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You are here: Home / Politics / Loving the Fight In Our Dems in the House

Loving the Fight In Our Dems in the House

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FEISTY.

It feels like our recent classes of representatives in the House are bringing more “fight” than they used to.  I love the mockery and the in your face style of a lot of the newer folks.  Of course, with the Republicans in charge of the House – showing their asses pretty much every single day – it may be that they are merely responding to the changes that are right in front of them.

The younger pups, like Maxwell Frost, are obviously not going to be swayed by that’s the way it’s always been done OR that’s not how we do things here!

Loving what I am seeing from Jared Moskowitz (FL-23)!

Not surprised to see that he attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where they actually encourage critical thinking and engagement.

🌸

I also like the fight that Hunter Biden is bringing to Comer’s committee!   I sometimes wonder if one of the Republican goals in going after Hunter Biden is to try to destroy the man by driving him back to drug use, and to destroy Joe Biden by putting things into motion in the hopes that Biden couldn’t bear losing yet another son.  At this point, republicans are all pretty much reprehensible.  But it seem to me that the Dems really are bringing their best!

Any other newer Democratic members of the House that we should be watching?

Update: Bonus news that I just saw in Josh Marshall’s Morning Memo.

Damning New Evidence

Jennifer Little, a former Trump attorney, has told Special Counsel Jack Smith that she warned Trump that if he did not comply with a federal grand jury subpoena for all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago it would be a crime, according to new reporting from ABC News.

Sources said the lawyer, Jennifer Little, told investigators Trump “absolutely” understood the warning, which came during a pivotal meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and another attorney, Evan Corcoran, who had recently joined Trump’s legal team.

The subpoena came after months of demands from the National Archives for Trump to return government documents that he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago. Little says she was trying to impress upon Trump that a grand jury subpoena was different and more serious. “You’ve got to comply,” she allegedly warned Trump.

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  1. 1.

    Eunicecycle

    Jasmine Crockett from TX30 @JasmineforUS on X is a lot of fun to follow. I am not sure if she’s on the other platforms or not. She basically narrates what’s going on daily in the House.

  3. 3.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    It feels like our recent classes of representatives in the House are bringing more “fight” than they used to.

    Off the top of my head, Pat Schroeder and Barney Frank could be seen as elders of some of the snark-warriors of social media, but they in those days they didn’t have the direct reach the internet has created

  4. 4.

    Eunicecycle

    @WaterGirl: she is the Congresswoman for Texas 30th

    ETA she was hilarious during the recent Speaker fiasco. She would tweet out little vignettes she was observing; who was talking to whom it looked friendly, or so and so looks really pissed.

  6. 6.

    p.a.

    … the lawyer, Jennifer Little, told investigators Trump “absolutely” understood the warning…

     

    OMG I would laugh if tRump’s lawyers angled for a diminished capacity defense.  tRump would never sign on, unless he didn’t understand the defense angle because of… his diminished capacity!

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’ve seen my former rep Sean Casten commenting more recently, especially on environmental matters

    ETA: By “former,” I mean we were redistricted. He’s still in the House.

  9. 9.

    narya

    Not only is Cannon gonna prevent the documents case from coming to trial before the election, I think she’s also sitting on court dates to block Willis in GA. I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it, mind you, and I don’t think Smith/DOJ have done anything wrong there. It just sucks.

  11. 11.

    Bugboy

    I sometimes wonder…

    I stopped wondering the moment I realized TFG very likely tried to infect Joe Biden with COVID at the first debate in 2020.

  14. 14.

    brendancalling

    since it’s an open thread, I’m just gonna drop RIP Shane MacGowan here.

    And I too like the fight in our reps.

  15. 15.

    jimmiraybob

    “…will Comer get caught lying?”

    Your honor, I would like to respectfully present to the court that his lips were in motion.

  16. 16.

    Andrew Abshier

    Maxwell Frost has been awesome; he was one of the very few bright spots in Florida during the 2022 cycle.   I’m stuck with Greg “Bang Bang” Steube as my ‘Critter in a deep-red CD.

  17. 17.

    Scout211

    @Nukular Biskits:

    I’m jealous of all you folks who have a Democratic rep.

    I have a Trump-supporting (of course) former “law ‘n’ order” sheriff as mine.

    I have sympathy for you, and empathy too, because my representative forever and ever has been the odious Tom McClintock.  **spit**

  18. 18.

    Chetan Murthy

    For decades we have bemoaned the fact that our Dem politicians just don’t have the same fight in them that the GrOPers do.  I remember in the late ’90s I used to make jokes about how the choice to be Democrat or Republican was determined by a coin toss at law school graduation.  It was all too chummy and collegial and it really pissed me off.  Not enough to vote GrOPer, But then my mom taught me about why you always vote Democrat when she explained what Reagan did to Medicare.

    It’s nice that we’re getting a generation of Democratic politicians that know who the enemy is and aren’t afraid to point it out.  When they finally get to the Senate, maybe we’ll get some action over there too.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Chetan Murthy:

    If we can hold the Senate, we’ll have a majority without Manchin, Sinema, and Feinstein.  I think that majority can do some good things, assuming we have a trifecta.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    @Chetan Murthy: Good for you mom!

    I have never given this much thought… how many of the folks who run for Senate come out of the House?  Most of them?  All of them?  Half of them?

    Not asking anybody to research that, but I’ll bet there’s at least one BJ peep here who knows the answer to that.

  23. 23.

    Geo Wilcox

    @WaterGirl: You’re dead to rights when you say that the GQP wanted to hurt Biden by making Hunter go back to drugs or commit suicide. That’s how they think. It’s about time he fought back against those shits.

  24. 24.

    Old School

    @brendancalling:

    since it’s an open thread, I’m just gonna drop RIP Shane MacGowan here.

    The only time I saw Shane was at an Irish music festival sponsored by Guinness.  He came on at the end of the day – probably a 9:00 or 10:00 start time – and was absolutely plastered.

    I wondered who thought it was a good idea to put him on at the end of the day, but with Shane, he would probably have been just as drunk if the performance would have been scheduled for the afternoon.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    So if FEISTY is a good word, generally speaking, for Dems in the House.

    What’s the best word, generally speaking, for the style of Dems in the Senate?

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    @Geo Wilcox: The Republican party has truly reached a point where they are absolutley disgusting.

    Republican senators:  what’s the percentage of sociopaths in the house?  And the rest are cowardly pricks, at best.

  32. 32.

    Wapiti

    @p.a.: Given Trump’s behaviour of quickly turning off and on his screeds against the court clerk in NY depending on the state of gag orders, I would argue he fully understands the law. He may be fucked in the head, but he’s not diminished yet.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @narya: Sheldon Whitehouse really is relentless, in the best possible way.

    I wonder if any of the Republicans in the senate are actually passionate about any issue that would improve our world.  Money and power don’t fit that requirement.

  34. 34.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: It seems you’ve forgotten that Sinemansion are Dems.  They could have expanded SCOTUS.  They could have passed a new VRA.  They didn’t.  Supine.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WaterGirl: Yes.  We vote politicians into office to do our will.  To protect our Republic.  To protect us.  And the Senate has failed in that.  And when and if the time comes when TFG takes office, it won’t matter that it was a few Senators that kept the filibuster (and there are more than two, who want that privilege, they’re just drafting unnoticed behind Cinemansion): we’ll still be fucked.

    The Senate has done a shitty job of protecting our Republic.

  39. 39.

    kindness

    @Baud: So many folk are acting like holding the Senate in ’24 is impossible.  That’s crazy talk.  The Senate gets the whole state’s votes, not some gerrymandered thing.  The abortion/birth control issue alone will elect Democratic Senators as we have seen since Roe v Wade was killed

    @Chetan Murthy: Your problem is with math, not Senate Democrats.

  40. 40.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ll remind you of what “feisty” means: “Never. Is never good enough for you?”. [Pelosi on when she’d come back with a proposal for gutting Social Security]

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Ben Ray Lujan, Ron Wyden and Sherrod Brown are some of the Senate Democrats who advanced from Representative.

    Senators Ben Cardin and Chris van Holland were Maryland Reps. before Senator, and both Vermont Senators- Sanders and Welch- were that state’s lone Congressman before being elected Senator.

    Virginia’s two Senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, were popular Governors first. Abigail Spanberger will likely take that path; if she wins her race for Governor in 2025, she’ll finish her term just in time to run for Tim Kaine’s seat.

    On the other hand, in 2020 we elected three Senators with no prior public office: Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, and John Ossoff.

  47. 47.

    Scout211

    An interesting trend in Central Valley California in the news today.  It’s slowly trending blue.

    Tulare County: Red but trending blue
    Democratic registration in 2020 was 61,132 Democrats or 33.01% vs 71,234 Republicans or 38.47%. Four years later, Democrats numbered 70,707 or 33.32%, and Republicans numbered 78,936 or 37.20%. votes, w

    Fresno County: Strong blue trend
    Democratic registration in Fresno County in 2020 was 187,497 voters or 39.45% vs 155,396 GOP voters or 32.69%. Fast forward to the latest registration for the 2024 election done in October 2023, and we see 198,836 Democrats or 39.19% vs 162,151 Republicans or 31.96%. The trend favors Democrats, who added 11,359 new voters vs 6755 new GOP voters over four years.

    Kern County: Red but trending Blue
    In Kern County, Dems in 2020 numbered 140,380 or 34.55% vs 148,032 GOP or 36.43%. In the latest count for the 2024 election, Democrats number 152,668 or 34.67% vs 159,655 or 36.26 % for the GOP.

    San Joaquin County: Solid blue
    Democrats have been leading in San Joaquin County for a while, and the trend continues. In 2020, Democrats had 146,901 voters or 43.64%, while the GOP had 97,453 or 28.95%. Four years later,  Democrats have grown to 159,399 or 43.74% vs 105,101 GOP voters or 28.84%.

    No blue trend where I live, sadly. It’s solidly red.  But maybe we can add some Democratic House members if this trend continues.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @laura: ​
      I have been wallowing in Shane lore this morning. One story I came across: A fan sees Shane in a pub and offers to buy him a drink. Shane says” Thank you, I’ll have a pint of Campari.” They said it cost 30 quid but was worth it.

  50. 50.

    teezyskeezy

    @Baud:

    …we need Biden to win so…

    We need Biden to win so…so all the things. It’s a No Country for Old Men coin toss, isn’t it?

  52. 52.

    Almost Retired

    @Scout211:   Wow, those Kern County numbers are amazing!  I always thought of our dusty neighboring County to the north as basically being irredeemably Oklabama.  But times are changing.  Growing Latino vote?  Priced out Angelenos?  Republican extremism?  Dwindling oil industry?  Whatever the reason(s), it’s good to hear.

    Bummer about your district.  On the one hand, you do have Yosemite.  On the other hand, you have Tom McClintock.

  53. 53.

    Almost Retired

    @Baud:  Yep, and IIRC, at our Zoom, Four Directions in Montana was cautiously optimistic about Tester’s chances – which is why they were moving back into the State after several years absence.

  54. 54.

    OGLiberal

    @Omnes Omnibus: My family was playing Christmas songs in the kitchen so had to chime in with “Fairytale of New York” from the living room.  I remember when Henry Rollins had a show and he had Shane on.  He performed a song or two – of course, holding a pint the entire time.  There was also an interview and I’m not quite sure I understood a word Shane was saying (it was from before he got new teeth)…but it was great, anyway.  RIP.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @OGLiberal: I just listened to this.  Poignant because they are both gone now.*

    *Because I am a hipster indie music snob, I prefer the original from Alex Cox’s Straight to Hell with Cait O’Riordan on vocals.

  61. 61.

    Chetan Murthy

    @WaterGirl: Three years in the majority, and there’s still a ticking bomb on the table, ready to go off in Nov 2024.  Three years in the majority.

    ETA: They can’t even be arsed to gut Potato-town like the stinking fish he is.

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @p.a.: There was some lawyer that Trump directed his minion to hide stuff – like classified documents- from, so she would assert [falsely] that the area was clean of docs. It might have been her.

  64. 64.

    OGLiberal

    @Steve in the ATL: And a Matt Dillon cameo in the video.  I read that NYPD didn’t/doesn’t have a choir.  But they had a pipe band so they used them for the video instead.  Except they didn’t know the words to “Galway Bay” so they sang the “Mickey Mouse Club” theme instead – didn’t matter because their vocals weren’t in the video.  Works for me.  Great live version: The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale of New York – YouTube

  66. 66.

    terraformer

    I think the reason Cannon is so obviously slow-rolling the documents case is that it’s so cut-and-dried that what he did was illegal, at least when compared to the other trials.

    She’s got to do everything she can to ensure it doesn’t happen until after the election. It’s just do damn obvious what she’s doing here. I mean, she was slapped already *for the same defendant*, who just so happens to be *the same defendant who appointed her*

    But I guess there’s nothing that can be done, no entity that can see what she’s doing and step in. And that’s bullshit.

  67. 67.

    artem1s

    one of the Republican goals in going after Hunter Biden is to try to destroy the man by driving him back to drug use,

    This has been my assumption all along. Yea, the wingnuts think they have the magic Benghazi bullet that will sway the voters back to TIFG. The GOPers can’t comprehend a dad who loves his kid and will support him no matter the political cost. They expect Joe to intervene illegally by paying someone off to keep it out of press (cause that’s what they would do). And they expect Hunter to throw his dad under the bus and then they think they’ll be able to force Biden to resign in tears. They aren’t capable of empathy so they don’t expect the voters to empathize with the Biden’s and even admire the way they support one another.

  72. 72.

    jonas

    @Scout211: I wonder how much of this is due to an influx of coastal Californians looking for more affordable housing and bringing their politics with them. Because it sure as hell ain’t local ranchers and oil workers suddenly switching parties.

  76. 76.

    cmorenc

    @narya: True Cannon is doing her best to delay Trump’s trial(s) until after the 2024 election – so she can finesse her approach to the substantive trial until either Trump wins in 2024 (she continues sitting on her hands until Trump successfully subverts the justice dept and/or self-pardons ) – or if Trump loses, we may suddenly see Cannon switch to appearing as much as possible to play the case straight-up as Ms. Impartial and not getting in the way of a guilty verdict.

    Because she is smart enough to recognize that if Trump loses, he is toast insofar as heading off the juggernaut of criminal cases against him.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I am not familiar with Shane MacGowan, and I think a post would best come from someone who is.  But if it gets to be evening and no one has put up a post, I will be happy to put one up, since this seems to be a loss for quite a few people.

  80. 80.

    Scout211

    @jonas: I wonder how much of this is due to an influx of coastal Californians looking for more affordable housing and bringing their politics with them.

    Maybe.  I was also wondering if it was young people registering for the first time. It would be nice to know why this trend is happening.  There will be updates on registrations before the March primary—I think the article said two more.  So we can see if the trend continues.

  82. 82.

    Citizen Dave

    @Nukular Biskits: Jealous of a law and order Rep.  My rep is a Russian.

     

    Well, “born in the Soviet Union…” so she understands the evils of socialism, doncha know (in what is now Ukraine).  IN-5, Victoria Spartz.  She is retiring to spend more time learning English.

  83. 83.

    Miss Bianca

    @brendancalling:
    “If I should fall from grace with God, Where no doctor can relieve me,
    If I’m buried ‘neath the sod,
    But the angels won’t receive me,
    Let me go, boys, let me go, boys,
    Let me go down in the mud, where the rivers all run dry.”

    RIP, Shane.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Do you expect this NY ruling will have any impact on the DC appeal that is still pending?

    Is it fair to say that the DC appeals court could allow this ruling to impact their decision?  Or is it a “never the twain shall meet” kind of thing?

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: The OP wasn’t raging, but many in the comments were.  I’ve just lost patience with the people who have lost patience.  We’ve got people saying Trump should have been in shackles on 1/21/2021.  It doesn’t work that way, and it shouldn’t work that way.

  87. 87.

    Hungry Joe

    Sarah Jacobs, our Congresscritter in CA-53, is terrific. She replaced the so-so backbencher Susan Davis. Jan. 6 2021 was her second or third day on the job. Hell of an introduction.

    The district to our east — inland San Diego County — is now the lair of Darryl Issa. Before that, Duncan Hunter Jr. Before that, Duncan Hunter Sr. I used to canvass for their Dem opponents, but gave up a few years ago — it’s hopelessly red for the next several millennia. Since Jacobs’ seat is safe I volunteer for Mike Levin, whose district is northern SD County and Southern Orange County. He’s good, but some recent line changes made his district a tossup.

    On my last day of canvassing for Levin a couple of years ago I thought I recognized one of the other canvassers. Yup. Sure enough: It was Sarah Jacobs.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It doesn’t work that way, and it shouldn’t work that way.

    We would be in big trouble if it did work that way.

    As I used to tell the other grocery store checkers in college, when they talked about how the front desk manager had done this or that to someone else, but “she’s always nice to me” – sooner or later everyone gets their moment at the top of the ferris wheel, and the fact that your turn hasn’t come yet, doesn’t mean that it won’t”.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: The DC court can use the NY decision as persuasive precedent.  IOW if they like the reasoning, they can say “Yeah, what they said.”

  92. 92.

    bbleh

    @Omnes Omnibus: Nonsense.  In a recent poll, 94% of Americans agreed with the statement that “the world should be run exactly as I wish, and all those stupid rules should be made illegal, and everyone who disagrees should shuddup.”  So that settles it.

  96. 96.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @terraformer:

    But I guess there’s nothing that can be done, no entity that can see what she’s doing and step in. And that’s bullshit.

    I think it’s a fair question: What is the mechanism for at least challenging this sort of behavior in a judge? We’re told that she was assigned the case as part of a rotation of workload. So fucking what? That just sounds like a set of internal policies, not laws. If laws don’t protect these activities, if it’s just “protocol” or “how we’ve always done it” or some other nicety of convenience, why not at least push hard on getting her removed from the case? What’s the downside?

  101. 101.

    cain

    I can’t believe that we did not front page the fact that Kissinger is dead! War criminal, asshole – glad that nobody gave a shit about him in the end. This year is ending well.

  103. 103.

    laura

    @dexwood: i gasped/sighed! That book- that joyous book. I have bought and given that book to everyone in my life. My dad would wake my mother to read her a page and she’d laugh too. El Brazo Enofrai!

  104. 104.

    Hungry Joe

    @WaterGirl: Can’t resist throwing this in: When Rep. Sarah Jacobs showed up to canvass for Rep. Mike Levin she was without entourage and without pretension. She talked to Levin for a couple of minutes, then just blended in with the rest of us as we got assigned our partners and precincts. No glad-handing, no working the room. Last I saw of her she was getting into a car with her freshly assigned partner, off to do a day’s walking. I was mightily impressed.

  106. 106.

    Splitting Image

    He’s still dead, right? I didn’t dream it?

    Woo-hoo! The first day of my life without Henry Kissinger in it!

    Sad that the first thing I hear about today is the passing of Shane MacGowan. He was an absolute train-wreck for most of his adult life and I’m glad he held on as long as he did, but he wrote great lyrics and wasn’t a war criminal.

  109. 109.

    Alison Rose

    @cain: As others noted, we did get Tom’s post last night, but it happened kinda late. I’d imagine AL might round up some enjoyable social media reactions for us for an evening post.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: I wonder what the trends are in Kings County. That and parts of Tulare and Kerns Counties make up the 22nd CD held by Republican David Valadeo. Valadeo beat Democrat Rudy Salas last year 51.5-48.5%, in a low-turnout election. The district is a prime 2024 target for Democrats.

  111. 111.

    Annie

    I have always thought that going after Hunter Biden was absolutely intended to “try to destroy the man by driving him back to drug use, and to destroy Joe Biden by putting things into motion in the hopes that Biden couldn’t bear losing yet another son” — or just making Joe suffer as he worried about his son.

  112. 112.

    dexwood

    @laura: ​
      I loved the book, the first of his New Mexico trilogy, for its understanding of northern New Mexico, the people, and the issues regarding water rights. Happy to say I had met him on several occasions. He was always generous and gracious. Wapo has a nicely written obituary in today’s issue.

  113. 113.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: There are quite a few people who are hit hard by this.  Given the man’s lifestyle and health, it’s not a surprise like Sinead was, but it still hurts.  For a few hours, the world was a better place because Kissinger wasn’t in it and Shane still was.

  115. 115.

    Citizen Alan

    @Scout211: I am intensely proud to be one of those new Dem registrations in Fresno County. Sadly, I’m still in Tom McClintock’s district for the foreseeable future.

  116. 116.

    MattF

    Raskin is my rep… It’s a, um, safe seat— he got just a hair over 80% in 2022. We’re very blue here.

    ETA: And, this morning, there was also the sound of millions of people saying ‘FINALLY’.

  117. 117.

    narya

    @Omnes Omnibus: I appreciate your commentary here, a lot. I’m frustrated, too–I think there’s a good chance that neither of Smith’s cases will actually go to trial before the election–but, much as I loathe TIFG, he has a right to appeals, etc. My personal fear/suspicion is that the DC trial will be held up by the “absolute presidential immunity claim,” i.e., that it will work its way to SCOTUS and they’ll find a way to sit on it for this year’s term. It will require some deft timing on their part, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

  121. 121.

    FastEdD

    @Hungry Joe: We used to have protests outside Issa’s old office in Vista. One of the guys holding signs was Mike Levin, who happily succeeded him. Now Issa has slithered off to the south.

  122. 122.

    jonas

    Good on Biden and the Dems on the committee for calling Comer’s bluff and demanding that hearings be open. What’s the matter, James? Afraid of a little sunshine?

    Comer’s petulant squealing about the open hearings tells you all you need to know about the quality of faith Republicans are putting in their arguments.

  124. 124.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Scout211: I’ll take any win and I am happy to see these shifts, but when a shift is less than a percent, that isn’t a strong trend.

  126. 126.

    laura

    @dexwood: The Milagro Beanfield War is the deepest, most human story I’ve ever read. I’m so glad to hear that you crossed paths with John Nichols and found him to be such a decent fellow. I’m feeling so nostalgic after going to bed ebullient with the death of Kissinger and waking up to the news of two good men- true artists, gone.

  127. 127.

    smith

    @narya: This SCOTUS has not been particularly sympathetic to much if any of TFG’s whining and outrageous claims of privilege. I’m not sure they are ready to cross the Rubicon and declare the president a king. Especially not when there’s a Democrat in the WH.

  129. 129.

    Fake Irishman

    @SuzieC: Sherrod Brown was both:

    Ohio sec. Of State from 1982-1990 and a  U.S. House member from 1992-2006.

    As a bonus he was an Ohio House of Rep. member in the 1970s.

  130. 130.

    laura

    @Omnes Omnibus: that was a read, poetic and elegiac. We here in Sacramento have a Shane McGowan, he’s an artist and musician called Ground Chuck. He is beloved by all because he’s tender hearted and a hot mess. He has tourettes and has a band called the Mental Defective League. He’s got mad skills with chalk and ceramics. And he’s got a Shane McGowan smile. For that past few years there’s been a fall music fest called Chucktober, and a luck few get Ground Chuck tee shirts. He’s had a very difficult life, grew up in a religious household and the first record he ever heard was Saturday Night Fever. Years ago, he was honored by the Sacramento City Council with an Official Proclamation. You would love him too, I’m sure of it.

  132. 132.

    smith

    The GQP, true to form as ever:

    The Florida Trident and Sarasota Herald Tribune are reporting that the Chair of the Republican Party of Florida, Christian Ziegler, and his wife, Bridget, are being investigated by the Sarasota Police Department for an alleged Sexual Battery.

    The allegations reportedly stem from an alleged menage-a-trois relationship between the Zieglers after a woman filed a complaint who states that she was in a sexual relationship with the married couple.

  134. 134.

    cmorenc

    Time to say something nice about Henry Kissinger: he was the best demonstration of how America’s worst war criminals are better than the least of Russian war criminals.  Let’s not besmirch Kissinger’s image by asking: “yeah, but by how much?”

  135. 135.

    Harrison Wesley

    @smith: Rockin’ that family-values thing again, I see.  Same as it ever was.  Will have to ask LOML about it – she lives in Sarasota.

  137. 137.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211:

    Interesting. Kern seems like a tough nut but parts north look to be turning. Devin Nunes’ district kind of wrapped around Fresno, with the city itself being solid Dem. Losing seats and redistricting has changed the area.

    McCarthy seems safe as milk in his oddly shaped district that shows R+16. The 13th, Modesto, has Republican John Duarte and shows D+4, so flippable. McClintock {spit} is safe at R+9 but to the north, little snot Kevin Kiley is only R+4 and definitely worth a strong run against. He’s one of those braying young Trumper types. Blecch.

  138. 138.

    Harrison Wesley

    @cmorenc: One place that is showing all the Henry the K love is RT.  (Yes, I read it fairly regularly.  No, I don’t believe much of what I read there; I think it produces news the same way the Grimm Brothers produced history).

  139. 139.

    trollhattan

    @smith:

    “Early polling suggests Ziegler’s approval rating has jumped at least 5% among likely Republican voters.”

    Florida

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    @Harrison Wesley: BBC World Service was giving various world leader responses and Vlad’s was objectively pro-Kissinger.

    That’s very concise in telling us what to think of the now-dead dude’s legacy.

  141. 141.

    Martin

    @Scout211: That’s what I was seeing in the last few elections. Democrats are slowly closing the gap. Some of that is the effect of redistricting slowly redistributing GOP voters, and some appears to be increased voter participation.

    It’ll be interesting to see just having a good water year last winter will impact next election. There are such unique economic issues to the central valley that belie national trends. Are voters seeing a more complete HSR project less skeptical of it, or more, or whatever.

    But the demographic trend that’s really hard to see is how different latino demographics are in CA. A lot of the older latinos in the valley can’t vote – they aren’t citizens, but their kids are filling in the zoomer ranks, and they are citizens. Around the start of covid, the largest latino age cohort was I think 19 year olds. Over 50% of kids in public schools in CA are latino. So while latinos are only about ⅓ of the state population, they’re wildly skewed toward the younger end of the spectrum. So probably half or more of voters being added from aging in are latino. That’s going to be even more pronounced in the Central Valley, and CA latinos are even bluer than whites here. 58% of latinos register democratic and 16% republican. Whites are 40%/34%. So as latino voters displace white voters, they are both younger and more democratic.

    Note, they are not more liberal. Latinos are as likely as whites to describe themselves as conservative, but latino conservatives are MUCH less likely to vote for the GOP. So Democrats need to carefully walk that line. I don’t think the GOP is ready to step off the racist/anti-immigrant bus any time soon, though.

  142. 142.

    rikyrah

    Opinion 

     A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.

    By Robert Kagan

    Editor at large

    November 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST

    Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day. In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. In the RealClearPolitics poll average (for the period from Nov. 9 to 20), Trump leads his nearest competitor by 47 points and leads the rest of the field combined by 27 points. The idea that he is unelectable in the general election is nonsense — he is tied or ahead of President Biden in all the latest polls — stripping other Republican challengers of their own stated reasons for existence. The fact that many Americans might prefer other candidates, much ballyhooed by such political sages as Karl Rove, will soon become irrelevant when millions of Republican voters turn out to choose the person whom no one allegedly wants.

    For many months now, we have been living in a world of self-delusion, rich with imagined possibilities. Maybe it will be Ron DeSantis, or maybe Nikki Haley. Maybe the myriad indictments of Trump will doom him with Republican suburbanites. Such hopeful speculation has allowed us to drift along passively, conducting business as usual, taking no dramatic action to change course, in the hope and expectation that something will happen. Like people on a riverboat, we have long known there is a waterfall ahead but assume we will somehow find our way to shore before we go over the edge. But now the actions required to get us to shore are looking harder and harder, if not downright impossible.

    The magical-thinking phase is ending. Barring some miracle, Trump will soon be the presumptive Republican nominee for president. When that happens, there will be a swift and dramatic shift in the political power dynamic, in his favor. Until now, Republicans and conservatives have enjoyed relative freedom to express anti-Trump sentiments, to speak openly and positively about alternative candidates, to vent criticisms of Trump’s behavior past and present. Donors who find Trump distasteful have been free to spread their money around to help his competitors. Establishment Republicans have made no secret of their hope that Trump will be convicted and thus removed from the equation without their having to take a stand against him.

    All this will end once Trump wins Super Tuesday. Votes are the currency of power in our system, and money follows, and by those measures, Trump is about to become far more powerful than he already is. The hour of casting about for alternatives is closing. The next phase is about people falling into line.

    In fact, it has already begun. As his nomination becomes inevitable, donors are starting to jump from other candidates to Trump. The recent decision by the Koch political network to endorse GOP hopeful Nikki Haley is scarcely sufficient to change this trajectory.And why not? If Trump is going to be the nominee, it makes sense to sign up early while he is still grateful for defectors. Even anti-Trump donors must ask whether their cause is best served by shunning the man who stands a reasonable chance of being the next president. Will corporate executives endanger the interests of their shareholders just because they or their spouses hate Trump? It’s not surprising that people with hard cash on the line are the first to flip.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/

  143. 143.

    Martin

    @cmorenc: The best I could come up with was that if you really think about it, Kissinger is probably no more responsible for the Khmer Rouge rise to power and genocide than Facebook users are for the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.

    So if you’re a Facebook user, maybe you should cut the guy a little slack.

  144. 144.

    Anyway

    @trollhattan:

    BBC World Service was giving various world leader responses and Vlad’s was objectively pro-Kissinger.

    Saw that China was complimentary of Kissinger’s legacy and public record.

  146. 146.

    Ken

    @trollhattan: @Anyway: I think many countries will be at least somewhat complimentary in their diplomatic statements, whatever their leaders may think in private. Of course it’s easy to start a list of the ones that won’t be, but at least we’ll know they’re being honest.

  147. 147.

    Martin

    @Ken: Kissinger was close with the Chinese communist party. It’s entirely unsurprising they would have nice things to say.

  148. 148.

    RaflW

    Thinking about the younger Dems fighting the good fight, and the earlier thread today about needing to *still* protect ACA, and about my mother-out-law who is 78 and so far fighting successfully along with her fellow angry grandmothers to protect their local library from some MAGA/Robin Vos type GOP sh*theads, this Bsky from Jamelle Bouie really is right on.

    @jbouie.bsky.social
    a related thought i have to all of these skeets is that i wonder if people have been hollywood-brained to believe that when autocracy comes it will be dramatic and that preventing or stopping it will be equally dramatic, rather than the boring work of ordinary politics.

  152. 152.

    RevRick

    The Republicans seem hellbent and determined to assist Democratic efforts to retake the House. According to the latest Navigator Research survey of 61 battleground districts, voter assessments of House Republican priorities are 48% underwater, a shift of -32% in just the last three months. Republicans in Biden-won districts have a net -10 favorability, a worsening of -6 since July’s -4. Meanwhile, Democratic incumbents enjoy a net positive rating of +9, up from July’s +4. What’s worse for Republicans is that they are now even rated -4 net favorability in Trump districts.
    Sending thoughts and prayers their way.

    Also remembering the immortal words of Moms Mabley over the news about Kissinger: “One should only say good things about the dead. He’s dead. Good.”

  153. 153.

    catclub

    @Martin: Kissinger is probably no more responsible for the Khmer Rouge rise to power and genocide than Facebook users are for the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar.

     

    I did not know that facebook users organized a secret bombing campaign in Myanmar.

  154. 154.

    gvg

    @Chief Oshkosh: As I understand it she was assigned from a rotation of 2 judges who were available to do “that kind ” of case, whatever that means, so that was part of the problem.

  158. 158.

    Glidwrith

    @smith: I think SCOTUS recognizes that having SFB in the White House would destroy their power base, especially because he considers the Court his property. Therefore, they won’t entertain anything that keeps him out of jail.

  159. 159.

    Paul in KY

    @Old School: I saw The Pogues back around 1990 or so at Bogarts up in Cincinnati. Must have been 9 of them up there. I’m pretty sure Shane was loaded. The day of week did end in ‘day’. Was a rocking show!

    Pretty sure he and Lemmy and Keith Moon are havin a few up in the Afterlife ™.

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