BREAKING: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell suffered a concussion after a fall at a local hotel and will be hospitalized “for a few days of observation and treatment,” a spokesman said Thursday. https://t.co/5qzCCWJoHR
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 9, 2023
… The Kentucky senator, 81, was at a Wednesday evening dinner after a reception for the Senate Leadership Fund, a campaign committee aligned with him, when he tripped and fell. The events were at the Waldorf Astoria Washington DC, formerly the Trump International Hotel.
Spokesman David Popp said McConnell is being treated for a concussion and “is grateful to the medical professionals for their care and to his colleagues for their warm wishes.” McConnell’s office did not provide additional detail on his condition or how long he may be absent from the Senate.
Returning from a trip to Philadelphia Thursday evening, President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that he’d spoken with McConnell’s family.
“I think he’s gonna be all right,” Biden said of his former Senate colleague…
The taciturn McConnell is often reluctant to discuss his private life. But at the start of the COVID-19 crisis he opened up about his early childhood experience fighting polio. He described how his mother insisted that he stay off his feet as a toddler and worked with him through a determined physical therapy regime. He has acknowledged some difficulty in adulthood climbing stairs…
Just because the rumors are ugly… Journamalistic botfly Tara Palmeri, at Puck:
Last night, before the unexpected fall that landed him in the hospital with a concussion, Mitch McConnell walked into Washington’s Waldorf Astoria with the hope of some G.O.P. restitution. For two tumultuous years under the leadership of his nemesis, Rick Scott, the National Republican Senatorial Committee had been at odds with McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund. Over time, the two men grew to despise one another in the way that powerful wealthy men often do: each wouldn’t give the other what they wanted, which pissed off their counterpart.
McConnell’s team grew miffed that Scott refused to recruit and support the most winnable candidates, at least according to their calculations, in certain elections. Meanwhile, Scott, who is rich and single-minded and unafraid to sneeze on the brass ring (and rode to power via the Tea Party), had long felt slighted by the establishment crowd like some country club arriviste.
Anyway, that’s old news as Scott has been replaced by Steve Daines, the new N.R.S.C. chairman, who has been trying to straddle the often un-straddleable, performing modern G.O.P. triangulation by appeasing Trump and the establishment-types, alike, in order to recruit electable candidates who can tap into both constituencies. In reality, it’s the very sort of McConnell-esque realpolitik that may be required for these times on the right. According to an attendee, McConnell reflected on “Playing the hand they were dealt last cycle, but creating their own hand this cycle,” a thinly veiled dig at Scott and Trump.
Daines also seems like a team player, which was evidenced by the fact that he actually attended the event, as did Senators John Thune, John Barrasso, Todd Young, Susan Collins, John Cornyn and Roger Marshall…
Another source at the dinner explained that McConnell and Daines have been rushing to consolidate support around strong MAGA-enough candidates whom they can put forward before Trump offers his own batshit crazy alternative. Their plan operates on the assumption that Trump will back down from supporting risky candidates so close to his own general election, given his weak batting average in the midterms.
Another source at the dinner explained that McConnell and Daines have been rushing to consolidate support around strong MAGA-enough candidates whom they can put forward before Trump offers his own batshit crazy alternative. Their plan operates on the assumption that Trump will back down from supporting risky candidates so close to his own general election, given his weak batting average in the midterms.
This approach is manifested in Daines’ aggressive courtship of Dave McCormick to run again for Senate against Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, and his willingness to slag off losing gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano. He’s also pushing to get current governor Jim Justice to run against Joe Manchin in West Virginia. Unfortunately for Daines, they may have been slowed down in the hasty recruiting process by McConnell’s fall…
In my admittedly biased browsing, for every (presumed) Democrat tweeting hopes that McConnell will be sidelined, there are two loudly-Republican tweets celebrating and/or mocking his accident. One assumes #MoscowMitch has his own team of doctors and possibly food-testers in attendance, regardless.
(Also, maybe some enterprising reporter should check on the whereabouts of Rick Scott’s “security” guys last night… )
Good morning Resisters!
I want to wish Mitch McConnell a speedy recovery from his fall last night.
I just wish he believed everyone deserves access to the same healthcare that he takes for granted.#ProudBlue #MedicareForAll #GOPHypocrisy pic.twitter.com/p4q4CCiwx8
— LA Blue Dot in GA 🌊💔 (@namwella1961) March 9, 2023
War for Ukraine Day 377: Just a Quick Update Tonight
chrisanthemama
I look forward to McConnell’s full-and-speedy recovery, so we can resume deriding him.
Hkedi
I was thinking, if McConnell is damaged to the point he has to retire from congress, what is going to happen to the GOP when their last member of the “establishment” that is able to think somewhat strategically, and has the power to force the senate crazies (and a fair bit of the GOP) into line(ish)? He’s like the last overstressed (and evil) bolt keeping the GOP from hurling itself into full crazyland. Can you think of any other GOP member that do what little he does?
JoyceH
This isn’t the first time McConnell has fallen recently. He’s in his 80s and I’m not sure what (if any) physical exercise he does. At that age, he really needs to do some remedial work on his balance. My brother in law did a LOT of falling last year, but got physical therapy and is a lot steadier now.
Mike in NC
Who’d have guessed that at age 81, Moscow Mitch would still have a taste for hookers and blow?
Jackie
McConnell has been more in Biden’s court than not. I DON’T want him back as Majority Leader, but until McCarthy’s been booted, I’m stressing about McConnell being replaced. It’s a a “dance with the devil you know” situation… sigh
danielx
Was Susan Collins accompanied by her deeply furrowed brow?
Splitting Image
I will ask Crito to sacrifice a cock to Asclepius when he recovers from his illness.
Delk
Judging by that corpse hand he had a couple years ago, I’m sure whatever part of his body hit the floor must be looking very nasty.
Redshift
If they’re admitting he has a concussion, I would expect a pretty long recovery. He’ll probably officially be back at work as soon as possible for the sake of appearances, but who knows how much of the job he’ll actually be doing.
Steve in the ATL
Also in disarray: the clowns running the de-icing trucks at MKE. Finally made it to Atlanta, only two hours late. Luckier than many on the flight as I didn’t miss a connection.
Everyone bitches about Atlanta traffic, but I never have to change planes!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I do notice we haven’t heard anything like “My number one goal is to make him a one-term president”. Not that he won’t do everything he can to elect an R in ’24. A rich friend of my father’s, a car dealer, was quite literally on his death bed, and he knew it, trying to buy one last dealership. Pretty sure he closed the deal before they closed his eyes. I could imagine Mitch having himself wheeled into the Senate chamber to vote to confirm one last judge, or uphold one last filibuster.
My dad’s friend left a thirty million dollar estate for his third wife and his two sets of kids by his first two wives to fight over. Never did find out how that ended up, but I heard it got ugly.
mvr
Wisconsin is the next place where an election matters. There is a link on the right side-bar. You can give ten bucks to take the WI supreme court back from the Republican ruling majority (overruling the D governor!) and I will match it for the next ten people who do that. It isn’t much but it seems to me that matching beats just putting in my $100 in one chunk and not being matched.
Amir Khalid
Some non-cat related news from Malaysia. Former PM Muhyiddin Yassin was charged this morning with four charges of taking bribes to a total of RM230 million (US$50.9 million), and with two counts of money laundering. Details at the link.
Another Scott
@JoyceH: Ruckus has mentioned that polio symptoms can reappear later in life even if one has seemingly fully recovered.
I’m reminded that McConnell fell on his home patio and broke his shoulder in 2019.
I think his body is telling him he needs to retire, but I doubt that he ever will.
Cheers,
Scott.
Joy in FL
@mvr: I took you up on that. $10 to WisDems!
Thanks for the match & the incentive.
Omnes Omnibus
@mvr: $25
mvr
@Joy in FL: Thank you! BJ has had that thermometer up all week. It hasn’t budged since my first contribution and I hoped this would get it moving.
I grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin was the sane not as right wing state to the North when I was a kid. So I have a soft spot. And really it is still a relatively sane place with relatively gerrymandered politics. So I’m trying to do my bit.
mvr
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you as well!
I’m more happy than you can imagine.
cain
@Another Scott: Evil never tires – as long as his diabolic mind is awake he’ll keep going.
I don’t think we need to worry to much about McConnell. He’ll be fine. If he isn’t fine well – hopefully he’ll have a long think about his life and his part in it.
Omnes Omnibus
@mvr: I have a recurring donation going, but I thought I would join in here since you were being generous.
Ruckus
I know/knew four people who were my age or moms of friends my age with polio. Two of them for sure have perished because there are only 2 known people left living in iron lungs and neither of the 2 I know are them. One I’ve lost touch with and the other lives in my apt complex. For those that didn’t die the first few years were surgery after surgery, then approximately 20 yrs with leg braces, another 20-30 having a relatively normal life then the weakness and inability to walk comes back and braces/crutches help for a while and then it’s every waking moment in a wheelchair as standing is impossible. They also lived as pariahs at school because we all knew someone with polio and none of us wanted to get that. All 4 of those I knew/know are women, 2 moms of friends with iron lungs in their front rooms and 2 went to school on crutches and leg braces.
My point is polio is a rather crappy way to live. And Mitch still walks at 81. My neighbor lives in her wheelchair. If she’s awake, she’s in it. I push her around a bit, she doesn’t seem to mind at all. I’m sort of amazed that he can walk at all. He might be back, I find it difficult to believe he won’t be in a chair if he is.
Jackie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, I agree… We just have to be able to pick our poison. Biden and McConnell seem to respect each other, and McConnell has no respect/love for McCarthy, so when it comes to what’s best for the country – budget-wise – I’m hoping McConnell overrides McCarthy. If McConnell’s out, I don’t trust his successor to be so inclined.
Aussie Sheila
@Amir Khalid: Very good news. Are Malaysian politics moving to a better place re corruption? Have there been moves to clean up parties and politics there?
I ask because we used to get a lot of news about our near region here in Australia, and I have noticed a severe downturn in the last decade. I assume it is because the big mastheads here can no longer afford their bureaus in Singapore, Malaysia Hong Kong and the like.
This is a very bad development. Just at the time when we need good, reliable news about and from our region, we getting less and less.
mvr
@Omnes Omnibus: I have one of those too. :-) And I am going to keep giving WisDems money regardless. Still, since BJ donors got me to give more than I intended to some folks by matching, I figure I would do my own best to return the favors.
I do want to add that this is a consequential race and that if you want to do some good with your money this is a place to give it a shot.
Also a shoutout to postcard writers: That too is giving your influence a shot and money surely isn’t the only way to contribute.
mdblanche
I wish McConnell exactly as much compassion as he has shown to others.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
He’s still walking, or he was, but at his age (and yes I’m not all that far behind him…. but in a bit better health……) and I’m reminded that between 2015 and 2017, 14 people I know died and all but one was younger than me, and the one was only one yr older. Life can come at you whenever it wants, however hard it wants to, Mitch living till 81 with polio is amazing, but he does not look good and a concussion at his age and health is nothing to sneeze at.
CaseyL
I don’t think McConnell will retire, because he has nothing else in his life but the Senate. No friends, estranged from his kids since he divorced their Mom, and SFAIK no interests other than wielding power. He’ll leave the Senate in a coffin. (And I will do a little dance when he does.)
The next Senate Republican leader may be more evil than McConnell, hard as that is to believe, but he or she is unlikely to have McConnell’s decades of experience in maneuvering and manipulating Senate rules.
Ruckus
@mdblanche:
The only reason I won’t say this is that while I know what he’s been for decades and seemingly has all the compassion of an axe murderer…..
Never mind – he is who he is, he’s done what he’s done his entire adult life, be a dick.
Geoduck
@Ruckus: As already said, he’ll be back. He’ll leave office feet-first when the day finally comes.
Ruckus
@Geoduck:
I think you are likely correct – but. 81, with polio? 81, with a concussion? And he looks to me like the only thing holding him up is the stick up his butt. He may come back, he might not. I’m not holding my breath.
Amir Khalid
@Aussie Sheila:
We may be moving in a better direction as far as clean top-level government is concerned. The signs are good. But I’d like to see more action against petty corruption by low-level bureaucrats as well, because that’s the kind that preys directly on regular Malaysians.
These days understaffing, along with the resulting undercoverage of important beats, is a sad fact of life in news media all over the planet. People everywhere have fallen out of the habit of reading printed media, and it’s much harder to make money with online news.
Aussie Sheila
@Amir Khalid: Yes the print press is in decline everywhere. I am glad about Malaysia. At the local level a vigorous local politics can assist, and while print press is in decline, I imagine that resourceful and dedicated Malaysian citizens can develop a ‘beat’.
I miss the attention we used to pay to SE Asia. It is terrible here now with respect to our region. It is ra ra ‘war with China’ all the time from our local elites. It is scary as well as utterly stupid. There is a lot of goodwill here but it is being ground down by unscrupulous people who are using the China bogeyman to help them in domestic politics. Utterly shameless, all of them.
NotMax
To keep expenses down, splitting the cost of a room with Fetterman?
//
Amir Khalid
I just remembered something. There is a Malaysian family of Scullys. They are ethnically Malay and Muslim, but for that one Irish ancestor. I knew one of the family, a Musa Scully, who was an executive at the national wire service when I was a reporter there 30-some years ago.
UncleEbeneezer
Aussie Sheila
@Amir Khalid: I wonder if he is a relative of Paul Scully, a very good Australian reporter who I think is retired now.
Just a bit more on my pet peeve about our media. We don’t even get much reporting from Indonesia any more. We got more news 25 years ago from SE Asia than we do now. It is beyond irresponsible, dangerous and disrespectful. Our closest neighbours get less attention now than the UK and the US. Simply terrible.
Ken
I don’t think that’s the right word, or at least not what McConnell was hoping for. Unless maybe he’s going after the funds that Rick Scott managed, insofar as Scott managed to put them in his own pocket.
NotMax
FYI.
lgerard
QAnon Sherman!
This woman is just perfect for junior
frosty
@Steve in the ATL: A line I think I learned from my Mississippi grandma, who moved to Chicago during the Great Migration:
“I don’t know if I’m going to Heaven or Hell but I know I have to change in Atlanta.”
This is from the steam train era, BTW.
frosty
@mvr: Being one of WG’s Angel Matches is the way to go. Your $100 is great but if it inspires another $100, it’s a great feeling! Speaking from experience.
Amir Khalid
@Aussie Sheila:
I don’t think so. The Irish Scully ancestor was a couple of generations before Musa, who was in his forties when I was there.
The name Scully has been on my mind lately. I’m going to an animal shelter tomorrow to adopt a cat. If I get a girl kitty, I will name her Scully, after The X-Files’ Agent Scully.
Fake Irishman
@CaseyL:
I actually went to grad school with one of McConnell’s son-in-laws. One day a friend of mine was having lunch at favorite hole-in-the wall restaurant the next town over from our midwestern college tow n, glanced over and went “what the heck is Mitch McConnell doing here?” The he saw McConnell’s daughter and her fiancé at the table.
this was probably around 2006/2007. FWIW, I met the daughter once or twice, she’s lovely and been doing all sorts of great not profit and academic work.
West of the Rockies
Late-night OT question: anyone know why Kanye West (Ye) has kind of disappeared from the news lately? Did the many millions in lost revenue finally get him to shut up?
Not that I miss the knucklehead.
frosty
@Amir Khalid: I’m pulling for a girl cat named Scully. Loved X-Files back in the day. Best wishes for you and your cat overlord to come.
Aussie Sheila
@Amir Khalid: Well done on the cat. I have two ginger boys, brothers, who are 12 years old now. You are probably right about Paul Scully, but there is a lot of family and relational connections between ex UK colonies and such like in the region and Australia.
My own family has family connections now to Malaysia.
These connections have grown exponentially over the last 40 years across the electorate, and I hope and trust those connections save us from the next US foreign policy folly re China.
I hope our current leadership can steer us to a safe and honourable place in the current US storm about China.
West of the Rockies
I haven’t seen Steve in Mendocino here lately. Is he still around? He’s a great contributor.
JWR
Good grief! From CBS Sacramento
3 minute video report only, but you get to see the “pained” look on the concerned parents faces, nattering on about the children who were “forced” to be in the audience and how they might have been harmed.
One said, and I quote, “When you’re sexualizing kids under the umbrella of Inclusivity, that’s where it draws the line”. (Boy, those Republican talking points get around, don’t they?) But no, lady, YOU’RE the one sexualizing kids, who after all just wanted to have a fun, 4 minute drag show.
Mel
@Amir Khalid: I’m so happy for you! Miss Scully will be a very lucky kitty, indeed.
Amir Khalid
@Mel:
Mulder never calls his Scully Ms. I might call mine Agent Scully or Dana Scully or even Dana Katherine Scully depending on what suits her, but never Ms Scully.
scav
@JWR: Oh, I hope those concerned parents aren’t letting their sexual innocents attend football games. Hove you seen the tightness of those boys britches?!! It’s all slick ass cheeks and tackle of all the kinds. And the sideline of bouncing breasts, high (exposing) kicks and flexibility on display? Skirts above the knees!!!!
Anne Laurie
As Kipling (don’t mock) reported, one of the few ways for an ambitious Irishman to succeed during the British Empire was to volunteer for Her Majesty’s forces. And quite a few of the Irish recruits ended up in Asia, for one reason or another.
(I was also told that three of my father’s father’s eight siblings ended up emigrating to ‘the East’ back just before The Troubles, one each to Singapore, India & Australia. ‘Nine kids on the family farm, and it was a good farm for Galway, but not one of them stayed to inherit it.’)
Aussie Sheila
@Anne Laurie: My northern Irish Protestant ancestors were British Army recruits in India in the early 19th century. Upon the end of their term, they emigrated to Australia. They married Irish compatriots here, some Catholic, some not. But they were Irish to their bootstraps. Loved horses, the countryside and literature.
Every day since I properly understood both my family history, the history of my country, and the nature of British imperialism I have thanked the stars they decided to emigrate here rather than return to Ireland. Our family has been mostly, happy and prosperous as a result. Also, the Scottish Presbyterian parts have also lent a fierce independent and contrary aspect to my personal as well as the national character.
No one should doubt that Australians are not ‘USains downunder’. We have our distinctly national character, enriched beyond measure by the belated recognition of the First Nations peoples and the millions of immigrants from all over the world, especially from southern Europe and south east Asia .
40% of Australian households have at least one immigrant member.
The old mantra of following the next imperial overlord into destructive wars is over. Whatever the US Congress determines, if anyone thinks we are just going to follow the US into a destructive, and fatal ( to us) war with China, better think again.
It is not the 1960s anymore here.
KCSteve
I wonder if this is the prelude to Trump detractors starting to fall out windows.
JWR
@scav:
That’s about where these people claim to want us all to be: 1957 these days, right? Buncha sickos! As far as drag, I graduated high school in 1976, and right there in my yearbook, in a 2 page spread, are pictures of a senior pep rally featuring members of the football team dressed up as cheerleaders, AKA in drag, and a fun time was had by all. In fact, I don’t ever remember a time when such displays didn’t draw cheerful laughter, nor do I believe they caused anyone to pop a boner.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Up late, as is my life… I’m out in my garage as that’s my man cave and everyone here is asleep. I’m wrapping up my night and grabbed the shop guitar for a couple of songs before closing up. Gigi, a stray kitty who moved into my garage as I search for a forever home for her, is in her little fort on her perch near where the guitar case is. When I got done playing I went over to put it in the case and I scared Kiki the vagabond Maine coon kitty off of the perch where she was with Gigi. I have been coaxing her into the garage with food and treats, trying to get her to hang out here during the foul weather (which we are getting slammed with right now) and at night. Her and Gigi seem to get along well so that isn’t a problem.
Kiki comes into the garage to eat and for treats but leaves right afterward. Tonight sucks enough out there that she is desperate enough to brave me, at least until I unknowingly scared her away. I have to close the door to keep the unfixed males (they love to eat and spray THANKS!) and raccoons out so no leaving it cracked open.
Bummer…
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@West of the Rockies: isn’t he preparing for his presidential campaign
Quinerly
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
💜
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: I am hoping for Agent Scully.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Your governor wants to spread his freedom to ban books message across the continental United States. Of course, he didn’t intend to ban books, he was simply protecting the little ones from the gays.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Just so long as you don’t decide on naming it Fox.
That would be bad news.
:)
mrmoshpotato
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Bummer indeed. Hopefully she returns.
Betty Cracker
@JPL: DeSantis is a creepy fascist who has been disastrous for Florida and who would be catastrophic for the entire planet as POTUS, so I find myself in the odd position of rooting for Trump to destroy him in the GOP primary. Fuck these interesting times!
NotMax
Woo hoo!
Monthly around town sojourn for groceries Thursday. Snagged the last bag of black jellybeans at Target.
Aussie Sheila
@Betty Cracker: So will BJ run a ‘book’ on who wins the republican nomination? I would be up for it, but I won’t wager until late this year/early next year.
The threat is truly existential, particularly for Ukraine, but a part of me wants to see those effers tear themselves apart. I just hope the US ruling centre can make it happen. Certainly no other political force in the US is capable of tipping these authoritarian Aholes into the dumpster fire they deserve.
Baud
@scav: Wait until those parents find out about child beauty pageants.
NotMax
@Baud
Little Miss Sunshine State?
Betty Cracker
@Aussie Sheila: Someone might run a pool, but it won’t be me. Organization isn’t my strong suit! ;-)
I agree it’s way too early to predict what will happen in the Orc primary, but my feeling is that it’s Trump’s nomination to lose. I will never understand it, but he seems to have an unbreakable hold on a significant plurality in that party. Republicans who are capable of abstract thought are reduced to waiting for Trump to die.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
😲😲😲😲thief
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I wonder if this deep media thinker realizes parents sexualizes their kids by dressing them as a boy or a girl?
Aussie Sheila
@Betty Cracker: Yes. From here it looks like trump will win the nom. In 2016 me and my friends (political and personal) predicted he would win the nom and the election. That view was not popular here or anywhere else on US political blogs.
This time around, my view is if he wins the nom he won’t win the general. This time around US liberals are much more awake to the threat that right wing populism poses to their polity. Let’s see if the UK kicks the conservatives to the kerb before the 2024 US election. We did our bit last year.
The best thing all three polities could do, different as they are, is to kick the Murdochs to the kerb. That family has tried to destroy democracy in all three countries, and nearly succeeded in two.
That bastard relinquished his Australian citizenship to gain US dollars. Fair enough. I want to see US capitalism relieve him of every one of those dollars via its litigious approach to democratic accountability. After that, no Australian government will ever offer that family citizenship again. I guarantee it.
JPL
Before long, trump will be asking if DeSantis is wearing his heels.
When I saw Ron in his white boots, all I could think of is Pete the Cat. Pete has white shoes and steps in mud. What color are his shoes.
Brachiator
@Aussie Sheila:
I don’t think it matters much. Trumpism has won, even if Trump is not the nominee.
However, I think that Trump is the most unstable and dangerous potential nominee. If somehow he wins the nomination and goes on to win the presidency,he will feel vindicated and will do something incredibly stupid or react to some issue with total recklessness and that will put the nation in danger.
Right now I think that Biden can defeat any Republican.
Frankensteinbeck
@Aussie Sheila:
Trump is a loser who whines instead of bellowing the sneering racism these days. DeSantis shrinks rather than lashing out under criticism, and doesn’t have Trump’s crass, ranting, ‘your racist uncle’ vibe that validates the base. He can’t tear down an opponent like Trump. Both candidates are utter poison in the general election.
On the other hand… who else is running, or has the mean, racist asshole chops to compete? Winning candidates can and do appear out of nowhere sometimes.
I haven’t a clue how the GOP primaries will go.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: This primary electorate is hard to predict with much certainty. Republican elites clearly don’t want Trump, and fear he’ll drag down other Republicans in a general election. I think that’s the reason DeSantis has so much early support among party professionals (and among journalists too, I think).
The elites can’t control voters, though. There’s anecdotal evidence that some Republican voters see Trump as a weak candidate, and want someone new. But, “ya gotta have somebody to beat somebody,” and DeSantis is unproven outside of Florida. He probably will compete for the non-Trump vote with Sununu and Pompeo; if none of those three can get separation from the others, Trump could easily win with plurality victories.
This is the kind of problem that keeps the Karl Roves up at night. For my part, I just want to see these jerks spend a lot of money tearing each other down, and create some lasting hard feelings.
Betty Cracker
@Aussie Sheila: We had commenters here in 2016 who were convinced Trump would win. Despite being from a Florida backwater that’s populated by the very people who form his most enthusiastic fan base, I was so sure Trump would lose! I repeatedly tried to get one BJ commenter to bet $100 to the charity of their/my choice on it. Luckily for me, they didn’t take the bait!
I will never be 100% sure about a U.S. election again because now I know there’s no minimum standard at all. But I agree Trump will probably lose if he runs again in 2024, and probably by a bigger margin than in 2020. He’s a whiny sore loser who’s stuck in the past. Unfortunately for the GOP, so is a plurality of their base.
Couldn’t agree more about the Murdochs. I’d like to see Senate Dems hold hearings on Fox News in light of the Dominion case revelations. I wish the White House would strip away their press credentials and that all Dems would shun that network. The Murdochs are like the most lurid members of the Borgia family minus the art patronage. Worthless, destructive people who should direct themselves to the nearest ice floe.
NotMax
@Geminid
Thought I read recently that Sununu gave a firm nein to running.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
She draws the line at “the umbrella of inclusivity.” All other sexualizing off kids is AOK.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Does Norfolk Southern go to Alaska?
I’m not betting against two evils in the republican primary, but I will pray for blood
After watching the freedom girls, I had the type of jump out of bed nightmare. I think I knew then trump would win.
Matt McIrvin
I think Trump will win the nomination easily. It doesn’t matter how he’d do in a head to head poll, the base still loves him. He’s weaker than DeSantis as a general election candidate but he can’t be counted out; Biden will have a real fight. Both are less popular than in 2020, but Biden has the problem that a lot of Americans are genuinely nostalgic for Trump’s time in office simply because most of it was before the pandemic.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid:
From your lips to the peoples’ ears. I also don’t think he will win the general, but most of all I am looking to see if the Dems have the moxie to exploit the evident split in the Republican Party and stay sufficiently united to land a hammer blow on them next year, up and down the ballot. That is the only thing that can bury this political fever. Not the much vaunted DoJ, and all the effing prosecutors on tv and the rest of the litigation loving layer that dominated US politics.
Politics and economics lifted that crim up, and it is political economy, wielded by an old centrist like Biden that has the capacity to bury him and his fetid movement. A movement in name only,the astroturf version of ‘billionaires for democracy’.
It is BS from start to finish, but people have to be shown the truth.
In my view, Biden is experienced enough, and full of enough traditional Irish pol malarkey to do it. Fingers crossed.
Montanareddog
@Baud:
You don’t understand. Those pageants are wholesome, cis/het child sexualisation like the Good Lord intended.
Geminid
@NotMax: Well, Sununu would be wise to avoid this primary contest. It will be brutal. He can wait for 2028. Pompeo has to take his shot this year, I think. And DeSantis is too far in to turn back now.
I don’t think other candidates like Haley and Pence have a chance, but they’ll have to find that out the hard way.
Gvg
@Ruckus: My parents had a friend who was in a wheelchair from polio. This would have been in Orlando in the 1970’s when I was a kid. I know she had been in the wheelchair since her childhood, had married, raised 4 daughters, divorced. Had a swimming pool with a special ramp built that she could wheel her chair into and float out of to swim for exercise, then get back into and get back on land without help. I think they have lost touch with her years ago.
People like Mitch who don’t have any mercy or learn anything from their own trials are scum.
Aussie Sheila
@Matt McIrvin: I disagree that people are nostalgic for trump. They are nostalgic for a time when he wasn’t around. There’s a difference.
lowtechcyclist
According to multiple sources (e.g. Ballotpedia), if Mitch died or had to resign due to health, the Governor of Kentucky (currently Andy Beshear, a Democrat) appoints his replacement from a list of three choices selected by representatives of Mitch’s own party, the Kentucky GOP.
Wonder what would happen if Beshear looked at the list and said, “no way, all three of these fuckers are too crazy to be in the U.S. Senate.” Would the seat remain vacant until the GOP provided a name that Beshear would OK, or would the KY GOP have some recourse to force the matter?
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Too bad people aren’t nostalgic for a time when Republicans weren’t all up in their hoohaa.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Good luck with that. I remember expecting people to get mad about that when the JonBenet Ramsey case, with all those photos of that 6 year old all tarted up, exposed the existence of that world. Crickets.
JWR
@Baud:
Bingo! I watched to entire video to find out if the two prudes were actually R operatives, but no names were given. But those two were the only one’s raising a stink, so I’m guessing that they’re their neighborhood’s Gladys Kravitz’s.
Baud
Dark Brandon is making Mexican drug cartels apologize for killing American tourists.
Frankensteinbeck
@lowtechcyclist:
Beshear would lose reelection.
Beshear’s entire selling point in this blood red state is “At least I won’t wreck the joint.” For all that Kentucky Republicans are as hate-driven as Texas, when Bevin made a spirited go at destroying all their government services they decided they could put up with a Democrat as governor if he could keep the fucking lights on. His Covid competence was very popular, for example.
I’m sure it helps that a solidly Republican legislature keeps a sharp rein on Beshear. No worrying about that n- and f- loving woke liberal garbage. Playing hard obstructionist would definitely make his crossover voters bail.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Rand Paul searching Google for “How to clone.”
//
Matt McIrvin
@Aussie Sheila: Most Republicans will tell you that the economy was booming under Trump and Biden ruined it by forcing us into lockdown and giving away money to lazy people and opening the borders (it’s always opening the borders). The actual time sequence of events and cause-and-effect relationships don’t matter a lot.
Remember also that for most of the United States, COVID was just a distant thing happening in New York City until after Biden got in. Unlike us here in the Northeast, where the bodies were piling up early in spring 2020 and it was clear that Trump wanted us all to die, they associate the pandemic mostly with Biden’s time in office, not with Trump’s.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
DeathSantis looks like road kill.
He’s going to lose his own home state in a landslide to Dump.
The media does this every cycle, they annoint someone, Jeb!, Fred Thompson, Giulianni, McCain 2000, Rick Perry, Steve Forbes and they all go down in flames.
trnc
Is there a deadline? I wonder how long he would be able to put off appointing a replacement were it to come to that.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: Thank you for reminding me that Andy Beshear is up for election this year. I found a recent Politico article about him, headlined:
I think you are right when you say that Beshear would seriously damage his reelection chances if he left Kentucky without a Senator. He would hand his opponent a potent issue, and it would hardly square with his theme, “Team Kentucky.”
And Beshear is only 45 years old. If he serves another successful term, Beshear will have a good chance of being Kentucky’s first Democratic Senator in decades. I believe Rand Paul’s current term ends in 2028.
Matt McIrvin
The thing that concerns me about the 2024 general is that Biden’s map was maxed out in 2020. I see zero states he didn’t carry in 2020 that he could conceivably pick up (if anything Texas and Florida have become more impossible), and several he won that he could lose (Georgia obviously, but also Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, maybe New Hampshire and the Omaha vote in Nebraska). He has to do everything he can to hold on in all those places; he can only stand to lose a couple of mid-sized states.
The upside is that if it’s Trump, the “Trump is a moderate” narrative is going to have trouble taking hold this time, because he’s going to be all about eradicating the trans menace just like everyone else on that side. I guess it was already mostly gone in 2020.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: President Biden can carry North Carolina next year. He came pretty close in 2020, and demographic trends in that state are still positive for Democrats.
Matt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Cultural conservatism is all about the “clean/dirty” distinction and being the unmarked case. When it comes to gender and sex, anything they consider “normal” is innocent and anything outside of that line is pornographic or a precursor to rape.
Matt McIrvin
One thing I’m less worried about is the “state-legislative coup” scenario, that we’ll actually have a legally ratified bid to overturn the election result if Biden wins. If the red wave had come in 2022 it would be a much more open possibility.
O. Felix Culpa
@NotMax:
Landsmann! :)
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin:
That might be the delusion Republicans operate under, but it certainly wasn’t how it went down. In spring of 2020 here in Florida, DeSantis closed schools and ordered bars and restaurants shuttered. He pretends that never happened now, but it did. My first “shit is getting real” moment occurred when a spring training game I was supposed to attend got cancelled.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: How are things in the Land of Enchantment? Is it becoming the land of solar farms and windmills yet?
You may have heard this already, but Xochitl Torres-Small has been nominated for Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.
mvr
@frosty: Yes, I was hoping that even a small match offer might inspire another one so we could get to the goal for Wisconsin.
evodevo
@Frankensteinbeck: Yep…KY voter here…that’s the way I see it. He won’t buck that Repub legislature in a re-election year…He’s gonna have a hard enough time as it is…and Bevin, whom EVERYBODY hated, is now a distant memory. AND Cameron and Ryan Quarles are running, and that will make it a horserace…
stinger
@mvr: Chipped in $10. On, Wisconsin!
Uncle Cosmo
Post-polio muscle atrophy. My college friend in Santa Fe, who’d contracted polio at age 20 months but with a withered leg got on fairly well for decades, declined drastically in the last few years, to the point where he needed a motorized chair to get around the house. Sadly he passed away last June.
mvr
@Uncle Cosmo: Condolences on the loss of your friend.