Sean Spicer just now: I can only hope that if Coretta Scott King was still with us, that she would support Senator Sessions's nomination.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) February 8, 2017
Used to be, an elderly racist like Jefferson Beauregard Sessions would be required to festoon his confirmation hearing with platitudes about ‘youthful indiscretions’ and ‘having learned better since then’. But this gang can’t even permit themselves such rags of hypocrisy, because the official GOP line is that racism is good and honorable — so much so, even discussing racism is an offense against honor. You know what happened, last time that was true for Congressmen?
Let’s be clear on the precedent here: it’s the 1836-44 gag rule that forbade any consideration of abolition in the House. 1/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
All abolitionist petitions would immediately be tabled, and any attempt to introduce them would be prohibited.
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Former president John Quincy Adams, now back in Congress, was outraged, and kept trying to push against the gag rule. 4/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Southern representatives introduced resolutions to censure JQA, and said that the petition should “be instantly burnt.” 7/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Southern Congressmen threatened to walk out en masse and quit the Union rather than submit to a _discussion_ of abolition. 11/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
Then, as now, “dignity” and “respect” for the institution trumped open debate on actual issues of urgent importance. 13/
— James Grimmelmann (@grimmelm) February 8, 2017
As I noted last night, tensions escalated over the gag rule to the point where a South Carolina senator attempted to murder a Massachusetts senator on the floor of the Senate chamber. I doubt the current GOP Senators have anyone with that level of conviction in their ranks, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the security teams weren’t being a little extra alert right now.
Baud
I’m trying to think about which Republican could physically take on Warren. Maybe Cotton because he is youngish.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: Surely they must have somebody capable of taking on a 67-year-old woman.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Have you seen the Republican delegation? Even the dudes who are 20 years younger like Ted Cruz wouldn’t be able to take Warren.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I would pay to see the fight.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Ben Sasse has a pretty punchable neck but he’s also sort of fit looking.
@Baud: Fair enough.
The Moar You Know
And pretty much succeeded. Charles Sumner was crippled for life after the attack.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Baud: Cotton reminds me of one of those cats that’s always running his mouth until he finds that dude that don’t have to get ready b/c he STAYS READY. I don’t think he wants any part of Senator Dr. Warren.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I checked my memory with Wikipedia and Warren has 3 older brothers. I have 4 older brothers, so I can tell you from experience that they almost certainly taught her to fight dirty. It’s what older brothers do. ?
efgoldman
@The Moar You Know:
And Liz Warren holds the same exact senate seat. Although I think she might be the one actually administering the beat down.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Don’t forget, though, that Brooks “won” by cheating — he brought a weapon knowing that Sumner didn’t have one and he had his friends surround the desk so nobody could try and stop him. He even waited for Sumner’s back to be turned before attacking him. So much conservative bravery there.
Brachiator
From the news Internets:
So, will Trump call Gorsuch a “sissy” and punch him in the neck? ‘Cause you know, Small Hands Trump is all about manliness.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne:
Take it from someone who grew up in NYC in the 70s – there’s only two kinds of fighting – fighting dirty, and getting your ass kicked. Always, always, always fight dirty.
efgoldman
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
It reminds me of a rabid cobra, and I don’t even know if such a thing exists.
Or this guy without the comedy
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
A nitpicky thing, but Preston Brooks, the asshole who beat Charles Sumner, was a congressman, not a senator.
LongHairedWeirdo
Technically, Spicer’s comment is true. “I can only hope she’d support him BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY WE DON’T LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS”
Patricia Kayden
Is Sean Spicer on drugs? No, really. Only someone on drugs would make such a claim about Mrs. King.
O. Felix Culpa
Hmmm. Senators Merkley, Udall, Brown, and Sanders read the Coretta Scott King letter from the Senate floor today and were not stopped by Republicans. One of the reading Senators is not like the others.
Could it be…gender? Surely the GOP are not misogynists as well as racists?
efgoldman
@Brachiator:
Pumpkin Pimple never punched anything more menacing than his teddy bear, which is also the last thing that loved him.
Renie
Can someone translate for me this tweet he sent out earlier:
? Martin
@O. Felix Culpa: I think more likely they realized they fucked up. Warren has the courage to be first, and (sort of) paid for it.
O. Felix Culpa
@Renie:
Sorry, I don’t speak moron.
Major Major Major Major
@O. Felix Culpa: The GOP probably didn’t want the extra attention that consistency in this particular case would give them.
@Renie: As my friend commented, are we seriously not doing ‘phrasing’ anymore?
notoriousJRT
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Beat me to it.
O. Felix Culpa
@? Martin:
Maybe. At least, I’m sure they realized they fucked up. But I wonder if they would have invoked the same rules if a vagina-deficient Senator had been reading the letter last night.
Mike in NC
@Renie: If some adult took away his ridiculous toy and smashed it with a hammer, he would go right around the bend.
notoriousJRT
@Patricia Kayden: Wouldn’t he have to be?
Adam L Silverman
@Renie: D for decision.
Aleta
@Baud: ha, your humor makes me happy
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Wouldn’t that be “Injun style?”
Lizzy L
Sean Spicer resigns.
Sean Spicer is fired.
One of these things will happen, it’s just a question of which and when. What d’you think — was Spicer required to sign a NDA? I’m betting he was.
Anne Laurie
@Renie: I *think* Trump meant ‘easy decision’, but that’s not stopping the japesters…
Baud
@Anne Laurie: I thought he didn’t own a bathrobe!
He lied!
debbie
@O. Felix Culpa:
If I could bear to take a look at McConnell’s Twitter feed, I’d bet the responses are blistering.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@efgoldman: I’d say that’s about right.
debbie
@Baud:
Last night, Colbert showed several pictures of a be-robed Trump.
Baud
@debbie: Better than the alternative.
? Martin
@O. Felix Culpa: I think so. Remember, the letter is a real blot on the GOP. The letter should have been entered into the record 30 years ago, but Strom Thurmond buried it and we only recently found it again. For that reason it should be in the record – the GOP made a decision to bury it and now they need to pay for that. I think once they realized that their response to Warren’s actions only drew attention to the letter they didn’t want people to know about, their plan simply backfired.
That said, now that this whole turmoil is done it only drives Dems to calcify around their opposition and GOPs to calcify around their support.
Villago Delenda Est
Not only should Jefferson Beauregard Session III not be confirmed for AG, his head should be placed on a pike on the steps of the Capitol, as a warning to others for the next 10 generations that being a dishonorable racist shitmuffin has consequences.
schrodingers_cat
@Anne Laurie: Brain bleach, stat!
debbie
@Renie:
For a while, he was breaking his thought into two Tweets, but that must have proved too taxing.
MisterForkbeard
@Renie: He’s saying we’re getting lots of increased immigration and plane traffic from his banned states while they wait for what should have been a easy decision from the courts, etc.
It’s pretty seriously illogical. If you had a trip planned here from Syria or wherever, now is absolutely the time to take it. There’s zero evidence of any of that traffic being malign, and enough courts have weighted in on this (and Robart in particular seems to think that the government doesn’t really have a case) that Trump is clearly just compensating.
Dude’s a manchild.
@O. Felix Culpa: I think when faced with the inevitability of EVERY Senator reading that letter if they banned any one else for reading it, they just decided to quietly back down and declare victory.
Villago Delenda Est
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh, never. Never in a million years could they be misogynists.
OK, I just cracked myself up with that. Sorry.
SiubhanDuinne
@Renie:
I think he means “EASY DECISION,” but I’m only guessing.
As Betty Cracker and one or two others have mentioned, though, it does sound a bit like the SCROTUS’ idea of cool rapper slang.
? Martin
@debbie:
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
Ha!
Nice Vir Cotto Babylon 5 reference
Does that make Bannon Trump’s Mr Morden?
Joyce H
I don’t know if this has been mentioned here?
“Pennsylvania senator to Trump: Come after me, you ‘s***-gibbon’ “
Also? If you haven’t seen it yet, you want to follow Donaeld The Unready on Twitter – he’s a mad medieval king whose motto is “Make Mercia Great Again”.
Lapassionara
My theory is that Trump wears dressing gowns, or something like a bath robe, but with a fancier name.
Renie
why does the Defense Dept have to rent space at Trump Tower? Is this normal? and do they have to pay market rates?
MisterForkbeard
@Joyce H: That Senator is amazing. I mean, it’s completely unstatesmanlike and entirely justified. :)
ruckus
Shameless?
It’s several thousand miles past shameless. They passed shameless a long time ago and can’t even see it in their mirror.
Aleta
Spicer actually said that?
Someone wrote it for him.
Meanwhile the news says T ate dinner while he ordered the Yemen raid, not caring enough to review it properly. Congress abolished the agency that oversees voting procedures, while a plan to replace voting machines goes forward. A landslide of other things. It’s getting harder to breathe.
SiubhanDuinne
@Lapassionara:
Negligée? Peignoir?
Ian G.
I’ve always seen it as a massive cosmic injustice that Preston Brooks died before he could witness Sherman’s forces lay waste to South Carolina.
@Mnemosyne:
IIRC, a northern Republican Congressman offered to duel Brooks after the Sumner attack, but the pathetic coward Brooks declined, citing an inability to travel safely to the north (the duel would have been in Canada, where it wasn’t yet outlawed).
germy
I’m wondering, in this new era of rolled-back regulations… how much longer can we trust the food we buy for our pets?
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Lingerie?
? Martin
@Lapassionara: Hefner smoking jacket.
Aleta
@Lapassionara: negligee?
Adam L Silverman
@Renie: They had set up a space at the Obama’s house in Chicago for when they were there. I don’t have the details, but my guess is that this has to do with Command and Control (C2) of the military in case he’s at Trump Tower and has to be able to get into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in order to perform the Commander in Chief functions. My guess is they’ll have to put one in at Mar a Lago as well.
In the case of Trump Tower it is completely up to the Trump Organization, ie him, whether to charge rent and what rate to charge it at. I’m pretty sure that the Obama’s didn’t charge rent in their Hyde Park home, nor did the Bushes at their ranch in Crawford.
germy
Kevlar vest, shoes, socks, no pants.
PK
Sean Spicer tomorrow: ” I’m sure if Rosa Parks was alive today she would move to the back of the bus. And if MLK was alive he would insist on drinking from the colored drinking fountain.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Adam L Silverman: Makes sense to me. The White House Communications Agency, that handles Presidential communications for Commander-In-Chief type tasks, is a military agency.
Corner Stone
@O. Felix Culpa:
*checks thread for Gin & Tonic or Billin*
WHEW
Ok, now. I made the god damned mistake this morning of watching some TV. I know, I know. Anyhoo, you should have seen Sen Dick Durbin spinning like a top making excuses this AM about why EW was singled out but Udall was allowed to do virtually the same thing.
Shorter Dick: EW is so smart, and the things she says get so under their skin, they just can’t take it. But Udall is so thoughtful and considered in his approach…he gets some leeway.
I guess that will teach me to turn on the small picture motion machine display thingamajig.
Lapassionara
All of them, Katie.
Aleta
@Lizzy L: Spicer will be “promoted” to a post where he is “urgently needed to direct” the x to y America’s z.
Mathguy
@Villago Delenda Est: A B-5 reference! Awesome!
Millard Filmore
@germy: When the granny starvers cut welfare and food stamps, it will not be just pets that have to watch out.
01jack
@germy:
Ironically, the apparently innocent pet food company called for more regulation to keep drug-contaminated meat out of the supply chain.
Aleta
Is Warren still banned from the floor?
Corner Stone
Ahhhh….FMR Sen Ayotte. That always makes me smile just a little bit.
Gelfling 545
@Baud: That business of him not owning a bathrobe has me concerned that he might be wandering about the place in a state of nature. In the words of the philosopher (Daffy Duck) “What a revolting development this is. “
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t gamble (other than doing martial arts and keep asking to be sent back to Iraq…), but I’d wager money that this is what it is.
DCF
Senator Ted Cruz can read Green Eggs And Ham on the Senate floor, but Senator/Professor Elizabeth Warren is barred from reading a letter from Coretta Scott King….
Mitch McConnell Aimed to Silence Two Powerful Female Voices Last Night
Elizabeth Warren and Coretta Scott King will be heard.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52937/mcconnell-silence-warren/
Adam L Silverman
@Aleta: If they wanted to do it and make it look less obvious, they’d just activate him from the US Naval Reserve.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So we had a handful turn out at McConnell’s church – several never got there (TERRIBLE traffic a they were contacting me), and there was atrocious weather. It was such a thrown together lashup, the woman who I was working with and I agreed to not contact media and to use it as a test run.
We organized it on a closed indivisible forum, and generated a lot of interest, but many of those who would normally attend announced unavoidable child commitments, given the short notice.
Interestingly, there were a half dozen police cars in sight and about 12 pacing cops awaiting us. They outnumbered us. We were met in the raking lot (which has public characteristics as a transit authority leased park and ride) by a sheriff’s deputy who informed us “no signs and no protests on the parking lot, no exceptions”, and were shunted to the lawn at the far corner of the lot.
Fun thing about those nice conservative Christian friends of Mitch – they didn’t come out to engage us, and despite having clear notice that we were going to proceed with respect and simply read the King letter, they were still unwilling to hear it – which told me something important about them.
Even though weather and notice and awful traffic conspired against us (as I said, several were on the way and never could get there), I’m not displeased. They might giggle over todays number, but McConnell now knows that the nature of the game has shifted toward chasing people he likes, and that some of them won’t have a platoon of cops that they can call, nor will they be monitoring activists prior to the fact. plus, the numbers can only increase from here forward.
trollhattan
Buried in a rundown of absurdly expensive bottles of whisky is this beaut:
Boussinesque
@Brachiator: glad to see I’m not the only person whose mind immediately went to that. Now we just need to fast-forward to the conclusion of that particular exchange, preferably without having to experience the entire Shadow War in-between.
Renie
@Adam L Silverman: thanks. if it’s up to trump, i’m sure he will charge them rent.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@trollhattan:
I’m normally not petty, but I hope it had a flaw in the cork and has gone over.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Who are you again?
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
If only!
efgoldman
@ruckus:
Hell, they passed shameless so far back, they’ve gone around the other side and are coming back in again.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
They oughta’ take the space by eminent domain. Who’s he gonna’ sue? Himself?
father pussbucket
I can only hope that if Muhammad Ali were still with us, he would repeatedly punch Sean Spicer.
nycmt
@trollhattan: someone is paying seven grand for 500mls of 26 year old single malt? I have sixty year old slivovitz and ninety year old blended Scotch (Victoria Vat), I should sell it before the missiles come.
J R in WV
@Villago Delenda Est:
No one thinks there will be anti-aircraft or anti-drone/anti-missle installations? Cause I do.
They’ll need the top floor of the penthouse, so as to have a 360 degree field of fire!
Mar-a-Lago won’t be so tricky, they can just park trucks with Patriot units around the place.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
While shameless is still putting its pants on.
J R in WV
@nycmt:
No, no nycmt, you should drink it! I’ve had home made slivovitz that a friend’s wife’s father brought from the old country for the wedding. Plummy, sweet, delicious fire. I dunno about the Victoria Vat scotch, and I hope the slivovitz was in a barrel for a long time.
I bought some really old cognac in the duty-free shop at Charles de Gaulle airport on the way back from our only trip to Europe – I had Euros burning a hole in my pocket. Still have a little of it left. Is good. Drink it when Trump does something especially stupid or illegal. Celebrate his failures, there will be plenty, with friends who will appreciate it.
J R in WV
OK, comment about good booze in moderation. Anyone who can see why, please let me know so I can obfuscate that word next time.
Thanks!
Doctor Cleveland
FWIW, Warren literally has Sumner’s old Senate seat. She’s in the Webster/Sumner/Kennedy seat while Capuano has the Eddie Brooke/John Kerry seat.
Debbie1
@germy: I’ve been racking my brains trying to figure out who Trump reminds me of in that shortie negligee. Was is Chrissy Snow in her shortie nightgowns? Gerard Depardieu? Now I’ve got it! It’s Zap Brannigan, the sex-obsessed captain in Matt Groening’s cartoon Futurama. He used to go around in a Star Trek captain’s jacket – with NO PANTS, just like Tr*mp.
Debbie1
@Anne Laurie: I wonder if his daughter took the picture.
SiubhanDuinne
@Debbie1:
Ugh ugh ugh yuck yuck barf
ETA: Notice the way his finger is beckoning in a “come hither” gesture. Just makes me vomit in my mouth.
SiubhanDuinne
@J R in WV:
Dear gods, you must be permanently sloshed.
Aleta
@nycmt:
Once you’re living in the fortified silo drinking somebody else’s homemade (raisins and breadcrumbs in a ziplock bag) silovitz, you might obsess about whether you made the right choice.
John
Not that it really matters, but I need to use my B.A. in American history for something: Preston Brooks was a member of the House of Representatives, not a Senator.