As I understand it, the conventional wisdom is exactly what @mattyglesias says if you replace the word “unreasonable” with “unlikely.” https://t.co/nULE3nWW0C
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018
In the two weeks since being implicated in a criminal conspiracy, Trump has gone on record to bash both Woodward and Bernstein. In case you thought the Simulation would ever try being subtle.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) September 4, 2018
Bob Woodward is the Establishment’s Guy. Most of his big fat doorstops-with-indexes are launched to certify that All Is Well In This Best of All Possible Worlds. Occasionally, as with the book that launched his & Bernstein’s journalistic careers, the message is This Individual’s Become A Problem That Will Be Dealt With As Harshly As Required.
His new book seems to fall squarely in the second category. The question: Does Trump understand the verdict that has just been passed upon his “presidency”? Or perhaps it should be phrased: Will any of Trump’s staff bother trying to explain the situation to the Oval Office Occupant?
There's a lot going on in Trump's pleading to Woodward. Especially excellent how he lies a few more times in complaining about this book that describes him as a liar. https://t.co/Yop0urmaSN
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 4, 2018
Two of Trump’s advisers have referred to him as Chauncey Gardner over last two years. This book goes another step toward that point. https://t.co/raQd1vBUfC
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 4, 2018
Initially, the White House pushback on Woodward’s new book — exactly four hours after the WaPo first reported excerpts — felt pro forma, more Pavlovian muscle memory than rigorous rebuttals. My latest w @jdawsey1. https://t.co/btfcF6wPqa
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) September 5, 2018
Framing Rob Porter as Woodward Source #1 seems like a fair assessment, from current reports…
How it reads: Bannon : Fire and Fury :: Porter : Fear
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 4, 2018
I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/Dz6pkZtJLF pic.twitter.com/67bvqE876d
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018
I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. https://t.co/IyEyng8Nrk pic.twitter.com/KAwhoAfJeh
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 4, 2018
WH press shop asking former officials to renounce Woodward book, one former WH staffer turned them down telling me: “Kelly has always made it clear behind the President’s back that he’s Trump’s babysitter.. He should just have the guts to own it” w/ @Santucci @JordynPhelps
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) September 5, 2018
24 years ago, Woodward quoted me in his Clinton book saying all kinds of profane and rude things. Why? Maybe because he’s a Republican. Or maybe because:. I. Said. Them.
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) September 4, 2018
Yep. Woodward has tapes. Lots of them. And lots of people talked. https://t.co/Wp1L33IKVF
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) September 4, 2018
Major Major Major Major
It’s so very hard to keep up with everything that happens nowadays. I’ve not been following this one. Will it do anything more than the Omarosa stuff or the Fire & Fury book? Who knows.
Mary G
Bob Woodward is like Comey, a very flawed man who ‘s still useful because he’s willing to tell it like it is at the moment. Also, too, the symmetry of his taking down both Nixon and Trump is amusing.
Jay
The key reveal of Woodwards book is that the Insane Clown POSus, is on other than a few obsessions, and Empty Vessel adrift at sea, hijacked by a venal, infighting Administration, and others, from Putin to Navarro, to Pence, to inflict their abhorrent agenda’s on America.
The Insane Clown POSus is not just Putin’s meatpuppet, but a whole host of evil actors. So much for his germaphobia.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: The first half of Fire and Fury was fun but it kind of bogged down around the mid-point.
I had to step way away from the computer this afternoon because I was so pissed off about men and the way they talk about women, talk to women, dismiss women’s concerns, and call us hysterical when we tell them that we don’t want to die.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Sorry for most of my gender.
Seriously sorry.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: oh no! Ugh.
opiejeanne
@Jay: I know it’s not all white men, I know it’s not you. I’m married to one of the best. But right now I’m pissed off at the ones in the Senate who do this. It’s wearying. The Bernie Bros made me want to hurt them when they did the same thing.
I think it’s only a little over half of white men and a handful of men in the POC community who do this. It’s why I was not attracted to guys on the left when I was in college, while finding the college Republicans to be repulsive.
joel hanes
@opiejeanne:
Jay beat me to it.
It seems to me that in order to restore rough parity to history, our Presidents and VPs should be exclusively women for the next 200 years or so, and 99% of our Supreme Court justices likewise. I’d be OK with that.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
A huge chunk of it is life experience. I got mine early.
In Junior High, I ran the “bully free zone”.
My sister was almost mollested, Tan, a 6 month old Shepard cross bit the kid, and between puppy teeth, septis and running into locker doors constantly, he had a miserable junior high school, and high school.
One of my BFF’s was raped. My Mom was a battered woman.
Sorry for so many of my gender.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Tears_murders
prostratedragon
“Don’t Be Afraid, the Clown’s Afraid Too,” Charles Mingus & Orchestra
Chetan Murthy
@joel hanes: uh, 10,000 years, and then we can revisit.
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: I think each of these serves to move the public a bit further. You could argue the Wolff book was a partisan hit job, but there’s too many of them, too many on the record, too many with recordings, etc.
Trump’s approvals are about to dip under 40% again. I doubt they’ll recover. The generic ballot has the Dems up by 7-8 points, but I question whether their turnout model is any good. I think they get their justice confirmed, get shellacked in the midterms, and then the whole house comes falling down.
sukabi
@Martin: think the tide is turning against Drumpf, and it’s about to get very rough. Things I’ve noticed in the last couple of weeks, FOX is running commercials touting it’s “news” on other channels, haven’t seen that before. Their “news” commercial is Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingrahm each doing a bit on how important their “unbiased reporting” is. I bet all three of them are having advertiser / ratings problems. There are many more FOX reporters calling Bullshit on trump and his latest lies. Their reporters are quitting citing embarrassment at being associated with trump fluffing opinion propagandists.
There’s less “both sides” Bullshit in the non fox “news”
It’s getting too hard for talking heads of all persuasions to play their usual cards, they are starting to recognize that this isn’t a game and their “reportage” is reflecting this.
Amir Khalid
I’m watching a YouTube trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new TV show, Who Is America. Simultaneously funny and scary.
MagdaInBlack
For reasons I haven’t quite pinpointed, these “revelations” make me even more ill-at-ease.
Not that they’re really revelations; they’re confirmations.
Maybe thats why.
EZSmirkzz
First off let me apologize to all the women who were insulted by Berniebros/Russian trolls. They ain’t one of us. Second let me remind everyone that this isn’t the last election. Put a cork in it.
Nothing I’ve encountered in the last 45 years has quite prepared me for the lack of a shred of human decency in the Republican leadership at all levels. Baseness for the base is just rhetoric of the cheapest, intellectually laziest minds, and pandering manipulation may fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
If Trump thinks us Southerners are so gawd damned dumb, I for one would appreciate him not ripping of my turns of phrase, and if at all possible, encourage him to read a fucking book once in a while. The world ain’t your fucking locker room buddy. Rotate your tires, catch a clue.
Facebones
@Major Major Major Major: I think we liberals have an expectation that this will be the knockout punch. There’s no way any rational person could see this and support Trump!
This does have an effect, though. It reinforces among the fringe supporters how unfit Trump is. Even if they don’t vote Dem they at least will stay home and not vote.
OzarkHillbilly
@Facebones:
That’s what they did in 2016 and look what we got.
JPL
@Facebones: The majority of republicans in the house and the senate will still support him, and Fox news will debase Woodward. The fringe supporters will stay in the fold.
Cermet
@opiejeanne: And who is the most likely person to murder a woman using a gun? Her boyfriend, her husband, or Ex. Facts are facts – Men, we are the problem in this world.
Cermet
@Jay: I’m so very sorry for what you had to endure as well – no one should have to see or experiencing those things.
EZSmirkzz
Thread killer: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=thread%20killer
On a typical morning do you; a) get up and put on some music and then make coffee b) get up and make coffee and turn on the TV c) get up and make coffee and turn on the computer and read the new d) get up and read *Psalm 118:24 while making coffee and then put on music or e)get up and put on a sad face and think life is bad.
*PS 118:24 This is a day Jehovah has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
You know there is nothing external to you that should rob you of the sheer joy of having won the lottery of the sperm that fertilized the egg that won the lottery of bringing you through gestation leading to your birth, and your finite time in the light of the universe. I worry about many of you.
Anonymous At Work
Maggie Haberman should apologize; Chauncey Gardiner didn’t have a mean, rude, vulgar, or dishonest bone in his body.
Betty Cracker
Someone is still obsessing over Woodward’s book this morning:
Anne, I think your assessment of Woodward’s place in the Village is spot on. I’ve always thought Bernstein was the brains of that outfit, but Woodward is the éminence grise, and that’s why this book matters, even if it just confirms what we all suspected.
It won’t stop Kavanaugh or hand the senate to the Dems in a couple of months. But if anyone doubts the power of the Village to enforce their consensus, even in a fragmented media environment, kindly take a gander at how they sandbagged both Clintons and destroyed Mr. Gore.
It’s true that their default masters are Republicans since they are a “center-right” entity (and thus have convinced a nation, falsely, that it is too). But it looks like we’re about to see how they collectively address “an individual who has become a problem,” as you noted. Better late than never.
EZSmirkzz
@Betty Cracker: In a sense I think that’s what Chuck Todd said in his article. Being a Democratic activist for the last 20 years I’m kinda used to hearing the mea culpas from the Newashorkington villagers, so I won’t belabor your points, or Laurie’s. I just find it hard to decide if they create a fustercluck in American politics in unenlightened self interest, or if they actually believe the politicians BS that’s being catapulted to the masses, hence ignorant bystanders to American decline. Better late than never ought to be the Democratic motto.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Anonymous At Work:
But did he know….Rafael [Cruz]?1??
stan
While I don’t disagree with this, I have to ask why nothing much changed when we went from all-male voting to both genders voting in 1920 or whenever it was……if men are the problem you’d think doubling the size of the electorate overnight, all with women, would have changed our politics dramatically.
Uncle Cosmo
@Facebones:
Anyone who was alive, adult & paying attention 20 years ago should remember how the Clinton-haters drooled over each new dollop of sordidness dripped from the Ken Starr investigation travesty: This time for sure! Now that they know {X}, how can the American people not demand that he be driven from office & strung up!? And were consternated when Slick Willie’s approval ratings actually rose.
Keep in mind that people are inherently conservative, in that they’ve worked out how to function within things-as-they-are & (with some justification) are leery of any major change. And that the irreducible mouthbreathing knuckledragging 27% of the electorate is jess faaahn with Trumpolini so long as he keeps fucking over the blacks & browns & uppity wimmins (no matter that they’re getting fucked as well – cardboard box, bridge, trash fire, curtain rod, sparrows?).
Other than busting our butts to elect a Congress that will stanch the bleeding, we really can’t do much beyond deploring each new revelation of degradation. And not even that too loudly, else the Complicit Media will lose no time in full-throatedly accusing us of trying to foment disaster merely to drive Twitler from office. /jmo
opiejeanne
@Jay: Oh my God! I am so sorry.
And those women in political life for the next 200 years of building parity should include a whole lot of POC.
opiejeanne
@stan: because most women in 1920 and up until this very moment and probably for a while longer, deferred to the judgement of their husbands and fathers. Patriarchy. Self-inflicted and self-enforced.
It has been said that women are our own worst enemies.
opiejeanne
@EZSmirkzz: I don’t know whether to pie you or just ignore you. The jury is deliberating.
Death Panel Truck
@opiejeanne: Pie sounds good.
But then pie always sounds good. ;)
Paul in KY
@Anonymous At Work: Excellent point! Chauncey would be about 10 times a better Pres than Captain Time-Zones-How-Do-They-Work.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Literally the exact opposite, I tells ya! The most kindest and on the ballest & nicest Pres you would evah want!!
Paul in KY
@stan: We voted in FDR not too long after that…4 terms.