Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

T R E 4 5 O N

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Republicans in disarray!

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Bark louder, little dog.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Accountability, motherfuckers.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / GOP Venality Open Thread: #MoscowMitch McConnell Must Go

GOP Venality Open Thread: #MoscowMitch McConnell Must Go

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  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    Are your ears so stuffed with lobbyist money that you can’t hear the American people, @SenateMajLdr McConnell?

    I busted up, and that was BEFORE I saw who posted it. Hello Capitol Police, I’d like to report a murder in the Senate.

  3. 3.

    Mike G

    Anyway Mitch McConnell’s whole thing is being a massive, partisan hypocrite. He doesn’t care that his hypocrisy is obvious to everyone — it’s actually the point.
    And there’s a whole sea of Republican guys in fleece sweater vests who think it’s cool that McConnell’s a hypocrite.

    Getting away with being an asshole is a positive in their toxic culture.

    Years ago I worked with a smug jerk who thought it was cool Bush got away with wearing a secret earpiece to be fed answers in his debate with Kerry. That his guy was a cheat and too stupid to think up his own responses didn’t bother him a whit.

  4. 4.

    Catherine D.

    @trollhattan:

    I busted up, and that was BEFORE I saw who posted it. Hello Capitol Police, I’d like to report a murder in the Senate.

    Me too! Go, Liz!

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Moscow Mitch needs to be made an example.

    As Admiral Byng was, for far less consequential actions.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    Concur McConnell is rattled.  For the first time, he’s seeing polls that show a significant probability that the Reps lose the Senate.  The eventual outcome will closely parallel the vote for Trump’s re-election.  And Trump is coming apart at the seams faster than his own pants.

    Couldn’t happen to a more courtly dead-eyed sociopath.

  11. 11.

    TheOtherHank

    I know there’s a lot of competition for the title, but I believe McConnell is the worst person in the US government. I mean Trump is Trump, Barr is a craven little toady, and there’s a buffet of evil on the Supreme Court, but for sheer ongoing horribleness stretching out for decades, you just get beat ol’ Mitch. And a large part of the evilness that has occurred lately was only possible because of his covering for all the other shits around him.

  12. 12.

    trnc

    I love that we’re not only supposed to believe that Obama didn’t leave behind a plan, but also the implication that, for the first time ever, DT would have implemented an Obama plan.

  13. 13.

    Darkrose

    For some reason, I get the sense that McConnell really wanted to say “That boy should have kept his mouth shut.”

  14. 14.

    Josie

    @Darkrose:

    I honestly think that is the deep basis for all he has done.  He was always awful but never as awful as he has been since President Obama was elected.

  16. 16.

    Miss Bianca

    @trnc:

    I love that we’re not only supposed to believe that Obama didn’t leave behind a plan, but also the implication that, for the first time ever, DT would have implemented an Obama plan.

    Ha, right, THIS, entirely.

  18. 18.

    germy

    I think McConnell is rattled & making more mistakes than usual.

    Or maybe it’s dawning on him he may actually … lose… his election this time, and so has decided to talk more shit out loud while getting his adolescent conservative judges appointed because, who cares?

    Or maybe (like Elise Stephanik) he’s aping the Trump rhetorical style, thinking it’s the secret to winning:  (All these years I watched mah mouth, and then Trump comes along, says out loud all the shit I was thinkin’ and they cheer!”)

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Darkrose: Oh, yass.  There are so many on the wingnut right who want, desperately, and have wanted, for the last 12 years, to use the N word.  They can barely control themselves.

  21. 21.

    Frankensteinbeck

    McConnell is in a fix.  He loves* watching the American people suffer.  He smiles this ugly gloating smile of pure, sadism-fueled peace whenever he talks about doing something cruel.  He does not want to fix this economic downturn.  He does not want to help the people who have lost their job.  He wants to sit back and watch America shout “Save us!” so he can whisper, “No.”

    However, this economic disaster is blowing the Hell out of Republican electoral odds.  The only two things all the reports about his personality say he cares about are money and maintaining his power as majority leader.  The need to save his job is causing him to feel huge pressure to do what he loathes:  Use the power of the American government to directly help the common man.

     

    *I think he was always an asshole, but this is mainly the result of him being an old Southern aristocrat who lost his shit when a black man (Obama) was made his boss.  Whatever the cause, watch him for five minutes and his love of torturing the American people becomes clear.

  23. 23.

    germy

    Saying, in a southern drawl “He shoulda kept his mouth shut.”

    It sounds like something one says after a lynching.

  24. 24.

    Kent

    @trollhattan:I busted up, and that was BEFORE I saw who posted it. Hello Capitol Police, I’d like to report a murder in the Senate.

    “Nevertheless…she persisted!”

  26. 26.

    Kent

    @TheOtherHank:I know there’s a lot of competition for the title, but I believe McConnell is the worst person in the US government. I mean Trump is Trump, Barr is a craven little toady, and there’s a buffet of evil on the Supreme Court, but for sheer ongoing horribleness stretching out for decades, you just get beat ol’ Mitch. And a large part of the evilness that has occurred lately was only possible because of his covering for all the other shits around him.

    Worst person in US government in the past 100 years.  You have to go back to folks like Andrew Johnson and Andrew Jackson to find worse.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    Are your ears so stuffed with lobbyist money that you can’t hear the American people,

    Oh, that is a mean burn. The obvious answer is “Yeth, my mouth, too!”

  30. 30.

    MattF

    Mitch is frantically signaling to his keepers that he’s going to need big money, and he’s going to need it soon, as in immediately. I don’t think he actually perceives the existence of other people.

  32. 32.

    germy

    @MattF:

    Mitch is frantically signaling to his keepers that he’s going to need big money, and he’s going to need it soon, as in immediately.

    And it seems to be working.  Haven’t republicans raised boatloads of cash?  Citizens United!

  33. 33.

    H.E.Wolf

    McConnell’s name will be a hissing and a byword among the people of the earth.

    [h/t Edwin Lawrence (E. L.) Godkin for the lovely epithet]

  34. 34.

    Joy in FL

    @Baud: Your comment about Amy McGrath on the $1 coin made me go to her website and make another donation!

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    Six tweets in this CNN reporter’s thread and apparently no room to inform readers that the Obama administration did actually leave Trump an explicit game plan. It’s all just a cozy nest for McConnell to talk shit in.

    This is bodacious bullshit reinforced when media gets lazy, and refuse to hold Trump’s feet to the fire.

    But Trump’s base is so dedicated to him that they willfully blind themselves to the obvious contradictions built into his clumsy lies.

  36. 36.

    Mai naem mobile

    Mitch McConnell is a survivor of polio. Polio. Polio, a pandemic disease. Some of his treatment was done at Warm Springs. The same place FDR went to for treatment of Guillain Barre. F*ck this guy for not being more self aware. And he doesn’t feel the urgency because he and his wife are worth at least $50M. His wife inherited $25M several years ago. They were already very wealthy.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Ignoring Trump and Right-Wing Think Tanks, Red States Expand Vote by Mail
    The Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups warn, with little evidence, that voting by mail fosters fraud. But some Republican secretaries of state reject those concerns and see no alternative to absentee voting if the pandemic persists.

    I don’t quite understand this, but I would like to see more of it. The Heritage Foundation and other right wing groups support Trump and follow his lead even when his ravings might hurt his own base. They have to know this nonsense is potentially dangerous. And yet they still plunge ahead, ignoring that sign that says “Bridge Out.”

     

  40. 40.

    laura

    I’m counting the minutes until the senate majority leader experiences some post-polio effects. It’s had for me to imagine a more vile filth of a man than Dick Cheney, but since he’s made an effort, I’ll have to go with Mitch.

    And for those who may need a refresher on what he knows that President Obama knows – it’s not just the fact that the Obama Administration built a pandemic response team and had a manual ready for the next administration and had scientists placed around the globe on the lookout for emerging diseases (all of which were reported out on during the transition) and trump dismantled fired and ignored right up until it blew up in his stupid face. Mitch also knew about the russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and warned Obama to not make it publicly known or he’d claim that the President was interfering in the election. I will never forget the photos of Diane Feinstein coming out of the senate intelligence committee briefing just ashen looking.

    So, to make a boring story long – mitch can go jump up his own ass.

  41. 41.

    mrmoshpotato

    OT – Messaged my mom to see how they’re doing and apparently there was a Blue Angels flyby over the lake today.

    First thing that came to mind was “How very Soviet of Putin’s Puppet the Pussygrabber in a time of unprecedented peacetime death and destruction.”

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    Kamala and Ayanna did a really good video chat today. I’ve only seen a few clips on twitter, but I think the full video can be seen on Kamala’s YouTube channel.

    I can’t with Moscow Mitch. I hate him – with a fury I cannot describe.

  43. 43.

    hitchhiker

    OT … can the lawyers among us explain what Judge Sullivan’s latest means?

    He’s going to allow amicus briefs before he considers the Flynn matter. Is it really possible he could just ignore the DOJ’s decision to drop the charges and sentence Flynn for his crimes?

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    @dlwchico:

    OMG, you have brought back memories. I was so terrified by that story. I had to go to Wikipedia to refresh my memory, and I saw this, which warmed the heart of this Blanche Yurka fan:

    On September 15, 1941, an adaptation of “Sredni Vashtar” began the premier episode of the CBS Radio series The Orson Welles Show. Blanche Yurka portrayed Mrs. De Ropp, with Conrad Binyon as Conradin and Brenda Forbes as Matilda.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’ll just leave this here.

    Great analysis. And it is sobering to consider that Trump might get two Supreme Court picks, if Thomas and RBG both retire.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Just think how much PPE could have been purchased with the money being spent on these flyovers.

    My dad did some promotional work for Blue Angels’ appearances when I was a kid and my brothers idolized them. But still, the expense isn’t worth it.

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    @hitchhiker: It looks to be complicated (as one might expect – since lawyers are trained to argue about anything).

    https://www.lawfareblog.com/justice-department-wants-drop-flynns-case-can-judge-say-no

    […]

    To deny the government’s current motion, in other words, Sullivan would have to distinguish this case from broad and controlling precedent. Particularly given that the government is seeking to dismiss the charge with prejudice (so that no future Justice Department could refile the case), Sullivan could not reasonably conclude that the dismissal is part of any broad pattern designed to harass the defendant. Instead, he would have to read into the Rule 48(a) standard some broader exception for bad faith dismissals. In the alternative, he could perhaps grant the motion but convert it into a motion to dismiss without prejudice. Ruling on a Rule 48(a) motion in 2019 in United States v. Pitts, Sullivan recognized that “there is a strong presumption in favor of a dismissal without prejudice.” In Pitts, in fact, the judge converted a motion to dismiss without prejudice into one with prejudice. But in that case, he did so because the government was seeking a tactical prosecutorial advantage by dismissing without prejudice—which is not the case here. And so, applying the presumption of no prejudice, Sullivan might conceivably convert the government’s motion to one without prejudice. If Sullivan converted the motion, a future Justice Department would be able to refile the case.

    One thing Sullivan clearly has the authority to do, however he rules on the motion, is to demand an explanation. The Justice Department’s position in this case is genuinely unusual. The defendant and the government have gone from agreeing that Flynn is guilty of a crime to agreeing that the charge cannot stand without much significant change in underlying facts. What’s more, no career prosecutor who worked the case was willing to sign the government’s brief seeking dismissal. At a minimum, Sullivan clearly has the authority to call the government lawyers before him to defend and account for their decision to dismiss Flynn’s charges.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, guys, I have just identified peak FTFNYT. I only read the Arts section and the obituaries now, but I incautiously turned to a different page while looking for the obituaries, and I saw this headline across the top of it:
    BIDEN REVIEWS LESSONS HE LEARNED DURING HIS TIME IN PALIN’S SHADOW
    I kid you not.

  52. 52.

    Central Planning

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Oh, yass. There are so many on the wingnut right who want, desperately, and have wanted, for the last 12 years, to use the N word. They can barely control themselves.

    I read that with “wanted” as “wanked”. Still kinda works.

  54. 54.

    Central Planning

    @germy:

    And it seems to be working. Haven’t republicans raised boatloads of cash? Citizens United!

    I believe the phrase you wanted was “Brinks. Trucks.”

  55. 55.

    Gbbalto

    @debbie: Agree that much more should be spent on PPE and everything else, and flybys don’t make up for that. However, military pilots must get a minimum number of hours of flying time per month if they are to remain qualified to fly that plane. If they are not exceeding that (probably not now, with no airshows) it is not costing us extra.

  56. 56.

    Gbbalto

    @debbie: Agree that much more should be spent on PPE and everything else, and flybys don’t make up for that. However, military pilots must get a minimum number of hours of flying time per month if they are to remain qualified to fly that plane. If they are not exceeding that (probably not now, with no airshows) it is not costing us extra.

    Eta – sorry for duplicate post

  57. 57.

    piratedan

    all I can say is that I hope to live long enough and am willing to pay good money to piss on McConnell’s grave.

  63. 63.

    rikyrah

    Everytime that 44 appears on screen, he needs to begin the segment by holding up the 69 page PANDEMICS FOR DUMMIES GUIDE that they left for Dolt45.

     

    ” THIS is what  I left my successor. Why he didn’t use it- ask him. ”

     

    Every single time he appears on the television.

  65. 65.

    cain

    @Arclite: As a Warren person I concur that for VP – she is the right choice as the bulldog VP – and hopefully kick people’s ass.. I think we will miss her in the senate though.

  66. 66.

    Spanky

    @germy:But some Republican secretaries of state reject those concerns and see no alternative to absentee voting if the pandemic persists.

    This warms my heart, actually. It seems intuitively obvious to me that Trump will attempt to de-legitimize the election once he senses he’s losing. He’s already made noises about fraudulent vote-by-mail, and my sense is that that’s going to get ratcheted up over the next 6 months.

    So seeing Republican SOSs making valid attempts at securing their states’ vote cuts his argument, if not off, at least puts a serious dent in it. The more SOSs that visibly do this, of course, the better.

  67. 67.

    senyorDave

    @zhena gogolia: BIDEN REVIEWS LESSONS HE LEARNED DURING HIS TIME IN PALIN’S SHADOW

    To be fair, there was a time when that was subjectively true.  A large part of the media and a not insignificant part of the country fell for Palin’s shtick after she was nominated.  It was fortunate that she self-destructed, because she never would have been vetted.  That Katie Couric interview was, in effect, Palin self vetting herself by letting the country know that she was a moron.

    I always thought that Biden did a masterful job during his debate with her in 2008.  He went into an almost no-win situation and he won bigly.  He had just the right tone, treated her with respect but anyone watching could tell there was a huge difference in ability.

    Biden probably did learn a lot during that period before the Couric interview.

  68. 68.

    Duane

    @rikyrah: Obama may have said all he’s going to for now. Nothing keeping Biden from putting those 69 pages to use, such as shoving them up Trumpov’s rear end.

  69. 69.

    Mai naem mobile

    @rikyrah: that is such a good idea.  I wonder if the Dummie people would let the Biden campaign use a likeness for an ad.

  74. 74.

    HumboldtBlue

    @cain:

    As was pointed out yesterday in the comments that will lead to Schiff taking the seat, or Ted Lieu. We do have a deep, deep bench and it’s not like Harris has much seniority, folks also realize that Bide’s VP is the heavy favorite in 2024 cuz Joe is just a one-term prez.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Completely O/T, but am I the only one creeped out (crept out?) by Jeannie Moos on CNN? She’s been around since Day 1, or close enough. Something about her strangulated delivery just sends me right round the bend. I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice person, but whenever I catch a syllable of her voice I want to bite things.

  80. 80.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @mrmoshpotato:

    OT – Messaged my mom to see how they’re doing and apparently there was a Blue Angels flyby over the lake today.

    First thing that came to mind was “How very Soviet of Putin’s Puppet the Pussygrabber in a time of unprecedented peacetime death and destruction.”

    I wouldn’t be so quick to be cynical: they’re trying to show their support for healthcare and essential workers during this pandemic, as well as cheer people up quarantining.

    Not everyone in the government is Trump.

    https://twitter.com/BlueAngels/status/1258840400779005957?s=20

  82. 82.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Arclite: I was hoping to see her as our first female African American Supreme Court Justice.

    Can you imagine SCOTUS Justice Harris on cross? OMG

  84. 84.

    Nicole

    @Mai naem mobile:

    Mitch McConnell is a survivor of polio. Polio. Polio, a pandemic disease. Some of his treatment was done at Warm Springs. The same place FDR went to for treatment of Guillain Barre. F*ck this guy for not being more self aware.

    It’s fascinating, how FDR’s experience gave him enormous compassion for people suffering, while McConnell  takes joy in watching other people suffer and encourages it where possible.

    FDR did have a mother who thought he hung the sun and the moon.  I suspect perhaps McConnell’s parents didn’t like him very much.  Apparently with reason.

    Politics needs more mama’s boys and fewer men with daddy issues.

  85. 85.

    JoyceH

    @Ella in New Mexico: “I was hoping to see her as our first female African American Supreme Court Justice.

    Can you imagine SCOTUS Justice Harris on cross? OMG”

    She could do the Supreme Court after her presidency. Taft did it.

  87. 87.

    sdhays

    @senyorDave: Indeed. The Katie Couric interview was supposed to be a softball, getting to know you, interview. Asking “what newspapers do you read” is not a particularly probing or adversarial question. All she had to do was name a paper – the local paper! – and move on. She could have even said she didn’t read newspapers because they suck (which would have been “refreshing honesty”), but no.

    “All of them, Katie.”

  88. 88.

    Miss Bianca

    @Arclite: God, I hope so. I’d be so happy if he picked Kamala! I can’t quite call myself a member of the K-Hive, but I am a big, big fan of KH.

  89. 89.

    MaryLou

    The most masterful sales job of the twentieth century was Republicans convincing their base that they don’t deserve, shouldn’t want, and can’t have nice things.

  92. 92.

    Another Scott

    @Nicole: Mitch is a “Jr.”  Sessions is a “III”.  It’s hard not to have daddy issues with names like that, I think.

    (All apologies to those who overcame their names!)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  93. 93.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @laura: I’m counting the minutes until the senate majority leader experiences some post-polio effects.

    And what good would that do? Yertle McTurtle would be just as petty, nasty, vindictive, & all around vile if he spent the rest of his days in a friggin’ iron lung. Maybe even more so.

  94. 94.

    low-tech cyclist

    @TheOtherHank: I know there’s a lot of competition for the title, but I believe McConnell is the worst person in the US government.

    Hard to argue with you on that.  And Senator Professor Warren had just the right thing to say.  (If Biden appoints Warren to any position, it should be either Fed Chair or maybe Treasury Secretary.  Kamala can either be President or Justice Harris after her stint as veep.  (Or maybe pull a Taft and ultimately be both!)

    But never underestimate that bastard McConnell.  He’s already got pretty much everything he wants from the already-enacted coronavirus relief bills; there’s no reason for him to take up the new House bill, and he can’t be shamed into it.  Pelosi had leverage earlier, and gave it away.  She ain’t what she used to be, alas.

  95. 95.

    Shana

    @MattF: Have you read the article in the New Yorker from a few weeks ago about McConnell?  Brutal.  The man has NEVER had any principles beyond “get elected, stay in office.”  Anything and everything, including it is implied his marriage is designed to further those aims.

  96. 96.

    Miss Bianca

    @low-tech cyclist:

    She ain’t what she used to be, alas.

    Oh, my goodness. You tell her, big guy! Why the hell isn’t she taking YOUR advice on how to run things, hmm?

  97. 97.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @JoyceH:

    She could do the Supreme Court after her presidency. Taft did it.

    So, you’d be wiling to trust our fucked up political system for 8 years as VP in hopes a future,  America doesn’t repeat a traditional party switch in 2028 and risk the opportunity to give a person of her quality a lifetime appointment to SCOTUS ?

    I’m not sure I am.

  99. 99.

    SWMBO

    @Gbbalto: Also, don’t give Shitgibbon any ideas. He would spend the money painting his wall. He’s already stealing money appropriated for military schools, maintenance, and building upgrades on that fucking wall. Let’s not give him the idea that money could be better spent on him.

  100. 100.

    James E Powell

    @sdhays:

    All she had to do was name a paper – the local paper! – and move on.

    All she had to do was say that she didn’t read any of that liberal elistist propaganda. Even the liberal NYT would have praised her as truly authentic Real American® – they love the people who shit on them.

  101. 101.

    SteverinoCT

    @sdhays:

    The Katie Couric interview was supposed to be a softball, getting to know you, interview. Asking “what newspapers do you read” is not a particularly probing or adversarial question. All she had to do was name a paper – the local paper! – and move on. She could have even said she didn’t read newspapers because they suck (which would have been “refreshing honesty”), but no.

    “All of them, Katie.”

    I hate to defend her, but, what I get from the video is that Palin is offended by the question, seeing it as an implication that Anchorage is a provincial town that doesn’t get the NYT or LAT or any of them fancy noozpapers. Her response is saying that they ARE in the loop.

    …and the “see Russia from my house” (which was Tina Fey, not her) was from her fumbled statement about inbound Russian missiles would come over Alaska, and that Russia was only 50 miles across the Bering Strait from the westernmost Aleutian Islands.

    Having to glean what she meant to say from the word salad she did say isn’t a great quality in a politician.

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