Trump has now cost Republicans three Georgia senate races in two years, which is remarkable given that Georgia is a predominantly Republican state which has only two senators.
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) December 7, 2022
A salty Mollie is basically blaming Mitch McConnell for all of this. Alllllrighty then. pic.twitter.com/oZ0w5pzrZs
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 7, 2022
With Walker’s defeat tonight, Trump’s final record in these races is 2-14 https://t.co/PCsCDAT1EQ
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) December 7, 2022
well ahh i was thinking we could try being ahhh more racist https://t.co/Wp81vqo9td pic.twitter.com/DodllX7uqe
— Jean-Michel Connard (@torriangray) December 7, 2022
Georgia is a reminder that Rick Scott isn’t just awful at who he is, he’s awful at what he does
Trump deserves blame but so does Scott for going along with nutter candidates. McConnell, e.g. would have intervened in primary fights more in Scott’s role
— Greg Dworkin (@DemFromCT) December 7, 2022
lmao because you’re a party full of crooks who are constantly scheming to steal everything that isn’t nailed down, which means you can’t fundraise anything without *guys exactly like you* frantically jamming your hands in the pot https://t.co/Kgl3104AGR
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) December 7, 2022
You know what would be a good idea? If we took the guy who is famous for embezzling Medicare money and made him the guy in between donors and candidates.
— Peter MacDonald (@PikeBot) December 7, 2022
NEW: Trump Called ‘Albatross’ on GOP by Senate No. 2 Republican John Thune @LauraLitvan via @bpolitics @SenJohnThune https://t.co/WdopcxXNGk
— Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) December 7, 2022
Former President Donald Trump’s persistent false claims about the 2020 election were an obstacle for GOP candidates and a leading reason the party performed poorly in the midterms, two prominent Republicans said a day after the party suffered another stinging midterm defeat.
“I think his obsession with the 2020 election became an albatross and a real liability for people who were running, especially in swing states,” Senator John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, told reporters in the wake of Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock’s victory Tuesday in a Georgia run-off with Trump-backed Herschel Walker…
Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who has frequently sparred with Trump, said winning the backing of the former president has meant a candidate’s likely to win a party primary but lose a general election.
“For someone who actually wants to win an election, getting endorsed by President Trump is the kiss of death,” Romney said.
The remarks by Thune and Romney are the latest signal that many congressional Republicans are seeking to distance themselves from the former president. Thune said Trump’s insistence that candidates he endorsed back his claim that he won and Joe Biden lost in 2020 was a significant setback for the party.
LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!
Underrated possibility the 2024 primary becomes Trump Alumni airing each other's dirty laundry https://t.co/jXjFowm3mN
— ProofOfBurden (@ProofofBurden) December 6, 2022
Layer8Problem
Reposting from downstairs.
Hey, this seems to be an actual thing.
West of the Rockies
“A salty Mollie” sounds like a drink order.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@West of the Rockies: MDMArgarita?
cain
@Layer8Problem:
I have no problems not visiting the NYT. What is the strike about? Perhaps I should visit the NYTimes Pitchbot to find out. :-)
eclare
@Qrop Non Sequitur: LOL!
Westyny
Just a reminder that Peter Baker is an asshole and an energy vampire. Not that most here need to be reminded.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT: AOC is apparently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. For what, hasn’t been released
kindness
I’ll do better than requested. I’ll never visit the GD NY Times. Not one thin dime will they ever get from me again.
kindness
Moderation help please. I changed my email address.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Well, when it comes to Republicans in disarray, I continue to root for injuries (not physical injuries.. injuries to their political and financial well being).
Qrop Non Sequitur
@kindness: You should really consider the consequences before you do these things.
MattF
So, John Bolton sees himself as the man of the hour. Apparently everyone has forgotten that the ‘bombshell’ memoir he wrote turned out to be a tiny little fart. People need to recall the massacre of 2016, when Trump was the only GOP candidate with an actual personality. Yes, a narcissistic, psychopathic personality— but that was enough to make all the other candidates look ridiculous.
mrmoshpotato
Did Batboy go to Georgia to campaign for Dump dung candidates?
Qrop Non Sequitur
@MattF: They all had the same personality as Trump, whiny and petty, just less bombastically so.
Cheez Whiz
I’m boltin’ from Boltin.
mrmoshpotato
“Well,” suggested the fascist turtle, “we could be a bigger shitpile of bigots and imbeciles. We can bring in Klansmen and Nazis too! Ah yup.”
Qrop Non Sequitur
They could certainly stand to grow their coalition, but I thought those very fine people were already part of it.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): These ethics investigations usually go on for months and result in no action or at most a reprimand.
Frankensteinbeck
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Trump called Mexicans rapists. That is when he took the lead and kept it. Everything else is a detail.
mrmoshpotato
Boo fucking hoo! 🎶You built this!🎶🖕
David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch
I’m getting tired of so much winning
Qrop Non Sequitur
Samuel Taylor Coleridge needs to answer for 220 years of libel and slander against a magnificent bird.
mrmoshpotato
@Qrop Non Sequitur: True, but can I have some artistic license while mocking a party that’s been a shitpile for longer than I’ve been alive?
mrmoshpotato
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Haha. I see you let Iron Maiden off the hook. 😁
Qrop Non Sequitur
@mrmoshpotato: I’m sorry, your artistic license expired on your last birthday. There will be a 60 dollar late fee in addition to the 40 renewal.
No lo conozco
Kay
mrmoshpotato
Whem you have lost John Warboner Bolton…
ian
Bolton published an article not long ago calling for (guess what else?) regime change in Iran. In that same article, he bitterly complained that U.S. policy was too pro-Palestinian.
Some leopards can’t change their spots. It also says a lot about the contemporary Republican party that *John Bolton* is considered the voice of reason.
Barbara
“Winning in the general” at least in some states requires Trump loyalists to consider it worth their while to show up and vote for Republican candidates. It’s still not clear to me whether a sufficient percentage of Trump voters will be reliable Republican voters, or voters at all, to swing elections in purple states.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@mrmoshpotato: Republicans have been challenging the Constitution my whole life, just not verbally.
With Republicans, words speak louder than actions.
David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch
FTFNYT – today
FTFNYT – Dec 21, 1924
zebra can’t change its stripes
WaterGirl
@kindness: You have been freed. The next comment with the new email should go right through.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
Nominated.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Among the Trump-adherent voters I know, two were reliable D voters previously. One was writing Ron Paul in for every Presidential cycle. Two have been reliable R voters forever. One moved to Utah to hide from Democrats.
CaseyL
So the GOP is turning on McConnell now? The one who turned the Federalist Society agenda into actual policy, and enabled stacking the courts with those fascist hairbrains? The one who made their dreams reality? That McConnell?
Trying to figure out who is the scorpion here, and who is the frog. But mostly hoping for a matter-antimatter reaction, and mutual anhialation.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@CaseyL: There asshats don’t know which side their bread is buttered on.
different-church-lady
@Layer8Problem:
Uhhh… no problem? No problem at all?
Kay
Ugh. It’s so humiliating that Ohio got stuck with the low quality Trump Senator. Just about everyone else rejected Trump’s crap candidates except my awful state.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@different-church-lady: I usually read the front page of the NYT and never pay. I’m already halfway there.
Anoniminous
@MattF:
I’m so old I remember 2015 and how the Republican Establishment was going to ensure JEB! would waltz through the primaries and skate right on into the White House.
David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch
It won’t be too long before Dump says, “I don’t know Donald Trump. I’ve never heard of him. I wouldn’t recognize him if he was standing next to me.”
Dangerman
So, what do the sane Republicans do when Trump is indicted? They want/need the MFer to go away (MAL is acceptable, but if its Supermax, that works, too). Coming to his defense only helps the Dude win the nomination in 2024.
Damn, I don’t have enough popcorn.
Qrop Non Sequitur
JEB! is far past his prime and definitely not up to the task of waltzing on skates.
geg6
For my entire political life, the story has always been “Democrats in disarray!” We’re talking my first presidential vote was for Mondale, my first GOTV was for Carter before was even eligible to vote and my first interest in politics was sparked by the Kennedys in my childhood. It’s really nice that the shoe is on the other foot.
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck:
That’s it in a nutshell. With skills like that, you should think about writing a book! :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Anoniminous: It’s gonna be Rubio!
Qrop Non Sequitur
Whom are you referring to? Would a post it note be too long for the list or I have this scrap of confetti.
Kay
He robbed the (federal) Small Business Disaster Assistance loan program.
mrmoshpotato
@Dangerman:
Do you need that popcorn because you’ve been smoking something? 😁
WaterGirl
@Kay: What the fuck is wrong with these people?
Qrop Non Sequitur
@WaterGirl: Oh, that’s a much longer list…
Another Scott
John (3) Afghanistan -> welcome the talking (?); 5,000 troops to Columbia Bolton doesn’t have much of a constituency in today’s GQP.
Maybe TFG will go on the ultrapouty warpath and demand to be selected Speaker. That would be fun.
Cheers,
Scott.
prostratedragon
@Qrop Non Sequitur: The mariner wore the albatross about his neck because he had shot it as it pointed the way to safety. I don’t think TFG is that to the party.
@Kay:
Hah-hah! //Muntz
Bill Arnold
The replies in the referenced Greg Price thread ( https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1600336079860604928 ) made me smile. Republicans will continue to lose when they are so detached from electoral reality, or even just basic everyday reality. Some of them seriously believe that un-electable/badly-flawed candidates were good candidates, and/or that Democrats like Fetterman are stupid. (A glance at his educational history on wikipedia suggests not.)
David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch
Only the best people
David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch
I love the smell of circular firing squads in the morning. That smell, that disarray smell – smells like victory.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@prostratedragon: I reply to the reference I have, not the reference that might be correct or the one I hope to have in the future.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Geminid:
Thanks. I assumed that this was serious
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Wow, what a surprise. The guy “standing up for parental rights” is a criminal lol
Kathleen
@David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch: Adolph Hitler learned his lesson.
Kathleen
@Kay: Weren’t 3 Dems elected to the School Board where their powers will now be handed over to the governor?
Are you familiar with Blue Ohio, David Pepper’s newly formed organization?
prostratedragon
@Qrop Non Sequitur: I was really thinking of the party man who raised the subject.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Tell me about it Kay. This fucking place is horrible. Recently, the R state legislature was drafting legislation to try to change the threshold for Yes votes on citizen-initiated ballot questions from a simple majority to 60%. But proposals placed on the ballot originating from the Statehouse only need 50% to pass of course still 🙄
Qrop Non Sequitur
@prostratedragon: Fair, I was just eager to remind people there was once a Donald Rumsfeld
In other Donald Rumsfeld news, Donald Rumsfeld is still dead.
TriassicSands
That would be entertaining, but unless he were assured of winning, I doubt the Loser would be willing to risk it. I don’t think the House Republicans would vote for him. I mean, they’re stupid, but are they dumb enough to put a complete incompetent in charge? Oh, wait, they’re may elect Trump’s Toady. Never mind. They’re definitely that stupid.
Kathleen
@Layer8Problem: Thanks to New York Times Pitchbot we won’t miss a beat of anti Biden/Harris propaganda.
Alison Rose
@David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch: Oh God, that made me laugh so hard. CRY MORE, YOU LUNATIC HARPY.
Dan B
@Kay: Such karma. But he wrote the law to make LGBTQ people invisible when it should have been making a boatload of youth pastors sent up the river. Looks like he’ll be in Leavenwoth soon.
Mike in NC
That’s the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He even looks like a Nazi. Maybe let him open up an office in Trump Tower since he’s so qualified to work there.
Dan B
@Mike in NC: One commenter described the looks of the Don’t Say Gay bill as, “A bucket head”.
geg6
@TriassicSands:
it’s Trump toady all the way down. Apparently Andy Biggs is mounting a challenge against McCarthy. Hilarious.
billcinsd
@TriassicSands: I hope you don’t think McCarthy is competent
billcinsd
@mrmoshpotato: I met John Thune in High School. He would not have known what an albatross was if it crapped on him
Scout211
Geminid
@geg6: Is Andy Biggs the twitchy one? The one whose family denounced him?
I realize this might not narrow down the search much.
prostratedragon
Happy 180th to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@geg6:
It’d be funnier if weren’t for things like the looming debt ceiling limit. Hopefully, Congress can push that back as far as possible with some kind of deal in the lame duck, probably the 2023 NDAA
kalakal
Greetings Earthlings
https://twitter.com/ThePlanetaryGuy/status/1599815417362812931?s=20&t=KNE3YCAPF0iLUBW7FFbBMA
Bex
@Scout211: Did they search the grave on the golf course?
Elizabelle
@Geminid: That’s Paul Gosar.
Scout211
Nope. That must be why they only found two. ;-)
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Whew! Now I’m not so worried.
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: I just saw your question about the Times situation from two posts back. Here’s a piece talking about it:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/12/new-york-times-walkout/amp
WaterGirl
@Scout211: I think this falls under the category of “I’ll be good mommy, please don’t punish me for what I did, see, I’m being good now!”
Steeplejack
* DVR Alert *
Coming up at 2:45 a.m. EST on TCM: Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000). “A man (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and a woman (Maggie Cheung Man-yuk) living in a Singapore building wonder about the frequent absences of their spouses.” Hard to describe, but an engrossing movie. Trailer here.
Also streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion Collection.
WaterGirl
@Layer8Problem: Thank you! I had just found that article.
Part of me wanted to say fuck the NYT but I am a Union girl, so I guess I’ll boycott Wordle tomorrow.
Edmund Dantes
The trump documents was a search by his own side again. It was not an fbi search. I don’t get why we are still at the stage where the DOJ is still at the stage of allowing trump’s side to do these searches on their own. But that is where we are at.
Best part is Trump supposedly hired an outside group to do it. So chances more documents were seen by people that shouldn’t be looking at them. High.
Jeffro
It’s going to be a hoot watching GOP “establishment” pols like Thune, Ryan, etc try very hard to get the party to moderate its views without coming out and just saying it:
“guys, we have to be less obviously rac…we need to quit embracing Naz…er…um…oh hell I give up…parents’ rights!”
brought to you by the Party That Offers Nothing But Tax Cuts for the Rich + Racism
Edmund Dantes
I also love this notion like McConnell could have done anything different. GOP primary voters picked these candidates.
this isn’t a case of Virginia where the party stepped in to pick a candidate (youngkin) to avoid this stuff.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
Great googly moogly this quote:
🤦🏾♂️
livewyre
@Edmund Dantes: Hey, if he can’t seem to stop incriminating himself, and this gives him more rope to do it with (e.g. they know he’s holding out), then I say go wild.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Jeffro: But wait! If you act now, the party will throw in misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia! That’s right… tax cuts, racism PLUS an amazing deal of misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia all for the low, low price of your immortal soul!
Another Scott
@Scout211: Not Doral? Where he had that Saudi golf tournament? They didn’t search there??!??
The FBI should get a warrant to search every place he has been since January 2017 until every molecule with classified markings has been found.
Grr…,
Scott.
phdesmond
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
googled:
Your search – “Coleridge unfair to albatrosses” – did not match any documents.
Mike in NC
@Edmund Dantes: Been obvious for six years that Trump treats highly classified national security documents the way the rest of us would treat the used wrapper of a Big Mac.
Steeplejack
@Layer8Problem:
The crossword comes out at 10:00 the night before, and I’ll do the Wordle at 12:01 a.m. Then I promise to leave.
TriassicSands
@billcinsd:
I wrote: Oh, wait, they may elect Trump’s Toady. Never mind.
Trump’s Toady is McCarthy, so of course I don’t think he is competent.
Jeffro
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: so on point that my sides hurt – thanks! =)
TriassicSands
@geg6:
Ironically, we don’t want them to elect a competent speaker, not that there are a lot of competent candidates.* While chaos in the House is not good for the country, there is nothing I can think of that the GOP wants to do this IS good for the country.
*Are there any? With more than 218 representatives, there must be at least one Republican representative who isn’t a complete idiot. I just can’t think of any offhand.
Geminid
@Edmund Dantes: The way I saw it, Youngkin picked Youngkin.
Last year, in the runup to the decision by the Virginia Republican Central Commitees on how to choose their candidates for statewide office, the political magazine Bearing Drift put up an interesting article about the process. The GOP rules in most state require primaries. A minority of states require caucuses followed by a state convention. Virginia was the only one where either route was an option.
This, the writer pointed out, could potentially allow someone to shape the outcome by shaping the process. I think Glenn Youngkin noticed this and “worked” the Central Committee members.
In the event, the Committee picked an odd “Disassembled Convention” process with short deadlines that played into the hands of the better funded and better networked candidate. That was Youngkin.
The Moar You Know
@David 🦃The Establishment🥧 Koch: I agree. If I come to see a freak show, I wanna see a fuckin freak show.
TriassicSands
And every penny we can steal…
Qrop Non Sequitur
@phdesmond: It was indirect, perhaps unintended. But Coleridge enabled this the moment the metaphor fell into misuse as illustrated beautifully by prostratedragon upthread.
All to respond to Thune who, like me, likely never read that story since high school.
An anchor would make a lovely metaphor. Not as in stability but more open ocean tethered to passengers instead of the ship. ⚓️
Shalimar
phdesmond
Caroline Randall Walker is on Lawrence’s msnbc show next. she got this in the Atlantic:
Shalimar
@TriassicSands: A rumor was floated recently that Democrats and a handful of more moderate Republicans were trying to draft recently retired Fred Upton as a compromise choice. He’s an unempathetic asshole just like every other Republican, but competent, and probably the best you could hope for from a current member of the party.
rikyrah
Dolt45 didn’t force the GOP primary voters to select these awful candidates😒
Geminid
@Shalimar: Fred Upton was one of the 10 House Republican Impeachers. It would probably take the votes of the entire Democratic Caucus to get him to 218.
I guess that could happen. I still think the Republicans will elect McCarthy or failing that, elect Scalise. But their meetings the days (and nights too) before the opening session could be “lit,” as the youngs say.
Ken
@Scout211: I suppose we’re lucky he kept up the payments on the storage unit. Otherwise the documents might have ended up on Storage Wars.
“Let’s see what’s in this box… Old Time magazines, junk. Original cast recording of Cats, might find a vinyl fan. Classified report on Israeli nuclear forces… might know someone….”
Citizen Alan
@Mike in NC: Bullshit. None of us would ever eat a used Burger King wrapper.
Tom Levenson
@WaterGirl: All of it/them, Katie.
James E Powell
@Shalimar:
The last thing I want to see at the top of the Republican pile is competence.
Send in the clowns!
Shalimar
@Geminid: Republicans are cowards. The only way Upton or any other compromise candidate with Democrats gets elected is if more than half the Republican caucus agrees to them. They need cover from numbers to protect themselves from the blowback.
That won’t happen on the 1st ballot. But it is possible after X failed votes, because I think it will be easier to get to 111 than to get those last 10 votes to 218. There are dozens of nutcases in the House now who hate all attempts at authority.
GoBlueInOak
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s two complaints filed by right wing orgs over her comped ticket to the Met gala & for her “Tax the Rich” dress she wore at the event.
Stop falling for right wing wurlitzer BS.
Paul in KY
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Coleridge did counsel against killing them in his verse.
Paul in KY
@Kay: JD Vance, while a POS wanker, was a much, much better candidate than Walker. Also Se. Warnock was a better candidate than Ryan, IMO.
Paul in KY
@Another Scott: That would be fun! Would love to see the press asking McCarthy about it all the time.
Kosh III
@Kay: “Ugh. It’s so humiliating that Ohio got stuck with the low quality Trump Senator. Just about everyone else rejected Trump’s crap candidates except my awful state.’
Don’t complain, you could be Tennessee with Sen. Marsha Fraking Blackburn.
catclub
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
is “Yo no lo conozco” “Don’t I know it?”
so rhymey
Just One More Canuck
@mrmoshpotato: When you give your child a middle name like “Warboner”, it pretty much sets his destiny in motion