Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

The willow is too close to the house.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / 2024 Elections / WSJ Begs House Goobers to Stop Taking the Bait (Open Thread)

WSJ Begs House Goobers to Stop Taking the Bait (Open Thread)

by | 81 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

The WSJ editorial board is thisclose to getting it in an op-ed that scolds House Repubs for trying to haul Manhattan DA Bragg before a committee to explain why he’s being so mean to their Trumpy Bear (gift link):

Donald Trump, the Beltway press corps and Democrats don’t agree on much, but they do all want Mr. Trump to dominate the nation’s political news and conversation. The puzzle is why House Republicans seem eager to fall into this trap by investigating Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s potential prosecution of Mr. Trump…

As for the politics, House Republicans are hurting their own cause. The press corps and Democrats want to talk about Mr. Trump all the time, and Republicans are giving them more fodder to do so. It’s one thing to denounce Mr. Bragg’s prosecution as weak and unjust. It’s another to look like defending Mr. Trump is the new majority’s main preoccupation.

Republicans are foolish to feed the Trump maw with a campaign against Mr. Bragg that exceeds their power and has no chance of success.

Feeding the Trump maw is what they do now, WSJ editorial board. How do you still not know that?

***

On to a more important topic: Has anyone else seen the “Daisy Jones and the Six” series finale? No spoilers, but I thought it was pretty satisfying. Thanks to my old friend insomnia, I was among the first to see it!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Reposted from below.

    Via Reddit, blue state.

    The Illinois House passed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit libraries from banning books or other material because of partisan or doctrinal pressure, prompting strong opposition from Republicans who called it an assault on local control.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Donald Trump, the Beltway press corps and Democrats don’t agree on much, but they do all want Mr. Trump to dominate the nation’s political news and conversation.

    2 out of 3 ain’t bad. IMO most elected DEMs would be happy to ignore trump and instead focus on what they have done and what they are trying to do. Even happier if they could ignore him because he was serving an 8-12.5 year sentence, but time and juries will settle that question.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I started Daisy Jones this week because I am a sucker for Suki Waterhouse, but life and work have gotten in the way of my getting further than the first episode.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    It’s a really good point: running cover for trumpov really is all they’re doing there.  Besides the usual performative BS.

    Btw speaking of performative BS, a colleague and I got to jawing about politics yesterday, and between us we decided that

    adding additional qualifications for the presidency – almost no matter what they are – might just be a 90/10 winning issue in this country, and
    adding a 3rd house of Congress – the House of Performative BS – might also be a winner!

     

    County clerk’s office: “Sir, which office are you filing your paperwork for?”

    Candidate: “Why…CAN’T YOU TELL?”  (whisks cape aside to show multiple automatic weapons, climate-change-disproving snowball, Russian flag t-shirt)

    Clerk: “Ah, got it. House of Performative BS, district 8.  That’ll be a $20 filing fee and a couple thousand signatures please”

    Candidate: “SIGNATURES??  Oh I think NOT” (pivots to waiting Fox News reporter)  “SEE HOW THESE LIBERAL CLERKS ARE??”

  9. 9.

    NeenerNeener

    Have read the Daisy Jones novel and watched the series all the way through. They did a fairly faithful job adapting the book, including the ending.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    Ok, ok anyway…here’s a good one: Don’t Be Fooled, DeSantis is a Bush-Cheney Republican (and he means that in a bad way.

    Jamelle Bouie:

    what if we centered DeSantis in Guantánamo, Iraq and the war on terrorism rather than the fever house of the MAGA Republican Party, a place that may not be a natural fit for the Yale- and Harvard-educated lawyer? What if we treated DeSantis not as a creature of the Trump years but as a product of the Bush ones? How, then, would we understand his position in the Republican Party?

    For a moment in American politics — before Hurricane Katrina, the grinding occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the financial crisis that nearly toppled the global economy — George W. Bush represented the clear future of the Republican Party.

    And what was Bush Republicanism? It promised, despite the circumstances of his election in 2000, to build a new, permanent Republican majority that would relegate the Democratic Party to the margins of national politics. It was ideologically conservative on most questions of political economy but willing to bend in order to win points with key constituencies, as when Bush backed a large prescription drug program under Medicare.

    Bush’s Republicanism was breathtakingly arrogant — “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality,” one unnamed aide famously told The New York Times Magazine in 2004 — contemptuous of expertise and hostile to dissent, as when the president condemned the Democratic-controlled Senate of 2002 as “not interested in the security of the American people.”

    Bush’s Republicanism was also cruel, as exemplified in the 2004 presidential election, when he ran, successfully, against the marriage rights of gay and lesbian Americans, framing them as a threat to the integrity of society itself. “Marriage cannot be severed from its cultural, religious and natural roots without weakening the good influence of society,” he said, endorsing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

    Perhaps the most distinctive quality of Bush’s Republicanism — or rather, Bush’s Republican Party — was that it was still an elite-driven institution. He ran a Brooks Brothers administration, whose militarism, jingoism and cruelty were expressed through bureaucratic niceties and faux technical language, like “enhanced interrogation.”

    Sounds pretty spot-on to me.  A party willing to embrace these things is/was a party of low standards just waiting for the next cruel con man to come along.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @Omnes Omnibus: She’s really good in this series, IMO.

    @Baud: Not in the grafs I excerpted above, but they do elsewhere in the piece:

    Mr. Trump wants to avoid indictment, but he won’t shrink from his appointed dramatic role if he is. He’ll portray himself as a victim, and one news report says he has told aides that he wants to be handcuffed if arrested. He will want his voters to see him persecuted. This will keep the presidential campaign focused on him and his trial, instead of having a Republican debate about his 2020 support for Covid shutdowns, his losing electoral record since 2016, and the chaotic governance of his Presidency.

    My read is they’re hot for DeSantis, like the other Murdoch properties, but if Trump is what they get, they’ll fall in line just as they did in 2016.

  12. 12.

    Jeffg166

    Watched two episodes of Daisy and could not get into it.

    I only tried it because Sam Claflin was in it. I saw his Oswald Mosley in Peaky Blinders. I was astounded by his performance. He hasn’t got that juicy apart since. Which is unfortunate.

    Daisy pays the bills so why not.

  13. 13.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Feeding the Trump maw is what they do now

    I disagree.  I think the vast majority of elected Republicans and half their voters would love to never hear the name Trump again.

    But Total War must be waged.  Democrats cannot be allowed to punish a Republican for his crimes.  Trump won’t shut up and won’t go quietly and he’s in constantly increasing legal trouble.  They’re stuck with vehemently defending the shithead whatever they would prefer, because Total War does not allow for exceptions like “he embarrasses us” or “he’s a loser” and especially not “he’s guilty.”

  14. 14.

    smith

    Going after Bragg for his temerity in investigating the Orange Messiah is reaching a new level of threat, thanks to TFG himself. Yesterday he posted an image of himself with  a baseball bat and an aggressive expression on his face aimed at a photo of Bragg (image reproduced at Crooks and Liars here). How is this not an explicit threat, and an incitement to violence?

    His long-term habit of attempting to goad his followers into violence against prosecutors, judges, individual jurors, and administrative employees has caught the attention of the judge in the E. Jean Carroll suit who has ordered that jurors in this trial will remain anonymous. The judge made the order on his own volition, without any prior request from lawyers on either side. In his order he lists, with detailed footnotes, all the instances of TFG’s prior threats against people who have tried to hold him or his minions responsible for law breaking, or who were simply carrying out routine employment tasks.

    Today he’s saying there will be “death and destruction” if he is indicted. This is a clear incitement to violence. Every round of his envelope-pushing followed by official shrugs further degrades the rule of law in this country. We soon won’t be able to pull it back.

  16. 16.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Baud: @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hmmmm, sounds more like a counter assault to Repubs assault on libraries and schools.

    I’d call it more of an example of the GOP giving away the game. They whine about cancel culture, when in fact that is local control. It is communities deciding who will or won’t be spouting their ideology in a given community, like a university. Illinois decided to protect libraries being an open information forum.. to have books that contain rightwing, leftwing, and everything in the middle available. The GOP is mad, because they don’t want local control. They just want to control who does the banning and what gets banned.

  17. 17.

    JML

    The thing that the WSJ fails to realize is that without TFG the current Republican Party has nothing else. they have zero legislative accomplishments to talk about, they have no actual program to promote, and the last time anyone in the party tried to put together one that was more than “Oppose Anything the democrats Do or Want” it was an epic disaster (Rick Scott’s brilliant blueprint for breadlines and poverty).

    In the absence of a plan, someone or something fills the noise and for a bunch of reckless and feckless clowns in the House it’s still TFG.

  18. 18.

    tobie

    Another shoe drops. Meadows, Ratcliffe and others forced to testify before a Grand Jury in the Jan 6 probe:

    In a sealed order last week, Judge Beryl Howell rejected Trump’s claim of executive privilege for Meadows and a number of others, including Trump’s former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, his former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, former top aide Stephen Miller, and former deputy chief of staff and social media director Dan Scavino, according to sources familiar with the matter.

    I admire Adam Schiff but his insistence that the DoJ is not vigorously investigating the Jan 6 insurrection is belied by the facts yet again.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    My theory is that the TFG-defenders just aren’t real smart. Nor real honest. The ones who aren’t psychopaths.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @Frankensteinbeck: The GOP House committees are focused on little but Trump’s idiotic grievances. In 2023. That’s feeding the Trump maw. It can be interesting to speculate about their motives for doing so, but as long as they keep feeding the maw, I think it’s fair to call them maw-feeders.

  21. 21.

    Marmot

    The puzzle is why House Republicans seem eager to fall into this trap by investigating Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s potential prosecution of Mr. Trump…

    Oh hahahaha! It’s a trap! The primary motivation of a whole nutso party for like 7 years is now a clever trap!

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @tobie: IIRC, Schiff’s complaint is that DOJ has moved too slowly. I have no idea if that’s fair criticism or not. Time will tell, I guess.

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jeffro:

    adding a 3rd house of Congress – the House of Performative BS – might also be a winner!

     

    County clerk’s office: “Sir, which office are you filing your paperwork for?”

    Candidate: “Why…CAN’T YOU TELL?”  (whisks cape aside to show multiple automatic weapons, climate-change-disproving snowball, Russian flag t-shirt)

    Clerk: “Ah, got it. House of Performative BS, district 8.  That’ll be a $20 filing fee and a couple thousand signatures please”

    Candidate: “SIGNATURES??  Oh I think NOT” (pivots to waiting Fox News reporter)  “SEE HOW THESE LIBERAL CLERKS ARE??”

    Reminds me of the role of the Galactic President in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

    The President in particular is very much a figurehead – he wields no real power whatsover.  He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage…his job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it.

    A perfect role for the entire Republican Party nowadays. They’re already doing it, despite occupying seats in actual decision-making bodies.  Which I’m sure is what gave you and your colleague the idea. :-)

  25. 25.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @smith:

    Today he’s saying there will be “death and destruction” if he is indicted. This is a clear incitement to violence. Every round of his envelope-pushing followed by official shrugs further degrades the rule of law in this country. We soon won’t be able to pull it back.

    I agree. Fortunately, this will get used against him if and when he goes to trial over the J6 stuff. I hope he doesn’t succeed in inciting more violence, but if he does, the perps will go to jail howling that Trump asked them to do it.

  26. 26.

    Gin & Tonic

    So, a little over three anxious months after an unpleasant discovery during a routine test, months filled with specialist visits, every imaging procedure known to modern medicine, fairly significant surgery, and pathology studies, it turns out that I can spend the summer going to the beach as intended, and not planning my own funeral. Today’s a day for the really good whisk(e)y. Rebounding from the anxiety may take a while.

  28. 28.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gin & Tonic:

    it turns out that I can spend the summer going to the beach as intended, and not planning my own funeral.

    Thank friggin’ sun pony.  I don’t have words of congratulations big enough.  You must be feeling the most incredible relief.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    W.H.O.R.E.S
    @ReynoldsTammy
    I hope @Nike
    stands up and supplies her with shoes for the rest of her life. Rhea Bullos (age 11) couldn’t afford running shoes to compete at a local inter-school athletics meet.

    She covered her feet with tape and drew a Nike symbol on them. She went on to win three gold medals

    eta: the pics say more than the words ever could.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    it turns out that I can spend the summer going to the beach as intended, and not planning my own funeral. Today’s a day for the really good whisk(e)y. Rebounding from the anxiety may take a while. 

    That is fan-fucken-tactic news. So glad you’re well, at least physically. Treat yourself well.

  34. 34.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    The GOP is mad, because they don’t want local control. They just want to control who does the banning and what gets banned.

    Exactly.  They want control at whatever level they control.  If they control the states but not the localities, as in Florida, they love Gov. Bootsy telling the localities what to do.  If it’s the other way around, as in Illinois, then they want the localities to be empowered.  And needless to say, if they ever regain control of the White House and Congress, they’ll be governing from the top down, all the way.

    As I think Betty C said the other day, it’s tiring that each election is The Most Important Election Of Our Lifetime, but damned if it isn’t true these days.  Every election, we must keep the fascisti out of power.

  38. 38.

    tobie

    @Betty Cracker: I know he’s complained about the pace. That’s what I meant when he said that the DoJ isn’t vigorously investigating the case. I don’t think the leaks we’ve gotten support his thesis. We’re all left guessing and reading the tea leaves, and, Lord knows, Schiff’s got more experience with and insight into the process than I ever will. But best I can tell white collar crime cases take ages to mount, and this makes me wonder whether the bar’s too high when it comes to mens rea.

  43. 43.

    Roger Moore

    Trumpism is a cult.  There are still a fair number of Republicans who are part of the party but not part of the cult, but they are in denial.  They don’t want to admit their party has been taken over by the cult, so they ignore all the obvious signs and blame all the cult behavior on the Democrats.

  44. 44.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @tobie:

    But best I can tell white collar crime cases take ages to mount, and this makes me wonder whether the bar’s too high when it comes to mens rea.

    Yes. This is a real problem. We need a process that allows justice to happen in a timely fashion.

  49. 49.

    kalakal

    And today was a success!

    The cats have an annual checkup/rabies shot. Two of them are easy, pick’em up, plonk them in a carrier.

    The third, Cobweb, is a nightmare. Normally a cuddle bug she has a powerful psychic ability that allows her to foretell our nefarious plans and she becomes a paranoid loon if we even look at her. Fortunately she also has a terrible memory. So for the last 3 weeks her food has been placed in a carrier until the sweet summer child, lulled into a false sense of security, will cheerfully stroll in and chow down.

    Today the jaws of the trap snapped shut and 1 hour of miserable wailing later we are home, the Cobster is hiding, in an hour or so will have forgiven and forgotten all and will deign to accept food.

    I say terrible memory because we go through this every year, get it wrong and it’s reset vet appointment time

  51. 51.

    tobie

    @TaMara: I think the whole idea that complaining about the DOJ puts pressure on the DOJ to act faster is BS. DOJ will charge if and when they’ve nailed enough evidence to have a slam dunk case. Period.

    My disappointment with Schiff is that he has worked to erode trust in the judicial process. I expected better from him. I thought in the first impeachment trial he was amazingly eloquent about the necessity of the rule of law. A nation without laws is mayhem. And yet since then he’s railed against the DOJ for not following a political timetable convenient for him. I don’t think populist anger is a good look for him but, more importantly, I don’t think it’s good for a nation whose democracy is on the brink.

  52. 52.

    Mike in NC

    It wouldn’t be a day ending in Y if Republicans somewhere, anywhere weren’t trying to ban books. Meatball Ron will soon be leading the charge to burn them outright.

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Gin & Tonic:

    it turns out that I can spend the summer going to the beach as intended, and not planning my own funeral. Today’s a day for the really good whisk(e)y. Rebounding from the anxiety may take a while.

    Glad to hear this!  Yeah, it’ll take awhile for the anxiety to wear off, but it will.  A glass of the good top-shelf stuff will help kick-start the process.

  56. 56.

    Geminid

    @TaMara: I doubt if even Jack Smith’s toes feel very warm because of anything Rep. Schiff says. But if this gives Schiff some edge in his Senate race I’m all for it.

  57. 57.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @tobie:

    And yet since then he’s railed against the DOJ for not following a political timetable convenient for him. I don’t think populist anger is a good look for him but, more importantly, I don’t think it’s good for a nation whose democracy is on the brink.

    I’d feel better about it if he was proposing solutions, instead of just complaining. He’s a lawmaker. Even if they never pass the house, he should be proposing legislation that reforms laws and the legal process around white collar and corporate law. That includes civil suits. No one should be able to stretch out the process into infinity. Justice delayed really can turn into justice denied.

  58. 58.

    StringOnAStick

    It’s snowing, hard.  And I came down with ugly bronchitis yesterday so I couldn’t go skiing on what is likely one of the very last powder days of the season.  I tested and it’s not Covid so I’ve got that going for me.

  62. 62.

    tobie

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: It would be really interesting if one of the talking heads on TV would organize a panel to talk about why prosecuting white collar crimes takes so long and how the process could be reformed. I’m sure there’s a reason that state of mind matters in paper crimes but it’s become well nigh impossible to prove without overt statements from the accused. Seems like anyone with enough power can figure out a way not to be caught on record. And that’s infuriating when you see people picked up for jay-walking, paying with a fake $20 bill, not showing sufficient deference to the police when pulled over for a busted tail light etc.

  63. 63.

    VOR

    @kalakal: My late and much missed cat Max would lose his mind when the carrier came out. I had to trick him to get him into it. The vet would have to sedate him because he attacked absolutely everyone, even me. We called it “puma mode”.

  64. 64.

    gene108

    @tobie:

    My disappointment with Schiff is that he has worked to erode trust in the judicial process.

    What process?

    How do we even know Jack Smith is considering a criminal indictment for Trump’s role in J6? There’s speculation. There’s more speculation, and a good bit of conjecture.

    So far not one bit of testimony from Trump’s inner-circle before any J6 grand jury has resulted in an indictment of any politician or adviser from Eastman on up the chain.

    There’s a timeline to this, because Trump is running for President and has won the office before.

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @tobie: Why the assumption of bad faith and improper motives in a man who has conducted himself with honor, as you’ve acknowledged? Maybe Garland is doing what he thinks is right and so is Schiff. I don’t see a contradiction there. 

  68. 68.

    tobie

    @Betty Cracker: Because Schiff started complaining early on when as a former prosecutor he knew damn well that there was no way the DOJ could mount a case of this magnitude and importance in a few months nor could it speak publicly about its investigation for a host of reasons including that it would jeopardize its own inquiries. The rule of law matters to me, and I tend to be a contrarian and the chorus of voices that have called for Garland’s head since a month into his tenure gave me pause. I want justice. I’ll be upset if Trump isn’t indicted for his crimes. I don’t want the DOJ to be turned into a political weapon. Bill Barr’s tenure was terrifying.

  73. 73.

    JAFD

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: ​
     I have never known a public library without a ‘closed shelf’ for ‘adult amterial’ or hard-to-replace volumes, and a librarian who’d tell the yoots ‘I’d need to hear from your parents before you take that out …’
    Local control.

  74. 74.

    cmorenc

    WSJ is most concerned that hard-core MAGA Republicans, both in Congress and outside activists, are undermining the GOP’s electoral and legislative ability to maintain what they regard as the GOP’s core function: to elect business-friendly GOP Senators and legislators, and to enact business-friendly legislation, and strip down regulatory oversight.  Also, DFT hasn’t really done anything for them since the big tax cuts in 2018, and they might until recently have regarded watering down Dodd-Frank regulation of banks as another of his accomplishments, but now many of them aren’t even so sure in retrospect that was the positive accomplishment they thought it was at the time.

  77. 77.

    tobie

    @Betty Cracker: That’s not what I said, and I’m not sure why my comments on Schiff bother you so much. He has made some very charged claims and yet failed to acknowledge evidence to the contrary–such as the FBI/DOJ seizing Eastman’s and Scott Perry’s phones. That wasn’t a small or wimpy move.

  79. 79.

    Betty Cracker

    @tobie: It bothers me to see a really great Dem congressman accused of working “to erode trust in the judicial process” and demanding that the DOJ follow “a political timetable convenient for him.” I don’t think those comments are fair. I think there’s a lot we don’t know. But I’m certainly willing to agree to disagree about it. Schiff doesn’t need me caping for him any more than Garland needs his league of defenders at Balloon Juice to safeguard his honor. ;-)

Comments are closed.