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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / It’s the political tipsheets that got small…

It’s the political tipsheets that got small…

by Betty Cracker|  January 12, 20224:57 pm| 143 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

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Is it a distortion caused by my media bubble, or are the Beltway gossip columnists collectively moving on from Trump?

There’s a piece in Vanity Fair about Pence’s political resurrection (despite having been lightly killed politically by Trump) and his willingness to run in 2024 as a “stealth frontrunner” even if Trump is in the race. There’s a CNN article about Trump’s inability to get Republicans to “disavow” Mitch McConnell and how that shows the limits of his power. There are a few “let’s you and him fight”-flavored pieces about Trump calling DeSantis “gutless” on the down-low. That’s all just from today.

Maybe they’re preemptively scrubbing the Republican Party’s Trumpism stains in anticipation of the upcoming election. Maybe I’m imagining things. Just wondered if anyone else had noticed a trend.

Open thread!

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Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    January 12, 2022 at 5:01 pm

    The #CNNStakeout always gets the story: An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is seen as a key witness in the ongoing investigation into alleged sex trafficking, entered an Orlando federal courthouse with her lawyer on Wednesday. Grand jury is seated.https://t.co/YuMUFULqQH

    — Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) January 12, 2022

  2. 2.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    Maybe the better ones are moving on. Already, I’ve heard three separate NPR reports on Steve Inskeep’s “interview” with TFG, who hung up on him after nine minutes.

  3. 3.

    Old School

    January 12, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    Maybe.  When they were teasing the “Trump hangs up on NPR” interview yesterday, I assumed I’d be reading about it a lot today.  But it hasn’t been much of a story from what I can tell.

    Edit: @debbie: Except on NPR, I guess.

  4. 4.

    germy

    January 12, 2022 at 5:02 pm

    Maybe they’re preemptively scrubbing the Republican Party’s Trumpism stains in anticipation of the upcoming election. Maybe I’m imagining things. Just wondered if anyone else had noticed a trend.

    They want a Republican.  Just not that Republican, apparently.

  5. 5.

    West of the Rockies

    January 12, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    Pence is only mostly dead!

  6. 6.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    This comes as a pleasant surprise to this Buckeye:

    ?VICTORY?Ohio’s Supreme Court has overturned the gerrymandered state legislative map plans drawn by Ohio Republican lawmakers that sought to manipulate maps to enhance their own power. Bravo to NRAF (our affiliate) who supported Ohio voters in these cases! pic.twitter.com/z7AIAyF20b— NDRC (@DemRedistrict) January 12, 2022

  7. 7.

    Old Man Shadow

    January 12, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    I think the MSM has been desperately clinging to the notion that the GOP is just fine and Trump is the problem and they would very much like Trump and the MAGAts to go away and stay quiet so they can sell that fiction easier to the masses and go back to focusing exclusively on “how is Joe Biden failing you today” or “Kamala Harris is so shrill” or “we asked this diner in Ohio what they think of Critical Race Theory” stories.

  8. 8.

    Chetan Murthy

    January 12, 2022 at 5:05 pm

    And it seems like TFG is losing a step, extolling vaccines and such.  [RWNJ] Electoral lunacy, that.  Maybe he really does have dementia.

  9. 9.

    West of the Rockies

    January 12, 2022 at 5:06 pm

    @debbie:

    The Post had a prominent write-up on it as well, also, too.

  10. 10.

    Old Man Shadow

    January 12, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: I think he’s more angry that people aren’t giving him credit for inventing the vaccines.

  11. 11.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    @debbie:

    Can’t wait to see DeWine’s reaction. He was defending the Redistricting Commission’s actions

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    January 12, 2022 at 5:07 pm

    Just read a crazy Florida road rage shoot-out story in The Orlando Sentinel. A board member for the state’s pension fund was allegedly shot and killed after he escalated a traffic accident dispute by ramming the other car and opening fire on its driver:

    Florida Politics cited unnamed sources who said the incident began when Kuczwanski’s BMW veered out of its lane and hit the Prius, after which both drivers pulled into a parking lot.

    The driver of the Prius confronted Kuczwanski, and then got back into his car to wait for law enforcement to investigate the accident, the sources told Florida Politics.

    The exchange then escalated dramatically as “Kuczwanski rammed his BMW into the Prius on the driver’s door, and began pushing the car sideways in the parking lot,” according to the account. “Kuczwanski then shot a gun at the white Prius, according to the sources.”

    The Prius driver, who also had a gun, shot and fired back into Kuczwanski’s windshield, striking him, the sources told Florida Politics.

    Florida, where even the Prius drivers are packing!

  13. 13.

    Chetan Murthy

    January 12, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: Yep, and that’s why I think he’s lost a step.  Wilhoit’s Law demands that The Base be unconstrained, unbound.  And pushing vaccines on them is not that.  It’s one thing to go slagging your opponents; but if you do it by pissing-off your base …..

  14. 14.

    Ten Bears

    January 12, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    Posted at my house three days ago: it’s coming; they’re gonna’ turn on him and it’s gonna’ be ug-ly …

  15. 15.

    Ken

    January 12, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    @West of the Rockies: I was going to say “He’s pining for the fjords”, but that works too.

  16. 16.

    feebog

    January 12, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    Trumps hold on the GOP is already slipping.  This latest kerfluffle with Sen. Rounds is illustrative.  Note the Turtle came to Rounds defense.  As did Romney.  You’ll know it’s over when the gutless Susan Collins breaks it off.

  17. 17.

    Barry

    January 12, 2022 at 5:09 pm

    Remember that we also just saw two pair of allegedly high-functioning Beltway genius’ talk about Clinton and Elizabeth Cheney being on the 2024 presidential ticket.

    I would say that it’s like a discussion in a college dorm room at 2 AM Sunday morning, when everybody is both drunk and stone, but those discussions are far more intelligent.

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    January 12, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    GOPers don’t need Trump.  They got what they wanted: SCOTUS, monstrous tax cuts for the wealthy, and a hollowed out Executive Branch.  They really don’t need the crazy.  I think what they’d like is an authoritarian Unified Executive that will be more… palatable, shall we say, to a majority of voters.

    Pence fits.   White, male, Christian paleocon, and not noticeably insane.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    This LGM post about Dick Durbin using his most un-Democrat tungsten spine in telling Republicans to fuck right the hell off trying to resurrect the Judiciary blue slip “rule” they abandoned while they were in charge, and confirming Biden’s judgeship nominations is the best thing you’ll read today. Marsha Blackburn is sad, yo!

  20. 20.

    germy

    January 12, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    “An armed society is a civil society.”

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    January 12, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    I think both the media and establishment Republicans (but I repeat myself) are reading the writing on the wall with the Jan 6 commission and all the other investigations of trumpov & Co that are going on.  They are straining to find ways to assert the obvious: the former guy is an utter crook, complete imbecile, election loser, and soon, defendant.

    I love that they think he’ll go quietly.

  22. 22.

    Ken

    January 12, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @Betty Cracker: You might want to audit the state pension fund. I’m not saying all the money’s been spent on cocaine, but it’s not inconsistent with that report.

  23. 23.

    StringOnAStick

    January 12, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Florida, where even the Prius drivers are packing!

    I guess I’m gonna have to up my game.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:11 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’d also like to know how the son voted on the decision.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    @feebog:

    Anybody see today’s Furrow Forecast? Trench? Wheat field? Arroyo?

  26. 26.

    Mike in NC

    January 12, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    Jennifer Rubin has written that Pence’s lack of personality is a big handicap.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    @Ten Bears:

    Remember that video of the crowd chasing and cornering Quadaffi? Not that I’m rooting for injuries…

  28. 28.

    Lofgren

    January 12, 2022 at 5:13 pm

    Too good to be true.

    But then I’ve always thought that whatever brings Trump down will seem totally random. Could be getting booed for getting his booster by his own followers has given a few people the window to try to steal his spotlight. Getting booed is the new wrinkle here, if anything. It’s not as though there haven’t been periodic attempts to swivel away from Trump. The pundits and politicians won’t be the ones who decide when that happens.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    January 12, 2022 at 5:14 pm

    There’s a piece in Vanity Fair about Pence’s political resurrection (despite having been lightly killed politically by Trump) and his willingness to run in 2024 as a “stealth frontrunner” even if Trump is in the race.

    Is it me or does this seem like a ridiculous fantasy based on neverTrumper-conservative wishcasting?

  30. 30.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 5:14 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Jesus. Does the governor also appoint the members to the state pension fund board?

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:15 pm

    @Lofgren: I vote for Melanie with a pillow and 20 oz framing hammer. In the libary[sic].

  32. 32.

    lollipopguild

    January 12, 2022 at 5:15 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: Trump wants to be Pro vaccine and anti-vaccine at the same time and he does not understand why he cannot be both.

  33. 33.

    Ken

    January 12, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    @Lofgren: As others have said, one sure sign he’s out will be when the Fox chyron reads “FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP (D) WAS….”

  34. 34.

    Urza

    January 12, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Why are people ok with these kinds of things happening so often?  Sorta rhetorical.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:16 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: ​”Please clap” comes to mind.

    Pence doesn’t engage in projection, he’s the screen.

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    @Ken: I laff because you damn well know it’s coming.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    January 12, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    There’s no one left but thee and me
    And we’re not sure of thee
    –
    Chad Mitchell Trio, “The John Birch Society”

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    January 12, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    Yes to all of that, Betty. But to me it seems less likely that  the media is driving this turn away from Trump and more likely that this is a planned slow-walk by the leaders of the Republican Party.  These media people only print what they have been told by their sources.

    Starting with Mike Rounds’ “stunning statement” that Trump lost. Trump was triggered and tried to bully Rounds. Republican colleagues of Mike Rounds “came to his defense.” It’s like it was planned. And I think it was.

    I predict that we will see a slow and steady stream of these stories making Trump look weak, triggering his attack of Republicans and then Republican colleagues circling the wagons to keep Trump out. It will slowly make Trump more and more of an outsider.  And loser.

    Or I could be completely wrong.  Again.

  39. 39.

    VOR

    January 12, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    @Old Man Shadow: Agreed. I think there are plenty of media people who want to pretend Trump is the problem, not just a symptom of any underlying condition. If Trump went away the right-leaning media could get back to business as usual.

    Except IMHO this is completely wrong. Trump did research and figured out which way the GOP base was going. They wanted conspiracies, he gave them conspiracies. They wanted saying the quiet part loud, he did that too.

  40. 40.

    randy khan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:19 pm

    The press does love its intraparty fights, and maybe this is a sign they’re tired of the Dem fights, which honestly are pretty boring because nobody really calls anyone nasty names.

  41. 41.

    Hunter Gathers

    January 12, 2022 at 5:23 pm

    They are greasing the skids for a Trump led fascist government. These people are all upper class twits who want their low tax rates permanently locked in and are also wondering if fascism will knock a few minutes off their Door Dash delivery times. They know that Trump being off major social media means ‘he’s gone, hurrah!’ to brain dead moderates and centrists.

    If they convince all the dullards in the middle that Trump’s upcoming run in 2024 is all Biden’s fault -‘Trump was gone, but BLM/CRT/inflation/2020 school closures/whatever the moral outrage of the moment is brought him back and it’s all Biden’s fault so I’m being forced to vote for Trump’, then we’re Hungary – a white trash Christian fascist country with low upper class tax rates.

    It’s what the upper class wants and they are doing everything they can to bring it about.

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    January 12, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    @debbie: I will be interested to see how Trump’s rally in Florence, Arizona goes this Saturday. I think he intends to start his comeback there, and the unusual NPR interview was part of the preparation. Joe Biden has been hitting Trump hard this past week, and Trump will want to come out swinging. He could end up punching himself, though.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Maybe he really does have dementia.

    MAYBE? It may not be traditional dementia but it is what I call idiot dementia. It isn’t that his brain has stopped normal functioning, it’s because it was never actually in a normally functioning human.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    January 12, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Pence, perhaps more than any other Republican, would draw trumpov’s ire/fire/dementia-addled raving and ranting to his hardcore base more than any other R (or should I just say ‘RINO’, because that’s what trumpov would and will say).

    On top of that, there are so many utter lowlifes like Pompeo, Cruz, Cotton, etc etc, who are more than willing to ‘question’ Pence’s loyalty to trumpov er I mean the Republican Party in order to try and position themselves as the heir apparent.

    Never say never but Pence seems like a non-starter for many, many reasons.

  45. 45.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    @debbie:

    The more I read, the better it gets.

    Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor was the key vote, breaking with her party to rule against the maps. O’Connor, a Republican, joined the court’s three Democratic justices and the three GOP justices dissented.

    O’Connor, who has served in statewide office for 24 years, suggested an alternative to the commission, which she called out for its partisanship.

    “Having now seen firsthand that the current Ohio Redistricting Commission – comprised of statewide elected officials and partisan legislators – is seemingly unwilling to put aside partisan concerns as directed by the people’s vote, Ohioans may opt to pursue further constitutional amendment to replace the current commission with a truly independent, nonpartisan commission that more effectively distances the redistricting process from partisan politics,” O’Connor wrote in a concurring opinion.

  46. 46.

    MazeDancer

    January 12, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    Big Deal – if real.

    Schumer and Pelosi are going to try to pass Voting Rights by a “Message Between the Houses” scheme. It’s a reconciliation process that happens when both chambers pass a bill but need to work out language. It can’t be filibustered. And after it’s done 3 times, it’s set.

    Democrats in the House will take a bill that has already undergone messages between the Houses 3 times, substitute the bill’s language for the #FreedomToVoteAct and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, pass the legislation and quickly send it to the Senate. #JLVRAA

    Here is along thread explaining it.

  47. 47.

    Bill Arnold

    January 12, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    @Old School:

    Maybe. When they were teasing the “Trump hangs up on NPR” interview yesterday,

    Somebody sent me a link, and I watched 1/2 of it before getting bored. Mr DJT appears to genuinely believe that he actually won the election, or at least that’s his working belief system ATM.
    He will continue to flail himself (and flail his most gullible followers) against the reality that he lost, and lost really badly in the popular vote.

  48. 48.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    @Geminid:

    Based on his performance in the interview, he’ll be self-punching. At some point, you can repeat yourself too often.

  49. 49.

    sab

    January 12, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    @debbie: Wow. I was not expecting that at all.

  50. 50.

    MisterDancer

    January 12, 2022 at 5:30 pm

    RE: Voting Rights. And they (we!) have a plan: (EDIT Credit to nick-alike @MazeDancer as well!)

    Senator Schumer announces plan to push through filibuster and proceed with voting rights legislation using a procedure known as “messages between the Houses” in a caucus memo.

    What does it mean?

    Democrats in the House will take a bill that has already undergone messages between the Houses 3 times, substitute the bill’s language for the #FreedomToVoteAct and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, pass the legislation and quickly send it to the Senate. #JLVRAA

    Fascinating. I heard the “messages” term used before, yet this is the first I recall anyone using it in this way, if all this is true (I’m looking for a 2nd source on all this).

    Again, if true: This falls right in with how Schumer  and especially Pelosi have used their (relative) depth of knowledge of Congressional rules to beat back some of the worst effects of the GOP’s excesses — remember how we got Garland in because the GOP forgot what happens when they just walk off the “create a media circus” job without closing up the shop, the right way?
     

    I guess we’ll see what happens.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @sab: Good things are actually possible.

  52. 52.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @debbie:

    Oh, he dissented from the majority opinion. Because of course he did:

    Here’s a good write-up from the Columbis Dispatch:

    Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican who is running for chief justice, wrote in a dissenting opinion that the court did not have the constitutional authority to send the maps back.

    She and Justice Pat DeWine, who signed on to her dissent, argued that the section in Ohio’s constitution that says no plan “shall be drawn primarily to favor or disfavor a political party” doesn’t have the same enforcement mechanisms as other sections. Pat DeWine is the governor’s son.

    “The majority today, though, finds the constitutionally imposed limits unduly constraining, so it chooses to disregard them,” Kennedy wrote.

    Chief Justice O’Connor was the key vote. She actually called out the Commission as blatantly partisan and disobeying the will of the voters. Dem Associate Justice Melody Stewart wrote the majority opinion

    ETA:

    @debbie:

    You beat me to the punch. Pretty good, right?

  53. 53.

    Old School

    January 12, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    @MazeDancer:

    It can’t be filibustered.

    As I read the tweets, it is the motion to proceed that can’t be filibustered.  Republicans could still filibuster the final bill, so a carve out would need to be approved.

    Still, it’s nice to see movement.

  54. 54.

    AWOL

    January 12, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    When one converses with Ten Bears, one converses with an entity who believes quite strongly that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was a conspiracy created by “The Jews” to somehow form the nation of Israel.

     

    And I will never let the readers of any blog this entity posts on NOT know this.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    My opinion is that Pence’s lack of a personality is better for them because when they pick republicans with a personality it is always a worse choice than Pence. Not that he’s a good choice mind you, but less poisonous is still less poisonous. Their big problem is that any of their choices is poisonous for the country and the voters. Including Pence.

  56. 56.

    whomever

    January 12, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    @Lofgren: I mean look what’s going on across the pond.  After everything Boris has done, it looks like he’s going down because of…a few parties during lockdown.

  57. 57.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    @sab:

    I’m not finding any GOP reactions yet, but Nan Whaley and Common Cause are dancing in the streets.

  58. 58.

    dopey-o

    January 12, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    @debbie: Maybe the better ones are moving on. Already, I’ve heard three separate NPR reports on Steve Inskeep’s “interview” with TFG, who hung up on him after nine minutes.

    i seem to recall something ….. heat ….. kitchen …. Harry Truman …..

    which makes me all the more eager to see Schiff / Maddow / Cole take TFG up on his debate challenge.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    January 12, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    Psst. Pence is the stealth head honcho behind MS-13.

    Pass it on.

    //

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    January 12, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @Jeffro: I think you are right about Pence being a non-starter. He’ll find this out when he tries to raise money.

  61. 61.

    sab

    January 12, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @debbie: The decision was for the state senate and house districts, not for Congress. Maureen O’Connor voted with the three Dems.DeWine voted with the other two Repubs.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I want to hear Bill Sietz’s thundering rage!

  63. 63.

    Edmund Dantes

    January 12, 2022 at 5:35 pm

    @trollhattan: nah. He should have done this long ago. They should have been putting out both red and blue state judges the entire time. Otherwise you have one senator suddenly pushing up daisies and you’ve wasted time and no longer get to put forth nominations at all.

    but yay for finally doing what should have been done as soon as Dems were in power and control of the process.

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @lollipopguild:

    It’s really just a blip in the total list of things he does not understand. This total can be stated in one word, everyfuckingthing.

  65. 65.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @sab:

    Understood, but those maps gave the GOP an 81% to 19% advantage when the actual voting runs closer to 54% to 46%. Seitz himself called the new maps “constitutionally consistent.” Compared to what, I’d like to know.

    ETA: These are the maps that will determine whether all vaccines become unmandated, whether the Ohio legislature can overrule election results, etc. This is a big deal.

  66. 66.

    azlib

    January 12, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    @Geminid:

    It is somewhat ironic the rally is in Florence which is where several state prisons are located. In fact the prisons are most of Florence’s GDP.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    @Ruckus: St. Mittens of Mittlandia would like us to reconsider the role of this “personality sham” in presidential politics. And from the far past, Mike Dukakis.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    January 12, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    @azlib: It’s like someone checking out retirement communities.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    @Edmund Dantes: Mine=blown Leahy didn’t do the same. WTAF, we knew what Republicans were by then!

  70. 70.

    Ken

    January 12, 2022 at 5:40 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Mr DJT appears to genuinely believe that he actually won the election

    “Are there no white coats? Are there no butterfly nets?”

  71. 71.

    West of the Rockies

    January 12, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    @Jeffro:

    I suspect he could win a race for mayor or possibly even a House seat for Indiana, but probably nothing higher.

  72. 72.

    MisterDancer

    January 12, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    @Old School: Right, that’s what I’m finding from the Axios article:

    Regardless of this new tactic, the Senate would still need to lower the 60-vote filibuster in order to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Acts in the face of Republicans’ total opposition to the bills.

    They also note it’s a similar tactic to the one that got the debt ceiling in position to be passed. That one, though, I don’t know as much about the details on how it all went down, rules-wise.

    I’d not be shocked if this move is why McConnell has been lying like a rug around this situation for a few days, now.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    @NotMax: Was it the neck tattoos?

  74. 74.

    moops

    January 12, 2022 at 5:42 pm

    GOP has gotten all they wanted from TFG.    A country ready to slide into minority rule through election tampering and all power in the hands of a partisan supreme court and the wealthy even wealthier.

     

    TFG is not going to usher in a new theocracy.

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 12, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    and his willingness to run in 2024 as a “stealth frontrunner”

    Dense vs Dump!  Let them fight!

  76. 76.

    artem1s

    January 12, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    @debbie: thank goodness for Jennifer Brunner.

  77. 77.

    Jon Marcus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:44 pm

    @Chetan Murthy: Eh, Since he left office Trump has been big on “his” BEAUTIFUL AMAZING vaccine.

  78. 78.

    Ruckus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:45 pm

    @Bill Arnold:

    Look at SFB over the long haul.

    He has always had a completely illogical, idiotic, childish opinion of himself because every functioning adult human sees him as nothing more than a useless sack of poisoned protoplasm.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:45 pm

    @artem1s: I have always liked her.  Nice person, great advocate.

  80. 80.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @debbie:

    Hah!

    Another related tidbit from the linked article:

    As part of those lawsuits, Dr. Kosuke Imai, a professor at Harvard University, created 5,000 possible district plans. None was as favorable to Republicans as the one adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

    “The fact that the adopted plan is an outlier among 5,000 simulated plans is strong evidence that the plan’s result was by design,” she [Stewart] wrote.

  81. 81.

    West of the Rockies

    January 12, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    @debbie:

    I think that Trump’s whining about the election will eventually play like a 60-year-old man saying, “Back in ’79, we should have gone to the state championship, but the coach played another guy, and everybody knows I woulda ran it in for the touchdown!”

  82. 82.

    mrmoshpotato

    January 12, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    Maybe they’re preemptively scrubbing the Republican Party’s Trumpism stains in anticipation of the upcoming election.

    We (Democrats) – and Pepperidge Farm – remember – that the GOP has been a shitpile long before the more skillful, orange conman oozed down the escalator.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    January 12, 2022 at 5:48 pm

    @germy:

    They want a Republican.  Just not that Republican, apparently.

    It’s a variant on the general principle.  How failures are treated depends on who fails.  Failures among people like Us are always personal faults, while failure among Those People are always a reflection of how bad the group is.  It’s just that this time Us is a political party rather than a race or gender.  No matter how many Republicans fail in the same way, it’s always a personal failure and never a reflection of a problem with the party.  Whenever a Democrat fails, it’s a sign that the Democratic Party has a problem.

  84. 84.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    @artem1s:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was happy to vote for her in 2020. She seemed like a fair person and she had done a good job as Ohio SOS. She’s the one who introduced no excuse vote-by-mail IIRC. Her victory was one of the few bright spots in Ohio for that election.. Too bad O’Donnell wasn’t also elected instead of Sharon Kennedy, who wrote the dissent for this redistricting case

  85. 85.

    cain

    January 12, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    @CaseyL: But they have invited the crazy into their house and they have taken over. They are not going to be able to continue without having to appease them. But the thing is, they are being replaced by crazy conspiracy theorists and soon the money bag people will have no one to lean on because it’s completely controlled by right wing crazy framing.

  86. 86.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 12, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Heretic!

  87. 87.

    Baud

    January 12, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    @MisterDancer:

    Senator Schumer announces plan to push through filibuster and proceed with voting rights legislation using a procedure known as “messages between the Houses” in a caucus memo.

    Is there anything more arcane and complicated than the rules of the House and Senate?

    I’ll take it though.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    January 12, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    @Baud

    Fizzbin?

    :)

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I have been called worse on this very blog.  But this OH redistricting decision is huge.

  90. 90.

    MazeDancer

    January 12, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @MisterDancer:

    J(EDIT Credit to nick-alike @MazeDancer as well!)

    Did you propose? Wouldn’t MisterDancer be my spouse? And if so, are you going to write lots more PostCards?

    Ot maybe MisterMix and I had a love child. Only been here since 2008, might have missed it.

    Thought Woodrow was a nice nym.

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 5:59 pm

    @Baud: ​
      Habeas Corpus procedures get pretty arcane.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    @artem1s:

    She’s a tough cookie. The state GOP has demonized her constantly. I love that she’s on the Supreme Court now.

  93. 93.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Zzzzzzzing!

  94. 94.

    Baud

    January 12, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t know that.  Never needed it.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    @Baud: It sucked up about three years of my professional life.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    January 12, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m glad you got out.

  97. 97.

    sab

    January 12, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @debbie: Absoulutely it is a huge deal. I hope it augurs well for the case on the Congressional map.

    I have had the feeling for a while that O’Connor was getting disgusted with the GOP abandoning even a pretense of following actual laws.

  98. 98.

    Booger

    January 12, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He’s not serious unless he explores all 14,000,605 redistricting scenarios that Dr. Strange explored before finding that Tony Stark has to die in order for Ohio to be redistricted fairly.

  99. 99.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’m sorry I can sometimes be so negative. I know I’ve been pretty bad the last few weeks

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    @Baud: The federal court house was a nice place.

  101. 101.

    Woodrow/asim

    January 12, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    @MazeDancer: Oh, no proposals here! Just a neat coincidence. Thanks for the compliment on my name; I kind of wanted an actual nym, not just my name(s).

    And, hilariously, there’s someone who (used to?) post here under the nym “WoodrowFan” — completely unrelated. Never did find out what that was for…

  102. 102.

    Shalimar

    January 12, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    Pence’s main problem is the talk radio mindset that he was a part of helping to create for so many years.  The base never forgets even the smallest slight, and they remember people based on one-sentence caricatures of the worst thing they have ever done.

    Pence will always be “that guy who we tried to hang.”

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    More state level good news.

  104. 104.

    MazeDancer

    January 12, 2022 at 6:13 pm

    @Woodrow/asim:

    Fan club can be revived.

    Hope you keep Woodrow. It’s how people know you. Sounds realer.

  105. 105.

    Lofgren

    January 12, 2022 at 6:15 pm

    @trollhattan: Unless library is a euphemism for toilet, I wouldn’t bet on Trump getting murdered somewhere he might accidentally read something.

  106. 106.

    TriassicSands

    January 12, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    @debbie:

    I’ve long disliked Inskeep. He has been one of the worst of the bothsiderists. It’s good and a little surprising that Trump would hang up on him. Maybe 1/6 was too much for Inskeep.

  107. 107.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 6:16 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Those Prius drivers, they’re feelin’ frisky.

    Two people were killed in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash early Wednesday morning on Interstate 80 in Sacramento, according to the California Highway Patrol. A Toyota Prius struck a tree around 1:10 a.m. on the eastbound I-80 off-ramp at Raley Boulevard in the Del Paso Heights area, CHP North Sacramento spokesman Officer A.J. McTaggart said.

    The Prius, traveling at “an extremely high rate of speed,” veered off the roadway and struck “several” trees along the freeway exit, McTaggart said. The driver, whom McTaggart said was a 35-year-old Sacramento man, and an unidentified male passenger were each ejected from the vehicle. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. The Sacramento County Coroner’s Office has identified one of the victims as Sukhjit Singh, 35, of Sacramento. The identity of the second victim will be released pending notification of family.

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article257253177.html#storylink=cpy

    “Prius” and “extremely high rate of speed” are not an obvious pairing.

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    January 12, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    @Lofgren: I assume that if a library is present, Melanie knows she can hide from him there.

    Speaking of, any plans yet for the Trump Casino and Library-Thing Tower?

  109. 109.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    January 12, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    Pence is a bore.

    More importantly Dump’s cult wants to hang him, so no, he’ll never win a nomination

    The Village loves to build up republican bores. Remember how they touted Fred Thompson and the 5’2″ Mitch Daniels as presidential, then they went all in on Christie and later Lil’ Marco. I’m old enough to remember when they declared Guilliani the presumptive nominee in 2007 and then he failed to win a single delegate. And don’t get me started on their putrid love affairs with ¡Jeb! and Kasich.

    The Village suffers from a collective Stockholm Syndrome.

  110. 110.

    Roger Moore

    January 12, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    @CaseyL: ​
     

    GOPers don’t need Trump.

    Very much this. Trump got ahead by seeing what the Republican base wanted and giving it to them. They made him, and they can and will unmake him the moment he stops giving them what they want. The idea that Trump is some genius and the only person who can satisfy the base is Trumpist nonsense. It’s possible that nobody else will be as effective at motivating them as Trump was, but what they want is obvious and there are plenty of people willing to give it a try.

  111. 111.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ?

    What’s the makeup of the Wis Supreme Court?

  112. 112.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 6:22 pm

    @TriassicSands:

    He’s too full of himself. I hate the way he takes up so much time with his questions and then cuts off the interviewee because time’s run out.

  113. 113.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 12, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    @trollhattan: Must have been going downhill.

    Speaking of “extremely high rate of speed” here’s a Bugatti Chiron hitting 417 kph on the Autobahn (that’s about 259 mph in American.)

  114. 114.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 6:28 pm

    @Booger:

    lol

    @debbie:

    The whole article is a huge zinger to the state GOP

  115. 115.

    Peale

    January 12, 2022 at 6:29 pm

    @Baud: I’ve been trying to make my corpus easily available for years. Most lawyers I’ve dealt with have been begging me to explore those arcane procedures. Like covering up with a kaftan.

  116. 116.

    sab

    January 12, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    @TriassicSands: I have disliked him ever since I read his book about Andrew Jackson and John Ross.

  117. 117.

    burnspbesq

    January 12, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    @West of the Rockies:

    Pence is only mostly dead!

    I thought the Coroner of Munchkin Land had thoroughly examined him, and pronounced him Really and Sincerely Dead.

    Seriously, though, it doesn’t matter what any formerly mainstream Republicans or Beltway chatterers want to believe. Unless he’s dead or in prison, Trump will be the nominee.

  118. 118.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:31 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Not good.. That is why this was significant.

  119. 119.

    Roger Moore

    January 12, 2022 at 6:32 pm

    @debbie:

    Understood, but those maps gave the GOP an 81% to 19% advantage when the actual voting runs closer to 54% to 46%. Seitz himself called the new maps “constitutionally consistent.” Compared to what, I’d like to know.

    IIRC, the Republicans claim that since they won about 80% of the statewide elections, they should be allowed to let themselves win 80% of the districts.

  120. 120.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 6:34 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I don’t think I’d be able to do that. It takes a special kind of person to push themselves to go that fast.

    One thing about the Autobahn, it does give people who own supercars the chance to use them to their full potential

  121. 121.

    Baud

    January 12, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    @Peale:

    : I’ve been trying to make my corpus easily available for years. Most lawyers I’ve dealt with have been begging me to explore those arcane procedures

     
    Bad flashback to Rudy Giuliani in that Borat movie.

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: ​
      Nice flat and straight road. I assume it was in the northern part of the former DDR.

  123. 123.

    Jinchi

    January 12, 2022 at 6:37 pm

    The Pence 2024 stories are ridiculous. He was never popular. He was only elevated to the national stage because TFG needed a stooge. He’s most famous for being completely obsequious to the most despised president in US history.

     

    He’s nothing without TFG and TFG literally sent a mob to kill him.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    January 12, 2022 at 6:39 pm

    @trollhattan: That makes me really happy.

  125. 125.

    WaterGirl

    January 12, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    @Scout211: Consistently wrong since 2002?

  126. 126.

    eachother

    January 12, 2022 at 6:41 pm

    Though there is a lot of Twinkie in the Cheat-O, I think his shelf life is being pruned.

  127. 127.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 12, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Wouldn’t know. I actually never encountered a no-speed-limit section of road anywhere south of Frankfurt, though.

  128. 128.

    Jinchi

    January 12, 2022 at 6:42 pm

    @trollhattan: “Prius” and “extremely high rate of speed” are not an obvious pairing.

    My first car was a Hyundai and it was literally impossible for me to speed on the highway.

  129. 129.

    Roger Moore

    January 12, 2022 at 6:43 pm

    @Lofgren:

    When I was in college, I worked in the faculty club, and one of the dining rooms was called the library.  It was generally similar to the other dining rooms except the walls were covered with book shelves to make it look classy.  The books were bound with color-coordinated covers so they’d look nice on the shelves, which was obviously far more important than the contents. I don’t think I ever saw anyone take one off the shelf in the 3 years I worked there.  I could totally imagine Trump in that kind of library.

  130. 130.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 12, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @Jinchi:

    After all these years, we still don’t know enough about Manafort’s role in Pence’s selection.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 12, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    @Jinchi: Chris Hayes made a funny the other night about being a short, awkward, fourteen-year-old benchwarmer and realizing that however much he loved basketball, he was never going to realize his dream of playing in the NBA. He said Mike Pence needs to have the same kind of awakening about a political future.

  132. 132.

    Scout211

    January 12, 2022 at 6:47 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Ha!  I would object, except for the mere fact that I resemble that remark. ?

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 12, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:  Nuremberg to Munich was mostly wide open was I was there.  100-120 mph is comfortable for long distances.  Much faster and the degree of hyper-awareness needed became tiring after a few minutes.

  134. 134.

    NotMax

    January 12, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    FYI.

    A Washington man was sentenced [Tuesday] to 84 months, or seven years, in prison for his role in a plot to threaten and intimidate journalists and advocates who worked to expose anti-Semitism.

    Kaleb Cole, 25, a leader of the Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was convicted by a federal jury in the Western District of Washington of one count of interfering with a federally protected activity because of religion, three counts of mailing threatening communications, and one count of conspiring with other Atomwaffen members to commit three offenses against the United States – interference with federally-protected activities because of religion, mailing threatening communications, and cyberstalking. Source

  135. 135.

    Jinchi

    January 12, 2022 at 6:50 pm

    @Betty Cracker: “Kuczwanski rammed his BMW into the Prius on the driver’s door, and began pushing the car sideways in the parking lot,” according to the account. “Kuczwanski then shot a gun at the white Prius, according to the sources.”

    That’s an interesting combination of the state’s original “Stand Your Ground” law with the new Desantis  rule legalizing vehicular homicide.

  136. 136.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    January 12, 2022 at 6:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s especially good news in that case

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    January 12, 2022 at 7:04 pm

    @Scout211: You are in good company with John Cole. :-)

  138. 138.

    debbie

    January 12, 2022 at 7:42 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Yes, but we both know that’s total bullshit.

  139. 139.

    Geoduck

    January 12, 2022 at 8:04 pm

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: There are many many bad things you can say about Giuliani, but being boring is not one of them.

  140. 140.

    Ramalama

    January 12, 2022 at 8:38 pm

    @Roger Moore: his library is going to contain books he’s ‘written’ plus fake books with Photoshop covers like the fake Time magazines hanging in his office. Winner of the No-bell prize. Winner of 9 Pulitzers.

    The way to enter the library will be to climb the walls, like honky Kong of Jan 6th.

  141. 141.

    yellowdog

    January 13, 2022 at 3:42 am

    @Ten Bears: What happens to TFG is irrelevant. The voter suppression, gerrymandering, and vote nullification at the state level are already sufficiently in place to insure a permanent GQP majority.

  142. 142.

    yellowdog

    January 13, 2022 at 3:51 am

    @whomever: He’s going nowhere. Any other Tory is even worse and there is no way they will call an early election.

  143. 143.

    Geminid

    January 13, 2022 at 7:12 am

    @yellowdog: Actually, despite Republican gerrymandering in states they control, the new Congressional map will come out as a wash, maybe slightly positive for Democrats. If the Ohio Supreme Court strikes down tbe state’s Congressional maps like it did the state’s legislative map, redistricting may be two or three seats better for Democrats.

    Of course, nothing will be decided for sure until this November. But I like our chances to hold the House this year, and maybe even expand the Democratic majority.

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