Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

American history and black history cannot be separated.

So very ready.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Early Reviews of Comey’s Performance

Late Night Open Thread: Early Reviews of Comey’s Performance

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100Comments

  1. 1.

    Patricia Kayden

    So Repugs are going to endlessly investigate why Comey didn’t throw the book at Secretary Clinton for doing what her predecessors did? How much tax payer money is going to be wasted on this foolishness?

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m listening to HAHA Goodman’s YouTube video on this right now, and boy is HAHA ever ticked off.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I don’t know how we can do it, but the MSM needs to be spanked for this massive nothingburger. Hard.

  5. 5.

    Barb2

    Don’t forget – others are still using private email because the current official secure State Department is useless for timely email exchange.

    Why not hold useful hearings – like how to make State’s email system user friendly and secure. Damn CIA and NSA.

    Power play – or security theater? Those spooks are playing a different game.

    It seems that the GOP has nothing else to do. They can’t pass a clean Zika Funding bill, Etc Etc etc.

    Might as well find the humor.

    Didn’t Trump delete a bunch of email? To cover his fat a** in a law suit?

    This is so stupid – but predictable.

    Clinton Derangement Syndrome

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Same group that loudly refused to renew the independent counsel law now braying for independent counsel. Amazing they don’t all sport neck braces for whiplash injury.

  8. 8.

    Keith G

    The Rude Pundit comments up top are about the wisest on this.

    Clinton gave her opponents a stick to hit her with and they are going to continue hitting her with it until the stick breaks. This ordeal has hurt Clinton and the good news is it seems to me that we have reached the upper limit of the amount of hurt.

    Whether or not this has been planned, the FBI’s timing on this is as good as can be wanted. Congress is out of session and the GOP is in the final weeks of the perilous path towards a convention that doesn’t implode. Then we have our convention. And finally the true game begins.

    It seems to me as if the noise has self-limits built-in and any new hurt will be barely existent, if at all existent.

  9. 9.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    Hillary wouldn’t have all these email issues, if she’d just followed the custom of her predecessors, and used a GOP email account.

    You know, the one with “iffy” backups.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: I’ve only read a couple of HAHA’s unhinged Salon columns that others have linked and have otherwise avoided his oeuvre, so I have no idea what he looks like. I’m guessing he’s a wormy looking white boy?

    @Keith G: Agree that the timing is the best that could be hoped for under the circumstances. The GOP will never let this go, but the media will move on to the next shiny object soon, and then we can get on with the convention and the general election in earnest.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:
    White guy. Smooth chubby baby-face with a slight smirk, very close-cropped dark hair. Forehead goes all the way to the crown of his head. Sits just a bit too close to the camera when recording his videos. Looks mostly calm and rational, but when you listen to his words …

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    My favorite GOP whine is that Comey, a protege of Kenneth Starr and John Ashcroft, is somehow in cahoots with Clintons.

  13. 13.

    Anne Laurie

    @Amir Khalid: Also, he’s a former Rand Paul guy — which should tell anyone all they need to know about HaHa’s “progressive leftist” credentials!

  14. 14.

    Barb2

    I like this one:

    Clinton found guilty of being a grandma with access to both Top Secret information and the Internet.

    I sort of like knowing that a grandma will be in charge, and maybe two with SD Warren. Would the idiot GOP want their grandma to be treated that way?

    Only the idiot GOP can find fault for doing her job. Then they choose the King slime ball, who really is everything that they claim Hillary is. Amazing. So sad.

  15. 15.

    Keith G

    @Barb2: Well, if Hillary were indeed just a grandmother, I would want her nowhere near of the presidency.

    An important part of the FBI’s subtext is that Hillary should have known better, it was her job to know better. Fortunately, the renowned luck of the Clintons in having just the right opponents (2008 excepted) is still holding. Thus, these self-inflicted wounds will not prove mortal.

  16. 16.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Cacti: Some Rightwingers are even claiming that Trey Gowdy is in cahoots with the Clintons. LOL! The Clintons are truly all powerful and for that alone they deserve our votes.

  17. 17.

    SFAW

    @Barb2:

    with SD Warren

    I see their smokestack when I drive by Westbrook.

    Although I assume you meant my senior Senator, and I just couldn’t parse the “SD” part.

  18. 18.

    Barb2

    Keith G

    Your reading comprehension is ZERO.

    You don’t know what the hell you are talking about.

    This scandal is a NOTHING BURGER.

    SHE is 100% smarter than you will ever be.

    Trump bots are sexist pigs.

    Power to the grandma!

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Some Rightwingers are even claiming that Trey Gowdy is in cahoots with the Clintons.

    I’m waiting/hoping for a latter-day Jim Jones to provide refreshments for all those thirsty crazy/stupid/evil motherfuckers.

  20. 20.

    Aimai

    Allowing a republican into a democratic administration is really a classic example of the tale of the frog and the scorpion. Please g-d never let this happen again.

  22. 22.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @SFAW: I assume it’s an auto-correct-ism of Senator Professor Warren.

    Could be wrong…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  24. 24.

    hoodie

    @Barb2: This episode just happens to mirror an episode in my professional life that I recently witnessed, a female colleague being publicly castigated for a minor transgression that her male colleagues frequently commit and only get a discreet talking to, if that. Bottom line, sexism is real, and even some of Hillary’s nominal allies don’t get it. As you say, Hillary was trying to do her job in the face of a sclerotic bureaucracy, and gets fragged for bending the rules when a dude might even be celebrated for doing the same thing. Her biggest mistake may have been apologizing in the first place.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    Trump is actually a little behind Romney’s final margin in rust belt states.

    I wonder if it’s GOP drop-off because Trump is doing much worse than Romney did in red states.

    The interesting one to me is Florida- it was so tight there in ’12 and Clinton is quite a ways ahead. 5 points ahead in a swing state is a big margin. Trump lives in Florida. He talks about it like a home state. It must be driving him crazy :)

  26. 26.

    Blueskies

    @Aimai: Yep. BHO had lots on his plate when he started to fix the multiple balls of shit that Bush left for us all. Sadly, he never seemed to grasp that several of those shitballs were human beings put into government by Bush. Those people will forever be operatives.

  27. 27.

    Barb2

    SD Warren = Senator Doctor Warren. From Charles Pierce and always honors Elizabeth Warren for being a teacher first.

    We are lucky to have her, especially the good folks of Massachusetts who voted for her!

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @Barb2:

    SD Warren = Senator Doctor Warren

    Too cute by half for me.

    Especially when one remembers that Scott Brown thought he was being highly witty (or something) by calling her “Professor Warren” during that campaign.

    ETA: And Charlie Pierce should know better.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @hoodie:

    They do this to their base constantly. I mean constantly. They continually claim all kinds of draconian things will happen- indictments, reversal of laws, resignations in shame. Then they wonder why their base is incoherent with rage.

    They told them Holder would be indicted/resign over Fast and Furious. This has been going on for years. GOP base voters are convinced there’s rampant lawbreaking in DC and no one (including the Republican Party) does anything about it.

    They couldn’t be satisfied with “mistake” or even “careless”. They had to promise “criminal”. Now their base is furious at them again. Once again they didn’t come thru.

  30. 30.

    germy

    @SFAW:

    ETA: And Charlie Pierce should know better.

    I always thought it was Pierce mocking Brown for making up that nickname for her. Pierce can be subtle sometimes.

  32. 32.

    Stacy

    The GOP, with help from our finest journalists, will never let this go. This and Benghazi, and they help Trump flog them till November. I guess Ryan wants Congressional hearings now but has no time for gun control hearings.

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    Is their base furious at them? Or furious at Hitlary for getting away with yet another bit of criminality that the Clintons have been party to since Judge Crater and the Lindbergh baby? I’m thinking it’s more the latter than the former.

  34. 34.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: 538 pointed out that this election actually does have a consistent geographic difference from 2012–but it’s not one that really shows up in either the popular vote polls, or the map of who’s ahead where. It’s that both candidates (but especially Trump) are mostly doing worse in their core states.

    Trump is doing much worse in deep-red states than Romney did, though these states are so Republican that it’s not really enough to flip a state (aside from the occasional outlier poll, like the recent Zogby one that showed Clinton ahead in Kansas–I don’t believe it, any more than I did the old ones that showed her ahead in Utah, but these states do seem unusually close). Clinton is doing a bit worse than Obama in most deep-blue states; Trump has unusual strength in blue-state suburbs and not all the Sanders supporters have reconciled to supporting her. And there are a lot of undecided and third-party supporters (for now). But in the swing states it’s pretty much a wash, with a slight lean in the direction of Clinton outperforming Obama.

  35. 35.

    Barb2

    @hoodie

    The sexism directed at Clinton is really directed at all strong women. Liberal males are just as guilty, Bernie for example.

    The subtle sexism as in your example is so common, especially in the academic fields.

    My MA thesis decades ago was on sex role discrimination – for example, a female running for President. Not much has changed, except the hate bots on the Internet. Example the Bernie bots harassing the chair of the Nevada Democratic Convention. There was so much misogynistic hate from the Bernie bot. Seemingly encouraged and tolerated by Sanders. Why did Sanders lose? His sexist words and actions.

  36. 36.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @germy: Yup. Charlie loves Warren.

    He’s much more ambivalent about Obama and his snark is much more pointed toward him at times…

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who hasn’t been reading Charlie much lately.)

  37. 37.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    I always thought it was Pierce mocking Brown for making up that nickname for her. Pierce can be subtle sometimes.

    That’s certainly a possibility, but even if that’s the case, it’s just not that good.

    @SFAW:

    And, since FYWP eated one of my edits: calling her “Doctor” does not honor her teaching, it honors her earning a PhD.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    The media celebrities at FOX have to cover their ass after promising their viewers an indictment that they knew wasn’t coming:

    O’Reilly to Trump: “Do you think the fix was in and did President Obama have anything to do with it?”

    He’s paid millions of dollars for this. Lying and then covering his ass on yesterday’s lie. Over and over.

    I get why the hacks do it- millions of dollars. But the Republican electeds are IN the government they’re discrediting. They’re a majority in Congress. Their voters will blame them.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    Their base has been in open revolt since 2014. They essentially removed Boehner. They removed Cantor. They just elected Trump. They think Republicans are weak and ineffective and can you blame them? The Republican Party is telling them Republicans are weak and ineffective.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    But the Republican electeds are IN the government they’re discrediting. They’re a majority in Congress. Their voters will blame them.

    And why would they start now? They elect people who promise to destroy, or severely impair, the functioning government. If they only get results 75 percent of the time, that’s OK by them — the remaining 25 percent will come, eventually. As long as no more Demon-rats get elected!

    ETA: To clarify a little (after reading your follow-up): whether it’s establishment Rethugs, or nihilists like Cruz, it doesn’t matter to the base. They’re happy to throw out the old guard, but only if they can get new Destroyers in their place.

  42. 42.

    Uncle Cosmo

    This is kindasorta reminiscent of the runup to the last impeachment, when it seemed like every day Bill’s enemies were tossing a new “outrage” into the media, thinking, Surely this, this, will be the last stray! Surely now the people will rise up in righteous wrath demanding Slick Willie’s scalp! But the longer the string of “scandalous revelations” got, the more disgusted the American people got–with the scandalmongers.

    I get the feeling they are going to keep squeezing this stone until the get blood from it–& it will be their own when the fragments slice into their fingers.

    (Note for Adam/Alain: “Reply” buttons under prior comments aren’t working for me, but “Leave a Comment” still does. Strange.)

  43. 43.

    Punchy

    As if Comey’s comments now suddenly green-light the very same attack ads that the GOP were going to run anyways.

    Holy fuckin nothingburger.

  44. 44.

    Uncle Cosmo

    “Straw”, not “stray”. Also I cannot edit my previous comment–button simply does not appear. Very strange.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It was worrying me a little that Trump was doing worse in red states because I would think that would make him look worse in national polls in a way that doesn’t matter- it doesn’t matter if he wins Georgia by 5 instead of 10. But if Clinton is also doing slightly worse in deep blue states, as you say, then maybe that evens out as far as national polling- it also doesn’t matter if she wins Massachusetts by 7 instead of 10.

    Her Ohio number is fine with me. No one will ever win Ohio by a big margin.

    If Trump truly has this huge appeal to blue collar whites I would think that would be showing up in Michigan more than it is. I’m wondering if it’s the economy. I vacation in Michigan and have for years. I go several times a year. It is packed this summer. These are middle/working class vacationers. They have some money and they are spending it. It’s like night and day compared to 2009-12.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Massachusetts is actually an exception–Clinton is outperforming Obama there. (Which surprises me a little just because in my bit of Massachusetts, the Trump supporters are doing their best to be super-visible.) But several other blue states she’s running a little behind 2012.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @Punchy:

    Agree re: ads they’d run, no matter what Comey said.

    However, Comey’s comments provide ammunition — however weak — to sway fence-sitters. (“Well, if the Director of the FBI says it — well, then I just don’t know about that Hillary,” said in a tone of resignation or head-shaking-ness.)

    It will pass, but it just reinforces some predispositions, and may sway others. The ones with “predispositions” are less important, they probably would have voted for Trump or Johnson anyway. But the remainder can be convinced.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Remember, Michigan’s black population is comparable in proportion to the US as a whole, which certainly doesn’t help Trump. (And the Detroit area famously has a lot of Muslims, though their visibility exceeds their numbers, so it’s not really that big a deal statewide.)

    I’ve noticed a pronounced tendency for pundits to insist that Trump ought to be able to take Michigan and Wisconsin even though the polls don’t really reflect it.

  50. 50.

    Barb2

    Here’s some background information about Comey.

    Seems like he refused to sign off on the Bush Jr’s plan to twist the law. It was that time when Ashcroft was in the hospital and Comey was acting attorney general. In this case Comey was a man of honor.

    Interesting historical reading.

    Link found on Shakesville.Com blog

  51. 51.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I don’t see ANY Trump visibility. Not in the R Ohio county I live in and not here in (western) Michigan. Western Michigan is R majority.

    Trump has to get a huge margin in rural counties to overcome the Dem margin in urban counties. It’s just addition. There are 88 counties in Ohio- he needs every vote in 80 to beat the populous counties because they have hundreds of thousands versus say 10,000 in rural counties. For Republicans it’s like “pick up 1000 extra here, pick up 1000 extra there”.

  52. 52.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Keith G:

    Clinton gave her opponents a stick to hit her with

    Only if you hold her to a standard of absolute perfection no human can match. Comey has personal, professional, and partisan reasons to do so. She followed standard (but not official) procedure in a situation where official procedure would have been an epic clusterfuck. She’s run such a squeaky clean ship that this, after years of trawling for any damn thing, is the best the GOP found.

    @Kay:
    Their base requires them to do it. Remember 2009 when top level Republicans said Rush was being too heated and were forced to apologize publicly? The extremism is bottom up, not too down. It does feed on itself as you described, but don’t ever let the GOP voters off the hook. They aren’t manipulated rubes, they’re lunatics who demanded leadership that would validate their hate. See Trump.

  53. 53.

    SFAW

    @Barb2:

    In this case Comey was a man of honor.

    Agreed. Hopefully he still is (in the real world, that is, not in the Rethug Bizarro world, of course).

  56. 56.

    debbie

    With an indictment not coming, the RWNJ heads should start exploding any minute.

  58. 58.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay:

    I don’t see ANY Trump visibility. Not in the R Ohio county I live in and not here in (western) Michigan. Western Michigan is R majority.

    I hear this kind of thing from a lot of people in swing states and R states. Which, again, surprises me, because Trump support has yuuuuge visibility in northern Massachusetts and southeastern New Hampshire.

    I really think Trump’s campaign has been concentrating on bombing the blue Northeast with yard signs. Which is just insane. It’s like it’s psyops aimed at Donald Trump himself.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: In both MI and WI there’s one or two recent polls that look somewhat closer than the ones from months ago. But they’re not within shouting distance of Trump taking the state. They’re underpolled in general.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    With an indictment not coming, the RWNJ heads should start exploding any minute.

    Oh pleasepleasepleaseplease let it be so pleasepleasepleaseplease.

    Oh, you didn’t mean literally?

  61. 61.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @SFAW:
    Well, there IS a huge gap between ‘use mealy-mouthed lawyerisms to make a Democrat sound bad’ and ‘approve torture.’ I may see Comey’s statements as partisan bs, but he also didn’t recommend indictment so didn’t do anything shameful. Just obnoxious.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I maintain it’s harming GOP electeds. Kasich was their strongest general election candidate. It’s a gimme. Swing state governor who was also in the House and won two recent elections and has 60% approval in his home state. The base rejected him in favor of not just Trump but Ted Cruz. Not only that, The Establishment chose Rubio!

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They’re underpolled in general.

    Right, but I think they’re underpolled because Republicans consistently claim they are stronger in MI and WI than they are. They’re underpolled because they’re not really competitive. Romney’s campaign supposedly thought he was competitive in WI and MI and John McCain’s whole “come from behind” was his (alleged) secret strength in PA.

  64. 64.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:
    Oh, yes. There’s a big disconnect between the hard core hate junkies of the GOP and everyone else, including the rest of the GOP who are merely partisan, politely bigoted, or like the feel of asshole stick-it-to-the-poor policies. It’s just that the lunatics aren’t a fringe. They’re the most powerful faction, increasingly driving the clown car.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The GOP in Ohio had two theories after 2012. In the swing counties the GOP leaders thought Republicans have to expand their appeal. In the conservative counties, like where I live, they thought they had “missing white voters”- Trump’s theory. It’s predictable that these two theories would be adopted by these two groups- the R counties want to the GOP to reach out to working class whites because that’s what they have and the swing counties want the GOP to have a bigger tent because that’s what THEY have. So we’ll see which theory is right. Trump’s theory depends on turning out white working class voters, though. The “expand the appeal” theory isn’t as dependent on turnout. Turning out lower income people is hard. It doesn’t matter whether they’re Latino or white. There are barriers to lower income PEOPLE voting. They move a lot and they have trouble with documentation and they tend to be “sporadic” voters.

  67. 67.

    cmorenc

    Meanwhile, CNN is helpfully picking up main GOP talking points – with its host asking “CAN CLINTON BE TRUSTED?” not just verbally, but in big white letters against a blood-red background.

  70. 70.

    Another Holocene Human

    @SFAW: I think Kay has a point in that the base doesn’t trust their leaders any longer and that means the beast is in control now, not them.

  71. 71.

    philadelphialawyer

    @Keith G: Fuck the FBI and its “subtext.” The FBI is not in charge of determining who “should know better” or what their “job is.” Comey bloviating to give some sop to his fellow GOP assholes is not the last word. Or definitive in any way. Or anything more than partisan obiter dicta. All along, the word was that Hillary was going to be indicted. Well, she ain’t. The rest is just chicken shit.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There’s also this really interesting divide among white working class men and women where I live. We ran a whole school levy campaign that depended on white working class women. They’re not the same as white working class men, especially younger white working class women- people with small children. You can reach them thru policies that are better for their children. One of the Obama policies that is better for their children is Medicaid. This isn’t abstract. It’s the health insurance their children have. THEY can go without health insurance. It makes them crazy when their children don’t have it, though.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @philadelphialawyer:

    I agree. It won’t matter, but Comey was out of line. He acted unprofessionally. No editorializing, Buddy. You talked too long and too much. Again, the thing was wholly political so no one will care but he crossed a line with that speech.

  74. 74.

    Quinerly

    @Aimai:
    I think I caught a blurb last night that Comey was an underling in the Whitewater investigation 20 years ago. If he could have gotten her this time he would have. Instead he taped a 20 minute attack ad for the RNC, etc on the taxpayers dime.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @philadelphialawyer:

    The FBI is not in charge of determining who “should know better” or what their “job is.”

    Bingo, and all the short-sighted GOP dopes who are pleased with his stump speech up there will be screeching when the next one does it to a GOP pol.

  77. 77.

    Another Holocene Human

    I don’t care what Comey says. I lost all respect for the Federal Bureau of Incompetence years ago. Who takes the FBI anyway other than lightly these days?

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Rubio is kind of appealing and he’s young and Latino, but why did they bet the whole wad on him? There was nothing to indicate he was particularly strong as a candidate. They’re supposed to be political professionals! “Young and Latino” anyone could see. They may as well be any person on the street with that kind of rigorous “analysis”. They’re supposed to be adding some value.

  80. 80.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I love how Trump bigfooted a bad news story for his opponent. The guy really is in his own world and has to be the center of attention.

  81. 81.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:
    What were their options? Kasich was going nowhere. Jeb:< was the worst politician I've ever seen. Rubio was a loser who had a slight chance. He does meet the establishment's low standards of gravitas.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    Ever since that dumbheaded redesign they did. It’s more user-unfriendly.

    And having to go to Facebook if you want to read the comments. That’s a PITA.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    We have a “chamber of commerce” type Republicanism that still exists here. They actually beat back the Tea Party. The Tea Party got some city council seats in 2010 and fucked everything up and they all lost the next election. They had a kind of spectacular failure- they bought a closed grocery store to turn it into a new sheriff’s office and then they wouldn’t authorize money for renovations. It sat there losing value- the roof leaked and there was water damage and birds took up residence inside. Local scandal :)

    It’s renovated now. The grown ups took over.

    They’re teachers and lawyers and judges and local bankers and real estate agents. I work with them every day.

  84. 84.

    Barbara

    @Matt McIrvin: As a person who grew up in the rust belt state of Pennsylvania, which pundits perennially consider a possible Republican swing state, all I can say is that these kinds of predictions are typically made by people whose familiarity with these states is incredibly superficial. First and foremost, most of the people predisposed to vote Republican for religious or class reasons have been doing so for nearly 35 years, and the rest are either unmoved by the dog whistles, are too young to long for a return of the manufacturing good old days or have just moved on. Trump is making a blatantly nativist appeal that most people understand has no policy substance behind it, and if they don’t agree with the nativism, they are certainly not going to be won over because they think Trump would actually do something for them.

  85. 85.

    D58826

    Tghe next Clinton scandal – big headline

    President Obama’s Stumping Raises Questions About Air Force One Cost

    Then first two sentences answers the question, so why the headline?

    President Obama’s decision to campaign for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina Tuesday raised a perennial question: Who pays for the trip?

    Typically, the American taxpayers pick up much of the bill, but federal law requires that the Clinton campaign or the Democratic National Committee share some of the cost.“The White House of course follows all of the rules and regulations that apply to presidential travel,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. A Clinton campaign official said, “As is the standard practice, the campaign will cover its portion of the costs.”

  86. 86.

    D58826

    @Quinerly: Yes he was an Star flunky and then investigated Bill over the pardons in 2001. As well as having been an assistant AG in the Bush 43 administration. Not an impartial observer.

  87. 87.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Aimai:

    Allowing a republican into a democratic administration is really a classic example of the tale of the frog and the scorpion. Please g-d never let this happen again.

    Yeah, and it keeps happening with every Democratic administration, almost as if by design.

  88. 88.

    Keith G

    @Aimai: Just what the heck is your attack based on? All I said is that if Hillary were just a grandmother I wouldn’t want her near the presidency just like I would not want someone who is just a grandfather near the presidency. I was having fun with Barb’s comments about liking a grandmother in charge. The qualities that Hillary brings to the job; as Obama has told us, are vast and well-earned. Being a grandparent is hardly a qualification, for that would have given Mitt Romney a leg up over Obama.

    As far as the subtext of the FBI report goes, they are correct. The Secretary of State had ample opportunities to change what she was doing, even if during her first set of decisions about this she can claim ignorance.

    She will not be the first person to become president who has done stupid things in her past as an official. She won’t be the last either. She is one of our smartest and highest-achieving political operatives and political leaders. I feel no need to create a song and dance to help her escape from appropriate
    consequences (publicly chastised) of the actions outlined by the FBI.

  89. 89.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: It’s a regionalism/class sort of thing. They weren’t too keen on Jimmy Carter until he started being high-minded and building houses–they still act as if he’s a soppy moron for his election-watching activities and willingness to be civil to North Koreans (on the grounds that in order to negotiate with them, you need someone they’ll talk to).
    1) White Southerners are underbred and undereducated mouthbreathers who lack the sophistication and worldly tolerance of the Eastern elites (Look, Nixon was a bastard, but he wasn’t entirely wrong about some things).
    2) Poor boys who managed to attend elite educational institutions by virtue of their brain power should nevertheless remember their place and not try to push into spaces reserved for their betters.
    3) Nice Republican girls can go to law school and all that but if they ditch the party of their ancestors to marry poor Southern boys who have risen above their station in life (and become Democrats into the bargain) they can expect to bear the consequences quietly, and urge their spouses to remain humble in the face of their good fortune. (For a comparison, observe how Marilyn Quayle was treated by the Times)

    The Clintons’ unforgiveable sins have been (him) rising too far and acting as if he did well because of his own effort and merits and not because he was graciously allowed a modicum of success in spite of his unfortunate background and (her) marrying him and acting as if she was allowed to be more than a gracious and well-bred helpmeet and as if he was as good as any other white male member of the elite (and I realize that “white” is redundant there–these people aren’t rude about it like some classless types, but persons of color should remain conscious of their provisional status at all times, really).

    Do not imagine that Arthur Ochs Sulzberger has tolerated the maunderings of the likes of David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, and Ross Douthat (among others) on his editorial page because he believes in presenting a balanced spread of opinion. He likes their work.

  90. 90.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Can’t reply directly, but +900 to 1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet) for a nearly-complete dissection of CDS at the Old Grey Mare.

    I’d only add one other factor that makes the pundittini despise Bill Clinton on an ongoing basis: His undisputed excellence as Explainer-in-Chief. The man is absofuckinglutely brilliant at being able to express a policy or a rationale for action in easily understood terms delivered in a comforting folksy manner. That’s why his enemies (sic) constantly shriek at 180 dB about his/their alleged moral & ethical perversions: They can’t win an argument with him on the merits, they can only do their worst to ensure no one can hear him for the filth. Bastards.

  92. 92.

    Barbara

    @Uncle Cosmo: My working theory about hatred of Bill Clinton was the visceral panic felt among Republicans that Clinton could actually appeal to white “Bubbas” and not just African Americans and the other traditional Democratic constituents. I mean, without white voters being a sure thing for them, Republicans would have literally no reason to continue. They had to cut him down to size and to do that they projected onto him (usually, via his wife) all the sins of liberalism, feminism, along with his personal sleaze, as a survival tactic. And Goddamn it he made it way too easy for them — imagine if Clinton had the drama-free administration that Obama did. But then, he probably would not have the traits that made him so personally appealing to so many.

  93. 93.

    burnspbesq

    This was a warmup for Comey’s big scam: getting Christie indicted (which would make him, pretty much inevitably, the next Guv of NJ) without leaving fingerprints.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Barbara: Yeah, Bill was a guy who, by the theory of post-Reagan, post-Southern-Strategy conservatism, should have been a Republican. That he wasn’t, and that he was successful, must have put a fright into them.

    But Hillary Clinton–here was someone who struck deeply at all their anxieties about sex and gender, and she still does.

    It’s not just them. I think even a fair number of the liberal male Bernie-or-Busters are really in thrall to nightmares of an unfeminine ball-busting woman becoming President; it’s in the way they call her “the old broad” or “the crone”, share cartoons in which she’s an imperious queen or a witch, etc. The older boomer-hippie guys particularly.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay:

    It was worrying me a little that Trump was doing worse in red states because I would think that would make him look worse in national polls in a way that doesn’t matter- it doesn’t matter if he wins Georgia by 5 instead of 10. But if Clinton is also doing slightly worse in deep blue states, as you say, then maybe that evens out as far as national polling- it also doesn’t matter if she wins Massachusetts by 7 instead of 10.

    I don’t think it quite evens out. Sam Wang currently calculates that Trump is getting something like a two- or three-point advantage from the Electoral College (the “Meta-Margin” required to flip the EC is 3.3% versus a national Clinton lead of 5-6%), because Trump is unusually weak in deep-red states that he’ll carry anyway.

  97. 97.

    D58826

    @Kay: While I agree that he crossed the line, most of the pundits are saying the FBI shredded Hillary’s e-mail explanations. The question is did the FBI investigation shred her story or did Comey’s comments w/o any documentation to back them up ‘shred’ her story. The media is accepting every word he said as gospel truth w/o any documentation or cross examination. On Thursday the GOP will give him unfettered access to all of the networks to continue his campaign against the Clintons. He has been at it since 1996,

  98. 98.

    1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)

    @Uncle Cosmo: Thanks! And I agree about the hatred and envy of Bill Clinton’s ability to elucidate things.

  99. 99.

    eyelessgame

    Wingnut reaction on my FOF list on facebook is pretty much “we never expected an indictment” (yeah, bullshit) but a lot of “but admire how MEAN he was to her and those NASTY things he said are TOTALLY going to drop her support and that’s what’s REALLY important!!”

    The wingnuts I know are treating it as a nakedly partisan act and think it’s useful; there’s no real pretense that anything of security or justice or law is being served.

  100. 100.

    No One You Know

    @Kay: Agree. Although I do wonder about the wisdom of a speech like that against one who may well be President. Is his future solely with the GOP?

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