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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tepid Words You’ve Swallowed, Turns Out They’re All Borrowed

Tepid Words You’ve Swallowed, Turns Out They’re All Borrowed

by $8 blue check mistermix|  January 30, 202011:52 am| 69 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Guess who, no fair peeking:

If the claims about Giuliani were not preposterous enough, senators were also forced to endure Kenneth Starr’s self-righteous and hypocritical warnings regarding “the culture of impeachment.” Starr had, after all, once run a four-year investigation into obscure land deals, suicide conspiracy theories and intimate sexual details involving President Bill Clinton. Starr would later claim that Clinton’s abuse of power was the “capstone” of his impeachment case, but that did not stop the former independent counsel from mournfully warning senators Monday that “the commission of a crime is by no means sufficient to warrant the removal of our duly elected president.”

If it is true that Trump killed irony years ago, Starr’s opening statement single-handedly exhumed irony’s corpse from its tomb, dragged it across the Senate floor and demolished all obstacles in its path before finally scattering the bones back into the grave, one by one. As Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes said, “Does Ken Starr know he’s Ken Starr?” That embarrassing performance seemed only to confirm Trump’s previous assessment of the former Clinton prosecutor as a “lunatic” and a “disaster.”

I’ll give you a hint. He’s a former four-term Member of Congress from Florida whose third wife apparently has a fetish for being interrupted constantly by preening assholes. He also voted to impeach Clinton.

It’s actually a pretty good column. With so many blind pigs finding ears of corn lately, I’m beginning to confuse the opinion section with the farm section.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

69Comments

  1. 1.

    SalterWobchak

    January 30, 2020 at 11:57 am

    Joe has been hard on Trump for the past couple of years, ostensibly because he feels some culpability for helping him get elected.

    Oh… who am I kidding?

  2. 2.

    mapaghimagsik

    January 30, 2020 at 12:01 pm

    Still all that feverish free tv time he gave the orange shithole

  3. 3.

    glory b

    January 30, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    @mapaghimagsik: After Trump insulted wife III, he’s been on him pretty hard.
    Why didn’t he realize all of this earlier, when it might have helped?

  4. 4.

    Jerzy Russian

    January 30, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    Christ, what an asshole. Even though he is an asshole it is good that he (apparently) is (more or less) on the correct side here.

  5. 5.

    Probably Not an Asshole mistermix

    January 30, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    @glory b:

    Why didn’t he realize all of this earlier, when it might have helped?

    Never expect someone to accept a fact when their income relies on not accepting it.   Having Trump on his show was good for ratings, so he had him on, no matter the clear danger that Trump posed.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    January 30, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    Damn. My bet was David Jolly. Except he wasn’t in Congress long enough I guess.

  7. 7.

    cmorenc

    January 30, 2020 at 12:22 pm

     

     

    @Yutsano:

    third wifr with fetish for being interrupted by preening assholes was a big distinguishing hint

  8. 8.

    catclub

    January 30, 2020 at 12:23 pm

    @SalterWobchak:

    ostensibly because he feels some culpability for helping him get elected.

    Oh… who am I kidding?

     

    how about:  because he no longer finds putting Trump on his show all the time (for free) helps his ratings? Like it did in 2016, when it mattered.

  9. 9.

    catclub

    January 30, 2020 at 12:24 pm

    @Probably Not an Asshole mistermix:

    hey!  beat me to it.

  10. 10.

    ThresherK

    January 30, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    @Jerzy Russian: Eh.

    I met a volunteer firefighter up in the mountainous part of Vermont. Everything about firefighting is tougher up there: The lay of the land, water sources, getting vehicles to the fire, frigid weather freezing everything while it burns. The guy told me these limits, and chuckled and said “We’re really good at putting out foundations!”

    For all the fires he’s started, Joe Scarborough is now vying to be “really good at putting out foundations”.

  11. 11.

    Jinchi

    January 30, 2020 at 12:31 pm

    Even Trump’s wall is trying to escape the country.

    A section of Donald Trump’s much-vaunted border wall between the United States and Mexico has blown over onto the Mexican side in high winds

    So I suppose it isn’t likely to last as long as the Great Wall of China.

  12. 12.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    OT:

    RSS man shoots at protesters at Delhi’s  Jamia Milia University while the police watch. Today is the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination by Nathuram Godse another Sangh man in 1948.

    Bapu, we are sorry your assassins are alive and now ruling India.

    Video footage

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    January 30, 2020 at 12:40 pm

    @Jinchi

    Somehow fitting that a blast of hot air knocked it over.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    January 30, 2020 at 12:47 pm

    @Jinchi:

    So I suppose it isn’t likely to last as long as the Great Wall of China.

    It isn’t intended to be a functional wall.  It’s intended to be a metaphorical middle finger extended at Mexico.  It doesn’t have to last past November 3 to achieve it’s main goal.

  15. 15.

    Sab

    January 30, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    @cmorenc: She ain’t made for tv. Everytime it get’s entertaining she freaks out and faints.

    Better for country club bridge life.

  16. 16.

    Van Buren

    January 30, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    My early guess was George Will.

  17. 17.

    RaflW

    January 30, 2020 at 12:52 pm

    @Roger Moore:  I’d also expect that the contractor who built it skimmed 30% of the cost, and used substandard materials and slapdash labor to cover up his theft.

  18. 18.

    Sab

    January 30, 2020 at 12:52 pm

    My BIL just died. Vietnam war vet. Multiple bronze stars. Good guy. His surviving siblings including my spouse are reeling

    ETA second oldest of 6 kids.

  19. 19.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 30, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    @Sab: May he RIP.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    January 30, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    @Sab: Very sorry for your loss.

  21. 21.

    Sab

    January 30, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    @Baud:

    Thank you guys. This dogpack is a community.

  22. 22.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    January 30, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    @Sab:

    Sorry to hear that, Sab

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    January 30, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    Guess who, no fair peeking

    I missed the “florida” part, which is too bad, because between the whole “third wife who likes being bullied” and “utter lack of shame for impeaching Clinton while protesting that Trump’s Impeachment Was A Shitshow Of Shame”, I thought the dead bang answer was Newton Leroy Gingrich.

  24. 24.

    Immanentize

    January 30, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    @Sab: So sorry Sab.  I knew you told us it was coming, but I had no idea it would be so soon.  He sounds like someone about whom a lot of good will be said and remembered. Stay strong.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    January 30, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    @Sab: What a terrible day.

  26. 26.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    January 30, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    @Sab: so sorry to hear this.

  27. 27.

    Mike R

    January 30, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    Sorry to hear of your BIL, he certainly paid his dues.  Sounds like he was loved by family.  Peace to him and your family.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    January 30, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    @Sab: Hugs.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    January 30, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    @Sab:  I am so sorry.  My brother and several of my cousins have died over the last three years, and it is hard to fathom that I and they are now almost as old as my great-aunt was when we all played together on her farm as kids.

  30. 30.

    Sab

    January 30, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    @Immanentize: Thank you. What a lovely and true comment.

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    @Roger Moore: 
    So what you are saying is that it’s a failure?
    Who coulda known?

  32. 32.

    opiejeanne

    January 30, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    @Sab: Sorry to hear this. (((Virtual hugs)))

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    January 30, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @Ruckus:

    So what you are saying is that it’s a failure?

    I’m not saying it’s a failure.  I’m saying its actual purpose is different from its publicly stated purpose.

  34. 34.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @Sab:

    So sorry for your loss. RIP.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    January 30, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Newton Leroy has decided to ride the tiger he first caught all the way to the end. What will Calista do when she loses her Vatican sinecure?

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    January 30, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Ok, then I’m saying it is a failure.

  37. 37.

    Yutsano

    January 30, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    @Sab: Oh my goodness! Much love and healing light to you and your family.

  38. 38.

    dnfree

    January 30, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: sorry to read this. There are attacks all over the world, it seems, on the forward progress made over the span of my lifetime.

  39. 39.

    satby

    January 30, 2020 at 1:22 pm

    @Sab: condolences to you, your husband, and your family.

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    January 30, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    @Yutsano: Not sure we should care, but I’d bet Pope Francis won’t be terribly sorry to see her go.

    Did she relocate to Rome at all?

  41. 41.

    Nicole

    January 30, 2020 at 1:23 pm

    @Sab: I’m so sorry.  Sending you and your spouse and family sympathy.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    January 30, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    @Ruckus:

    It’s a failure as a wall.  It may still be a success as a piece of political theater.

  43. 43.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 30, 2020 at 1:35 pm

    @Sab: Sorry to hear, my condolences.

  44. 44.

    Gelfling 545

    January 30, 2020 at 2:02 pm

    @Sab: peace to you & your family & peace to him on his final journey.

  45. 45.

    Just Chuck

    January 30, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    @RaflW: Naw, it’s because we didn’t believe in Wall hard enough.  Clap louder.

  46. 46.

    janesays

    January 30, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    Scarborough’s obnoxious as hell, but I appreciate him being a prominent never-Trumper (even though he had a role in getting him into the White House), because it strengthens support for our side among a lot of apolitical fence sitters. When you’ve got a whole bunch of, “Even these Republicans think he’s criminally corrupt” people (Scarborough, Kristol, Will, Wilson, Jolly, Painter, Boot, Cupp, Schmidt, Wallace, Rubin) out there punditing away about how awful they think Trump is, it nudges some of the mushy middle people to the correct side of the fence.

    We’re not Morning Joe’s audience – the people who sat out the election last time or only very reluctantly voted for Clinton because they bought into the BS narrative that Clinton and Trump were equally terrible are his audience. If his voice gets a few more of those people to the polls to vote this monster out in November, that’s a good thing.

  47. 47.

    janesays

    January 30, 2020 at 2:17 pm

    @Probably Not an Asshole mistermix: I think like most people in America (including Trump himself), Scarborough probably didn’t really believe Trump ever had any realistic shot of actually becoming president. The conventional wisdom that Hillary Clinton’s election was a foregone conclusion made a lot of stupid people even stupider.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    January 30, 2020 at 2:31 pm

    @Sab:

    I’m so sorry. Losing a sibling is really hard. I know how your husband feels.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    January 30, 2020 at 2:42 pm

    @Sab:

    My condolences to your family.

  50. 50.

    Miss Bianca

    January 30, 2020 at 2:50 pm

    Holee fucknutz, that was Joe? I mean, I knew he had turned against Trumpski some time ago but day-um…that was some unexpectedly fine invective from that quarter, and it had the added benefit of being all true!

  51. 51.

    Miss Bianca

    January 30, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    @Sab: oh, so sorry to hear it.

  52. 52.

    Raven Onthill

    January 30, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    “Elizabeth Warren’s Little-Known History in an Obscure but Influential Legal Organization.”

    Warren was standing, and is standing, for the working class before anyone had heard. And, yeah, it’s The Intercept, but the article is a good one.

  53. 53.

    brantl

    January 30, 2020 at 3:05 pm

    All the Republican’ts can do now, is lob softballs so that the counsel lawyers can pound the table. They haven’t got one valid argument to make. What a bunch of putzes. Un-freaking believable. What a bunch of sock-nobs.

  54. 54.

    catclub

    January 30, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    @janesays: Scarborough probably didn’t really believe Trump ever had any realistic shot of actually becoming president.

     

    Once you become the the nominee of a major party ( out of two)  you have a better chance of being elected than everybody else in the nation, with possibly one person excepted.

    So Joe only helped him become the major party nominee.

  55. 55.

    laura

    January 30, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    @Sab: I am so sorry for the loss of your brother in law. I hope that your husband and his siblings and their families and friends will find comfort in their grief and that love for each other will lessen the pain of his loss.

  56. 56.

    janesays

    January 30, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    @catclub: No doubt Trump’s chances of becoming president increased dramatically once he became the GOP nominee, but on the eve of the election, FiveThirtyEight was giving him only a 28.6% chance of winning – and literally every other major poll analyst was giving him even lower odds of winning. A lot of people dunked on Silver on 11/7/16 for overestimating the odds of a Trump victory, and on 11/9/16, a lot of people dunked him for underestimating the odds of a Trump victory.

    Most people thought Trump had no real chance of winning – including Trump himself

    A huge part of what made that awful election sting so much is the fact that it utterly blindsided us – I can’t remember a single friend who woke up that morning seriously worried that Clinton might not win. By around 7pm, everything changed. In hindsight we have been able to put the pieces together, but on the night it actually happened, it shocked the whole world.

  57. 57.

    Zelma

    January 30, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    If you haven’t seen it, look at the first version of the rant as performed on his TV show.  It was quite something.  A bit rawer.  You can probably find it on Youtube.  I don’t know if it was ad libbed or planned but it was something.

    I don’t watch Joe and never have.  I’m retired.  At 6:00 in the morning, I’m in bed.  But I have less politically involved friends who do and I think the message is good for them.

  58. 58.

    Ben Cisco

    January 30, 2020 at 4:46 pm

    @Sab: My condolences on your loss.

  59. 59.

    SWMBO

    January 30, 2020 at 5:04 pm

    @Sab: Condolences on your husband’s family’s loss.  Peace and comfort to all of you.

  60. 60.

    Spider-Dan

    January 30, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    The irony is that Ken Starr is in the position to make a smart-ish argument on this: he could say that we proved in 1998 that you can’t remove a President from office for obstruction or (whatever). But that would be saying that Trump and Bill were equally bad, which no Republican would tolerate.  So instead we get this obviously dishonest “well of course the President can do as he likes” nonsense.

  61. 61.

    Richard Guhl

    January 30, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    @Sab: May the Source of all comfort comfort you and your family in this time of sorrow.

  62. 62.

    Uncle Cosmo

    January 30, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    @catclub: @Probably Not an Asshole mistermix: Upton Sinclair beat both of you by something more than 85 years:

    It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

    (from I, Candidate for Governor And How I Got Licked, 1934)

    Maybe this version of “mistermix” is “Possibly Still An Asshole” since he couldn’t be arsed to acknowledge the obvious near-plagiarism.

     

     

    @Probably Not an Asshole mistermix:

  63. 63.

    Uncle Cosmo

    January 30, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    @Zelma: I searched diligently & found this clip courtesy of the Daily Beast.  Not sure it’s better than the print version (which I couldn’t read thanks to Greedmonger Bezos’s firewall, fuck him very much) since it’s punctuated with the hysterical laughter of Joe Scar & dissociated neverTrumpers…

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    @janesays:

    I can’t remember a single friend who woke up that morning seriously worried that Clinton might not win. By around 7pm, everything changed.

    I worked to elect Hillary Clinton for weeks — calling into Ohio every evening. It was stressful, because you never knew when you were going to get a MAGAt cursing you and calling Hillary despicable things.

    By the week before the election, I was losing hope, actually. The phone calls became more depressing. By the weekend I had to stop.

    I voted, and here in WV that made absolutely no difference as Trump won WV by a huge margin. That night, by 8 or 9 pm I stopped watching the returns — I knew we had lost, just as I feared. I opened a bottle of good brown whiskey, had some of that to drink, and went to bed.

    Wednesday morning it was exactly as bad as I expected. Won the popular vote by millions of people, lost the Electoral College by just enough. So Sad, Still Sad!

  65. 65.

    J R in WV

    January 30, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    @Sab:

    I’m so sorry for your, and your husband’s , and his family’s loss. It sounds like your BIL was a great guy with courage and accomplishments to be proud of.

    I’ve lost two cousins recently. One was a great person whom I loved and will miss. The other was a religious nut job, a right wing crazed person whom the world is better off without. Hard to deal with, but there it is.

    Hugs and best wishes to you and your husband!

  66. 66.

    Dan B

    January 30, 2020 at 9:36 pm

    @Sab: Sorry to hear about your BIL.  He sounds like one of the great ones if his siblings are reeling.  It’s so har knowing you won’t be seeing someone who gave such joy.

  67. 67.

    Dan B

    January 30, 2020 at 9:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:   Thanks for the updates.  It’s very disturbing because I know some wonderful families who live just 3 miles away, or less.  One of them is professor of medicine at a university near Connaught Circle.  To have attacks on any university must be deeply unsettling for her.

  68. 68.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 30, 2020 at 10:24 pm

    @Sab: In the utterly idiotic words of Donald, “warmest condolences” to family and friends.

  69. 69.

    No One You Know

    January 30, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    @Sab: I am sorry for your loss. It’s a hard thing.  May you and your family know peace, even in the midst of sorrow.

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