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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Hustling McConnell Off, Stage Right

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Hustling McConnell Off, Stage Right

by Anne Laurie|  August 15, 20236:24 pm| 133 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics, Republicans in Disarray!, MONSTERS, Schadenfreude

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Mitch McConnell is booed, and drowned out by chants of “retire, retire, retire”, for five minutes straight as he tries to talk to his own constituents in Kentucky. pic.twitter.com/zyZIHLJaoy

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 7, 2023

Because the modern GOP Death Cult is never happy unless it’s eating its own, some misfortunate ‘leader’ was bound to be targeted as the one non-Demoncrat individual responsible for Trump’s various indictments. The choice of Mitch McConnell as the scapegoat is neither surprising nor particularly saddening…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is “plagued by worsening hearing loss” and his colleagues have become concerned about his health, according to Politico. https://t.co/T0KYmvA4gc

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 14, 2023

NEW: I spent a good bit of time this summer on McConnell’s last big campaign, the only way he’s confronting Trumpism: by trying to keep his party away from isolationism
On the inside game, from Helsinki and Munich to DC and Fancy Farm >https://t.co/f8gSPraWgJ

— Jonathan Martin (@jmart) August 14, 2023

Wheeling out the big journamalistic guns, even in advance of the Georgia indictments:

Mitch McConnell has made it his practice to dodge questions about Donald Trump. Whether it be Trump’s bid to reclaim office, the mounting indictments leveled against the former president or even Trump’s racist mockery of McConnell’s wife, the Senate Republican leader avoids engaging a man he disdains.

Which is why it was so striking last month to sit in McConnell’s Capitol office and have him repeatedly steer our conversation toward Trump. I was there to discuss his forceful and out-of-vogue campaign to keep Republicans defending Ukraine and, more broadly, on the Reaganite path of projecting strength abroad. And at every turn, McConnell made plain it was his way of battling what Trump has done to the party…

From the Senate floor and Washington fundraisers to awards banquets and congressional delegation trips overseas, Addison Mitchell McConnell is on what could be his final political mission. And the results may illuminate what has become of his party.

After a relatively harmonious first half of this year, House and Senate Republicans are on a collision course this fall over four issues, three of which pertain to McConnell’s quest: spending, supporting the Ukrainians and Trump’s candidacy. (The fourth is impeaching President Joe Biden, which is intended as retribution for Trump’s impeachment over, well, spending and Ukraine.)

This confluence of issues will test who has the upper hand in the GOP, at least in the halls of Congress. Is it the McConnell-led Senate, which largely wants to spend more on defense, deliver additional aid to Ukraine and is not exactly enthused about Trump’s resurrection? Or is it the House, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy is handcuffed to his party’s hardliners on spending and has little appetite to imperil his job by pushing through a supplemental package for Ukraine that Trump is sure to decry and perhaps pressure rank-and-file lawmakers to oppose amid demands that they, and McCarthy, endorse him?…

… [A]s somebody who’s covered McConnell for years, it’s jarring to see his decline. He told me at the end of our interview that, yes, he would be at the Fancy Farm picnic this month. The gathering is Kentucky’s annual political bacchanal, a 142-year-old church barbeque fundraiser in which pigs, lambs and politicians are all roasted in their own way to please an audience that descends by the thousands the first Saturday in August to a hamlet that’s anything but fancy.

Sure enough, there was McConnell, in his first major public appearance since his freeze-up, on stage gamely getting off zingers at Biden, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and other Democrats.

Yet his voice was diminished, he mostly read his lines without looking up and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, had to help him up from his chair each time he stood…

As I reported this column over the summer, speaking to dozens of officials in European capitals and Washington, two recurring themes emerged.

One was the degree of McConnell’s focus, to borrow what may be his favorite word and practice. In public and private, he’s waging a determined campaign to defend Ukraine, protect NATO and bequeath a Republican Party that’s as committed to what he calls “peace through strength” as the one he found in Washington after he was elected to the Senate in 1984 thanks in part to Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection…

However, in many of my conversations, and usually not for attribution, another theme came up: how much McConnell has aged. Unlike with Biden, whose every gaffe and slip on the steps is caught on camera, McConnell’s difficulties have been largely out of view, or at least they were until late last month. In private, though, McConnell’s colleagues have grown more alarmed, with one lawmaker even talking to the leader’s staff about whether he should consider hearing implants.

“He was sitting there as the conversation went on around him,” said an attendee of a recent Senate Republican lunch, alluding to McConnell’s hearing loss.

This convergence of mission and moment — McConnell in the winter of his career attempting to thwart Trumpist isolationism — may have been less crucial had the leader shown more leadership in the last days and immediate aftermath of the former president’s term. McConnell’s assessment late on the night of Jan 6 that, with his conduct that day, Trump had “put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger” has proven wildly wrong or at least wholly dependent on the whims of a federal jury.

The party’s drift on foreign policy wouldn’t have been reversed, but Trump would not have the same authority on this, or any, issue had McConnell sought 10 more Senate Republicans to convict the former president of his second impeachment and barred him from seeking office again. He said at the time that he was convinced by constitutional arguments about impeaching a president no longer in office, but clearly his caucus’s lack of appetite for conviction weighed on him…

McConnell, ever cautious about turning himself into a lame duck, usually sniffs out and dismisses rearview-facing questions about his legacy. However, the man who set up his Senate institute and archives the year after his first reelection has long been consumed by history — and his place in it.

And at a time when he and his inner circle are all sitting down with and turning over old files to AP’s Michael Tackett, who’s writing a comprehensive McConnell biography, the leader was remarkably candid when I asked where his current crusade rates to him over the arc of his career.

“Well, I still believe in the Republican party of Ronald Reagan,” McConnell said…

GOP colleagues: A sad loss to us all… as long as he’s really dead.

The thing one has to remember is that @jmart is Republican. His family is all Republicans. He started out, among other things, as Mark Earley’s driver. There’s a personal need to build in coherence and sanity where there isn’t any. McConnell has failed at containing Trump.

— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) August 14, 2023

New in Huddle: The House GOP's right flank is pushing back over recent comments from McConnell, who said impeachments should be "rare" and frequent impeachments were "not good for the country" https://t.co/p2o6sQWoHk

— Jordain Carney (@jordainc) August 14, 2023

Kill the traitor! Kill!

… After The New York Times recently resurfaced his response, which was quickly picked up by conservative media, several members of the House’s right flank took the opportunity to chide the Senate GOP leader as too cautious, or even too protective of a president he’s occasionally cut deals with.

What McConnell really said: When our bureau chief Burgess Everett asked whether a House inquiry into Biden had any merit, McConnell said that a constant flow of impeachment probes isn’t “good for the country.”

The Senate Republican leader also pointed a finger at Democrats for setting Congress down the path of normalizing impeachments, adding that he was “not surprised” to see the House GOP open the door on Biden after former President Donald Trump’s impeachments.

But the new media attention was fueled by his comments that trying to oust a president should be “rare” and that an impeachment competition wasn’t good for America — not his blame of Democrats. So conservatives hit back…

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Reader Interactions

133Comments

  1. 1.

    JustRuss

    August 15, 2023 at 6:29 pm

    Watching McTurtle get devoured by the monster he worked tirelessly to create is giving me some satisfaction, though not enough to offset the fear that it will devour us all.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    August 15, 2023 at 6:29 pm

    Shaking down Ukraine to manufacture evidence against Biden and trying to overthrow democracy should also be rare.

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 6:30 pm

    I hope McConnell lives just long enough to see everything he has worked so hard for sold his soul for turn to ashes.

    (Leonard Leo too, btw )

  4. 4.

    Alison Rose

    August 15, 2023 at 6:33 pm

    Yelling and screaming at him is incredibly mean.

    PLEASE CONTINUE, FOLKS, PLEASE CONTINUE!

  5. 5.

    SpaceUnit

    August 15, 2023 at 6:35 pm

    Just remember that whoever replaces him will be worse.

  6. 6.

    Wag

    August 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    @Jeffro:   I disagree.  I hope that his ability to communicate and his hold on power both come to an abrupt end, but that his mental acuity remains.  And that he lives many years watching his every political dream crumble before him, powerless to stop it.

    To The Pain.

  7. 7.

    Another Scott

    August 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    Meh.

    The House doesn’t like the Senate, and vice-versa. There’s no bravery or consequences in them criticizing anyone in the “other body”. Politico might have a story when they get Senate GQPers screaming at how horrible McConnell is (rather than whispering that he’s losing his hearing).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  8. 8.

    pacem appellant

    August 15, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    @SpaceUnit: True true. But they will be a rookie. McConnell’s evil is honed over many decades.

  9. 9.

    SpaceUnit

    August 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm

    @pacem appellant:

    Yeah, valid point.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    @Wag: And that he lives many years watching his every political dream crumble before him, powerless to stop it.

    Ashes…crumbling dreams…I think we’re talking about almost the same thing here.  You just want him to live longer in the aftermath; I want him off this mortal plane and down where he belongs a little faster.

  11. 11.

    RaflW

    August 15, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    “I was there to discuss his forceful and out-of-vogue campaign to keep Republicans defending Ukraine and, more broadly, on the Reaganite path of projecting strength abroad.”

    Ohhhhh, f**k that. McConnell has done nothing to reign in Rusky Tuberville and his one-man campaign to hollow out the senior ranks of the US military.

    What absolute, risible bullshit. And f**k Politico for mouthing that horse pucky.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    August 15, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    @Baud: ​
     
    I generally agree. Impeachments should be rare because public officials should behave themselves, not because Congress is afraid to impeach when they do something genuinely wrong.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    August 15, 2023 at 6:42 pm

    Unlike with Biden, whose every gaffe and slip on the steps is caught on camera,

    What are all these “gaffes,” as opposed to his stutter? I haven’t heard him make any gaffes. Fuck Jonathan Martin.

  14. 14.

    Spanky

    August 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    @SpaceUnit: Took the words right out of my keyboard. Whatever creature replaces Mc Connell will be that much worse.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    August 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    wholly dependent on the whims of a federal jury.

    Great respect for our justice system there.

  16. 16.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 15, 2023 at 6:44 pm

    @SpaceUnit: ​ 

    Indubitably.

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    August 15, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @Baud: Yeah, fuck fuck fuck I hate everybody

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    August 15, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    Just remember that whoever replaces him will be worse.

    Worse how, though?  McConnell is especially bad because he’s both evil and competent.  I fully expect whoever replaces him to be even more evil, but I just don’t see anyone else who’s likely to be as competent.

  19. 19.

    Spanky

    August 15, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Is Gaffe Biden different from the Touchy Feely Biden the press treated us to back in the Obama years?

  20. 20.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 15, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    whoever replaces him will be worse.

    No.  They will likely be crazier.  They will be vastly less competent.  They will have less control over their caucus.  They won’t have McConnell’s decades-long long game focus.  They won’t have McConnell’s legendary fundraising ability.  Most importantly, they won’t have McConnell’s ability to be the first person to spot a useful norm to break and deliberately break it.  McConnell is a rare, special kind of evil.

  21. 21.

    JaneE

    August 15, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    McConnell has done incredible damage to the country and its institutions.  Whatever efforts he makes toward supporting the old Republican ideals, it is too little and way way too late.

    That said, anything he can and will do to oppose Trump and support the Ukraine, go for it Mitch.  I will even wish you luck in achieving something.

  22. 22.

    ColoradoGuy

    August 15, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    Thinking about Mitch’s “legacy” … three stolen Supreme Court seats, tax cut after tax cut, and bringing the Senate to a complete standstill. Yeah, that’ll go down in the history books, all right.

  23. 23.

    Nelle

    August 15, 2023 at 6:48 pm

    @RaflW: The Iowa senator, Joni Ernst, is totally on board with Tuberville because, in an email to me, she reminds me that she is “prolife.”

  24. 24.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    he wore sneakers, (atheletic shoes) to climb some slippery metal stairs to board a plane once,

    he tripped over a sandbag once,

    he fell off his bike once,…………..

    It’s readily apparent that he is the Most Corrupt Evil Mastermind ever,

    and mentally incompentent and physically ill.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    August 15, 2023 at 6:50 pm

    Exit, pursued by (Cocaine) bear.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    August 15, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    @Jay: Okay, those are physical events. But what “gaffes” has he uttered?

  27. 27.

    SpaceUnit

    August 15, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Worse as in full-blooded trumptrash MAGA loon and probably a Putin apologist.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    August 15, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    @zhena gogolia: A couple of days ago, he apparently said something “wrong” about China’s GDP report.

    I didn’t click.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1895156,00.html

    I wouldn’t bother, there are nits to pick.

    “It’s Chinatown the Media, Jake”

  30. 30.

    RaflW

    August 15, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    @SpaceUnit: Yes. But also whoever has the job next will likely be worse at internal caucus strategy, too. So while the next leader will hasten America’s crumbling, they may also hasten the GOP’s weakness in the upper (but not better) chamber.

  31. 31.

    H.E.Wolf

    August 15, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    “Whoever replaces McConnell” – well, that’s two separate items.

    Whoever takes his place as a (probably Republican) Senator from Kentucky will have zero seniority in the Senate.

    Whoever takes his place as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate will be unlikely to have the same constellation of skills that McConnell brought to that job.

    In either case, it won’t be quite as easy for Republicans to be effective in the Senate…which is not to say we’ll like what they do any better than we do now.

  32. 32.

    brantl

    August 15, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    How long has McConnell been (literally)  speaking out of one side of his mouth. The left side of his face (his left, our right) is noticeably drooping. A LOT.

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    August 15, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Politico (yeah, consider the source) last year posited that Thune, Cornyn and Barasso were the top three contenders. Thune isn’t wild eyed crazy, so who knows if the magatized GOP will tolerate him in the top slot.

    Cornyn seems very eager. He also seems like a petty shyte who probably would suck at the party-building components of being Leader.

    I honestly don’t know much about the third John. Not sure of the national political salience of elevating a guy representing Wyoming is. “Yeehaw, we’re nearly in Amon Bundy land!”

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 7:04 pm

    Open Thread?

    Questionable eats. Some new food entries at the Iowa state fair:

    The Iowa Twinkie: jalapeñ filled with pulled pork with corn and cream cheese, wrapped in bacon, smoked with swweet and sticky BBQ, finished eith ranch.

    Deep-Fried Bacon Brisket Mac-n-Cheese Grilled Cheese: American cheese grilled cheese sandwich on bacon-cheddar bread, layered with bacon brisket and macaroni and cheese, then deep fried and served with a raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce.

    Also too, this:

    Trump, DeSantis, and Tim Scott avoided the soap box [event], sparing themselves any heckling (which Mike Pence got) and an image of them in front of men holding a banner that read EAT A CORNDOG YOU COWARD. (The men refused to identify themselves.)
    [snip]
    While cameras were near — and they were always near — the candidates didn’t eat anything. They flipped “pork burgers” at the industry’s booth, avoiding the pork chop on a stick. They strolled past concession stands for more vigorous photo ops, at the games inside Thrillville. No one lingered too long in front of the massive “SWINE” sign above that particular barn. Source

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    #34:

    jalapeñ = jalapeño
    swweet = sweet
    eith ranch = with ranch

    ::NotMax flashes a stern look at fingertips::

  36. 36.

    Brachiator

    August 15, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    I couldn’t get through the linked article. The excerpt was infuriating enough.

    And at every turn, McConnell made plain it was his way of battling what Trump has done to the party…

    McConnell is responsible for Trump. The GOP leadership rolled over for Trump. They sustained him and declined every opportunity to rein him end or to put a stop to his madness.

    House and Senate Republicans are on a collision course this fall over four issues… (The fourth is impeaching President Joe Biden, which is intended as retribution for Trump’s impeachment over, well, spending and Ukraine.)

    As always, the GOP has no interest in government. And fuck bipartisanship. They either are opposing the Democrats or plotting revenge against the Democrats.

    Or is it the House, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy is handcuffed to his party’s hardliners on spending and has little appetite to imperil his job by pushing through a supplemental package for Ukraine that Trump is sure to decry…

    Why would McCarthy still defer to Trump? And why would the writer of this article find this blandly acceptable?

    … [A]s somebody who’s covered McConnell for years, it’s jarring to see his decline.

    And of course, Beltway journalists are too close to the politicians they cover and want to be their buddies.

    Yet his voice was diminished, he mostly read his lines without looking up and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, had to help him up from his chair each time he stood…

    Look for more stories about frail and elderly political figures. And look for the inevitable bullshit questions about Biden’s age.

    I didn’t know who the author of this piece was.

    Jonathan Martin is POLITICO’s senior political columnist and politics bureau chief. … His reported column chronicles the inside conversations and major trends shaping U.S. politics.

    Once again, another pundit who is happy to be a Beltway insider, part of the popular crowd. They get access because they promise not to be too hard on their subjects. And God forbid if they actually had to work to get something that was real news.

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Jay: ​
      To be fair, they were ugly ass sneakers.

  38. 38.

    evodevo

    August 15, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yes. This. Whoever replaces Mitch (Comer? Massie? someone worse?) won’t have the experience or the knowledge of where the bodies are buried or what buttons to push, or how to exploit the arcane rules of the Senate to accomplish a goal, or the political/international connections he has.  He was a master at it, to our regret…but he knows what he is doing, and the other clowns have no idea.  It would be McCarthy time in the Senate…

  39. 39.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 7:17 pm

    @NotMax: oh my gawd. now I know why Jerry Springer had an audience.

  40. 40.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: shoulda asked Kamala, ahem

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 7:20 pm

    @bbleh: She does have good sneaker game.

  42. 42.

    VOR

    August 15, 2023 at 7:21 pm

    @pacem appellant:  True true. But they will be a rookie. McConnell’s evil is honed over many decades.

    True, any successor will be a hardcore MAGAt. But McConnell is effective at his craft, earning the title “Gravedigger of American Democracy”. A replacement Senator won’t have the seniority and won’t be a leader in the Senate.

  43. 43.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    McConnell’s colleagues have grown more alarmed, with one lawmaker even talking to the leader’s staff about whether he should consider hearing implants.

    “He was sitting there as the conversation went on around him,” said an attendee of a recent Senate Republican lunch, alluding to McConnell’s hearing loss.

    So, wild canids — wolves, wild dogs, etc. — when a leader becomes weak and lame, attack him and ultimately finish him off, no?  Starting with careful challenges — snarling, snapping and so on.  Sounds about right.

    But then they have to fight among each other to determine the new leader, right?  Viciously?  Lots of near-mortal wounding of contenders, lots of disarray in the pack? Please?

  44. 44.

    Ken

    August 15, 2023 at 7:26 pm

    If McConnell does leave the Senate, I understand that the Kentucky Republicans will nominate a list of three names for his replacement, and Gov. Beshear has to pick one of those. Does anyone have a line on how messy the nomination process will get? I could see infighting among ambitious Kentucky Republicans delaying the process for some considerable time.

    Probably doesn’t matter if McConnell decides to retire, since he can make it contingent on his replacement having been selected. But if he… exits abruptly we could be treated to one of those shitshows that seem to be the only thing the Republican party can currently accomplish.

  45. 45.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 7:27 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Guess you have never seen mine.

    Around here, the yutes tend to wear garish neon “NBA touted” court shoes. Nothing quite like seeing somebody in coordinated black, with neon green metallic low cut sneakers with baby socks.

    Those of us who have lived here for decades, tend to wear low cut hikers in summer and waterproof hikers in winter.

    It’s all about the tread, man.

    Even my dress shoes, (30 year old Florishine’s) have a hiking tread. Works fine on the dance floor, serious business meetings and steep muddy trails.

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    @Jay: I am not talking youth culture or whatever culture you claim, but POTUS could have done better.  He usually does.

  47. 47.

    MagdaInBlack

    August 15, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    @NotMax: First day with the new fingers?

  48. 48.

    oatler

    August 15, 2023 at 7:36 pm

    “When there is no more room in Hell, McConnell and Murdoch will roam the Earth.”

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 7:36 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: ​
      Cold, but fair.

  50. 50.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    August 15, 2023 at 7:37 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: Probably a new cyborg arm, just needs a little calibration to settle in.

  51. 51.

    Tony Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 7:38 pm

    I’m the event of McCondomneck ‘rapidly vacating’ his bony ass from that Senate seat, Governor Beshear should announce that as an homage to the great man, he’s holding the seat vacant until the electorate get to have their say. Sure, that’s in violation of every norm and probably a few laws, but damned if it isn’t the way Mitch would have wanted it.

    Howl all you like, MAGATs. That’s one of Manchin and Sinema made irrelevant for a bit.

    Seriously, though. Fuck about, slow walk, take every opportunity to delay. One less Republican vote in the Senate is an unalloyed good for however long it lasts.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 7:39 pm

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Apparently, failing to read the instruction manual, snapped them into place on the wrong hands.
    :)

  53. 53.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 7:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He should just get some Red Wings.

    Dressy, take a nice shine, great with a suit or tropical forest mud.

    You can even get them with a tungsten cleated sole for ice and snow, or composite sole and toe, CSA5 rated for kicking ass or working in a warehouse.

    And I don’t think Biden’s going to be working in a warehouse.

  54. 54.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    @NotMax:

    always read the manual.

  55. 55.

    MagdaInBlack

    August 15, 2023 at 7:41 pm

    @NotMax: That’s my standard excuse, feel free to use it anytime 😉

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 7:42 pm

    File under “you’ve got to be sh*tting me.”

    The owners of Döner Haus a small fast casual German restaurant in the East Village renowned for its German-style kebabs is facing a trademark infringement battle with the parent company of Pornhub.com.

    Mindgeek, the shadowy parent company of the multi billion porn empire, said in a legal letter sent to the restaurant last month that the restaurant’s logo could cause Pornhub customers to be confused by the restaurant’s offerings because the restaurants name has “the same look and feel” as the colors Pornhub uses. Source

  57. 57.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 7:46 pm

    @NotMax:

    Boner Haus? I don’t think that’s a PornHub brand or channel, and I have done my research.

    Corps do this BS all the time, in the hopes that the little guy won’t fight back and the lawyer get’s paid, win or lose.

  58. 58.

    Ksmiami

    August 15, 2023 at 7:46 pm

    @RaflW: John Cornyn is an idiot- he was our sr senator and the guy is a schmuck

  59. 59.

    wjca

    August 15, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    whoever replaces him will be worse.

    Or perhaps not.  If Kentucky can elect a Democrat as Governor….

  60. 60.

    Hoppie

    August 15, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    “AP’s Michael Tackett, who’s writing a comprehensive McConnell biography”

    Doubt it will include the state trooper incident, which is well-enough known that Republican parents in Bourbon County advised  their (male) Senate page nominees to never be alone in a room with him.  Lived there many years ago, it was common knowledge… that entire party, top to bottom, even locally, is hypocrites, ALL the way down.

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 15, 2023 at 7:48 pm

    @NotMax: What is “bacon brisket”??

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    August 15, 2023 at 7:50 pm

    I hope McConnell can hang on until next year, so Republicans have a leadership fight in the middle of election season.

  63. 63.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    August 15, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    @NotMax: Demon with a Glass Hand

    [plugging in fingers, stirred a memory]

  64. 64.

    SpaceUnit

    August 15, 2023 at 7:55 pm

    @wjca:

    Yeah, one can hope.  I don’t recall the circumstances now, but I seem to remember that Beshear got really lucky with the opponent he drew in that race.

    Maybe one of our Kentucky jackals can fill in the details.

  65. 65.

    Scout211

    August 15, 2023 at 7:55 pm

    In private, though, McConnell’s colleagues have grown more alarmed, with one lawmaker even talking to the leader’s staff about whether he should consider hearing implants.

    I wonder if McConnell’s colleagues are leaking to the press about his sudden hearing loss to cover his actual cognitive decline. They want the press to believe that he can’t hear when in fact, he doesn’t remember or comprehend.

  66. 66.

    Hoppie

    August 15, 2023 at 7:59 pm

    att@SpaceUnit: The incumbent, Matt Bevin, had pissed off the school teachers by trying to steal their pensions.  Not politically astute.  Also, the Beshear family goes waaaaay back in Eastern Kentucky.

  67. 67.

    wjca

    August 15, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    @SpaceUnit: Maybe even a Herschel Walker clone.

    Few things would be sweeter than having his Senate seat go to a Democrat.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    August 15, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    Kentucky Governor Beshear is leading this year’s Governor race. If he wins, Beshear will complete his second term at the end of 2027.  That will be right on time to launch a campaign for Rand Paul’s Senate seat.

  69. 69.

    smith

    August 15, 2023 at 8:02 pm

    @Geminid: I saw a poll from a couple weeks back that Beshear’s approval rating in KY is at 64%.

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 8:04 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior

    Go back far enough to remember watching it when it first aired in 1964.
    ;)

  71. 71.

    SpaceUnit

    August 15, 2023 at 8:04 pm

    @Hoppie:

    Thanks.  Yeah, if I recall Bevin went into that election with absolutely abysmal approval numbers.

  72. 72.

    Mike in NC

    August 15, 2023 at 8:05 pm

    Moscow Mitch, or as Adam Silverman dubbed him, “Gravedigger of American Democracy”.

  73. 73.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    August 15, 2023 at 8:06 pm

    @NotMax: I thought you might know it.  Me too.

  74. 74.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 8:06 pm

    @Scout211: as a cynic, I think they’re trying to look like they’re covering for him — such loyalty! such virtue! — while actually undermining him.  If they really supported him, they’d do what TFG’s people do and just deny, deny, deny, or at least refuse to comment.

  75. 75.

    Geminid

    August 15, 2023 at 8:06 pm

    @smith: Andy Beshear gives frequent radio addresses with the theme, “Team Kentucky.” Blue Grass State residents seem to like what they hear.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    August 15, 2023 at 8:07 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    slab of uncut bacon, cooked low and slow like a brisket.

    It’s either that or a brisket wrapped in bacon,

    or a new street drug the meth heads have cooked up.

  77. 77.

    Alison Rose

    August 15, 2023 at 8:08 pm

    @NotMax: LOLOLOLOL

  78. 78.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    August 15, 2023 at 8:09 pm

    I don’t want to know about Pornhub’s “look and feel.”

  79. 79.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 8:10 pm

    @RaflW: Thune and Barasso are currently leadership, so that’s a gimme for Politico.  But Barasso is in his first term — ain’t no way, except perhaps as a compromise candidate if things get really nasty, in which case he’d be McQarthy 2.  My money’d be on Cornyn.

  80. 80.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 8:12 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: if you’re famous, they let you do it.

  81. 81.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 15, 2023 at 8:13 pm

    If you read any thread today, read this one.

  82. 82.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 8:14 pm

    FOLKS: go read this whole thing.

    Former GA Lt Gov Duncan: Rather than history repeating itself on an endless loop, I am hopeful that this latest chapter can be a pivot point for the Republican Party. If it’s not, we only have ourselves to blame for our electoral losses.

    This is how the “enough of trump” wing starts to gather steam (and hopefully, goes to open warfare with the MAGAts)

    In the aftermath of the 2020 election, I earned Trump’s wrath for refusing to go along with his cockamamie schemes to overturn the election he lost because of his own lack of effort. Most of the GOP in my home state of Georgia went along for Trump’s now potentially felonious ride.

    Under Trump’s self-centered stewardship, we squandered control of the House in 2018, the White House in 2020 and the Senate in 2021. The loss of the Senate was especially galling, as it involved a pair of easily winnable runoffs in Georgia, where former senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue grounded their candidacies in Trump’s election lies.

    Once the bedrock of winning GOP coalitions, suburban voters abandoned our party. In 2020, Democratic candidate Joe Biden improved by 9 percentage points over Hillary Clinton’s 45 percent vote share four years earlier.

    Count me skeptical that 91 felony charges are going to win those voters back.

  83. 83.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    August 15, 2023 at 8:15 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Moscow Mitch, or as Adam Silverman dubbed him, “Gravedigger of American Democracy”.

    In previous threads, I’ve cited this excerpt from a 2018 New York Review of Books essay :

    If the US has someone whom historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it is Mitch McConnell. He stoked the hyperpolarization of American politics to make the Obama presidency as dysfunctional and paralyzed as he possibly could. As with parliamentary gridlock in Weimar, congressional gridlock in the US has diminished respect for democratic norms, allowing McConnell to trample them even more. Nowhere is this vicious circle clearer than in the obliteration of traditional precedents concerning judicial appointments. Systematic obstruction of nominations in Obama’s first term provoked Democrats to scrap the filibuster for all but Supreme Court nominations. Then McConnell’s unprecedented blocking of the Merrick Garland nomination required him in turn to scrap the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in order to complete the “steal” of Antonin Scalia’s seat and confirm Neil Gorsuch. The extreme politicization of the judicial nomination process is once again on display in the current Kavanaugh hearings.

    h/t https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/suffocation-of-democracy

  84. 84.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 8:16 pm

    @Jeffro:

    The Fulton County charges are poised to land with a louder thud than the previous three indictments. This case has always been viewed as the most serious of the bunch for multiple reasons. For one, it is the first time that senior members of Trump’s inner circle will face criminal charges beside him. For another, with the prospect of real prison time, the odds of cooperating witnesses that are no longer infatuated with being in the cool kids’ club increase.

    The court proceedings could also be televised. With explosive allegations involving false claims about ballot stuffing, these charges involve the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, more commonly known as RICO. This term is more often associated with crime shows such as “The Sopranos” than presidential politics.

  85. 85.

    Kayla Rudbek

    August 15, 2023 at 8:17 pm

    1. @Scout211: and he would not be a good candidate for a cochlear implant anyway. It’s done under general anesthesia for 1-3 hours per ear,  basically drilling a hole in the skull and then threading an electrode into the cochlea/inner ear. McConnell isn’t in shape to handle general anesthesia for that long.
  86. 86.

    Baud

    August 15, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    @Jeffro:

    suburban voters abandoned our party.

     
    I’m sure severe abortion restrictions will bring them back.

  87. 87.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    August 15, 2023 at 8:20 pm

    Just Russ:

    Watching McTurtle get devoured by the monster he worked tirelessly to create is giving me some satisfaction, though not enough to offset the fear that it will devour us all.

    The more of itself that beast devours, the smaller it becomes in comparison to all of the rest of us. And the less capable it becomes of devouring us.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 8:21 pm

    @Kayla Rudbek: They could try drilling into his skull without it.  I am sure it would be fine.*

    *My medical credentials are a 45 year old First Aid merit badge and a more than 30 year old CPR course, so I clearly whereof I speak.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 8:22 pm

    Originally posted here back in March.

    To the tune of “Copacabana.”

    He’s charged with RICO
    He wears a long tie
    Now he haunts his gilded halls
    With their ketchup-splattered walls
    He almost blends right in
    With orange-tinted skin
    But Donald went a bit too far
    Thus he stands before the bar
    .

  90. 90.

    Another Scott

    August 15, 2023 at 8:23 pm

    @NotMax: @Jay:

    Devil’s advocate:

    Don’t companies have to bring these notices/suits or they risk losing their trademarks?

    IOW, isn’t the system working as designed?

    IANAL, and I am not arguing that we live in the best of all possible worlds. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  91. 91.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    August 15, 2023 at 8:23 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    The author of the NYRB essay is Christopher R. Browning, the Frank Porter Graham Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939–March 1942.

    https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/christopher-r-browning/

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 8:23 pm

    @Baud: I hear you.  It’s likely Duncan feels like ridding the party of trump is the more urgent threat.

    (and he’s mostly right.  they can probably get the anti-abortion nuts to chill for a cycle, but trump is a boil that must be lanced)

  93. 93.

    Suzanne

    August 15, 2023 at 8:24 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    McConnell is a rare, special kind of evil. 

    Agreed.
    I can’t imagine his successor being anywhere near as skilled in the Dark Arts.

  94. 94.

    like a metaphor

    August 15, 2023 at 8:28 pm

    Look, can’t we just park Mitch in the shed out back, or wherever we keep all of those other unwanted Confederate statues?

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    August 15, 2023 at 8:28 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Reads like fan fiction off of AOL or MySpace to me.

    YMMV.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    @Another Scott

    Painting a mural of Mickey & Donald is worlds removed from claiming infringement over alleged similarities in coloring and typeface (and zero similarity in wording). IMHO.

  97. 97.

    bbleh

    August 15, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    @Jeffro: definitely a few zingers, but the whole thing is kinda cringe.  looks like it was written by committee.  but whatever, it’s Out There.

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 8:36 pm

    Then vs. Now.

    …the former president expressed similar delight in how the process was unfolding in Fulton County, as a grand jury considered the allegations and the evidence compiled by the special grand jury. “I have gained such respect for this grand jury [and] perhaps even the grand jury system as a whole,” Trump wrote in March, in all-caps rant. He added that members of the grand jury realized that prosecutors had “no case here,” and they were reluctant to “vote against a preponderance of evidence” that the Republican insisted was “overwhelmingly” in his favor.
    [snip]
    …Trump seemed far less pleased overnight. “So, the Witch Hunt continues!” he wrote around 1:30 a.m. eastern. “19 people Indicated [sic] tonight, including the former President of the United States, me.” Source

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    August 15, 2023 at 8:40 pm

    @SpaceUnit:

    I seem to remember that Beshear got really lucky with the opponent he drew in that race.

    He got really lucky in that his opponent had a track record following Republican orthodoxy.  Maybe it was a bit worse than that- he got into a nasty fight with public school teachers over pay- but he wasn’t a Roy Moore or something.  There’s a reason Republican governors who want to get reelected tend to focus on competence.  The ones who try to act as partisan ideologues can lose even in solidly red states, e.g. Sam Brownback in Kansas.

  100. 100.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 15, 2023 at 8:41 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    The United States is not Weimar Germany and several recent election results are proving this. The GOP is getting killed right now because of their extreme stances on reproductive freedom and voting rights

  101. 101.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 15, 2023 at 8:44 pm

    @NotMax:

    Trump seemed far less pleased overnight. “So, the Witch Hunt continues!” he wrote around 1:30 a.m. eastern. “19 people Indicated [sic] tonight, including the former President of the United States, me.”

    He typed “indicated” again lol. Must be too busy furiously hitting send to do basic proofreading while sitting on his golden crapper at 1:30 in the morning

  102. 102.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 8:46 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Historical parallels are never perfect and, as result, any lessons taken from them must take that into consideration.  That doesn’t mean that historical parallels are bad though.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:00 pm

    “Read? We don’t need to actually read no books.”

    An Iowa school district is using ChatGPT to decide which books to ban.

  104. 104.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 9:01 pm

    Now he’s just trying to make everyone believe that he really, truly, honestly DID believe the election was stolen…

    …good luck with that Donnie!  I really, truly, honestly believe all the money in the bank is mine: I still don’t get to take it, try and get others to take it, etc etc.

     

     

    Hours after former President Donald J. Trump was indicted in Georgia on charges accusing him of a conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election, his aides and allies awoke to a social-media post from the Republican front-runner inviting people to a news conference on Monday.
    “A Large, Complex, Detailed but irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia is almost complete & will be presented by me at a major News Conference at 11:00 A.M. on Monday of next week in Bedminster, New Jersey,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, just before 9 a.m.
    He added that it will be a “CONCLUSIVE Report” after which “all charges should be dropped against me & others.”
    The report in question, according to people familiar with the matter, is a document of more than 100 pages that was compiled at least in part by Liz Harrington, a Trump communications aide who is often described as among the true believers in his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread fraud.

    IRREFUTABLE, I say!

    oh okay

  105. 105.

    2liberal

    August 15, 2023 at 9:06 pm

    fani willis could cleanse the republican party of trumpism.  and i don’t think that georgia republican leaders will be sorry to see that happen

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:07 pm

    @Jeffro

    Today, on an all new episode of Big Blather….

  107. 107.

    HinTN

    August 15, 2023 at 9:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My medical credentials are a 45 year old First Aid merit badge

    Damn, you’re ancient.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:08 pm

    @HinTN

    Leeches!
    :)

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    August 15, 2023 at 9:09 pm

    Henry Olsen, getting in on the act: it’s unwise to jump to trump’s defense

    Many Republican voters who back Trump believe his false claims of election fraud, but no one with the resources that Trump’s prosecutors have has ever attempted to systematically undermine those claims. Even the House Jan. 6 committee spent most of its time detailing how Trump’s actions led to the riot instead of showing how no reasonable person could believe his claims. Prosecutors have a chance to correct that. If they do, do not be surprised if Trump’s GOP backing erodes as his own supporters realize he played them for chumps.

    This is why the rush to defend Trump rests on such shaky ground. Ultimately, Republicans who do so are implicitly condoning his heinous behavior. That could prove to be politically unwise.

    People will forgive partisan witch hunts if the facts prove the defendant is, in fact, a witch. Republicans should thus think twice before they risk drowning in Trump’s cauldron of deceit.

  110. 110.

    Subsole

    August 15, 2023 at 9:11 pm

    @RaflW:

    Yeah.

    “Unlike Biden, McConnell’s issues have mostly been off-camera,” the papers all say. Wonder whose fault that is, guy-o?

    Twerps. The entire Beltway press. All of them. Utter. Fucking. Twerps.

  111. 111.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 15, 2023 at 9:11 pm

    @HinTN: ​
      Well, we did learn trepanning.

  112. 112.

    Yutsano

    August 15, 2023 at 9:12 pm

    Meh. Wake me when Yertle is actually dead or a drooling heap.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:15 pm

    @Jeffro

    Calling it a partisan witch hunt is intellectually unwise, Mr. Olsen (not to mention odious).

  114. 114.

    gene108

    August 15, 2023 at 9:18 pm

    The tongue bath Johnathan Martin gave McConnell as a “Russia hawk” is such bullshit.

    Moscow Mitch opposes Russia, unless they interfere in an American presidential election on behalf of the Republican candidate.

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    August 15, 2023 at 9:23 pm

    @Jeffro:

    The report in question, according to people familiar with the matter,

    Who are these people, who enjoy being associated with Trump?

    … a document of more than 100 pages that was compiled at least in part by Liz Harrington, a Trump communications aide who is often described as among the true believers in his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread fraud.

    This is beginning to sound like Hitler in his Bunker. Trump and his weird circle of true believers.

    I guess this stuff must be for his base. I can’t imagine that his attorneys would let Trump include anything that might be part of his defense when his case goes to trial.

    Or maybe. Trump must believe that it is inconceivable that he would actually be prosecuted for his criminal acts. Could he really believe that all he has to do is hold a press conference, mumble some nonsense and then go get in a few rounds of golf?

    The equally delusional people he is surrounding himself with are doing him no favors.

  116. 116.

    Jackie

    August 15, 2023 at 9:26 pm

    @pacem appellant: Tuberville is a rookie and look at what he’s been able to do… Stupid archaic senate rules allow ONE to wreak havoc. 🤬

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:28 pm

    @Brachiator

    It’s like bizarro Harry Potter.

    “Indictus Disappearus!”
    //

  118. 118.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    August 15, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    @Brachiator:  “inconceivable”.  Ah, there’s that word again.

    The equally delusional people he is surrounding himself with are doing him no favors.

    It seems to me they’re doing themselves no favors. I mean, we have example after example of what happens to people who associate with Trump. How can it not be obvious at this point?

  119. 119.

    Alison Rose

    August 15, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    Fucking terrorists burned down an abortion clinic in the Imperial Valley in California

    It is with a heavy heart that we share that a major fire occurred at our Imperial Valley Homan Center in El Centro. The loss of our sole Imperial Valley health center will be felt throughout our communities and beyond. pic.twitter.com/jEsIirzoa6
    — Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest (@PPPSWHealth) August 15, 2023

    If you can’t see the tweet, the image adds more details, that firefighters responded promptly and there were no staff or patients on site at the time, and the cause is under investigation. I will be quite surprised if it was anything other than arson, but happy to be proven wrong.

    This was the only clinic in that area, and now patients will have to drive a couple of hours to San Diego. It was also seeing many patients coming from Arizona who were past 15 weeks. Fucking awful.

  120. 120.

    Percysowner

    August 15, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    Reading this BREAKING: Trump, allies will be booked at Fulton County Jail, sheriff says gives me joy! Trump will actually have to waddle his orange fat ass into a jail, a jail in a majority Black area, and be booked. He should be fingerprinted and then have to wait around for bail to be set.

    I hope he will be convicted, but at least we should always have this!

  121. 121.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 15, 2023 at 9:33 pm

    Mitch McConnell is booed, and drowned out by chants of “retire, retire, retire”, for five minutes straight as he tries to talk to his own constituents in Kentucky.

    Enough Kentuckians finally realized that McTurtleass hates them and only cares about his own power?

  122. 122.

    Alison Rose

    August 15, 2023 at 9:36 pm

    @Percysowner:

    He should be fingerprinted

    They’ll have to scrape off the french fry grease first.

  123. 123.

    Jackie

    August 15, 2023 at 9:37 pm

    @wjca: But that Democratic Governor’s hands are tied re replacing McTurtle’s replacement. He has to choose from the three candidates selected by the state Republican senators.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:40 pm

    @Percysowner

    Breaking? The AJ-C scooped themselves, from August 1.

  125. 125.

    Jackie

    August 15, 2023 at 9:43 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Baahahahahaaaa!

    That’s something my daughter would have done – IF she’d thought of it. Or one of her friends had suggested the idea to her! 😂

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 9:44 pm

    @Alison Rose

    “Just a moment, please. Will someone fetch one of those extra-small fingerprint cards?”
    //

  127. 127.

    Jackie

    August 15, 2023 at 9:51 pm

    OMG, I’ve FINALLY caught up with all the posts!

    Fani indicting TIFG a day early had me scrambling to do today what I planned to do yesterday.

    I’m exhausted; but I’m current (for the moment!😂)

  128. 128.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 15, 2023 at 9:58 pm

    @Jeffro: Since Trump’s prosecutors have no need to prove that his claims of election fraud are lies, I doubt they will spend much time on them. The claims aren’t detailed, consistent or logical enough that they can be disproven, are they? It’s like proving the nonexistence of an invisible pink elephant on Pluto.

  129. 129.

    NotMax

    August 15, 2023 at 10:01 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus

    “Note, scouts, you can kill two birds with one stone by using a bow drill to simultaneously start a fire.”

  130. 130.

    dirge

    August 15, 2023 at 10:08 pm

    @zhena gogolia: But what “gaffes” has he uttered?

    I recall observing the Biden Gaffe back in the 90’s, but don’t recall specific examples.  I had begun to see a pattern, but it didn’t really click until the archetypal example, when he got way out ahead of Obama on gay marriage.  He’s also had a few hot-mic moments in support of Ukraine, and on other issues.

    Surely I’m not the only one to figure this out.  It works like this:

    Biden:  Plainly states [very popular thing] nobody else will say.

    Press:  OMG! [very popular thing] is super divisive because assholes hate it!  I can’t believe Biden just came out and said it!

    Republicans:  Yeah! [very popular thing] is a huge problem for Biden!  We hate [very popular thing]!

    Everybody:  Actually, we like [very popular thing].  You Republicans sound like assholes.

    Press:  Clearly, [very popular thing], was yet another Biden Gaffe, but perhaps he’s accidentally hit on something.

    Biden: Yup. Totally an accident. Again. Anyway, since only assholes disagree with [very popular thing], I’d like to announce [extremely popular policy].

    Everybody:  Public pressure works!  We forced Biden to do [extremely popular policy]!

    Republicans:  WTF just happened?

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    August 15, 2023 at 10:35 pm

    @dirge: Yes, that’s a good description of the gay marriage thing. But Martin seemed to be talking about some spate of recent “gaffes.” I haven’t seen it. Oh well.

  132. 132.

    dirge

    August 16, 2023 at 12:04 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    🤷‍♂️ Biden stumbles over a word or mangles a sentence all the time.  Normal people take a second to figure out what he meant and move on.  Obsessive weirdos fixate on it as an example of… whatever their weird obsession is.  So I guess on some level it’s true that every Biden vocal glitch gets the slo-mo instant replay micro-analysis treatment by… well, mostly by people like Jonathan Martin.

    So yeah, Martin’s point is true enough, that people like Martin wouldn’t normally subject McConnell to the kind of treatment he’s getting in Martin’s piece, which treatment Martin usually reserves for Biden.  A bit odd though, that Martin seems unaware that he’s actually writing about himself here.  And telling that he can’t help but smuggle in his criticism of Biden, where it has little if any relevance.

    All that said, “gaffes” are very much part of Biden’s public persona, independent of whether any actual empirical examples exist (some do).  I actually think Biden encourages this, because it’s humanizing, it makes it easy to walk back trial balloons, and it’s the predicate for his signature “Biden Gaffe” rope-a-dope maneuver.

  133. 133.

    Miss Bianca

    August 16, 2023 at 1:00 am

    @dirge: :)

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