Two of the dumbest members of congress, Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, have wrangled several other nitwits in the freedom caucus into putting their names on this:
Conservative members led by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), along with 9 cosponsors, introduced articles of impeachment against Rosenstein shortly after a meeting with Justice Department officials concerning document production.
“For 9 months we’ve warned them consequences were coming, and for 9 months we’ve heard the same excuses backed up by the same unacceptable conduct. Time is up and the consequences are here. It’s time to find a new Deputy Attorney General who is serious about accountability and transparency,” Meadows said in a statement.
“Multiple times we’ve caught DOJ officials hiding information from Congress, withholding relevant documents, or even outright ignoring Congressional subpoenas—and now we have evidence that Mr. Rosenstein signed off on a document using unverified political opposition research as a cornerstone of a FISA application to spy on an American citizen working for the Trump campaign,” Meadows continued.
The document they are claiming about is the FISA bit on Carter Page that Devin Nunes lied about in his memo and that Jim Jordan has still apparently not read. Literally every person I have read that deals with FISA or the law has read the released FISA application and said it was fine, and you don’t need to be an expert to see that Nunes clearly was lying about the FISA application in his memo.
It used to be this was the kind of things that one or two members of Congress would say, and the idiots like Streiff at Red State or that lunatic Andy McCarthy at National Review would repeat at length for their drooling commentariat, but we’re now to the point where we have elected the commenters at these website to Congress, so this is where we are. I have no idea what happens next, but it will involve a great bit of Republican lying and stupidity, on that you can be sure.
debbie
Jim Jordan’s practicing his own kind of distraction. It will be amusing to watch him fail pathetically.
Corner Stone
More futerfas. Going nowhere.
A Ghost To Most
Christian fascism is a helluva drug.
Mary G
At this point, they’re just throwing feces to distract from any number of things. I’m surprised Ryan let this through, and I doubt there will be a vote on it, because the polls are going badly and why would any of the other members want that on their record, whichever way they vote? And yes, there will be a lot of loud, stupid lying. Rosenstein looks better every time he takes them on.
geg6
@debbie:
This. He’s in a world of hurt and desperate to change the subject.
Baud
Next they’ll try to impeach NFL players.
geg6
@Baud:
You caught me drinking a sip of Pepsi and now it’s all over my iPhone.
efgoldman
Not a fucking thing. As i said at the end of the last thread, it’s members of the kkkazy kkkaukkkus throwing red meat to their electorate (and in Jordan’s case, create a distraction),. It will never get out of committee, might not even get a hearing.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: And then on to impeach Baud.
piratedan
i would be perfectly okay with a truckload of manure being delivered directly into their offices, after they sign for it, of course. You could simply tell them that its lunch.
Mnemosyne
I can’t remember, does an impeachment require a 2/3rds majority or a 3/4ths?
Either way, this thing is dead in the water. Ain’t no Democrats signing onto that even if Jordan and his bros somehow got every single Republican House member to vote for it.
Cheryl Rofer
Here are the articles of impeachment, if anyone wants to read them.
Susan Henessey of Lawfare, whose opinion I respect, says they will amount to nothing.
hells littlest angel
If Rosenstein had kept his nose clean and just innocently sexually assaulted college students, Jordan wouldn’t have been forced to come down on him.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bring on the ?!
trollhattan
Just drove past a boxing and yoga studio and am at a loss as to processing this discovery.
efgoldman
@Mnemosyne:
Simple majority in the house; 2/3 to convict in the senate.
ETA: Impeachment by the house is roughly comparable to indictment by a grand jury.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: From what I read in the article earlier today (I replied to you about that in the previous thread), Ryan didn’t exactly let this through. There was some exception where he really didn’t have a choice – not a discharge petition but something that is also not under his control.
WaterGirl
@geg6: At least there’s no physical keyboard!
NonyNony
@Mnemosyne: 2/3 And a real 2/3 – 67 votes.
This is all nonsense because even if they force it out of the House it’s doa in the Senate. Jordan is trying to distract from the fact that he’s a rape enabler – that’s all this is.
TenguPhule
Been like this since 2000.
Aleta
This is their standard?
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
The point is to have it as an election slogan. “We can finally lock them all up, we just need your vote to do it!”
WaterGirl
@NonyNony: It would be nice if we could work a bit of Google magic and have his name come up first in response to the phrase “rape enabler”.
TenguPhule
@Mary G:
Are the Primaries all over yet?
geg6
@TenguPhule:
Too bad it’s Jim Jordan making that slogan, a slogan that can be easily turned around on him directly.
MoxieM
@trollhattan: No goats? I thought goat yoga was au courant. Unless you’re in DC, maybe that’s where all the goats are
debit
Is it still Infrastructure Week?
hitchhiker
In the end, ironically, it will be Nunes et al who make it clear that Trump was not legitimately elected.
Their flailing and stupidity and desperation are a persuasive argument that something is terribly wrong … if it weren’t they’d be calmly going about the business of enriching themselves at the public trough while the various investigations turn up nothing.
Instead, just look at them. They’re like that guy from Georgia, running around backwards with their pants around their ankles shouting “USA!!”
It’s amazeballs.
TS (the original)
@WaterGirl:
He obviously has such little control he couldn’t stop it either. Can’t imagine this happening under Nancy Pelosi
Yarrow
@Baud: Ha! I bet they’d impeach Mexico if they could.
TenguPhule
@debit:
It is always infrastructure week.
Mary G
Polls coming out today are terrible for Republicans:
The country is definitely not in favor of repealing Roe v. Wade.
Also, too:
I feel gleeful and rather than relaxing, want to drive the numbers even higher and get Democrats elected everywhere.
Gozer
Uhhh…not exactly the best move for Jordan to be stepping into the spotlight like this. Like most here I’m a political junkie married to a policy expert and we both forgot about Jim “Gym” Jordan for a minute.
Upon hearing about this and that Jordan is behind it the first thing Dr. Mrs. brought up is OSU.
I don’t think this is gonna play out how he thinks.
efgoldman
@MoxieM:
Only at Mickey Kaus’ house.
dmsilev
@debit:
Always.
Gozer
@trollhattan: I first encountered yoga in the Army. Not so strange.
Platonailedit
I will give rethugs this. They are masters of 24×7 shitshow diversions and distractions, which the msm will breathlessly cover and amplify, while the real harm is done in the background.
Lee
Actually I’m kind of ok with this. If the Dems decide to impeach Gorsuch we can point to this.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debit: Of course it’s infrastructure week.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Dead for sure, but Daddy will be so grateful for this show of loyalty.
efgoldman
@Lee:
They won’t get the 2/3 in the senate to convict, either. Even if we get the senate back (a stretch) it will be very closely divided. Pretty much all impeachment talk right now, from any side, is fantasy.
WaterGirl
@TS (the original): Definitely not. But then the Democrats in the House aren’t toddlers. The Republicans, on the other hand…
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
You know, it’s times like this that I really miss The Editors. I wonder whatever happened to that guy…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Even absent conviction, impeachment is important as a rebuke for illegal conduct. If we game it out as to what the Senate will do ahead of time*, might as well write it out of the Constitution.
*Impeachment hearings and the case the House can bring to the Senate can change Senators(and the public’s) minds.
MoxieM
@efgoldman: different kind of yoga! not Goat Kama-Sutra related activities
Kay
Uh, oh. Looks like there are emails where Trumpist police officers targeted Stormy Daniels for crimes against Dear Leader:
Yarrow
Speaking of Ohio State, something is very wrong there. NYT.
Shana
@WaterGirl: Calling Dan Savage!
Jeffro
@debit: clearly, it is still Infrastructure Week
TenguPhule
@Kay:
The mayor certainly has his priorities straight.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
That’s goat yogurt.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Here’s another reason I miss The Editors:
TenguPhule
@Platonailedit:
its not planned. They simply have their dicks in so many pies that they keep spilling out over and over again.
Shana
@Mary G: Well I bought my Blue Wave 2018 tshirt last night at our local Democratic Committee meeting. We’re adjacent to Barbara Comstock’s district and, aside from reelecting Tim Kaine, are putting a lot of energy into electing Jennifer Wexton. We’ve had weekend canvassing out of our house for the last two weekends and will do it most weekends between now and Election Day.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Unfortunately, they’re also firing this at Rosenstein.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
Me too. A blowout is always more fun than a clutch win.
HinTN
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Unelected and unrepentant
Gvg
Keep a list. I bet these specific idiots are crooked and due for indictments soon or think they are. Guilty consciences IMO.
I guess it’s possible their poll numbers are bad and their districts have been so extreme that they think this will help them. It only has to play well in their home district, in which case we need a list of nutcase districts to keep a wary eye on.
TenguPhule
Another good news story today.
Gin & Tonic
@Yarrow: I bet if you dig a little you’ll find this in most every big athletic school.
TenguPhule
1984 is here.
Via Wapo.
Kay
@TenguPhule:
They were good though, the mayor and the city attorney. They shut the whole thing down immediately.
Part of this is not pretending these people are acting in good faith. That has to stop. It’s indulgent and it only causes them to act more and more childish.
The grownups need to step up immediately and shut it down. Imagine if people hadn’t have indulged Republicans in Congress and instead just called them liars and stopped inviting them on tv. They wouldn’t be launching fake impeachment efforts.
They needed a firm hand, a reproach, correction, and they got mush and cowards.
John Revolta
OF that you can be sure.
Damn jackals are falling down on the job here.
TenguPhule
Via Wapo.
/off to get a drink
Chip Daniels
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Where is that from?
Mary G
@Kay: I’m assuming that the mayor is a Republican. From your link:
Not mad that the police framed her, mad that people think that’s a bad thing.
debbie
@Yarrow:
They also just threw out a football coach for violating a restraining order filed by his wife.
debbie
@Mary G:
A Dem.
Brachiator
WTF? I can’t even take a minute to catch a train without some creaky BS happening. Oh, well.
Just as there are citizen dopes who will support Trump no matter what, there are GOP Congress dopes who will fall all over themselves to protect Trump, even if the Russians were at the door escorting Congress to camps.
This shit will go nowhere, but I guess it says something that the GOP leadership could not shut this shit down, or chose to do nothing.
Mary G
@TenguPhule: If you can stand to listen to it, CNN put up audio from two deportment hearings for women who had been separated from their children. It’s 4 minutes and I couldn’t stand to listen to it all. The judge or arbitrator or whatever he is waits for them to tearfully beg to stay and then just rattles off boilerplate “you haven’t made your case and will be deported” in a fast brusque voice that’s just beyond my words for bad.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mary G: Ginther is a Democrat.
Jay C
Well, from reading most of the early/instant analysis of the Free Dumb Caucus’s Rosenstein “impeachment resolution”, the less it looks like a serious attack on the DAG’s tenure, and more like (shocking surprise!) ludicrous PR grandstanding for the MAGA rubes at home.
Mainly because Congress is adjourning after tomorrow, so nothing can be be done (even if they wanted to) for another month.
Last I heard (Monday?) , Jordan and Meadows had decided to forgo the “impeachment” route by taking their gripe with Rosenstein to the DoJ’s Inspector General: I wonder if that worthy shot them down, so they figured they had little to lose by going ahead with Plan A: making a big stink about it to get headlines, then milking the faux-outrage for votes back in Trumpland……
chris
@Kay: What happened to Stormy isn’t funny but I have to laugh at the cops.
“Guys, guys I got a great idea! Let’s piss off Michael Avenatti!”
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
I haven’t heard that he’s anything, let alone furious. In fact, the police chief, previously very solidly behind her officers, very quickly stopped the arrest and dropped all charges.
Platonailedit
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: I didn’t say he was furious. All I said that he is a Democrat.
Platonailedit
Yet another flailing finger wagging fail from wh press corpse.
Platonailedit
Read worthy truthiness twitter thread
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1022131837257363456
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
Impeachment in the House is a simple majority. Conviction in the Senate is a 2/3rds super majority.
WaterGirl
@Shana: Exactly what I was thinking!
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry, that was meant for Mary G.
Calouste
@Platonailedit: People can be impeached for bribery? Interesting….
J R in WV
@Gozer:
The last news I saw out of the OSU wrestling perversion story was that 100 young men have claimed they were abused by the late (suicide) team doctor. While Gym Jordan was assistant coach.
So I suspect you are absolutely correct, and that “Gym” will not be re-elected to his slot at the trough in DC. Hoping that he’s instead being interviewed repeatedly by lawyers in civil suits against him and OSU.
What is it with the Big 10 and sexual harassment and abuse by men in positions of power??
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV:
I doubt it is limited to the Big10. Hence, again, my advocacy for D-III athletics.
The Moar You Know
WHCA statement: “We strongly condemn the W.H.’s misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like. This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak. It cannot stand.”
@Platonailedit: seriously, fuckem. They deserve all this and more. Want to object? For real? STOP FUCKING SHOWING UP. Cut off that orange fucker’s oxygen. They’re driving the bus and just too craven to stand up and make that asshole and his administration stop all their bullshit. And they could. Easily. A week of no news coverage and Trump really will be shooting people on 5th Avenue. Two and he’d quit. It’s his drug.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Cool. I was confused.
debbie
@J R in WV:
They’re too busy chasing big bucks to care about the daily lives of the peons.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: you are en fuego tonight!
In related news, I drank a bottle of Malbec tonight called “en fuego”. It was muy bueno.
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
“I doubt it is limited to the Big10. Hence, again, my advocacy for D-III athletics.”
Of course it isn’t limited to Big-10 — look at Baylor and its president, the well known and highly-regarded (not) Ken Starr, fired because of the rape culture (how bad is that, we have a special term for people organized to do rape?) of the football team. At a Baptist College!!!
I understand that Kentucky basketball recruits were provided with girls for sex when they visited the school on recruiting visits. Or maybe that was Louisville? Or both? There’s some rape culture there too.
I dunno what to do. D-III sports is probably a lot cleaner than Big 10, Big 12, SEC, etc, etc. People using their little grasp of power to sexually assault the students on their teams — how revolting is that! I think “Gym” Jordan watched, too. To get back on topic!
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: I am not sure how to respond to that. When you calm down, you may want to research how Div-III athletics work,
Mnemosyne
@chris:
As I said at the time, I bet there are a lot of prosecutors who wake up screaming from nightmares that begin with their secretaries saying, “Michael Avenatti is on line 1 for you.”
Judging by the press release the police chief put out that same day, she was NOT amused by their little conspiracy.
Matt McIrvin
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
This is, of course, the entry that made the entire list special.
Matt McIrvin
@TenguPhule: Yeah, but impeachment-as-rebuke has no power if it’s completely and obviously absurd. In this case, the only people who will take it seriously are deep in the tank for Trump anyway.
cwmoss
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): WTF is or was The Editors?!?!? I gotta find that shit!