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You are here: Home / Politics / America / What to Watch for in the US Senate Over the Next Several Days

What to Watch for in the US Senate Over the Next Several Days

by Adam L Silverman|  September 26, 20181:26 pm| 331 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election 2016, Election 2018, Open Threads, Politics, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, Not Normal

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With the new allegations brought forth by Michael Avenatti, as well as the reporting that the President is taking over the public relations regarding his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, including an announced 5 PM press conference/statement/availability, the real action will be within the Republican majority caucus in the Senate. Specifically all the attention needs to be on Senator McConnell.

The Senate majority leader is not particularly popular within his own caucus. He’s a top down, micromanager who tries to control everything. This includes the committees. The GOP committee chairs in the Senate are, in many ways, just figureheads. Right now every reporter is scrambling to get answers from Senator Grassley, who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, about what is going to happen. And while he or his office will eventually provide some, they aren’t really Grassley’s answers. They’re McConnell’s. Senator Grassley is just the face of the GOP majority on the committee, McConnell is really calling the shots.

Senator McConnell is almost the truest example of a natural fascist in American politics and public life today. His guiding principle that might makes right is the distilled essence of totalitarianism and was a hallmark of Mussollini’s fascism (national-syndicalism), as well as part of the bastardization of Nietzche’s philosophies adopted and used by the NAZIs. As I wrote back in June:

Senate Majority Leader McConnell isn’t a politician or like any politician who has ever served as Senate Majority or Minority Leader. Rather than view him as a politician, it is more appropriate to understand Senator McConnell as an insurgent, albeit a non-violent one. He recognizes no legitimacy but his own. When out of power he’ll do whatever is necessary using asymmetric, irregular, and/or unconventional means to achieve power. And once he achieves power he will do whatever he can to achieve his objectives to consolidate his gains as quickly as possible using any means necessary as he believes his actions are self justifying – that his achievement of power justifies his by any means necessary strategy. This is, by the way, the basic argument of the premier Italian fascist (national-syndicalist) theorist Sergio Panunzio, who delineated the fascist theories for the use of political violence and low intensity warfare in the 1920s. As a result, there is no law, rule, tradition, norm, ethic, promise, and/or deal he won’t violate or renege on. This also makes him an unreliable interlocutor and makes it impossible to negotiate with him in good faith as he doesn’t believe in good faith negotiations.

Senator McConnell doesn’t do anything in good faith. The last thing that Senator McConnell wants is to lose control of the Senate. Whether now because of the defections of a pair of his retiring members using it as leverage to achieve their own objectives or in the mid terms because enough voters want a check on the President to override the partisan Republican advantage in this senatorial election cycle. It is why he’s ground everything in the chamber other than handling nominations, specifically judicial nominations, to a halt. It is why he doesn’t want to do the legally required annual budgetary resolution so he can avoid having his members take tough votes before the midterms. And it is why he’s cancelled most of the August recess under the pretense that it is the only way he can move judicial nominees because of what he alleges is Democratic obstruction. Nominations that only exist because he prevented President Obama from seating almost any judicial nominees during his final two years in office. The Democratic minority has no tools to stop these nominations, regardless of what Senator McConnell says because Senator McConnell in conjunction with Senator Grassley has gotten rid of the blue slip rule and refuses to recognize Democratic senators holds on nominees. Senator McConnell’s cancellation of the August recess is really just a thinly veiled attempt to keep incumbent Democratic senators up for reelection off the campaign trail. Every Senate rule, tradition, norm, ethic, and even law (Congressional Budget Act) has been bent or stretched to breaking or just outright ignored by Senator McConnell in his quest to consolidate his power and achieve his revanchist and reactionary objectives. As an insurgent, albeit a non-violent one, Senator McConnell only understands and recognizes the application of leverage and force.

If you want to know how the Senate is going to respond to these recent allegations, or specifically how the Senate’s GOP majority is going to respond, watch Senator McConnell. He is the only Republican senator that matters.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

331Comments

  1. 1.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:27 pm

    Senator Hatch needs his nap!

    A very frustrated @OrrinHatch encounters a phalanx of reporters outside a Finance committee hearing. “I’m not in a very good mood!” he declared. Said he had not reviewed the Swetnick declaration yet. “Ok, ok!!” he shouted as an aide tried to move him along, away from reporters.

    — Nancy Cordes (@nancycordes) September 26, 2018

  2. 2.

    eemom

    September 26, 2018 at 1:32 pm

    the President is taking over the public relations regarding his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court

    What could possibly go wrong? ???

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    September 26, 2018 at 1:34 pm

    Yeah, McConnell is one where the answer to the “stupid or evil” question is indisputably “evil”.

    Murkowski is sounding more and more like a ‘no’ vote, so I imagine the pressure on Collins is pretty intense.

  4. 4.

    janesays

    September 26, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Stating the obvious… Orrin Hatch is a huge pile of shit. That is all.

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    Flake just gave a sorrowful speech on the Senate floor. It is unclear why other than political posturing.

  6. 6.

    Mart

    September 26, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    The Turtle is by far the most effective politician of this era.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    September 26, 2018 at 1:35 pm

    The portrait of Kavanaugh in his attic must by now be enough to make a maggot barf.

  8. 8.

    eemom

    September 26, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    The Myth of Mitch McConnell

  9. 9.

    scav

    September 26, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    Is it finally beginning to dawn on some of them exactly how they are likely going to be written up in the history books and anatomy of failure texts?

  10. 10.

    LAO

    September 26, 2018 at 1:39 pm

    I can’t help but think that it’s going to be very awkward when Kavanaugh and Garland run into each other in the cafeteria at the DC circuit courthouse.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    September 26, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    @Mart: Ms. Pelosi holding on Line 1 for you.

  12. 12.

    Redshift

    September 26, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Flake just gave a sorrowful speech on the Senate floor. It is unclear why other than political posturing.

    Does he ever do anything else?

  13. 13.

    eric

    September 26, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    @Mart: as evidenced by the repeal of Obamacare. He is ruthless, but not a legislator.

  14. 14.

    Redshift

    September 26, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    Apparently there are duelling anti-Kavanaugh and pro-Jim Jordan rallies going on opposite each other at the Capitol.

  15. 15.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    He is the only Republican senator that matters

    . @Mart:

    The Turtle is by far the most effective politician of this era.

    This is true, but if he is sufficiently disliked by his caucus they will boot him out.
    The fact that they have not means they approve of his actions.

    The Caucus leaders ( either majority or minority) are fully creatures of the caucus, and they have to satisfy all of it, enough. Harry Reid

  16. 16.

    oldgold

    September 26, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    Old Mitch is used to dealing with butter knife Democrats. Over the years he has sliced and diced them. In Avenatti, Mitch is dealing with a much sharper opponent. He is as ruthless and cunning as Mitch and always shows up appropriately weaponized.

    Avenatti calling into the “View” this morning was classic Avenatti..

  17. 17.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 1:44 pm

    Finally, Lindsey Graham goes there: “The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level. I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti”.

    I’m amazed it took this long for Republicans to go down this path in attacking Avenatti.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    September 26, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Kavanaugh’s lawyer is flailing badly on CNN. She opened by saying Avenatti should have filed charges, that “any lawyer worth his salt” would. Even Wolf pounced: So, shouldn’t there be an investigation now? Hmmmm? Herp-derp!

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    @LAO: There was reporting that a complaint has been made to the DC Circuit regarding the Kavanaugh allegations. Garland, as chief of the circuit, is required to open a formal investigation. No matter what happens in the Senate, this isn’t going away.

  20. 20.

    psycholinguist

    September 26, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    somebody please remind lindsey that the pornstar was paid 130K by the goddamn president of the united states

  21. 21.

    L85NJGT

    September 26, 2018 at 1:46 pm

    @eemom:

    Left holding the bag is his primary function.

  22. 22.

    Mike in DC

    September 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    If there’s a shocking loss of seats(like, say, losing TX, AZ, NV, TN and one more), I could see Mitch being fired as caucus leader. In which case he will be vulnerable in KY.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    We need an FBI investigation. Who thinks that is a likely outcome?

    And do we know for sure that McConnell is NOT Satan? Discuss.

  24. 24.

    LAO

    September 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    Oy Vey:

    Trump pretends he is a tough guy. He is nothing of the kind. He grew up spoiled with a silver spoon in his mouth and a gold toilet under his butt. He was handed everything. That is why the majority of America & the UN laughs at him and calls him a con. But at least Putin is a fan— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) September 26, 2018

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    @Redshift: Not that I’m aware of.

  26. 26.

    The Dangerman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:47 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Murkowski is sounding more and more like a ‘no’ vote…

    Flake feels like a no vote, too.

    BK brought this on himself; no one really cares about underage drinking (although hanging with Mark Judge, who seems like a real POS is a curiosity) but when he played the virginal, choir boy card, it was basically over for him … unless the Right wants to ram it through the vote and suffer the consequences for weeks, months, and years.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    @oldgold: The View? LOL. The few rightwingers on my FB feed dislike The View about as much as Hillary.

    Bring it, Avanetti.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    @Mike in DC: If he’s removed as caucus leader after a loss, he’ll retire.

  29. 29.

    LAO

    September 26, 2018 at 1:50 pm

    The partisan decision not to call witnesses tomorrow becomes even clearer:

    NEW: @NBCNews has obtained sworn and signed declarations from 4 people who corroborate Christine Blasey Ford’s claims of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, sent to Senate Cmte. pic.twitter.com/psl62NWZ4J— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) September 26, 2018

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 1:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    [McConnell will] retire

    The better to spend time with his legal troubles and expensive attorneys. I want that fucker to go down for corruption. He can live in federal housing for a few years before retiring to the Bluegrass State. (Who are we kidding? He’s a swamp creature. Nothing but DC area for him.)

  31. 31.

    M31

    September 26, 2018 at 1:52 pm

    @Mandalay:

    “the lawyer to porn stars”
    Not just any old porn stars! Only porn stars raw dogged by the president.

  32. 32.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:53 pm

    as well as the reporting that Trump is taking over the public relations regarding his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,

    What’s the next level after goat rodeo?

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:53 pm

    @The Dangerman: It goes beyond that. Had Kavanaugh’s initial response been:

    When I was in high school and an undergraduate in college, I drank far too much. I have no recollection of this party or of the events I’m accused of. However, because I drank far too much, I cannot say it didn’t happen. I think that everyone should take Dr. Blasey seriously and, regardless of whether I have any recollection of what she is alleging, I offer her my sincere apology in case I did do this while severely inebriated. And if she like I will offer this apology to her face to face in public or in private so that she can move forward with her healing process.

    then he might be able to move forward. They have consistently misplayed the strategic and crisis communication response to this from the start.

  34. 34.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    If you want to know how the Senate is going to respond to these recent allegations, or specifically how the Senate’s GOP majority is going to respond, watch Senator McConnell.

    I recall that Emperor Palpatine started as first senator among equals.

  35. 35.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    They have consistently misplayed the strategic and crisis communication response to this from the start.

    You damn them with faint praise.

  36. 36.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    Flake feels like a no vote, too.

    Charlie Brown, football …

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @Mandalay:

    Trump said something similar this morning. I don’t know the timing, but I would be unsurprised to find out that Lindsey was imitating his master’s voice.

  38. 38.

    Duane

    September 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: The committee will dump this disaster on McConnell and his sycophants. Total fail the most likely outcome. More popcorn please.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    . He can live in federal housing for a few years before retiring to the Bluegrass State. (

    Fuck that. McConnell and his wife both need to go up against the wall.

    Examples need to be made.

  40. 40.

    Cacti

    September 26, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Somewhere, Bill and Hill must be watching this unfold with big, satisfied smirks on their faces.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    September 26, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Rather than take a strong stance and call for a FBI investigation, he played to let’s all try to get along. Rumor has it he wants to run for president, and if that’s true he’ll say pretty words, then vote
    the party line.

  42. 42.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    @TenguPhule: Take a deep breath and dial it back from 12 to about 7.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2018 at 1:56 pm

    Adam, i read this and had my first laugh out loud in awhile. Trump thinks he can help. Hysterical!

    …the President is taking over the public relations regarding his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    And do we know for sure that McConnell is NOT Satan?

    is McConnell actually a former German Nazi who illegally immigrated to the USA?

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    @JPL: He’s got no chance trying to primary the President.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    @WaterGirl: Art of the Deal!!!

  47. 47.

    Percysowner

    September 26, 2018 at 1:57 pm

    And now I have a good guess as to why they are sticking with Kavanaugh GOP judiciary senator asks Supreme Court to give Trump pardon power that could blow up Mueller probe They want him to be the fifth vote that will say that if Trump pardons anyone, the states can’t try him on charges under their laws. Get Special K on the court. Announce they want to rehear the arguments so he can be part of the decision and presto Trump can blanket pardon everyone and they will have no consequences whatsoever. Neat trick, or at least that’s my theory.

  48. 48.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    but when he played the virginal, choir boy card, it was basically over for him

    if any more came out.
    because that motivated the search for others, as much as anything.
    @Adam L Silverman:

    then he might be able to move forward

    and this might have de-motivated the search for others.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    September 26, 2018 at 1:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Since Kavanaugh is accused of attempted rape, I don’t think he could admit that the allegations could be true without his nomination going down in flames. That said, his choir boy act was ridiculous.

  50. 50.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I disagree with the whole “we have to let them get away with their crimes and let them die of natural causes” concept.

    It has not served the Republic well at all these last 30+ years. If we’d hanged the Nixon and Reagan crews when they were caught, we could have avoided a lot of the present problems.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 1:59 pm

    @LAO:

    Funny, the wingnut meme is that there are exactly 4 people who do not corroborate Dr. Blasey Ford’s story. Almost like they got it 180 degrees ass-backwards of reality AGAIN.

  52. 52.

    LuciaMia

    September 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    Makes me think me think of that scene from ‘Absolutely Fabulous’, when Saffie says to her mother, who wants to make a statement to the judge.,”Dont, Mom, your mouth is working for the Prosecution.”

  53. 53.

    L85NJGT

    September 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    His lawyer out doing damage control + Trump promising to take over = good luck, we’re all counting on you.

    Flake is a flake, and Collins has the political instincts of a block of wood. Sasse & Murkowski are the real threats to jump if the election results go to shit.

    Schumer has called for withdrawing the nomination.

  54. 54.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @WaterGirl: Trump still does not understand that he is the president of all the people, not just his base, and needs some of the people who did not vote for him. If it were a matter of motivating his base to support Kavanaugh, he is the right choice.

  55. 55.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    She opened by saying Avenatti should have filed charges, that “any lawyer worth his salt” would.

    Apparently Trump recommended her services.

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 2:01 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is because they actually don’t give a shit about sexual assault and think that all victims are liars. They’ve learned to mouth the right platitudes in public so they don’t sound like monsters, but that doesn’t change the underlying belief.

  57. 57.

    boatboy_srq

    September 26, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @Elizabelle: Satan has a chin.

  58. 58.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Flake just gave a sorrowful speech on the Senate floor. It is unclear why other than political posturing.

    He’s in love with his own voice.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Now it wouldn’t work. If he’d issued something like this statement on Sunday once Dr. Blasey was on record, then he might have created the space needed to proceed. It might have prevented Ms. Ramirez and Ms. Swetnick from coming forward. Might have, not would have. How he actually did respond, however, was guaranteed to make things worse.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    September 26, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    @TenguPhule

    What’s the next level after goat rodeo?

    Polecat jamboree?

    @TenguPhule

    Rein it in there, sonny. Please.

  61. 61.

    The Dangerman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    When I was in high school and an undergraduate in college, I drank far too much. I have no recollection of this party or of the events I’m accused of. However, because I drank far too much, I cannot say it didn’t happen. I think that everyone should take Dr. Blasey seriously and, regardless of whether I have any recollection of what she is alleging, I offer her my sincere apology in case I did do this while severely inebriated.

    IANAL (yeah, like it’s not obvious), but that seems as if it would be running a risk with a State without a Statute of Limitations on attempted rape.

    That said, yes, his Comms Team needs to be fired, one and all. I mean, fuck, a calendar to prove you are innocent? Really?

    The Right must know a 5th vote overturning Roe unleashes Hell for them; the 5th vote being BK unleashes a special kind of Hell. How crazy are they?

  62. 62.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    BK brought this on himself; no one really cares about underage drinking … but when he played the virginal, choir boy card, it was basically over for him

    Right. Even if you discount/ignore/disbelieve all of the allegations against Kavanaugh of a sexual nature, it takes some heavy duty cognitive dissonance to sincerely believe that he wasn’t a hard drinker in his younger years from what has emerged.

    As you say, the drinking itself is no biggie, but blatantly lying about it should cause anyone to have very serious doubts about whether he belongs on SCOTUS. I wish this aspect of the story was getting more attention.

  63. 63.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    They’ve learned to mouth the right platitudes in public so they don’t sound like monsters

    Some of them apparently skipped that course or failed the final exam.

  64. 64.

    Raven

    September 26, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @TenguPhule: Lettin your mouth over run your ass again.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    September 26, 2018 at 2:03 pm

    @Betty Cracker: By placing his hand over her mouth, it was a violent sexual assault, and at this point he should say on the advice of my attorney… imo

  66. 66.

    burnspbesq

    September 26, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @eemom:

    What could possibly go wrong?

    It will be handled just as well as the selection and vetting process.

  67. 67.

    boatboy_srq

    September 26, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @Mnemosyne: It’s not that all victims are liars. It’s that nearly all victims are women, and therefore not quite human. The 19th Amendment is as much a target of Tenthers as the 13th-15th.

  68. 68.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    September 26, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @Percysowner:
    Orrin Hatch right? These fuckers are all for federalism when it suits their prejudices and ends but want to increase the power of the federal government to further entrench themselves. I fucking despise the GOP and can’t wait to see all of this eventually blow up in their faces because nothing lasts forever.

  69. 69.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:04 pm

    @WaterGirl: Rapists defend Rapists! Winning! Please proceed Orange Human.

  70. 70.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    @NotMax: After a trial and sentencing.

    I stand by my belief that we’re not gonna get Rule of law back until Prominent Republicans are really punished for their crimes.

  71. 71.

    Ladyraxterinok

    September 26, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    @Mandalay: A porn star T had sex with. Ie T is a porn star GOP leader. What hypocracy! But of course it’s LGraham

  72. 72.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:05 pm

    @TenguPhule: There is a difference between calling for and holding people accountable and snuff fantasies of lining people that piss you off for mass executions. I’m not saying that there should be no repercussions, but death by firing squad is not one of the potential penalties for any criminality that McConnell has likely committed in his quest for and consolidation of power.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:06 pm

    @L85NJGT: Also Corker.

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    but death by firing squad is not one of the potential penalties for any criminality that McConnell has likely committed in his quest for and consolidation of power.

    Last I checked, treason was still a death penalty crime.

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    Scene: After the so-called press conference.

    Dolt 45: Why were they all looking at my butt?

    Courageous flunky: They were lip reading.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    laura olin
    ‏@lauraolin
    3h3 hours ago
    More
    They paraded teen girls around his hearing as character witnesses.

    Yes they did.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I agree his actual response made things worse. Still clinging to the hope that someone who admitted “yeah, it’s possible I tried to rape a girl in high school” wouldn’t be confirmed to the SCOTUS, but we do have a self-described sexual predator in the White House, so I guess it’s an open question.

  78. 78.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    @TenguPhule: eligible, even.

  79. 79.

    Chet

    September 26, 2018 at 2:07 pm

    Mitch McConnell broke the federal government when he said his job was to make Obama a one-term president. Two years ago he promised Obama to his face that Obama would get no SCOTUS justice confirmed. At the same he time refused to make a bipartisan declaration warning of the Russian cyberattack on our electoral system. Last week he said his job was to plow through and get Kavanaugh confirmed. He’s the most vile partisan I’ve ever witnessed in politics.

  80. 80.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    @Elizabelle:
    I want to place Turtle in a cage and have Alison Lundergan Grimes insult him to his face for two hours/day.

    Is that okay with everybody?

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 2:10 pm

    @Chet: I don’t mean to sound like Tengu Phule, but I would be good with McConnell being executed for treason. He is poison.

  82. 82.

    Bruce K

    September 26, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    I’ve said it before: McConnell is smart, evil, unprincipled, and desperate, and that combination makes him supremely dangerous. He frightens me more than anybody else in power in Washington today, including the man currently occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

  83. 83.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @NotMax:

    Polecat jamboree?

    Excellent! [/Monte Burns voice] And a Possum Queen shall lead them.

    –Selah

  84. 84.

    Redshift

    September 26, 2018 at 2:13 pm

    @Percysowner:

    They want him to be the fifth vote that will say that if Trump pardons anyone, the states can’t try him on charges under their laws.

    I worry about that, too, but I think Mueller may be too smart for them. The Manafort agreement doesn’t just say that if he reneges they’ll try him ok the other charges, it says they’ll try him for the things he had to admit to but wasn’t charged with. So if pardons couriered the federal judicial process and they sent stuff to state court, they’d be charging him with crimes he hasn’t been charged with in federal court.

    I know most of the Republican justices are complete partisans, but some of them care enough about their image as respected jurists that “I’m pardoning you for a federal crime you haven’t been charged with and now you can’t be charged with it in state court” seems like a bridge too far.

    But IANAL, so I could well be wrong.

  85. 85.

    chris

    September 26, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    @trollhattan: Just have to catch the turtle.

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 2:15 pm

    @Bruce K:
    Wish I could argue. I cannot.

    His theft of the Gorsuch seat was utterly wicked and of course, completely successful.

  87. 87.

    germy

    September 26, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    Was there anybody going after Bill Clinton who weren't being chased by their own sex pest demons?
    — Schooley (@Rschooley) September 26, 2018

  88. 88.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 26, 2018 at 2:20 pm

    @TenguPhule: With the exception of Nixon himself, most of his crew did time.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    September 26, 2018 at 2:21 pm

    @Elizabelle

    Gerald Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose.

    Just sayin’.

  90. 90.

    Gelfling 545

    September 26, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Hoping to deflect blame when he votes to confirm.

  91. 91.

    Redshift

    September 26, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Exactly. Their responses make much more sense if you remember they’re sure all the accusers are lying. Which is yet another instance of “that’s what we’d do, so we’re sure the other side is doing it, when though there’s no evidence.”

  92. 92.

    burnspbesq

    September 26, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Explaining what treason is (and is not) to numbskulls has become really tiresome.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    @Gelfling 545: Hoping no one remembers who actually voted which way, but can watch the video and see how upset he was.

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    With the exception of Nixon himself, most of his crew did time.

    But enough of them survived political exile long enough to teach the next generation of Republicans how to commit crimes and get away with it.

    Today I’m just so fucking fucking raging hate up to 10 1/2 and I have no safe way to decompress.

  95. 95.

    Captain C

    September 26, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    @psycholinguist: Someone should ask Huckleberry: “What do they have on you, Senator? You went from opposing Trump to being his bootlicker? Why?”

  96. 96.

    Doug Gardner

    September 26, 2018 at 2:30 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Getting owned by Wolf F’ing Blitzer should be career-ending for anyone.

  97. 97.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    Kavanaugh’s lawyer Beth Wilkinson just now, speaking to Katy Tur:

    “…almost every high school student could be accused of heavy drinking”…

    Say what?

  98. 98.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

  99. 99.

    ruemara

    September 26, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    @Kay: And now we know there was a reason.

    @Captain C: It’s not just being gay. It’s either addiction, pedophilia or deep financial corruption, but since he’s a GOP, I’m gonna go with all 3.

  100. 100.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:32 pm

    @Mandalay:

    Say what?

    Beth Wilkinson apparently didn’t get out much during her high school years.

  101. 101.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    @Kay:

    Yes they did.

    Was the judge smart enough not to rape where he coached?

    All available evidence suggests he was not that smart.

  102. 102.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 2:35 pm

    @boatboy_srq:

    True — all of these same people seem to believe the men who say they were molested by priests with none of the same demands for proof or outside evidence. But when a woman says she was abused or assaulted, suddenly the standard of proof required goes way up. Funny, that. ?

    (And by “funny” I mean NOT AT ALL FUCKING FUNNY!)

  103. 103.

    Captain C

    September 26, 2018 at 2:36 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    The Right must know a 5th vote overturning Roe unleashes Hell for them; the 5th vote being BK unleashes a special kind of Hell. How crazy are they?

    I suspect that they figure that with BK on the court, they can get away with a law banning Democrats from voting or holding office, perhaps mixed with a little Après nous, le déluge mentality. As long as they’re not caught in the deluge, or can enjoy it from afar without their luxuries being disturbed, I’m sure they’re fine with things going to hell for everyone else.

  104. 104.

    James E Powell

    September 26, 2018 at 2:36 pm

    @Mandalay:

    Lindsey Graham goes there: “The lawyer to porn stars has just taken this debacle to an even lower level. I hope people will be highly suspicious of this allegation presented by Michael Avenatti”.

    Someone in the press/media should correct him. It was Trump, the boyfriend to the porn stars who took us to this low level. Someone should, but no one will.

  105. 105.

    Mary G

    September 26, 2018 at 2:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: They do not remember the lesson of Watergate: “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.” He could have gone on Fox to confess his sins, apologize to his wife and daughters, and America, and beg for forgiveness and he’d probably squeaked through. But, no, he lied and lied and people who knew him when started coming out of the woodwork.

  106. 106.

    Gelfling 545

    September 26, 2018 at 2:37 pm

    @Elizabelle: No indication that he gave aid and comfort to an enemy. All his actions were for the personal benefit and aggrandizement of himself and, by extension, his party. Disgusting but not treason. Any benefit to any other person or entity is purely accidental.

  107. 107.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:37 pm

    From the dead thread below:
    In all this hoopla, a completely important story is not getting enough coverage is how the current regime is trying to rewrite the rules for legal immigration by broadly expanding what it means to be a public charge.
    From Vox
    https://www.vox.com/2018/9/24/17892350/public-charge-immigration-food-stamps-medicaid-trump

  108. 108.

    sukabi

    September 26, 2018 at 2:38 pm

    @psycholinguist: Graham’s skeletons have got to be rattling the he’ll out of his closet doors, only a matter of time before they come busting out. Coming at Avenatti doesn’t seem like a very smart move.?

  109. 109.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @Gelfling 545:

    Any benefit to any other person or entity is purely accidental.

    Federal Prosecutors have managed to convict with much less.

  110. 110.

    Gelfling 545

    September 26, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @Mandalay: Umm, no..

  111. 111.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:39 pm

    @Kay: They knew these charges were coming. They knew he is dirty.

  112. 112.

    ChrisS

    September 26, 2018 at 2:40 pm

    It seems to me that the GOP knew Kavanaugh was always going to be a dicey nomination to SCOTUS because of his GOP partisan street soldier history. Maybe they figured that the DC Circuit was the best that they could do for him. McConnell was supposedly against his nomination to SCOTUS (likely knowing that it would be an unnecessary fight), but Trump picked him anyway. After none of these accusations popped up during the confirmation process to the DC Circuit court, Bart O’Kavanaugh probably thought he was on easy street and none of this would ever see the light of day.

  113. 113.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:42 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    a completely important story is not getting enough coverage is how the current regime is trying to rewrite the rules for legal immigration by broadly expanding what it means to be a public charge.

    And cutting refugee numbers, and the concentration camps for kids and the fucking ICE raids that are turning into SS LARPs with real consequences and all the other horrors going on that we can’t keep up with.

    Sometimes I feel like we’re drowning in this.

  114. 114.

    dww44

    September 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    @Mart: Yep, effective but not in good ways. Not at all. He’s the antithesis of a Democratic leader.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    @Gelfling 545:

    No indication that he gave aid and comfort to an enemy.

    I would say that we don’t have the evidence yet, but that the fact that he refused to help Obama block Russian interference in the 2016 election is one hell of an indication that at a minimum he knew the Republicans were doing it to benefit Republicans, and at most was an active participant.

  116. 116.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    @WaterGirl: He’s a master in crisis communication.

    Wait, what? Oh, creation, not communication.

  117. 117.

    eemom

    September 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    Aha! I told y’all someone would try this.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    September 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm

    Trumpov, at 5pm:

    “And I’m here to say that Judge Kavanaugh is GOING to be confirmed, because I’m SICK of these Democrat dirty tricks, where woman after woman COMES OUT of the WOODWORK to talk about being sexually assaulted umpteen years ago…I mean, they tried it with ME and god knows how many women came fo…what? What’s that Sarah? No, I will not ‘cut’ or stop talking or whatever, I’m just getting started

    As I was saying, just like when all these women came out talking about me…”

    You watch.

  119. 119.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 2:45 pm

    @ChrisS:

    but Trump picked him anyway.

    my impression was that Anthony Kennedy made his resignation dependent on picking Kavanaugh, too.

    If so, Kennedy will end up getting some blame for all this.

  120. 120.

    kindness

    September 26, 2018 at 2:48 pm

    Where as it would be more modern to suggest that McConnell’s actions deserve him being put up against a wall, I think the more classical guillotine would be more appropriate.

  121. 121.

    sukabi

    September 26, 2018 at 2:49 pm

    @catclub: Kennedy’s role needs to be investigated, whether he voluntarily resigned or resigned to protect his son & family. That Kavanaugh was his choice, that’s coming from the WH, how many times have they been truthful about anything?

  122. 122.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 26, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    Call the Judiciary Committee (202-224-5225) and ask that they stop the hearing and order an investigation. They won’t answer but leave a message. It will take you 30 seconds.

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    Interesting…

    Feinstein just ran into Murkowski in the hall and they hugged and then Feinstein said “this is just between us” and then they started whispering

    — Peter Sullivan (@PeterSullivan4) September 26, 2018

  124. 124.

    rikyrah

    September 26, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) Tweeted:
    BREAKING NEWS: Memo reveals George Nader—emissary from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two nations Trump Jr. agreed to collude with on August 3, 2016 at Trump Tower—was present at the Prince-Dmitriev meeting. And we now know *what they discussed* in January ’17. https://t.co/Efk5D7eoGR https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1044982970686173184?s=17

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    @catclub: I want Anthony Kennedy, and his Deutsche Banking-son, to get an FBI investigation, on top of “some blame” too.

    They are very likely dirty.

    If Kennedy basically sold his Supreme Court seat, well, there is room in Federal Housing for him, too. Recall: he is so out of it, he voted for Citizens United believing that donor reporting requirements were in place. They are not. He was a POS as a justice, even if he did not discriminate against gay people as much as another Republican-chosen justice might have.

  126. 126.

    Duane

    September 26, 2018 at 2:52 pm

    @boatboy_srq: That’s just what McConnell wants you to think.

  127. 127.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:52 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Memo reveals George Nader—emissary from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two nations Trump Jr. agreed to collude with on August 3, 2016 at Trump Tower—was present at the Prince-Dmitriev meeting. And we now know *what they discussed* in January ’17.

    There is no fucking bottom.

  128. 128.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    September 26, 2018 at 2:54 pm

    @eemom:

    Ford’s allegation is not directly cited in Merkley’s filing, which is unlikely to succeed in stopping the vote.

    How does Elena Schor know it will fail?

  129. 129.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:54 pm

    T and the entire R leadership is guilty of treason. Special K is their insurance. They know he is dirty and will do whatever they want. Hence he needs to be pushed to the Supreme Court to take care of things.

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:55 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    How does Elena Schor know it will fail?

    It relies on Republicans following established norms.

  131. 131.

    JPL

    September 26, 2018 at 2:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: BFF’s

  132. 132.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 2:55 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: They’re not going to make it. I really don’t think Kavanaugh will get to the Supreme Court.

  133. 133.

    Chyron HR

    September 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    THE B*TCH SOLD US OUT! PONCE LEON OR BUST!!

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm

    I mean, I am an optimist. But we have beat back the worst of some Republican schemes. I think more sunlight is perfect for this one.

  135. 135.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:56 pm

    ETA: His wrongdoings guarantee that he won’t develop a conscience once he is on the Supreme Court and rule against Russo-Rapebulicans.
    This is just my theory based on what is happening right now.

  136. 136.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:57 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    T and the entire R leadership is guilty of treason.

    Hope you got your flak shield ready, because there’s incoming scoldings approaching about the definition of treason. //

  137. 137.

    Jager

    September 26, 2018 at 2:57 pm

    My college girlfriend had a sorority sister who was forced to “pull a train” at drunken party on a Saturday night, She was packed up and left school by Monday morning. The incident was a buzz on campus for weeks. Nobody did anything about it. The girl’s brother was a pro football player, after the last game of the season he drove non-stop to burst into the frat house and beat the living shit out of the train conductor, putting him the hospital. He’s a pretty old bastard now, but he could still do a number on McConnel and Kavanaugh.

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @Elizabelle: I hope so too. This is my theory on why they are pushing so hard for Special K with all his problmes instead of any garden variety “strict constructionist”

  139. 139.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I mean, I am an optimist.

    And its appreciated here.

  140. 140.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    September 26, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Hence he needs to be pushed to the Supreme Court to take care of things.

    That only works if a majority of the population are willing to follow what the Supreme Court says.

  141. 141.

    MoxieM

    September 26, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    Is there even a single Republican who has used the words “disgusting” or “appalling” or “horrifying” in describing the experiences (even if alleged) of the women, at the hands of the boys of Georgetown Prep? I don’t think so.

    There it is.

  142. 142.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 3:00 pm

    @TenguPhule: Well, IANAL.

  143. 143.

    oldgold

    September 26, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    Dr. Ford’s attorneys have released her polygraph report. Here it is.

    https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211185235

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 26, 2018 at 3:01 pm

    @TenguPhule: @TenguPhule:

    What’s the next level after goat rodeo?

    Goat cavalcade?
    Tournament of Goats New Year’s Day Parade?
    uGoat durbar? (Look it up or ask schroedinger’s cat.)

  145. 145.

    BlueGirlFromWyo

    September 26, 2018 at 3:02 pm

    @catclub: Trump understands people other than his base have needs and wants. He just doesn’t care. He’s used to target marketing. He knows there are other “markets” of American people out there but they aren’t “his”. Which fits his sense of self as a business man and his narcissism.

  146. 146.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 3:02 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    I agree …. Dead man walking……….

    What a fuck-up! Four stars and the black hole its making from this collapse is gonna pull in a lot of folks. If I’m Kavanaugh, I am terrified that not only won’t I make the Supreme Court, but that I might lose my Court of Appeals seat. Its like watching a slow mo train wreck. A lot of damage — most of it caused by hubris.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    Lindsey Graham
    ‏Verified account
    @LindseyGrahamSC
    Follow Follow @LindseyGrahamSC
    More
    I have a difficult time believing any person would continue to go to – according to the affidavit – ten parties over a two-year period where women were routinely gang raped and not report it.

    I have a difficult time believing Ohio State wrestlers would continue to meet with the molesting team doctor for years and not report it. Oh, right. Republicans probably don’t want to talk about that.

    This is such a dumb thing to say. I’m not even trying and I can come up with 3 recent examples of exactly that scenario happening.

  148. 148.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 26, 2018 at 3:03 pm

    @TenguPhule: Do you understand -why- so many people are asking you to rein your snuff fantasies back in? Do you really understand? It’s not b/c every other commenter on this blog is a coward and a wuss. It’s not b/c we’re all civilized to the point where we won’t take our own side in a fight. Hell, I also would love to see divine justice visited on these fuckers, these traitors (yeah: the common citizen’s definition, not the one on the Constitution).

    But there’s a reason nobody talks about lining them all up, except in jest. E.g. “I hope my tumbril number is higher than theirs, so I can see ’em go before I do”. The reason is simple: you want a democracy, you MUST allow your opponents the possibility of retiring without being chased down and killed. If you don’t allow that, then your opponents will stop at nothing to end you when they have the chance. The GrOPers hold the trifecta. If they thought we were going to round them all up, first time we had the chance, don’t you think they’d have already concocted a pretext for declaring martial law?

    “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”
    ― sun tzu, The Art of War

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:05 pm

    @eemom: Most likely to get kicked, but it could slow things down for a few more days.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    September 26, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    @Elizabelle: Sunlight, coming through the world’s largest magnifying glass! =)

  151. 151.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:06 pm

    @Mandalay: Heavy drinking does not automatically lead to attempted sexual assault. Argument fail.

  152. 152.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Feinstein just ran into Murkowski in the hall and they hugged and then Feinstein said “this is just between us” and then they started whispering

    Feinstein and Murkowski just happened to run into each other in front of a reporter who dutifully reported that staged managed nonsense? Please.

    We all look down our noses at all of them, but we are the ones getting played. That, or the report is bullshit.

  153. 153.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:08 pm

    @rikyrah: This is reporting in the Daily Beat by Betsy Woodruff. It is an interesting article and doesn’t surprise me. If the Russian memo that Woodruff got her hands on is correct, then Prince lied in his testimony to Congress. Whether he lied to Mueller, we don’t know. Mueller does. And Mueller most likely had this Russian memo through SIGINT a while ago.

  154. 154.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 3:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: If wannabe Robert Clive goes to jail, that would be sweet.

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 3:09 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Thank you.

    One of the lessons of the French Revolution is how many people were guillotined on really specious reasons. It is more horrifying than glorious.

    As the GOP is learning now, once Frankenstein’s monster is out of the lab, you are not in control. Germans learned that, the most terrible way possible, in the 1930s. And yet the ignoramouses in the GOP think they are special enough to avoid that fate.

    Although a lot of them are disaster capitalists, or servants thereto, and are fine with making a killing after everyone else has been savaged.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    September 26, 2018 at 3:09 pm

    I’ve been peeking at this stuff between meetings and work, and I just don’t know whether the Republicans will do the right thing.

    Trump wants Kavanaugh and the Republicans may give Trump what he wants. Again.

    Kavanaugh is not special, but Trump wants to brand any and all opposition to his nominees as political grandstanding by the Democrats. If he succeeds, it will make it easier for future judicial nominees.

    Trump also sees this as the best way to discredit the accusers without listening to their stories. They have not been assaulted; they are political operatives. The GOP leadership and Trump’s base is happy to grab onto this because it lets them avoid the fact that Trump wants an accused rapist on the Supreme Court. Shamefully, Republican women are especially eager to reach out and hang onto this lifeline. It lets them pretend that they give a damn about other women.

  157. 157.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    What’s the next level after goat rodeo?

    Goat Car Races

  158. 158.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’ve seen this dude in action for a while — this is his “thang”. Don’t waste your time. He is a Jacobin..

  159. 159.

    Mary G

    September 26, 2018 at 3:10 pm

    NEW — “We are writing to request that you immediately withdraw the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court." — Judiciary Dems formally ask President Trump to withdraw Kavanaugh's name as SCOTUS nominee.FULL LETTER: pic.twitter.com/pq6HjS3qGI— J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) September 26, 2018

  160. 160.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: The Federal courts are unlikely to tell the Senate how it can proceed under the separation of powers. Moreover, it is likely that Senator Merkley lacks standing.

  161. 161.

    SFBayAreaGal

    September 26, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    @LuciaMia: That had me laughing out loud. I can picture this so perfectly.

  162. 162.

    Mike in DC

    September 26, 2018 at 3:12 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: The succession of outcomes to be hoped for is 1)out of power; 2) out of office; 3)where appropriate, in jail. Summary execution is not favored in this representative democracy with due process, equal protection and proportional punishment.

  163. 163.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    you MUST allow your opponents the possibility of retiring without being chased down and killed. If you don’t allow that, then your opponents will stop at nothing to end you when they have the chance.

    For the record, I would like to introduce Hillary Clinton, 21 months after the election, where Trump and certain Congressional Republicans are still trying to have imprisoned and worse based on bullshit. I understand your argument, but I’m saying that we’re pretty much there already save for the fact that the Republicans are really fucking incompetent this time.

  164. 164.

    Martin

    September 26, 2018 at 3:13 pm

    @Kay: Speaking of which.

    Since sexual-assault allegations against the sports doctor Larry Nassar became public, top administrators at Michigan State University have claimed they didn’t know—and could not have been reasonably expected to know—about the systematic abuse that took place on their campus for more than two decades. But according to a new lawsuit, in 1992, 24 years before Nassar was fired from the university, MSU’s then–athletic director and head football coach, George Perles, was allegedly presented with perhaps the most damning piece of evidence imaginable: a videotape. The tape, which the lawsuit claims was shot by a cameraman at Nassar’s request, allegedly showed the sports doctor raping a drugged and near-unconscious Erika Davis, a 17-year-old member of the MSU field-hockey team. The lawsuit accuses Perles (who has denied the allegations) of making sure the tape went nowhere, returning it to Nassar, and then forcing the coach who obtained the footage to sign a nondisclosure agreement and resign.

    Today, Perles is one of eight members on the MSU board of trustees.

  165. 165.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    Man, Infrastructure Week is exhausting.

    “Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh testified behind closed doors and under oath on Tuesday about allegations that he was present at parties in the 1980s where women were targeted and gang-raped,” Time reports.

    “Speaking under penalty of felony to Judiciary Committee investigators, Kavanaugh denied the allegations. His latest round of sworn testimony took place one day before Julie Swetnick came forward publicly with a third round of allegations about Kavanaugh’s sexual behavior in high school and college.”

  166. 166.

    oatler.

    September 26, 2018 at 3:14 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: Or “Feast of the Goat” by Lhosa.

  167. 167.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    The other thing that makes the GOP Judiciary Committee dinosaurs dangerous: a lot of them are not likely to run again.

    Grassley is 85. He is likely to retire. Orrin Hatch is retiring; hoping that Mitt Romney will take his Senate seat. Lindsey Graham is throwing himself onto the Trump train so hard. He wants a Cabinet position or judgeship, very likely. I doubt he wants to face the South Carolina mouthbreathers again. He thought their time would pass.

    Jeff Flake and Bob Corker are out of there.

    Susan Collins: maybe she’s set her sights on governor of Maine. Who knows?

    Makes them dangerous, and it’s probably what Treason McConnell was counting on, but he was likely not counting on Kavanaugh’s past blowing up as badly as it has. Or the courage of opponents and accusers.

  168. 168.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 3:15 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Murkowski’s a no, then. Now we only need to flip one more R.

  169. 169.

    Leto

    September 26, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    nothing lasts forever.

    Even cold November rain… guitar solo

    I wonder how many boys/men pencil in their attempted rapes, when they’re going to drug some person, and/or when they plan to drink underage?

    *Note to self: 31 Oct (HALLOWEEN T&C BASH!!!!!) make sure to bring qualoods for Mary Beth as well as drink 12 pack of Budweiser at M. Keaton’s party

  170. 170.

    HeleninEire

    September 26, 2018 at 3:16 pm

    So it looks like the President of those there United States is doing a news conference at 5pm (my 10pm); his first in 19 months? Now usually I am in bed reading by then and looking forward to my beauty sleep. But now I’m thinking I will put down my book at 10 and watch the hell outta that. He is now saying that everyone who is defending Kavanaugh sucks and he has to do it himself. OH PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE.

  171. 171.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    @Martin:
    Were my kid enrolled at MSU (“as if, dad”) I’d hustle her out of there as fast as I could show up at her dorm in a rental. Rotten to its very core.

  172. 172.

    Elizabelle

    September 26, 2018 at 3:17 pm

    @HeleninEire: With an adult beverage in hand. At least a hot toddy!

  173. 173.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Dolt 45 made cyber attacks against the US by a State Actor, and act of war,

    Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian Military Intelligence Hacker Team,

    Guccifer 2.0 coordinated leaks of DNC and DCCC hacked data with Wikileaks , Roger Stone and several Republican Campaigns.

    There is a reasonablr case to be made that a bunch of ReThugs could be investigated and prosecuted for the act of treason as set out in law.

  174. 174.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @trollhattan:

    His latest round of sworn testimony took place one day before Julie Swetnick came forward publicly with a third round of allegations about Kavanaugh’s sexual behavior in high school and college. (emphasis mine)

    Whoopsie! I wonder if Kavanaugh will be allowed to “update” or “revise” his statements under oath. ?

  175. 175.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 26, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @TenguPhule: If you’d adduced Don Siegelman, you might have had a bit of a point. It seems an arguable case [I don’t know all the details, but it seems reasonable to argue that he was railroaded] that his prosecution and imprisonment were politically motivated. But nobody else is in prison.

    Look: yes it’s scary that these fuckers keep yelling out that they want to jail us all. But they haven’t started, have they? So far, it’s just a talking point. Like almost everybody here, I also think the Dems need to break norms, slap back at these fuckers. But that’s breaking -norms-, not -laws-.

    If you really believe “we’re already there”, you need to stockpiling weapons & ammo, and gathering your paramilitary forces.

  176. 176.

    ruemara

    September 26, 2018 at 3:18 pm

    @Mandalay: repulsive. Not them. You.

    @Chetan Murthy: No offense, but all of you are suffering from head in the sand syndrome. You need to be aware of your enemy and trust me, there’s enough of them in power that would give you no quarter for your beliefs that you had better start proving a survival level of ruthlessness in kind. Sun Tzu had lots of good advice, but he wasn’t dealing with absolutists.

  177. 177.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    @HeleninEire:
    “Okay, I’ll take the first question from Breitbart….”

  178. 178.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Trump and the GOP are falling into a huge trap from their own hubris and overreach. Its looking more and more that this is not going to just be a he said/she said but surface some real legal jeopardy. Trump is being baited by Avennati along with the GOP…. Avenatti warned them to “be careful” a couple of days ago about what they were saying. Not that Avennati is perfect, but I would be real real careful as this thing mushrooms. Avennati looks and sounds like he is gonna “Kill the Wabbit” a la Elmer Fud.

  179. 179.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    Lindsey Graham just went after Avenatti. I hope Avenatti strikes back. That would be fun TeeVee

  180. 180.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    September 26, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    @Brachiator:

    If he succeeds, it will make it easier for future judicial nominees

    What would “success” even look like? Given a lot of people are evidently pissed off and disgusted if Cruz getting chased out of a restaurant is anything to go by, GOP minority rule is probably unsustainable

  181. 181.

    rikyrah

    September 26, 2018 at 3:20 pm

    Jeff Merkley will announce that he’s seeking an injunction in federal court designed to stop a final vote on Brett Kavanaugh, asserting an obstruction of his constitutional duty to advise and consent on nominees.

  182. 182.

    different-church-lady

    September 26, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m really tired of “fun” TeeVee.

  183. 183.

    jonas

    September 26, 2018 at 3:21 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    They have consistently misplayed the strategic and crisis communication response to this from the start.

    Because doing what you advised would have been admitting that a liberal California woman was telling the truth about the conservative alpha male, and they simply can’t abide that. Ever, ever, ever. So they will die on this hill. Because it means owning the libs.

  184. 184.

    The Lodger

    September 26, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: Goats on Ice.

  185. 185.

    eemom

    September 26, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: @Adam L Silverman:

    Not so sure about that. The advice and consent provision is a decent standing argument. Separation of powers is one of those things that matters except when it doesn’t. As I said the other day, all he needs to persuade is ONE federal judge to create a total shitstorm.

    The Politico reporter obviously regards this as just self promotion by Merkley. She doesn’t know squat about law.

  186. 186.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 26, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Damn, that would be fun. People in glass closets shouldn’t throw stones.

  187. 187.

    Kay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    @Martin:

    Penn State…

    let’s ask Judge Kavanuagh if he finds it difficult to believe there was sexual assault going on in Catholic schools for 100 years yet no one reported it and people still showed up every day. Does he believe the report from the PA AG or not?

    You could “wonder” about it 30 years ago, maybe, but since we;ve seen example after example of exactly that happening maybe the senators should stop wondering. It happens. In all kinds of places. Even fancy prep schools.

  188. 188.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 3:26 pm

    @Elie:

    All indications are that Avenatti is a ginormous asshole, but also a very smart and meticulous lawyer who loves to trip up his opponents. Republicans probably should have paid more attention during the whole Stormy Daniels thing rather than dismissing it because she’s a porn star.

    (Also — hi! Hope all is well with you and that voter registration is going well in your neck of the northwest.)

  189. 189.

    HeleninEire

    September 26, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    @Mary G: Oh. A sternly worded letter.

    Very impressive.

  190. 190.

    Mary G

    September 26, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    Jennifer Rubin keeps touting Republicans who she dreams will go against their party and be decent citizens. Just the other day, it was Nikki Haley, who “tells Trump when he’s wrong” and is one of the few in the administration who’ll come out with their reputation intact:

    Nikki Haley says world leaders laughed at Trump at the UN out of 'respect' | WATCH https://t.co/BF9wnMlh8v— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) September 26, 2018

    The asskissing just gets ridiculouser and ridiculouser. Jen needs to give that shit up. They are all rotten to the core.

  191. 191.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @Immanentize: Which leads to a Goat Demolition Derby

  192. 192.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    But they haven’t started, have they? So far, it’s just a talking point.

    I’m sorry, but that’s a terrible argument to make. The tools are already available to the Federal Government under the Patriot Act and previous accepted norms about National Security and what the Executive Branch is allowed to do to “keep the nation safe.”

    Should things progress to the point where Hillary Clinton or President Obama were attacked or arrested, its way too late to start having a conversation about what kind of penalty the party of treason needs to pay.

    Just the fact that “lock her up” got mainstreamed as a meme instead of immediately branding the chanters as the most vile untouchables outcast from the political world forever and a day is a sign of how far the degradation of our institutions has come. Talking about it is normally the step before actually doing it. Margin for error here is not comforting at all.

  193. 193.

    Another Scott

    September 26, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    @rikyrah: Haven’t clicked on the Tweet, but IIRC, Adam has said on more than one occasion that Seth gets way, way out over his skis on lots of this stuff.

    Caveat emptor.

    (Corrections welcome.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  194. 194.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    @Mary G: Which will only serve to get Trump into his ‘you’re not the boss of ME’ mode. But always nice to be on record of counselling doing the right thing.

  195. 195.

    HeleninEire

    September 26, 2018 at 3:30 pm

    @Elizabelle: LOL. Its a bizarre 79 degrees here today. Everyone is all happy. Happy and confused. So while there will be an adult beverage it will not be a hot toddy!

  196. 196.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Being attacked by Lindsey Graham is assault with a dead weapon, but I’m eager to see Avanetti’s response anyway.

  197. 197.

    Ben Cisco

    September 26, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    @The Lodger: Goat triathlon.

  198. 198.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    @Martin: Perles always was a piece of shit, but by God, MSU football was fucking king of campus. Color me unsurprised.

  199. 199.

    Kay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:33 pm

    Erick Erickson
    ‏Verified account
    @EWErickson
    Follow Follow @EWErickson
    More
    Garbage people do not accomplish what Kavanaugh has accomplished in the way he has accomplished it.

    People who are prestigious and powerful can’t be bad, because what does that mean for the people who admire prestige and power?

    It’s like they’re screaming in agony as their whole world view and pecking order collapses. “What about ME?! Am I bad TOO?!”

    Yes, probably.

  200. 200.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    @Jay: That is an interesting take. Is that your idea or is there more to be read about it somewhere?

  201. 201.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    @Mnemosyne: All we know is, at least with regard to Senator Feinstein, that Senator Murkowski is a hugger.

  202. 202.

    raven

    September 26, 2018 at 3:35 pm

    @Gravenstone: Um, I’d say it was more hoop.

  203. 203.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 26, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:
    @The Lodger: Attorneys for the Tournament of Roses AND the GEC are on lines 1 and 2 for you two.

  204. 204.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:36 pm

    @Kay:
    Gee, do you mean accomplished people like accomplished Justice David Souter, Ewick?

  205. 205.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:39 pm

    @Kay:

    Garbage people….

    Maybe not, but Mole People do.

  206. 206.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:40 pm

    @Another Scott: I’m not reading the 400 tweets he’s posting on this, but he’s referring to this article from Betsy Woodruff in the Daily Beast. I’ve read the article, its solid.
    https://www.thedailybeast.com/revealed-what-erik-prince-and-moscows-money-man-discussed-in-that-infamous-seychelles-meeting?source=twitter&via=desktop

  207. 207.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    @Elie:

    Avennati looks and sounds like he is gonna “Kill the Wabbit” a la Elmer Fud.

    You do realize that things rarely ended well for Elmer in those cartoons, right?

    Perhaps not the best metaphor.

  208. 208.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Pig wallow.

  209. 209.

    JR

    September 26, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: How about exile, is that allowed?

  210. 210.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    @trollhattan: Souter was an odd duck, but ended up OK — at least on my issues.

  211. 211.

    Jeffro

    September 26, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    Um, just curious...did anyone ever figure out who wrote that “resistance inside the White House” op-ed yet? Doesn’t that seem like a year ago already? And yet, we have already moved on. I think we’re also two months past that deadline for reuniting immigrant families that were split up at the border. And I guess we no longer are too concerned with NC and SC, eh national media? How’s them thar hog waste lagoons doing after all that flooding?

    Ok, back to the subject at hand: Trumpov is going to the mat for Kavanaugh b/c Kavanaugh clearly pledged his loyalty to Trumpov, up to and including having no problem with Trumpov obstructing justice, pardoning everyone for everything, etc etc. This is HIS. GUY. His life preserver. His ‘stay out of jail’ card. The crazy thing is, no Senate Republican has the brass to say, “Mr. president*, pull this rapist’s nomination and send us an even wing-nuttier wingnut without the slimy past…we’ll confirm him by noon on Friday” But no, he has to have HIS. GUY. And it’s all because he’s hanging by a thread, and in return, he’s got the GOP by the short hairs.

    I really do think that at some point…probably multiple points…Trumpov & Co have told GOP Senators and Reps: “turn on me, and it all comes out. Where you’ve been getting your money from. Who you’ve been canoodling with-which I know about courtesy of my…comrades.”

  212. 212.

    Martin

    September 26, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @trollhattan: I said the same thing about Penn State when Sandusky happened. There was no fucking way Paterno and PSU leadership didn’t know about it. In general, academics are not equipped to deal with this shit, and they are reticent for a host of bullshit reasons to turn this stuff over to professionals. This is why sexual assault is so poorly dealt with in academia, and why Kavanaugh was allowed to operate without any risk of repercussions. Entire swaths of the country have accepted this as normal, and it’s not.

  213. 213.

    Chris Johnson

    September 26, 2018 at 3:43 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    But there’s a reason nobody talks about lining them all up, except in jest. E.g. “I hope my tumbril number is higher than theirs, so I can see ’em go before I do”. The reason is simple: you want a democracy, you MUST allow your opponents the possibility of retiring without being chased down and killed. If you don’t allow that, then your opponents will stop at nothing to end you when they have the chance.

    Problem there is, they will already stop at nothing so you’re talking about gaining nothing here. This was already war. It’s just a question of how much shooting there is.

    They are fucking literal traitors trying to get away with it. There’s no retirement plan for them: if they leave power, Russia will whack ’em. They are not concerned with being allowed to politely step down. It isn’t all about the USA here.

  214. 214.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:44 pm

    Avanetti responds.

    @realDonaldTrump @ChuckGrassley @LindseyGrahamSC – Are you three privileged, white men calling my client Julie a liar? How dare you attack a sexual assault victim. She has risked her life to do the right thing. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Your actions are disgraceful.

    He didn’t call them pimps, am a little disappointed.

  215. 215.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    @Jay:

    There is a reasonablr case to be made that a bunch of ReThugs could be investigated and prosecuted for the act of treason as set out in law

    Perhaps, but Burns was responding to a claim that McConnell and his wife were guilty of treason, and “both need to go up against the wall”.

    If you can make a serious case for their treason and execution I’m all for it, but I have my doubts.

  216. 216.

    Jeffro

    September 26, 2018 at 3:45 pm

    @JR: I think there’s a 5% chance that’s how Trumpov ends…simply fleeing the country. I’ve tried picturing it and it’s not impossible. A life of luxury in a Moscow penthouse, jeering at America on Putin’s dime. Not impossible.

  217. 217.

    dmsilev

    September 26, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @TenguPhule: There were some exceptions.

  218. 218.

    trollhattan

    September 26, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @Immanentize:
    Just in case you’ve not seen the infamous EWErickson quote re. Souter.

    He’s on my teevee a lot and I simply don’t understand why.

  219. 219.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2018 at 3:47 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Have NONE of these people EVER watched Law & Order? Or even read the news this past year? As soon as you say “I NEVER…. to ANYONE”, women who have been victimized are so furious that they come out to tell their stories.

    Thank god these men are stupid as well as evil.

  220. 220.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @Mary G: Laughed as opposed to what, tossing rotted fruits and vegetables? Would that clearly signal their disrespect?

  221. 221.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @ruemara:

    repulsive. Not them. You.

    Really? A grand total of one person is reporting that “this is just between us” quote. A tweet does automatically become true just because it supports your point of view.

  222. 222.

    JR

    September 26, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @Elizabelle: The guillotine was horrible, as were the Noyades. But most of the worst atrocities were your “standard” war crimes. Which is a good reminder that starting wars is Bad, folks.

  223. 223.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 3:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    Hi back!
    Working hard up here. We had good primaries w good candidates and strong turnout so crossed fingers!
    Avenatti IS an asshole but he plays in the bigs. He makes Trump and the GOP look foolish and unprepared. Which they are. This is going to end up a gigantic clusterfuck IMHO for the GOP. The orange sack of shit is gonna get more not less involved and watch, he is gonna make everything worse. McConnel doesn’t have an answer. His solution is always about raw power. The more power he tries to add will just make things much worse and unfortunately for them they don’t have many other options. We’ll see but I’m feeling that I need to stop at the store for some popcorn.

  224. 224.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    @JR:
    https://www.visitelba.com/

  225. 225.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    Oy vey!

    Sweet Jesus. My jaw actually dropped reading this quote. https://t.co/uIvMNbhwxK

    — Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 26, 2018

  226. 226.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    True. I withdraw my example

  227. 227.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:53 pm

    @trollhattan: I remember it. So messed up.

  228. 228.

    Another Scott

    September 26, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    ICYMI – Froomkin’s White House Watch:

    Reporters who may have a chance to ask a question at Trump’s solo news conference this afternoon – only the second of his presidency (!) – need to keep one thing uppermost in their minds: Trump lies almost all the time.

    So standing up, asking a traditional question, and then sitting down — and not addressing his credibility problem front and center — is enabling. It’s treating him like a normal president, and making him look like a normal president, when he is not.

    Trump has largely refused to answer questions at any length from anyone other than prescreened sycophantic so-called journalists, allowing him to not just maintain but burnish the veneer of normalcy. But even on those extremely rare occasions when he sat down with, say, the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, his interlocutors seemed too caught up in the ecstasy of access to do their jobs.

    The public never has a chance to subject Trump to sustained questioning. So the White House press corps’ job is to expose Trump for what he is, not hunt for evanescent scooplets. It’s to give the public a glimpse of what they know about Trump but rarely say: That he doesn’t actually understand his job, he doesn’t have any real principles, he acts like a spoiled child, and he is a pathological liar.

    […]

    Yup, yup, yup…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  229. 229.

    JR

    September 26, 2018 at 3:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Too close.

    Maybe St. Helena or French Guiyana.

    Although in Trump’s case, an exile to Haiti would be glorious.

  230. 230.

    Chyron HR

    September 26, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @Jeffro:

    “Sipping cocktails on a terrace, eating BIg Macs in bed. Sleeping easy, doing coloring books, it’s attractive.”

  231. 231.

    The Lodger

    September 26, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @HeleninEire: It’s Ireland. Where are you going to find cold beer?

  232. 232.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 3:55 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m just saying, anyone who thinks Senator Feinstein would be willing to throw these three women under the bus and approve Kavanaugh at this point needs to check themselves into a mental health facility immediately, because their Democrat Derangement Syndrome is spiraling out of control.

    (Not that you’re saying that, but there are a bunch of bros getting themselves spun out about Feinstein’s “betrayal!” right about now.)

  233. 233.

    Leto

    September 26, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    @Kay: Yeah, garbage men aren’t born with a golden spoon shoved up their ass, nor do they have access to that elite world (by design) that poor old Kavanope had to grope, drink, and rape his way through. Garbage men actually have to work for a living. What is that, like 2-3 insults in just one sentence? That tweet is really pissing me off.

    @Jeffro:

    How’s them thar hog waste lagoons doing after all that flooding?

    Was there any further reporting on how that nuclear reactor faired in NC? I know they were having issues with it.

  234. 234.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 3:57 pm

    I was just thinking that the Senate judiciary white guys have gone out of their way to hire this unknown Arpaio County prosecutor to save them from looking like the complete shit heels that they are. Only to have Trump decide to have a presser in which (I will be good money that) he will look like an insensitive shit heel for all of them, ruining their cutesy little plan to hide behind a woman’s skirts.

  235. 235.

    psycholinguist

    September 26, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    @Kay: Somebody ask him and LGraham when they knew about Denny Haskert

  236. 236.

    burnspbesq

    September 26, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    And why shouldn’t there be, asshole?

    The rule of law depends on having laws whose meaning is clear to those who are subject to them

    Are you against the rule of law when it’s inconvenient?

  237. 237.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2018 at 3:58 pm

    @eemom: Knowing that he did that makes me happy.

  238. 238.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 3:59 pm

    @raven: MSU basketball was certainly high profile, but football was the money maker for the school. And pursuant to Martin’s comment above, no school administration is going to get crosswise with their big revenue generator if they can possibly avoid it.

  239. 239.

    Elie

    September 26, 2018 at 4:00 pm

    @Immanentize:
    You can count on it. He is gonna screw it all up

  240. 240.

    Gravenstone

    September 26, 2018 at 4:01 pm

    @Immanentize: Yeah, I’m hoping Trump manages to resolve a lot of problems this evening by making McConnell stroke out in impotent rage at having all his careful works undone by one unrestrained ego and mouth.

  241. 241.

    EveryDayIHaveTheBlues

    September 26, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Good one, I get that reference!

  242. 242.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    @Elie: At least he is consistent that way.

    he already said about victim 2: “She got nothing… She was drunk.”

  243. 243.

    LAO

    September 26, 2018 at 4:04 pm

    @Immanentize: I’m honestly dreading the press conference. I have a bad feeling about president nutso,

  244. 244.

    Chris Johnson

    September 26, 2018 at 4:05 pm

    @burnspbesq: We haven’t really had rule of law for a very long time now. What’s different is, not everybody exempt from rule of law are on the same side. And that’s because our election got doctored, which is not unique to us but is a step too far for many.

  245. 245.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @Jeffro:

    How’s them thar hog waste lagoons doing after all that flooding?

    Enough of them have breached that you don’t want to drink well water in those states for a while….

  246. 246.

    Shalimar

    September 26, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @Mandalay: “Lawyer to porn stars” is a terrible line of attack against Avenatti. Even I can write his rebuttal, “There is just the one porn star, singular, and she only needed a lawyer because your cult leader fucked her.”

  247. 247.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    @LAO: I know what you mean. But I can’t imagine that whatever he says will help Kav. I’m not going to watch. I will read about it here.

  248. 248.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 4:07 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Are you against the rule of law when it’s inconvenient?

    Such as 55 MPH speed limit? Fuck that shit!

  249. 249.

    realbtl

    September 26, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @Ben Cisco: GOAT SUNDAY Sunday sunday. This Sunday at the County Fairgrounds.

  250. 250.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @MoxieM

    : … the boys of Georgetown Prep

    Well, now we know what they were being prepped for. Abhorrent treatment of women and abuse of power and privilege.

  251. 251.

    Millard Filmore

    September 26, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    @JR:

    Although in Trump’s case, an exile to Haiti would be glorious.

    Gitmo. Nothing else.

  252. 252.

    Another Scott

    September 26, 2018 at 4:10 pm

    @LAO: Why? I’m expecting it to go like his infamous cabinet meeting (FTFNYT video (4:19)).

    Something like: “Mr. President, Sir, thank you. It’s an honor to be in your presence. Please tell me how you can be so very awesome and how you picked the greatest judge in the history of mankind to be on the Supreme Court. I love it when you do that, Sir!!”

    (groucho-roll-eyes.gif)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  253. 253.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    All indications are that Avenatti is a ginormous asshole, but also a very smart and meticulous lawyer who loves to trip up his opponents.

    Apologies if this point has already been made, but there are times when you want a ginormous asshole for your lawyer. Ms. Daniels made the right call with him.

  254. 254.

    Millard Filmore

    September 26, 2018 at 4:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    anyone who thinks Senator Feinstein would be willing to throw these three women under the bus and approve Kavanaugh

    My assumption about that hug was that the winds were blowing the other way. It meant another NO vote.

  255. 255.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    @JR:

    Which is a good reminder that starting wars is Bad, folks.

    Dude, you’re going to put me out of business!

  256. 256.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    September 26, 2018 at 4:13 pm

    @WaterGirl: Well, he can fire up the flying monkeys (you know, the simple farmers. The common clay of the new West) like nobody else. I’m not quite sure how that will help.

    I love the idea of Republicans having to face two mobs everywhere they go, one of sane anti-Kavanaugh protestors and one of feces-throwing Trumpists. Couldn’t wish for a happier fate.

  257. 257.

    Kay

    September 26, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @psycholinguist:

    Steelworkers Trill-ogy
    ‏@BrandonMagner
    Follow Follow @BrandonMagner
    More Steelworkers Trill-ogy Retweeted J.D. Vance
    In JD Vance’s hysterical defense of his friend Amy “Tiger Mom” Chua, Vance unwittingly reveals Chua as one of the many cowards in the elite legal community that knew of Judge Kozinski’s predatory behavior but nevertheless maintained its secrecy for years. I wonder why.

    They knew about Kozinski.

    Let’s just all agree to drop the “how could this happen?” It happens. Regularly, apparently.

  258. 258.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 4:14 pm

    @JR: I saw a trailer for a remake of Papillon

  259. 259.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I’m not concerned about what Feinstein is going to do.

  260. 260.

    Leto

    September 26, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @The Lodger: At the pub? Yes, at the pub. I honestly miss my local pub because they had some of the best drinking beer you could find. Hook Norton brewery was the local brewery and pub owner for a good number of our pubs (Chipping Norton UK area). Full of flavor, easy to drink, and only 3% alcohol so you could have a few (2-3) and not be sloshed.

  261. 261.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Yep. If I’m going up against the Republicans, I want the most competent asshole lawyer I can find. Avenatti may be grating and pompous, but he seems to know his stuff. This allegation is genuinely worse than the previous ones.

  262. 262.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 4:20 pm

    @Immanentize:

    Others have linked the possible legal train,

    That was the “bigly, youge, bigly” deal about the Meuller Indictment of the Named GRU Officers as being Guccifer 2.0.

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/351239/

  263. 263.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    September 26, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    @Jay:

    Dolt 45 made cyber attacks against the US by a State Actor, and act of war,

    Guccifer 2.0 was a Russian Military Intelligence Hacker Team,

    Guccifer 2.0 coordinated leaks of DNC and DCCC hacked data with Wikileaks , Roger Stone and several Republican Campaigns.

    There is a reasonablr case to be made that a bunch of ReThugs could be investigated and prosecuted for the act of treason as set out in law.

    I was looking up Marie Antoinette recently because I wanted to know the original French version of the “let them eat cake” quote (it’s “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” if anyone wants to know). And I learned that Louis XVI was not executed just for being a royal, as I’d always sort of assumed, but was actually charged with treason for secretly negotiating foreign policy with an adversary.

    Just saying.

  264. 264.

    notoriousJRT

    September 26, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @The Dangerman:
    I know I have crossed over to the insanely cynical side, but I am not sure what price will be paid of for how long. I’m still gobsmacked that attacking McCain’s status as a military hero and attacking a Gold Star family received passes. Not to mention the “grab ’em by the you-know-what” tape. How far can they go in the search for the bottom of the Mariana Trench that is the current POTUS?

  265. 265.

    HeleninEire

    September 26, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @LAO: Nah. It’s gonna be LIT. There is no way he can help himself or Kavanaugh. He’s only gonna give more evidence. Against his fat ass.

  266. 266.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    This allegation is genuinely worse than the previous ones.

    true

  267. 267.

    Mike in DC

    September 26, 2018 at 4:22 pm

    @Mnemosyne: It’s pattern and practice evidence, also shows intent and predilection.

  268. 268.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 4:23 pm

    @Jay: Thank you.

  269. 269.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:24 pm

    @Jeffro:

    A life of luxury in a Moscow penthouse, jeering at America on Putin’s dime. Not impossible.

    Putin prefers a cheaper method of retirement for assets that have lost their value.

  270. 270.

    PAM Dirac

    September 26, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    @Leto: Yaay for Hook Norton. I was in Chipping Norton about 15 years ago and had some excellent examples. I still have my Hook Norton flag up in my brew room.

  271. 271.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    September 26, 2018 at 4:25 pm

    @Leto: I loved our miserable cold wet week in Galway because it gave us a great excuse to duck into the pubs every afternoon, get a strong hot Irish tea for her and an Irish coffee for me, and sit back and listen to some wonderful music. And perhaps a hot stew if it was suppertime. The cold rain was a feature, not a bug.

  272. 272.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    @The Lodger:

    It’s Ireland. Where are you going to find cold beer?

    They have these things called fridges….

  273. 273.

    LuciaMia

    September 26, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    the press conference

    If he was just making a statement, he would stay out of trouble. But taking questions? Disaster ahoy!

  274. 274.

    The Moar You Know

    September 26, 2018 at 4:28 pm

    Are you against the rule of law when it’s inconvenient

    ?

    @burnspbesq: Rule of law has not been operative in this nation since Bush was president, not for the rich, not for politicians, not for financial institutions. Laws are only for the little people these days. Problem is, the little people have started to figure that out. And they are not happy. So yeah, it’s going to offend your sensibilities and those of a lot of other folks, but violence is coming. How much and how widespread is going to be contingent on the actions of those in power. Nobody wants this. But much more lawlessness on the part of those currently in power is going to inevitably lead there.

  275. 275.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 4:29 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Louis XVI was not executed just for being a royal, as I’d always sort of assumed, but was actually charged with treason for secretly negotiating foreign policy with an adversary.

    Lucky for Nixon and Reagan that they are already dead.

  276. 276.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:29 pm

    @burnspbesq: I’m confident that a strong case can be made that McConnell and his wife fall under the second definition of the Constitutional definition. Actively working to further the goals of a known Russian Asset in the Executive Branch is sort of the textbook example.

  277. 277.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    @trollhattan: Being attacked by Lindsey Graham is assault with a dead weapon, but I’m eager to see Avanetti’s response anyway.

    “Savaged by a dead sheep”, I believe was a phrase the left blogosphere borrowed from a British MP a few years ago

  278. 278.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 4:30 pm

    @TenguPhule: old Irish salutation: “may your Guinness never be cold!”

  279. 279.

    Brachiator

    September 26, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    @Elie:

    Trump and the GOP are falling into a huge trap from their own hubris and overreach. Its looking more and more that this is not going to just be a he said/she said but surface some real legal jeopardy. Trump is being baited by Avennati along with the GOP…. Avenatti warned them to “be careful” a couple of days ago about what they were saying. Not that Avennati is perfect, but I would be real real careful as this thing mushrooms.

    You make a great point. However, Trump does not care about women, nor does his base (including many GOP women). He thinks he can still get the GOP senators to confirm his choice.

    Then the question becomes whether, and to what degree, voters punish Trump in the mid terms. But clearly, Trump is betting that he can continue to bamboozle people, or at least ride out any negative push-back.

  280. 280.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:31 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Enough of them have breached that you don’t want to drink well water in those states for a while….

    Or even be in those states. Or be in the states next to them.

  281. 281.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:33 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    but there are times when you want a ginormous asshole for your lawyer.

    And one is not available, Steve is your next best option. //

  282. 282.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:33 pm

    @TenguPhule: And if

  283. 283.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 4:33 pm

    @Mandalay:

    While I think there is probably evidence that Yurtle the Turtle committed treason, if you accept the untried laws that cyberwar by a state actor is an act of war, and the evidence that Guccifer 2.0 was the named GRU Officers,

    It’s not up to me to investigate, gather evidence, press charges and try the case.

    He could be convicted, but I doubt the penalty would be death.

    The US saves the Death Penalty for certain Classes.

    But things change. I don’t remember any Obama Era Democrats getting chased out of public venues by Astroturf TeaBaggers.

  284. 284.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:34 pm

    @notoriousJRT:

    How far can they go in the search for the bottom of the Mariana Trench that is the current POTUS?

    There is no bottom.

  285. 285.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 4:36 pm

    She seems nice:

    Trump Supporter on MSNBC Tells Her Daughters That Groping is 'No Big Deal' https://t.co/HsoOwPW1rR pic.twitter.com/3tNQmGXidT

    — Mediaite (@Mediaite) September 26, 2018

  286. 286.

    Leto

    September 26, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: My wife and I were in Galway 3 years ago (summer of ’15) and we absolutely loved it. She was doing a week long Urban Sketching class, so I got a chance to just explore every nook and cranny of the place. Galway ranks very high on the places we wish we could retire.

    @PAM Dirac: I still get emails from them reminding me about upcoming brewery tours. I’d love to have a Golden Lion right about now. Mmmmm.

  287. 287.

    WaterGirl

    September 26, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    Fake Kavanaugh Diary:

    May 5th

    Woke early. Said morning prayers. Studied for the SATs for three hours, then spent the afternoon reading to the blind. In the evening, shot some baskets with my fellow adolescent males.

    The competition was vigorous, but sportsmanlike. Afterwards, the boys debated which of the girls at National Cathedral was “the hottest.” I refused to engage in their sordid discussion. “Certainly, many of the young women at that school are physically attractive,” I told my schoolyard chums. “Still, I believe that the highest form of Eros is not the love of bodies, but rather the love of wisdom.”

    “Ah, if you love wisdom so much, why don’t you marry the Constitution?” Mark asked.

    Would that I could Mark — would that I could!

    May 26th

    Attended a movie outing, as scheduled. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” Two out of five stars: Mirthful in moments, but utterly unrealistic and unrelatable in its depiction of high-school life.

    After the film, I came home and put the finishing touches on my final project for sculpture class — a photo-realistic mask of my own face. The verisimilitude is eerie in its perfection.

    June 13th

    Had lunch with my 65 close, female friends. We discussed the school year’s end, love, life, and volume two of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex. Told Moira that she doesn’t “owe” it to Jeff to go to second base — and if he keeps pressing the issue, she should look for a new suitor who respects her boundaries. Assured Stephanie that she was gorgeous, inside and out, and that Hollywood’s conception of feminine beauty was oppressively narrow. Encouraged Cassandra to ignore her father’s gender-normative hang-ups and try out for her public school’s wrestling team in the fall (glass ceilings are made to be broken!). Mostly though, I just listened.

    On the way home back home, I stopped in at the hospital to donate some bone marrow.

    June 20th

    Went to church, as I do every Sunday. Reflected on my faith in Catholicism, and belief in the sanctity of all human life, from its very earliest stages (but not, necessarily, in an anti-choice sort of way).

    Later, oversaw a meeting of the “Keg City Club” — a philanthropic organization which aims to deliver barrels of potable water to cities at risk of drought. As Treasurer, I reiterated my view that we had enough funds in our coffers to arrange for the provision of at least 100 kegs by the end of the fiscal year.

    June 21st

    My face has been stolen. For the past two weeks, my photo-realistic mask was hanging at G-Prep, as part of the year-end art show. But when I came by to pick it up this afternoon, the wall where it had been mounted lay bare. I’ve always considered myself a pro-law teen. But this wanton act of theft has redoubled my conviction that laws are very good.

  288. 288.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:37 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “Savaged by a dead sheep”, I believe was a phrase the left blogosphere borrowed from a British MP a few years ago

    More dangerous then you might think.

  289. 289.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Trump Supporter on MSNBC Tells Her Daughters That Groping is ‘No Big Deal’

    The Handmaid’s Tale is not supposed to be an instructions manual.

  290. 290.

    The Lodger

    September 26, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Leto: I have no doubt that it’s great beer. I was just wondering whether it’s cold enough to stand up to 79 degree F weather in Ireland. (Personally, if I’m looking to cool down, I’d get some ice water myself. Is there ice there?)

  291. 291.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 4:45 pm

    @Kay: Jamelle Bouie doesn’t get quoted enough, IMHO

    b-boy bouiebaisse @ jbouie
    b-boy bouiebaisse Retweeted Erick Erickson
    Two things are very funny about this. First, the vulgar credentialism—Kavanaugh went to Harvard unlike you, rube!—second, the idea that no one who engaged in depraved behavior as a young person could go on to succeed in mainstream society.
    Erick Erickson, basically: “The rich and the powerful, their allies, and their friends, are all virtuous philosopher kings who deserve their wealth and power.”
    To be fair to the Son of Erick, he is a self-described “Calvinist,” and “the wealthy and the powerful deserve their position because of their inherent virtue” is a very American spin on the doctrine of unconditional election.

    the modern Republican Party from the Koch Brothers and Willard Romney to Brett Kavanaugh: The virtuous rich and powerful have it too hard, the lazy, mooching poor have it too easy.

  292. 292.

    ruemara

    September 26, 2018 at 4:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m gonna say that, in female, it means “This is your Me Too moment too”. This doesn’t mean fully that Murkowski won’t kowtow to the patriarchy, because GOP women have shown they will prevaricate and coverup for power just like their men. BUT – I’d say that some smidgen of conscience might render that urge she has, dead. Because this entire thing is a triggering nightmare for abuse victims, especially women.

  293. 293.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: what if he horns in on your ‘Don’t do stupid things’ advice?

  294. 294.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 4:49 pm

    and more for Son of Erick, Fucker of Goats

    Richard M. Nixon@ dick_nixon
    Richard M. Nixon Retweeted Erick Erickson
    – Kavanaugh came into a judgeship the way others come into seats on the Cook County Water Board.
    – In his way Kavanaugh reminds me of Hiss.
    – To those who’ve asked, Hiss thought his position was his birthright. He took the posture of being questioned by the help. “I was graduated from Harvard. You were graduated from Whittier, I believe.” And he didn’t know how to lie.

    FTR, I’m fuzzy on the details of the Hiss case, but I greatly enjoy this playwright’s running show on twitter– “graduated from”

  295. 295.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    File Under: What was the editor thinking?

    New Florence flooding forecasts good news for South Carolina

  296. 296.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 26, 2018 at 4:51 pm

    Grassley cannot hire Rachel Mitchell without the consent of Sen. Feinstein@NicolleDWallace @BillKristol @jaketapper @TheBeatWithAri pic.twitter.com/j2OrLDiNkX— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) September 26, 2018

  297. 297.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    @catclub: I have franchise opportunities available.

  298. 298.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 4:54 pm

    @EveryDayIHaveTheBlues: Well, he wants to revive the The East India Company model. Prince has said so himself.

  299. 299.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 26, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @Chris Johnson: My working assumption is that we are already in a soft civil war. Whether it progresses or recedes will be decided in the next few months.

    My preparations continue.

  300. 300.

    Brachiator

    September 26, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    If he succeeds, it will make it easier for future judicial nominees

    What would “success” even look like? Given a lot of people are evidently pissed off and disgusted if Cruz getting chased out of a restaurant is anything to go by, GOP minority rule is probably unsustainable

    You really make a lot of these displays of public disgust. They are impressive. However, the machinery of government grinds on.

    The government is changed by voting, not by protests at restaurants. Disgust has to be turned into political action.

  301. 301.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 4:56 pm

    Lord god in heaven, they found a Muffy McCountryclub-von Privilege to go full metal NOKD

    Keith Appell @ keithcrc
    Kav HS friend Meghan McCaleb: “This claim is absolutely false and absurd. We never hung out with anyone from Gaithersburg High School, there was never any drug use at our parties, and the fact that she is coming out and saying that is such an insult to Brett and to all of us.”

    This woman is in her fifties and she’s going with “Ew, Publics at our parties?”

    Sonny Bunch Retweeted Keith Appell
    We’re literally 30 minutes away from someone saying “Everyone knows those Gaithersburg kids were fucking losers,” aren’t we?

  302. 302.

    notoriousJRT

    September 26, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @LAO: I hope he has the goods because it will be George Bush Texas National Guard bad and worse if he does not.

  303. 303.

    The Moar You Know

    September 26, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    Grassley cannot hire Rachel Mitchell without the consent of Sen. Feinstein

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: you mean the men are going to have to do their own dirty work? This might be done right here, because they won’t.

  304. 304.

    Immanentize

    September 26, 2018 at 4:57 pm

    @A Ghost To Most: Cold Civil War thankfully

  305. 305.

    MoxieM

    September 26, 2018 at 4:59 pm

    @WaterGirl: yep. announced their intentions in the title.

    Kind of glad I’m sick–there’s a mild flu-ey thing going around these parts. It’s making my brain fuzzy; all in all, not a bad solution to the anxiety.

  306. 306.

    JR

    September 26, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Marie Antoinette also never said that (attributable to a potentially fictional princess that Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote about when Antoinette was ~5 years old).

    Louis XVI was executed for collaborating with the Austrians although his particular treason was somewhat more understandable.

  307. 307.

    notoriousJRT

    September 26, 2018 at 5:00 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    They have consistently misplayed the strategic and crisis communication response to this from the start.
    As the blog host noted yesterday, they misplayed it because the frat boy behavior was previously without consequences.

  308. 308.

    MoxieM

    September 26, 2018 at 5:01 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: In other words, “that’s exactly what public HS girls are for. And they’re all sluts anyway.” pearls-and-cashmere

  309. 309.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 5:03 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You need to see Jacobus’s next tweet:

    McConnell is referring to her as an "assistant" for a reason. As in "employee" rather than "consultant" as a way to skirt this rule.

    — Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) September 26, 2018

    Technically she can’t be hired if she is elsewhere employed, so unless she is resigning as a Maricopa County, AZ prosecutor today, they’re in violation of that rule too. Nor can she do this pro bono.

  310. 310.

    Mandalay

    September 26, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Are you against the rule of law when it’s inconvenient?

    Fine words, and I’m with you all the way. Well said!

    But it makes your past support for the abduction of Abu Omar puzzling. In case you have forgotten what the CIA did when you supported them:

    On February 17, 2003, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was abducted by persons affiliated with the CIA as he walked to his mosque in Milan for noon prayers.

    According to court documents, Nasr was pushed into a minivan on Via Giuseppe Guerzoni in Milan and driven four or five hours to a joint Italian-U.S. air base at Aviano, where he was tortured.

    Or did “the rule of law” not apply in that case?

  311. 311.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 26, 2018 at 5:05 pm

    OK, this guy is working at being an asshole, right? he’s been doubling down on a daily basis

    Jim Acosta @ Acosta
    North Dakota GOP senate candidate Kevin Cramer to local station on Kavanaugh accuser: “I mean, how many 15-year-olds handle a lot of alcohol?”

  312. 312.

    TenguPhule

    September 26, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Twitter Ads info and privacy
    Technically she can’t be hired if she is elsewhere employed, so unless she is resigning as a Maricopa County, AZ prosecutor today, they’re in violation of that rule too. Nor can she do this pro bono.

    how many divisions does the Senate Parlimentarian command?

  313. 313.

    EveryDayIHaveTheBlues

    September 26, 2018 at 5:12 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, I know. He wants a “viceroy” for Afghanistan. But he is an idiot, not least because the viceroy was an agent of the official British government, not of the East India Company (EIC). As you know, after the 1857 war, India became part of the British Empire.

    Prince wants his company (“Blackwater”, or “Academi” or “Amoral Shitheads” or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) to take over the entire country a-la the EIC. So technically, he wouldn’t be the viceroy, but rather, someone like Robert Clive, who was a privateer of the EIC. God, he’s a moron.

  314. 314.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 5:16 pm

    https://www.wonkette.com/guess-brett-kavanaugh-didnt-want-us-to-read-his-alibi-calendar

    Wonkette has a copy of Violent Serial Gang Rapist Special K’s Alibi Calender and rips it apart. It’s the opposite of an alibi,

    The Rectification of Names has a link to a leaked copy of Violent Serial Gang Rapist Special K’s new corrected and updated sworn testimony, in which he now admits High School drinking.

  315. 315.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 26, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    @TenguPhule: This one isn’t a parliamentary issue, so that doesn’t matter. But McConnell is going to do whatever he wants to do.

  316. 316.

    Hoodie

    September 26, 2018 at 5:21 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t find Avenatti particularly pompous or grating, he’s just a bit theatrical, which is appropriate for this setting. He’s a good advocate, the style he’s adopting appears to be selected for the assholes he’s dealing with. He called into The View and was perfectly pleasant and respectful to the panel. When he’s dealing with dumbshits he’s more abrupt. He is zealously protective of his clients and takes shit from no one regarding them. He takes the flak for them. Look how he made Stormy into a sympathetic figure by not apologizing for anything she’s done in her career.

  317. 317.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    @EveryDayIHaveTheBlues:

    “Prince wants his company (“Blackwater”, or “Academi” or “Amoral Shitheads” or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) ”

    Peoples Republic of China Inc, LLC.

  318. 318.

    Mnemosyne

    September 26, 2018 at 5:26 pm

    @Hoodie:

    He’s been saying that he thinks he should run for president and visiting Iowa to further those ambitions. That’s where the “egotistical and grating” part comes in. I have no problem with any of his actions as an advocate for his clients.

  319. 319.

    randy khan

    September 26, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    @oldgold:

    Her lawyers are making sure everything is out in the open before the hearing tomorrow, but too late for the Republicans to do much with the information. Smart.

  320. 320.

    Hoodie

    September 26, 2018 at 5:36 pm

    @Mnemosyne: My sense is that’s part of how he gets his adversaries to attack him instead of his clients. Not that he wouldn’t be a vast improvement over Trump as president. Big ego isn’t necessarily bad as long as you’re not corrupt and/or an utter moron.

  321. 321.

    catclub

    September 26, 2018 at 5:40 pm

    Still, Scott has shown he will cross leadership — even the president — if and when he feels he must.

    …
    A few months ago, Scott said he would vote against a candidate for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who could not answer for racially charged writings from his college years. Scott found other Republican senators to pledge to oppose the judicial nominee as well, and leaders were forced to ask for the nominee’s withdrawal.

    Actual action opposing Trump nomination!
    Tim Scott, not quite convinced on Kavanaugh?

  322. 322.

    Jay

    September 26, 2018 at 5:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    He’s got no PAC, no Exploratory Commitee, no sponsor Democrats on board, he’s not building a Machine or collecting funds and sponsors.

    Ergo, he’s just Trolling the Insane Clown POSus.

  323. 323.

    Captain C

    September 26, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    @Kay: I’m really starting to think Erick bin Erick has some serious nonconsensual skeletons in his closet.

  324. 324.

    Chetan Murthy

    September 26, 2018 at 5:52 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Mnem, I share your (what I infer) feelings regarding Avenatti and a possible presidential run. Lord no, please please. I -do- feel that he’s the antihero we need and deserve. Whereas Dr. Blasey Ford, Ms. Ramirez, Ms. Swetnick, are the heroes we need, and surely do not deserve at all. His grandstanding …. well, it’s what makes him both EFFECTIVE and UNFIT for President, yes? If there’s one thing we’ve learned from these last N years, (back to 2000) it is that we need serious leaders in high offices, not “guy you’d feel comfortable having a beer with” or “reality show star”.

    I guess, I haven’t seen any sign yet that he’s failing to deliver. Someone brought up the pic of that DVD in a safe. To my mind, he didn’t make promises about what was or what wasn’t on it, and didn’t make promises about when it was going to be released. The antihero we need, is going to understand bluster and bluffing. But he’s also going to understand when he can’t fake it — like, when it comes to a court of law, or when it comes to something that would fatally wound his credibility.

    That doesn’t change that he’s an antihero.

    an·ti·he·ro

    noun
    a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

  325. 325.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 26, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    @catclub:

    A few months ago, Scott said he would vote against a candidate for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals who could not answer for racially charged writings from his college years

    Thereby thwarting the will of 99% of his constitutents

  326. 326.

    Captain C

    September 26, 2018 at 6:53 pm

    @trollhattan: Pimps have more honor.

  327. 327.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 26, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    When they are sending nominees to the Supreme Court they are not sending their best, they are sending rapists and drunks.

  328. 328.

    Procopius

    September 26, 2018 at 9:21 pm

    @TenguPhule: I want to see some women Senators demand the FBI track down and refer for prosecution the people (probably guys) who sent death threats to Prof. Ford. Charge with tampering with a witness, because she IS a witness in a Congressional hearing. They’ll never do it, of course. The FBI is terrified of getting bad publicity, which is the usual reason they get bad publicity. The Old Queen knew how to do it, none of his successors has had the talent.

  329. 329.

    Procopius

    September 26, 2018 at 9:29 pm

    @TenguPhule: OK, that’s a misunderstanding of the word “enemies.” Legally, Russia is not an enemy. Hell, in a college debate I could even argue that they are our friend. After all, they took out ISIS for us, didn’t they? And what thanks do they get? Any way, they may be an adversary, a competitor, a threat (potentially), but they are not an enemy. Legally.

  330. 330.

    Procopius

    September 26, 2018 at 11:29 pm

    @TenguPhule: Not from me. I’ve given up. The ignorance is invincible. They’ve decided Russia is an enemy combatant and there’s no way to persuade them otherwise. Jefferson Davis was an enemy and guilty of treason because he waged war against the United States. Robert E. Lee was an enemy and guilty of treason because he waged war against the United States. Arguably, Jane Fonda committed treason for her speech from Hanoi, because the Supreme Court ruled we were at war with North Vietnam even though Congress had not declared war (I was stationed at Pleiku when she gave her speech and I agreed with her then and agree with her now). In the absence of war there can be no treason, but it’s the current fad, so there’s no use in continuing to try to fight it.

  331. 331.

    Barry

    September 27, 2018 at 7:00 am

    @Redshift: “I know most of the Republican justices are complete partisans, but some of them care enough about their image as respected jurists that “I’m pardoning you for a federal crime you haven’t been charged with and now you can’t be charged with it in state court” seems like a bridge too far.“

    IIRC, that covers both the Nixon and Bush I pardons.

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