House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her leadership post Wednesday because she continues to challenge former president Donald Trump over his false claims about election fraud and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to several GOP members.
The voice vote to remove her as chair of the House Republican Conference underscored that the party will not tolerate disagreements with Trump, whose active support many argue is needed for the party to win the House majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
Using a voice vote was a nice touch to avoid a secret ballot where the 10 members (tops) who were against removing Cheney could quietly express their opinions and perhaps embarrass leadership by not showing a united front. Kevin McCarthy may be weak and dumb, but he’s not that weak and dumb.
Also, Stefanik is officially running:
In summary, the Republican Party is gearing up to steal elections, and because of a few timid/stupid Democrats in the Senate who venerate a Jim Crow era parliamentary rule, we won’t even pass a law (HR1) for Republicans to ignore while they do it.
No system level incentives to avoid dominated plans in the ACA
PsiFighter37
I despise Liz Cheney like the rest of the left, but at this point, it seems like we are boiling down to a party that believes in authoritarianism (Trump and the GQP) and everyone else. We need the votes of those folks, even if they are very conservative or right-wing folks.
Old School
Wouldn’t have pegged Mistermix as a Lawrence Welk fan.
O. Felix Culpa
Reposted from morning thread.
Liz Cheney:
emmyelle
Tracy Flick is so misunderstood. I’ve always been a little sympathetic toward her.
Spanky
I don’t think Liz is going anywhere. If anything, losing the leadership position removes whatever inhibitions she may have had. And the msm is always ready to give a Cheney the megaphone.
Baud
A “disagreement” is an awfully mild way of framing what this is about.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Spanky: Liz will be primaried from the right next cycle, and she’ll lose her seat. Then she’ll get a CNN job to replace Santorum where she can be the asshole Republican who hates Trump.
Baud
I’m not going to speculate about whether Cheney sincerely believes that this lie was just a bridge too far for her principles, or if this is just playing the long game in her mind, but she has been steadfast and strong in calling out the Republicans. Kudos to her for that.
MattF
I wonder if Liz Cheney will realize that the best way to keep TFG from returning Oval Office is to support Dem policies. She’s not stupid, but she is a RW ideologue. We shall see, I guess.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@emmyelle: She’s a sad case, as is Stefanik, but just because there’s some darkness there doesn’t mean she isn’t annoying as fuck.
Betty
Some members booed her this morning. What a sad spectacle. About that bipartisanship, …
germy
germy
germy
Whoa, wait a minute Eric Michael Garcia… let’s not get crazy!
Baud
It didn’t work in 2018 or 2022 when he was president, but sure, go with that.
WereBear
I’m sure Liz Cheney is playing a long game. They may be literally heartless (as in the case of her father for a while) Mammon worshippers, but they have at least the shrewdness to understand that Trump is a BREAKER and “his” party is doomed.
They want to mop up the remainders after the whole thing augers in. They CANNOT join the D coalition and keep the ones who want to come crawling back.
PsiFighter37
@MattF: I don’t think she could bring herself about to do that. But if a faction of the House GOP, even if small, refuses to support the GOP nominees for the House leadership, you could have a Democratic House hang on by a minority vote in 2022. But aside from Kinzinger and Liz, you haven’t had any of the other Republicans who voted to impeach vociferously speak out.
We live in very challenging times.
germy
Meanwhile…
Does Dick Cheney still give interviews? I wonder what he mutters nowadays about the GOP he helped build.
Baud
@WereBear:
We don’t want her in our coalition. We’re happy being temporary allies of convenience to fight the Big LIe.
gvg
News stories say she is gearing up to fight the party on Trumpism and lies and didn’t even try to keep her leadership position. It also says she has lined up donors to her and allies apart from the GOP and is planning nationwide speaking tour. In other words, she is doing what Flake and others should have, instead of resigning without saying anything. It also means some donors are supporting this. Not shutting up is good at this point. Also not giving up. She points out that she is really conservative, just won’t lie (that big anyway) and not anti democratic government. She really can’t join democrats.
Trump attacked her as a warmonger for forever war. So that debate could be useful too.
rb
Liz Cheney, however much better she seem today than the parasites consuming her and themselves, is no Tracy Flick, a far better person than all the shitty bros in that movie.
Raoul Paste
@gvg: Yes I was wondering how adherence to the big lie and exposure of the big lie affects the GOP ecosystem of donors
germy
Edmund Dantes
@PsiFighter37: Liz Cheney believed in authoritarianism. It was just her and her dad’s version.
that’s the difference between her and trump. People need to stop pretending she is against a lot of trumpism. She is against being gauche and open about it. Look at her voting record.
SiubhanDuinne
Please fix the typo in the headline.
Au Revoir.
hueyplong
I don’t get all the hate for the despicable Cheney at the one time she’s doing something that helps. We’re better off if well-known and powerful GOPers are doing what Liz Cheney are doing. “Let Them Fight” works best if the Cheney side is strong enough to ensure lots of casualties on both sides.
We didn’t spend 1942 talking about the USSR’s recent past. We wanted them to be strong enough to stop Hitler.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@rb: The Tracy Enid Flick comparison was to Elise Stefanik, not Liz Cheney.
@SiubhanDuinne: Fixed, thanks.
Nicole
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
And not that inaccurate. We fans of Election conveniently forget at the end of the movie, Tracy Flick was working for a Republican Congressman. Above all, she was an ambitious opportunist.
And yet Flick is still better than the creepy creepster male characters.
JML
Liz Cheney will keep a consistent stream of guest shots on the various sunday shows and the her corporate cash will keep flowing. I’m sure she’ll get a primary challenge (probably several, which will certainly help her) but I wouldn’t bet on her being ousted. Incumbency is huge, and if she doesn’t need to win an endorsement (which is where the crazies can really dominate) then she might survive this. not sure how much I care; just because she’s anti-Trump and speaking the truth about the election and the insurrection attempt doesn’t make her a good person.
If she survives this and the current GOP leadership and position crumbles badly in the next election…she’s set up to “chart the new course”…which will be basically the GOP circa 2004.
germy
Always Be Closing:
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong:
Right.
We have to put all our efforts into winning all the elections for the foreseeable future. We did it before, we can do it again.
germy
MTG is not a big Stephanik fan. I’m not who she wants replacing Cheney, but it isn’t the NY lady.
Maybe MTG wants the job!
SiubhanDuinne
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Thanks, mm!
randy khan
There was a tweet posted earlier about how Cheney was courageous to give a floor speech about the Big Lie even though she knew the vote was coming. I don’t actually think of that as courageous – nothing she did was going to change things at that point, since the vote already was baked in as soon as McCarthy said he’d vote to remove her – but it was defiant. Whatever else you think of the Cheney clan, it’s clear that she and her father share the belief that you never apologize and never give in.
It will be interesting to see her next move here. I’m not counting on her doing what she should to help save democracy – helping with a new third party or even joining the Dems, which would be a hoot – but you never know, and she might think that revenge is her best option.
Another Scott
McCarthy making it a voice vote shows how weak he and the Trumpists are.
It’ll be mildly amusing to see how things go from here. She will have a standing invitation on all the talking-heads shows, no doubt. And things will be interesting in the next election in WY – a lot of money will be spent there that wouldn’t be otherwise. And maybe she’ll be a gadfly to the House Teabagger caucus, until they make noises about throwing her out of that too, anyway.
But, big-picture wise, this is small beans.
I suspect he’s right.
We do need a rational second party. But we cannot forget that Cheney’s GOP were monsters, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hoodie
@gvg: I doubt Cheney would be this vocal if she didn’t have some influential backers. Many of the conservative-leaning big business types may have at least a glimmer of a realization that they’ve lost control of the party and those years of being able to influence policy and manipulate the rubes are over. Now you have to be like the Gaetzes and Jordans; the fact that they’ve done nothing about them but drummed out Cheney speaks volumes. I know that the GOP has always been headed in this direction, but Trump’s ascendance really did mark a hostile takeover by the loonies the GOP has been cultivating for years. The mistake that the conventional press makes in looking at this, however, is that they blame this on Trump, when Trump just exploited the opening that was already there.
Cheney’s crusade looks like a bargaining stage move to me. Another bargaining stage move would be creating a splinter group. Hopefully, some them will make it to acceptance and eventually decide to support Democrats. Supposed GOP principles like “smaller government” were really more props than principles anyway.
hells littlest angel
Adios, Au Revoir,Auf Wiedersehenzhena gogolia
@Another Scott:
I still can’t seem to link to tweets from commenters.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: I’m waiting for “Gas Hoarder Blowed Himself Up Real Good” to become the new ” Gender Reveal Explosion in Bugtussle” headline
related thread
Jeffro
@germy: I’d like to second this strategy.
Jeffro
@PsiFighter37: Cheney is smart and so is Kinzinger. They’ll start making their case to GQP donors next.
One hopes they are that smart, anyway…
laura
My .02 is that at some point – hopefully sooner, a trickle, then an avalanche of deeply corrupt dirt is going to coming out about who has been compromised, who took cash, and who may be actual operatives of Putin and that Liz ain’t one of them. I’m still waiting to hear the details about the handfull of GOP Senators and Congress critters who were called to Moscow for the fourth of July a few years back. I suspect that Liz knows some of the what and the who and is going to be well clear of the blast zone and well positioned to be the face of the remains of the Party going foward. I further suspect that the Venn diagram of Big Lie/undermine democracy and Kompromat will have a lot of overlap because these fuckers are vehemently opposed to any investigation of Jan 6 and Liz keeps calling for a Commission explicitly excluding current GQP members.
Jeffro
I wonder which of our very serious pundits will note that this kind of response by Cheney and others is a) only necessary because the rest of the GQP has completely abdicated any sense of responsibility to the country and is b) only possible because the country is in such capable hands with Biden & Co right now.
Not gonna hold my breath. But I bet Rubin will cover both bases before the week is out.
hueyplong
Feeling kind of Darwiny about this gas thing, too. Not rooting for it, but reaching a state of indifference to stupid people experiencing consequences for their stupidity.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@JML: It isn’t incumbency that will help Cheney. It’s a crowded primary field.
If the Cheneys were as powerful in Wyoming as they used to be, Liz would have run for and won Mike Enzi’s open Senate seat. As it is, the horrible Cynthia Lummis is in the Senate. Liz is out of the leadership job that she told herself was why she didn’t want to run for Senate anyway.
Kay
The big lie continues to pick up steam. They’re now saying New Hampshire was fraudulent and once it’s audited the conspiracy will be exposed.
The Cheney ouster just validates and strengthens the initial lie. It gets bigger from here, not smaller.
Jeffro
@gvg: yup, all of this.
It’ll be good for the country to hear sustained anti-trumpov commentary coming from a conservative. Here’s hoping she can crack 10% or more off of the current GQP (whether that means convincing them to vote 3rd party, Dem, or just stay home)
Jeffro
@germy: rooting for injuries here…have at it, soulless GQP twits!
Mike in NC
There will be another coup attempt, maybe to coincide with Independence Day. Maybe an armed assault on the White House itself.
The fascists are determined to install their Fat Orange Messiah as the American Putin, an unelected dictator for life. The coup may or may not fail, but if the GQP makes any gains in Congress in 2022, we can kiss free elections goodbye forever.
Kay
The part about “the generals letter” that drives me crazy is how dumb it is. Joe Biden doesn’t put in state rules on masks and restaurants and schools. That isn’t how any of this works.
I can’t believe we hired these people, and promoted them. I mean, they’re all retired but I imagine they worked for years and they’re dumb as rocks.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: trump was demanding the R-controlled Michigan legislature do something like the AZ audit, too. State legislatures may be a harder nut to crack than House races.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
What does that mean?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh, they’ll do it in Michigan. They had a violent Trump mob in their statehouse prior to the national mob. They’re loyal cult members. The last independent conservative in Michigan was Amash and he’s long gone.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@laura: Agreed. I wonder if there was a meeting of the corporate PACs we don’t know about, the one where they pick the right Repubs to donate to and discuss that bit of damage control.
germy
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
According to Judd Legum, they’re donating to the wrong republicans, too. And hoping the controversy blows over
(linked in comment #23)
To be Frank
it seems having your enemies made ridiculous isn’t the blessing we had been lead to believe
MattF
@laura: Maybe. But I’d assume that the Russians and their allies have already gamed this out this possibility— that media collaborators (e.g., Tuckums) are safely in place, that alternative money pots and pathways are already set up for funding, etc., and so forth. It’s going to be a struggle, with wins and losses.
Baud
@Kay:
So Flynn has 119 friends?
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We’ll have a precurser to attempts to overturn the 2024 election results with the GOP primary. Trump has to win or they’ll riot. I don’t even think they can have “a primary” in any real sense. Just running against him will be cause for expulsion.
It’s good. The country gets a warning prior to the big election.
Geminid
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: You seem certain that Liz Cheney will lose her Wyoming primary next year. I am not so sure. For one thing, she already has at least four challengers, and anti-Cheney forces in the state legislature pushing for a runoff have been stymied thus far. It will be a real fight, as will be the renomination fights of fellow impeachers Kinzinger (IL), Meijer (MI), and Gonzales (OH).
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I put it in John’s thread yesterday. When a commenter quotes a tweet, I used to be able to click on the date and go to the tweet. Now when I do that, it says “something went wrong” (within twitter). But if I somehow manage to find the same tweet on my own by googling, I go to the tweet. I can also get to tweets that are quoted by front-pagers. (I’m not on twitter, but I read it all the time.)
Miss Bianca
@hueyplong: I tend to agree.
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Fun fact: Election is one of the only movies I’ve ever had to bail on before the end, because it just made me that queasy. (Joins Mars Attacks in that regard. Both of them alleged “comedies” that made me want to puke.)
Kay
@Baud:
Blech. The security state people who are cult members disgust me. It’s just gross. I feel like there are tons of them, too.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@germy: Well, fat chance of that if Liz does her speaking tour. I find it hard to believe she’s truly being a lone ranger on this though. The Cheneys still have some clout on K Street.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Some of the R state legislatures are not releasing public school assistance money, which pisses me off and should get more attention. They’re using it as leverage to get their ridiculous “antiwoke” laws put in. More disgusting behavior.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I haven’t read that thread yet, so thanks for the explanation.
Recently, twitter has started doing that to me sometimes. I don’t press TRY AGAIN, i reload the page. I always have to reload the page twice (Ctrl-R), and the twitter page shows up just fine after the second reload. (so that’s three times – the first time i try and get an error, reload #1 and reload #2).
I would really appreciate it if you could let me know whether it behaves the same way for you. I use Safari.
I would be interested to see if the name things Can you try that and see if that holds true for you?
mrmoshpotato
HAHAHAHA! Where’s my Injuries #1 giant foam finger?
Anyway
@zhena gogolia:
We have to put all our efforts into winning all the elections for the foreseeable future. We did it before, we can do it again
Agree totally. But am disheartened, scared by the ooodles of oligarch cash available to the Right. Anyway you turn there’s another stinking-rich billionaire pouring hundreds of millions into their coffers. I didn’t realize Mellon Scaife was behind Newsmax and their “journalists” pushing slime into the MSM – just like they did during BillC’s time. Democrats (or the non-right) need to appeal to the ultra-wealthy to stand up to the Republican vision of tearing down democracy and call it out.
Mike in NC
@germy: Ever since the racist Tea Party movement of 2010, the battle cry of American fascism has always been about “taking our country back”.
lee
@Kay:
I read that this morning. A couple of thoughts.
As multiple articles have pointed out, we have an extremist problem in our military. The officer corps is not exclude from that problem (e.g. Air Force Academy is its evangelical problems).
planetjanet
@Kay: Just imagine the 2024 Republican convention.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
The Party of Lincoln has been dead for years; this just puts another nail in its coffin. The GQP wears its face and answers to its name, but it’s not the same thing, and really hasn’t been since Lee Atwater offered them the devil’s bargain that was the Southern Strategy.
I see only two outcomes:
The GQP will destroy America, unless the GQP is first destroyed. I offer the example of how Greece dealt with the Golden Dawn Party as a template.
lee
@Kay: I’m not sure it is they are ‘dumb as rocks’ but have become FoxNews/OANN/NewsMax extremists in their retirement.
I have first hand knowledge of retired military officers spending their days watching OANN & NewsMax. FoxNews turned ‘ too liberal’ for them.
RaflW
The number of Democrats who are praising Liz is grossing me out. She was not a principled conservative during Trump’s term. She did fuck all to oppose his various and sundry bullshit.
I mean, do we praise the person who calls the fire department after the roof is gone, the second floor is engulfed, and the caller watched the arsonist spread the gas, light the match, and yell “Fake Fire!” for 20 minutes after the first licks of flame?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@lee: a common thread in “I lost my father” usually “to the far right media” stories in the ‘tubes is “he’s a doctor/lawyer/MIT-trained engineer”…..
germy
@RaflW:
I think her main objection to the trumpers is their isolationist tendencies. She and her dad don’t like hearing trump republicans complain about “forever wars”
Geminid
@planetjanet: The Republicans could hold the 2024 convention at Stone Mountain, outside Atlanta. Delegates would get commemorative tiki torches, and the insurgent faction would wear pointy tinfoil hoods.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
I just tried the very same tweet, and this time it loaded immediately. Strange. Mac laptop, Chrome.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Hunter over at Teh Orange wrote an excellent analysis on Darth’s Daughter:
Everybody Still Hates Liz Cheney
mrmoshpotato
Fuck Liz, fuck her war criminal father and fuck the entire goddamn GQP party.
Here – have a blind-folded pillow fight.
RaflW
@germy: That’s pretty much been Tom Nichol’s argument for a while now. He wrote a piece for the Atlantic about the stalinist GOP.
Ken
Cheap Trick would have made a better header:
“Bye bye, so long, farewell
Bye bye, so long, sayanora
Bye bye, au revoir, auf wiedersehen
Bye bye, so long, farewell
Bye bye, so long, suicide
Bye bye, so long, hari kari, kamikaze, suicide
Suicide
Suicide
Suicide”
zhena gogolia
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Key paragraph:
I think some people here aren’t really grasping this nuance either.
Cacti
Donald Trump may be the only person on earth who could pick a fight with the Cheneys and have them come out of it looking like the good ones.
L85NJGT
@Baud:
It’s a bunch of old timers from the Vietnam era.
MJS
@RaflW: Some Democrats – “Why won’t Republicans repudiate Trump and the Big Lie?”
(Republican repudiates Trump and the Big Lie).
Some Democrats – “No, a different Republican. One who supports all the things we do.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
another point about Liz Cheney (she’ll always be Dick Jr to me): she’s been calling for a 1/6 commission that’s limited to 1/6, specifically speaking against McConnell’s plan to muddy the waters with a lot of dog-whistling about AntiFa and BLM protests. If Our Willard or Murkowski or Joni Ernst or any of the other Senators planning to look sad and solemn in tweets and CNN clips today have done the same, I missed it.
Baud
@MJS:
Right. Stop pissing out pants about praising Liz Cheney when she is exposing the GOP. Biden is not going to invade Canada because some Dems say something positive about Liz.
Baud
@L85NJGT:
I’ll let Raven deal with them.
Cacti
The unspoken part of the above was always “from the n**gers”.
In Trump, they found the person who will say the quiet parts out loud.
Miss Bianca
@Cacti:
IKR?
Kent
Like they say, even a stopped clock is correct twice a day. As much as I despise her, Maureen Dowd did nail this one:
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. What Liz Cheney standing up to the toxic T lies is significant. I don’t have to love her or agree with her on ideological matters to acknowledge that.
Kay
@lee:
So you’re telling me they were vulnerable to extremist propaganda? Good to know.
They can’t be weak-minded nut jobs in charge of billions of dollars of weapons. I think we can demand that level of quality. It’s a low bar but let’s reach for it.
zhena gogolia
@MJS:
Right!
Cacti
Given that the Republican Party has already passed their Beer Hall Putsch stage, I predict that there will be a “Night of the Long Knives” type event in the near future for the non-Trumpian heretics of the party.
VeniceRiley
@mrmoshpotato: Ha! My favorite part was watching Mona Charen on MSNBC. She’s misplaced her smug and is gone full Michael Steele.
CaseyL
It’s nice for the GQP to declare itself an authoritarian, anti-American cult so loudly even the MSM has to carry the story. Maybe the walloping percent of Americans who don’t pay attention to politics but vote “GOP” because they always have will actually notice.
OTOH, the new GQP has attracted all the dumb/mean assholes who previously didn’t bother with politics, either, and those neo-Nazis are, alas, not going anywhere.
Kay
It really would have been easier if they had just ripped the band aid off and admitted the loss right away.
Democrats have done it, Republicans have done it. It’s not the end of the damn world. They lost. The whole thing would have been over months ago if they weren’t all such sniveling cowards.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I saw this for awhile a few months ago, and then it stopped happening. I think twitter is having issues.
Geminid
@MJS: A lot of “You aren’t going to make me like Liz Cheney!” energy around. Seems kind of passive-aggressive to me.
Kay
I was thinking about Nancy Pelosi telling the D base in 2004 that impeachment was “off the table”
I agreed with it- I think impeachment sucks as a process or a remedy- but even if you didn’t agree with it she made a decision and announced it, and it enraged the D base.
Not a one of these people are that caliber. They just don’t have it in them. They fail to lead, daily. They’ll never get better either, only worse. This is the best they can do.
WaterGirl
@Kent: God help me, I am agreeing with Maureen Dowd.
Baud
@CaseyL:
I wouldn’t make that assumption. A lot of Trump voters are Trump specific.
Baud
germy
brantl
@O. Felix Culpa: Of course, that’s not true, she just sells a different breed of destructive lies, just like her old man. That little troll needs to be thrown off his bridge.
Geminid
@Kay: I am reminded of cartoons I’ve seen of frightened elephants perched on chairs, panicked by a mouse on the floor. Only in this case, the the mouse is a rat named donald trump.
Sure Lurkalot
So apparently TFG’s installed Secretary of the DOD walked back supposed written comments that TFG incited the insurrection.
What is it? Does TFG have Putin prepared dirt on ALL these despicables? Or mob threat of violence against their families? Both or neither? I will probably croak never understanding the craven loyalty.
sdhays
@Kay: I wonder how much Dump’s increased vote totals are influencing their calculus. Despite losing, Dump did in fact get more votes than he did before. This is the source of Ol’ Lindsey’s statement that Dump is the only way they grow the party.
They think they need to hang on to as many of those Dump-activated voters as possible and hope that Democrats go back to not turning out for most elections.
Kay
More cowardice. Donald Trump is still with us and his cult army has only gotten larger, and includes hundreds of electeds. Rosen has a duty to warn the country that they sought to overturn an election.
At every fork in the road they go the wrong way. They always, always choose themselves over any and all others.
We should stop hiring and paying weak people like this. We can do better.
Baud
@Kay:
That’s also a bit of self-protection.
Baud
FWIW, the loyalty isn’t to Trump. It’s to the bigotry he represents. The GOP doesn’t have the courage to do what Dems did in the 60s and abandon their racist wing.
citizen dave
“another point about Liz Cheney (she’ll always be Dick Jr to me)”
She’s the gay Cheney daughter, right? Sorry, I was imagining being such a normie that you could have this thought.
This is a real interesting time, for sure. I think I’ve finally come to truly understand how our diversity is our strength, as I wonder about how and whether a Hitler situation could happen here–or any sort of authoritarian leader. We’re in a vulnerable place, but surely there are enough of a group of whites, along with all the other people of colors, immigrants, etc. that we’re not going down the white nationalism path. But clearly almost the whole GQP is OK with setting up the structure for someone younger to take baton and rule with it. Scary.
I can’t help to interpret the near-total lack of car stickers and yard signs that most of us are so sick of this crap, it’s going back under the rock it came from. Kindness and democracy need to prevail. How to get the crazy number back to 27%
I like Kent’s post (the Dowd column). It’s like the GQP kept pushing the crazy meter over and over to the right, and now shit is broke. But they kept turning it up. Like a drug addict finally overdosing. GOP: 1854-2021. RIP.
Baud
Haha.
CaseyL
@Baud:
I really hope they are. From your mouth to FSM’s noodly appendages!
James E Powell
@Cacti:
Yes, Obama & African-Americans are first on the list, as always, but there is a list and it includes just about everybody who isn’t a white male right-wing Christian.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Twitter, being “social”, is probably doing all kinds of stuff in the background with its cookies.
We know that Firefox is trying to enhance privacy/security and that may be why it’s problematic here these days. Apple wants everything done its own way, also too.
If it’s not a Twitter cookie/cache issue, there might be some extension mucking with Twitter – e.g. Disconnect.
The last few days when I’ve seen “Something went wrong” with Twitter links in Chrome was because my VPN went down. Unsurprising that there were issues then. Once the VPN was up again, everything was back to normal.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
L85NJGT
@Baud:
I think this is accurate. Trump is a spent political force, the fealty is to Trumpism.
Baud
@CaseyL:
The problem for us is that a lot of the votes we got were inspired by Trump too.
BlueNC
@Another Scott
I’m also seeing the problem with Twitter links. In my case, clicking them results in an error, but the “try again” button provided by twitter works.
Safari/Mac/blah blah
Cacti
@James E Powell: On that score, I think one of the reasons the anger at Cheney was so intense from male Congressional Repukes was that a woman made them all look so damned cowardly.
Can’t be having that in the patriarchy party.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I use Safari on the Mac. I haven’t changed a single thing – not my browser, not an update, no settings changes, no extensions added.
Ditto for no changes on the site.
I am completely confident that this is a twitter issue, so I just refresh twice and all is good.
I’m sure that will go away at some point soonish, just like it did last time twitter had this same issue, which then resolved itself.
VeniceRiley
@citizen dave: Mary is the lesbian Cheney
debbie
Is it true members walked out rather than listening to Cheney’s statement before the vote? All of them? Did anyone vote for her to remain? NPR is annoyingly opaque on the events.
mrmoshpotato
@VeniceRiley:
Oh? Did Dump somehow magically turn the Rethuglican party from an upstanding party and into a racist shithole in 2016, and no history exists before that?
James E Powell
@Baud:
Without their enthusiastic participation, Republicans cannot hope to compete in national elections. They have no other base of support. There just aren’t that many millionaires.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Baud: If Trump remains active, could he still get out our voters? Looks like the VA governor’s race might be a test case…the relatively unknown GOP candidate preaches the Trumpism gospel.
Kent
No, that’s the other Cheney daughter Mary Cheney: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cheney
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH
This is really none of our business.
And, stop giving the woman the credit for acknowledging that 46 is our President. Such a damn low bar.
Baud
@Bluegirlfromwyo:
Possibly. But we can’t control or count on what Trump will do.
Cameron
@Kay: I dunno. Look at what washed ashore in the White House not too long ago.
Baud
@rikyrah:
We give her credit for media purposes. We want people to pay attention to what the GOP is doing.
Kay
@Baud:
The lawyers disappointed me during Trump. Oh, well. Maybe it’s good. When it happens again we’ll know there’s no help there. They’re really the biggest bunch of chickenshit ass-kissers I have ever seen.
You start to understand why we have so few white collar/powerful people prosecutions. These people are afraid of their own shadows. We’re all going on and on about The Rule of Law and the lawyers are looking at their shoes, hoping no one notices they’re the…law people.
germy
Split the vote.
Baud
@germy:
Who knew the GOP would schis before we did?!
zhena gogolia
I’m reading Frederick Douglass’s 1852 Fourth of July speech, and this passage leaped out at me. He’s talking about King George III:
MisterForkbeard
@germy: There are no elected officials in that group from what I can tell. It’s the same thing as always, career staffers and ex-reps neither of whom have to answer directly to voters and aren’t risking anything.
Wake me up when 10+ or so congressmen do it.
NotoriousJRT
@Baud: Both?
That’s my read.
Hoodie
@Baud: Yeah, Trump played around with running for president for years but got nowhere until the conditions in the GOP were ripe.
It helps to pay attention to what they actually say. For example, the evangelicals refer to Trump as “an imperfect vessel” for what they want, which is really just white Xtian supremacy and a certain kitsch associated with that. Trump is just a guy with a certain type of cheezy charisma that appeals to such people (people with a taste for shit, as Kundera would describe it), and he has no scruples about doing whatever he needs to do to get attention and power. The GOP rank and file were more than ready for that, and that the traditional GOP leadership was too weak to stop him from capitalizing on that.
sdhays
Via Atrios: More than 100 Republican former officials to seek reforms, threaten new party.
Sure, they’re a bunch of has beens, but if they siphon off money and manage to field candidates, bye bye hopes of a GQP House or Senate majority in 2023
Edit: Beaten again by germy!
Hoodie
@germy: I hope it’s sternly worded.
rikyrah
The fact that they wouldn’t even put the vote on the record. Such punk azz bytches.
From top to bottom, a bunch of punks.
rikyrah
@sdhays:
Stop talking and start DOING.
Be about that life or SHUT UP YOUR WHINING.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
We don’t care though. We just want them to hurt the GOP.
Barry
(about Liz’s chances in 2022) “Incumbency is huge, and if she doesn’t need to win an endorsement (which is where the crazies can really dominate) …”
Trump will remember (or be reminded) and gleefully denounce her and support an opponent. And likely have a rally.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
What WaterGirl said. This seems to be a Twitter thing. The solution is not to press the Twitter “Try again” button but to do a page refresh in your browser. And sometimes you have to do it twice.
misterpuff
@citizen dave: This is the GQP paradox. The haters are still 27%. The professed Republicans are about 40% of the electorate. 70% of Republicans support Trumpism and The Big Lie. The Math tells us that then 28% of the electorate is Trumpist.
Nothing has changed. They just exist in a system whose critical control point is primaries where 28% beats 12%. This would not be a large problem since 28% or even 40% can win in the generals, except in the red states. But with gerrymandering and voter suppression, their power is magnified.
We can’t change most of those minds but we can fight unfair election strategies.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: Understood.
A couple more data points:
There are some reports that Twitter is unhappy if your computer clock is incorrect. :-/
Dunno.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@germy:
That’s actually my dream. They can’t win anything with half the Republican Party. We could have discussions and debates and stuff knowing they won’t win, ever :)
piratedan
I guess its strange days indeed when someone with whom we are politically diametrically opposed to like Liz Cheney understands the bare basics of our political process, unlike the majority of her current political party.
Wonder what will happen when the DOJ prosecution of the January 6th coup attempt start to unravel the threads of which political operatives were involved and what the shoe dropping results of those revelations will entail.
At this point, the only way I can see unravelling the growing fascism movement is to prosecute it for the crimes committed and to not turn away from the issue of having to do it. I know that we have a government elected on the idea that they can walk and chew gum at the same time, going to need to see it in action as we get the pandemic under further control and deal with a party that has not only embraced corruption but sees it as a method to obtain and project power.
Old School
@MisterForkbeard:
artem1s
@Hoodie:
I have always had my suspicions about how loyal the big GOP funders are. I imagine lots of them would gladly back Liz largely because giving to TFG’s GQP means having to let him wet his beak. I doubt the Kochs care all that much about what letter is behind a politician’s name as long as they are getting the full value of their
bribefree speech donation in return.If the impossible happened and Liz decided that a few strategic votes on the other side of the aisle would help her, I wonder if there might be more Senators who aren’t up for re-election in 2022 who might see it as an opportunity to seize back the party before they have to risk their seats? In other words, are any of the regular GOP willing to get hold of some sweet infrastructure cash now for their states in exchange for not being challenged on the left in 2024 or 2026 when the GOP is better positioned to take back the Senate? Do you think RMoney is going to have to worry about losing his seat to TFG’s challenger? I’m not entirely sure Cheney is going to lose her seat yet. I think she’s perfectly positioned to be the next “Maverick” of the GOP. This could get very interesting depending on how much Cheney wants to screw over McConnell and/or the other Cult45 members.
Ejoiner
@sdhays: Ironically (?) I’m teaching the 1912 election in my US history classes today. Yea ole’ Bull Moose vs. the Elephant…and Wison wins!
Baud
@Old School:
They’ll attract dozens of people!
Hopefully, the media will give them lots of air time. That’s probably all we can expect out of that group.
rikyrah
@emmyelle:
I loved Tracy Flick as I grew older.
Another Scott
@debbie:
Another tweet I saw yesterday said only one GOPer stayed behind, but I can’t find it at the moment.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Old School:
A lot of the Trump fanatics here weren’t GOP voters. They weren’t engaged at all. That’s why the GOP establishment can’t bring them back in- they were never in. In that sense Trump is right when he says he “grew” the Party. He grew that end. The question is whether he loses enough stalwart Republicans to make that growth a wash or a net loss.
Democrats sometimes make the same category error with Lefties. They’re not Democrats. Can’t bring them back in to something they were never part of to begin with.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve always been partial to “Au reservoir.”
debbie
@Baud:
Apologies if already pointed out, but to be fair, Dems didn’t abandon the racists. The racists fled to the GOP.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
It happens to me sometimes on my phone (Android with Samsung browser). Very rarely on my Windows box (with Firefox).
I also do not have a Twitter account, just go there and read with my browser.
SFAW
@Another Scott:
I think it was Ken Buck, asshole from Colorado.
debbie
@Another Scott:
Thanks! Cheap suits, all.
SFAW
@Old School:
And every Rethug under 70 says “Who?”
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
I can’t prove it, but my spidey sense tells me it might be something in the way Twitter handles “browser reading” versus “Twitter account reading.” Would be interesting to hear if people with Twitter accounts have the same problem.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Data point:
I am NEVER logged in to twitter when I click a link to twitter.
Mallard Filmore
@piratedan:
Biden says the DOJ is not “his” to run. Still, I hope he directs them to ignore the “90 days before an election” rule.
There go two miscreants
@WaterGirl: whether it behaves the same way for you
Happens to me (FF on Win10) but not terribly often; same as you describe, a couple of reloads does the trick.
Baud
@debbie:
We abandoned the racists with the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. They fled to the GOP after that.
I mean, it’s true we didn’t “abandon” them in the sense that we still represented racists’ non-racist economic and social interests. But the racists don’t really care about their non-racist interests if it means sacrificing their racist interests.
lowtechcyclist
You’re all wet. ;-)
Hoodie
@Kay: That’s true, but a lot of them were already there in the form of GOPers who were ready to let their asshole flag fly (e.g., the purple band aid brigade at the 2004 RNC). The power shift that occurred with Trump allowed them to relax their inhibitions and take control. An irony is that guys like Dick Cheney were at one time the radical members of the party but were kept in the closet during the Reagan/GHWB years by the Jim Bakers and Brent Scowcrofts.
Princess
@Another Scott: I agree. That McCarthy chose a voice vote and not a secret ballot is a sign of deep weakness.
Hoodie
@Baud: Because relative status is more important once you’re not starving (if you have a sparrow for your curtain rod, so to speak).
Jeffro
This is the thing, right? It still blows my mind that they didn’t pile on the night of January 6th – the orange moron has cost the party everything AND incited an attack on our country.
But they can’t, because far too many of them are either in on the corruption or are all-in on the white supremacy, or both.
lee
@Kay:
I wonder if compelling to testify would be worth it. I remember they tried with a Clinton witness and she spent time and never testified.
Belafon
I can’t embed at work, so I will just leave the link: https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1392530113179398155
Mallard Filmore
Seen a few minutes ago at DemocraticUnderground.com …
Jeffro
Both.
Geminid
@artem1s: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce started hedging it’s bets in the 2020 cycle, and endorsed 20 Democratic incumbent Representatives. Sharice Davids (KS-3) and Abigail Spanberger (VA) were two of these.
Spanberger’s opponent last year was sponsored by The Club for Growth. She won by ~4,000 votes. Spanberger’s district, in the north Richmond suburbs and exurbs, was represented by Eric Cantor until a tea party challenger took him out in 2014. Spanberger is the first Democrat to hold that seat since Virginia’s parties realigned in the 1970’s.
Geminid
@Kay: Polling of registered Virginia voters by the Wason Center shows Republican self-identification falling from 31% to 25%, from December 2019 to February 2021. At least in this state, talk of “new trump voters” is whistling past the graveyard.
West of the Rockies
Trump faces an ever growing three-headed peril: age, disease (physical and mental), and criminal prosecution. He will not remain a viable threat forever.
Quiltingfool
I’m not sure how this Liz Cheney situation is going to play out. I really have no idea the amount of power the Cheney name has now, and I think the people who do are not saying anything. I have a theory that really powerful people keep their pie holes shut, make no threats out loud, and then, BOOM! The shit really hits the fan and splatters everyone close. But, are the Cheneys and their allies still powerful? This “May you live in interesting times” is getting old.
On the bright side, for me, is I got my 2nd Moderna shot today!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
There was an analysis done on the 2020 election that Kay linked to yesterday that showed that white voters without a college degree had shrunk from 51% of the electorate in 2008 to 44% in 2020. The Republicans know they’re facing increasing headwinds at the national level as well as in some states
Another Scott
@Steeplejack (phone): I don’t have a twitter account. T is getting more insistent about me using their app and signing up…
Up until a week or so ago, on my Android phone (using Brave), it was easy and reliable to refresh a Twitter tab by doing the swipe-down thing. Now, I have to manually refresh the page via the URL to have it reliably refresh (and show new tweets).
I do think that they are trying to “degrade” the web service – ever so slightly – to increase the annoyance and make us sign in/use the app. Can’t prove it though, of course. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@SFAW: Which means that, asshole as he is (and being a Dem from Colorado, I fucking HATE Ken Buck), I have to give him some bare, minimum amount of props for being at least a degree less of a cowardly douche than the rest of the GQP.
Whoopee, as my dad used to say.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So really, 1/6 was the Beer Hall Putsch, and the main act is yet to come.
I feel like I keep having to say this.
hueyplong
@West of the Rockies: Totally agree. It’s a race against time.
I would argue that we need to see some awful revelations from him just before a soon-to-happen death or incapacitation, and they need to be the kinds of things that stick to the Cruzes, Hawleys and McCarthys of circus.
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
This happens to me pretty often. I find that if i refresh the Twitter page a couple of times, I will eventually get the data I wanted when I clicked on the link.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
So stop saying it because it’s not true. Hitler wasn’t already the Fuhrer when the Putsch occurred. Trump was. Even if we end up sliding into fascism, it’s not a parallel situation to pre-war Germany.
The Thin Black Duke
The best case scenario is enough Republicans who are tired of the freak show staying home instead of voting.
Jeffro
Kevin McCarthy, just now:
Um what??? Wait, I meant to say UM WHAT?!?!???!?!!
Martin
@PsiFighter37: She’s not a friend of Democrats, but she’s a friend of democracy, and we need as many of them as we can get right now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Miss Bianca:
Now if only Boebert could be booted from the Colorado congressional delegation in 2022
Almost Retired
2liberal
he speaks with forked tongue
he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth
etc etc etc
Jeffro
Yup.
Their older, whiter voters are dying off.
The country is growing more racially diverse by the day.
The country is growing more secular by the day.
The country is growing more educated and urban by the day.
And our elections at every level are growing more nationalized and polarized by the day.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Cool, Kevin. Sponsor a resolution to that effect and get your caucus to vote for it. I’ll wait.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
That’s the second best case scenario. The best case scenario is that our voters don’t get tired of kicking fascists in the ass.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jeffro:
@Baud:
I’m waiting for his caucus to demand his ouster as minority leader for basically saying the election wasn’t stolen after all. Probably won’t happen but it couldn’t happen to a weaker guy
Miss Bianca
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Workin’ on it…workin’ on it…
ETA: And so, I might add here, is the entire CO State Democratic Party. Flipping CD-3 is their #1 priority for 2022.
Jeffro
@2liberal: exactly
they can only continue their con for as long as folks (the media, GQP voters, etc) continue to let them have it both ways
but…
trumpov either lost or he didn’t. it was either an insurrection or it wasn’t. and that’s why Cheney drawing a bright line like this is welcome. they’ve had it both ways FOREVER
MattF
@Baud: Well, Ludendorff, who was the commander of the German Army in WWI, was in the Putsch. We recall that Hitler was there because of the 30s. But Ludendorff’s presence was a big deal. That said, I don’t buy the analogy with post-WWI Germany. Just a very different situation, IMO.
Archon
I can’t tell if this is a truly important story or a media driven story.
The Thin Black Duke
@Baud: After the past four years, I think more and more people are realizing that voting for the GOP is no different from being a suicide bomber.
JoyceH
@Martin:
Let’s also remember that there are doubtless a good number of Republicans in Congress who privately agree with Cheney. If she takes the stand she’s done, and all she got from it on the left was ‘pffft, she’s a warmonger’, what motivation do they have to step forward and speak out? But when you have the news anchors gushing over Cheney as a Profile In Courage, those silent Republicans might start feeling a tad envious.
Frankensteinbeck
Am I the only person who remembers that it has been a core Republican principle for decades that Democrats cannot rule legitimately, any cheating is justified to reverse the results of losing, and every election is the reason for a new round of voter suppression? That the base has always believed with ferocious passion in shit like Democrats driving buses full of black voters around to different precincts or even states so they can vote dozens of times? That being a racist means believing that white men will win any fair contest because they’re superior, so if the Other win that means the Other cheated somehow? That shitty racists were passing around deranged conspiracy-laden chain emails before Facebook memes, and badly typed pamphlets before email? That in the aftermath of the Civil War there were actual violent militia overthrows of local governments when fair elections caused blacks to win?
Everyone describes Cheney’s crime as defying Trump. No, she has spoken heresy against everything the Republican Party has always stood for. Even her most rational colleagues who know there was no cheating wish she would shut up because she’s undermining their important work of ensuring minority rule.
Brachiator
@The Thin Black Duke:
We cannot depend on Republicans staying home. I don’t know why people keep dreaming this dream. Especially while the GOP takes the more pragmatic stance, let’s suppress the hell out of voters.
Republicans came out in droves in 2020. Fortunately, Democrats came out in drovier droves. This is what we will need in 2022 and 2024.
J R in WV
@Baud:
The GQP can’t abandon their racist wing — they are all racists. Some of them are more up front about their racism, but they are all bigots and racists.
Don’t listen to them telling you they aren’t racists — just look at what they’re doing instead.
All racist, all the time~!!!~
Anti-semitic also, and the right wing Jewish folk are too fixated on the RWNJ attachment to Bibi and his RWNJ Likud partei in Israel to see that once the people of color are put down, the Jews will be next.
artem1s
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
might be true. however, Hitler actually took part in the revolt and went to jail with his supporters. TFG threw his supporters under the bus. So unless the New Nazi Party has another leader waiting in lock up writing up their own Mein Kampf, the second act is going to look a lot like the rally at Four Seasons Landscaping. I’m doubtful this second rate remake of The Boys from Brazil is going to be thing that brings on the next Thousand Year Reich.
janesays
@Spanky: She’s not going to have a seat after next January 3, 2023. She’ll be primaried by a Trumpling next year, and she will lose that primary.
Jeffro
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): “Reps Gosar, Boebert, Greene – how do you feel about the Minority Leader’s comments today, that President Biden fairly won the election and trumpov lost?”
J R in WV
Nope, Liz is married to a guy named Phillip Perry, a lawyer in DC. The gay daughter is Mary Cheney.
janesays
@MattF: If you think there’s any chance in hell that Liz Cheney will ever support a single piece of Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
To be fair, Trump won’t be on the ballot, at least in 2022 (don’t know about 2024), so it’s conceivable that GOP turnout will be lower in 2022. Then again it’s a midterm election and all of these anti-voter laws make predictions hard to make
WaterGirl
@There go two miscreants: thanks
As we used to say in the 80s, twitter has issues.
Another Scott
PSA, for those interested:
I just tried to open a WaPo link in a private tab (to get around the usual paywall stuff) and saw this:
They ask for an e-mail address (don’t know if they want the friend’s e-mail address as well).
I didn’t sign up yet, myself.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@janesays:
Not if she has a crowded field of challenges, which seems to be taking shape atm
janesays
@PsiFighter37: Liz Cheney won’t be a factor in who controls the House in 2023, because she’ll be a former member of Congress at that point. Not sure about Kinzinger. He’s obviously less vulnerable than Cheney, but I wouldn’t assume that he’s completely safe from a primary challenge, either.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Miss Bianca:
Excellent!
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Hmm. I wonder how that would work for folks like me who already have a subscription. Mine was $4 a month through Amazon Prime, but now it’s $6.
At $4 it might not have been worth it to change, but at $6 – a 50% jump – it’s tempting.
If anyone tries to switch to the new one, let us know how it goes.
Jeffro
@Baud:The best case scenario is that our voters don’t get tired of kicking fascists in the ass.
That reminded me of that quote from Officer Hodges, the one who got crushed in the doorway by trumpov’s violent mob on 1/6
That is just so awesome.
Our family sent him a Starbucks gift card and a note of thanks (as we did with Eugene Goodman. =)
trollhattan
@Quiltingfool:
My SWAG is some remnant of the Bush II-era neocons support her and while they hold certain levers to genuine power, they’re badly on the back food during the Trump era. i.e., this is their time to put up and push for party reform, or stop pretending.
My money’s not on them.
JoyceH
@janesays:
I think she’ll actually win the primary. Because she’s not going to be primaried by A Trumpling, but by about half a dozen of them. The anti-Cheney vote will be so distributed that she’ll probably come out on top.
Brachiator
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I will have to go back and look at this, but of course, what happens at the national level is not all that important. States matter in elections. This is why the GOP is so hot to pass voter suppression laws at the state level and to take other measures to tip the scales in their favor.
Mid term election turnout has been lower for both parties since almost forever. I don’t think it worth much time to make turnout predictions. But I will try to work to help get out the vote, period.
lee
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Boebert committed fraud with her congressional reimbursement.
Smarter Congresscritters than her have been removed for that very reason.
I’m hoping they wait until closer to the election before they start the investigation/prosecution.
janesays
@Nicole: These two things can be simultaneously true…
Another Scott
@JoyceH: If she puts up a fight, it may get very interesting.
Casper Star-Tribune:
Rooting for injuries.
Cheers,
Scott.
misterpuff
Goodnight Elisabeth
We couldn’t all be cowboys
So some of us are clowns
Goodnight Elisabeth Goodnight
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Boebert won the Colorado 3rd by six points, the same margin by which trump carried the dustrict. Colorado will gain a seat through apportionment, and redistricting will alter Boebert’s district. Not by too much, because two of it’s boundaries are the New Mexico and Utah state lines.
Like my state, Colorado has turned redistricting over to an independent commission. It is suposed to act neutrally, but Boebert is such an embarrassment I would not be surprised if the commissioners remove some Republican counties, and add a few Democratic towns.
James E Powell
@Miss Bianca:
Isn’t Colorado adding a district? Drawing the lines might get interesting.
Are any Colorado Ds vulnerable? We will be playing defense all over the country.
J R in WV
@piratedan:
I don’t know that the DoJ needs to devote many resources to the fight against Sars-Covid-19.
I think they can put all their terrorist and counter-intelligence folks on the Jan 6th insurrection, and charge every elected politician with at least sedition who aided those fuckers in any way.
Gave a tour on Jan 5th? Crime! Indictment and jailed awaiting trial would make voting in Congress difficult. And those guilty of sedition can’t serve in Congress constitutionally.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: The Democrats really need to knock off some Republican incumbents next year, as redistricting could cost some seats. Like the Colorado 3rd, my Virginia 5th district is held by a freshman wingnut who primaried a Republican incumbent from the right. He won the general election by 5 points. This district will also be a top priority for Democrats next year.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@laura: The problem is that, as much as these people are all deeply corrupt, the GOP audience has been primed to only, ever believe their right wing sources. We will find out they are all crooks. The wingers will just get mad because they think it is more proof the ‘deep state’ is framing their leaders. The rest of us are horrified that these monsters keep winning elections.
Miss Bianca
@James E Powell: Colorado Ds look pretty solid, right now – finally, candidates *and* state party officials *and* local party officials all appear to be singing from the same hymnbook – unity, unity, unity, no trash-talking other Dems, no leaking to the press with same, “just win, baby”. So refreshing – I briefly left my position as a county Democratic Party official because I was so damn disgusted by the emo antics of other counties’ Democratic Party officials leading up to 2016 and beyond. We seem to be beyond that now, THANK GOD FASTING. Who knows how long it will last, but for now, Colorado Dems are very much in array.
J R in WV
@Frankensteinbeck:
No, you aren’t the only person. Back in 1970 when I was in the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Base for training some buddies and I took the train north and walked miles to a park with giant dunes. Beautiful morning, turned shitty fast that afternoon, thunderstorms blowing through.
So we got wet, were walking towards the train station, came upon a little book shop, ran in to escape the oncoming storm. Plus, was a book store! Then I realized… it was a John Birch Society Book Store, full of books about FDR supporting Stalin and Ike Eisenhower supporting the USSR as well. Everyone was a Commie BUT the Birchers, actually. Just read their “literature!”
WE left very shortly after I noticed the discrete John Birch shrine behind the cash register. Were quite a few Wisconsinites in there too, on a Saturday afternoon!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Brachiator:
Agreed
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@The Thin Black Duke:
I wish that were true, but I don’t think it is. I think more and more people are getting sucked into the dangerous misinformation and propaganda floating out there. While I think our side definitely needs to celebrate its victories, complacency is dangerous.
Matt McIrvin
@artem1s: I think the new leader is the old leader. They’re still loyal to Trump even though he’s not loyal to them or to anyone. The most likely 2024 presidential nominee is Trump, unless he’s dead or too decrepit to physically handle it.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: Midterm turnout in 2018 was the highest in several decades for both parties, almost as high as in the 1996 presidential election–the question is: was that a one-off, or does anything like that hold with Trump not in the White House?
Matt McIrvin
(I should amend that: midterm turnout in 2018 was the highest in OVER 100 YEARS.)
janesays
@Another Scott: If she puts up a fight, it will be for nothing. Wyoming is the Trumpiest state in the country. Literally. He won the state by 43 points – his largest margin of victory in all 50 states (yes, larger than even West Virginia).
She will get primaried, Donald Trump will loudly endorse one of her primary opponents, she will lose that primary, and it won’t be close.
Her political career as an elected official is over.
janesays
Almost as high as the 1996 presidential election?
The 1996 presidential election had a turnout of 49%. It was easily the lowest turnout presidential election in my lifetime, and almost everyone else’s lifetime as well. The last presidential election with a lower turnout than 1996 was 1924 (48.9%).
Professor Bigfoot
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The common thread that we tend to ignore is that they are almost all *white men.
catclub
I would be impressed if Santorum expresses anti-Trump sentiments.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin:
I am predicting a gold covered hoverround.
Geminid
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I don’t think the commenter is being complacent when he raises real possibilities. We don’t really know what is going on with trump voters, and won’t even have a good idea until next year. Pessimism is so ingrained among so many people here. Perhaps it is a defense mechanism against the trauma of the past four years, and I have no problem with that. But people are too eager to censor overoptimism they infer from the plain observations and speculation of others.
And having read this person’s other comments over some months, I very much doubt that he is a naive or complacent person.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
I think it is especially tough to predict given the increasing insanity of the GOP base.
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: I see the same behavior in Chrome on two different PCs, so it seems to be an issue on Twitter’s end.
janesays
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As soon as Trump anoints one of them, the others will vanish.
janesays
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: This, this, this.
The most important data point we need to keep in mind is this:
In all of our lifetimes, only ONCE has the president’s party not lost seats in the first midterm of his presidency: 2002. And that was entirely because of 9/11. The Democrats notably picked up seats in the 1998 midterms, but that was the second term of Clinton’s presidency. His first midterm was a goddamn massacre, and helped lay the groundwork for the place we now find ourselves at (it made Newt Gingrich a household name).
None of that means it is inevitable that we lose seats or control of the House next year. But all things being equal, the more likely outcome right now (especially with the coming redistricting) is that we will not hold the Speaker’s gavel after January 3, 2023.
persistentillusion
@Miss Bianca:
As a fellow Coloradan, throw in Doug Lamborn and let rooting for injuries commence. Two asshats who every D in CO despises.
Another Scott
@janesays: We’ll see.
I’m no expert. I understand that she doesn’t have an especially strong base of support in the state. But she only needs to win a plurality.
And I’m recalling that the TFG flags and stuff disappeared around here (in NoVA) instantly after the insurrection. I think that scared a bunch of people, even those who were pretty well in the TFG camp. Those people are more likely to stay home this time than be fired up to vote.
Before WY votes next year, VA and NJ will vote this year for state-wide offices. There are many differences, but I expect Teabagger turnout will be lower than in the past, especially in Virginia. The Democrats have done a lot of popular things the last few years…
Tourism is big in WY. It’s not going to be hard to remind people how bad it was in TFG’s last year, and how much better it is “now” (in 2021-2022) and that maybe going back with him in control of the party isn’t such a great idea.
But, we’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Lavocat
@Old School: I thought it was a nod towards Cheap Trick’s song from “Dream Police”.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
No, you don’t. But you’re a better person than I, so OK.