymous. Now at least the chalk outline has a signature next to it…

… But the Republican mantra about Obama has been that this guy is an out-of-control executive, doing unconstitutional things. How can you then turn around and say, “You know, the system will restrain Trump”?

Roe: Because Republicans control themselves. We police ourselves better…

Worth reading the whole thing (although not right after a full meal). You don’t expect empathy from a bunch of self-styled professional gunslingers, but frankly, Jeff Roe presents himself as every bit as much a sociopath as his former boss Failgunner Ted Cruz.

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  1. 1.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Bloomberg Poll — General Election — June 10 thur 13

    Clinton…………49%
    Trump………….37%
    Johnson…………9%

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Why won’t the president talk about the threat of radical pastafarianism? Does he want America to lose?

  3. 3.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @Baud:

    Why won’t the president talk about the threat of radical pastafarianism?

    Obama is in the bag for Big Noodles, and its Uberboss “Al Dente”, that’s why.

  5. 5.

    tsquared2001

    Roe re Trump: “He’s saying everything that you’ve always wanted to say. You might not like it, but he’s speaking for you.”

    Who the fuck is you, kemosabe?

  7. 7.

    gratuitous

    What it boils down to for me is that none of the Republican candidates wanted to draw Trump’s fire. Whenever Trump let loose on another candidate, the rest of them would hide and watch: “Glad it’s him and not me!” Self sacrifice isn’t in these candidates’ nature, and going down rhetorical guns blazing just wasn’t an option. So Trump steamrolled them one by one, and when the craven little punks came out the other side, they all genuflected to Trump, kissed his ring, and hoped for the master’s favor. It’s telling that the campaign professionals want nothing to do with Trump.

  8. 8.

    Joeff

    Totally agree on Roe–he & Cruz deserve each other. Their combined, colossal failure was not understanding their own electorate.

  9. 9.

    wonkie

    I’m having trouble with the idea of a Cruz or Rubio campaign manager being considered highly intelligent. The author of the piece presents them as if they were people who had mainstream ideas and beliefs. Seems to be that to be campaign manager for either of them a person would either have to be a cynic in it for the money, or as crazy as the candidate

  10. 10.

    D58826

    Just caught the last few minutes of Chuckles. Ben Ginsberg was weeping huge tears about how unfair it was that Obama was attacking ‘old little hands’. That a sitting president would say these things about the other party’s nominee is just unprecedented.
    Lets jump into the way back machine.
    1. in 2008 Palin talked about candidate Obama paling around with terrorists
    2. she egged on crowds that seemed to be saying ‘kill Obama’
    3. McCain, to his credit, talked down a couple of people that claimed Obama was a Muslim and a foreigner.
    4. From day 1 the gop set out to destroy the Obama presidency.
    5. Not one Gooper leader was willing to go on the record and state unequivocally that Obama is an American, a Christian, a patriot and legitimately elected president. They always came up with weasel words like ‘well if that’s what he says’
    6. Romney joked about everyone knew where his and Ann’s birth certificate was located.
    7. Mitt fell all over himself to criticize Obama the morning the Benghazi news broke.
    8. Which set up the famous ‘proceed Governor’ moment in the 2nd debate.
    9. The GOP continues to allow the Obama/Clinton planned Benghazi slander to continue.
    10. No GOP leader has been willing to stand up to the Limpdicks/Boltons,Alex Jones radio talkers.

    The only difference between the cesspool dwelling GOP establishment and ‘old little hand’s’ is he says it out loud at 100 decibels as opposed to the winks and nods of the cesspool dwellers..

  11. 11.

    agrippa

    @gratuitous:
    They should have wanted to.
    Then, counter battery fire. in salvos, one after the other.
    For effect.
    Trump should have been destroyed.

  12. 12.

    jl

    Ah, the good old days, when politicians had duels and shot each other, and beat each other with canes on the Senate floor. If only we weren’t so PC, we could do all that again. It would start solving so many problems.

    I’ll write Trump and suggest he add a pro-chewing tobacco plank in his platform. Chewing ‘baccy is not PC, and spittoons look very classy. Ornate hunks of gold and brass would make America great again, and add some terrific, really terrific, top, class to our political events.

    Or, are spittoons themselves too PC? What is wrong with the floor? Those gilded age nabobs were such wimpy PC sissies when you think about it.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    With that said, quite obviously Donald Trump’s personal slurs against Jeb and against his family were and remain totally and completely outside the bounds of what is appropriate in discourse. And I feel like, looking back now, he was appealing to a certain kind of element within the electorate. He’s playing the same card now, and it doesn’t seem to be working to his benefit. The dynamics are entirely different.

    The element known as the GOP base.

  15. 15.

    Felonius Monk

    @Baud:

    “Send in Sauce Team 6.”

    They got bogged down in the marinara and then tripped up by the fettuccine.

  16. 16.

    jl

    @D58826: Disgusting. Several commenters and pundits predicted it. The IOKIYAR rule and the ‘the GOP candidate must be a sound and reasonable pillar of the community no matter what’ rule have kicked in.

    So, lemme get this straight, the jerk Trump accuses Obama of conspiring with ISIL to allow terrorist attacks, and it is Obama who will be taken to task for not being overly polite when he responds? Disgusting cowardly assholes and spineless corporate hacks we have to put up with in the US.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    Roe: Because Republicans control themselves. We police ourselves better…

    That would be a much more credible claim if the Republicans had succeeded in policing Trump on anything so far. He’s been doing WTFHW for the whole campaign, and everyone who’s tried to stop him has been forced to back down and suck up.

  18. 18.

    gf120581

    @agrippa: I think he could even crack double digits if Trump keeps imploding like this. I don’t get why Bill Kristol et al don’t just get behind him as the “not Trump” alternative. It seems like Mitt is leaning towards that approach (especially since Weld is Johnson’s running mate; he and Mitt are apparently on pretty good terms).

    And if Utah goes blue, it’ll be Johnson who caused it.

  20. 20.

    MattF

    Well, that was interesting. Note that none of them was ready to say ‘my candidate lost because he sucked’, and I’m sure that none of them ever will. Campaigns have a way of revealing the truth about candidates, and for all three of these guys, that’s the bad news.

  21. 21.

    D58826

    @jl: You got it. And listening to MSNBC now the gop is still at it. Obama isn’t defending the country. Not that any of them have any idea what to do differently. Graham and Ryan are just a bit more polite in calling Obama a traitor than trump is.

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    They’re blaming the media? The MSM does exactly what the MSM is supposed to do in our totally fucked up Media Paradigm; maximize shareholder value by going for ratings and selling ads for sweet sweet cash. That’s all they’re about, and Drumpf delivers that value in spades. Since these clowns are Rethuglicans, and money is the only thing Rethuglicans truly love, they should be celebrating.

  24. 24.

    D58826

    And then we have Bernie.

    Bernie Sanders Calls For ‘Fundamental Transformation’ Of The Democratic Party
    He demanded reforms as he prepared for a meeting with Hillary Clinton

    He lost period full stop. He wants DWS and the DNC replaced. He is talking about a rules fight at the convention. If he splits the party and allows ‘old little hands’ to win in November, I will be more than happy to write a check so that he and Jane can take a one way plane ride to his retirement dacha in suburban Moscow.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-democratic-party_us_57606727e4b05e4be85ffa4a

  25. 25.

    les

    @Baud:

    Why won’t the president talk about the threat of radical pastafarianism?

    Baud, Baud, Baud. Pastafarian radicals are the ones who insist that the colander on the head is required. Not enough threat to worry a president.

  28. 28.

    MattF

    @D58826: So, apparently, the theory is that either Sanders goes to the mountain or the mountain goes to Sanders. My guess is ‘neither’.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @tsquared2001:

    I think even Ted would disagree with him.

    Also, that yard sign proclaiming, “Hillary for Prison 2016” seems to have disappeared without a trace.

  32. 32.

    Hoodie

    @Roger Moore: That’s a good indication of the state of denial a lot of the GOP establishment lives in. They can’t control him and he’s about to take over their party and they can’t even see that means their extinction, as they’ll be replaced by true thugs like Lewandowski. They generated a cult of personality around dead St. Ronnie, and began constructing a fascist edifice with Gingrich in the 90’s. They conditioned the base into anxiously awaiting for an il duche to arrive for a glorious restoration, and now he’s on the doorstep. Bush was their dream candidate, but he was too fond of Mexicans and Arabs. Trump has the right bloodlines.

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @D58826:

    This is where he becomes a hypocrite

    Notably, Sanders did not call for the elimination of low-turnout caucuses, which he dominated, even though low-income voters, voters with disabilities and voters whose first language isn’t English find it difficult to participate in caucuses because they are held during a set time period and require a longer time commitment than simply mailing in a ballot or casting a vote at a polling place.

  36. 36.

    Fred of the Nort

    Adele.
    Singing a revised Bond theme song.
    Smaaaaaallll-Finger!

    We Needs it. Needs it now!

  38. 38.

    D58826

    MSNBC is reporting on the number of dead by gunfire just since Orlando – at least 57. Every 17 minutes someone dies as a result of a gun. One of the trauma surgeons in Orlando said that a routine night is 6 gunshot patients. But it isn’t about GUNS

  40. 40.

    bystander

    @MattF: so true. All this crap about what Trump did to outfox them. They’re a bunch of dullards and creeps.

    I also think that anyone who believes that crew was going to nominate any Cubans or Canadians is kidding him or herself.

  43. 43.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    @Roger Moore:

    If Republicans could really control themselves, they wouldn’t have created the biggest spending administration during the Dubya years in American history.

    If Republicans could really control themselves, they wouldn’t have put a pedophile molester up as Speaker of the House like Hastert.

    If the Republicans could really control themselves, they wouldn’t have allowed 17 candidates to flood the primaries and they especially wouldn’t have allowed an absolute amateur with no elective experience like Trump (or Carson or Fiorina) anywhere near that primary. If they could have really controlled themselves, the primary season would have been Jeb, Walker, Christie, Huckabee, Perry, Kasich, maybe Jindal and Rubio. It would have been hollow men across the board, but the Republicans could have controlled that.

  44. 44.

    Jeff Spender

    So some Berners I know are organizing a series of protests throughout the country at…FBI offices.

    They’re saying to wear orange jumpsuits, no Bernie gear, and to request that the FBI stop delaying the indictment of Clinton.

    These people are nuts.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    Was lifting quotes from this earlier. These guys are interesting insofar as revealing their strategies and responses as the campaigns went forward. What is telling is how they view Hillary with utter disgust, especially Cruz’s guy. My takeaway is the beatings will continue so long as they’re hewing to the party line so intently they lose their grasp in political reality. Let us savor.

    Roe: Donald is one of the best players of the inside game, which was always the irony that we could never quite get over. What kind of deals does he cut? Those types of things. For the Clintons, I wouldn’t just look into the Foundation, which is the easiest piece of this pie to put together. The money her family made when she was secretary of state is incredible. I mean, that would put most people in jail.

    That’s a lot of derp packed into a single paragraph. He and Cruz deserved one another.

  47. 47.

    D58826

    @Baud: He has always been quite vocal about which primaries were fair and which ones were rigged. It’s just a coincidence that the ‘fair’ ones were the ones he won.

  49. 49.

    Gian

    @gratuitous:
    Not exactly. they all thought Jeb? was their biggest obstacle to the nomination and so long as Trump was hammering Jeb? it was all good for them, in the enemy of my enemy kind of way.
    Cruz and Trump were nice to each other early on even.
    They were banking on the “establishment” picking the last one standing as the alternative to Trump, and when the last one standing was Ted Cruz, well, everyone hates Ted.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @D58826: Would he really withhold his endorsement of Clinton over process demands? Given what we’re seeing everyday about what a Trump presidency would mean for the country?

  51. 51.

    Seanly

    All 3 look like flaming asshole white guys stuffed into crappy suits. wah wah wah. Any of their 3 candidates would only be a slightly less catastrophic dumpster fire for America. Actually, Cruz might be worse than Trump in his own way. Anyway, 3 odious jackoffs that will be back to doing this for the same jerks or someone else a year after the election.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    The Milwaukee Journel-Sentinel editorial board today:
    —————-
    Trump again shows why he’s unfit to be president

    In the wake of the horror in Orlando on Saturday night, Donald Trump again showed just why he is unfit to hold the highest office in the land. Trump is in fact the best argument against Trump.

    He has the temperament of a child; in fact, a very specific child: the attention-seeking bully on the playground who slaps around anyone who criticizes him or gets in his way. Is this really a person who can be trusted with the nuclear codes? Responsible Republicans should refuse to support him. Not just because of his statements in the wake of Orlando, but because of his long trail of embarrassments that made the Orlando statements no surprise to anyone.

  53. 53.

    Joyce H

    Okay, so news reports are saying that the DNC computers were hacked by Russian government hackers, who stole their file of oppo research on Trump. My take – the DNC is now morally obligated to release the entire file to the public. Otherwise, we face the potential of a President Trump being vulnerable to blackmail by a foreign power.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jeff Spender:

    Like I’ve been saying, at this point most of the sensible Bernie supporters have faced reality, and what’s left is the He-Man Hillary Haterz Club that has always been more anti-Hillary than pro-Democrat.

  55. 55.

    dmsilev

    @Baud: I guess we’ll find out in a couple of days. The plan is for Sanders to webcast …something to his followers on Thursday.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    You built this. You own this. And, the media should begin every press interview with:

    Congressman, Senator, what do you think about what GOP Presidential Nominee Donald Trump said today?

    Should ask this question 10 times in a row. And, get it all on tape.

    Hill Republicans despondent over Trump
    Many senators are simply refusing to say anything about their presumptive nominee.
    06/14/16 06:50 PM EDT

    Senate Republicans have tried to work with Donald Trump. They’ve offered gentle advice and firm guidance, hoping he’ll morph into a general election candidate who won’t kill their chances of keeping the Senate, or better yet, will give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

    None of it has worked. And now a palpable mix of despair and resignation has permeated the Senate Republican Conference. Many lawmakers are openly frustrated, and refusing to defend the comments and actions of their own standard-bearer, the man they’ve endorsed for president.

    Trump’s insinuation that Obama may be sympathetic to Islamic State terrorists was the final straw for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

    “I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today,” the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday, in an abrupt reversal after several weeks of weighing in on Trump’s performance, particularly the ways he believed the candidate needed to improve.

    McConnell’s No. 2, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), declared he was done talking about Trump until after the election — nearly five months away.

    “Wish me luck,” he said.

  57. 57.

    MattF

    @Joyce H: That’s so reasonable that it’s guaranteed to not happen. In any case, it’s an interesting point– I suspect the KGB (or whatever it’s called now) would be eager to blackmail Trump with or without the info from the DNC.

  58. 58.

    Alexander

    @Snarki, child of Loki: So, I hardly ever post, but, my God, I had to say it… This is the probably the best Internet Comment that I’ve seen in years. I see people make this kind of claim often. But I never believe them. Believe me.

    Consider your hand shaken.

  60. 60.

    Shell

    McCain, to his credit, talked down a couple of people that claimed Obama was a Muslim and a foreigner.

    I can still remember that video. The woman was shaking and practically sobbing. McCain really did look like he was tailkng down a crazy person.

  63. 63.

    Baud

    @Joyce H:

    Okay, so news reports are saying that the DNC computers were hacked by Russian government hackers, who stole their file of oppo research on Trump.

    “Yuri, we’re going to need more hard drives.”

  64. 64.

    rikyrah

    Pelosi Statement on Republicans’ Vote to Block ‘No Fly, No Buy’ Bill

    Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after Republicans voted today to block action on H.R. 1076, the bipartisan “No Fly, No Buy” legislation authored by Republican Congressman Peter King:

    “It is appalling that days after our nation has suffered such a terrible attack, Republicans would vote to protect suspected terrorists’ ability to arm themselves to the teeth at American gun stores.

    “Republicans’ decision to block the bipartisan ‘No Fly, No Buy’ bill is dangerous and indefensible. If you’re too dangerous to fly, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun. Yet on 12 different occasions, Republicans have voted to block this common sense step to keep the American people safe from terror.

    “We have no right to hold moments of silence without days of action to honor the victims of gun violence. House Democrats will continue to demand that we close the scandalous ‘No Fly, No Buy’ loophole immediately.”

  65. 65.

    D58826

    @Baud: I honestly don’t know. He certainly seems willing to drag this out as long as possible, regardless of the damage it does to Hillary. I can see him refusing to endorse Hillary but still go around the country campaigning against Trump. Whither his supporters will vote for Hillary or just write in Bernie’s name.

    Oh god, Hewitt is blasting Obama for criticizing Obama, while ignoring everything that Trump said.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Would he really withhold his endorsement of Clinton over process demands?

    Of course he would. He’s clearly, as many here have proclaimed, Satan Incarnate.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @Joyce H:

    My take – the DNC is now morally obligated to release the entire file to the public.

    Isn’t it good enough for them to dribble it out to the media over the remainder of the campaign? Because I’m pretty sure that’s what they have been doing, and it accounts for the large number of anti-Trump stories in the media since he clinched the nomination.

  71. 71.

    debbie

    @Joyce H:

    Actually, I heard the DNC was hacked twice, by the Russian military and by the FSB. Apparently, they hate each other and will not work together, even on criminal pursuits.

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OT, but over on Wonkette a commenter (there are no commenters at Wonkette) is reporting that Drumpf has just said that Orlando was the worst terrorist attack in this country’s history.

    Was he not in New York on 9/11?

  75. 75.

    D58826

    Another taking head is saying Obama should have used the term ‘islam terrorist’ before this . Didn’t she listen to what Obama said as to why he doesn’t use the term.

    Paul Ryan wants a security test not a religious test but guess who fails the security test?

    Hewitt is now saying Hillary is disqualified because of Libya, and Syria but not Iraq is never mentioned. .

  77. 77.

    ThresherK

    @rikyrah: “McConnell’s No. 2, Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), declared he was done talking about Trump until after the election — nearly five months away.”

    Cornyn has told Trump, “Hey, my friends are coming over. But we’re still gonna get together later to do it, aren’t we?”

    Does Trump have the smarts to be insulted by this?

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    More like the Russians stole the file so they could hand it over to Trump’s campaign manager, who has worked for them before.

    For all the good it will do him. I’m sure it’s extensive enough that there’s no practical way to defend against everything in there. The only benefit, and it’s a slim one, is that they might figure out that there are some dirty deeds Hillary hasn’t found out about, so they don’t need to prepare a defense for those ones.

  83. 83.

    agrippa

    @gf120581:

    If this keeps up, Johnson could get over 10%. Dissatisfied GOP have to vote for someone.
    Johnson could help in Utah. Maybe even New Mexico.

  85. 85.

    Corner Stone

    I wish I had like a fuckton of money. Because I would buy MSNBC and then fire the fuck right off every single person who had any piece of allowing Hugh Hewitt on MSNBC’s air.

  86. 86.

    hovercraft

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    He actually said the worst since 9/11 and the worst mass shooting. Damn you for making me defend him. I’m watching it now and I’m 20 minutes behind so he just said it.

  87. 87.

    Tracy Ratcliff

    @trollhattan: Mr. Silverman may correct me, but I would not be surprised if the DNC does have better files than the current Russian security services. We know that the KGB was much less effective than the West gave it credit for, and it’s probable that Putin runs the security services as well as he does the rest of the country.

  88. 88.

    trollhattan

    @Tracy Ratcliff:
    Is it too much to hope that both Donny and Vlad attended some of Berlusconi’s Bunga-bunga parties?

    Confess I can’t get very spun up over the possibility of Russia holding Democratic intel over Donny’s head. OTOH they could make a mint selling it to Donny right now.

  89. 89.

    rikyrah

    Sam SteinVerified account
    ‏@samsteinhp
    Trump “They have better passports than we do because they stole our passport machines”

    Did i miss the great passport machine heist of 2016?

    BWA HA HA HA H AH AH AH AH AH HA

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    @Tracy Ratcliff:

    Mr. Silverman may correct me, but I would not be surprised if the DNC does have better files than the current Russian security services.

    This was an argument I saw on a news site. The idea is that they probably have a decent file on any major political figure, which they’ve had a chance to build up over the years as their careers have advanced, but they haven’t had any reason to pay attention to a media personality like Trump until very recently. From a hard-headed realist’s perspective, I can completely understand why the Russians would want detailed research on a major party candidate for president, and why they’d be perfectly willing to take shortcuts to get it.

  93. 93.

    chopper

    I like the dynamic, you’re a pansy if you don’t feel like settling problems with a gun. great thing to say after this weekend, schmuck.

  95. 95.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: Never mind that Omar Mateen wouldn’t need a passport because he was born here and was a US Citizen…

  96. 96.

    agrippa

    @D58826:

    I do not know what Sanders thinks that he is up to; other than.”speaking the truth to power”. or, he thinks that this is 1968 and this is his grand moment; the one that he has been waiting for his entire career..
    His “demands” are, basically, outside the authority of the convention.

  98. 98.

    schrodinger's cat

    @MattF: Not really. I buy whatever is the cheapest. I just bought Tilda. Will report about the quality when I make it this weekend. I usually buy the 10 pound bag at the Asian store. Sam’s Club used to carry a bag which $10 for 10 pounds of basmati which was good. I don’t know whether it still does. Haven’t been in a Sam’s club in ages.

  101. 101.

    MattF

    @rikyrah: HA is right. I wonder if Der Trump is going to get a little lecture from his national security briefers about how he shouldn’t divulge classified information.

  102. 102.

    different-church-lady

    …how they believe network executives conspired against their candidates…

    That. Right there. The GOP debates were a television series, and the more it looked like a circus, the happier the networks were. It won’t be that way in the general.

  103. 103.

    hovercraft

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Never I have atoned for every sin I have ever committed. I have earned the right to do anything I want from now on.
    As for his lying that is called projection, you know he’s been cursing and throwing things all day, because Obambi attacked him.

  104. 104.

    Shell

    and then fire the fuck right off every single person who had any piece of allowing Hugh Hewitt on MSNBC’s air.

    And why do they insist on putting him on around dinner time?

  108. 108.

    Shell

    This has bee completely overshadowed by all these other events, but the Wash. DC primary is today. Wonder what Bernie will do if Clinton wins this one tonight?

  109. 109.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    Aha, is this the story ?

    EU’s passport fraud ‘epidemic’
    Refugee crisis and Paris attacks put spotlight on Europe’s free-for-all. Greece and Italy trouble US officials the most.
    By GIULIA PARAVICINI 1/28/16, 5:36 AM CET Updated 2/3/16, 6:26 AM CET
    ROME — Europe’s trade in forged and stolen passports is so out of control that the U.S. has given five EU countries until next week to act or risk losing visa-free travel rights.

    The threat comes in response to growing alarm over the rising number of lost and stolen documents in the EU, which has doubled in five years. The number of forged passports in the Middle East is also a rising concern. Interpol has data on 250,000 stolen or lost Syrian and Iraqi passports, including blank documents.

    American and European security officials speak of an “epidemic” created by a spike in demand from asylum-seekers — and from terrorists like those who carried out the Paris attacks last November, two of whom were carrying counterfeit documents.

  110. 110.

    dm

    @D58826: I’ve been getting a lot of mail from Bernie (I was giving him money until he started winning), and it’s all been pretty good. The last one talked about “No President, Bernie or Hillary, can do the job without backup.” And asking for donations for progressive congressional candidates. This is a pretty good move, and I’m glad to see it.

    He’s been doing it for a while, but lately the rhetoric has shifted to be a good deal more inclusive.

  111. 111.

    WarMunchkin

    @Shell: He’s been making demands on Twitter. He wants to:
    – remove superdelegates
    – remove DWS as Chair immediately
    – make all primaries and caucses open and allow same-day registration for primary elections

    Lost in this debate, of course, is the fact that he still wants caucuses. I’ve had enough. He can leave, run third party, and he can take his voters with him.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    For a short while, one of the trolls was trying to link Bill Clinton with a creepy guy who had parties on his island with underage girls because the guy let Bill use his private jet a few times.

    Then it turned out that not only did Trump know the same guy, he had actually gone to the parties (Bill did not) and had given a deposition to that effect. Funny, that line of attack got dropped like a hot potato.

  115. 115.

    Jeff Spender

    @WarMunchkin: The thing is, except for the DWS nonsense, I don’t think those are necessarily bad ideas.

    The thing is, the DNC can’t just unilaterally change election policy state-by-state.

    Also, I think the Berners might change their minds on open primaries if they get ratf*cked once or twice, or if they make their own party and learn they don’t get to control who runs under their party name.

  116. 116.

    Wapiti

    @WarMunchkin: Wow. I’m an independent but I think #1&3 are flaky (I have no position on #2). The superdelegates are insurance against a Trump-like fiasco.

  117. 117.

    Mike J

    @Shell:

    Wonder what Bernie will do if Clinton wins this one tonight?

    It’s fixed, and besides there are too many “low information”(nudge nudge) voters. Hillary will be lucky to squeak out a 40 point win.

  118. 118.

    hovercraft

    @WarMunchkin:
    I saw a clip of his presser, and all I felt was just go away, the grown ups are talking now. You have a choice get on board or go to your room, your 15 minutes are up.
    @dm:
    Good, this is what he should be doing now.

  119. 119.

    JPL

    I follow ben jacobs on twitter. He covers Trump for The Guardian. I guess Trump covered all his talking points from Kerry on a bike and the great Pocahontas. link

  120. 120.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    The judge in the Brock Turner case has been removed from a new sexual assault case after the Santa Clara district attorney filed a motion to disqualify him, saying he does not believe he could be fair and impartial in this particular case.

  121. 121.

    Roger Moore

    @Jeff Spender:

    The thing is, except for the DWS nonsense, I don’t think those are necessarily bad ideas.

    I don’t like open primaries one bit. To me, open primaries are like right to work mooch laws; they’re an attempt to let people take advantage of other people’s work. If you want to help a party choose its candidates, you should join that party.

  122. 122.

    James E Powell

    My main concern right now is that Trump either drops out or gets kicked out and the Replacement Candidate makes it a competitive race. I really want him representing everything GOP until November.

  123. 123.

    JPL

    This tweet is pretty funny

    Trump: “I think I’ve made polling a very important thing. ‘Cause I never used to hear about polls.”

  125. 125.

    chopper

    @WarMunchkin:

    remove DWS as Chair immediatel

    does bernie have in mind someone for whom the position has no learning curve at all? cause otherwise switching the national committee chair in the middle of an election is a stupid-ass idea.

  126. 126.

    catclub

    @trollhattan:

    OTOH they could make a mint selling it to Donny right now.

    I still think Donald makes his money by getting the real billionaires of the GOP to pay him to drop out.

  129. 129.

    catclub

    @Joyce H:

    the DNC is now morally obligated to release the entire file to the public.

    as soon as he gets elected.

    morally obligated? funny.

  130. 130.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:

    If Johnson is polling at 9% he might get 3% of the vote.

    If he’s polling there today, at least. The polls are supposedly less accurate now than they were right before the primaries started. Many of the Republicans saying they’ll vote for Johnson- and the Democrats saying they’ll vote for Jill Stein- are just in the anger stage of their grief over their candidate losing. That kind of upset is at its peak right now because the anger at losing is fresh and the reality of the election is a long way away. When the election is closer, most of those voters will decide they’d rather have an imperfect candidate from their own party than risk letting the other guy win. I won’t take numbers like that for a third party candidate seriously unless they come a lot closer to the election.

  131. 131.

    gwangung

    @chopper:

    does bernie have in mind someone for whom the position has no learning curve at all? cause otherwise switching the national committee chair in the middle of an election is a stupid-ass idea.

    Which makes it a perfect demand for his campaign. (And, I’m sorry, Sanders fans, but he almost sneers at pragmatism).

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    Just watching Chris Hayes, on POTUS today.

    MAN….his entire demeanor..

    HE.IS.NOT..PLAYING.WITH.YOU.MUTHAPHUCKAS.

    Go, Mr. President.

    Tell it!!

  133. 133.

    catclub

    @PaulWartenberg2016: I would have put a lot more in that rant about controlling GWBush’s use of executive orders and signing statements to disavow laws, and controlling Cheney’s VP office.
    Those are more relevant to the GOP controlling a GOP president.

  135. 135.

    James E Powell

    @gwangung:

    Sneering at pragmatism is at the core of his appeal. Pragmatism is the status quo. Pragmatism will never provide the emotional rewards that so many supporters of “insurgent” candidates want & need.

  138. 138.

    Chyron HR

    @WarMunchkin:

    He’s been making demands on Twitter. He wants to:
    – remove superdelegates
    – remove DWS as Chair immediately

    I can’t help but notice that the terrible, no good, undemocratic superdelegates don’t need to be abolished immediately. Go figure!

  139. 139.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Jeff Spender: I’m sure the FBI will be very impressed.

    The notion that the FBI hands out indictments is right up there with Trump saying that he’d get the Supreme Court to investigate Clinton’s emails. Does no one watch School House Rock?

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    Awesomely Luvvie ✔ @Luvvie
    “I like me. I’ve liked me for a long time.” – @MichelleObama is everything. #StateofWomen

  141. 141.

    Baud

    It’s super early, but Trump is losing the DC primary to Rubio and Kasich. Haha.

    ETA:. Take it back. I think the GOP DC primary already occured. Trump came in third.

  143. 143.

    rikyrah

    FLOTUSnews @FLOTUSnews
    FLOTUS: When you hear the smack talking from outside the world, it’s easy to brush that off because I know who I am

  146. 146.

    Felonius Monk

    @Baud:

    It’s super early, but Trump is losing the DC primary

    And Hillary is beating Bernie about 6 to 1.

  148. 148.

    Baud

    The de la Fuenta guy had the right idea actually getting his name on the ballot. Lessons for next time.

  150. 150.

    Groucho48

    Just saw a clip pf Trump speaking. Was it the lighting or is he several degrees blonder than he was? And, his face is turning into a caricature of one of the old depraved Roman Emperors.

  151. 151.

    Joyce H

    @Mnemosyne:

    More like the Russians stole the file so they could hand it over to Trump’s campaign manager, who has worked for them before. He called in a favor, I’m sure.

    That’s not a bad notion! I’d heard that Trump didn’t allow his campaign to do the usual where they do oppo research on their own candidate, and perhaps Manafort wants to know what all is there, to prepare counter-strategies in advance.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    Some Latino pastor in Sacramento said some of the worst things about Orlando I’ve heard to date. Not gonna link. It’s ugly.

  155. 155.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Washington DC primary results so far: With 1% reporting, it’s Clinton 81.1%, Sanders 18.7%.

    Nailbiter.

  160. 160.

    J R in WV

    @Jeff Spender:

    They got a huge problem, then.

    The FBI doesn’t do indictments at all. Not at all.

    So they’re completely ignorant of how government works, especially the justice side of it. So sad…

    Hard to do a revolution in total ignorance.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Groucho48:

    If you go over to Digby’s place (Hullabaloo) and scroll down to a thread she put up timestamped 10:30 am this morning (the Roy Cohn post), there’s a back view photo of Trump that is just weird and unkempt. Looks like the hair wants to be a classic ’50s DA, but it’s cut irregularly and just kind of wanders around his neckline.

    I have read that he personally tends to his daily hair styling. I quite believe it — doesn’t look as though he’s been in a barber chair in several months. And yes, I think he got his hands on a bottle of Miss Clairol and applied it recklessly to his own locks.

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    Dear Bernie,

    Take it from someone who’s been there – once everybody stops paying attention to you, it’s over.

    Signed, Martin O’Malley

  164. 164.

    different-church-lady

    @J R in WV: You have to forgive them, they weren’t interested in politics until Bernie inspired them to get involved.

  171. 171.

    Elie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I think he even has a bald spot showing. The photo I saw had at least three hair colors in it. He actually looked striped…

    I think the dude is and has been coming apart for a while. My theory is that between his mental illness and possibly incipient cognitive impairment — things are not going well. I bet there is somme weird weird shit going on behind the scenes. Dude is not well..

  172. 172.

    hovercraft

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    There was this story last month.

    “Remember the $500 haircut?” quips Gawker’s John Cook? That’s nothing. Gawker just went all Woodward and Bernstein on Donald Trump’s “inscrutable hairdo.” A tipster, French patents, multiple lawsuits, an archived website, and more have led the Ashley Feinberg to pen a 3,479-word piece that is “perhaps the first plausible” answer “to the riddle of Donald Trump’s hair.”

    Related: Trump Takes on Bill Clinton With ‘Creepy’ Instagram Ad

    That answer is, essentially, a $60,000 weave. The trail starts with a customer (that tipster) of Ivari International telling Gawker that Trump was also a client. Ivari International specializes in “microcylinder intervention.” These microcylinders are made of strands of donor hair that “mingle with your own hair” after being attached with thread and small metal clamps. In 2007, the treatment cost $60,000 and required near-monthly maintenance for up to $3,000 a pop.

    Related: Stephen King, Amy Tan Sign Writers’ Petition Against Trump

    Strengthening the source’s claims: In 1997, the Ivari International website listed Trump Tower as its New York City location. What’s more, it claimed to be located on the 25th floor, home to Trump’s offices and apparently nothing else. While Ivari International continues to exist, its only public location is in Paris, though it appears difficult to impossible to actually get an appointment.

    Now it is based on a Gawker story so who knows?

  173. 173.

    trollhattan

    @Elie:
    We live in the age of 8k broadcast video using cameras with $100k lenses that could photograph the proctological exam of a tick. The Mystery of Donny’s Pate will be there for all to see. Remember how many teevee news careers ended with the advent of HD broadcast.

  174. 174.

    gogol's wife

    I’ve been busy the last couple of days and just now went to a prayer vigil for Orlando.

    I feel very stressed because I haven’t been able to hash things out on Balloon Juice for a while, and now I’m too tired to do so. Miss you guys.

  175. 175.

    DH

    If Sanders can get rid of Wass-Schultz, I would be ecstatic. When she was in the Fl. Leg with human algorithm Rubio, she wouldn’t take him on, because they were friends. She is complicit in having that moron become a Senator. Given her political skills, I bet the Russians found lots of cute cat videos in the DNC files.

  176. 176.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @DH: I get that. But her term is up in January anyway, and in the meantime, as someone pointed out above, we’re in the middle of a campaign and the DNC chair is a vital manager for that. This is not the time to bring on someone new and try to get them up to speed.

  178. 178.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    At this point I don’t think he’s earned a single scalp not attachedglued to Trump’s skull. I don’t like the precedent.

  179. 179.

    Eric U.

    @Baud: Rocky de la Fuente had his name on our ballot, but you couldn’t really vote for him because he had no delegates to vote for him. Not sure why they bother to do it when it doesn’t count

  180. 180.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elie:

    I agree. Whether it’s mental or physical (or both, or the one influencing the other), he doesn’t present like a healthy person. There’s just no energy there.

  181. 181.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hovercraft:

    That sounds excruciatingly uncomfortable. But you’d think at those prices he would at least get a do that looked halfway decent.

  185. 185.

    Procopius

    @Joyce H: You really think the DNC has a file of oppo research on Trump? I’m sure they have a boatload on Bernie and Tim Canova and Alan Grayson, but I’m not confident Debbie “I can’t campaign against my Republican friends” Wasserman Schultz has much on Trump.

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