Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

So many bastards, so little time.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

A consequence of cucumbers

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

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

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

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

The revolution will be supervised.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Squishable Saturday Morning Open Thread

Squishable Saturday Morning Open Thread

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I think Steve Schmidt was drunk-tweeting last night, but it was kind of delightful. I’m under no illusions about the Lincoln Project peeps, but I find some of them entertaining, particularly Schmidt. First, he tried to bully Lil’ Marco into debating him:

Hey @marcorubio I know I am just a humble citizen of the Republic with little standing to demand an audience with so great a figure of our ruling class as you….I am untitled.
Yet, I believe we should debate. You will say it is your exalted title that prevents this. We both

know it is your cowardice, grifting and corruption that prevents it. You are scared. Why don’t we face off? Put this Rhino in his place? You don’t have it. You are a dead beat punk who doesn’t have the integrity to manage a corporate credit card account

or the judgement to be a US Senator. I’m from NJ. I will forever love how Chris Christie owned you in that debate. The look on your face:.. omg.. he humiliated you more than you humiliated yourself with your dry mouth panicked water sipping during the state of the Union.

I hope you lose your reelection. Maybe you will and maybe you won’t. Who knows. I don’t care at some level. I’m going to carve your name in to the American story like an etching in granite. It will never go away. Your children and grandchildren will be embarrassed by you.

Ha! I love it when Schmidt goes after Lil’ Marco because he knows how to strip the bark off that phony shitgopher.

Then Schmidt addresses AOC, making the case that the Squad and the Lincoln Project should be allies. No, really:

I would like to officially reach out to @AOC on behalf of the @ProjectLincoln in defense of democracy. We disagree on many issues and that is ok in our view. Btw, we don’t look down on waitresses. We admire them. We are all the types of guys who always tip at 50% or more.

I have an idea. Let’s approach each other and our points of view with good faith. We say the following with respect and seriousness Ma’am. Our hand is open and we need to work together or we are going to lose America. The fight will last for many years.

Here is the unexpected part. A democratic-socialist and former waitress who knows what it is to actually work combined with @ProjectLincoln and many others is going to hold the line together. We will not yield and we will never break. We are the side opposed to autocracy.

We are the left and right flanks of a broad coalition. Should we buckle, they will win. We must not. We are together. We pledge to listen. We pledge to learn. We pledge to be open to your ideas and we pledge to compromise. We have no such offer for the other side.

There are only two ways to win a fight. You can win through submission or exhaustion. Submission=Berlin 45. Exhsustion=Saigon 75 . We have no open hand for the nationalists, white nationalists, fascist proud boys, militia groups, conspiracy theorists ect. Our proposition is

We win- you lose. There is no accommodation. It is zero sum. Our coalition is fragile but it must hold. @AOC perhaps you look at us and see something that is not so. We do not know each other and perhaps we should. Maybe even it is the case that the future of the country

Depends on us. Know this, since know one asked, we all admire your coviction, Integrity and guts. We say the following with respect. Maybe it is the case that we are stronger together. I wish you a merry Christmas and all of your supporters a happy holiday season.

We admire Your conviction. You are a living example of democracy and the importance of faith and belief in the system. We are one election away from losing this country to Autocrats. We stand with you against that. We hope you will stand with us also. God bless America.

My guess is he’ll wake up this morning and think, “Wait, what? Oh no I didn’t!” and grab his phone…

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  3. 3.

    RandomMonster

    I listened to the LP podcasts a lot this year and found them insightful. They also reassured me that there are self-ascribed conservatives who despise and oppose Trumpism as much as I do. I’m glad they are around.

  5. 5.

    Anne Laurie

    Sorry Betty! — just pulled my post back for another hour. Appreciate your attention to detail…

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    As this seems the more freewheeling of the dueling threads –

    B-J so late night it’s morning? Weekends, being more casual, presumably allow for cutting some slack, so a little something blue (as in NSFW; shoo the kiddies out) as spice with your java.

    :)

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Today is my 50th wedding anniversary. Obviously, I was a child when I got married. :-)

    We ordered a special cake and will tale pieces to friends’ homes to leave outside and remote-share. This will not be exactly the celebration you see on TV but we’re still here, and cake is good!

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    @RandomMonster:

    I listened to the LP podcasts a lot this year and found them insightful. They also reassured me that there are self-ascribed conservatives who despise and oppose Trumpism as much as I do. I’m glad they are around.

     
    Considering they are all the creative and administrative geniuses who supported everything that led to Trump, and that Trumpism simply consists of saying the quiet parts out loud, I do not share this sentiment.

    They’re Speer at the Nuremberg trials. Not as bad, but still, bad.

  16. 16.

    Wag

    Steve reached out to AOC and is completely sincere about everything he says.  He has been a guest on Al Frankin’s  podcast a couple of times this year, and he is a gentleman who keeps his word.  The LP is an ally that we can rely on.

  19. 19.

    Mary G

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Happy Anniversary to you and Mr. DAW, that cradle robber. My grandparents celebrated at McDonald’s. My mom was horrified, she had a fancy party all planned. I remember the hamburgers cost 15 cents.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @WereBear:

    @Wag:

    I’m happy and impressed that LP didn’t close up shop when Trump lost but is continuing the fight against the Republican Party that propped Trump up.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Wag: There is a difference between opponents and enemies. The folks at LP are the former, the trumpists the latter.

  29. 29.

    germy

    Schmidt went after Matt Gaetz a few weeks ago. Same aggressive challenges. Hinted that stories about Gaetz would eventually come out. Stories about hookers and blow.

    Who knows?

  31. 31.

    germy

    There was a Christmas party last night at the White House.  And last night I predicted here that Trump’s remarks to his guests would be …. interesting.  Turns out I was wrong:

    Trump was scheduled to attend a holiday party around the time the Supreme Court ruling came down. But around 8:30 p.m., guests were informed that Trump would not be coming down from the residence to speak. https://t.co/RS0mYzIskv

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 12, 2020

  33. 33.

    germy

    So the Kraken is now Calamari?

    Sidney Powell’s secret ‘military intelligence expert' — referred to in court filings as 'Spyder' – is an IT guy from Dallas who washed out of Army intel training and spent most of his mil career as a 'wheeled vehicle mechanic.' https://t.co/JNAF842Wib

    — Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) December 12, 2020

  36. 36.

    germy

    Some screen captures. Milo (remember him?) has sworn vengeance on the entire republican party:

    Milo hasn't been this upset since he learned that the Black Party actually referred to the color of attendees' clothing, not the attendees themselves. pic.twitter.com/ixGHlMEp4a

    — Rob A Stocking (@RobGeorge) December 12, 2020

  37. 37.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Congratulations! May you have many more!

    In regard to Steve Schmidt, he was interviewed on Amanpour about a week – 10 days ago and made exactly the same points, including the invitation to AOC and the progressives so, while he may well have been merry, I don’t think he was falling down oh my God, don’t tell me I did/said that drunk!

    As far as I can tell, the LP people’s position is that this is a fight where everyone who supports democracy should work together. We can get back to fights over policy once it’s won.

    My take.

  44. 44.

    Wag

    @germy:   I don’t get the stupidity of the Trumpists and bone headed cultural references. The DEATH STAR was an awful, genocidal tool of a fascist government, not an admirable metaphor for an election strategy.  And the Kraken?  It was an uncontrollable demon unleashed on a peaceful city by a God after he was fed lies by his evil brother, and the Kraken was killed by a brave hero who fought tooth and nail to destroy it.  It’s almost like they stop watching the movies at the destruction of Alderon, or at the initial destruction unleaded against the city, and refuse to see the downside of their revered villain’s actions.

  46. 46.

    Jeffro

    @Wag: 

    they can’t help but ‘out’ themselves as people who just want to destroy things. It’s literally all they do.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: @Spanky: He was the only one I could think of but when I tried googling it, the only thing I could find re him and twitter was that he had been banned. My google-fu is seriously lacking.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @Sloane Ranger: I definitely believe he’s sincere. One problem folks on our side have with Schmidt & Co. (aside from policy disagreements, I mean) is all the dirty tricks and low-down smears they’ve perpetrated against Dems in their past lives as GOP operatives. The LP people are unapologetic about it. Basically, their attitude is “fuck it; that’s what it took to win.” Honestly, I think we could learn from that.

  51. 51.

    germy

    @Wag:  I don’t get the stupidity of the Trumpists and bone headed cultural references. The DEATH STAR was an awful, genocidal tool of a fascist government, not an admirable metaphor for an election strategy.  And the Kraken?  It was an uncontrollable demon unleashed on a peaceful city

    Maybe they’re just being honest about their intentions

  52. 52.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    There’s a photo of him on the screen grab of his remarks.

    He’s seriously pissed.  Says his life was ruined.  He really thought he’d build a media empire for himself.  Feels betrayed by the Supreme court and Kavanaugh in particular.

  54. 54.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    Steve Schmidt better watch out or Ted Cruz will pick someone to beat him up. TBH, I get kind of an SNL Sean Connery on Jeopardy vibe from that.

  56. 56.

    Wag

    @germy:   You are absolutely right.  Which means that we need to stick together, with our X-wings and the bag with the head of Medusa so we can blow up their Death Star and turn their monsters into crumbling piles of stone.

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: Sincere? They are skilled mercenaries. I will give them this: they are smart amoral scum.

    It is cheering to see them on our side because they put a wet finger into the wind and joined us. So I feel we might be successful since the rats left the Republican ship.

  64. 64.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Happy Anniversary!

    Re Steve Schmidt and AOC, I call bullshit.  If he wanted a real alliance with her, he wouldn’t have asked for it publicly.  What he did was manipulation.  You already see it in the responses on that Twitter thread — anyone who questions his sincerity gets attacked for not wanting to reach across the aisle and work together, because anyone who rightfully questions Project Lincoln’s long-term goals is ruining everyone’s feel-good Kumbaya moment.  If she expresses any skepticism, no matter how understandable, she’s now the bad guy.

  65. 65.

    trnc

    @germy: So the Kraken is now Calamari?

    Yeah, the portion that was left out by the stove for 2 weeks until the health inspectors showed up and shut the place down.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: I saw that but it didn’t really look like him to me. I remember his face as being much thinner than that. shrug  Anyway, now I know.

  70. 70.

    WereBear

    @debbie: I am completely baffled by your question. The Lincoln Project is every smart operative formerly of the Republican Party.

    I’m not a political operative and I have always been in the Democratic Party.

  71. 71.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @WereBear: I’m happy that the LP guys are curb stomping Republican ass, but I’ll be happier when we don’t need them anymore and we can evict them from the premises.

  72. 72.

    mesmer a la carte

    The Supreme Court giveth and taketh away.  Oddly timed decisions mark it that 20 years ago today Bush v Gore was decided.

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @germy: Says his life was ruined. He really thought he’d build a media empire for himself.

    They can’t all go into the media empire grift, and with Trump obviously planning to get into that (since 2015, yet) anyone who tries will be attacked as competition.

  76. 76.

    WereBear

    @The Thin Black Duke: That’s an excellent assessment.

    And I’m not underestimating the impact they had on turning Republicans about getting rid of Trump. After all, these are voters, who are used to seeing the knives come out in a political fight. And will respond to it.

    It was important to get rid of Trump, but how are we going to get rid of Trumpists? My own solution, “sanity hearings for everyone who is still a Republican,” is very labor intensive under current guidelines.

    We’ve never had to tackle so many cult followers at once, and perhaps it is waaaay past time we do so.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Wag:     It would be great if internal stresses debilitate the republican party, but we might as well assume the republicans will come back strong in 2022. They have refined their techniques of getting out their vote and suppressing ours. So I don’t think we can afford to be choosy about allies. It’s not like we can choose anyway; Schmidt et al are in the fight regardless of what Democrats think of them.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    Anyway, I read how people want to punish the 100+ reps who signed onto that Texas atrocity, but it has to extend to the entire party. Weasel Rob Portman played at measured dignity when he told a local reporter just after the election that he wanted Trump to have the opportunity to present his case and would refer to Biden as president-elect if Trump had not made his case by last Tuesday, December 8, 2020. Silence on Tuesday. The reporter has called and emailed Portman’s office every day since then and received zero response. This reporter has a long, very strong reputation here and every politician usually drops everything to speak with her or appear on her weekly news program.

    Pussy weasel.

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @Jay:

    I guess my father, a lifelong Republican who died in 1974, is also responsible.

    Trump is responsible for Trump. His followers are responsible for Trump. If Schmidt never supported Trump, he is not responsible.

    I mean, seriously. You are basically supporting the contention that because the Democratic party once included Klan members, The Democratic party must forever be labeled as Klan supporters.

  86. 86.

    WereBear

    @debbie: My point was that I don’t blame Schmidt for Trump, which is what many here seem to be doing.

     
    I can blame Schmidt for Palin, of course! It was his idea. And it was entirely because of her “toss red meat to the rabid weasels” appeal that peaked with Trump.

    We’re Democrats. We want to think well of people :)

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    @debbie: The Republican Party of 1974 acted responsibly in getting Nixon out of power. This was before the conservative takeover which installed Reagan.

    I’m rather specific about my complaints.

  91. 91.

    Jay

    @debbie:

    he was one of the key architects, of both the embrace of the “Tea Party”, but also the “Nationalists”, before they were outed as Nazis.

    it’s fine that he has regrets about what he spent his life building,

    but the monster is also what he spent his life building.

    ally,  yeah, like Stalin in WWII.

     

    lets see what he does in the “fight for 15”, or unions for all, billionaires tax , or expanded medicare,…. before we “embrace him”

  94. 94.

    artem1s

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @Wag: There is a difference between opponents and enemies. The folks at LP are the former, the trumpists the latter.

    @WereBear: Considering they are all the creative and administrative geniuses who supported everything that led to Trump, and that Trumpism simply consists of saying the quiet parts out loud, I do not share this sentiment

    There is a difference between opportunists and allies.  I agree with WereBear. Reaching out to AOC signals their true end game is to split off voters from the base of the Democratic Party the way that Ron Paul did from the GOP.  By promising to form a coalition around defeating some vaguely identified bad guy. Right now they have a very well defined bad guy to use. Looks like they are trying to pick out some low hanging fruit left over from the Trump Toadies to harass once the Orange Plague slinks off to FL. That he picked Rubio is a tell in that prior to 2016 he had a pretty good chance of making a legit run at the WH. And would have had a pretty coalition of moderate conservatives behind him too.  So why go after him instead of, say McConnell, or Graham? Who are clearly need to be neutralized in order to root out autocracy in our democracy? Because someone in LP has a long game to reestablish the Raygun, supply side GOP that is more attractive to the voter who was alienated by the white trash mob family living in the WH. I’d bet on Kasich, mostly because he is the smart, clever narcissist that has been seething on the sidelines about what he could have done, if only he had gotten the nomination in2016. I’ve found it really weird that Kasich has thrown his hat in with them as he is as much an autocrat as Trump is. There’s a reason he was referred to as King John during his reign in OH. The only difference between him and someone like W is, I can’t see Kasich kowtowing to the Christian Fascist faction.  But maybe he has ‘found god’ the way Newt did and has come to some internal compromise on that front.

    Until the LP renounces and reconciles their past around the Southern Strategy, jumps on board to a renewal of the Voting Rights Act with Preclearance required for all 50 states, and pledges to overturn ‘money is speech’ Citizen’s United, I will never believe they can be genuine allies in the fight against white nationalism, autocracy and fascism. They only setting themselves up to fill the power vacuum left by Failure in Chief and set someone up to kneecap Joe and Kamala in 2024when he can’t fix everything the GOP broke the last four years. Why else reach out to AOC instead of Stacy Abrams? or the voters in GA?

  95. 95.

    dww44

    Steve Schmidt is an American small “d” democratic institutionalist  and not a Republican ideologue, which is what the entire GOP, elected ones in particular, at all levels currently have become.  He’s been off that reservation for quite some time and he has been reliably scathing and relentless in his condemnations of his former party.

    It matters what he did in a former political life…. that was his life and livelihood after all, but his is a voice that I value over and above condemning him for past sins in our eyes.  It’s fine to be clear eyed about the motivations of all the Never Trumpers but we shouldn’t demean and denigrate them in the present.  This really is an all hands on deck situation that doesn’t magically disappear on January 20.

    Two nights ago on the LOD MSNBC show Schmidt said that the Biden-Harris victory saved the country as we were pre November 3 and still are just one election away from losing our representative democracy.  Furthermore, he said, that broad coalition in support of the Democratic Biden and Harris needs to remain in place for several more election cycles so as to stamp the current GOP into political dust.   I’ll take that  support where ever and when ever I can find it.

    Last night on Joy Reid’s show, David Jolly, the former Republican Florida Congressman, said that the current GOP does not need to regain control of the federal government any time soon.  They are purely idealogues and will further damage our small “d” democratic institutions.

  96. 96.

    artem1s

    @Betty Cracker:

    Honestly, I think we could learn from that.

    so we can learn from Swiftboating Kerry and Max Clelland? Which racial minority is it OK for us to set aside as scapegoats for everything bad that happens to white folk?  We’ll need a pet cause to help us with our grifting fundraisers. MOAR guns? or Tobacco? or shall we throw women or gays under the bus? Sorry, I forgot, the answer to that is always women!

  98. 98.

    debbie

    @dww44:

    As much as I dislike Palin, I don’t equate that transgression with the transgressions of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney who insisted the party achieve a “permanent majority.” That more than Sarah Palin is what got us to this place.

  100. 100.

    artem1s

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I’m happy that the LP guys are curb stomping Republican ass, but I’ll be happier when we don’t need them anymore and we can evict them from the premises

    they already won their objective of getting Dems thinking we didn’t win the election, the LP did.  Stacy Abrams did as much or more winning this election than the LP did. LP spent a lot of money to make the case that they get to make demands of the Biden WH.  When they spend the same time and money on GOTV, then they can make a claim their ads turned PA, WI, GA, AZ, and MI.  BTW, they did nothing to turn OH. If they are so clever and important why couldn’t Kasich impart his magic on Ohio?

    Biden was going to win this election even without LP.  Because the base did their job and got their votes in the mail. Stop giving credit to LP.  AA women won this election.  Not the GOP losers who crashed the stock market during W’s administration.

  105. 105.

    schrodingers_cat

    Lincoln Project makes good ads but they are not to be trusted. If they really wanted to help the Democratic legislative agenda they would approach the leadership not the squad. I smell trouble.

  107. 107.

    The Moar You Know

    AOC really should go talk to them. So should all Dems. Was reading some more history last night. We can’t win this by ourselves, we’re going to need help, and it’s not (hopefully) going to come from the Russian Army and American GIs.

  111. 111.

    dww44

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Congratulations.  Our 50th was in 2019 and we celebrated with our daughter and her family and a special cake.  I’ve always loved good wedding cakes and tried to duplicate it last year. It was good.

  113. 113.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Wag: sorry, no. We may have some common goals, but when shit comes to shove, they got a different set of ideas that are simply bad. Enemy of my enemy is my friend until our common enemy is defeated, and that chapter is almost over.

    Chitchat is fine, but true alliance is simply not happening. We can be friendly, but never gonna be friends.

  114. 114.

    brantl

    @Wag: Until they can find “the well-behaved type” of conservative that does what they want, and doesn’t spout the dog whistles blatantly. They spent 40 years fomenting the beliefs that made Dumb Old Stump, and now, suddenly, they are running around with their Hair on Fire, saying, : “What have you done? What have you done?”, when it was they, themselves, who did this. They brought back Solomon Grundy, and now he won’t play nice, what a surprise!

  116. 116.

    brantl

    @Betty Cracker: Sure, if we were willing to abandon all scruples. They didn’t tell mean truths, they lied. These guys did good deeds lately, it doesn’t excuse them being shitbirds in the past, especially since they don’t repent of any of it, until they got Solomon Grundy, AKA, Lord Goldemort.

  117. 117.

    Chris Johnson

    @WereBear: Considering they are all the creative and administrative geniuses who supported everything that led to Trump, and that Trumpism simply consists of saying the quiet parts out loud, I do not share this sentiment.

    You know, I’m going to flat contradict you.

    The Lincoln Project are existential proof that ‘not all Republicans’, etc etc… They are getting death threats, their literal children are at risk by right-wing terrorism. I’m not a bit surprised if they’re flailing, even if it is flailing in confused victory. Maybe Schmidt heard about the Supreme Court response to Texas and that’s why he’s drunk and giddy?

    If you say that the LP are the same thing as Trumpism, and Trumpism is simply saying the quiet parts out loud, and that they have always supported what the Trump contingent of Republicans have become, WHY ARE THEY NOT HELPING HIM for fuck’s sake? And yet they are not. They are getting death threats as much as any lefty if not more, because they are fucking with Trump and his people as only crazed wingnut political operatives can. They are at personal risk like few other people in this fight, because they have found things so repugnant to what they believe in, that they’ll burn it all down including themselves to take out the threat.

    They’re still Republicans. I think it’s interesting that they’re gesturing to AOC: perhaps to avoid losing everything they care about and see it all go AOC’s way (laughable: that will never happen in the Democratic Party). But to say they are the same as the Trumpists only suggests that you haven’t got the LEAST idea what you’re talking about.

    Again: their existence is existential proof there’s something about this you don’t understand.

    And I’m a Bernie/Warren guy: I have no interest in seeing them win, here. But I’m very interested in what’s happening regarding coalition-building. And they SHOULD listen to AOC, even if they don’t agree.

  120. 120.

    Yarrow

    @WereBear:  We are at war. We are fighting for democracy. We need allies to win this war. We may not like what they’ve done but they are sincere about fighting for democracy. They’re really good at what they do and effective at reaching people Democrats don’t seem to be able to reach nearly as well. We need people like them to win.

  121. 121.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    December 12, 2020 at 7:31 am

    Today is my 50th wedding anniversary. Obviously, I was a child when I got married. :-)

    Congratulations !! Wife and I will join you next May, should we both live so long. Also children… my daddy had to sign for me to get married (even tho I was in the USN!), wife was 21, barely.

  122. 122.

    Chris Johnson

    @brantl: I’m gonna take a somewhat unorthodox slant here and say that Palin would not have been much more useless of a President than George Dubya Bush.

    I think part of the calculation there is acknowledging that the Executive Branch is a kind of figurehead that you want to be ideologically sure of, but they don’t need to be good if they’re backed by your organization which makes the decisions.

    Much like Cheney ran Dubya, I’m pretty sure they figured they would have somebody who could run Palin in the event that she became President. In that light, Schmidt took a calculated risk in the belief that Palin would play better than she did, knowing that it was the machine that would be running things.

    We’re not so different: name one sane Democrat who thinks we’re all about assigning King-like power to Joe Biden. Hell, his greatness is in his ability to work with and listen to others. It’s like the bizarro world version of Palin, or Dubya. Having to rely on your team is NOT WRONG. Trying to run with Palin is not the same thing as trying to put Palin at the controls of your flying 747 to land it without avionics. Schmidt was not wrong in thinking a Sarah Palin in power would defer to her team for pretty much everything, as Dubya also did.

    This is also why Bernie would have been a disaster: without a team, he would set us back impossibly far, whatever his beliefs and intentions.

    This is also why we MUST STRIP TRUMP OF ALL HIS INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT, which I am happy to see also includes showing he has no support on the Supreme Court.

  124. 124.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Meh, I predict Schmidt elopes with the next high-profile Third Way candidate. No way this thing with AOC lasts, particularly when he reduces her to nothing more than a waitress.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Btw, we don’t look down on waitresses. We admire them. We are all the types of guys who always tip at 50% or more.

    Scrolling through the thread, am I the only one who finds this both patronizing and unlikely?

    Also, I’m not entirely clear of what/how he wants to partner with her. On what issue? In which campaign, and then, again, how?

    and has he noticed she’s not noted for working well with others who disagree with her far less than he does?

  128. 128.

    Matt

    @Yarrow:

    they are sincere about fighting for democracy

    lol, sure – _this_ time the Republicans aren’t lying to whoever will give them money. The Lincoln Project ads were so ineffective that some measurements show they TURNED OUT GOP VOTES.

    Democracy is going to die in this country because the “sensible centrists” will happily jump into bed with torturers and war criminals because hippies smell funny.

  132. 132.

    opiejeanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Congratulations! I like your celebration plan, wish we had done that last year.

    Ours was last December 27th, and we decided to put off the party until May or June. Oh well, we’ll have a party when it’s safe.

  134. 134.

    Chris Johnson

    @Just Some Fuckhead: That’s the catch, though, and she would know it. If he is anything like my wingnut brother, he absolutely can and will tip 50% or more TO GET BETTER SERVICE and to signal that he requires special treatment, that he should be remembered.

    Dude like that is also capable of stiffing you completely because the kitchen fucked up. Screw tipping, pay people more via wages. Boasting about being a big tipper just guaranteed she will never take him seriously, because now she knows what he is. But there’s nothing so unusual about that.

    Bit of a self-own for Schmidt, but I hope he does try and bridge the gaps even if he’s clowned himself. The thing is, it’s like that video ‘There’s Always A Bigger Fish’: conservatives really do see things differently from us, and one of the ways is that to Schmidt there is nothing wrong with trying to goad on waitress and kitchen performance through reward and punishment. The idea that just to do stuff is worthy of anything: not so much. The idea is that you always gotta be looking to reward and punish, because that’s how the world works and you don’t care and shouldn’t care about the losers, it only encourages them. The Lincoln Project folks can only see encouraging losers as encouraging them to STOP BEING LOSERS: to them, anybody who fails is unworthy.

  136. 136.

    brantl

    @Chris Johnson: Schmidt was not wrong in thinking a Sarah Palin in power would defer to her team for pretty much everything, as Dubya also did.

     

    This is where you are EXACTLY wrong; Palin is an overwhelming narcissist, and she would have done whatever she liked, whenever she liked, all of her Alaska history indicates that, including the fact that she killed the lake that she used to live on.

    The idea that idiots like Bush and Palin will pick “responsible, serious, professional people” doesn’t work, because they pick venal people like Darth Cheney to run the country into the fucking ground, as Cheney did, with Bush’s full blessing.

  138. 138.

    brantl

    @Chris Johnson: And, Bush sucked worse than anybody who came before, attacked the wrong country, faked intelligence to get a foothold in an oil-producing country, to get its oil, killed a million people in a mistaken war, left the international criminal court, so  he could commit war crimes, did a lot to bankrupt the country, established many invasions of privacy, many affronts to free speech, and ruined our standing in the world. Yeah, the only one we’ve had worse than Shrub is Stump. Palin might have been able to chin-up on that low bar.

  139. 139.

    Yarrow

    @brantl:  I’ve mentioned before that Stuart Stevens, one of the LP founders, wrote a book titled “It Was All A Lie” in which he documents how the Republican party got where it was and his own involvement in it. People like him see what they did, acknowledge it was wrong, and are working to fix it. I can’t say what someone like Steve Schmidt is going to do, but I don’t think he’s at the same place Stevens is.

  140. 140.

    mrmobi

    @Baud: I was really impressed with the LP ads, and I think they made a difference. However, I remain aware that Schmidt & his team-members during the McCain/Obama election gave us Princess Dumbass of the North Woods, so there’s that. I also agree that Schmidt was drunk-tweeting, but I think he’s an honorable man, and one who can be reasoned with.

     

    @Baud:

  142. 142.

    Just Chuck

    Thanks for condensing the tweets into long-form.  It’s nice to read discourse that’s not broken up into tiny little boxes that don’t all fit on the screen.

  143. 143.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Hey raven.  I just checked, nothing in moderation, spam or trash.

    I see a comment with a YouTube link posted in this morning’s NOPE thread.  Is that the one you think never posted?

  144. 144.

    Bill Arnold

    @zhena gogolia:

    It’s very patronizing and mansplainy.

    It’s also saying that he recognizes her as a (young, still emerging) competent political operative. (Also perhaps he was drunk.) If she dragged him with your (true) words but with a clear amused tone, he’d tip his hat. I think he’s dismayed at the ineptness of a lot of Democratic Party[1] political messaging.

    [1] Sheesh, in his head a little too much. First draft of that sentence had “Democrat Party”.

  145. 145.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    In case he doesn’t see your comment, there were two morning threads; one was briefly pulled, but then put back up. And yes, that youtube link was what he was referring to. It was highly appropriate to the thread.

  146. 146.

    Bill Arnold

    @Matt:

    The Lincoln Project ads were so ineffective that some measurements show they TURNED OUT GOP VOTES.

    Link?
    Also, a large part of their messaging was intended to throw targeted individuals off their game and make them more likely to make mistakes.
    This was a close election in the electoral college context; something like 50K fewer votes in several states would have put Biden below 270. Everything that moved votes in those states was important. (Even election day weather.)

  147. 147.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie:  Thanks,  After not finding a raven comment in moderation, spam or deleted items, I searched for raven and that one came up in the NOPE thread.  I didn’t move it or rescue or it do anything, except find it there in the thread.

    If that’s the comment, I wonder why raven thought it wasn’t there.

    edit: followed up with raven, the comment is definitely there.

  149. 149.

    Jeffery

    Steve Schmidt will find he is a conservative Democrat after the inevitable coming Republican purge.

  151. 151.

    NotoriousJRT

    @Betty Cracker:

    I listen to Schmidt and Nicole Wallace although I will forever view them with a “You brought us Sarah Palin” jaundice.  Nevertheless, many things they say and purport to believe resonates with the center of center-left me.  I agree that those of us who oppose Trumpism and all that it is must find common cause against it whenever and where we can. I would love to see a panel with Schmidt and AOC.  She would not hold back.  His response to that would interest me.

  152. 152.

    NotoriousJRT

    @artem1s:

    they already won their objective of getting Dems thinking we didn’t win the election, the LP did.

    I don’t know anyone who thinks this.  But, I have been holed up in my house since March.  I do see recognition that because of the anti-democratic nature of the Electoral College, there really was not a big margin for error in swing states.   It looks like all help was needed to turn the tide.  But, that’s just me.

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