Elaina Plott at The Atlantic published an amazing article about Rudy Giuliani this afternoon. An excerpt:
Even among the president’s closest allies, Giuliani is now the subject of scorn. When I reached him by phone this morning, following House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s release of the full whistle-blower complaint at the center of the Ukraine scandal, he was, put simply, very angry.
“It is impossible that the whistle-blower is a hero and I’m not. And I will be the hero! These morons—when this is over, I will be the hero,” Giuliani told me.
“I’m not acting as a lawyer. I’m acting as someone who has devoted most of his life to straightening out government,” he continued, sounding out of breath. “Anything I did should be praised.”
Okay, then.
Giuliani is enraged by the notion (noted in the whistleblower complaint) that people at the State Department were trying to “contain the damage” caused by Giuliani’s freelancing in Ukraine. In retrospect, that’s why he was waving his phone around at a bewildered Laura Ingraham on Fox News earlier this week, insinuating that he has the goods on the State Department.
But according to Plott’s article, it’s not just the folks at Foggy Bottom who’ve had quite enough of Rudy:
This morning, a former senior White House official told me this “entire thing,” referring to the Ukraine scandal, was “Rudy putting shit in Trump’s head.” A senior House Republican aide bashed Giuliani, telling me he was a “moron.” Both individuals spoke on condition of anonymity in order to be candid.
On Twitter, Plott said she interviewed Giuliani over the phone while riding in an Uber, and Giuliani was ranting so loudly that when she hung up, the driver said, “Uh, everything okay?”
Republicans like Pompeo, Pence, Mnuchin, McConnell, Graham, et al, have been riding the tiger for three years. Trump is demented and unfit, but they thought they could control him. And so far, they have, at least well enough to get what they want: judges and plutocracy-friendly legislation.
I suspect Giuliani is more similar to Trump than those evil shits — a paranoid outer-borough climber with an enormous chip on his shoulder and something to prove. He’s more of a true believer, IMO, as are feral back-benchers like Nunes and Gaetz and the Fox News sycophants who peddle crackpot conspiracy theories to angry white shut-ins.
I wouldn’t place bets on which group will win the battle for the yawning void that passes for Trump’s soul, but my guess is the Foxified rage-bots will have more cred with Trump than the more traditional pols.
I’m looking forward to a couple of things. The first is Giuliani’s testimony at an impeachment hearing. The second is the Stupid Reservoir Dogs-style showdown in the administration when this shit-grenade finally explodes.
rikyrah
Rudy is being thrown under that bus. I can see it. You can see it.
He needs to be subpoena, and let the staff attorneys at him.
Sebastian
I am starting to believe these people are idiots and actually truly BELIEVE all those conspiracy theories.
different-church-lady
Insane people are running our government.
That’s actually more frightening than “Lawless people are running our government.”
The Moar You Know
That was such a beautiful article. It will be read a hundred years from now as both a textbook example of Dunning-Krueger and also a classic example of what happens when stupid people who’ve led lives of supreme privilege finally get caught at something REALLY bad and their privilege no longer serves as a shield.
jl
No wonder Trump never gets mad at Giuliani, he sees one of his own. They’re psychically bonded, and with super glue.
Edit: Sad that Giuliani has to go under the bus. Trump will say he is a great and good man, and being treated very unfairly, like Manafort.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: IIRC Elaina Plott is a RW tool. The resident T-whisperer at the Atlantic.
MattF
I wonder where Barr fits in your scheme. Barr’s got a grandfatherly look and demeanor, but he seems to be busy stoking Trump’s worst instincts.
ETA: Though, I suppose all of Trump’s instincts are his worst instincts. Hmm.
different-church-lady
@Sebastian: I think they don’t even know themselves whether they believe them or not — they just get so much pleasure from repeating them that the thought never even enters their minds.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
and, THIS is the best that she could do for Rudy?
It’s worse than I thought. ..and my ideas have gone wild.
jl
@different-church-lady: Insane and lawless people running our government. I’m waiting for Trump’s revelation that there is a third set of servers that will blow open this entire hoax, hidden in the Ukrainian woods, by Deep State and the bad Ukrainians.
Betty Cracker
@MattF: DisBarr might find himself under the bus one fine day.
Mike in NC
Both Trump and Giuliani spent so much time dealing with NYC mobsters they simply picked up their habits.
The Moar You Know
And on consideration, Trump now has a huge problem on his hands. This fucker. Fire him and he’ll spill his guts: he’ll tell EVERYBODY EVERYTHING. Try to shut him up, same deal. He’ll flip the fuck out and spill his guts. Keep him and hope for the best, he’ll keep going on the shows, talking to reporters, and dragging them to their doom.
Kill him, and everybody’s going to know who ordered it.
Rudy is truly the anvil thrown to a drowning Trump.
Fair Economist
@rikyrah: It’s like living in a delusional bubble impairs the ability to deal with reality. Whocuddanode?
Mnemosyne
Narcissists tend to flock together, because they stroke each other’s egos. Rudy seems to have a whole lot of characteristics of a malignant narcissist, particularly his incandescent rage at the damage to his public image.
different-church-lady
Shakezula at LGM wins today’s internets by translating Guliani into English:
marv
That is one good heading for this post – gave me a smile. Not metaphorically, I smiled reading it. Thanks.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: Won’t be long. Trump’s already making noises about going to the courts to “shut this down”. And the courts absolutely cannot do that.
Once that gets through Trump’s thick, mucus-plugged skull, Barr is nothing more than another witness to Trump’s many crimes.
Gin & Tonic
@jl:
The late Wayne Barrett had that figured out two decades ago.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: That would have to be a doubledecker bus!
Did you see my Barr, or as you call him DisBarr lol?
MattF
@Mike in NC: Or, maybe there was just some tacit kinship.
Martin
@Sebastian: So, it’s been mentioned by political consultants that Republicans choose their religion to match their politics, not the other way around.
This is just an extension of that – when religion won’t validate the outcomes you want, you go QAnon cult. Remember, conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. If supply side economics doesn’t work, it must be some plot by the Chinese. If Trump doesn’t win the popular vote, it must be due to millions of fake voters in California. You need to invent a deep state, a cabal to justify this stuff. So they have. It easier for them to give up belief in God than it is to accept that these conservative ideas are wrong.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@The Moar You Know: You say that as if it were a bad thing.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Fuck me. There is not enough alcohol or popcorn for this shitshow. Not that I won’t do my best to test the supplies of both. Sleep would be good, also too.
The mr. and I are going to a retirement planning class tonight. Assume they will advise stock up on curtain rods and squirrels.
MattF
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: There’s a concept there, but others have thought of it first:
https://chewyourbooze.com/collection/alcohol-infused-popcorn/
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@MattF: (grin) Thanks for the linky!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I want someone to say to Rudi: “When you die, your kids are going to buy all the champagne in Manhattan, then change their names to Hanover, and you will be remembered only, and only in footnotes, as the horny little goat-man who ruined his life and career with syphilis, bourbon and trump.”
(I’m not a doctor, but given all the rumors about Little Rudi’s excellent adventures in Manhattan, is syphilis such a stretch of the imagination?)
...now I try to be amused
“History will absolve me!”
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: Ha! :)
Josie
Thanks so much, Betty. You have given me something to look forward to with great delight.
sm*t cl*de
@schrodingers_cat:
You’re going to need a bigger bus.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-totlV5MfFVE/UWaNSWQmnPI/AAAAAAAAMJQ/Cfmhu79jPxE/s1600/bus.JPG
mrmoshpotato
@jl:
Third set’s at Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.
sublime33
Keep in mind that Paul Ryan raised eyebrows by moving back to Washington in late August. What are the chances that the Republican Party is setting him up to be the presidential candidate in 2020 after realizing they may not dig themselves out of this hole? A Ryan/Romney ticket would certainly neutralize Joe Biden’s “Back to Normalcy” platform.
mrmoshpotato
@sublime33:
Some of us remember Mittington’s “47 percent” remark and what piles of shit both Ryan and Romney are.
ETA: As for “neutralize Joe Biden’s “Back to Normalcy” platform”, back to the normal of Republicans quietly trying to fuck over most of the country?
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: His NY Daily News stuff was so thick with Giuliani’s crisscrossing deals that a short article was like a condensed book. Maybe that was because he had so much research yet to write about before he died. (I never read his books, but would like to.) Have wondered if he chose to die the day that he did, the day before the 2016 inaugural. I read somewhere that he left a basement full of files of his Trump research. Huge loss of a good writer and fighter.
Gravenstone
@sublime33: Because Romney/Ryan worked so well, right?
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
German conservatives and industrialists during the 1920’s & 30’s thought much the same about You-Know-Who, and we all know where that led.
@sublime33:
The ‘47%’ remark would become quite prominent in Democratic ads, along with some of Ripper Ryan’s greatest hits on the need to gut SS & Medicare.
That shit may play well with Republicans, but not so much with the general electorate, especially after the Tax Scam and giveaways to the farmers affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Gelfling 545
@sm*t cl*de: A bit like the Knight Bus.
gammyjill
@sublime33: I’ve actually been thinking the same thing for months now.
prostratedragon
The 27th anniversary of Rudy’s police riot speech just passed. Lest we forget:
From the article:
Matt McIrvin
@sm*t cl*de: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bus
Keith P.
The best part is, while all of this is going on, Rudy’s supposedly working pro bono at the same time his wife is about to take him to the cleaners in a divorce proceeding. No wonder he’s melting down
Sebastian
@different-church-lady:
LOL
Thank you
Sebastian
@Martin:
Thanks for putting it so succinctly.
I am reminded of the quote that Conservatives will abandon democracy before they abandon Conservatism. I think the lynchpin in all of this is racism.
joel hanes
@hedgehog the occasional commenter:
curtain rods and squirrels
curtain rods and _sparrows_. Under an overpass.
Must credit Davis X. Machina, on Lawyers Guns and Money, over a decade ago now.
Ken
@different-church-lady: Hmm, I think I may have been sitting in front of translated Giuliani on the commuter train this evening.
JDM
Rudy, the reason you do these things extracurricularly is so “the secretary can disavow your actions”. It’s part of the deal.
Like when Jimmy Carter went to NK to negotiate the deal that kept them from getting an atomic bomb (until the Bush administration blew up the deal with juvenile insults and bluster). It was “on his own” and “against the wishes of the Clinton administration”. So if it blew up they could avoid blame. Carter knew that and accepted it. Rudy has no guts, but then that’s one reason he fits right in with Trump and the rest of the “GOP”.