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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Open Thread: Watergate History Lesson

Open Thread: Watergate History Lesson

by Anne Laurie|  October 23, 20185:10 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Getting The Band Back Together, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Republicans in Disarray!, Decline and Fall, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

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The Woodward book for the Trump era isn’t Fear; it’s “Final Days” from 1976. I just finished it and it has a ton of lessons for the present day, especially for WH reporters on the pitfalls of access journalism when covering a criminal conspiracy. THREAD 1/ https://t.co/SFp2FjAiaV https://t.co/nptOo0DSy8

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

This is b/c WH staff at the end weren’t involved in the Watergate conspiracy so they didn’t actually know what happened. Nor were they interested in knowing. 3/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In the WH staffers defense, they were their to serve the POTUS! Just so happened the POTUS was a crook! But they were all working really hard to protect the POTUS.

The impact of this delayed Nixon’s fall; it kept the GOP on-side, as well as much of the public. 5/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In the case of Watergate, the WH insiders were either:

1. Totally ignorant of what happened.
2. Totally suspected Nixon did it, but didn’t actually “know” or want to know.

The only one in the WH that knew what happened was … Nixon. 7/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

In turn, they’re working hard to get this go away. Stonewalling the investigation, buying time, running political attacks vs. Mueller/Rosenstein in coord w/ members of the House. They’re just “serving” the POTUS. But really they’re complicit in defacto obstruction of justice. 13/

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

Lesson here is that few thought Nixon was going down. So everyone stuck w/ him. When the equation changed, the GOP broke vs. him. If Republicans break vs. Trump, it will happen suddenly and abruptly. END

— Max Bergmann (@maxbergmann) October 21, 2018

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56Comments

  1. 1.

    Nicole

    October 23, 2018 at 5:19 pm

    Funny- I just started watching a series on Netflix “The 1970s” (might have originally been CNN or some other channel that did it; I don’t know. Tom Hanks is one of the producers) and Episode 2 is Watergate and the episode said the same thing- that the media totally bought the WH line that there was nothing to the story and that the majority of Nixon’s staff had no idea what was going on.

    Also, Pat Buchanan is still a water-carrier for Nixon.

  2. 2.

    bluehill

    October 23, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    I don’t know that much about the details of Watergate, so this may be incorrect. It seems like the big difference between now and then is the scale of the corruption. It’s not just Trump, but most of his cabinet, his daughter and son-in-law, many in the house and senate and now the supreme court are alleged to be or shown to be doing something corrupt/illegal besides Russia collusion. They are all in and so I think will fight harder (i.e. violate more norms, ethics, laws) to stay in power and avoid being caught.

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    October 23, 2018 at 5:23 pm

    Republicans will never turn on Trump. They would sooner allow him to toss out the Constitution.

  4. 4.

    Nicole

    October 23, 2018 at 5:25 pm

    @bluehill: He’s not saying it “will” happen. He’s saying IF it does happen, it’ll happen fast.

  5. 5.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 5:28 pm

    @Nicole: It was when Senator Goldwater* and House Minority Leader Rhodes(both from AZ) went to the White House on August 7, 1974 that Nixon knew the jig was up, he announced his resignation the next day.

    *There was also a Representative Goldwater(my Congresscritter) who was the Senator’s son.

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    October 23, 2018 at 5:30 pm

    @Nicole:
    Seems a fair conclusion. Those surrounding Trump aren’t there for the laffs and sparkling conversation, they’re there for self-enrichment and the draw of untethered power. Once they sense Trump is crashing they’ll crush one another heading for the exits, including his vile, bloodless family.

  7. 7.

    Eljai

    October 23, 2018 at 5:30 pm

    I read that Max Bergmann thread on Sunday. Really fascinating. I was beginning to think that Watergate was not a useful comparison anymore because it seems like republicans have gotten so much worse when it comes to lying, obfuscating and obstructing justice. But this analysis shows that they were enablers back then too and they only appeared to get on the impeachment train once the stain of Nixon’s crimes became apparent. Gives me an odd sense of hope.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    October 23, 2018 at 5:32 pm

    @Nicole:

    And we don’t need them all to turn. Just enough. Maybe this sounds Pollyanna-ish but I think some amount of GOPers might want to save their own skins and/or have a smidgen of love of country left. Probably not, but I’m going to keep hoping.

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    October 23, 2018 at 5:33 pm

    OT Padmini is marrying Aladdin Khilji (Deepika Padukone is marrying Ranveer Singh). They played antagonists in last year’s Padmaavat.
    Watch them in Ramleela

  10. 10.

    Nicole

    October 23, 2018 at 5:36 pm

    @geg6: Yeah, we’ll see, but I find the Watergate comparisons reassuring because it reminds me A) it took a long time and B) the Republicans fell in line, until they didn’t.

    The one thing you can say for today’s GOP, they ain’t the brave sort, and they’d sell their own children if they thought they needed to to save their own skins.

  11. 11.

    tokyokie

    October 23, 2018 at 5:41 pm

    What gets me is that aside from Murkowski, no GOP senator voted against Kavanaugh. Any one of them who would have done so would have been lavished with the sort of praise McCain would receive for his occasional vote against mainstream GOP interests and become the party’s next star. It’s not so much that they all are utterly without courage (although they are), it’s that they are all utterly without imagination as well.

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel

    October 23, 2018 at 5:46 pm

    @geg6:
    November 6th.
    If it looks like Rapeublicans have lost their grip & stand to lose the Senate a few will find their spines. If they hold the house & gain in the Senate they will be a concrete wall

  13. 13.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    October 23, 2018 at 5:47 pm

    Is it just me or is this a ratfuck?

    I saw an ad for it on this site. They call themselves Me Too Ohio. It exclusively attacks Sherrod Brown and uses this wording:

    Me Too Ohio is committed to ensuring courageous Ohioans are able to tell their stories of domestic violence and perpetrators in power are held accountable for violence and harassment.

    They vilified Judge Kavanaugh, but Democrats turned blind eyes to their own Sherrod Brown.

    These court records show sworn evidence that Sherrod Brown’s ex-wife accused him of abusing her, citing his “physical violence and abusive nature.” She said Sherrod Brown assaulted her, and the Judge issued a restraining order against Brown.

    Later, she said Brown violated the court order, pushing, shoving and bullying her.

    Sherrod refused to go to his vehicle and pushed Larke up against the wall with his arm …

    Sherrod Brown claims this is a family matter, but by making her sworn statement, his ex-wife, just like other victims, has a right to be believed.

    That bolded part is pretty damning. Liberals by and large are the ones who care about domestic violence and what MeToo’s been advocating. No liberal would word it like that. “Vilified” is a particularly charged word.

  14. 14.

    randy khan

    October 23, 2018 at 5:50 pm

    @Nicole:

    He’s not saying it “will” happen. He’s saying IF it does happen, it’ll happen fast.

    I’ve been saying this for more than a year – we don’t know if there is a breaking point for the Republicans, but if there is one, they will pretty much abandon Trump all at once. Until then, there will be almost no profiles in courage.

    And the corollary is that it won’t happen unless there’s a drastic turn against Trump in public opinion. The smoking gun tape really moved the polls, and very quickly. The signs were unmistakable, and the rats got off the sinking ship in the hope that they wouldn’t drown. (It didn’t work out too well for them, as it turned out.)

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 23, 2018 at 5:50 pm

    Since it’s an open thread and all:

    Maybe this is of interest only to my fellow Georgia residents, but I’m hoping one of the front-pagers will put up a good link to the Stacey Abrams-Brian Kemp gubernatorial debate, which begins at 7:00 pm EDT. Yes, I could (and will, if necessary) watch it on the Atlanta Press Club FB streamy thing, but I tried that for a few of the Congressional debates this afternoon and it kept going dead. Hope C-SPAN or someone can provide a more stable feed.

    ETA: Alas, I guess it’s going right up against Game 1 of the World Series. Well, Go Sox and Go Stacey!

  16. 16.

    Tracy Ratcliff

    October 23, 2018 at 5:51 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Sherrod Brown’s ex-wife refutes claims of domestic abuse

    https://www.cantonrep.com/news/20180913/sherrod-browns-ex-wife-refutes-claims-of-domestic-abuse

    Larke Recchie, the ex-wife, campaigned for Brown in 2006 and 2012.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    October 23, 2018 at 5:53 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Republicans will never turn on Trump. They would sooner allow him to toss out the Constitution.

    Trump never read the Constitution, doesn’t understand it, and does not see himself as being bound by it. In sticking by Trump, the Republicans have, in effect, turned on the country. There is no way back for them.

  18. 18.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 5:53 pm

    @Nicole: A commenter on this here blog has said the same thing over and over agian; he also says ‘fuckem’ alot.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    October 23, 2018 at 5:54 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Hey, what does The Google say when you type did sherrod brown abuse his ex-wife... ?

    A whole bunch of recent entries like this:

    … Renacci has repeatedly criticized Brown for a domestic abuse allegation and restraining order filed by Brown’s first wife against him during heated divorce proceedings in 1986.

    Brown’s ex-wife, Larke Recchie, has taken Renacci to task for trying “to score cheap political points,” as Recchie and Brown have for years been on good terms.

    “I was proud to support Sherrod in 2006 and 2012, just as I am this time around,” Recchie said in a statement in September. “Anyone who suggests he is not an honorable man is just wrong. He’s a great father to our daughters Emily and Liz and he’s a wonderful grandfather to our grandchildren.”

    Renacci did not back down from his campaign’s decision to use the issue against Brown, which he has repeated at the candidates’ debates….

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    October 23, 2018 at 5:55 pm

    OT. My previous state senator (Republican) who has since left office sent me email as part of his list for who knows what. I wrote back and said “Please take me off your list immediately.”

    He replied, very quickly:

    I have taken you off of our list….. Immediately! I guess I do not understand your contempt. Since we had been in touch in the past when I was your State Senator.

    My reply to him:

    Thank you for the quick reply. Quite frankly, Republicans as a party have become so vile and hateful and ruthless that the entire party disgusts me.

    Nice to be able to say that directly to a Republican!

  21. 21.

    randy khan

    October 23, 2018 at 5:55 pm

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

    Brown’s ex-wife says there’s no there there. And it’s worth noting that she held a fundraiser for Brown in this cycle.

    Nope.

  22. 22.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 5:56 pm

    @Schlemazel: If they lose the House and keep or make small gains in the Senate, a few will get wobbley. They know this was a good election calendar for them.

  23. 23.

    Gelfling 545

    October 23, 2018 at 5:56 pm

    According to TPM “Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Monday that he does not consider the Russia investigation a “witch hunt,” and also thinks of special counsel Robert Mueller as an “American hero.”
    I wonder what, if anything, that signifies.

  24. 24.

    germy

    October 23, 2018 at 5:58 pm

    Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb on Monday said he doesn’t buy President Donald Trump’s claim that the ongoing special counsel investigation is a “witch hunt.”

    Special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe is investigating, among other things, whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to help its candidate win the 2016 presidential election.

    Trump and his allies have repeatedly called the investigation a “witch hunt” and denied that there was collusion. The president has on a number of occasions floated the idea of firing Mueller.

    Cobb, who stepped down from his post as White House lawyer in May, told host Gloria Borger at CNN’s CITIZEN Conference in New York on Monday that he rejects the president’s analysis of the probe. He also praised Mueller, who he said he has “respected” for decades.

    “Bob Mueller is an American hero in my view,” Cobb said during a panel with Jack Quinn, who served as White House lawyer under former President Bill Clinton. “He was a very serious prosecutor. He and I first met in the mid-’80s when we were prosecuting different places, and I have respected him throughout.”

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ty-cobb-mueller-probe_us_5bcf5123e4b0d38b587cceec

  25. 25.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 5:58 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: God wears Dodger Blue.

  26. 26.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    October 23, 2018 at 5:58 pm

    @Tracy Ratcliff: @Anne Laurie:

    I actually found this while researching after I posted that:

    Dark money website revives allegations from Sherrod Brown’s 1980s-era divorce (Plain Dealer)

    MeToo Ohio is a Super PAC created on Sept. 5 by Lisa Lisker, a Republican political consultant in the Washington D.C. area, federal election records show.

    News of the site was first reported earlier Thursday by The Daily Caller, a Washington-D.C. based conservative news website. The article also links to records from Brown’s divorce hosted on http://www.majoritystrategieshosting.com. The website shares a similar name with Majority Strategies, a prominent Republican political consulting firm led by Brett Buerck, an Ohio native.

    MeTooOhio.com shares a common IP address, a unique number assigned to each digitally connected device, with http://www.majoritystrategieshosting.com. As of Thursday afternoon, the latter website contained a publicly visible directory of files including Majority Strategies press releases and a directory of myriad political websites, including what appears to be a template for the MeTooOhio website and a template for another website supporting Ohio Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs.

    Renacci’s Senate campaign has paid $37,050 to Majority Strategies for political mail and delivery, federal election records show. The Ohio First PAC, a Super PAC created to support Renacci’s campaign, has reported owing Majority Strategies more than $534,000 for printing, TV and radio commercials and research, federal election records show. The firm also has done hundreds of thousands of dollars of work for the Ohio Republican Party.

    Reached for comment, Buerck initially did not confirm or deny that Majority Strategies was behind the site. However, after this story was published, the publicly visible directories and some of the pages on http://www.majoritystrategieshosting.com were removed.

    Late Thursday, hours after this story published, a spokeswoman for MeTooOhio passed along a statement from Buerck acknowledging Majority Strategies’ connection to the group, saying it was working “with all of the necessary legal firewalls in place.”

    But, he said the focus on his firm’s role distracted from the important work the group was doing.

    “No one should be surprised that we were hired to work with Me Too Ohio, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be involved,” Buerck said.

    So, yeah. Ratfuck. His ex-wife, who’s a supporter, also says it’s all bullshit.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    October 23, 2018 at 5:59 pm

    @Gelfling 545: Sounds to me like maybe he is trying to salvage a bit of his reputation.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    October 23, 2018 at 6:02 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Sounds like no one trademarked MeToo.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    October 23, 2018 at 6:03 pm

    @Anne Laurie: People get pissy when they are going through a divorce, the Browns were not immune to that. But in the end, they clearly had the best kind of divorce.

    Amends were made and accepted, and everyone moved on, all on good terms.

    That didn’t happen with Kavanaugh. There weren’t even the vaguest of apologies made. But this is the sort of distinction that is lost on Republicans.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 23, 2018 at 6:04 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    God wears Dodger Blue

    I knew there was a reason why I was divinely inspired to be an atheist!

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 6:05 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Now you just have to ask yourself; do you support the Blue team or the Red team?

  32. 32.

    japa21

    October 23, 2018 at 6:05 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: As I mentioned the last time you said that, it is possible you are correct, specially considering how lucky they are to be in the WS. It also makes me question God’s sanity.

  33. 33.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 23, 2018 at 6:11 pm

    @japa21: LA looks nice in blue: https://flic.kr/p/CCBzDC. That was taken the night before the first game of the Series last year.

    Here’s a nice LA sunset(last night): https://flic.kr/p/29AfM8A

  34. 34.

    eemom

    October 23, 2018 at 6:47 pm

    @tokyokie:

    McCain would receive for his occasional vote against mainstream GOP interests

    You mean his ONE vote against mainstream GOP interests.

  35. 35.

    Manyakitty

    October 23, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I read … elsewhere (can’t remember where, dammit!) that it’s bullshit. Dude has nothing left, so this is where he decided to go.

  36. 36.

    Kathleen

    October 23, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I heard about this awhile back. What I find interesting is that Brown has been around a long time, first as a state official, then a congressman, now a senator. I would have thought this would have surfaced a long time ago. This item from Cleveland Plain Dealer clarified this for me.

    https://www.cleveland.com/darcy/index.ssf/2018/10/realing_renacci_tries_to_kavan.html

    ETA I see Anne Laurie beat me!

  37. 37.

    gene108

    October 23, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    @randy khan:

    the rats got off the sinking ship in the hope that they wouldn’t drown. (It didn’t work out too well for them, as it turned out.)

    Huh?

    All of Nixon’s flunkies landed on their feet, as far as I know.

    Rumsfeld was Sec of Def for Ford and Bush, Jr. Cheney did well. Bork, even though he didn’t get on the SCOTUS, was Solicitor General and was on the DC Circuit court of appeals, and had a long career as a law school professor and consultant, Buchanan has had a lucrative career in the media…the list goes on and on about these guys failing upwards…hell, G. Gordon Liddy, even after going to jail, had a long running radio show…

    Republicans, the media, and a good chunk of the public want Republicans to fail upwards. Look at Ken Starr’s crew like Kavanaugh and Rosenstein not having their careers ruined by what they did in the 1990’s.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    October 23, 2018 at 6:50 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Politics ain’t beanbag ain’t baseball.

  39. 39.

    Ken Shabby

    October 23, 2018 at 6:59 pm

    If If Republicans break vs. Trump, it will happen suddenly and abruptly

    In either 2020 or 2024………

    Same is true now.

    Not really. GOP has known the entire time this slob is a criminal. He entered office and took oath as a criminal. They knew it, then. They know it every day, now, as it worsens. They know precisely what they’re witnessing and, as such, utterly complicit.

    I was in my 20s, then. This is not remotely like that. In any way at all. Nixon was a bizarre aberration, headed for the ash heap of history and, quick. This awful person gets stronger within his and their base with every passing episode. Nixon laid the groundwork for these horrors but, the GOP is finally arriving where they set course for, back then.

    Or, as dickchainy would say, these are the spoils and they’re earned.

    “Let’s return, to those halcyon days where everybody was blissfully ignorant and not at all complicit except Dickless. “

    Bullshit at face value, to anyone paying attention. The entire time.

    um – no. They were all in it, up to their flat ass. And, it was mild by comparison.
    Nixon would LOVE today’s GOP.

    “What took you guys so long?”

    With shout out to John Dean, from whom all blessings flow.

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    October 23, 2018 at 7:00 pm

    Talk about a Freudian slip—Jared Kushner on the Khashoggi situation:

    “We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” he said. “Once those facts come in, the secretary of state will work with our national security team to help us determine what we want to believe.”

  41. 41.

    Ken Shabby

    October 23, 2018 at 7:03 pm

    @gene108:

    Yes. Just so.

  42. 42.

    Ken Shabby

    October 23, 2018 at 7:05 pm

    @Gelfling 545:

    No Anything. Speaks for itself.

  43. 43.

    Ken Shabby

    October 23, 2018 at 7:11 pm

    In short, Nixon could only WISH he had a GOP and media this.fucked.up.

    He didn’t. Trump does.

    Fear and Loathing in The Confederate States of America, world without end, ah-men.

    “Nixon was queer, and in the worst way, He had to screw his pants on every morning”

    What does that make Rump? And, the Grand Old Pedofiles?

  44. 44.

    JGabriel

    October 23, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    gene108:

    All of Nixon’s flunkies landed on their feet, as far as I know.

    As per Wikipedia:

    The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 being found guilty …

    The Wikipedia link takes you to a list of about 20 of the 48 people found guilty (if you want a quick summarty). Most of them were sentenced to jail time.

  45. 45.

    Uncle Cosmo

    October 23, 2018 at 7:34 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: When efgoldman squawks, jackals listen. /obscure

  46. 46.

    Ken Shabby

    October 23, 2018 at 7:37 pm

    @JGabriel:

    Except
    Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Satan and, Death to Smoochy.

    Second verse, same as the first!

    One group has to actively WANT it, to plan so thoroughly, execute so well and end up Patruts, Bible Botherers and molestors.

    “We’re NATIONWIDE”

  47. 47.

    hilts

    October 23, 2018 at 7:45 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Jared Kushner will forever have his head stuck up his ass.

    @SiubhanDuinne Thankfully, C-SPAN archives all these debates. C-SPAN rocks and let’s go Red Sox.

  48. 48.

    low-tech cyclist

    October 23, 2018 at 8:20 pm

    Lastly, we applaud the bipartisanship of the GOP… but they broke very very late. Defected only when tapes came out and it became clear he was going down. Nixon even had rally in AZ w/ GOP deleg shortly before resigning. Basically tapes broke the floodgates.

    Max has a lousy memory. The ‘tapes [that] broke the floodgates’ that he’s referring to are the ‘smoking gun’ tapes of June 23, 1972: Nixon resigned just a few days after they became public.

    But BEFORE anyone besides Nixon knew what was in them, 7 of the 17 Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee had voted to impeach Nixon. And it was already clear that Nixon’s surviving the Senate trial was going to be iffy.

    Not to mention, even the previous fall, Richardson and Ruckelshaus had resigned rather than fire Archie Cox.

    Sure, most Republicans stood foursquare behind the Trickster, but there was nowhere close to the near-unanimity of GOP support for Nixon that Trump gets.

  49. 49.

    cwmoss

    October 23, 2018 at 8:23 pm

    @Steeplejack: Kudos for mentioning Freud! But I think this one’s a gaffe, rather than a Freudian slip, in that he inadvertently spoke the truth.

  50. 50.

    Gwangung

    October 23, 2018 at 8:34 pm

    Yup. Don’t think the Republicans will break. They’ve selected for power-hungry and selfish over statesman and country-minded. It’s “Power over Nation” down the line.

  51. 51.

    jc

    October 23, 2018 at 8:52 pm

    This is why it’s better to make an election system that *prevents* someone like Trump from being able to cheat his way into office — because once someone that rotten gets their hands on that power, they become like a disease-bearing tick that just keeps poisoning the body politic and it’s damn near impossible to get rid of them. And then the GOP-controlled Congress gets infected and like zombies they start helping in the destruction of norms and rules that were put in place over decades to prevent the trashing of the government itself.

  52. 52.

    Wallis Lane

    October 23, 2018 at 8:55 pm

    I don’t put any stock into the Watergate comparisons, and no optimism that Republicans would ever break en masse. This is a different planet altogether. Nixon did not have the equivalent of a Kim Jung Un-style State Propaganda Network behind him, blasting obfuscation 24/7 to the red states. If Nixon had Fox News, no impeachment, that simple; every lie, every damning fact, even recorded utterances would be hand-waved away, called fake news or tactics by sore-loser Democrats, and all Republican corruption would be projected back to the Dem side of the aisle. Max forgets that back in 1974, even the right-wingers (voters and office-holders) were in basic agreement that facts were facts, and while they would grouse about the “liberal” network news, they wouldn’t completely deny a “smoking gun” if the vast majority of the media confirmed it as such. Now, the GOP pols play only to Fox News, their voters only accept Fox news approved output, that’s where they all get their marching orders, and there is nowhere near the diversity of thought among the GOP as there was in 1974. As long as Fox and Sinclair and their ilk support Trump, which will be forever, there will be no impeachment, and no lessening of senatorial support.

  53. 53.

    James E Powell

    October 23, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    @Gwangung:

    Republicans will never break because there is nothing to be gained from doing so. No matter what Trump has done or will do, Republican voters will still require all Republicans to back him. Remember, they thought Boehner and Cantor were RINOs who were working with Obama.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    October 23, 2018 at 9:28 pm

    Booby is a hack. Plain and simple. A fucking stenographer. Lets his sources get away with murder.

  55. 55.

    OGLiberal

    October 23, 2018 at 9:38 pm

    @low-tech cyclist: With Nixon, you had Southern Dems who opposed because any Dem was better than a Republican and non-crazy GOPers, many from the North and West, who weren’t down with that shit. Today’s GOP is wing-nuts from blue states who are crazier than ever and a bunch of folks who were/would have been Southern Dems back in Nixon’s day. They won’t do the honorable thing, ever. As honorable as they will get is retiring, a la Flake. A lot of good that does.

    And then there is Collins. She must be bringing home the bacon big time. Which kind of baffles me because I don’t think a no vote on Kavanaugh would have hurt her much at home since Mainers seem to just check her box, regardless. But I’m not from Maine so have no idea how her “I’m concerned but will almost always vote against those concerns” schtick plays there.

  56. 56.

    Gretchen

    October 23, 2018 at 10:49 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: it’s a ratf*ck. His ex-wife cut an ad condemning the accusation. She said many divorces are unpleasant, including theirs, and she stands behind him. She held a fundraiser for his campaign in her home shortly before this came out, and released a charming photo of herself, Sherrod, and their new spouses with all their grandchildren. MeToo lets women speak for themselves, and what she says is this is bullsh*t.

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