Even the rest of the Senate GOP is sick of Ted Cruz at this point, and they promptly told him to screw off last night.
On Monday night, Cruz’s colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a “sufficient second” that would have allowed him a roll call vote.
Then, his Republican colleagues loudly bellowed “no” when Cruz sought a voice vote, a second repudiation that showed how little support Cruz has: Just one other GOP senator — Utah’s Mike Lee — joined with Cruz as he was overruled by McConnell and his deputies.
It was the second time that Cruz had been denied a procedural courtesy that’s routinely granted to senators in both parties. The first came after he called McConnell a liar this summer.
Cruz was incredulous on Monday, calling it an “unprecedented procedural trick.”
“What does denying a second mean? Denying a recorded vote. Why is that important?” Cruz said. “When you are breaking the commitment you’ve made to the men and women who elected you, the most painful thing in the world is accountability.”
Indeed, denying Cruz a vote prevents the Texas senator from dredging up the roll call in the future and using it to attack his colleagues.
At this point it’s pretty clear the Ted Cruz moment is over, at least for now. In December when the continuing resolution ends and the debt ceiling fight begins, well that might be a different story. But right now at least the GOP doesn’t want to go to the mattresses on this, and Cruz is the bully without a gang.
Helmut Monotreme
The sooner he’s out of government and in front of a congregation of hillbillies with a rattlesnake in each hand, the happier I’ll be.
debbie
I don’t think Cruz’s moment is over. This defiance and bombast builds upon his credibility with the RWNJs.
dedc79
I know you’re talking more about Senate politics than the GOP primaries, but don’t count Cruz out. If/when Trump/Carson/Fiorina fade (I expect it will happen in reverse order), Cruz is the obvious second choice for those voters. And, unlike the governors and former governors he’s up against, he has a national platform to demonstrate his conservative bonafides. The question is, will he be able to stay in the race long enough to get those votes?
boatboy_srq
As opposed to breaking the government you were elected to
notrun….Belafon
@Helmut Monotreme: I wish there was a way to get rid of him here in Texas, but he managed to beat one of our long time legislators (Abbott if I remember correctly) for the Republican nomination for Hutchinson’s seat. I wouldn’t count on him losing just because he’s not popular. In fact, I think that might just get him reelected.
Belafon
I think Cruz believes that all Obama did was get elected senator and then he became president. That’s all he thinks he has to do.
boatboy_srq
@Helmut Monotreme: The sooner he’s out of government and in front of
a congregation of hillbillies with a rattlesnake in each handa contempt of Congress hearing, the happier I’ll be.kc
Cruz should just resign already & join DeMint at Heritage. Or join some other RW “think” tank.
CONGRATULATIONS!
That wasn’t very smart. Mitch seems very petty and vengeful.
Looks like Cruz has decided to go the full McCarthy route, including career flameout.
catclub
@dedc79:
All fundraising evidence points to yes. His superpac had $43M and he has the largest fraction of small donors in his campaign
fundraising. Obama had that distinction in 2008.
gene108
One question I wish would get asked to the anti-abortion crowd is if they win and abortions are illegal what will the penalties be for having abortions?
Question: Abortion is illegal. A married couple, a police officer (ex-Marine, combat vet) and nurse (retired Army medic), chooses to not have a third child. They order a drug that is supposed to aid in terminating the pregnancy from the Internet. Complications arise. Mother is rushed to the hospital and it is determined she tried to abort the fetus. For how many years should she and her husband be jailed?
gene108
@Belafon:
Cruz’s moment is far from over.
He is in a safe seat, atm.
He is relatively young, while Mitch is a 70-something.
Odds are in Cruz’s favor in the long game.
Bobby Thomson
@Belafon: everybody likes him because he’s unpopular. –Yogi Berra
Belafon
@gene108: For at least three childbirths.
Amir Khalid
Ted Cruz’s approach to politics is pure Teabagger nihilistic opposition. I suspect that if he were ever to become president — if he were to become The Man — he would be in unfamiliar territory as the one who proposes, rather than than one of those who oppose, and then he’d be completely lost.
cmorenc
@Belafon:
Cruz’s acidic bullying antics and tantrums since taking office may indeed endear him to the hard-core Tea Party crowd in Texas, but has probably worn thin with enough more pragmatic folk who want an effective conservative work horse rather than someone like Cruz who’s all poo-flinging show.
BGinCHI
I predict scandal will ruin his political career and launch his TV career.
I also predict that as time goes on, he will look more and more like Madame of Wayland & Madame.
C.V. Danes
@debbie: Exactly. All this does is burnish his bonafides as a Values Justice Warrior.
RaflW
One could surmise from this that the establishment would rather have Trump be the nominee than Cruz. He’s that much of an a-hole and bomb thrower.
Of course, this all just shows that McConnell is a squish and may as well be a Democrat, if you are Limbaugh or Hewitt or any of those unelected flamethrowers.
Oatler.
He’s the grease fire of the GOP.
BGinCHI
@C.V. Danes: My mother told me that burnishing my bona fides would make me go blind.
cmorenc
@gene108:
Unfortunately, they’ll be MORE than happy to answer that challenge, using their state’s manslaughter sentencing specifications as a guideline. In several states, they’re already prosecuting pregnant women who aren’t even trying to have abortions for endangerment of the fetus for taking potentially harmful drugs during pregnancy.
Mike in NC
@kc: When DeMint discovered that he couldn’t dictate policy to 99 other US senators, he decided to find a more lucrative form of grifting. Cruz will end up rolling in dough running the Club for Growth or Americans for Prosperity.
benw
@gene108: I assume the easiest answer is to treat the fetus as a living child and follow existing laws: in this case I guess the charge would be premeditated (because of the internet order) attempted murder. Of course, the couple would still have to be tried, would a prosecutor file charges? Would a jury convict in this case? I sure fucking wouldn’t.
kindness
No, Cruz has a gang. Unfortunately for Cruz they are all in the House.
@BGinCHI:
I thought it was hairy palms.
debbie
@BGinCHI:
That would certainly explain Cruz’s excessive self-love.
Helmut Monotreme
@Amir Khalid: It might appear so, but Cruz has a giant theocratic agenda. I think he’d happily spend his entire term trying to turn the US into the Republic of Gilead, and if there is an evangelical version of ALEC, I’m sure they have long list of terrible policies to work through.
Petorado
The Trump Effect seems to be resonating through Congress as the elected appear to be getting the message that the public is tired of legislators who get nothing done. Yes, the right wing wants some pretty awful things to get done, but they at least want some action, rather than the gridlock Mitch and Co. have been so happy to provide. It has to be intimidating to witness the wholesale rush to outsiders whose only qualification is attitude over those who currently hold office.
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: She gets 30 years to life, he gets exonerated after all charges are dropped when it is determined that he knew nothing about it (shocking I know) and becomes a millionaire via a ‘Go fund Me campaign.
Keith G
Cruz is a novelty. A bit of a freak show attraction like the Snake Boy. That is all he will ever be.
As Jim DeMint found out, to have power in Congress is not as simple as being a headline generator. He is up for re election in 2018 and he will probably run, but he may find it is not a whole lot a fun and find other pursuits. If nothing else, I don’t see him being a Senate lifer.
Betty Cracker
This gladdens my heart.
O/T: Did anyone watch Trevor Noah’s “Daily Show” debut? I caught part of it, and though my expectations were low (due to the nature of and how he handled some early controversies after being named Stewart’s successor), I thought he did well.
Comrade Dread
How big of an asshole do you have to be to get Republicans to turn on you?
D58826
SOMEWHAT ot
Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!
BGinCHI
@D58826: I thought for those guys an Endorsement meant one candidate, one endorser.
Polygamist.
Amir Khalid
@Helmut Monotreme:
My impression, although of course I could be wrong, is that Cruz is neither making friends nor influencing people as a sitting Senator. All he has managed to do is piss people off with his constant grandstanding.
ETA: (Forgot to conclude) That doesn’t bode well for his ability to execute on a legislative agenda, I would think.
Mandalay
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Not to defend McConnell too much, but Cruz very publicly told the nation that McConnell was a liar on multiple occasions.
I don’t know or care who was actually in the right over that particular spat, but Cruz chose to make it public so McConnell is hardly being petty for getting back at him.
Chris
Aw DANG, that’s harsh.
God, I love watching these people smack each other around.
shell
They dont want to think that far ahead. They believe that if abortion is made illegal it will all magically go away.
dedc79
@catclub: Yeah, and as others have noted in earlier threads, he’s the only candidate who has continued to play nice with Trump. If Trump disappears, his supporters aren’t going to turn to Jeb or Marco or Christie or Carly….
Keith G
@Betty Cracker: I thought it was a very good first show. I think that the franchise is not in any danger and once Trevor gets his legs may have a much better edge.
Chris
@gene108:
I remember a pro-life cousin idly wondering about this and posting it on Facebook – “what should the penalty be for abortion, if we manage to make it illegal again?” The consensus from the commenters was that since abortion was murder, it should be the same – death penalty.
Patrick in Michigan
It’s about damned time someone put that cuban interloper in his place.
gene108
@Belafon:
Should have been clearer. They have two kids already. Can’t manage a third that is on the way.
Cervantes
@Belafon:
Tough, I know.
No, he beat the incumbent Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst.
Keith G
@dedc79:
I think that a lot of Trump supporters are purely Trump fans and will not move en bloc in any one specific direction.
Just Some Fuckhead
In twenty years, some newly-minted fascist Republican will be calling Ted Cruz a closet liberal that is helping Democrats destroy America.
geg6
This is exactly what he was banking on. He loves being despised, maybe more so than any other politician I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime. Thrives on it. And the rubes who follow him will eat it right up.
gene108
@cmorenc:
I’ve read about some of these cases.
I wish they would get more national attention.
It is shocking how far out there the anti-abortion crowd is and how much they get to hide behind platitudes of “right to life” and “pro-life”.
shell
Shit, these people really do live in the ‘Handmaids Tale. ‘
Cervantes
.
GregB
I second the assessment that Ted Cruz will continue to morph into the human form of Madame Wayland.
His voice is even changing.
Cruz is turning into the worst Twilight Zone episode ever.
dedc79
@Keith G: Maybe not – this is the risk Cruz faces. But Trump built his lead on an anti-immigrant/ation platform, and Carson rose to the top by bashing muslims. The anti-immigration fanatics and muslim haters do not trust Jeb!, Rubio, Kasich, Christie.
Chris
@Just Some Fuckhead:
In twenty years, no one will remember who Ted Cruz is.
Keith G
@Cervantes: That’s saying quite a lot.
Jeffro
@debbie: Seconded. Just wait until he’s one of the last Clowns standing this spring…
FlipYrWhig
@geg6:
Definitely. He oozes — well, it’s a long list of what he oozes — but among the many things he oozes is the oily funk of someone who was told far too often growing up “Sweetheart, you’re a special boy, and the other kids are just jealous.”
BGinCHI
@Chris: Not even his wives.
catclub
@Keith G: I was about to post something like that. They will lose interest if Trump is out.
Makes a Trump third party run more likely. [If he is not the GOP nom.]
benw
@Chris:
Christ. Only one wrinkle to these “pro-life” commenters excellent solution: white mother – life sentence; black mother – death row.
If a doctor performs an medically necessary abortion to protect the life of the mother, who gets death? Both doctor and mom? Dad? In fairness, if the mother honestly believes her life is threatened by the fetus, I think she can defend herself – she should be protected by a kind of “Stand Her Ground” for abortions. Only the doctor who does the abortion gets death.
Oh, and fuck Ted Cruz. I think I forgot to mention that.
Jeffro
@gene108:
Before I answer…what color are they, how many times a week do they go to church, and/or how do they vote?
/wingnut
amk
Sweet. The egotistical prick that he is, this has to hurt.
And no, he is not gonna be the prezinent despite all his nihilistic stunts. Even with the teabaggers, who know all about his legislative antics since he was elected, he is still polling way behind in all the polls so far. He has worn out his novelty factor long time back.
Cacti
Ted Cruz has the adult demeanor of a child who was never told to sit down and shut up by Mom and Dad.
Rand Paul has the same problem.
Bubblegum Tate
@benw:
Your typical forced-birther steadfastly insists that abortion is never, ever medically necessary, hence making the question irrelevant.
D58826
I do like to see the pro-lifer’s in action when it comes to some one who is demonstrably alive
They just can’t wait to kill this guy, innocence be damned.
Jeffro
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I don’t think we’ll need twenty years…Cruz is already there, calling everyone to his left a closet liberal/RINO/part of the “Washington Cartel”. Glad to see he is so disagreeable. If he ever learns to leave his own party’s leaders with even a smidge of wiggle room, he’ll (unfortunately) be a lot more effective at achieving his goals.
Chris
@benw:
I know it was mostly rhetorical, but as I recall, the answer was yes. Doctor and Mom.
Tim C.
I don’t know the right wing media machine well enough to know this, so some of you who do that kind of cave diving might be able to help.
1) Where is Cruz getting support and where is he being criticized, or even worse, ignored in right wing media?
2) The GOP seems divided between head-trauma crazy (Cruz, Trump, Carson, Fiorina, etc) and Evil, but understand the Earth is in fact round. (Bush, Rubio, Kasich) Right now the crazy caucus is winning by a lot. Fox is with the second group, but knows it can’t fight the crazies too much because advertising dollars. Is there any other faction of the propaganda machine that goes round earth?
TxTiger
@Belafon: @cmorenc:
I wish Cruz didn’t appeal to more moderate Texas Republicans. My 76-year old father, who for years has proclaimed himself a moderate Republican here in Texas (to the point of being dubbed a RINO by some of his fellow RWNJ travelers), supports Cruz “because he is consistently truthful.” My father and I disagree about what truth is, but Cruz does consistently say the same outrageous things, and to a man who is disillusioned with the deceptions of politicians, that is appealing.
Just One More Canuck
@shell: Do they even really want to make abortion go away (other than the true believers, of course). If abortion is illegal, one of the sources of fleecing and grifting goes away
Peale
@kindness: And because they are in the house, it is more than likely that several of them will join him in the senate in the long term.
Helmut Monotreme
@Amir Khalid: “Executing a legislative agenda” is a secondary concern. His primary concern is getting publicity and fundraising. He wants to be the godliest senator that ever senatored, and the godliest president that ever presidented. And the pessimist in me thinks that should he ever become president, he will try to pull off some kind of evangelical coup to institute a theocracy and become American president, pope and witchfinder pursuivant for life.
mclaren
Yes, we should definitely count Cruz out. He’s done. History. Toast. No mas. Kaput. Gone.
A Republican pol can withstand all kinds of setbacks, but when the entire power structure of the Republican party is united in hating and despising him and shutting him down in any way possible, that’s the one setback a Repub can’t overcome.
FlipYrWhig
@Jeffro: What are his goals? I think in his dreams he longs to lord it over a nation split almost evenly between the lowly peons who adore him and the rest who utterly despise him BUT HE’LL SHOW THEM ALL! He’s like a comic-book villain.
Cacti
@D58826:
No less than a sitting SCOTUS Justice had this to say about post-conviction exculpatory evidence in a capital case:
I bet you can guess which one.
BGinCHI
@mclaren: Except for Trump?
RSA
@gene108:
Follow-on question: Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional, but should this be changed to allow prosecution of anyone who has had an abortion in the past?
ETA: I suspect that people who say no will be viewed as not sufficiently against abortion. And then it would become obvious that we’re talking about millions of people.
dww44
@RaflW:
If I had to choose between the two, I know darn well it would be Trump.The depths of meanness and evilness of Cruz have yet to be plumbed. The bombast can be reined in.
@Amir Khalid:
I’m with Chris Hayes on his opinion of Cruz given just after his election to the Senate– that this is one dangerous and wholly ambitious person. Hayes had observed him arguing before the Supreme Court and noted how often he won and how effective he was in front of the Supremes.
Cruz knows exactly what he’s doing;he’s after the Presidency and God Help Us All if he gets it.
gene108
@benw:
All of them
KatiebenwCallMeIshmael
@mclaren:
Unless he and Trump and the rest of the hard right demagogues accidentally incite an internal power struggle for the party that spirals out of control, which is looking like more and more of a possibility.
If Trump goes third party or the social conservatives decide to fracture the party to act on their (perceived) political capital, you might very well see the GOP in a feedback loop that will take a decade or two to sort out.
John Cole
+1 for the title.
catclub
@Just One More Canuck:
I would say that this is a case where the GOP has a better handle on what keeps voters motivated. Actually passing the ACA has not turned out to have destroyed the GOP (note that Bill Kristol predicted that is what would happen.) Likewise, Medicare has not made old people a huge, reliable block of voters for the Democrats.
In contrast, when Bush had both houses of Congress, no big anti-abortion laws happened to pass.
I will note that the dynamic in the States appears to be different.
FlipYrWhig
@dww44: But Cruz is such a bullshit artist. I can’t imagine him being effective anywhere. Yes, I know he was a debate champion. But, to mix a metaphor, that’s all a bag of tricks you can see through immediately. When he pauses while speaking you can practically see him counting the beats. It’s robotic. I can’t see his act working on anyone who isn’t a debate judge.
SatanicPanic
@Comrade Dread:
It’s like Steven Adler getting kicked out of Guns and Roses for doing too many drugs
catclub
@gene108: Just the doctor. The woman was obviously too feminine to make a rational choice to hire a murderer.
FlipYrWhig
I wonder if Cruz regrets not having run for a Congressional seat instead. He’d easily be Speaker by now.
BGinCHI
@FlipYrWhig: Too lowbrow for Saint Ted.
srv
I, for one, am glad Politico is becoming mainstream at BJ.
But it’s the bilionaire cucks that do all the despising:
Belafon
@gene108: Yeah, but I could see wingers making the penalty “three more children.”
benw
@Bubblegum Tate:
Dangit, I forgot for a minute that women are lying whores whose bodies should be controlled by men at all costs. Sorry.
@gene108: Nothing says “life” like more death.
Chris
@Just One More Canuck:
No. (IMHO). But I do think they want it outlawed. It might be most accurate to say that they want abortion restored as a marker of social/class status.
The thing about this kind of “sin,” as liberals point out, is that you’re not actually making it go away – you’re just driving it underground. Wealthy, well-off, mostly white women from good families will be able to continue getting abortions – either with a family doctor who, you know, knows these things, or if the worst comes to the worst, because they can simply fly to Canada and get one there. Poor women, especially nonwhite women, especially single mothers… will not, and will catch the brunt of this, probably including death penalty if my cousin and his good buddies have their way. In between those two extremes…? It depends. (On whether they know a guy who knows a guy, on how popular they are with cops and regulators… etc).
We already see this with drugs, which are frequently a life-destroying crime in the inner city, but more of an amusement/rite of passage in the middle class suburbs; people DO still get busted, but it’s less likely to have serious consequences, and it happens less often when it does. (Also comes with huge incentives for corruption in the power structure. Over the decades, how many cops do you figure have “saved for retirement” by collecting bribes from alcohol or drug distributors to allow them to stay in business? You’d have a similar setup here).
And by the way, you already see this in abortion today. Haven’t we heard stories about these very pious fundamentalist women who find that they need an abortion, but then go right back to being pro-life… and when queried, say that theirs was okay because they’re absolutely sure that they needed it, but they can’t be sure with other women, and that’s why it has to be banned just in case? Same principle in action.
Hypocrisy is built into puritan societies. And it ends up as a means of exercising power, and marking social status.
Belafon
@Cervantes:
Thanks. I didn’t care enough about any of them to verify which one. He still beat someone with better name recognition by going even further right than the “screw the children and poor” candidates we already had.
FlipYrWhig
@srv: Ted Cruz, who refused to let people from “lesser Ivies” into his Harvard Law study group, has a lot of cojones talking about how someone ELSE is prone to perceiving people as ignorant hicks and rubes.
trollhattan
@Cacti:
I call that a Nino-sized softball.
He’s the Ted Cruz of the Supreme Court.
“What’s an innocent life compared to the intent of the framers?”
Tommy
@FlipYrWhig: There are many things in this world I let pass. Ted Cruz is one of the only people in my life I want to mock and belittle. I really do not like the man.
Jeffro
@FlipYrWhig:
I guess I would answer that in two parts: one, to run the country and be either adored or feared in his righteousness; two, to make it into a Cruz-led theocratic capitalist’s wet dream.
Well yeah, that is a pretty good way to put it…
Soylent Green
@Tim C.: Trump is not crazy. He is a performance artist who is in it for the lulz. He is a TV star in his greatest role.
srv
Bush, making his new reality:
Rubio will make an acceptable VP for Trump.
D58826
@Cacti: Yes I can and his church’s teachings on the matter be da***ed.
Elizabelle
If we had a functioning press, they would cover the Cecile Richardson Planned Parenthood grilling live, as they did for Watergate.
I’ve never seen such derision towards a witness, and forgot the bloviating GOP congresstrolls are capable of.
It’s merciful to have a GOP, then a Democrat, for relief.
If CNN broadcast this, the GOP would have a goddamned hard time getting any non-wingnut woman to vote for them, EVER.
But tonight we’ll be told “he said, she said, controversial issue, David, back to you.”
Elizabelle
Planned Parenthood spectacle is on C-Span 3; C-Span will probably rebroadcast tonight or later.
D58826
@Chris: Rick Sanatorium’s wife had one at 20 weeks. True it was a medical necessity but old Rick wants to deny that option to other women. Remember when the Pope talked about the Golden Rule Rick and the rest heard ‘what’s good for me is not good for thee’.
srv
The next scandal to be ignored by the left – The Mystery of Hillary’s Missing Millions
kc
@gene108:
Are they black?
Elizabelle
Jim Jordan of Ohio was absolutely out of control awful.
He’s probably from a conservative district, but if I was running his opponent’s campaign, I’d just broadcast what he did, all the hectoring, and not even have to cut too much.
Just let women and people who love and respect women see what the Full Jim Jordan experience is.
Elizabelle
Brenda Lawrence, D-Michigan, 10th district, Detroit, Farmington Hills and Southfield.
My new heroine. Brave and rational and gets straight to the point. Started out with “every woman knows” because the GOP men’s club (the GOP wimmens) don’t seem to live in the same world.
MomSense
@Betty Cracker:
I liked his debut and find his smile and manner endearing.
/Mrs. Robinson
Archon
Obviously abortion is the noticeable one but is their any conservative policy position that isn’t ridiculous when taken to it’s logical conclusion?
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Liked Trevor Noah tremendously, and the writing was good. Loved the correspondent re black people to Mars (?) segment. Didn’t pay too much attention to the Kevin Hart interview …
germy shoemangler
I have linked to this comedian before, so pardon my redundancy. I like Trevor Noah in his new job.
Here’s a comedian I’d love to see as a guest someday, a young man who is brilliant, in my opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw_mRaIHb-M
Aamer Rahman
Frank Bolton
@Tim C.: Cruz is being tagged as a Cuckservative. In fact, he was one of the poster-boys for that vile white supremacist meme thanks to his support of quadrupling H1-B visas and increasing the flood of legal immigration.
As we can see from srv, though (and thanks for demonstrating just what kind of asshole you are, really appreciate it) he’s only a couple of steps shy from shedding the label. Aside from the immigration issue — which is the line in the sand for these types of quote/unquote citizens — Cruz otherwise perfectly fits the profile of the culture warrior they’re looking for. He fits it better than Trump, even, and Trump gave the identarian cretins more Starbursts than a candy factory. All Cruz needs to do to get their loyalty is go on a racist jag against ‘illegals’ and take a hard line. He’ll have these simpering simpletons with delusions of ethnic superiority in his corner. Probably the best time to do this would be if/when Trump implodes, though.
Applejinx
@mclaren: Trump/Cruz 2016.
Can’t overcome, my ass. He’s gonna shoot for the Grima Wormtongue position in the cabinet.
Patricia Kayden
@gene108: I assume women who get abortions when the forced-birther Republicans get their way will suffer the fate of Ms. Patel.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/indiana-has-now-charged-two-asian-american-women-feticide-n332761
@srv:
I’m going to ignore every “scandal” that Rightwing jerks like you bring up because I don’t want a FREAKING REPUBLICAN A-HOLE in the White House discriminating against my Black behind. It’s quite simple.
Go Hilary! Or Bernie!
Patricia Kayden
@germy shoemangler: Aamer is a genius! He should be better known.
germy shoemangler
@Patricia Kayden: He’s one of my favorites of the newer generation.
Belafon
@srv: McDonalds.
Belafon
And I’m being mostly serious. That’s about $4M a year. If I was making that kind of money, I’d blow through some pretty good stuff.
You also have to remember that not all giving can be counted as a tax deduction, specifically gifts to individuals.
catclub
@srv:
1. Hookers and blow do not really end up getting you much in the way of declarable assets.
2. They might have other expenses, like living expenses, and paying staff – that also do not produce assets at the end.
benw
@srv:
Liberals don’t ignore them; we call them what they are: lies and overblown conspiracy theories peddled by lying liars and wackjobs. Then we go back to aborting fetuses or whatever.
@Belafon: Has the best fries.
dedc79
@srv: Go bug Dahlia Lithwick.
Amir Khalid
@srv:
Maybe Bill and Hillary did make big donations abroad. Or maybe they still suck at investing their money, like with Whitewater. One thing is certain: so far no one has suggested there’s any crime involved here or what that crime might be.On second. thought, I’ve already been warned today about engaging with trolls.
Mike J
@Archon:
Reductio ad absurdum works on many things, even good ideas. The differences is Republican ideas start out absurd.
FlipYrWhig
@Applejinx: No chance Ted Cruz ever settles for second position. Of anything ever.
Tim C.
@Soylent Green: Point taken, but he appeals to the crazy part of the base so I threw him in with that crew.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I thought he did pretty well, but I hope they have a time limit on the self-referential “filling Jon’s big shoes” stuff.
JPL
@Elizabelle: I’ve been watching on and off. There are some in congress who I’d like to chop their balls off.
Patricia Kayden
@Frank Bolton: Right now, Trump has the White Supremacist vote on lock down. Wonder which Clown Car Occupant will get his supporters’ votes once he drops out of the race (although I hope he never drops out). For some reason, I just don’t see Cruz as a viable candidate. He’s just so smarmy that I cannot imagine that even Republicans could stomach him being the face of their party in a Presidential election.
Belafon
@Amir Khalid: I’ve been thinking about feeding the trolls for a while, and for the most part, I’m in favor of engaging them because of the other people that can be reading what the troll writes. It’s not the troll you’re trying to provide information to.
That’s one of the reasons the abortion debate is actually tough. I know a lot of people that are squeamish at the talk of abortion that they can easily buy into the “life begins at conception” because they don’t want to think about tough choices that they didn’t have to make. It’s hard to respoind to the forced-birth people in this context.
gene108
@srv:
I think the Base is aware of this and is one reason they are so angry, this year, at professional politicians, because those politicians will do the bidding of Wall Street jerks, with whom a True Conservative from Real America would like to salt the earth with said Wall Street jerk’s bones.
Problem for the Wall Street guys is the Base has both (1) the guns and (2) the numbers.
A strong well funded government is what’s keeping these billionaires from being first up against the wall, when the Revolution comes.
Too bad those greedy fucks don’t realize it.
Elizabelle
I’m not seeing these Democrats in disarray and “skeered of their shadow” Democrats.
I am seeing people who live in the modern world. Courageously. There’s a real difference in the quality and manner of the congressional representatives. (One white haired male GOP congressman was courteous, the rest are on a tear about abortion.) Gosar just lectured Richardson on medical practice.
srv
@benw:
Let me help you out a little bit there, righteous liberal:
Is Joe the new PUMA? We report, you decide.
@dedc79:
Who is that, the liberal’s Skousen?
Amir Khalid
@srv:
A question occurs to me: Should Mr. Deyhle be commenting about other people’s money, which he doesn’t manage?
Dahlia Lithwick is Slate‘s Supreme Court reporter, and she’s a damn good one.
catclub
@srv:
Clinton rules. Is this correct? Have the Clintons said that their total assets are $45M? NO.
This is the Forbes estimate in order
to generate a story. The author also says that it is basically impossible for them to have $3.6M/yr expenses, so assumes that they have zero expenses in order to come up with a missing $50M. No evidence that they do not have $3.6M/yr expenses.
I can imagine lawyers bills and consultants. Mark Penn does not come cheap.
If they have expenses of $2M/yr and their assets are actually $70M, there are no longer any missing millions. Funny the author did not consider that possibility.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Chris: That’s why I call people with those views “anti-choice” as opposed to the (disingenuous, in my view) “pro-life” designation they prefer.
JPL
@Elizabelle: The most important question is why they are attacking Planned Parenthood, and not other hospitals and clinics who perform abortions. They also receive government funds through medicaid. The Republicans really don’t want easy access to birth control.
Frankensteinbeck
@Belafon:
Wouldn’t surprise me. Remember that racism is thick in the Republican mindset. They believe that if Obama could do it, any white man could.
@Petorado:
I think you’re seeing this backwards. They’re mad that Mitch hasn’t provided enough gridlock. They would be happy if nothing passed congress at all, including and especially budgets and debt ceiling raises.
srv
@gene108: It’s too bad liberals failed to heed Yglesias’ calls to reach out to the young tea party and form a common movement against the bankers.
Instead, they bailed out the banks.
Tom
@Betty Cracker: My wife and I watched it this morning on Hulu. We both thought he did really well, with several laugh-out-loud moments.
He’ll get even better as he gets out from under Jon Stewart’s shadow and comes into his own style.
(Of course, I remember when Stewart took over from Kilburn and it took Jon some time to get his rhythm.)
japa21
@srv: Hmm, Joe Biden’s accountant is the same as Joe Biden? I didn’t know that. And just how did they come to approach Joe Biden’s accountant, who undoubtedly is the accountant for many other people as well.
Republicans, the masters of conflation and projection.
Just One More Canuck
@JPL: Firm but fair
Belafon
@srv: As if the Tea Party wanted to do anything about the bankers. They want to do something about the black man in the White House.
japa21
@srv: ‘Twas the conservatives that bailed out the banks, and the liberals that made sure the banks paid back the bail money.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Comes through loud and clear. They seem to be trying to make the point that PP’s non-abortion services could be easily replicated through expanding monies to local healthcare providers.
But that is not so. What young woman (or even young man) does not know that you can walk up to PP and get good quality medical care, without jumping through hoops?
Don’t argue with success.
amk
@srv: Nice lie. Dumbya will be happy.
FlipYrWhig
@Belafon: The whole point of the Tea Party (I originally wrote “Teat Party”! Paging Dr. Freud!) was to prevent losers with expensive mortgages from getting helped by the government. The bank bailout, the auto bailout, the stimulus, and Obamacare were all lumped into one thing: free goodies for losers who couldn’t hack it, paid for by people doing their damnedest to scrape by. That’s why they’re “taxed enough already.” It was an anti-“welfare” movement from the start.
C.V. Danes
@BGinCHI: Did it?
Patricia Kayden
Poor Bush. His donors are getting the jitters.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/jeb-bush-2016-donors-republicans-214166#ixzz3n7oMxKvu
Frankensteinbeck
@kc:
This is important in another way. As Palin let slip, part of the anti-abortion movement is that they believe black women are sluts. White christian conservative women never need abortions. Like they don’t believe an abortion is medically necessary, they’ve closed their mind to the possibility. And then we get to @Chris‘s point. Since it never happens to anyone they care about, if it does happen, of course it’s an exception and they’ll handle it quietly and it won’t change their beliefs in any way.
Hawes
I could see the Trumpenproletariat rallying around Cruz if the Donald flames out.
Huggy Bear
@CONGRATULATIONS!: I’ll volunteer to send him a bottle of booze each week if it will help accelerate that process.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@cmorenc: Yup.
If they’re serious about stopping abortion, they should go further, of course.
Like making all females over 8 take a One Step pregnancy test before boarding an airplane, ship, boat or train. They might try to escape the country and have an abortion, after all.
And make all males and females over 3 swear that: 1) they will not facilitate an abortion in any way, 2) they will notify the authorities if someone they know is trying to hide a pregnancy, 3) will notify the authorities if anyone they know is using any method of birth control. Because, after all, no birth control method is 100% reliable, and failure of birth control means that abortion always follows because birth control is evil, after all.
And imposing the death penalty for anyone convicted of having been involved in an abortion, whether induced by a medical procedure or not. Because, after all, every pregnancy is guaranteed to produce a healthy child and if the pregnancy ends early it is because some evil intent was behind it. An eye for an eye, after all.
And imposing the death penalty for anyone convicted of involvement with attempts to avoid the prohibition against abortion by traveling to places where it is legal. After all, if it’s murder here, then it’s murder anywhere and the punishment should be the same. It doesn’t matter if abortion has a long history that predates Roe v. Wade, everyone knows that if abortion is outlawed, then the practice will end.
And the penalty should be more severe for those who pass these anti-abortion laws, and their families, but are found to have violated them. Maybe drawing an quartering rather than lethal injection? Because nothing is more important than our representatives and their families setting a good example, as we all know. Appearances are more important than reality.
Amirite?
/snark
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
benw
@srv: You’re on fire in this thread! “Joe Biden’s accountant”, the new voice of today’s liberal!
Patricia Kayden
@srv: Why would we Democrats and Progressives align ourselves with out and out racists? TBaggers are germs. They need to be disinfected from the political body. Funny that they only came into being when the Black man won the White House. Any Democrat who aligns themselves with any Tea Party activist is dead to me.
But keep dreaming, srv. You and Right to Rise must be the best trolls that Republicans can cough up. You need to do better.
@Elizabelle: Republicans in Louisiana tried to come up with a list of non-PP entities which could cover medical services for women and couldn’t do so.
http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2015/09/louisianas-alternative-to-planned.html
Belafon
@FlipYrWhig: It’s an anti-other movement. They don’t want themselves off those things, just those “others.” And it does start with that guy in the White House, because the Tea Party didn’t start until Obama became president.
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: IMHO they actually do believe there is such a thing as a medically necessary abortion, and that it’s heartrendingly tragic. But they also believe that just about everyone who claims to have gotten one is lying to cover up her cavalier reprobate sluttiness. So the whole thing sorts itself out: no one who TRULY needs one will ever not be able to get one, and those who do become unable to get one deserved those consequences anyway.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
It takes a lot of work to blow the advantages Jeb had entering this campaign — name recognition, the party establishment’s favour, ALL THAT MONEY — but by golly, he’s done it.
Jeffro
@Hawes: That’s the plan – Cruz’s plan, anyway. Trump supporters + Carson supporters = serious leverage come a brokered convention (at least for a VP nod)
FlipYrWhig
@Belafon: But it’s also because Others are the way that Democrats play the rest of us for suckers, fattening them up on perks and welfare in exchange for their votes and looking the other way at their swaggering lawlessness. The “Tea Party” was just that anecdote all rank-and-file Republicans have about the lady with a fancy manicure paying for her groceries with food stamps lightly rebranded–because the black President made it seem like not only corrupt Negro-loving patronage in the way of all other Democrats but reparations fueled by moral blackmail. (edited mildly after original posting)
ruemara
@Elizabelle: you’re too hopeful. White women vote Republican at approximately 52%. They may “Stand With Planned Parenthood”, they stand against negroes, dirty Latinos and liberals when they’re in the voting booth. Which means millions of women would love to watch the hectoring of that evil baby parts merchant and frankly, would sign up to stone her.
I wish it were different but people need to recall the lessons of Wendy Davis’ campaign.
catclub
@ruemara: I thought that was married white women voting GOP at 52%. Single women are pretty much Democratic voters. Married is the more conservative fraction.
srv
@Patricia Kayden:
Socialist always go Mein Kampf in the end.
D58826
Glad I’m not watching the planned parenthood hearings. I’m not sure my last remaining brain cell could take it. According to the committee chairman Jason Chaffez, planned parenthood is somehow responsible for his parents deaths. They both died from cancer. I realize the logic is a BIT tortured but the GOP is in favor of torture anyway so it all fits.
His reasoning is if you eliminate P/P funding you could quadruple funding for cancer research and maybe find a cure fort the cancer that killed his parents. Still with me here?. If you eliminate the 500 million dollar P/P money you can quadruple the 5 billion dollar s that the government spends on cancer research. each year (math isn’t one of his strong points either).
I think we have reached a point that maybe the FSM should just get a big bottle of whiteout, spread it across the US and start over.
? Martin
@Frankensteinbeck:
That’s not true. They do believe they will need them, but they trust there will always be discreet means to get them should heaven forbid someone force themselves on their daughter. Flights to Canada are cheap enough for the middle class, or possibly a nice week off in Europe. But as noted, that’s totally different than what PP does. Only poor people are irresponsible, because poor.
BGinCHI
@C.V. Danes: Well, I do have reading glasses….
Belafon
@D58826: In Texas, they eliminated some extraneous spending and rather than funding education like they’re required to do by the constitution, they decided to cut property taxes. He damn well knows that it would just be another tax cut.
Patricia Kayden
@D58826: Why didn’t Republicans defund Planned Parenthood under Bush’s second term? Or during the Bush administration’s reign? They should have went after Planned Parenthood instead of Acorn if it’s such a horrific organization.
Patricia Kayden
@srv: A White Supremacist like you should know all about Hitler.
benw
@Patricia Kayden: They didn’t have obviously faked-up videos back then.
Elizabelle
Another heroine just learned of: US Rep Stacey Plaskett, from the US Virgin Islands.
Tells the committee chair, Jason Chafetz, that he has 7 Planned Parenthood clinics in his district, and that she’d be delighted to have even one in hers, because she is aware of the good services PP provides.
Spends her session poking at David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress of Irvine, CA, anti-abortion group which produced the edited videos.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yeah, but there’s a reason they (the leadership, the elites, the ones who get on TeeVee) never, even in off-year elections, talk about abortion as a national campaign issue. McCain and Romney –besides both being mostly indifferent to the issue even if it’s one of only two that McCain has never flip-flopped on– and their campaigns knew not to talk about it, and I don’t remember it in 2010 or ’14 either. If that base that Ted Cruz correctly says the elites despise and exploit for their votes stay riled up on this issue, and demand to hear promises during the campaign (as opposed to, “wait, wait, we’ll get to it, ssshhhh”), those numbers may change.
also, there’s probably some rule against it, but I would’ve loved to see this guy get called by Dems to explain why it’s okay for some people
Aleta
@JPL: Maybe there is a bit of a parallel with the general GOP preference to send more of taxpayers’ money toward private, profit-oriented organizations, by attacking or crippling or draining money out of state/federal (and lower-profit) organizations. Possibly, they believe that if federal health care money goes away from PP and into private hospitals, they will somehow have more control over “radicals” like Planned Parenthood or community activists (who used to get much more grant money). Just a guess.
? Martin
@Elizabelle:
These guys are up the street from me. I’ll be sure to spit on their door every time I walk by. Had no idea…
Patricia Kayden
@benw: Actually, there were faked up videos targeting ACORN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACORN_2009_undercover_videos_controversy
http://gawker.com/5508190/okeefe-and-breitbart-acorn-videos-severely-edited
O’Keefe even had to pay out $100,000 to a former ACORN employee.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/03/12019/james-o%E2%80%99keefe-pays-100k-settlement-after-deceiving-public-about-acorn-alec%E2%80%99s-help
Elizabelle
@ruemara: I remember how horrified the well heeled white women (married and not, many presumably GOP) I knew were when GHW Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
He never got another term. (FWIW, David Souter was his first nominee, in 1990. Silent Clarence replaced Thurgood Marshall in 1991. Suck on that, wimmens and black peeps.)
catclub
@Aleta: This, this, this. No grifting opportunity from PP.
mai naem mobile
@ruemara: I would love to know the definition of ‘married white women”and the statistics on.them. Do they count married white women in mixed race marriages? Are Jews and Hispanics considered white? Are they primarily in deep red states? Do they skew older? Do gay married women count? Is long term live-in considered married or do you have to have ‘the paper?’:
patrick II
@gene108:
One answer to your question.
Aleta
@catclub: No way any of this power shift is going to save taxpayer money or increase secure (non-contract) jobs w/ regulated worker protection.
D58826
@? Martin: This goes back many a year but the old country GP (think doc. Adams from Gunsmoke) who brought my mom, me and my sister into the world also helped girls who had a ‘problem’. They just called it a D&C. No sweat no hassle and every one went about their life. I remember reading a few years back the the number of D&C’s on young women went down dramatically after Roe.
ShadeTail
Is this a serious statement? Cruz is probably already fundraising off of how this proves he is fighting against the GOP establishment.
qwerty42
@Chris:
“Culture of Life” doncha know.
Cervantes
@catclub:
“White female” (all):
2004: Bush 55% Kerry 44%
2008: McCain 53% Obama 46%
2012: Romney 56% Obama 42%
ruemara
@Cervantes: Thank you. It’s not made up, folks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Source?
Patricia Kayden
@benw: Actually, there were faked up videos targeting ACORN.
http://gawker.com/5508190/okeefe-and-breitbart-acorn-videos-severely-edited
Elizabelle
@? Martin: Please spit once or twice for me.
The name should have been a tell, in retrospect. The Center for “Medical Progress”. Who could be against that?
RaflW
@dedc79:
Perfect.
rikyrah
told you that The Turtle was far oilier than Orange Glo
RaflW
@Dahlia Lithwick’s Dreamboat: Bailing out the banks was not a failure. It most likely avoided a catastrophic global depression.
Any failure was in not extracting appropriate penalties from the banksters after saving their sorry asses.
Cervantes
Omnes Omnibus:
Exit polls. I’ve posted them several times before.
2004.
2008.
2012.
sukabi
@debbie: don’t know about that, but it will buy him some more time in the sun with the Village Steno crew. Who likes a food fight? They do. Easier to fill the time and space. No actual work to do.
? Martin
@Elizabelle: I suspect I just never saw them there. Around the corner from the store I usually go to. I’ll be sure to park around back to have an excuse to spit on the door (twice).
mclaren
@BGinCHI:
Nope. Both Trump and Cruz are toast. Watch. You’ll see.