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You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Long Read(s): Kellyanne Conway Is Having A Moment

Long Read(s): Kellyanne Conway Is Having A Moment

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It may be, as some Conway-skeptics have hinted, that she’s pushing her narrative hard because she’s feeling “shut out” in the latest battles among the Trump cabal’s inner circle. It may be that her husband has just been, per the NYTimes, chosen “to head the civil division of the Justice Department… placing him in charge of a crucial office charged with defending Mr. Trump’s contentious travel ban and lawsuits alleging that his business activities violate the Constitution.” (And the photo of the happy couple the Times picked for its header speaks volumes.) Or it may just be the exigences of long-form journalism, where multiple stories on the same subject emerge simultaneously because such reporting takes time.

In any case, here’s hoping (/snark) that her sudden celebrity doesn’t lead her boss and idol to feel overshadowed, because we know how he’s prone to lashing out under such circumstances .

Olivia Nuzzi, in NYMag, on “The Real First Lady of Trump’s America“:

On the third floor of the West Wing, one flight past the stairwell portrait of President Donald Trump talking on his Android phone, is an office once occupied by Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to Barack Obama; Karl Rove, senior adviser to George W. Bush; and First Lady Hillary Clinton. By cramped White House standards, it’s an expansive space, complete with a desk, a conference table, a couch, a bookshelf stocked with a single copy of The Art of the Deal, a duffel bag full of family photos and a couple of pairs of Spanx — and, through the blinds, a view of the Washington Monument. And on this February day, its current tenant, Kellyanne Conway, was explaining how her life had changed in the nine months since she joined the campaign of the man who would ultimately become the 45th president of the United States — for one thing, she now answers to “Blueberry.”

That’s because she’s one of the only officials in the White House, other than President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence, to have Secret Service protection — which staffers receive at the special request of the president, who has famously referred to her as “my Kellyanne.” She got the protection, Conway said, after she was sent a suspicious white substance. And then there were the threats. “Most of them are online,” she remarked, “and most of them are very explicit and graphic, and they’re sometimes people who have a history of following through but for whatever reason weren’t prosecuted.”…

Conway laughed with her assistant, a 26-year-old College Republicans alum named Catharine Cypher, as she tried to explain the absurdity of hearing the stoic armed men who follow her around refer in all earnestness to the whereabouts of one Miss Blueberry… “Oh my God, there’s no privacy! It’s crazy, it really is crazy.” And it can get complicated. “I have two friends, who both — well, one is Ann Coulter. She started dating her security guard probably ten years ago because she couldn’t see anybody else,” Conway said. “And you know Rebekah Mercer?” she asked, referring to the Republican megadonor who, with her father, Robert, bankrolled Trump’s campaign and pushed to install Conway as its campaign manager. “Her younger sister, Heather Sue, married her security guard. She was like, ‘Well, I didn’t see anybody else, so one night, I, you know, I invited him in!’ ” Conway’s got a running joke about one of her own agents. “If Blueberry has an affair, it’s with Secret Service! It’s with Joe.” She deepened her voice to mimic his: “ ‘Ma’am? Blueberry, horsepower!’ ” (Coulter and the Mercer family did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Blueberry knows that she has had a breakout year. As Trump’s highly visible and quotable campaign manager during the election’s final sprint, she became a constant presence on cable news and thus a subject of widespread fascination, armchair psychoanalysis, outrage, and exuberant ridicule. But rather than buckling, she absorbed all of it, coming out the other side so aware of how the world perceives her that she could probably write this article herself. Caricatures from that time, when hardly anyone believed Trump could defy the polls and win, depicted her wielding everything from a whip to a shock collar to tame her unruly candidate. But these days, serving as the senior counselor to the president, Conway is becoming less a supporting character than a bona fide celebrity in her own right. She is simply more famous — more beloved by Trump fans and more hated by Trump detractors — than anyone in any comparable role in any previous White House…

(Do not forget: Nuzzi made her journalistic bones outing Anthony Weiner. You don’t hire a professional sniper to write a fuzzy-bunny infotainment bonbon.)

Through-line to the stories, and the stories about the stories, seems to be that Conway is a chippy little Jersey tough, daughter of a single-mom Atlantic City casino worker. Which makes her affinity for Donald, and his for her, perfectly logical — she grew up in the gambling world where Trump wanted so desperately to be a big shot. She knows how to appeal to his longing for credibility, but as a woman and the child of a lowly serf service worker, Conway doesn’t challenge his touchy self-image. Give her due credit, she actually did claw her way up from the working class to the Oval Office, which is more than her male counterparts can claim, whatever one may think of how she chooses to use the power she’s accumulated.

Molly Ball, in the Atlantic, on “Kellyanne’s Alternative Universe: Will the truth ever catch up with Trump’s most skilled spin artist?”:

Even in triumph, Kellyanne Conway nursed a grudge. As she reflected on Donald Trump’s November victory, she made clear that she hadn’t forgotten how people treated her back when they thought she was a sure loser. Their attitude wasn’t one of outright rudeness or contempt; it was so much worse than that. It was syrupy condescension—the smarmy, indulgent niceness of people who think they’re better than you.

“ ‘Kellyanne works hard,’ ” Conway said, assuming the voice of her erstwhile sympathizers. “ ‘We all love Kellyanne, but this is a fool’s errand.’ Or ‘She’s done a really nice job, she should hold her head high, but this is just happy talk’ … You know, it was some combination of that. It was ‘We love her, but she’s full of shit.’ ”…

Winning, Conway contended, was exactly what Trump was doing as president—just look at the number of executive actions he’d already signed. He was outpacing Obama, she said. “Not that it’s a contest.” When I told her I recalled Republicans depicting Obama’s executive orders as Constitution-defying, dictatorial abuses of power, she replied, “Well, I don’t know that I would have said that.” And then came a blast of her signature verbal fog: “But the difference is that—it depends on the issue. Is it something that should be legislatively fought? And now that we have a government that functions that way, this president is taking the reins and doing that—operating, in part, that way.”

Since taking over Trump’s flailing campaign in August, Conway has become famous for her insistence on Trump’s looking-glass version of reality—in which conspiracy theories merit consideration but reported facts are suspect. She claimed, during the campaign, that Trump “doesn’t hurl personal insults,” and that when it came to Barack Obama’s birth certificate, “it was Donald Trump who put the issue to rest.” She once insisted, on CNN, that Trump should be judged by “what’s in his heart” rather than “what’s come out of his mouth.” She has reframed falsehoods as “alternative facts,” invented a terrorist attack (the “Bowling Green massacre”), and flacked for Ivanka Trump’s clothing line, in possible violation of federal ethics rules.

When Conway’s critics pile on, she just keeps spinning. “She can stand in the breach and take incoming all day long,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, told me. “That’s something you can’t coach.” She’s figured out that she doesn’t need to win the argument. All she has to do is craft a semi-plausible (if not entirely coherent) counternarrative, so that those who don’t want to look past the facade of Trump’s Potemkin village don’t have to…

Anne Helen Petersen, at Buzzfeed, got in early with a smart piece on the very deliberate hype behind “The Softening Of Kellyanne Conway“:

…Conway has been chastened, in part, for acting, spinning, and possessing confidence like a man — and doing so very publicly. And because Conway, a self-proclaimed Gen-Xer, shies from Ivanka-style Instagram posts, she used the Sunday Morning interview to both re-feminize and re-domesticate herself in the public’s view.

In the show’s opener, interviewer Norah O’Donnell proclaims that usually, on a Sunday, Conway would be making the rounds on the political talk shows. Instead, she is going to mass with her husband and four children, then going to lunch at a local diner, then home for a casual hang with her family…

O’Donnell calls attention to the fact that Conway and her family have Secret Service protection — a rarity for a staff member at her level. Conway responds that she’s been subject to threats and extreme vitriol; she’s been particularly abused on the internet, which she calls “a cesspool.” Interspersed with shots of her children playing at her feet, Conway says that the abuse “hurts my kids more than anything.” “They’re all, ‘Mom, why would people say X about you or Y about you or Z about you?’” In this way, Conway elicits sympathy — while also suggesting that the real victims are her children.

Conway underlines that her private life is now virtually nonexistent: “If I want to go out with a friend for dinner,” she explains, “it’s photographed, and it’s talked about.” She’s endlessly scrutinized — as she was for the military-style ensemble she wore to Trump’s inauguration, which now hangs proudly in her White House office — and says she’s subject to the “triple standard” of being a woman in the Trump administration. “People talk about the double standard, about what a woman wears, not what she said,” Conway says, explaining that “the triple standard is that conservative women are just cast aside.”…

Trump has already evidenced his willingness to jettison any non–family member who no longer serves his particular needs — especially one who could seem like an unruly embarrassment. And leaving her job for the sake of the kids — to return to her self-professed “favorite label” as “Mommy” — would be the perfect spin for Trump if he decides to slough off the unruly woman who also happened to be central to him winning the election.

(The SPLC study referenced in the above tweet.)

Reader Interactions

193Comments

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @TenguPhule: hmmm….. she does kind of look like Ivanka in twenty years, if Ivanka doesn’t use sunscreen

    these pieces are TL:WR– but the nuggets about her nasty racist mother.. it’s telling that KAC must know how her mother talks about Obama, and told the interviewers they could talk to the hateful old woman. She clearly thinks there’s nothing remarkable, much less wrong, about the way she talks about Obama

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    She’s looking to strike while the iron is hot and make a bundle of wingnut welfare, then bail out, following the model set by Sarah Palin.

  8. 8.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @TenguPhule: I have to say, if she can have for kids with that troll she married, she clearly can screw any revolting thing she needs to to get the job done.

  10. 10.

    Yarrow

    If you were a Hill #GOP bigshot, would you stick you neck out for a POTUS that the FBI says is a liar AND under CI investigation re Russia?— John Schindler (@20committee) March 20, 2017

    So how much support will he have from Republicans in Congress?

  11. 11.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Can someone tell me what conclusion is to be drawn from the photo of KA and her husband? She looks to be the more photogenic of the two.. they don’t exactly look like Romeo and Juliet. Is there something else? How does the photo “speak volumes”? What am I missing?

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    another tidbit I saw yesterday involved the time KAC and Frank Lutz went bathing suit shopping, which I did not share, you’re welcome, and yes it gets worse than “Frank Lutz bathing suit shopping”

  13. 13.

    Starfish

    So Nuzzi who is known for going after Democratic clowns is attempting to rehabilitate and humanize Kellyanne Conway?

  14. 14.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @TenguPhule:

    She’s screwing Trump. I’d bet money on it.

    If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’m going to get even w/ you for planting that image in my head…

  19. 19.

    TS

    @Baud: Other than denials on twitter, he ignores anything/anyone that doesn’t fall down before him in worshipful adoration.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @TS: he usually attacks, and he’s not attacking. Jared and Ivanka must be exhausted from explaining that to him

  24. 24.

    efgoldman

    @Yarrow:

    So how much support will he have from Republicans in Congress?

    Depends how much they feel their re-election prospects are threatened.

  27. 27.

    Yarrow

    No connections with Russia. None at all.

    “I have nothing to do with Russia,” Donald Trump bellowed to thousands of frenzied supporters at a Tampa, Florida rally last October. The truth, it seems, is a bit more complicated.

    In an exclusive interview with FORBES, Emin Agalarov—a Russian pop singer, real estate mogul and son of one of the country’s richest people—described an ongoing relationship with the Trump family, including post-election contact with the president himself.

    Among Agalarov’s most striking claims: that he and his billionaire developer father, Aras, had plans to build a Trump Tower in Russia that would now likely be under construction had Trump not run for office; that he has maintained contact with the Trump family since the election, and has exchanged messages with Donald Trump Jr. as recently as January; and that President Trump himself sent a handwritten note to the Agalarovs in November after they congratulated him on his victory.

    “Now that he ran and was elected, he does not forget his friends,” Agalarov says.

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    How does the photo “speak volumes”? What am I missing?

    She’s preening like a movie star, literally on the red carpet; he’s standing small in the background, holding her fur coat, looking simultaneously smug and dazed with his own good fortune. You know the old political term “coat holder”? He may or may not be a good lawyer, but he’s been co-opted as Trump’s coat holder for Donald’s personal legal problems now.

    @Starfish:

    So Nuzzi who is known for going after Democratic clowns is attempting to rehabilitate and humanize Kellyanne Conway?

    No: Nuzzi, who got her big break taking down a (Dem) politician bedazzled by his own success, just did this nice juicy article about a Repub political ‘celebrity’ similarly bedazzled by her own success.

    Nuzzi, IMO, has made herself a journalistic niche as a professional reputation-bleeder; I don’t think she cares which lapel badge her latest target is wearing when she lines up her sight scope. Think of her as a MoDo for a new generation.

  30. 30.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @efgoldman:

    Depends how much they feel their re-election prospects are threatened.

    @Gravenstone:

    Depends on how many are themselves compromised by Russia.

    Both of these…

  31. 31.

    efgoldman

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Or she’s just a horrible person like Ann Coulter.

    She wouldn’t know the truth if it took her to the prom, proposed, and paid for the wedding and the reception.
    Standard question: What if a Dem was caught making up such obvious shitty lies?

  32. 32.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    S.V. Dáte‏Verified account
    @ svdate
    Trump just now: “This, your country, the United States of America, is your country again.”
    Whose was it during the Obama years?

    @Baud: in the OP, there’s a reference in one of those excerpts to KAC and her conflict with Chuck Todd> What I remember is the time during the campaign, after a debate, when he brought the proceeding to a halt to assure everyone that she isn’t just good at her job, she’s a good person. It was so cloying and simpering and inappropriate, even aside from the fact that the job she’s so good at, then as now, is helping a racist demagogue shred our civil and political society. He’s such a pathetic fucking social climber. And that ad, “Hey America! I like sports! I’m a regular guy! I’m you!”

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    I still think the Republicans are going to try and brazen it out and deny everything. And, frankly, there’s a good chance they’ll get away with it, because their propaganda outlets and pet billionaires will prevent the truth from coming out.

    Karl Rove promised them a permanent Republican majority, and if it comes as part of a dictatorship, Republicans really don’t care.

  34. 34.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Yarrow:

    “Now that he ran and was elected, he does not forget his friends,” Agalarov says.

    Ouch… that’s gonna leave a mark…

  35. 35.

    Aleta

    “All that really matters this week is Gorsuch moving forward and the House passing step one of Obamacare repeal,” said Scott Reed, a veteran Republican strategist who works for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “All the rest is noise.”

    No, all that really matters is that every Republican that I can think of either impeded or did nothing to call for this investigation for months. Every single one rushed to take advantage.

    (Quote is from Wapo headline
    “President Trump faces his hardest truth: He was wrong”
    which by the way is an extremely fucked up pacifying headline IMO )

  39. 39.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mnemosyne: Economic anxiety, donchano

    Jamelle Bouie‏Verified account @ jbouie 2h2 hours ago
    dude organized a pro-confederate rally in Charlottesville where folks brought “confederate lives matter” signs.

  43. 43.

    Keith P.

    Speaking of long reads, I managed to listen to Rachel Maddow for all of 2 minutes before changing the channel. She was talking about the A-bomb, but I gave up waiting for her to tell us what the central point was, like she thinks her prose is so riveting that we just…can’t…turn…away. I turned away.
    I’ve always found her long-winded, but Colbert’s takedown of her has made watching her painful.

  47. 47.

    JMG

    @Aleta: What else is he going to say? He’s a professional spinner, and they work with what they have. Besides, House passing Obamacare repeal is a fact not yet in evidence.

  48. 48.

    cokane

    hard to argue with what Conway has achieved. One of the most accomplished bullshitters I’ve ever seen. Puts Rove and every other Bushie to shame.

  49. 49.

    Gravenstone

    @Keith P.: You should have stuck with it. She built into a Putin quote from a symposium in February 2016, where he explained that Russian information services was soon going to have the capability to reset the power balance in a manner similar to 1949 when Russia obtained the A-bomb. A brazen statement that no one at the moment appears to have understood the importance of. He was bragging that Russia was going to do something earth shattering to fuck the US over – and he gave us Trump as a result of that something.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Gravenstone: I don’t know if I buy that the Russians expected to succeed in making Trump president. I still think their main aim was to weaken President Hillary.

  52. 52.

    p.a.

    @Baud: If their aim was to destabilize the US/Western Democracy it wouldn’t matter as much who won. Buyer’s remorse possibly as tRump is an unstable child, but if his closest advisors are ‘in tune’ (at least) with Russian interests it could still be a bigger win for Vlad than just having a weakened, Rethug-dogged HRC presidency.

  54. 54.

    Keith P.

    LOL at Jack Kingston trying to tell the Anderson Cooper crowd that he also thought that Paul Manafort only had a small, brief role in the Trump campaign. I’m surprised Cooper didn’t kick him off the show after that.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @p.a.: While there is, in reality, nothing good about Trump winning, the one good thing about Trump winning is that, if Hillary had won, all of this would have been swept under the rug, and the various evil forces would likely have grown stronger during her term. I think Trump’s winning exposed them prematurely, in their eyes.

  56. 56.

    Gravenstone

    @Baud: That’s why I phrased it like i did. Yes, they wanted to at minimum damage Clinton. Getting Trump in office was a *happy* byproduct for them.

  57. 57.

    p.a.

    @Baud: What % of American electorate won’t care no matter how much Russian influence? > 27%? Scary scary. Hell 5% would be horrible.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @p.a.: I don’t know. It may be enough to drive Trump from office. The die-hard basis would probably prefer Pence. Trump’s only real constituency are the white nationalists.

  61. 61.

    Keith P.

    @raven: He is soooooo slimey on the TV. I mean, Ted Cruz comes off as unlikeable, etc, but at least he’s got some substance to what he’s saying. This guy Kingston makes me thing of a pastor who’s trying to talk his parishioners into fucking him.

  62. 62.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I remember Kelly Anne being all over during the Lewinsky/Clinton ‘scandal’ era and then she disappeared. It used to KellyAnne then Fitzpatrick with Coulter and Barbara Olson and IMO they were interchangeable. Then I was flipping channels a few years ago and I saw Kelly Anne now Conway and it took me a little while to figure out it was Kelly Anne because she had not aged well(I know it’s sexist and not a nice thing to say.) Anyhow,she was now a pollster(who knew?!?) and bullshitting as usual.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    @liberal:

    I think there are more than enough reasons to block Gorsuch on his own merits without making it an explicit tit for tat. YMMV.

  66. 66.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Renowned for her skill at lying. Hard to rattle. Good at manipulating the emotionally volatile. Conversationally transfers attacks on her to more sympathetic victims.holds grudges. Changes loyalties easily, but in a consistent and unemotional way.

    People like to throw around the word ‘sociopath’ here, but that, folks, is what the real deal is like. These articles are practically a checklist.

    @Yarrow:
    Trump lost by 3 million votes. They hold the House only by gerrymandering, and the Supreme Court only by similarly cheating the system. That’s going to produce some pretty weird and extreme pressures.

  67. 67.

    liberal

    @p.a.: as long as taxes for the filthy rich are cut and promises are made that women will start dying again from back alley abortions, they could care less.

  68. 68.

    Chet Murthy

    @Mai.naem.mobile: Growing up, there were a number of …. extremely salty epithets one could use for KAC and her ilk. They were homophobic and/or misogynist. I keep searching my memory for new epithets that are equally …. offensive/brutal/eyebrow-searing, and that are neither misogynist nor homophobic.

    It’s sad: I really need ’em. If for no other reason, than to properly express my appreciation for KAC and Daughter-Wife on the twtiter-machine.

    ETA: upon re-reading, this comment is somewhat sexist. I of course include SIL Jared, Bannonazi, Heydrich Miller, and a few others, in my list of those needing appreciation.

  69. 69.

    Dave

    @p.a.: It could I can also see this as a catastrophic success that’s bites him in his ass depending how this plays out. This is the sort of short-sighted tactical cleverness that may give Putin a win he will not actually want. It does depend on how this plays out. There may end up being serious backlash against Putin and if we are particularly lucky this may actually strengthen western democracy as we are being forced to confront theses ugly antidemocratic trends tamhat have been growing for some time. I would have preferred to avoid testing this particular hypothesis but here we are.

  73. 73.

    liberal

    @Mnemosyne: why shouldn’t it be tit for tat? When the other side in an iterated prisoners dilemma keeps defecting, and you keep cooperating, there’s a precise scientific description for your behavior: fucking fool.

  74. 74.

    Chet Murthy

    @Baud: “asshole” is -nowhere- near brutal enough. I need something that takes it up a few notches.

    I like “Daughter-Wife” for that reason. B/c as far as I’m concerned, she’s complicit in the whole damn thing. Unlike Melania — sure Melania did some not-so-great things, but as much as one could expect, she’s just stayed away, and I can respect that.

  76. 76.

    p.a.

    @Dave: May already be working out in Euro elections. We fought fascists, they actually lived under them.* The memory may be fading but it’s not gone.

    *African Americans and other minorities here have a real understanding of what living under fascism is.

  78. 78.

    Iowa Old Lady

    On the news in my car today, I heard a news host talking about North Korea developing a missile. She said, “President Trump commented that Kim Jong-Un had behaved very, very badly.” I actually laughed out loud. He sounded like he was scolding one of his grandchildren. Such deep analysis!

  81. 81.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Mnemosyne: No, I think it should be a very explicit tit for tat. What matters in this instance isn’t Gorsuch’s qualifications or his legal views, appalling as they may be, it’s that the Republicans are trying to steal a seat on the court that rightfully should have been filled by Obama, and they absolutely should not be allowed to get away with that. Filibuster anyone whose name isn’t Merrick Garland, I say.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @liberal: They did. But you’d have to do some complex analysis to evaluate what the turnout would have been in a hypothetical non-gerrymandered world.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    Ivanka Trump, who moved to Washington, D.C., saying she would play no formal role in her father’s administration, is now officially setting up shop in the White House.
    The powerful first daughter has secured her own office on the West Wing’s second floor — a space next to senior adviser Dina Powell, who was recently promoted to a position on the National Security Council. She is also in the process of obtaining a security clearance, and is set to receive government-issued communications devices this week.

    No boundaries. They won’t stop with this shit until someone orders them to stop. The nepotism is so gross- it discredits the whole office. I love how she lied about it too- insisted it wouldn’t be a formal role just until the heat was off.

    Why are the President’s daughter and son in law conducting US foreign policy? I mean, Christ. I’m ashamed that Germany’s elected leader has to deal with this ridiculous situation where Ivanka sits in. It’s embarrassing.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Chet Murthy: I usually think primary talk is ludicrous, but I might have to agree there. I can sympathize with a red state Dem turning tail, but Hillary won Colorado.

  95. 95.

    tobie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jamelle Bouie‏Verified account @ jbouie 2h2 hours ago
    dude organized a pro-confederate rally in Charlottesville where folks brought “confederate lives matter” signs.

    Wasn’t tonight’s rally in Louisville, KY? I’m sure it was in the south so the signs are still disgusting but I’d be surprised if Charlottesville, VA has so many out-and-out, rancid racists.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @Kay: I don’t understand why the Antideficiency Act doesn’t apply.

    An officer or employee of the United States Government or of the District of Columbia government may not accept voluntary services for either government or employ personal services exceeding that authorized by law except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.

  98. 98.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @Chet Murthy:

    “asshole” is -nowhere- near brutal enough. I need something that takes it up a few notches

    When I was growing up in Chicago we used the word “jagoff” for people like that. It’s possible to be an asshole and not realize it, or to be an asshole and think you’re right (or like Walter Sobchak, to not be wrong, but still be an asshole) but a jagoff is always aware that he’s wrong, and goes right on being a jagoff. A guy who sideswipes you in the parking lot and drives off, for example, is a jagoff.

    ETA: Pretty much the entire Republican Party these days is made up of jagoffs…

  104. 104.

    EBT

    @JPL: Not at all. I don’t know if he would piss in China’s Cheerios like that, but friends of mine think we could see a mushroom cloud there before the year is out.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    Remember when we were all assured Ivanka and her husband would have no formal role in the US government?

    They lied. They meet with leaders of other countries as representatives of the United States and direct US policy.

    We elected this family so while it’s embarrassing for us that we’ve allowed this to happen, imagine what it must be like for foreign leaders. They have to somehow navigate not just dealing with the idiot President but also his entire family.

    I feel like they’d be perfectly justified in refusing. If I’m the elected leader of another country Donald Trump isn’t sticking me with his relatives where I have to pretend this is a legitimate elected government.

  111. 111.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay: When the Brits pried an unofficial apology out of Team Trump it signaled the beginning of the end of any other country taking his administration seriously.

  112. 112.

    Chet Murthy

    @p.a.: Chuckle, chuckle, *snort*. I feel like I wanna demur, b/c I think he’s a bullshitter par exellence. But then really, what concrete difference does it make? Either way, every time his jaws (or tiny hands) move, he’s uttering untrustable words.

    DJT: Perp walk. Die in prison. Of old, old, old age.

  113. 113.

    Baud

    @different-church-lady: Agree. I don’t think they care about dealing with the Family. What they’ll care about is that fact that they won’t be able to rely on what this administration says (regardless of who’s doing the talking).

  114. 114.

    tobie

    @Kay: The appointment of Ivanka and Jared is a flagrant violation of the anti-nepotism statute but the Republicans in Congress feel no compulsion to enforce the law. So wish someone else would have standing to file a complaint!

    One final note: Ivanka will have no title since doesn’t really have an office with a brief…she’s just daughter to the President and hence has a right to security clearance.

  116. 116.

    Quinerly

    Didn’t read through all the articles and comments. Has anyone mentioned KAC’s romantic involvement years ago with Fred “Law and Order” Thompson? That’s when I first heard of her….she was his political consultant before she was married.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Niels Lesniewski @ nielslesniewski
    President Trump is giving a speech about Henry Clay.
    Steven J. Duffield‏ @ StevenJDuffield 2h2 hours ago
    Steven J. Duffield Retweeted Niels Lesniewski
    Henry Clay on Andrew Jackson: “He is ignorant, passionate, hypocritical, corrupt and easily swayed by the basest men who surround him.”

    apparently someone drove him by Henry Clay’s house, or there was a brochure on the table while he was eating his McDonalds before the Hate. Apparently he said something about what great friends Clay and Jackson were.

  120. 120.

    amk

    Is the msm expanding on the yesterday’s hearings or have they already started normalizing russian interference on elections also?

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @different-church-lady: I’m not sure where Trump’s impulse control fits into it, but based on the whole “the liar cares about the truth”– and I would add because Trump, has some grasp of it– I’m gonna vote bull-shitter

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t understand why the Antideficiency Act doesn’t apply.

    Nothing applies, Baud. This family is for some reason give complete leeway to do whatever the hell they want.

    Ivanka’s not stupid. She knows this is turning into a clusterfuck. They’re circling the wagons to try to salvage this thing.

    This is disrespectful:

    On Friday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with President Trump to discuss foreign relationships between Germany and the United States. Another Trump, as it turned out, was also present at the meetings.
    Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump sat in on what Ivanka called a “robust discussion” about workforce development:

    She doesn’t meet with the goddamned daughter. Merkel is the principal. She meets with the elected leader- the President- without the family members running interference. She should have refused. It’s demeaning to her.

    It’s not enough that they have to turn the Presidency into a division of Trump Enterprises- they now drag other countries into this mess. You’d hope we could limit this to a strictly national embarrassment.

    Is there ever a situation where anyone in this family self-polices and says “you know, this probably isn’t a good idea?” They have no personal standards, no limits to how far they’ll go.

  126. 126.

    p.a.

    @different-church-lady: @Omnes Omnibus: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m mostly convinced re: b.s. but

    The liar cares about the truth and attempts to hide it

    I think his multiple tweets about how well his admin is functioning, no internal divisions, and how well the admin is getting along with Congressional R’s on policy are lies to hide the truth (as well as to convince…)
    So he’s multitalented. Maybe the liar/bullshitter dichotomy doesn’t hold for an infantile narcisistic sociopath.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @different-church-lady:

    I know he’s a giant indulged toddler but he should apologize! Normal decent behavior. He should also apologize to President Obama. He lied about Obama and said Obama broke the law. Again- normal, decent behavior. What we would expect from any adult. Except the President. We have incredibly low standards for him.

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay:

    This family is for some reason give complete leeway to do whatever the hell they want.

    It’s only been two months.

  130. 130.

    Chet Murthy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: @p.a.: There’s an episode of Dexter (season 2?) where he buys a minivan. The car salesman is a serial killer (of women). Dexter traps him, and before the coup de grace, they’re discussing relationships and such. In the conversation, Dexter marvels at how the guy’s able to jump from falsehood to falsehood (or to truth, back to falsehood, for that matter) with such ease and aplomb, never looking back. I don’t have a link to video, but for me, that has always stood out as an excellent TV rendition of a bullshitter — the complete disregard for what is or is not true.

    I submit for your examination Dampnut on Ukraine wherein Trump insists “he’s not going into Ukraine”; Steph sez “he’s already there”; Dampnut -instantly- and fluidly pivots to “he’s there in a certain way under Obama, but I’m not there ….”.

    To my mind, that’s an excellent bullshitter. But then again, does it really matter? Either way, when Dampnut’s lips move, you impound the words.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Why did he refuse to shake her hand? Because he’s a rude, nasty douchebag who doesn’t know how to behave in ordinary social situations let alone a meeting like that?

    Oh, well. I read Merkel is actually smart and she’s accomplished, as in “earned”, so she’ll end up with the better part of any “deal” with the Trump family. She’ll have the last laugh.

  135. 135.

    Jim Parene

    @Chet Murthy: Chet, may I start using your term, “Daughter Wife”? I think it eloquently describes Ivanka and accurately describes 45*’s taste in women.

  140. 140.

    different-church-lady

    @Mnemosyne: HOT BRICK TODDY

    1 tsp butter
    1 tsp powdered sugar
    3 pinches cinnamon
    1 oz whiskey
    1 oz boiling water

    Put first three into punch cup, dissolve thoroughly. Add whiskey, fill with boiling water, stir

    Courtesy of Mr. Boston Platinum Edition, which I recommend highly.

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    No, I think what we learned with the judges is Trump looks small and weak when there’s no response to his temper tantrums. Judges can’t respond to him and they wouldn’t anyway, but I notice his judge attacks don’t go well for him and I think it’s because judges don’t engage. He wants to smear shit on them by drawing them in. When they ignore them he looks weak, like he’s flailing. If there’s anything Obama understands it’s dignity.

  143. 143.

    Calouste

    So in the current clustertrump at attempting a Muslim ban, airlines in Arab countries have been told that passengers (and possibly also crew) to the US aren’t allowed any electronic devices larger than a cell phone in the cabin, but they are not allowed to tell they have been told.

  145. 145.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    Exclusive: Tillerson plans to skip NATO meeting, visit Russia in April – sources

    FBI’s Russian-influence probe includes a look at far-right news sites

  146. 146.

    Chet Murthy

    @Jim Parene: Hey, ain’t no trademark. But just to be clear, I don’t want for it to be a true epithet; indeed, to my mind, it is a better attack if it -isn’t- true. B/c “lie down with dogs, get up with fleas”, etc. I found a few much more offensive ones (that aren’t racist/misogynist/homophobic) in the Urban Dictionary, but they’re not suitable for a family blog comment section …..

    I wonder if Twitter’s “dirty word” algorithm will spot ’em ….

  147. 147.

    Gin & Tonic

    Spent my day in doctors’ offices and my evening recovering from that excitement. So I guess there was some news today?

  150. 150.

    danielx

    @Yarrow:

    If you were a Hill #GOP bigshot, would you stick you neck out for a POTUS that the FBI says is a liar AND under CI investigation re Russia?— John Schindler (@20committee) March 20, 2017

    As long as the base doesn’t reject him, which they show no signs of doing at this point, he isn’t a hindrance to their ideological goals. As long as he isn’t an active hindrance to their ideological/legislative goals they will let him get away with anything, not excluding murder, treason and pedophilia.

  151. 151.

    different-church-lady

    @p.a.: I adore both of those substances, but I would not use either of them undiluted in the vicinity of already inflamed mucus membranes.

  153. 153.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @different-church-lady: Good question. But the way it “works” is to get into a bath that is as hot as one can stand, sit/lay there sipping (I said sipping, damn it) the booze until the water becomes body temp. Then get out, dry off, and go to bed. Supposedly, you’re cold will be gone in the morning.

  155. 155.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    I suspect you are correct, using that finely-honed instrument Occam’s Razor. If you were some entity who wishes us ill, would you rather deal with HRC or the Toddler-in-Chief?

  156. 156.

    Mike J

    @Kay:

    She doesn’t meet with the goddamned daughter. Merkel is the principal.

    Everybody at a high level in government knows the protocol level appropriate for a president, a prime minister, a secretary, an assistant undersecretary for blahblah. What is the hellspawn’s GS level? How many guns are required for a salute? Where do you seat her at dinner?

  162. 162.

    efgoldman

    @tobie:

    I’d be surprised if Charlottesville, VA has so many out-and-out, rancid racists.

    Isn’t that where the main campus of UVa is?

  168. 168.

    danielx

    @Mnemosyne:

    Back in the day there was a recipe involving hot lemonade and scotch (cheap scotch, not the good stuff). It sounds disgusting but it was actually pretty good.

  170. 170.

    efgoldman

    @Mnemosyne:

    I caught it from my niece at Disneyworld and it sucks ass.

    I’d feel badly for you, but my SIL brought home strep, daughter coming down with it, granddaughter will get it sure as shit.
    Good thing we can’t catch it from 400 miles away.

  171. 171.

    tobie

    @efgoldman: Yes, C’ville is home to UVa…but I made a mistake. Jamelle Bouie wasn’t referring to Trump’s rally tonight but to a rally over the weekend for a GOP candidate for Governor in Virginia. The rally was held near C’ville in Roanoke.

  173. 173.

    Kay

    @Mike J:

    WTF does Ivanka Trump know about “workforce development”? None of these people have ever had A JOB outside the family business. Germans apprentice 5 years before they get their own job at a skilled trade. She’s running the country with zero training or experience of any kind.

    What this does is devalue and demean the work that everyone else does. It means that people learn absolutely nothing from training or years of experience because anyone can step in and do any job well. That’s the level of arrogance and delusion we’re dealing with here. She’s discussing how to train millions of 18 year olds with a 5 year program when she herself skipped training and experience completely.

    I listen to DeVos scold school children about “grit” and “tenacity” and the value of education and training and I think “WTF? You did NONE of the things you’re telling them to do!”

    I feel like if it were me I would be conscious of that- I would think “oh, I’m not all that CREDIBLE on this considering I got this job I’m completely unqualified for”. There has to be some measure of merit. It can’t just be a complete crap shoot, because why should anyone work at anything? Our leaders sure don’t. They just wing it.

  175. 175.

    danielx

    @Kay:

    It would be nice to think so, but one thing nobody will ever hear or see from Donald J. Trump personally is an apology – for anything. In his worldview, one never shows weakness, never admits error, never forget an offense of any kind (real or imaginary) and never – ever – apologizes for anything. It’s the other person/entity/country’s fault for having provoked him; or for giving him bad advice, or for breathing – they should be apologizing to him.

    You watch – at some point during his reign he is going to do something stupid and against the input of advisors, which will result in a lot of deaths, American and other.

    And all of it will be somebody else’s fault, so there’s no reason he should apologize for anything. . Because in his mind, Donald J. Trump never makes a mistake. Ever.

  176. 176.

    efgoldman

    @Mike J:

    Everybody at a high level in government knows the protocol level

    I suspect he fired all the protocol people (not that he’d listen to them anyway) in the State Department purge.

  181. 181.

    eemom

    @tobie:

    My baby #1 is about to graduate from UVA. Seems like just yesterday I was joyously posting on this very blog the news that she was accepted. #sunrisesunset ?

    Anyway, for those interested, there’s shaping up to be a sort of miniature Hillary-Bernie primary fight in the governator race here in ole Virginny: Lt. Gov Northam, “establishment” guy, vs. a congressman named Perriello who’s been kind of a progressive rising star.

    I don’t even know yet what freakazoids are crawling forth on the other side.

  182. 182.

    Gin & Tonic

    @efgoldman: I have a date with the knife on Thursday. Anywhere from 2 to 4 hours based on what he thinks when he opens it up. If there are enough salvageable fragments there, we’re on the shorter end. If it’s too much of a mess, then he also has to open my leg and grab some bone from there to graft with. 4-6 months before it’s load-bearing. I fucked it up pretty bad.

  184. 184.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: So, how do we respond? You’ve been posting despair for weeks now. I know where you live and what it is like. You live there. What do we do? You have a FP berth. You live in Trumpville. Talk to us. Don’t just complain in the comments.

  187. 187.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m responding by going to a meeting tomorrow night w/r/t OH D party strategy featuring the Ohio Party chair, a young D city council member and the new D Clerk of Courts, who managed to break a decades long hold on that office, and take out a member of an old R family. I am not attending just because he’s hot, though he is.

  190. 190.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @Kay:

    She’s running the country with zero training or experience of any kind.

    Well… if her experience w/ Nordstrom’s is any indication, she knows how to fail… just like her dear old dad…

    As far as zero training or experience, neither does Dad and that’s not stopping him…

  191. 191.

    David ?¡Mere Campaign Volunteer!? Koch

    Next, Drumpf will force Pence to resign and replace him with Ivanka Lolita.

  193. 193.

    low-tech cyclist

    @TenguPhule:

    She’s screwing Trump. I’d bet money on it.

    I wouldn’t believe that for a second, and for one very simple reason. Well, two, now that I think about it:

    1) Kellyanne is even older than Melania. (She turned 50 in January, Melania will be 47 in April.) And we all know Trump’s never going to trade up in age.
    2) She looks more like 15 years older than Melania. One hardly needs the morning sun when it’s in her face to really show her age. (What’s worse, she does herself up like she’s 29, and that makes her look like a hag trying to pretend she’s 29.) Trump is SO not going to do her.

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