Is it too early to predict that Republicans will impeach Hillary while the media cheers them on?
Whatever its cause, the media’s general Hillary Clinton loathing is a foundational truth that would define her as president. Even a landslide victory in November would surely be accompanied by a sidebar emphasizing how very unpopular and utterly disliked she is; and how her presidency could not have been possible without the utter decrepitude of Donald Trump.
Republicans, as longtime Clinton friend and adviser James Carville predicted this week on Bloomberg and MSNBC, would surely declare her presidency to be both accidental and illegitimate because of phantom “voter fraud” and Trump’s distortion of the political alchemy. If the past eight years of is prologue, the GOP will paint this supposed illegitimacy onto every proposal out of the Clinton White House; from budget bills to Supreme Court nominations, and attempt to freeze the federal government in place until 2020, when Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio can have another go.
The Republican-controlled House would likely begin to immediately investigate the new president, rehashing the amorphous, never-ending media bait that is “emailgate,” perhaps with an eye toward impeachment. And their cries of “corruption” and “criminality” will be duly covered by We, the Media, reinforcing the age-old narrative of Clintonian chicanery in a public already battered by Bad Hillary narratives.
shomi
DougJ is indulging in his favorite obsession again. Impeached/prosecuted Hillary masturbation.
What do the people at the Applebees salad bar think?….about Prez Hillary?…who hasn’t been elected yet, but will like totally be impreached. So he’s just asking the question is all.
dr. bloor
A compelling argument to make sure that human skidmarks like Ron Fournier and Mark Halperin are tossed onto the tumbrels before the likes of Mitchie and Paulie.
charluckles
The flip side being, that unlike Obama she is going to come into office with a negative number of f*cks to give about Republicans and the press. I have mixed feelings about that.
Iowa Old Lady
I absolutely expect them to impeach her. They’ve swallowed their own kool aid.
c u n d gulag
Off course they’ll impeach Hillary.
They’re preparing for it now.
Those emails, don’t you know!
When Dumbaya and Dick “Of Death” Cheney “lost” about 5 million e-mails, the conservatives went, “WHOOOOPSIE! How could THAT have happened? Don’t worry, there was NOTHING important in them. Look over there!!! It’s a (fill-in the blank _________________________________!!!!!).
And not one wanted to execute them, let alone throw them in jail (they belong in The Hague’s prison – FOR LIFE; along with more than a few of their cohorts).
Projection!
It’s all that “Modern” Conservatism has left.
dedc79
Predictions (in descending order of confidence)
1) Republicans will claim Clinton has no mandate because her support merely reflects anti-trump sentiment, not pro-Clinton/Dem sentiment. Media will be complicit in this: (100%) (And if you doubt this, well, it’s already happening)
2) If Clinton nominates anyone other than Garland (and maybe even if she nominates Garland) the Republicans will attempt a filibuster despite all their BS about letting the electorate decide. 90%
2) The House will hold a vote to impeach within next 4 years. (80%) Within next 2 years (60%)
3) If Clinton gets her two SCOTUS replacements in, under the next Republican president there will be a push to expand the Supreme Court to 11 justices. (50%)
hueyplong
@c u n d gulag: “Dick ‘of Death’ Cheney…”
I am imagining I saw what you did there. Makes me think “deserve’s got nothing to do with” the GOP having a House majority while getting a minority of the nationwide votes in Congressional elections this fall.
Roger Moore
Some of us have been predicting this for a while, so I’d say it’s too late.
gf120581
I don’t doubt it. The Clinton Foundation kerfuffle is all about laying the witch hunt groundwork for the next four to eight years.
Hey, go ahead, GOP. I look forward to another case of you acting as the Wil E. Coyote to the Clintons’ Roadrunner.
Punchy
DougJ “predicted” the same shit w/r/t Obama. Yet 8 years later, no impeachment, no drama. So fuck this post and the premise it rode in on.
schrodinger's cat
@Punchy: Agreed. This shit is not funny, anymore, when there are Nazi hordes at the gates.
Trollhattan
This is why we need to take all of congress, not just the senate.
singfoom
I don’t think they’ll try to impeach her unless something during her term actually happens that they can latch onto, but they will paint her as illegitimate. But that’s not about her, that’s about the R’s legislative / PR tactics.
It doesn’t matter WHO the Democratic President is, he/she/it are by their very nature illegitimate. INOKIYAD.
One hopes for the Ds to sweep the election and get White House, Senate and House. I’m moderately hopeful that that will all happen. The gnashing of Republican teeth will be music to our ears.
It’s far more likely we just win the WH and the Senate, which would still be nice so we can keep the crazy bottled up in the house.
dedc79
@Punchy: Obama wasn’t already being subpoenaed and dragged in front of Congress for various “investigations” before he took office.
Peale
@singfoom: Yep. They’ve managed to come up with excuses for each loss since LBJ, and even that one, they probably thought voters only voted for him because they felt sorry about the loss of Kennedy, who was illegitimate because of machine workings in Chicago and shallow voters who watched TV. Honestly, there hasn’t been a legitimate Democratic president since Truman.
Iowa Old Lady
@Punchy: I hope you’re right and they don’t try it. To me, overturning the results of an election is dangerous to democracy.
Peale
@singfoom: Until 2018, when we’ll lose the Senate. Seriously. If Dems can’t be bothered to vote in mid terms, every president we have is going to be stuck running from one shutdown crisis to another.
Patricia Kayden
@shomi: He’s reporting on the media’s obsession to please Conservatives and how that may lead to the media going along with Republican obstructionism against President Hillary Clinton. That is all. Not sure if this is the right blog for you since you twist observations into ulterior motives. DougJ isn’t rooting for Clinton’s impeachment — just reporting how the media may treat Republican attempts to do so.
Peale
Honestly, I’m not going to care what they do. They’ve nominated such a horrid candidate that even on a good day, I wouldn’t regret voting for someone who I know they’ll try to sack as often as possible. Had Martin O’Malley made a better showing, or Jim Webb, I’m sure they’d find someone in his administration to pin something on.
amk
Why do the so called lefty blogs indulge in self fulfilling prophecies spun by rw media? Grow the fuck up.
RSR
>>Is it too early to predict that Republicans will impeach Hillary
Is it too early to stop sniffing glue?
Just Some Fuckhead
Tim Kaine will be an excellent president!
one_particular_harbour, fka Botsplainer
My wild ass prediction is that even if the public votes to flip the House, the lame ducks vote to impeach her on November 9, 2016, just to have it “on record”.
It is a 30 year smear campaign, and they have to serve it vociferously even as it collapses.
Eric U.
I think they found out that impeaching Bill Clinton was a net loss to the people who pushed it through. What they did to Obama was bad enough
Bobby Thomson
@hueyplong: I’m not sure whether Marc Wallice or Dick Ch@ney is libeled more by the comparison.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: I’ve been feeling the same way about Doug’s posts pretty much since he came back and started posting again.
catclub
@charluckles:
The other flipside is that unlike Obama, there are NO outlandish expectations for peace, bliss, hope and change.
Any nice things that actually happen will be pleasant surprises.
Tim C.
I’m predicting Meta-Turtles, all the way down.
Dmbeaster
The threat of impeachment and sabre rattling about it are a certainty, and whether or not it happens will be a cold-blooded calculation by presidential aspirant Ryan. But so what?
GOP attacks on the basic legitimacy of Dem presidents has been the norm for over 20 years now. They did it to Bill and Barack, no holds barred, and expect more of the same for Hillary.
If anything, she is tempermentally more suited to deal with it than both Bill and Barack. There is no reason to have angst about the fact that the GOP and media will be awful. How will it be meaningfully different from the last 8 years? What matters is fighting back and winning, and I do not expect either to gain any ground on her. I look forward to having a Dem president better suited to fight their crap.
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat:
Today’s nazi hordes seem to missing a Wermacht and Luftwaffe. Also crowds of Blackshirts. A little less fear inducing.
Peale
@catclub: I think the number of people on either side who will expect a new president to reach across the aisle (and cut taxes and benefits) are down to 4 people outside of the regular high New York/DC media circle jerk.
SFAW
@shomi:
What does your Mommy think about you stalking various Front Pagers here, so that you can get in your usual “YOU FUCKING SUCK!” comments in as early as possible? (Congrats on getting to #1, by the way.)
That’s not quite industrial-grade stalking, but you’re getting there.
schrodinger's cat
deleted by author.
The Ancient Randonnuer
When Paul Ryan hands divorce papers to his hospitalized wife I’ll believe he has the stones to allow impeachment charges to come before the House. He’s no Newt Gingrich.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: Easy for you to say if you are not in their cross-hairs.
ETA: That one who is sympathetic to their goals is a nominee of a major party is plenty scary.
moonbat
Doug,
You’ve proposed this fantasy before and nothing came of it. You assured us before Obama’s first term and before he began his second that impeachment was just over the horizon and….threats, sabre rattling, and voting against Obamacare 66 times and nothing. The impeachment well is dry for the GOP. The American people don’t like it and the powers that still be among the GOP leadership in the Senate won’t allow it.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
@Punchy: On reflection, I think you’re right. There won’t be an impeachment vote in January 2017. The multiple investigations will start then, but the impeachment proceedings will wait till sometime after they issue their foregone conclusions. July maybe.
srv
I was just talking to some good folks in the bbq line (Real Americans don’t do salads) in Dallas last night who say they’re voting for her because “she’s going to be impeached anyway.”
Can’t argue with that. It’s a real dilemma for many.
The always thoughful Ben has some insight:
Hillary could set a better example, but she just can’t resist.
kdaug
@singfoom:
Nice?
It’s the only way we’ll get Supreme Court nominees through. That’s a hell of a lot more than “nice”.
It’s imperative.
hueyplong
@Bobby Thomson:
You have the best board name of all time (assuming no one has chosen John “The Count” Montefusco). I presume you know that Russ Hodges setting the scene for BT’s historic AB is the audio you hear from the toll booth just before Sonny gets shot in The Godfather.
Makes me worry that Coppola might be a Dodgers fan.
bystander
@Punchy: I thought the repubs would impeach Obama at the drop of a hat, as well. But Obama has been too smart to give them anything.
And let’s face it: All either Clinton ever gave anyone was Bill’s lying about a blowjob. The idea that Hillary is dishonest is purely a creation of the repubs abetted by their megaphone, our lieberal media. They drive the narrative and its predicate is that the Clinton’s are dishonest, therefore everything do is dishonest.
Chris
@dedc79:
Oh, absolutely.
Just like Obama had no mandate because people only voted for him because he’s black and they felt guilty and didn’t want to be called racist.
And Bill Clinton had no mandate because he only won because Ross Perot took votes away from the Republican candidate.
But the first president since… Hayes, is it? – to win while losing the popular vote? Total mandate! Voice of the average American! Gonna institute a permanent Republican majority! Etc.
Brachiator
Yawn. Let’s at least get a Clinton victory before indulging in orgies of negative speculation.
And “the media” could proclaim Hillary to be the second greatest thing since Jesus Christ, and the GOP would still do what they have done in the past.
Move along. Nothing original to see here.
Keith G
I donno. I don’t get much into predicting the bad stuff that the bad people might do. I find it more compelling to think about a couple of options for repairing the PPACA and how we can increase the financial security of our growing service workforce.
Edit: @Brachiator: And what Brachiator said!!
SFAW
@srv:
See, now I know that you’re a parody troll. Good one.
Iowa Old Lady
@Eric U.: I don’t believe most of them have any memory of pretty much anything at all.
Kay
Oh, there will definitely be an attempt but maybe no one will care because the last one was so clearly a political tactic.
They pretty much ruined impeachment as a legit process. Burned right thru that one.
Iowa Old Lady
From Josh Marshall at TPM:
Chris
@catclub:
When the Nazis tried to conquer Europe, they did it in panzers and Stukas.
When the Nazis tried to conquer America, they did it in Medicare scooters.
shomi
@Patricia Kayden: Yea, he’s just asking the question is all. Always wrong about the implied answer…but just asking the question.
Gelfling 545
@dedc79: only because he was never Secretary of State. They would have if they could have.
bystander
Yes, because if there’s one thing we learned from the swiftboating of John Kerry, it’s the value of not stooping to reply to ungentlemanly accusations. Not to mention so unladylike.
quakerinabasement
Way too early.
Let’s see who is sitting in the Speaker’s chair in January before we hear any talk of impeachment.
Gelfling 545
@Just Some Fuckhead: see, that’s the thing. Just like impeaching President Obama would only have got them President Biden. No point to it.
redshirt
I’m with you DougJ. It’s going to be non-stop Republican created crises for the length of Hillary’s terms.
Good news it will save money for the graphics department at Fox News. They can just keep the “AMERICA IN CRISIS!” chyron up for all 8 years.
Trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady:
Laugh of the day, so far.
Obama was rewarded with the uncrating of the teabagger “movement” and they’ve had their sights set on Hillary for decades longer. One wonders what’s rattling around the Republican astroturf warehouse with a big “In case the b!%@h gets elected, break glass” window on one end.
Doug R
@Punchy: He’s leaving out the very real possibility of a wave election. It’s uphill but doable.
Brachiator
@dedc79:
The good thing, I suppose is that everyone is so confident that Hillary will win the election that they feel comfortable in coming up with doomsday speculations about how the GOP will try to sandbag her.
Iowa Old Lady
@Gelfling 545: The point is that they would get to stick it to HRC, whom they hate with the fire of a thousand suns. They don’t care if there’s a point. What’s the point of voting to repeal Obama care however many times they’ve done?
gene108
@Eric U.:
IIRC they were flirting with the idea of impeaching Obama, in 2014, but backed off because polls indicated it would galvanize voters to pay attention and rally around the President.
The House settled to sue the Executive branch over some technicality in Obamacare.
That’s one reason the rabid right-wing base loathed Boehner. The base figured they had Obama dead-to-rights in 2014, but Boehner got cold feet and didn’t pull the trigger.
Gelfling 545
I believe the real reason President Obama was never impeached much less convicted on any of their spurious investigations was that it would only have got them President Biden. No real point to it. Impeaching HRC would get them Kaine. No gain for them unless we end up with a Congress full of Teapartiers who do this stuff for personal gratification. Once she wins their worst nightmare will have been realized. Maybe (but, no, not likely) some of them will shut up for 5 minutes and comtemplate how they got into this mess.
Betty Cracker
It didn’t work out so well for the Republicans the last time they impeached a Clinton.
Trollhattan
@Iowa Old Lady: Odds they’ll switch to calling it Hillarycare? That way they can reset the “times the house voted to revoke ####care” counter.
gene108
@Gelfling 545:
Failure to nominate a True Conservative, in the mold of Ronald Reagan, who will defend the Constitution and Christianity and bring America to a Golden Age free from government intrusion.
That’s basically been their diagnosis after each election loss.
raven
Who cares? Fuck em.
Matt McIrvin
Hillary wishes they would.
Seanly
One of my few beefs with Obama is that it took him 7 years to run out of f*cks to give. He gave way too many olive branches and played way too nice with the Republicans who have nothing but hate for him and his family. Even nominating Garland was a gift to those asshats in Congress – I would’ve nominated Lefty McLeftist.
I hope that Clinton comes in with a more realistic understanding of the idiots with the R’s. Play hardball, negotiate hard, but still compromise when it achieves the desired outcome.
But, yes, no matter how decisively Clinton beats Trump it won’t be enough. Isn’t there still grumbling about how Perot cost Poopy Bush his 2nd term?
schrodinger's cat
@raven: Thank You!
How is your post-op recovery coming along?
Keith P.
@c u n d gulag: Duck of Death, I says.
Gelfling 545
@Iowa Old Lady: Unless we get a Congress full of rabid Teapartiers (who do this stuff for personal gratification) few would want to take the chance that it would rebound on them like it did with Clinton I. And really, if they constantly keep harping on impeachment in every administration, even the least alert among us will begin to smell a rat.
germy
@Seanly:
He read all those books about Lincoln and his team of rivals and it went to his head.
D58826
@Iowa Old Lady: I don’t think they have a choice. They have been stoking the base with the red meat of Benghazi/emails/Clinton foundation/ and just being named Clinton that if they don’t impeach the base will come to Washington with pitch forks. They are already claiming that she lied under oath about the e-mails and Benghazi so how can they not impeach a known perjurer
burnspbesq
They are warming up. It is increasingly likely that the House will hold a vote on impeaching Koskinen in September.
redshirt
@germy: I think Obama’s example of civility and decorum was important to the nation. It may not seem like so right now, but as the years pass his example will become more and more important.
NorthLeft12
I think what bothers me the most is that it is not even “guilty until proven innocent” standard that Joy Reid mentions, it is that there never will be proof enough that Hillary Clinton has not committed the crimes that they keep throwing at her.
The only good that will come out of the next eight years with Hillary is that the Republicans will be driven even further insane and they may end up driving their female support down to AA levels.
Outside of that, it will suck and be painful to watch, even for us foreigners.
eclare
@Matt McIrvin: I like that attitude!
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: Better, just a couple of “issues” if you know what I’m saying! Thanks
Gelfling 545
It seems I may have a redundancy of comments here. This would be because i was told the first one did not go through, but it did. I requested deletion of the middle one but that seemingly didn’t happen but since it’s unlikely anyone will be cherishing my thoughts for the ages it probably makes no difference.
Gordon Schumway
I’ll predict that they have lots of Congressional investigations etc, but never quite get to impeachment, due to the lessons of 1996. Then most of them will run against their party as having sold out.
redshirt
In other news I just heard about our wonderful Governor LePage’s latest incident. Just amazing.
Thank you, dumb ass totebaggers who again voted for the 3rd party because you’re too pure to be sullied by big politics. I’m sure you’ve learned no lessons.
piratedan
I’m kind of with Raven already with this shit….
1) The GOP is fucking delusional… Comservatism cannot fail because it was as Baybee Jeebus would have wanted before anyone wrote that New Testament hooey
2) The MSM folks who decide what is news/entertainment still are getting paychecks and they are totally in the bag for the GOP, call them handmaidens with microphones if you will
3) Hillary, if elected, and if she gets enough Congresscritters and Senators with a D, will do her best to try and fix things. The GOP will ratfuck anyone on the fringe and as such Nancy Smash will have to keep the troops in line and I fully believe that she can (after all, she got the ACA thru, I believe that she hasn’t lost her chops). Mr. Shumer.. well, we’ll have to wait and see if he’s the equivalent of Harry Reid.
4) The MSM will pontificate, speculate and mouthpiece for the GOP ad nauseum because those will be their marching orders. Fuck them, if Hills get her numbers, taxes WILL go up on rich people, government programs will be funded, laws will be passed, the ACA will be revised, shit will get done.
5) If Hills doesn’t get the numbers in the House, but does in the Senate, then the SCOTUS will get resolved, and compromises will be made with the few non-TP folks left in the house, not as good as Dem control, but it won’t be a fucking standstill.
6) the rest of us will forget all this shit and somehow return the House to GOP control in 2018 and we’ll wonder why our politics remain broken for some stupid fucking reason.
jl
If HRC wins, I’m sure some Republican leaders will say with a straight face that the 2016 election is not legit because it could not be ‘properly litigated’ due to their primary voters nominating a nut case, all purpose bigot, and universal ignoramus.
IF McConnell comes out and says that their highest priority is to make the first woman president’s term a failure, I can see that having a big impact on gender preference for party ID.
Not a safe or pretty thing to see a major party dissolve into a slow mo train wreck. But it needs to. A legit and responsible conservative party in the US spans some range of opinion from Mitt Romney to conservative corporate friendly Dems. That leaves out majority of current GOP primary voters and ALL of the party leadership, which consists of either ignorant and incompetent white bigots and xenophobes, or cynical operators trying to cover for them.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat: We’ve got a fifth column of Villagers to deal with, too.
Wipe them out. All of them.
Villago Delenda Est
@jl:
More like pick their pockets for as long as possible.
Villago Delenda Est
@D58826: Yet absolutely none of the allegations against Hillary can be proven under a due process system. Which is why an extrajudicial process is the only one that works, and the attempt to impose one will encompass their doom.
D58826
@Betty Cracker: I understand what everyone is saying about the downside fore the GOP in impeachment. A lot has happened since 1998 to push GOP politics to the right and the edge of insanity. After all of the threats during the Obama years and all of the investigations and ‘scandals’ affecting the Clintons, they may have simply backed themselves into a corner. Most of the public will not approve but if they don’t pull the trigger they will be primaried in 2018 by someone even more extreme. And since they don’t really care what most of the public thinks because they are safe in their deep red gerrymandered districts it is the primary they have to worry about.
Brachiator
@Trollhattan:
Hillary will come to the White House with, as Chris Rock might say, a pocketful of fucks, but none to give to the GOP.
She will already have earned the enmity of the right wing hate machine; and unlike Obama, she will not have to modulate her behavior for fear of looking like an angry black man. Everyone thinks they already know what the cranky white feminist is like. Various folk, from Jill Stein progressives and Bernie-ites to conservatives and Tea Party goons all think that they know exactly how Clinton will govern.
I suspect that Clinton is prepared and has a few surprises up her sleeve.
Miss Bianca
@burnspbesq: Who is Koskinen?
The Ancient Randonnuer
@redshirt:
And not one scandal coming out of the White House. The President and his closests advisors have all been top notch and fine examples of how you can run a country and play by the rules. All together it’s been quite a contrast to the previous eight years.
Davis X. Machina
@SFAW:
If they don’t have pie, I can’t see shomi being very interested.
The Ancient Randonnuer
@Miss Bianca: Koskinen is the IRS Commissioner
Peale
@Miss Bianca: IRS head. It’s a grand stunt to show those voters how the IRS will never bother them again.
Miss Bianca
@The Ancient Randonnuer: Thanks! But why on earth would they try to impeach him?
@Peale: Ah! But how can they hope to get away with such a thing? On what grounds? Oh, never mind…this is the Republicans we’re talking about.
D58826
@Villago Delenda Est: True but by design an impeachable offense for other than treason is what every 218 critters considers a ‘high crime or misdemeanor’. IIRC from the last go around the term high crimes and misdemeanors had a rather specific meaning in English common law. When the founders used the term they made the assumption that the House would be made up of somewhat sane individuals. But there is nothing to stop the House from voting to impeach simply because they don’t like what the President puts on his breakfast toast.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est:
” More like pick their pockets for as long as possible. ”
I think the alt righter bigots are trying to pick the cynical manipulators (the likes of Ryan and McConnell) for $, and cynical manipulators are trying to pick to bigots’ pockets for votes. I’d like to say it is fun to watch, but the backwash and regurgitation from the mess causes problems for the rest of the country, so it is a bad and dangerous thing.
gene108
@Seanly:
What exactly should he have done? How exactly does a President control the rules of the Senate, when an entire Party decides to abuse those rules for political gain?
We really do not have the tools in our form of government to deal with a major Party acting in bad faith, which is what Republicans have been doing since 2009.
A sitting President cannot demand the Senate re-write its rules, so the filibuster, which was abused just goes away.
Peale
Did the anti-shutdown debt limit increase autopilot agreement ever happen? Cause I was wondering whether they thought they’d get mileage shutting down everything and making the election about whether to reopen the federal government. Yeah, you’d think voters would punish them for that trick, but they didn’t at all in 2014, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the lesson they learned was people like shut downs.
randolf hurts
wasn’t being disliked by everyone and incapable of moving forward your agenda the summation of why you shouldn’t vote for Sanders?
jl
@D58826:
” what the President puts on his breakfast toast. ”
Everyone knows that is a delicious spread made form the marrow of white Christians’ bones. The House GOP will let that one slide, looks like.
Peale
@Miss Bianca: I think its related to Lois Lerner. It’s taken them 6 years and countless hearings to pull an election year stunt.
germy
Davis X. Machina
@redshirt: I was just being informed in another place how there wasn’t any difference between Cutler and Mitchell anyway, or between Cutler and Michaud. Neither progressive enough to trigger the wave.
Iowa Old Lady
@Miss Bianca: I think they’re still riled up about the supposed targeting of conservative groups by the IRS.
redshirt
And by FSM I hope the Democratic party starts planning for the 2018 midterms on the Monday following the election this fall. Let’s not get fooled again for crying out loud.
Davis X. Machina
@gene108: Armbullyfiresidechatpulpittwisting is how you do it. And by being the kind of leader who leads, with leadership.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Peale:
Well, he only got in cuz FDR went and died, don’tcha know…
The Dangerman
Assuming the House doesn’t flip, the number of investigations will be about 10x that amount of non-mandatory legislation passed; come 2020, after 3 Democratic Administrations, I figure Hillary is a 1 termer.
She could have been squeaky fucking clean (see Obama, Barack); but, noooooooo.
ETA: HC: “Colin Powell told me privately to use a private server” CP: “WTF you talkin’ about, Willis?”
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Begin the Begin.
bupalos
The good thing is the Republicans have become so incredibly predictable and inflexibly machine-like that I think they’re open to getting jiujitsued. A party you can bait with a bill is a party you can beat.
redshirt
@Davis X. Machina: Well, Cutler has certainly heightened the contradictions. Maine’s Liberal Paradise awaits the next election!
Gosh, I hope Cutler runs again.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: Oh, quit yer whinin’.
shell
Ha-ha-ha, Carson really does live inLollipop Land.
Davis X. Machina
They’re actually not delusional if you accept their priors. They’re logical to a fault, if you grant their premises. It’s those that are delusional. Civil wars are caused by rigid thinking, not not-thinking, or crazy thinking.
The president of the United States of America should be an American.
No Democrat is an American.
No Democrat can be president of the US. QED.
It’s 1859-60 vintage thinking. And we know how well that turned out.
dedc79
@Chris: So if there’s a bright spot it’s to hope that Hillary knows this all going in and won’t, for example, concern herself with the inevitable stories about how she has no mandate to replace Scalia with a progressive
The Dangerman
@Omnes Omnibus:
I kinda like whinin’, especially when I see a lot to do (especially infrastructure)….
…and I don’t think Hillary will be able to do it. Again, assuming the House doesn’t flip.
She will be a placeholder for whoever wins in 2020.
ETA: But she’ll be the first Woman and get to ride on the Big Jet so I guess I should be happy.
Betty Cracker
@randolf hurts: Not for me. I thought he wasn’t as prepared for the job and more likely to lose the election.
Turgidson
@Punchy:
If the GOP could have gotten the media half as interested in any of Obama’s ginned-up “gates” or “Katrinas” as the media has been about “ZOMG EMAILS” and “Foundation PAY FOR PLAY maybe kinda sorta, ok it didn’t happen but it totally would be bad if it had and it still looks bad!!!!” they would have tried to impeach Obama over one of them. But the media didn’t play along with nearly the same ferocity, so they ended up looking like idiots and the “scandal” efforts petered out.
Brachiator
@Miss Bianca:
He is IRS commissioner. He is being scapegoated because the GOP felt that the person in charge of Exempt Organizations, was looking too hard at conservative organizations.
Here is the irony. The GOP wants to wail about the Clinton Foundation and its duplicity. And yet, there is some good evidence that wealthy conservatives are using exempt organizations as a front from which to wield political influence. The Koch Brothers, in particular, have been known to do this kind of thing.
But the GOP wants to impeach Koskinen as a way of hurting Obama politically.
D58826
@Iowa Old Lady: Yes that is the issue. Seems he testified to something that happened before he took the job and it later turned out that his information/testimony was wrong.
? Martin
Yeah, I’m not so sure about this one. There’s going to be a tension both in the media and in the GOP between their instinctive behavior as Doug’s post notes, and the reality of the GOP needing to rebuild and the media having to reacquire their role in the political space. You can see them grappling with it in a variety of ways.
I don’t necessarily think the reasoned voices will win. Ratings are ratings and politics is politics, but I think the GOP may realize that they have no future if they don’t win over Clinton voters, and they can’t do that by continuing to crucify her. And I think the media is starting to realize that their constant scandal enabling is turning off the next generation of media consumers. I mean, has anyone seen any pushback from anyone other than the Trump campaign on Clinton’s speech? Has anyone seen the media characterize it as unfair?
D58826
@Brachiator: Karl Rove is another one
randy khan
@The Ancient Randonnuer:
Au contraire! My Facebook feed is filled with Obama Administration scandals. It’s only because of the weak-livered RINOs in Congress and the corruption of the FBI and Justice Department that the entire Administration has not been impeached and jailed.
redshirt
@Brachiator: That’s a classic Repuke tactic which fireproofs their own corrupt behavior from scrutiny.
Doug R
@Seanly: Obama’s seemingly endless string of olive branches was a RUTHLESS strategy. Either it painted his opponents into tighter and tighter crazier corners, or sh*t would get done. The present day implosion of today’s gop is the DIRECT result of that strategy.
catclub
Was that Daily Beast article written to distract from Steve Bannon?
Slate article lede:
An episode of the Apprentice indeed.
Doug R
@Peale: Voters did try but a simple majority of votes couldn’t overcome the gerrymandering.
Uncle Cosmo
@germy:
Some of Cole Porter’s least bizarre & most accessible lyrics.
Turgidson
@Peale:
The GOP took a lot of abuse and their favorables took a dive from their already-bottom feeding levels. For a couple weeks. Then the healthcare dot gov website didn’t work, and the GOP and media were off and running with their shiny new toy and the shutdown was crammed down the memory hole with every other GOP atrocity in the past 20 years. And so it will be after Trump loses.
Nov. 9, 2016
“Gee, that Trump business was very unpleasant. Glad that’s over. Now, back to business. We reconvene our panel of 3 Republicans, David Gergen, and Harold Ford to discuss whether Hillary’s emails are a bigger scandal than Teapot Dome, Watergate, and Iran Contra put together. Stay with us.
Turgidson
@? Martin:
Not in the “oh my stars, where’s my fainting couch?” kind of way they often greet blunt truth telling about GOP insanity. But many of the headlines at various newspapers and political rags are taking the form of “HRC and Trump trade accusations over racism” rather than “Hillary speech details Trump’s extensive ties to AltRight.” So they’re definitely trying to dilute its strength with some BothSiderist vomit, as usual.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
No. And the media, despite all the wailing conventional wisdom, is not a monolith. Some stories have stupidly treated the speech as campaign rhetoric, exactly equivalent to Trump’s charges. This gets you the “Clinton and Trump trade accusations stuff.”
Slate, Maddow, the Guardian, among others, have dug into the details. The Guardian is good at the UKIP/Trump/Breitbart connection.
JR in WV
The point here is that Clinton talked about actual proven facts, headlines taken from the Breitfart web page, statements on record from both Trump and his hand-selected minions. She didn’t make any accusations, she pointed out facts, damming facts, one after the other.