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A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

In my day, never was longer.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

This really is a full service blog.

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Consistently wrong since 2002

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It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans in disarray!

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Last Week to the Alabama Vote…

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  1. 1.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Ed Krassenstein‏ @EdKrassen
    23m23 minutes ago

    BOOM!!
    BREAKING: Donald Trump Jr. asked Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya for dirt on Clinton Foundation during their June 2016 meeting, according to Veselnitskaya!

    (link to story)
    106 replies 486 retweets 1,112 likes

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    (Reposting from moments ago downstairs.)

    I happened to catch a few minutes of Nicolle Wallace’s show a while ago on MSNBC. It’s a little ominous that conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens appears to be getting worked into the MSNBC lineup as designated “reasonable Republican” or David Brooks lite. I have seen him on one or two of the other shows in the last week. He is hmmph-hmmph outraged about Trump and the “corruption” of the Republican Party, but then in the middle of all that he says he thinks the tax bill is pretty good. WTF.

    Also, Elise Jordan executed a 4.5-difficulty both-sider flip when she sort of suggested that Democrats were enabling Alabama voters to elect Roy Moore because the Democrats have “lost the moral high ground” on John Conyers and Al Franken. She did get some strong pushback on that from Wallace and the others. But, again, WTF.

    Okay I went back and checked the recording to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting her. Her exact words:

    ELISE JORDAN: I’d argue that the Democrats’ slow response helped put Roy Moore in a stronger position.

    NICOLLE WALLACE: You know what, I would normally agree with you, but they’re both—I mean, Al Franken is fighting—they have not responded the same way. Conyers is gone; he went to the hospital and now he’s today retired. And Al Franken is fighting for his political life. We are about to elect—Roy Moore is about to start his Senate career, and Donald Trump is politically untainted.

    ELISE JORDAN: But they did have an opportunity to have the moral high ground, and Nancy Pelosi instead chose to salute John Conyers as a great champion of women who had voted for the Violence Against Women Act. That just reinforces what Alabama voters see as media hypocrisy: politicians, Democrats are just the same, and so we see a cycle where Roy Moore has benefitted in the polls since Nancy Pelosi made that appearance.

    Wallace’s panel was Harold Ford Jr., John Heilemann, Bret Stephens and Elise Jordan. That seems to skew more right than the other daytime MSNBC shows I’ve seen, but maybe that’s because of Wallace’s background as a Republican operative.

    Huh. Looked up Elise Jordan. Contributor to Time magazine, but previously a speechwriter for Condoleezza Rice and “Republican strategist.” Ugh. Also was married to Michael Hastings, the Rolling Stone and BuzzFeed journalist who died in a car crash in 2013.

    Previously I never watched the political shows, but in the Trump regime I have gravitated to the MSNBC evening lineup and A.M Joy on the weekend. MSNBC’s coverage seems to be far less right-oriented or both-sidery than the other networks’, but I’m sometimes amazed at how much it still is that way. The whole mediascape is saturated in Republican and right-wing framing.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    There are probably some RNC apparatchiks cursing under their breath at Agent Orange for his decision to publicly endorse Moore the other day and more or less force them to follow suit.

    Modern technology is incapable of building a violin small enough to properly serenade their sorrow.

  4. 4.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I expect Ruth Marcus and Chuck Todd will start issuing sternly worded tiskings of Doug Jones’s language.

  5. 5.

    Frank McCormick

    It’s like the Republicans are attempting to lull us into complacency with the demonstrated extreme stupidity.

  6. 6.

    Yarrow

    This is interesting:

    Last four Emerson College #ALSEN polls:

    9/21-9/32 Moore +22
    11/9-11/11 Moore +10
    11/25-11/27 Moore +6
    11/30-12/2 Moore +3

    See a trend?
    — Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) December 5, 2017

  7. 7.

    dmsilev

    @Yarrow: Moore’s lead is dropping by a factor of two each week, so he’ll win by 1.5?

    (sorry; extrapolation of trends, linear and exponential, is hardwired into my brain at this point)

  9. 9.

    Steeplejack

    I’m sorry, is that the same brave, principled Senator Flake who sat like a bump on a log right next to President Trump today while Trump bellowed that we don’t need a liberal Democrat from Alabama in the Senate who would be soft on crime and controlled by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer? Rhetorical question.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    Also, Elise Jordan executed a 4.5-difficulty both-sider flip when she sort of suggested that Democrats were enabling Alabama voters to elect Roy Moore because the Democrats have “lost the moral high ground” on John Conyers and Al Franken.

    Yeah. She flipped herself right over the cliff in her support of the Pussygrabber in Chief.

  12. 12.

    Yarrow

    @Villago Delenda Est: He certainly is. We knew it would happen. Next question is who will Trump throw under the bus next? I think Pence may be on the list soon. That whole “I’ll take Trump’s job” story isn’t going to make Donnie happy. Pence may deny it but Trump has to know Pence is just sitting there waiting to be made president. I have a feeling Trump will whatever it takes to make sure that’s not going to happen.

  13. 13.

    lamh36

    Today on twitter, I had to push back on a tweet from Andy Ritchter of all people who said that Obama NEEDS to come out for Jones, to increase the Black vote turnout, cause then Jones “can’t lose”…BULLSHIT.

    SMH…folks really don’t understand the South, do they. It’s Alabama…if White Republicans are willing to vote for Moore even if he’s a pedo for partisan reasons…linking Doug Jones to Barack Obama does NOTHING. Yes Blacks are large numbers, but they are STILL the minority. White folks STILL have to come out & vote FOR Jones.

    I’ma really need folks to stop trying to put the onus on Black voters to some how save white voters…it’s just a set up to blame Black folk for Jones loss…

    Hell…the GOP mailer against Jones has a picture of Obama on the card and NOT Doug Jones…and Obama has not even cut an ad or anything like he did for Northam in VA..

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    @BrianKarem
    Follow Follow @BrianKarem
    More
    Got a call from a Roy Moore supporter unhappy with a reference to him in my @Playboy column. “Jesus was persecuted too,” the caller said. “Yes, but not for trolling malls for teenage girls,” I replied.
    9:36 AM – 5 Dec 2017

  16. 16.

    debbie

    @lamh36:

    I have some friends and family in Alabama. Some have lived there for as long as 20 years, and they still hide the fact they’re Jewish! I know they all support Jones but can’t come out (for work reasons) and say so. I know they can’t be the only ones in that situation, and I’m hoping this means Jones will end up winning the election.

  17. 17.

    Bobby Thomson

    @lamh36: if black voters in the Deep South could elect a US Senator all by themselves they would have done it by now. On the bright side, usually it’s black voters who are taken for granted: “if Democrats could just get those Archie Bunker voters they’d be SET!”

  18. 18.

    Miss Bianca

    “Country Over Party”, Mr. Flake? Really? I know a few million pissed-off countrymen (and women) who’d like to ask you how that philosophy guided your vote on the tax bill.

    @lamh36: On behalf of white liberal doofuses (doofi?) everywhere, I’d like to apologize to black voters.

  19. 19.

    boatboy_srq

    @Steeplejack:

    He is hmmph-hmmph outraged about Trump and the “corruption” of the Republican Party, but then in the middle of all that he says he thinks the tax bill is pretty good. WTF.

    That’s just because the tax bill doesn’t do ENOUGH for Job-Creatin’ MOTUs. His problem with Lord Dampnut is that he’s… well… um, unsuitable for polite society.

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: somebody on twitter was listing all the reasons that polls are pretty much useless here:
    special election, two weeks before Xmas
    all kinds of reasons to expect depressed Republican turn-out, but they can vote a straight R ticket and tell themselves they didn’t really vote for Moore
    these factors skew even more than usual the ideas of likely vs registered voters
    I think there were more

    I hope Jones has smart people who are renting vans to get voters to the polls. I think it’s good he’s taking the gloves off

  21. 21.

    les

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    but they can vote a straight R ticket and tell themselves they didn’t really vote for Moore

    Is anything on the ballot besides the Senate race? It would be a shame if repubs had that easy a route–not that they won’t live easily with any shame involved, regardless.

  22. 22.

    boatboy_srq

    @lamh36: That’s a distinction between prepositions – in this case “unto”, versus “for” or “with” or “on”. As in “suffer the little children…”

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    Moore’s Law variant.

    The amount of dangerous, vile, hurtful, retrograde derp in the Republican party doubles every year.

  25. 25.

    Yarrow

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    special election, two weeks before Xmas
    all kinds of reasons to expect depressed Republican turn-out, but they can vote a straight R ticket and tell themselves they didn’t really vote for Moore

    Is there anything else or any other race on the ballot other than this race? If this is the only thing on the ballot then voting straight ticket might not be an option. It’s a special election so I’d be surprised if there was anything else on the ballot.

  29. 29.

    boatboy_srq

    @Steeplejack:

    Democrats have “lost the moral high ground” on John Conyers and Al Franken

    Dafuq? Both of them are sitting Congresspeople, and both of them are on the way out. Moore is on his way in. But BSDI™ and Reichwing expectations, so she probably thinks that’s a wash so long as the paedo count in Congress stays constant.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Wow, a name haven’t heard mention of for over a half century. The Profumo affair was Big News, with a capital big.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @dmsilev:

    Moore’s lead is dropping by a factor of two each week, so he’ll win by 1.5?
    (sorry; extrapolation of trends, linear and exponential, is hardwired into my brain at this point)

    Yeah, uh no. The first drop (of 50 percent) was over the course of 2.5 to 3 weeks, the second was in 2 – 2.5 weeks, and the third was in one week. And I know you weren’t implying this — at least, not seriously — but this ain’t Zeno’s Paradox.

    So do I get to call you a Chicken Little and Doomsayer? (Kidding, I know you’re not, just seems to be a lot of those epithets thrown about lately.)

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: double checking IMDB for the name of the movie Scandal, I see Ian McKellan played Profumo. That was probably the first time I saw him on screen, but I didn’t know who he was. Great, understated movie, as I recall

  38. 38.

    Jeffro

    So let’s see…we’ve got
    – the House and Senate Rs trying to reconcile their tax bills
    – the House Freedumb Caucus upset that the upcoming spending bill has…spending in it
    – Mueller subpoenaing Trumpov’s Deutsche Bank records (i.e., telegraphing that he is – rightly – going for the throat)
    – the RWNJ puke funnel going into overdrive calling for Mueller’s head
    – Roy Moore about to be elected to the Senate…or not…
    And a partrige in a pear tree.

    Should be a fun few weeks until Christmas, peeps!

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    @lamh36:

    “Jesus was persecuted too,” the caller said. “Yes, but not for trolling malls for teenage girls,” I replied.

    In fairness, the malls were a lot smaller in the negative century.

  45. 45.

    Tehanu

    @lamh36:

    Dylan beat him to it 50 years ago:

    I said, “You know they refused Jesus, too.” He said, “You’re not Him.”

  46. 46.

    Ken

    HAHAHAHAHA, all the baggage of embracing a sexual predator, but no resources. Brilliant move!

    Well, they had to, you know. Trump gets cranky if he doesn’t get his way, and an extra scoop of ice cream before bedtime.

  48. 48.

    J R in WV

    @Steeplejack:

    In my opinion NBC as an organization is totally owned by the Republican Party, as seen by their coverage of the Democratic National Convention last summer. I watched speech after speech myself, followed by coverage of Mrs. Andrea Mitchell Greenspan lying about the speech I had just witnessed with my own eyes and ehard with my own ears.

    MSNBC is owned and operated by the same slugs.

    I watch CBS evening news and otherwise stick to Balloon Juice and sites linked to from B J. And LGM and the Google. Navy Times, and such. But no NBC since summer before last.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @J R in WV:

    I agree that NBC’s campaign coverage was somewhat distorted, but I think the same was true of all the networks.

    A half-hour evening news program barely scratches the surface of what’s going on. For all its faults, MSNBC is far better than CNN. Fox News, of course, is beneath contempt.

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