Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

We still have time to mess this up!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

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

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Creepy Evangelicals Open Thread: “Why Not Mike Pence?”

Creepy Evangelicals Open Thread: “Why Not Mike Pence?”

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Sure, Mike’s a moron, and a very public enabler for one of the grossest public figures of our time, but Ross “Chunky BoBo” Doubthat has a dream!

… In the 2016 election, once Marco Rubio was defeated and Ted Cruz dispatched, religious conservatives faced a binary choice: Vote Trump or get Hillary. One does not have to agree with the ultimate decision that most of them made to understand the logic that motivated a decision for Trump.

But the politics of the coming year, once the Mueller investigation ceases to be a black box and delivers whatever it’s going to deliver (you’ll get no predictions from me!), might offer a very different choice. If Trump were impeached and removed from the White House, the presidency would devolve to precisely the kind of man whom much of pre-Trump religious conservatism insisted that it wanted in the Oval Office: an evangelical Christian family man with a bluenose’s temperament and a boring Reaganite checklist of beliefs.

Which means that if, in what is no longer an absurd hypothetical, the president were to face real legal-political jeopardy over the Stormy Daniels business, the evangelical leaders currently fretting about Trump’s political position would face a case where doing the consistent thing — namely, returning to their Bill Clinton-era position that character counts in presidents and using illegal means to conceal gross infidelities are impeachable offenses — would actually deliver something closer to what they claimed to want, not so very long ago: not a liberal in the White House, but President Mike Pence…

A Republican Party that ran in 2020 with a boring Midwestern guy (albeit, yes, one sure to be trailed by protesters in Handmaid outfits) as the steward of prosperity would not necessarily be worse off than a party lashed to its current leader; if Gerald Ford could almost win in Nixon’s shadow, why not Pence in Trump’s? And a religious conservatism that sacrificed a lot of cultural credibility in defending Trump might regain a little by abandoning him, vindicating itself against what seem now like reasonable charges of “character for thee but not for me” hypocrisy…

I know the Repub, er “Evangelical” plan was to use Mike Pence as a catspaw cutout if/when Donny Dollhands got carted off by law enforcement, but the stench around His Vermillion Vulgarity is so intense it might even set Pence beyond the Pale. Ever-sensitive political weathervane Charlie ‘Chickenshit’ Baker, Republican governor of deep-blue Massachusetts, just made a rather public point of *not* showing up to greet Pence last night. Per the local right-wing tabloid, the Boston Herald:

…The Herald reported yesterday that Baker was snubbing the vice president, who was in Boston last night to meet with local Republicans at a fundraiser for Trump Victory, a joint venture of the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. ­Baker told reporters yesterday that he “reached out” to Pence’s office to inform the vice president’s aides that he would not be attending and that they understood his reasons.

The fundraiser at the Langham Hotel, which was expected to raise about $500,000, was closed to the press.

When first asked Monday about Pence’s visit, Baker said he had not been aware of the event ahead of time and had already committed to an appearance in southeastern Massachusetts…

Baker’s actual wording, as reported before the event:

Baker told reporters that he’s missing the Pence event “because my calendar has other stuff on it” and insisted he wasn’t trying to send a message to the Trump administration…

Yes, as a matter of fact, Baker is running for re-election this fall (don’t look at me, Massholes have a weird affectation concerning ‘moderate’ Repub governors, mostly since the office isn’t much more powerful in Massachusetts than it is in Texas). But if even Chickenshit Charlie can’t show Mike Dense a little public love, I don’t think Ross and his fellow sweaty ‘religious’ fellows are gonna have much luck pushing their Republic of Gilead dreams.

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Marc Murphy
    ‏ @mnnurse10
    22h22 hours ago
    Replying to @davidaxelrod @scbur @POTUS

    The rush? I really do wonder what Obama saw in you. Most of your statements are nothing more than cowardice in the face of lawlessness and absurdity. No one is rushing we are watching a slow motion dissolution of the rule of law and your cautionary statements aid that.

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    I had a pretty good breakdown of chunky bobos op-Ed in the previous thread. I’ll see if I can link to it

  6. 6.

    Baud

    I agree with Doubthat and encourage evangelicals to support impeachment on these grounds.

  8. 8.

    Lapassionara

    I would much rather match a dem candidate against Pence than Trump.

    Pence is boring. Yawn.

  9. 9.

    JMG

    Even though I have lived in Massachusetts for over 40 years, I am still surprised that the State Police scandal has not impacted Baker politically in any way. For you out of staters, a number of Mass. State Police units, including the one for Logan Airport, let troopers claim hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in overtime pay for work they did not do except to fill out their work sheets.

  11. 11.

    Jack the Second

    @Frank McCormick: Frankly getting out of Congress before you’re required to vote for or against impeaching Trump is probably a good move for Republican politicians who still find the Oval Office desirable.

  12. 12.

    cmorenc

    @Corner Stone:

    Fuck Lord Axelrod. Fuck him up his stupid ass.

    OK, so what did David Axelrod do or say to piss at least some of you all off? Some of us don’t follow every tweet and comment by the MSM commetariat.

  13. 13.

    FlyingToaster

    FWIW, Baker wasn’t the only MassGOP member missing.

    As I understand, the fundraiser was giving $0 to the MassGOP.

    That’s right, bupkis. Not a fucking dime to the people who are nominally hosting the event.

    Various businesses here lost money (especially all of the downtown and seaport food trucks who were banned from the area), rush hour traffic was entirely borked, and for that, the Commonwealth and Boston lose meals tax revenue and the MassGOP gets nothing.

    And the GOP wonders why, outside of the (powerless) Governor’s office, we are a one-party state. Hmmm.

  14. 14.

    Marcopolo

    Speaking of political succession, I will lay my bet right now that Steve Scalise will be the next House minority leader. November’s gonna clear out just about all the center to middle right R reps & once that happens McCarthy doesn’t have a chance in hell—unless Scalise decides he doesn’t want the gig.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    @Jeffro: That’s not really Steeplejack. Anytime you see the (phone) or (tablet) behind the nym you need to understand that it’s really “Jackie Steeples” trying to impersonate somewhat well known commenter Steeplejack.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    @cmorenc: I don’t follow him either and I find these context free posts to be somewhat annoying, but as I understand it, Axelrod seems to have a fixation on the so-called “rush” to impeachment being dangerous to Dems. I think that most of us don’t see that there is any rush by Dems in general, although a few Dems like Maxine Waters have clearly put it on the table. The endless hand wringing is counterproductive. I am definitely thinking that David Plouffe was the real brains behind the Obama election operation.

  20. 20.

    Jay

    Pence and Mother arn’t getting out of the Treason Tribbles orbit unscathed, he’s gonna get Spiro’ed.

  22. 22.

    bobbo

    1. Trump will not be impeached and “removed from the White House” (i.e. convicted).
    2. There is nothing “boring” about a “Reaganite checklist of beliefs.” The man was legit awful, began the shredding of the safety net, the rise of anti-choice crusaders, deregulation as an ethos, also not much better than Trump on the personal morality thing.
    3. “(albeit, yes, one sure to be trailed by protesters in Handmaid outfits)” is an irrelevant swipe at people genuinely concerned about misogyny and creeping authoritarianism; “albeit” is the wrong word when those protesters would be a plus to Pence supporters
    4. “if Gerald Ford could almost win in Nixon’s shadow” in other words, he didn’t win.

    In conclusion, Ross Douthat is bad.

  24. 24.

    danielx

    A Republican Party that ran in 2020 with a boring Midwestern guy (albeit, yes, one sure to be trailed by protesters in Handmaid outfits) as the steward of prosperity would not necessarily be worse off than a party lashed to its current leader; if Gerald Ford could almost win in Nixon’s shadow, why not Pence in Trump’s?

    Steward of prosperity, you say?

    Chunky Ross is talking out his ass here, and probably knows it. Under the shitgibbon’s steady hand on the economic wheel, we’ll probably have a crash within the next six to twelve months, if not sooner. Likely with a serious shooting war in the bargain. In which case, Rs could end up losing the Senate in 2020 on top of losing the House this year (knock on wood).

    Steward of prosperity my ass.

  26. 26.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Michael Cohen joked about having 2.0 GPA, old classmate says.

    Cohen graduated from Western Michigan Law.

    The school was recently ranked the worst law school in the country by Above the Law.

    He only hires the best people.

  27. 27.

    Josie

    @cmorenc: You don’t have to follow every tweet and comment. On any tweet that is posted by a FP, you can click on the link following the tweet to see what comment it answers and /or other tweets on the same subject. It’s pretty simple, even for an old lady like me.

  28. 28.

    Brachiator

    And a religious conservatism that sacrificed a lot of cultural credibility in defending Trump might regain a little by abandoning him, vindicating itself against what seem now like reasonable charges of “character for thee but not for me” hypocrisy…

    I don’t live in a world in which evangelicals and religious conservatism ever had any cultural credibility.

    Pence would be bad for different reasons, but I would happily dump Trump, and worry about Mr Personality later.

  29. 29.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    While it maybe good for CNN for Michael Cohen to be speaking to Don Lemon, it is moronic under the [current] circumstances.

    I mean any experience attorney would tell a client not to be speaking to the press the day after the FBI executes three search warrants on your homes and your offices. I mean this is just crazy, it’s ludicrous. When I heard that he actually spoke to Don Lemon, I didn’t believe it, until I saw Don’s report. It’s beyond stupid.

    Michael Avenatti

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    This is certain to end well. Newsweek link through Yahoo!:
    Trump Is So Angry, He Mostly Just Eats and Watches TV: Report
    “This isn’t the first time the president’s eating and TV viewing habits have made the news. His behavior in the White House has been closely watched by both those working for him and casual political observers. Former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowki wrote a book last year, Let Trump Be Trump, that detailed the president’s preference for eating McDonalds sandwiches, drinking soda and ordering well-done steaks with ketchup.

    Meanwhile, the president’s associates told The New York Times in December that he can watch as many as eight hours of television at a time. His favorite program is reportedly Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

  33. 33.

    danielx

    Trump Is So Angry, He Mostly Just Eats and Watches TV: Report

    So pretty much like a normal day in Trumpworld, then.

  34. 34.

    ? Martin

    @Corner Stone: You know, there is something pretty apropos of the US president, slumped on his sofa, eating KFC and watching Roseanne.

    ‘well-done steaks with ketchup’ all by itself should be an impeachable offense.

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    @Corner Stone:

    Meanwhile, the president’s associates told The New York Times in December that he can watch as many as eight hours of television at a time. His favorite program is reportedly Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.”

    He watched 8 hours of TV, composes Twitter messages and plays golf. And yet, the country is crawling with right wing goobers who insist that this buffoon is a better president than Obama because of the unbearable whiteness of his being.

    Shit, sounds like Trump is a few ticks away from being a gibbering idiot cowering in a corner, afraid of his own shadow.

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    @Corner Stone:

    This is certain to end well. Newsweek link through Yahoo!:
    Trump Is So Angry, He Mostly Just Eats and Watches TV: Report

    You can just hear the cries of despair from the Onion’s offices. They just can’t keep up with reality!

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    A quick search tells me that it was the home of the resident WH white supremacist Anton, who resigned yesterday. Nice going PBS and Woodruff, who will plumb any depth to keep Rs happy.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    Open thread?

    Literal current event.

    Scientists have discovered a previously unknown coastal current off Madagascar, South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said on Monday. Source

  40. 40.

    Josie

    Trump Is So Angry, He Mostly Just Eats and Watches TV

    It’s only fair. That’s what I did for a week after he was elected. Then I cut the cable cord and started writing a book. It was very healing. He should try it.

  41. 41.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    “The Young Turks” are now admitting it was wrong for TrueProgressives™ to support Drumpf.

    They’re say the theory was Drumpf would be so bad that it would generate a backlash leading to a socialist revolution. But in actual practice, the price and pain is just too high.

    Imagine that.

    Welcome to reality..

  42. 42.

    Citizen Alan

    I LOL’d at Ross Douchebag’s idea that if Shitgibbon is replaced with Pence, Evangelicals can return to being “consistent.” One would think that a central element of moral consistency is that you stick to it when it’s inconvenient. On the bright side, it’s attitudes like this that finally gave me the courage to wash my hands of Christianity forever. I still believe in God, and I still believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ as I understand them. But “organized Christianity”? Of the kind that wants 10% of my income to pay for stained glass windows and dishonest pregnancy centers? Nah, that’s all a crock of shit as far as I’m concerned.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @Fair Economist: I venture to suggest that that’s exactly how McConnell and Ryan want Drumpf; Bolton and a few others too. They have free rein to loot and pillage while he obsesses over how unfair everyone is to poor little him.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @Lapassionara:

    Don’t know of any Jerry Ford’s on the current Republican roster.

    And none of this will take place before the 2018 Midterms, it will be closer to the 2020 cycle, and the Democrats will have at least the House,

    and all these Republican Senator’s now deciding to retire to spend more time with their Lobbiests, or their Peccadillio’s, means even the Senate might be in play.

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    @Citizen Alan: I’m thinking those Filet O Fish sandwhiches, large fries and choc shake are all adding up, as well.
    #239 and Feeling Fine, SecVA Jackson!

  48. 48.

    satby

    @Greg in PDX: Pence was considered the stupidest guy in Congress while he was there. His nickname was Dense.
    He was going to lose the election for governor in blood red Indiana the people here were so sick of him. That’s why he jumped into bed with Drumpf.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    Does anyone know if Governor Greitens of MO is identified as a democrat now on Fox? Oh my, it appears that the evangelicals picked the wrong person to run the state.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    @Greg in PDX:

    As other people have pointed out, Pence is really, really stupid. The difference between him and Trump is that Pence is ideological and Trump is not. Pence will do idiotic shit based on his ideology, like when he caused an AIDS crisis in Indiana because Jeebus told him that needle exchanges were evil.

  53. 53.

    Waldo

    Eh. I’m fine with Pence taking over the Gerry Ford role for the remainder of Spanky’s abbreviated term. For one thing, he’s less likely to blow up the world. Also, as a lame duck facing real opposition in the House, there will be limits to the damage he can do domestically.

  54. 54.

    Fair Economist

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    “The Young Turks” are now admitting it was wrong for TrueProgressives™ to support Drumpf.

    This needs to be hung around their necks for 20 years. It’s way too late now to make up for such an inexcusable mistake.

  56. 56.

    eemom

    Don’t know what Doughtwat said, because I refuse, but let’s take a longer view here. Democratic Congress in 2019, impeach both Dump and Dense, Democratic speaker becomes president. What’s wrong with that?

  58. 58.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Republican congress critter’s anonymous confession to Son of Erick

    “If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherfucker,” said the congressman as we roamed the aisles of a Safeway grocery store together.

    ***

    “I read you writing about this, about wanting to say nice things when you can and criticize when you need to. He may be an idiot, but he’s still the President and leader of my party and he is capable of doing some things right,” he says before conceding it’s usually other people doing the right things in the President’s name. “But dammit he’s taking us all down with him. We are well and truly fucked in November. Kevin [McCarthy] is already circling like a green fly circling shit trying to take Paul’s [Ryan] job because nobody thinks he’s sticking around for Nancy [Pelosi]. She’s going to fuck up the cafeteria again too. God damn it, at least I’ll probably lose too and won’t have to put up with that shit.”

    “It’s like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really fucking stupid Forrest Gump. He can’t help himself. He’s just a fucking idiot who thinks he’s winning when people are bitching about him. He really does see the world as ratings and attention. I hate Forrest Gump. I listen to your podcast and heard you hate it too. What an overrated piece of shit movie. Can you believe it beat the Shawshank Redemption?”

    ***

    “Judiciary [Committee] is stacked with a bunch of people who can win re-election so long as they don’t piss off Trump voters in the primary. But if we get to summer and most of the primaries are over, they just might pull the trigger if the President fires Mueller. The shit will hit the fan if that happens and I’d vote to impeach him myself. Most of us would, I think. Hell, all the Democrats would and you only need a majority in the House. If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherfucker. Take him out with us and let Mike [Pence] take over. At least then we could sleep well at night,”

    (link)

  59. 59.

    Gelfling 545

    @Lapassionara: Bearing in mind that Pence couldn’t even get re-election support in Indiana and only took the VP position to make it seem less obvious that he had succeeded in uniting Democrats & Republicans in their loathing for him, I’d much rather see him as the R candidate in 2020. No exciting rallies & hyperbole from this guy!

  61. 61.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Brachiator: She’s too rich and self absorbed to feel any societal pain or to care about other people’s pain.

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: @Brachiator: Now you know why he’s really not going on the Latin American trip or to meet Abe in Japan. Kelly and the few other minders know he can’t be trusted to behave on the trip. He doesn’t like to sleep in any bed that isn’t his own, which is why every Trump/Trump branded property has a suite or cottage if its a gold club set up for him just the way he likes it that he can use if he’s traveling there. He does not like to stay in other accommodations. Moreover, the more tired he gets, the worse his behavior gets. And these trips wear him out. He’s not traveling in order to prevent an international incident.

  67. 67.

    Elizabelle

    @eemom: Exactly.

    Timing is everything here. Which is why the GOP whisperers would prefer to install Pence ASAP. Don’t let it happen. Let this opera play out.

    I am holding out for President Pelosi.

  69. 69.

    MoxieM

    @JMG: Well, IDK if MassPort has any managerial “oversight” of the Staties at Logan, but wow MassPort is as corrupt a Repub sinecure as could possibly exist in the Commonwealth (per Charlie Pierce, God Bless it.) It’s a miracle that the airport functions at all, really.

    ETA: When my kid was in ? school (public) a schoolmate’s dad was the Director of MassPort. So of course they got a fieldtrip. Takeaway was pencils bent into the shape of the profile of an airplane. Yeah, that’s in their budget. Icky, icky people.

  75. 75.

    Marcopolo

    @Marcopolo: Wow, just watched the press briefing by Republican leadership about the report by the MOlegislative committee investigating Greitens. They are hinting they might ask for a special session (they want to use the last month of the regular session to attend to regular business) to decide what to do about Greitens. Said it was not a witch hunt. BTW the committee that investigated had 5R & 2D members.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: I find it constantly amazing that all the worst SEALs either are serving as elected or appointed GOP officials, working for them, or working in partisan positions supporting them. Everyone of these guys that makes a big public deal of being a SEAL – from Zinke to Greitens to Higbee to O’Neill to Kyle – are just completely horrible people. You never hear about the rest of the members of that community. Speaks volumes.

  83. 83.

    randy khan

    @ruemara:

    The explanation he’s given for the fast food is interesting (and more than a little paranoid) – they make it the same for everyone and the people making it don’t know who’s getting it, so it’s safer than eating in a restaurant.

  84. 84.

    Matt

    A Republican Party that ran in 2020 with a boring Midwestern guy

    The brethren will have spent four years mainlining hate by that point; why on Earth would they switch back to Tylenol?

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    @randy khan: I think it’s just cheap food. He’s cheap and tacky and unable to find enjoyment in anything in life, like a good steak or other fine dining. He’s also probably too impatient to sit in a chair for very long for a chef to create a fine dining experience. Trump has no capacity to enjoy anything except insulting and degrading others. The fast food is convenient, consistent and irrelevant.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    @ruemara: Somehow, it truly aggrieves me that Trump flies on Air Force One. I used to be so excited about that (those) beautiful aircraft. Now, I shudder to think.

    Fumigate them. He does not belong there. He’s a cheater and Russian asset, flying on our dime.

  89. 89.

    Gvg

    @eemom: it takes 2/3 of the senate to impeach and there aren’t supposed to be enough Republican’s up for reelection to swing the Senate that far. We can take the majority and keep the damage down but should not be able to reach impeachment if the GOP stays tough.
    Now I happen to think we might be seeing some senators arrested and we keep seeing more decide to bow out. So we might get a few more, but it’s still not likely yet. The other factor is how the rest are going to react to losing the majority and indictments etc. what I think is if some of the worst influence are run off the rest could act more sane. I seriously think some of them are really bad in a legal sense.
    We have got to overturn citizen’s United. And get the money under control. A bunch of other things too.

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    @? Martin:

    ‘well-done steaks with ketchup’ all by itself should be an impeachable offense.

    Death Penalty by wild pigs. Just saying.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @randy khan:

    so it’s safer than eating in a restaurant.

    As in a restaurant in one of his properties or where he’s friends with the owner.

    He has an overly developed sense of paranoia.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @Waldo:

    Treason Tribble’s evil because he’s a sociopathic moron and bullshitter,

    Dense Pence is evil bevause he’s a sociopathic fundi,

    There’s a lot of evil Pence can and is willing to do, under the cover of boring. Do you really think Treason Tribble cares one way or another about LBGTQ rights or is all that pseudo Christian fuckery all Pence.

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: There’s a difference between tweeting and blathering to reporters at a photo spray and offending one’s hosts while traveling abroad.

  100. 100.

    TenguPhule

    @randy khan:

    they make it the same for everyone and the people making it don’t know who’s getting it, so it’s safer than eating in a restaurant.

    Remember, Trump doesn’t tip.

  102. 102.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    There’s a difference between tweeting and blathering to reporters at a photo spray and offending one’s hosts while traveling abroad.

    I dunno, trying to pick a fight with North Korea and Iran at the same time seems like more like a fine line to me.

  103. 103.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Barbara: ah. SO Axelrod was the “some senior Democrats” who talked to the FTMFNYT for that article yesterday, not for attribution.

  105. 105.

    Cermet

    @Gvg: To take a “majority” in the senate would be a tsunami unlike any we have seen for a very long time. There are 26 dems seats up and only 9 thugs: to put that in perceptive, that means well over half of all dem seats must be won/retained while only 1 in 9 thug seats are at risk; we need to win all dems and take two thug seats.. Worse, two dem seats are in rather red states. Sorry, the math looks terrible. Yes, for 2020 but that is a lifetime from now the way the orange fart cloud is screwing this country up.

  106. 106.

    J R in WV

    @eemom:

    Your take is good:

    Don’t know what Doughtwat said, because I refuse, but let’s take a longer view here. Democratic Congress in 2019, impeach both Dump and Dense, Democratic speaker becomes president. What’s wrong with that?

    But I’ve got a better take: Indict and convict Pence, send him to jail. Meanwhile get ready to impeach Trump right after Pence goes up the river.

  107. 107.

    frosty

    @Gvg:

    it takes 2/3 of the senate to impeach

    Convict. The House impeaches, the Senate convicts. Please make a note of it.

  110. 110.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jay: If, once unsealed, one of those sealed indictments turns out to have Mikey Dense’s name on it, I might just stroke out in the middle of an overly-vigorous happy dance. Agnew him, i.e., plea bargain his imbecile butt out of the succession, & let’s see – who knows, we could have another first, a VP nominee under the 25th Amendment who gets rejected by Congress…& then the fun continues…

  113. 113.

    Temporarily Max McGee (He's a Dancing Machine)

    Ford was NOT boring. He was the best slapstick comedian our government has ever included in its ranks.

    Ford was trending upwards fast in ’76. Had the election been held two days later, Ford would have won.

    Something that I am forced to tell now-run-of-the-mill, ultra-conservative metro-Grand Rapids Republicans far, far, far too often is they would not for a Jerry Ford today, as much as they try to claim differently; more importantly, he would NOT be a Republican today. Lost in the noise surrounding the Nixon “pardon” is that Jerry and Betty were strongly committed to equal rights for women and were just as strongly committed to the notion that a woman should have the choice to do with her body that which she believes to be in her own best interest. And, as Michiganders ALL used to tend to be, they were Earth friendly.

    I find the comparison to Mike Pence, quite frankly, a slur on Jerry Ford. Say what you will about the “pardon”, Ford was many times over a better man and a better lawmaker and executive.

  114. 114.

    sukabi

    @JMG: Did they happen to switch to a new accounting system perchance and leave the old one in place as well?

    That’s the excuse the King County Sheriff’s department used here in WA last year for the same thing.

  115. 115.

    Temporarily Max McGee (He's a Dancing Machine)

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Cohen graduated from Western Michigan Law.

    No. He graduated from Cooley Law. The affiliation between WMU and Cooley only goes back to 2014 or 2015. Cooley remains quasi-independent of Western. And while Cooley has a campus in Kalamazoo, Cooley’s main campus and offices remain in Lansing.

    But, hey, it’s a shitty law school either way.

  117. 117.

    Feebog

    @Cermet:

    Actually it’s five Democrats in very red states; Donnely (IN), McCaskill (MO), Tester (Mt), Hiedkamp (SD), Manchin (WV). Uphill slog for sure, but a wave election could carry them over the finish line.

  121. 121.

    jonas

    @? Martin:

    ‘well-done steaks with ketchup’ all by itself should be an impeachable offense.

    I know. This is the equivalent of the president of France drinking a fine Bordeaux with 7-Up in it. Remember how Obama was crucified for ordering a sandwich with “Deee-jawwn” (said with your fingers making the “frou-frou” motion) mustard or something? And yet Trump commits perhaps the gravest food heresy in history and everyone shrugs their shoulders. Same as with all his other abominations, I suppose.

  122. 122.

    jonas

    And to Chunky Bobo’s comment that

    if Gerald Ford could almost win in Nixon’s shadow, why not Pence in Trump’s?

    Well, Ford wasn’t implicated in Nixon’s crimes, and was a respected — if not remarkable — Congressional leader before becoming VP. He graduated from Yale Law School, which is not generally known for admitting lightweights and poseurs. Pence, on the other hand, was widely considered, even by his Republican colleagues, to be a major dimwit, is an unapologetic theocrat, had no notable achievements as a Congressman other than to be an embarrassing fundamentalist nutter, and was on the verge of being turned out of the governor’s office in a blood-red Republican state before Trump rescued him from an inevitable humiliation. The fact that Douthat thinks a Pence presidency would redeem evangelicals shows just how far conservative commentary has fallen. When you’re left with Pence as your “great white (Christian) hope,” it’s time to pack up and go home.

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