So Clinton's plan as president is to lure Republicans into compromise by getting them drunk? https://t.co/1C1PS0oczQ pic.twitter.com/IibKYeFkuQ
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 3, 2016
@jonathanchait Sober wasn't working.
— james richardson (@outofideas4anam) July 3, 2016
Bleary-eyed Paul Ryan rolls out of bed, sees headline, "GOP Agrees To Infrastructure Plan," asks, "What did I do?"
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 3, 2016
@jonathanchait wait til he notices the tattoo.
— John Schwartz (@jswatz) July 3, 2016
… but no unicorn ponies! (Why does she hate progressives who love unicorns?!?)… Given the NYTimes‘ reflexive anti-Clinton (and anti-Obama) bias, this isn’t too bad a profile:
Should she win the presidency, Hillary Clinton would quickly try to find common ground with Republicans on an immigration overhaul and infrastructure spending, risking the wrath of liberals who would like nothing more than to twist the knife in a wounded opposition party.
In her first 100 days, she would also tap women to make up half of her cabinet in hopes of bringing a new tone and collaborative sensibility to Washington, while also looking past Wall Street to places like Silicon Valley for talent — perhaps wooing Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook, and maybe asking Tim Cook from Apple to become the first openly gay cabinet secretary…
Her opening might be a narrow one. She faces skepticism on the right about her willingness to compromise and her potential use of executive actions, and there is outright suspicion on the left that she might sell out progressive goals for the sake of bipartisan action with Republicans.
Still, Democrats close to her say she has a real touch with power brokers in both parties that could yield surprising results…
Her calculation is that she will be dealing with a Republican Party that is deeply fractured and demoralized after the defeat of Mr. Trump, whose leaders will be searching for ways to show they can govern and to court Hispanics if Mr. Trump loses badly with them. Mrs. Clinton also thinks a huge Democratic turnout this fall would put the Senate back in her party’s hands, while Speaker Paul D. Ryan and the Republicans would have a reduced majority in the House.
What Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Clinton do not know — but regularly explore in conversations, according to friends — is whether Republican leaders, even if their power is diminished, would be in a mood to cooperate…
Mrs. Clinton has assigned three top aides — Ann O’Leary, Ed Meier and Sara Latham — to oversee transition planning, reporting to Mr. Podesta. Clinton advisers say they do not expect Mr. Clinton to be constantly visible in the early months beyond whatever duties Mrs. Clinton gives him on economic policy and foreign affairs. The Clintons’ priority is that he does not do anything that distracts from her agenda or overshadows her as the country gets used to having a former president (and a man) in the role of first spouse…
SFAW
Kim du Toit will have a stroke.
And not a moment too soon.
RepubAnon
Only trouble I see with using alcohol to soften up Republicans is that alcohol affects rational thinking abilities. As Republicans lack these when sober…
redshirt
When are Republican leaders EVER searching for ways to show they can govern? Not governing is their entire purpose!
Emma
AAAAAANNNNNND…. cue the Bernistas!
Schlemazel Khan
KEY-ricet. I really don’t want another President who is looking for common ground with the pig-fuckers of the GOP.
HERE is an interesting article from the Herald of Scotland.
Apparently the Labor Party feels they need to unload Corbyn because he is going to call for a trail for Blair after the report comes out on their Iraq fuck up. So blue dog Dems may be taking notes for how to prevent W from being called into account
Hal
Chuck Todd is going to love this plan. Isn’t his big criticism of Obama is that he didn’t have Republicans over for dinner at the white house?
Baud
She can also get Republicans some high quality cocaine from Mena.
dm
Oh, we all know how this works. She’ll spend seven years trying to find common ground with the Republicans, and then the last year of her presidency no longer have any fucks to give, and we’ll love that last year.
Baud
@SFAW: There will be hearings on discrimination against men in the Clinton administration.
Mnemosyne
If someone will photoshop Hillary’s face onto Karen Allen’s for the drinking contest scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and post a link here, I will donate an extra $50 to Hillary’s campaign.
Kathleen
@Hal: His big criticism of Obama is all the things, with black and Democratic topping the list. Plus the fact he doesn’t kiss villagers’ butts, at least not to their satisfaction. See insightful, thoughtful and well researched book “The Stranger” in a remainder bin near you.
redshirt
I suppose it is worth a try getting Republicans hammered. And even if they don’t compromise, some of them are guaranteed to commit some cries, so win-win.
Davis X. Machina
@Emma:
He’sShe’s worse than Bush.HeShe sold us out.redshirt
@Mnemosyne: Heh. I was thinking of making that reference. Girl could drink!
Villago Delenda Est
And then Paul Ryan finds out he’s joined the Junior Campers. Oh the huge manatee!
Emma
1) It’s the New York Times. When it comes to the Clintons they could tell me Bill was a former President and Hillary a former Secretary of State and I would still check Wikipedia. There’s no ratfvckery the NYT would nor consider when it comes to them.
2) For the love of God stop jumping off piers at every stupid poll, story, or tweet. This is political theater and campaign commentary.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kathleen: The only thing the butts of The Villagers need are to be kicked hard, and frequently.
In Chuckles the Toddler’s case, the butt needs to be kicked to the Lesser Magellanic Cloud.
burnspbesq
@Schlemazel Khan:
Last I checked, it takes majorities in both houses of Congress to get legislation to the President”s desk. And the House isn’t flippimg until at least 2022.
Baud
Weird examples to choose to highlight the “wrath” of liberals.
Baud
@Emma: This and this.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I’m so freakin’ out of shape that I made it less than 10 miles on the Ojai bike path before I had to stop for a long break. G is riding up a bit further without me while I hang out in a park with a bunch of families I don’t know, and then we ride back to the bike shop. After that, beer and dinner at Anacapa Brewing Co.
Baud
She’s measuring the drapes!
And they’re not even her drapes!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Team D picked up 21 House seats and 8 Senate seats in 2008 running against a fairly conventional Republican (with an insane running mate, but still). This year, demographics are even more in Team D’s favor, they’re running against an insane, bigoted, incompetent “Republican”.
The Teabaggers are defending more Senate seats than the Democrats. Redistricting makes the House challenging, but the GOP majority is fragile.
There’s no reason why we cannot flip the Senate and maybe even the House if people turn-out. If we don’t want her to have to get the Teabaggers drunk to pass sensible legislation, then we need to make sure the House and Senate flip, also too.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tom
@burnspbesq: Let’s not give up on the House just yet. We need something like 30 seats to flip. That’s happened at least 4 times in the last 50 years. If The Donald continues on his merry way, I could see Republican turnout depressed to the point that this is feasible.
redshirt
@Baud: How arrogant! Wait, that word doesn’t work anymore. How about….. How shrewish!?
Mnemosyne
@burnspbesq:
I say we try for a wave election this year. We may not succeed, but we can probably take back the Senate and scare the fuck out of the House. I’d rather say we tried and failed than not try at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Tom: Another strong GOTV effort is needed by Dems to make this possible.
Roger Moore
Something tells me that Republican elected officials tend to be mean drunks, not friendly ones.
Baud
@redshirt:
Rhymes with Jewish. Fits perfectly into Trump’s message.
Gravenstone
@Hal: Except there were open invites from early on. But the Republicans chose to never avail themselves of the opportunity. Can’t be seen governing or anything like that.
Baud
Hangover IV is going to be an awesome flick.
Schlemazel Khan
@burnspbesq:
understood but not the point. She, more than almost anyone, knows the GOP is not interested in common ground. She more than almost anyone should be looking for placed to set the charges to force things through. As dm pointed out, 7 years of nothing & 1 year of no fucks to give. I don’t expect her to think she is going to get any help from the GOP, no one member. But I am hoping she goes in knowing that & not expecting any ‘common ground’
Emma
@Roger Moore: Me, I think they’re whiny drunks. The kind that want you to sympathize with every high school slight. Or worse yet, how their mommy preferred their younger brother.
amk
nice fantasy fare from the grey lady.
SFAW
@Baud:
Only if the Rethugs retain control of the House. Of course, if they do — Impeachment City, here we come!
Elie
It would be great for her to outmaneuver these assholes however she did it — alcohol or outright lies… I have heard rumors that she is a funny lady with a salty sense of humor that she doesn’t like being pampered… not surprised… I would love to see how she deals with not just the repubs but Putin. If she could only send that hubby of hers to Mars?Andromeda? Perpetual polar orbit? during her presidency, all would be good. Bill is gonna be a problem and I suspect she knows it….
Gravenstone
@Baud:
But they used to be …
eemom
This may tempt John of Orange out of retirement.
maryQ
She must be thinking at this point is is far more important to pick off a decent handful of disgruntled republicans than it is to get Susan Sarandon and Rosario Dawson to come around. Its unlikely she “needs” either group to win, but her goal of effective governing, of moving a few needles that have been stuck since Jan 2009, is much more likely if she courts moderate republicans.
MattF
@Schlemazel Khan: I think Hilz is going for a positive message. That makes some sense given the fear-mongering of the opposition.
redshirt
@maryQ: “Moderate republicans”? I’ve heard of such creatures from the past. Do you mean to imply they still exist?
Elie
@Schlemazel Khan:
But she is gonna have to be sneaky… it won’t work for her just to cross her arms and wag her finger at them. She will have to do subtle misdirection and sometimes play in other third parties. She’ll figure it out. What she doesn’t need are the Bernistas and other purity ponies lecturing about how “awful” when she has dinner with some former Republican leader (Kissinger?) who was in the state department… you know — we can’t ever talk to THOSE people…
SFAW
@Emma:
Well, if you were their mother, wouldn’t you?
Helen
Was there ever a time when GWB looked to “find common ground” with Democrats?
Yeah I didn’t think so.
Baud
@Gravenstone:
Part of me hopes she tweets “I’m back” after she wins.
burnspbesq
@maryQ:
Both of them?
dmsilev
@redshirt: Zoo officials have been conducting a captive breeding program for the last several years, and are about ready to release trial populations into the wild. Look for people wearing sensible shoes and radio tracking collars.
Roger Moore
@Emma:
I guess that at least some of them- I’m looking at you, John Boehner- are sad drunks.
Emma
@redshirt: She’s picked off at least one: my father, often described by his daughters as “to the right of Genghis Khan.” The way he puts it is that he dislikes her intensely and disagrees with almost every one of her ideas, but he does not expect to wake up one day and find us in a trade war, or a real one, because someone dissed her suit.
Baud
@redshirt: You may have answered Hillary’s question in the prior thread.
redshirt
@dmsilev: So they mated Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and cloned the offspring?
Hmm. Might work. Several generations from now.
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
You better stop drinking, you’re starting to see things.
(Or, seeing double, in case there actually is one somewhere.)
Ultraviolet Thunder
January 2017 can’t come too soon. I can’t wait for President Clinton II: The you know what.
She’ll be great once the campaign hyperventilating is over. That’s what I tell the ‘wingers in my office: the world will not end. I’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. Life will go on and maybe a little of the upward income shift of the last 30 years will slow. Other than that, pretty much business as usual and no hellmouth opening under DC to swallow the planet.
It’s just an orderly transition of power like we’ve been doing for over 200 years.
redshirt
@Emma: Genghis Khan was actually very liberal on most subjects. Destroying your city was not one of them.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Said he, “Forsooth, ’tis a sorry plight
That engenders my attitude bluish.”
Said he, “I don’t wanna be a knight,
That’s no job for a boy who is Jewish.”
— Sir Greenbaum, by the late, great Allan Sherman
(Edited lightly to correct faulty memory of lyrics)
Schlemazel Khan
@MattF:
That is what I am hoping this is
@Elie:
Perhaps but then BHO came in saying the same thing & acted as if he believed he was going to find common ground with some GOPpers. He got no help from many in his own party but I do wish he had come across as a bit more forceful, particularly in the ACA debate where it appeared to me he was waiting to see that he would be offered rather than setting a stake in the ground where he wanted it to be and at least trying to rally Dems to it.
I have no problem with her dining and dancing with anyone but I hope (and believe) she is strong willed and clever enough to not approach them passively looking for common ground.
Kathleen
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t even watch these people on TV but just reading about what they say infuriates me. Such a loathsome, pathetic collection of droolers.
SFAW
@redshirt:
If you’re using them as examples of “moderate Republicans,” does that mean the working definition is “a Republican who says they might consider voting with the President, but still falls in line in the end”?
burnspbesq
@redshirt:
I heard they tried to get Isaakson to participate, but he said he’d never been that drunk.
redshirt
@Baud: It’s confusing to have a FPer and a Presidential candidate with the same name. I demand one of them change their name.
Madame Shilldog Clinton, President of the United States of America.
redshirt
@SFAW: If you have better examples, like Barry, I’m all ears.
burnspbesq
I know there are some bluegrass fans in the congregation, and to thee I say yea verily, if thou hast not yet checked out the new Sam Bush album, hie thee hence and do so.
dmsilev
@Baud:
Should be ‘I’m back, bitches’.
SFAW
@redshirt:
None of the “better examples” is still in the Senate.
Chip Daniels
IMHO, crafting a culture where compromise and cooperation are the norm, IS twisting the knife into the opposition.
The opposition thrives on zealous rigidity, extremism and fanaticism; ending that would strip the Tom Cottons and Louie Gohmerts of their entire reason for existence.
Baud
@redshirt:
How about simply Lady POTUS? Also, a decent band name.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: I’m still holding out some hope that the “I don’t give a fuck” B Barry Bamz will at some event walk up to the podium and say “Excuse me while I whip this out…” and then GOP haids kerplode.
maryQ
@redshirt: OK, let me amend that. Non-nihilistic republicans.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but there’s been a bomb attack in Baghdad claimed by Daesh that’s killed at least 125 people.
More blood on the hands of the deserting coward, the Dark Lord, and Ralph Nader.
Schlemazel Khan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Maybe that was what he should have done at the inauguration! Then held a gun to his head & threatened to shoot if they didn’t give in to him! The GOP is, after all, the common clay of the new West
PhoenixRising
@Mnemosyne:
Make a tee and tank on Cafepress and give the campaign the profits.
Put The Donald across from her on the body of the loser & caption it ‘How Can I Help You Fellas?’ And it’s a best seller.
JMG
A Democratic candidate for President is not allowed to say “my opponents are evil and I intend to destroy them and salt their graves” or even “they’re not going to cooperate with me, so fuck ’em.” He or she must pretend the Village centrist consensus exists, or they will be turned into Dennis Kucinich on your TV screen. Clinton doesn’t believe a word of that crap. It’s just a crumb to throw to the crumbs who cover her.
Villago Delenda Est
Seriously, a bunch of HS journalism students could do a better job than the NYT.
PhoenixRising
@JMG: I’m not sure about that. I have thought for some time that the manner in which she plans to destroy them and salt their graves is going to be 100 days of Please Proceed politics.
raven
@Villago Delenda Est: It looks like Tony Blair will be “impeached” when the Iraq report comes out in the UK this week.
hamletta
Chill out, people. Like Emma said, this is the NYT.
In addition, Hillary spent quite a few years in the Senate, and she got to be close with some Republicans, like Lindsay Graham. If those relationships + a bottle of good bourbon result in some sane policy, who are we to judge?
Applejinx
@dmsilev: Should be this
Back
Anya
@Baud: They’re talking about NYT’s Fantasy Liberals. They’re close relatives of Clint Eastwood’s Invisible Obama.
father pussbucket
Eeeeeeeemanuael Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable …
Emma
@father pussbucket: There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya
’bout the raising of the wrist,
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed…
Anya
I don’t want a president who calls their opponents names or shows us how much they hate them. I want a president who’ll model good behavior and try to bring people together, even when dealing with republicans. I want Hillary to be tough and to fight, but I don’t want her to be belligerent and childish. That’s the GOP’s way.
germy shoemangler
Interview with the sister of Chris Stevens
burnspbesq
@Emma:
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart,
I drink therefore I am
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Mnemosyne: Send a note to driftglass – he’s a master at that sort of thing. Maybe he’ll take up the challenge!
Cheers,
Scott.
redshirt
@SFAW: @Villago Delenda Est: If he did it, most of the crowd of reporters wouldn’t get the joke.
And the right wing sites would report it seriously. And it would lead all 3 national news nightly broadcasts. And it would be a scandal for a few days after they “got” the joke. Then it would disappear.
Obama seems mostly immune to the type of scandal mongering the GOP does so well with the Clintons.
Roger Moore
@Applejinx:
ITYM this
Major Major Major Major
If?
The Lodger
@Schlemazel Khan: Maybe Cleavon Little should have played OJ Simpson in the mini series. Would have made the car chase a lot more watchable.
redshirt
@maryQ: There’s not many left to choose from. And I bet their numbers will decrease every election as Republicans just keep getting meaner.
Sloegin
If I never hear the words “Grand Bargain” again from a Clinton administration, I’ll gift it a bottle of whatever rotgut she wants to pour the Rs myself.
PaulWartenberg2016
Best case scenario is a Hillary landslide over Trump with 58-60 percent of the vote and 40 states with 400+ Electoral College count. Along with a sweep of all 34 Senate seats up for grabs, and about 15 seats majority in the House.
It will also really help if the state legislatures in Florida, North Carolina, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Arizona, Louisiana, and Georgia all switch Democrat.
Mike J
@Hal:
Obama had a cocktail party once a week, Wednesday IIRCC so that congress would be in town, with a standing invite to all MoCs. Boehner said he couldn’t attend because the teabaggers would throw a shit fit if he dared to talk to Obama, so they kind of faded away,
Frankensteinbeck
I wish to purchase the crystal ball this writer used to see into Hillary Clinton’s brain, because that appears to be their only source for this flood of predictions.
redshirt
@PaulWartenberg2016: I’d like a unicorn too.
Emma
@Frankensteinbeck: Jake, it’s the New York Times. You noticed how much of it was a subtle criticism of Obama? I’ll bet you $10 that some clever little subhuman middle manager thinks it might be interesting to see how many Obama supporters he can get pissed at Clinton.
And for those of you who think I’m being paranoid, well, with the NYT and the Clintons better safe than sorry.
Baud
@Emma: Yeah, it’s pretty clear that this article is about feeding the outrage machine for clicks.
starscream
Did Clinton somehow arrange for her FBI interview to fall on the holiday weekend? If so…genius.
Baud
@starscream: Agree 100%.
Steeplejack
Golly, too bad Obama never thought to try that.
Emma
@starscream: Doubt it. Comey would scream bloody murder.
Anya
Today, I’ve encountered two pleasant surprises: NBC News had a segment on Trump’s Star of David tweet, and they mentioned the source of the original tweet. Cory Booker was the second pleasant surprise. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s a gifted politician who knows how to handle CNN flunkies but he was never any good as an Obama surrogate. He always tried to be the Village’s bff. But whatever happened to him as a senator is a blessing because it freed him from playing the reasonable centrist.
Suzanne
I injured three fingers on my right hand yesterday (very minor but ow), so I had Mr. Suzanne dye my roots. This will be fun to see if he did a good job or not.
Baud
@Emma: It was obviously a voluntarily agreed upon time.
ThresherK
I was looking for something at WNYC and stumbled across this from OnTheMedia:
An NPR interview of a Slatepitcher about how the mainstream media needs to work on its ignorance about guns and gun culture?
Could this get any funnier (in the bad way)? I haven’t had the nerve to listen to it.
Emma
@Baud: yes, but my hunch is that the time/place may have been negotiated on two levels. The original plan, to interview her at home, was sunk by the media frenzy. So, change of venue. The second part is that the FBI’s got bupkis, so they’re trying to downplay the whole thing.
Steeplejack
Off to watch Endeavour and The Tunnel in almost real time.
I need Gogol’s Wife or someone to set me straight about something, or just commiserate. While they did a pretty good job of the segue into this season of Endeavour after the cliffhanger ending to last season, WTF is going on with the cute nurse from across the hall that Endeavour was dating?
No mention of her in any of the recaps, and then last week she showed up in the hospital, and she and Endeavour barely acknowledged each other. WTF?! I thought there would at least have been a “Sorry, love, got framed and went to prison for a few months. Fancy a pint?” Maybe they’ll get to that.
Baud
@Emma: I think at this point the FBI was expecting bupkis.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
You’re en fuego tonight. “Hold my Kool-Aid and watch this” earlier made me laugh out loud.
smith
@Steeplejack: Nope, she just vanishes. The segue from the cliffhanger was pretty abrupt as well, but I was relieved, cause I’m getting really tired of the “honest cop framed for murder” plot device.
Baud
@Steeplejack: Thanks. Don’t forget to tip your waitresses.
Viva BrisVegas
The machinery of Democracy continues to grind it’s practitioners into sausage filling.
The Liberal government has fallen short of a majority of seats, and so has the Labor opposition. Counting continues tomorrow, but no one party is expected to gain a majority.
So as 2010, the people have spoken and said, a pox on both your houses.
We are looking at a minority government with either Labor or the Liberals finagling support from six independents. But nothing will be certain until counting in the undeclared seats is finished, probably at the end of this week.
Steeplejack
@smith:
She appeared briefly in the episode last week!
rikyrah
Fareed ZakariaVerified account
@FareedZakaria
If it were not for US invasion of Iraq and subsequent disbanding of the Iraqi army by United States, there would be no ISIS: Richard Clarke
JPL
@Baud: You are so kind, I’m waiting for srv to tell us what’s up.
My lot backs up to 12 acres and a pond and they are doing their fireworks tonight. There’s something magical about seeing color through the leaves. The dog doesn’t enjoy it as much as me though.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy shoemangler: Tracing it back, it’s on the heads of scumbuckets like Jason Chaffetz, who decided that embassy/consulate security was less important than tax cuts for the parasite overclass.
rikyrah
Only4RM @Only4RM
You all shrug at actual crim probes dropped after Trump contact & sizable campaign donations but lose your sh*t over “optics”. @chucktodd
Only4RM @Only4RM
All of a sudden, candidate tax returns aren’t important because holding Trump to normal standards might hurt him… & ratings. @chucktodd
3:25 PM – 3 Jul 2016
Steeplejack
@redshirt:
“Moderate Republicans.” I think they’re included in the extinction thread downstairs.
smith
@Steeplejack: Yes, but as I recall, that’s it for the season, just a glimpse and no reunion for them. I thought that’s what you were asking about.
randy khan
@Emma:
Clinton’s team has been saying that they were willing to meet with the FBI any time, and made the offer back in the fall (or maybe earlier), so the time was set by the FBI.
Prescott Cactus
@dmsilev: Film at 10:00 ?
No thanks.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: The intent, if I’m interpreting what I read at your link correctly, is to ensure that Blair never holds public office in the UK again.
The Lodger
@ThresherK: I heard about 2/3 of it. It was fully as bad as you expected.
Emma
@randy khan: So the story about it being at her house was either misdirection or someone making it up.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: DING DING DING DING DING
All this is a consequence of the 2000 US Presidential Election.
ThresherK
@The Lodger: Thanks; “taking one for the team” is an underappreciated favor. I’ll spare myself.
Steeplejack
@smith:
Jesus Christ, I’m seeing this new season in real time (for PBS). No fucking spoilers, please!
Villago Delenda Est
@Emma: If only that stuckup, uppity B Barry Bamz had invited Rethug leaders over for drinks, popcorn, and a movie, everything would have worked out fine.
smith
@Steeplejack: Sorry, but you appeared to be asking for exactly this information:
.
If you don’t want to know, don’t ask.
Emma
@Villago Delenda Est: It’s not even that. They don’t believe that. It’s their corporate whoremasters’ orders: never miss an opportunity to screw the Democrats. Good Christ, I despise the media.
Tripod
Mike Pence?
Okay sure….
randy khan
@Emma:
It could have been misdirection, or a bad source, or even the original plan that got changed for some reason. It’s hard to say.
rikyrah
Joy Reid @JoyAnnReid 7h7 hours ago
1/ The whole point of the “alt-right” is to make white nationalism “mainstream.” Now they’ve latched onto a major party candidate.
522 retweets 580 likes
Joy ReidVerified account
@JoyAnnReid
2/ Whether or not he invited that latching on is immaterial. It’s happening. How that’s not more alarming to more people is beyond me.
Joy Reid @JoyAnnReid 7h7 hours ago
3/ That this candidate has repeatedly distributed alt-right memes with no apparent concern is alarming.
Joy ReidVerified account
@JoyAnnReid
4/ That his former campaign manager thinks distributing a nakedly anti-Semitic meme is no biggie is alarming.
JPL
@rikyrah: Bush was planning the invasion after the Supreme Ct. gave him the presidency. His father was embarrassed.
9/11 was his excuse.
WarMunchkin
I don’t really think it’s going to be any different. a) No 60 votes, so the McConnell rule for passing legislation is still in effect, b) no House, so the Hastert suggestion is in effect.
Having the Senate allows us to do some more basic governing actions like moving things to the floor to get blocked there instead of before getting to the floor. (okay, there is some actual business that can get done).
I’m voting for an executive that won’t collapse Obama’s achievements until the Republicans get washed out of history.
J R in WV
George W Bush is certainly the most prominent war criminal in modern American history.
If the British want to jump on Tony Blair, that all good, but he should remember who lied him into it, and call George W as a witness.
W, the deserting coward, won’t appear, lest he be picked up by a tough squad of cops from The Hague, and taken to face the International Criminal Court. Because he is a deserting coward.
Steeplejack
@smith:
Please forgive me all to hell for not taking into consideration that (a) the show has previously appeared in Britain and (b) some number of people in the U.S. have already seen it. I guess “WTF is going on with the cute nurse from across the hall” could be interpreted as a query in the context of the “new” (to us poor shlubs) and unfolding run of the series here, but clearly you were correct to barge ahead and reveal all. Thank God it’s only a minor point.
gene108
@Helen: I
Medicare Part D, NCLB, and McCain-Feingold were all about grabbing issues Democrats were interested in and advancing them with a conservative “free-market” framework.
Outside off bullying people into the Iraq War, and some of the security state stuff (USA PATRIOT Act*), Bush, Jr. did not have much control on Congress. He usually just rubber stamped whatever the GOP Congress sent over.
His second round of tax cuts passed the Senate on Cheney’s tie breaking vote.
* I do not remember what exactly the USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym for but whoever dreamt up that acronym really did a deviously good job for Republican propaganda purposes.
dogwood
@JPL:
We’d have been a lot better off if W would have had the guts to hire more of his father’s people. But he was too insecure and wanted to show that he wasn’t his daddy. Rumsfeld and his father were enemies so that was a signal that HW wasn’t calling the shots. We’d have been a lot better off with Brent Scowcroft hanging around than “yes” people like Condi Rice who let Rumsfeld push her around. Not to mention giving Dick Cheney free reign to manipulate the system. Cheney wasn’t as dangerous when he was Sec. def under HW because he actually had a job to do and he wasn’t dictating policy. He becomes VP and he hasn’t got much of a defined job so he’s free to plot and scheme and let his evil nature go wild.
Origuy
I don’t know about Tim Cook in a Democratic cabinet. I think Hillary would ask him to explain this:
Prescott Cactus
@Steeplejack:
Not if you’re the cute nurse across the hall.
Rommie
HRC isn’t going to “try to find” common ground with the Republicans. She’s going to OFFER common ground, ground that she defines. And when they pull the GFY routine, hoo boy, the bean bags will turn into hand grenades. I hope they try the stall-until-2018 strategy, I really do.
dogwood
@WarMunchkin:
I’m with you. We made some huge gains during the Obama years; they need to be maintained and solidified. The most significant contribution that Hillary can make is with SCOTUS, and I can’t believe Ginsberg won’t step down within a decent interval after Scalia is replaced. However, I’m not looking forward to the bitching and moaning among the online progressives who will tell us her picks aren’t liberal enough. Heard all that with Sotomayer and Kagan, and it’s proven to be absurd. Same with Garland who is a liberal judge by any standard. But they still had to bitch and moan.
redshirt
Man, imagine a world where Gore is elected in 2000 and 2004; Kerry is elected 2008 and 2016. We’ve already beaten Climate Change and so this election is about what huge problem to solve next. Candidate Kim says Energy. Candidate Smith says the sex life of Candidate Kim.
justawriter
Now I want Mel Brooks to do a movie about the Obama Administration.
Keith G
HRC has been credited with having great skills for the inside political game. I assume if any Democrat can find cracks in the wall of obstruction, it will be her.
Keith G
@dogwood:
That is important, but do not sell Hillary short. I expect that she will be able to achieve her very own highly significant successes in pushing the boundaries of policy.
gene108
@dogwood:
The problem with Bush, Jr’s Cabinet is no one took him seriously. Rumsfeld and Cheney carved out their own fiefdom. Powell had enough gravitas to stake out his own little barony at the State Department. The rest of the folks Jr appointed, like Rice, were just dismissed as light-weights.
And Bush, Jr for his part didn’t care too much about what his underlings were plotting, as long as he held the title of President, because he did not want to do the actual work of being President. He probably figured the bureaucracy would carry on without much intervention from the top, while he cleared brush at his “ranch” in Texas and posed for pictures.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rikyrah: Good for Clarke and, I guess, Zakaria
rikyrah
Joy Reid ✔ @JoyAnnReid
5/ That this ideology is attempting to grab a foothold in mainstream American politics, and drawing shrugs from party faithful is alarming.
Joy Reid ✔ @JoyAnnReid
6/ That this trend of pulp-populist ethnonationalism is happening across the Western world is alarming
1:30 PM – 3 Jul 2016
redshirt
@gene108: I protested W. the moment he seized power. And lots of times later. And I’m still here today.
Turgidson
Pretty sure they do already know the answer to this, so long as they were alive in 2009.
dogwood
@Keith G:
I’m not selling her short, I simply understand how limited any President is without majorities in Congress and an increasingly extreme base that thinks the system is corrupt and compromise is unacceptable.
p.a.
I’m sure this is just for public consumption. The Clinton team must know the Rethug plan is ‘Lucy with the football’. My
biggest2 biggest3 biggest complaints about Obama are; believing in compromise with those people (for a while), TPP, and Card-Check abandonment*.*yes, it was never going to happen, but more effort may have increased the visibility of the issue.
Villago Delenda Est
@Prescott Cactus: The cute nurse across the hall is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Oh, done. If no one else has done it.
pseudonymous in nc
@Tom:
It would have helped if there were Dems contesting every House seat, because that gives you unexpected gains in a wave year. I’m not going to go all Berrniebot about this, but did DWS allow decent, well-funded challengers to Diaz-Balart and Ros-Lehtinen this time?
The Pale Scot
@dmsilev: New Breeding Program Aimed At Keeping Moderate Republicans From Going Extinct
Soylent Green
@redshirt: We would not have “beaten” climate change even under Dem administrations. Warming has been progressing for many decades and will intensify. The question is how much. We know it will bring about some very unpleasant problems; the question is how to mitigate them with effective changes in policy.
Unfortunately we will be off to a rather late start.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@rikyrah:
It really is something to watch the media go all in on normalizing Trump’s wildly inappropriate behavior and naked appeal to white supremacists. They’re determined to ignore everything that changed with President Obama, and everything about him. The prime directive of the past 8 years is to never, ever come out and give unqualified praise or credit to President Obama for anything. ANYTHING. The problem isn’t so much that it’s the media’s failure to sound the alarm, which it is, the problem is that white men in the media are oblivious to their own deep belief in their innate, unearned, white male superiority, when in reality they’re completely mediocre. They’re putting their own white male thumbs on the media scale to preserve their unearned privilege, because they’re white supremacists at their core. Two thirds of white men vote for the White’s First party, because they’re priviliged and know if they don’t have that, they have nothing but mediocrity. There are so few woke white men to this critical fact. White men need to wake up and help us in order to crush Trump. We only need 10% more of white males to vote Democratic, which isn’t a lot, but apparently it’s too much to hope for.
sinnedbackwards
@burnspbesq: Why an off year? Much more likely to be a year with a leap day.
Perhaps you’re thinking redistricting after census? We only win that if we have previously run the table. If Hillary can win by 7 points or more, we have a chance at the House. It’s right now our best chance to “take our country back.”
The Pale Scot
@raven:
Jeez, at least impress him into the Navy. It’s not the sentence it would have been before WW2, but at least he should spend 10 years scraping rust…
Or polishing doohickies inside the reactor vessel of one of the subs.
Villago Delenda Est
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: The immediate problem is to maintain the illusion of a horse race that is NOT a rerun of Secretariat lapping the field at the Belmont Stakes. As always, short term profit dominates the mindset of eunuchs who run the broadcast subsidiaries of the much larger corporations.
low-tech cyclist
@burnspbesq:
1) With Trump running, there’s a real chance we could re-take the House this year.
And we’ve damned well got to try. Resigning ourselves to going 12 or more years with the GOP blocking everything in the House just sets us up for “why vote Dem, they never do anything” attitudes among low-info voters.
2) Even before we knew who the GOP nominee would be, I never could understand why everyone seemed to be prematurely giving up on 2016, because whether or not 2016 is a good opportunity to re-take the House, there wasn’t likely to be a better one this side of 2024. And with respect to dealing with many of our problems, 2024 might as well be forever.
Why 2024? Assuming Hillary wins this November, the party in the White House almost never gains seats in midterms. So that cuts out 2018 and 2022. And with Hillary running for re-election in 2020 as an incumbent President without any accomplishments to speak of, because the House has been blocking everything she does, the Dems aren’t going to gain much ground then either. So if not now, then 2024 at the soonest.
We knew that a year ago, dammit. And yet the DNC, with the accursed DWS (may she retire to an ashram at her earliest convenience) at the helm, let this year slip by without making much effort to recruit good candidates in winnable districts. Grrr. Argh.
LAC
@Emma: amen, sista! The New York Times and the washington post weighing in with their “Salon’s Joan Walsh head cock of faux concern (now patented)” stories geared to create some false equivalence between her and that orange tinged buffoon.
Cleos
@redshirt:
.
Depends on the “this” he whips out. If it’s just something like an index card or a show copy of the Constitution some would react with horror and others wonder what they were reacting to.
HelloRochester
The most naive unicorn pony scenario ever is that the GOP will ever give her an inch. Not one will she get. Not one.