And thus the party's transformation to villainous Harry Potter bureaucrats will be complete. pic.twitter.com/KLtuhgcvTB
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) September 29, 2015
Now that BENGHAZI!, The Musical has achieved a record run (“The Benghazi Select Committee has now become one of the longest and least active congressional investigations in history,” Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, wrote in a statement. “The Committee has squandered the last 16 months and more than 4.5 million taxpayer dollars dredging up political attacks to impact the 2016 presidential election — a severe misuse of taxpayer funds and Congressional power.”…), Trey Gowdy’s Congressional fans think he should pursue even further glory. As explained by the NY Times:
House conservatives, fearful that the post-John A. Boehner era of leadership may look more like a modestly renovated old house than a newly built one, have begun to cast about for one of their own to join the upper ranks: the head of the committee that has been ripping into Hillary Rodham Clinton for well over a year.
While Representative Kevin McCarthy of California appears to have the momentum to become the next speaker of the House, the race for his current job, majority leader, has been thrown into a bit of chaos, with the only female candidate for the post withdrawing from consideration and an incipient grass-roots effort emerging to persuade Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, who has been leading the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email account as secretary of state, to step into the race.
“He is the kind of smart fighter our country needs and the American people deserve,” Representative Mia Love, Republican of Utah, said in a prepared statement Tuesday…
Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican of Utah and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also supports a promotion for Mr. Gowdy.
So far Mr. Gowdy, who oversees the Select Committee on Benghazi — one of the longest-running Congressional investigations in history — has kept a low profile in the leadership race. “Chairman Gowdy is focused on the Benghazi Committee and will serve in that capacity so long as the committee exists,” said a spokeswoman, Amanda Duvall, notably not ruling the run out…
The 40 or some conservatives who pushed Mr. Boehner to resign may well continue to look in their own ranks for a leader. So far they have lacked a sufficient organizing operation or a slate of candidates willing to step up…
At least one person, Mr. Gowdy’s mother, views the idea positively, even if it might pose a time-management issue. “My goodness, I think he has his hands full right now,” Novalene Gowdy said in a telephone interview. “I think he would be qualified for anything there he is there. He is a very hard worker.”
Well, as long as his momma’s okay with it, who could complain?
Baud
Honestly, why is the New York Times calling his mother anyway?
Debbie
I wonder what the combined cost of all the “investigations” (PP, IRS, etc.) add up to.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: A boy’s best friend is his mother.
ETA: Does Gowdy look just a little bit melty in that photo?
jayjaybear
Mia Love has to be the most tragic victim of Stockholm Syndrome since Patty Hearst…
Rob
Gowdy might just stay on his committee, per Political Wire/the Washington Post.
http://politicalwire.com/2015/09/29/gowdy-unlikely-to-enter-leadership-race/
This tweet made me roll my eyes, that Gowdy “loves” the Benghazi committee work.
Robert Costa @costareports 3h3 hours ago
Per several members, Gowdy became emotional tonight as he spoke to colleagues, said he loves Benghazi cmmte work, must focus on it
eta: it made me almost snort my wine, actually.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Gowdy looks his age in that shot, but I’ve seen some where his resemblance to Draco Malfoy really is remarkable.
Without Draco’s momentary attack of conscience after the Stinging Charm, obviously.
Omnes Omnibus
@jayjaybear: Patty Hearst at least inspired some decent music.
Baud
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
Gowdy kills Dumbledore without skipping a beat.
srv
See, this is why cucks fail. Narcissists like Obama and Hillary produce so much chaff, and these morons go after it like rednecks to a panty drawer.
Trump is a strategic thinker – the likes of which have not been seen since Reagan. You people are still living in Reagan’s world, and your grandchildren will be living in Trumps.
Why can this country only produce men like that every generation or two?
greennotGreen
I have watched a lot of Forensic Files on TV, and Trey Gowdy appeared in some of them when he was a prosecutor. Having seen his behavior in the House, I wonder how many innocent people he sent to prison.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo ?
ThresherK
Someone wanna explain to the Beltway inbreds at the NYT how little blood has been drawn from HRC for all the “ripping into” crap from that kangaroo court of a committee?
amk
I thought the teanuts were rootin’ for that kkk guy whasshisname.
Frankensteinbeck
This is a fantastically stupid piece of conventional wisdom. The Teabagger wing of the House has tried and failed to oust Boehner. The only way they ‘pushed Mr. Boehner to resign’ is that they’re such whiny, unmanageable shits that the job wasn’t worth it. That’s a big difference from the implied using their power to achieve a deliberate goal against his resistance. Similarly, they have only been able to block all legislation because Boehner let them, by being more draconian about only letting Republican legislation be voted on than any speaker up until now. Don’t dignify them with power they don’t have.
EDIT – Hell, no wonder he’s quitting. Boehner has been the most effective champion conservatism has had in congress in living memory, and he’s gotten nothing but shit for it.
amk
@srv:
your stupid one-liners were better.
Omnes Omnibus
@divF: The spoken word lead-in to Hey Joe from Patti Smith and Tania from Camper van Beethoven.
SFAW
Wow, a stupid (as in dumb fucking moron) troll, who’d’a thunk it?
Trump a strategic thinker? Right. And Carly Fiorina turned HP from a nearly bankrupt piece of crap into perhaps the bestest company evah, no doubt.
After the Mets leaving about 47 runners on base tonight, I needed a laugh, glad we have single-digit-IQ trolls to provide that.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
You Got Your Baby Back. Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, 1976, back when they were a cabaret act fronted by Danny Elfman.
Princess
@srv: It’s when you say things like this that I know you are DougJ. It’s like RtR with his “elderly black women for Obama.” It’s a tell.
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Why did I just mention spoken word bit in “Hey Joe?” Hearst is present throughout.
Anoniminous
Well NS, S.
These people can’t govern. They can only firebomb the place and then complain of smoke.
SFAW
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
Trey-co Malfoy? Both are bullies, no sense of integrity, etc. Coincidence? (Although someone once told me that Tom Felton is actually a half-decent person. I have no idea. On the other hand, it’s not hard to be a “half-decent person,” when the comparison is to Trey-co.)
Gin & Tonic
@SFAW: Even the fucking Economist, of all places, is bad-mouthing Carly, pointing out that after she got fired 10 goodamn years ago, she hasn’t had a single job offer.
Roger Moore
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
I don’t think that was supposed to be a momentary attack of conscience. The point was that he had been forced to look at his own capacity for evil when he was tasked with killing Dumbledore, and he found that he just wasn’t willing to be that bad. He and his family couldn’t escape from the control of the Death Eaters, but he had the ability to resist passively. He went after Harry later because he wanted to get his wand back, but he wasn’t really in it for the evil at that point.
Omnes Omnibus
So TCM gets a miss for the next couple of hours. I am not up for a documentary about the Holocaust.
El Caganer
Fuck Gowdy. I’m a Louie Gohmert man.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t gonna nitpick you on that…
SFAW
Apropos of nothing in particular: Gowdy, Chaffetz, and the rest of the Congressional TeaBaggers could all perish in a circle-jerk-gone-horribly-bad, and no one would care.
Well, that’s not quite true — the rational world would say “Thank FSM! Now MAYBE we can get some real work done.” [Note: I don’t necessarily include the non-TeaBagger Rethugs in the “rational world.”]
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I am capable of nitpicking myself.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus: A man of principle.
Roger Moore
@El Caganer:
Gohmert or Go Home!
lamh36
Zoë came to see her favorite auntie!
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/649046424890400769
Omnes Omnibus
@divF: It’s more pedantry than principle.
KS in MA
@Baud:
He has a mother?
divF
@lamh36:
Wearing her best “This is so exciting!” look on her face.
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
As much as I hate her, I don’t necessarily hold that against her, since I’m assuming she had political ambitions as early as that.
On the other hand, maybe she’s just like Bob Fucking Palmer* (may THAT motherfucker burn in Hell forever), and can only find work as an outside Director on various Boards. (Of course, he’s now 75 years old, so another CEO job is unlikely.)
* For those unfamiliar with Bob Fucking Palmer: he was the last CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation, the motherfucker who sold off a bunch of divisions, then sold the company to Compaq. And, yes, I really do hate him that much. I expect the 70,000-or-so people he laid off may harbor similar feelings, although perhaps not as intensely. That motherfucker.
NotMax
The Gowdy trial balloon was shot down before it cleared the first treetop.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh36: What a wonderful photo.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Clearly we share a somewhat pedantic approach.
SFAW
@lamh36:
That is a great picture. Thanks!
Anoniminous
@lamh36:
That’s really cute. What an adorable kid.
mclaren
This weeks atrocity in Shithole America:
Man accused of stealing $5 in snacks died in jail as he waited for space at mental hospital”
We need to sandblast off the current logo on the statue of liberty and substitute the words: ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.
amk
@NotMax:
yup, gopolitico sez so.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): One like to be correct. Especially about things like that.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s a blessing and a curse.
goblue72
Dude sports some really unfortunately limp thin hair that is not taking kindly to aging. The reverse-Trump hairdo he’s sporting ain’t helping him none.
SFAW
@mclaren:
I was going to suggest that “Lasciate ogni speranza … etc” be used, but the TeaBaggers would probably think it was Moooslimish (as in “the Moooslim language”). Actually, that might be the way to go — watch they heads a-splode!
Anoniminous
@SFAW:
Olsen crippled the company and then
the hyenasPalmer, et. al., killed it.Mark
We’re living some sort of alternate reality. I’m 58 years old and I never thought that I would be living in a world that this is some how real?
srv
Will the liberals gush now?
amk
@srv:
as a pope, he is obligated to meet with all kindsa sinners. #idjit
MazeDancer
@lamh36:
That is one cute baby! Just adorable!
SFAW
@Anoniminous:
Ken certainly had a number of major blind spots, and needed to do things VERY differently from around 1987 onward – such as get a Marketing Department that actually understood what marketing is — but his goal was ALWAYS the success of the company. Bob Fucking Palmer — not so much.
Mark
@mclaren:
We need to sandblast off the current logo on the statue of liberty and substitute the words: ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.
I’m sorry to say, you’ve won the internet today!
jibeaux
The comparison is, if anything, unfair to Draco who was a) a minor with overbearing, manipulative parents and b) as an adult actor IRL is something of a hottie.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. is The Spy in Black, a neatly packaged tale of naval intrigue in WW1.
As was de rigueur at the time of its making, crosses into melodrama but of interest as it is mostly told from the villain’s POV, a role which Conrad Veidt nails to the proverbial “T.”
First pairing of the director and writer who later collaborated on such films as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus.
Citizen_X
@Omnes Omnibus: Also She by the Misfits.
SFAW
@NotMax:
Does Bogart shoot him in this one, too?
goblue72
@srv: You mean the double-secret meeting claimed by Kim Davis’ nut job lawyers from Liberty Counsel, that was so secret supposedly it involved only the Pope & Kim Davis, was witnesses by no one, and has not been confirmed by the Vatican?
THAT meeting? Thanks for letting us know.
divF
@Citizen_X:
Classic.
ETA: I easily could have played this, the Patti Smith, and the Oingo Bingo in a single set during my disk jockey days in 1977.
SFAW
Did they have someone translate the English into Self-Righteous Moron, so that Unclueable Kimmy Wingnut could “understand” it?
gf120581
His mother’s name is Novalene?!
How much more white trash can the Gowdy clan get?
Anoniminous
@SFAW:
I was on the outside, looking in, so I bow to your greater knowledge. I programmed the PDP-8*, PDP-11, LSI-11, and VAX-11. (Good machines all.)
* In 1983!!!! THAT was a hoot.
MazeDancer
The same lawyers who made up the story that 100K people in Peru had a prayer meeting for Kim Davis using a year old picture of another event – which they eventually had to admit was not true – are now purporting Kim met with the Pope. In DC. That somehow she, her hair, and her husband, got through security and the zillion reporters at the Vatican residence in DC, and no one noticed. And that this was not worth mentioning before now.
There is no way this meeting happened.
Right Wing Ken Langone CEO of Home Depot had to stand on the steps of St Patrick’s to get to shake hands with the Pope. Private meetings weren’t part of the agenda. And certainly not ones that would derail the entire PR campaign of 24/7 Pope is So Loving, Kind and Great TV.
Sad part is even some news outlets on Twitter are presenting the lawyer’s made up story.
Frank Bolton
@srv:
How come you’re never around when Right to Rise is around? You two could have a grand old time going at each others’ throats.
srv still thinks that the past 15 years of slow but inexorable demographic sea change, the sea change responsible for Obama winning by 4% with 8% unemployment, haven’t happened and/or won’t continue to happen with the same monotonic progression. How adorable. But then again, conservatives, especially conservatives who unironically use the word ‘cuck’, have always been pretty awful at any kind of historical analysis. C’est la vie.
Ironically enough, Reagan via his amnesty program is largely responsible for setting in motion the events that will make Trump a never-was. Reagan failed you and he’ll be largely the reason why you’ll be forced to endure the indignity of multiculturalism and an expanded welfare state in about, oh, 1 to eight years.
How does it feel, sport, to be forced to genuflect to the biggest cuck of them all while lying to yourself about him being the savior of conservatism?
Anoniminous
@Frank Bolton:
Same person collecting paychecks from JEB! and Trump?
Mike in NC
@srv: Keep pulling it out of your ass, fucking imbecile.
mclaren
@srv:
Because we banned thalidomide.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen_X: Nice.
SFAW
@Anoniminous:
I was on the inside for about 14 years. Saw a number of successes, and too many major failures. Ken was a brilliant man, but, as with most entrepreneurs, guiding the company after it reached a particular revenue level (whatever that number may be) was something that he should have brought someone in for. The Board installed Palmer, and he was a disaster. Of course, he was excellent at laying off people, so there’s that.
I don’t know when he and the Board decided to sell the company, but, in retrospect, it became apparent about two or three years before the actual sale to Compaq.(Meaning, looking back, when they started selling off Divisions was what tips their hand. But it wasn’t extremely obvious until 1997.)
SFAW
@mclaren:
Win
Omnes Omnibus
@mclaren: @SFAW: I don’t often say it, but mclaren should have dropped the mic after that one.
SFAW
@Frank Bolton:
Fixed. Well, no — “modified,” because you were not wrong, just more specific than you needed to be.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
I know – are you feeling OK? Or just hung over after the
PatsPackers win?BSChief
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Goober Malfoy (R-Deliverance)
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: Look, I’ll nit-pick myself when needed. I’ll be fair to mclaren when called for. I just don’t have much need for either behavior.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Thanks. That was pretty funny. (In a good way.)
jibeaux
@lamh36:
What a pretty baby. I’m sorry she’s on a Trey Gowdy thread.
sukabi
@SFAW: there hasn’t been a repub s3x scandal in a while, maybe some one should see what that group of thirds is up to.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@MazeDancer: Yup, that same Liberty Counsel
LiarLawyer himself. Perhaps they met in private in Peru? Just about as likely.Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: One likes, ffs. Jebus.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks, Obama. Even Jebus couldn’t save Omnes from that typo.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): It was fated, given the subject of the comment. It’s like a Greek tragedy.
dww44
@SFAW: Agreed.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Was it you who noted once (paraphrasing):
Whoever said that, it’s a pretty good description of the commentariat here.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I don’t remember doing it, but I can’t say it wasn’t me. I’ll disclaim credit though.
ETA: On Twitter, TNR writer Jeet Heer is on #27 of a series of numbered tweets but he included this from Marianne Moore, an artist has to have “the courage of one’s peculiarities.” Nice.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
Another variation that I find useful is having the “courage of one’s compulsions.”
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
Another variation that I find useful is having the “courage of one’s compulsions.”
divF
My very first FYWP !
Omnes Omnibus
@divF: Congratulations. The pain, like the shame, is only temporary.
msdc
By all means, GOP, please elect as your leader a guy who always looks like he just burst out of the belly of one of the crewmen on the Nostromo.
Kropadope
I know America has some problems, Mia; but c’mon, we’re not that bad.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOL.
Frankensteinbeck
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
I think that was me, hip deep in that argument. I wish I could remember what it was, but after discarding a lot of others, the person I was debating with had a really good argument that Oedipus was 20+ that I conceded to. I think it might have been that he had to be that age to qualify for the event he left and killed his dad on the way home from?
catclub
@El Caganer: Dapper Dan man versus Fop man.
divF
@Kropadope:
Mia Love: Courtney’s evil twin.
Omnes Omnibus
@divF:
A series of words seldom typed.
Villago Delenda Est
Making Joffrey Baratheon majority leader is a good idea, if you really want to bring back Pelosi as Speaker in ’17.
Go for it, Rethuglican swine.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
I have a friend who does a Courtney drag act that includes lip-syncing Pretty On the Inside.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: LOL.
@divF: I never thought about it before (we can go into all the privilege issues involve at another time) but Courtney is probably good drag fodder. Now to listen to Violet.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus:
Violet: nice bedtime music. Gnite, all.
Ydobon
@SFAW: That’s Latin, dude. Latin, as in Latin America. They would naturally target a different group of immigrants, legal or illegal, from down south. If you don’t believe me, check this out if you forgot or did not know about it: Latin confounds baggers in Vermont.
Tokyokie
@Omnes Omnibus: And, of course, there’s the very end of Warren Zevon’s Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.
Zinsky
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Tara, Gowdy looks like a hideous version of Draco Milfoy, after he got his face smashed flat with a frying pan – but maybe I am just fantasizing about what I would like to do to this m*therf*cker. I don’t know that I have had as negative of a reaction as this to any politician since I first saw Newton Leroy Gingrich. This Gowdy dude is pure evil – humorless, self-righteous, ugly, ruthless and very, very dangerous. Democrats need to be very careful and watchful of this seditious prick!
brantl
That guy looks like Voldemort in a wig, is that Gowdy? Seriously?
brantl
@srv: Go blow yourself.
evodevo
@srv: Uh, I think you got it wrong way round – It’s FORTUNATE that people like Raygun and Thump come around only every 40 years, or this country would have been an even bigger trash heap than it already is…..
brantl
@mclaren:
FOR THE WIN!!!!!!!!!