Paul Ryan’s fan club is limited to a couple hundred DC reporters. Outside the beltway, he’s political poison, so Conor Lamb ran against him, hard. This ad is great:
Paul Ryan likes to talk about "entitlement reform." Well Mr. Speaker, people are entitled to Social Security & Medicare — they paid for it, worked hard for it & expect us to keep our promises.
Watch our new ad & help us keep fighting back in #PA18: https://t.co/1XleY64HDQ pic.twitter.com/sDkXqTMM91
— Conor Lamb (@ConorLambPA) February 8, 2018
Kos has a new polling effort. Here’s their tracking poll on Ryan’s popularity, and it’s brutal:
Despite Ryan’s efforts to show a sad face every time Republicans fuck the poor and middle class, people get that he’s a little shit that will steal their Social Security and Medicare. And please don’t tell me that Lamb didn’t run as a Democrat. Social Security and Medicare are the core of being a Democrat.
Jeffro
Republicans don’t get to decide who is and who isn’t a Democrat, period.
clay
Speaking of fucking the poor, Larry Kudlow’s heading for the White House!
LAO
Does running against Pelosi or Ryan, really work? I have my doubts.
@Jeffro: seconded.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
You could say Paulie boy has been “Pelosied”.
Roger Moore
He also has a fan club among billionaire Republican donors and among Republican Congressional Representatives. As long as he retains those two things, the opinions of the masses will only matter come election time.
Corner Stone
Name checking FDR and unions in your acceptance speech is a pretty D thing to do, also too.
SFAW
Yeah, well, the graph you attached indicated that his favorables rose after his Tax Scam passed.
A (marginally) more useful graph would be a comparison of ZEGS’s “popularity” to that of a generic Rethug, a generic Dem, and Nancy Pelosi. I’m guessing he’s not much more “poisonous” than any of those, if at all. It’s not as if the rest of the country follows the inside baseball the way we do in this joint.
Frankensteinbeck
Because he’s such a stupid zealot he has a tendency to come right out and say it, not realizing anyone would disapprove.
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but that’s when nothing else matters more.
The Moar You Know
Get every Democrat saying this and watch us take America back. Simple, no brainer. I like this Lamb fellow. Seems to not have his head up his ass.
@LAO: Running against Pelosi works pretty well for the GOP. Running against Ryan seems to be pretty useless for Dems. But Dems and Republican voters respond to vastly different things. Repubs run well demonizing specific people. Dems are turned off by that.
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: Look, he’s clearly not like Bernie, who is the only REAL Democrat.
Adam L Silverman
@clay: Kudlow is a recovering cocaine addict. Several diversions into rehab in the 90s. Was fired as Chief Economist at First Boston twice. At least once for being drunk all the time at work. His background check is going to be oodles of fun!
Mike in NC
Trump is an incompetent moron likely to not serve out a full term (please hurry, Bob Mueller), but we dodged a massive bullet in rejecting the odious duo of Romney and Ryan, who’d have sold the country out to the Kochs and other oligarchs the minute they took power.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: I think running against Pelosi works for them because their base– wheezy old diabetics on Medicare scooters and O2 watching Fox all day, not to paint with a broad brush– is susceptible to cultural bogeys– if it isn’t Pelosi, it’ll be Clinton or Waters. Luther Strange ran his primary campaign against Obama. I think running on protecting (expanding) the social safety net works for us, and if we can make Paul Ryan the face of cuts, that would be a bonus.
I think high-level Dems are too invested in Beltway narratives, and Beltway types are utterly impervious to any discussion of the safety net other than “entitlement reform”. It’s almost never mentioned as a factor in trump’s primary and general election campaign. Last night Brian Williams got all smug and smirky about journalists who don’t know that the Ford F150 is the best-selling vehicle in the country (I’m sure he has one for tooling around the country place). If he ever mentioned social security, I missed it. They don’t hear the words
Roger Moore
@The Moar You Know:
I don’t know about that. I think running against Ryan is going to be a reasonable way of running against the whole Republican Caucus. It’s a way of equating your opponent with Generic Republican: as long as he’s going to be voting a straight party line 99% of the time, he might as well be Paul Ryan. That seems like a plausible way of trying to overcome whatever personal reputation your opponent has.
Betty Cracker
How sweet would it be to watch that smug prick giving a concession speech?
aimai
@clay: Is he the guy who bangs the gongs and shrieks about stocks like a coked up fiend? Because that would be awesome!
aimai
@Roger Moore: I agree completely! There’s no evidence that dems don’t like demonization. Its just another way of talking about personalization of the issues. We should do it a lot–run against Ryan and his 300 dollar bottle of lobbyist bought wine. Run against beltway politics and etc… I mean why not? I hate trump and every democrat should run against trump as well, and make it as personal as possible.
FlyingToaster (tablet)
@The Moar You Know: I think that smart Dems tie their opponents to Ryan’s ( or Trump’s) policies, like, “He’ll let Paul Ryan take away our Social Security!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t stick around to hand Nancy the gavel. I can easily imagine if the Dems win in Nov Ryan cashing out before December 1, pretending to do a noble resignation as (I believe) British party leaders do when their side loses so he doesn’t have to be in that photo.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Which smug prick? There are so many to choose from.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of Kudlow…
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I predict he won’t do it. I don’t think he’ll claim fraud, but he will refuse to give a concession speech. He’ll send out a statement or anything to avoid having to do it in person.
dr. bloor
@Roger Moore:
They aren’t his fan club, they’re his bosses.
Adam L Silverman
@aimai: No, that’s Cramer.
dr. bloor
@aimai: That’s Jim Cramer. Kudlow is the *actual* coke fiend.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hopefully he’ll get what’s coming to him Nov as well. I’m not sure if he has even registered to run again?
MisterForkbeard
Running against Ryan is important – because we need to make clear that his awful fucking policies are the policies of the entire Republican Party.
If you vote Republican, you’re voting to gut social security, medicare, raise taxes on the poor and lower them on the rich, and to sell our nation to the highest bidder. It doesn’t matter if your individual republican says he won’t do these things, because the party is going to do them, and the party leaders are going to push these things.
So it’s less about “demonization” as “Republicans actually want to do these awful things they keep saying they’ll do.”
MomSense
Yesterday is the second time in a week that someone I know, who is a true blue Democrat, has mentioned David Brooks in a positive light. I realized that in both cases they have only watched him on the PBS Snewz Hour. Is he appreciably less of a douchebag in his TV gig?
Adam L Silverman
@Betty Cracker: Cocaine is a hell of a drug. As Robin Williams once said.
Brachiator
@SFAW:
I think this graph is fine. Ryan is House speaker. A generic Republican or Democrat doesn’t mean much.
The baseline percentage of “unsure” is also useful here. I read this as a combination of “don’t know, don’t care, don’t closely follow politics.” The small increase in Ryan’s favorable rating over the unsure baseline after the BS tax reform passed suggests that the GOP can get at least a small amount of mileage out of this if they push it hard.
lgerard
@clay:
Kudlow is a genius!
Jeffro
@SFAW:
Wait, WHAT?? That’s either blasphemy or heresy, I’m not sure which.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: But he looks good on TV, and that’s all that matters to Trump.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: a straight up Ryan loss would be great. I think Bryce is a great candidate on paper, he could just use a bit of polish as a talker. I think it was Heather McGee who pretty much taught him how to talk about steel tariffs, jobs and infrastructure in real time during an MSNBC segment last week
Jeffro
@Adam L Silverman: Also that “it’s god’s way of telling you that you make too much money”. (A quote I somehow mentally mis-attributed to Sting)
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know. If they lose, I fully expect the Republicans to try to cram as much crap into the lame duck session as they possibly can, and Ryan will want to be around for that.
GregB
It is time to Nancy Pelosi Paul Ryan and give the beltway asschappers the vapors. Run against Paul hard.
Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand values wants to push your sweet grandma off a cliff in order to give the Koch Brothers a tax break.
Frankensteinbeck
@Roger Moore:
I wouldn’t bet either way because he’s bland and unimaginative and goes through the motions, but I think it’s likely he wouldn’t give a concession speech. Losing gracefully is against the objectivist ethos. Their philosophy demands that it’s not possible for them to lose because they are superior beings. The result usually isn’t a fit, it’s keeping quiet and hoping nobody notices.
Jeffro
@MomSense: Could also be because Brooks published a column yesterday that was (don’t kill me here, people) quite on-target about the role of/value of the principal in building positive school culture, students’ academic success, etc. Nothing new (except to Brooks) but it did sum up the multiple benefits of having an energetic principal at the helm. Lots of folks I know have been sending it around.
hueyplong
What? Rick James was copying Robin Williams?
Roger Moore
@dr. bloor:
FTFY.
Adam L Silverman
@Jeffro: You never saw Williams and Sting together. And they were often confused for each other. So completely understandable.//
trollhattan
@clay:
Oh god. Cue up J-Stew’s evisceration of L. Kudlow for continuous playback.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why am I suddenly reminded of Brady and Bellichek running off the field without shaking hands with their opposite numbers when the lost the Big Sports Ball Bowl Match to the Giants a few years ago? I doubt Brady has read Rand, wouldn’t be surprised if Belichek has.
trollhattan
@GregB:
Yup. Keep bringing up Ryan’s Ayn Rand worship, including making his staffers read that crap, right up until someone pointed out her rabid atheism. Suddenly, “Ayn who?”
Keg stands for killing Medicaid!
LAO
@The Moar You Know: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I guess, I know that the Republicans use Pelosi as a means of riling up the base, I just have a hard time believing that it’s all that persuasive. I mean the RW base is already batshit crazy (and committed to voting) so I think its a null.
boatboy_srq
@Jeffro: I’ll be happy when they stop trying to decide who is and is not human.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
He’s also a member of the “Three Wives” Club.
Joey Maloney
@Jeffro: I believe it was Williams who said that when you’ve been on the road on an endless tour and you’re exhausted, a big bump of cocaine will make you feel like a new man. The only problem is, the new man wants a big bump of cocaine, too.
Ridnik Chrome
He deserves a harder fall than that. I want him to end up cleaning restrooms at Port Authority Bus Terminal. On the overnight shift.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: true, Jason Johnson of The Root tried to make this point last night, that anybody who’s so invested in politics they have a strong opinion of Nancy Pelosi is not persuadable. I was disappointed to see Jonathon Alter, who I usually think is pretty smart and on target, joining in the Pelosi bashing
but like I say, making Ryan into a scarecrow would be a bonus to forcing Republicans to talk about Social Security.
JustRuss
@LAO: But it wasn’t all about Ryan. He used Ryan as a starting point, then went on to state his commitment to defending SS and Medicare. And he called out Republican “entitlement reform” phrasing for the BS that it is. I think it’s a good ad.
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Has he been “saved”
Joey Maloney
@Ridnik Chrome: I want him to end up
cleaningtrolling restrooms at Port Authority Bus Terminal. On the overnight shift.Barbara
@Joey Maloney: I saw Robin Williams live, and he was hysterically funny, almost manic. He also suffered from depression. I would not be surprised if cocaine helped him live longer.
jl
Taking away health care and retirement does get people’s attention, especially in the wake of a truly historic rich person’s tax cut. As I noted a while ago, I was surprised at the hatred of Ryan expressed by my ex-GOP and very reasonable conservaDem relatives over the Holiday break. Kicks in his in face and lead pipes were very reasonably discussed. Don’t know what got their spidey senses aroused all of a sudden. One guy had read the book “Janesville’ and polluted a lot of very moderate thinking in my extended family, I do know that. Maybe Trump should ban that book.
Jeffro
@boatboy_srq:
But that’s really all they’ve got as a philosophy…
PPCLI
Hopefully a cycle of ads around the theme of Ryan twitter-bragging about the tax cut delivering $1.50 extra per paycheck, against the background of Koch brothers yachts are already in production, ready for 24/7 airing.
boatboy_srq
@The Moar You Know: Dems need to get over that; it’s not policy that’s the GOTea’s failing so much as the execrable individuals driving that policy. Recall Turtle’s “one-term President” gambit: campaigning against that person and that perspective should be successful, and tying GOTeq Senators to that effort should be simple.
Jeffro
@Joey Maloney: Ok, that’s a good one.
What if the new man promises to ‘only do it in moderation’ or ‘on the weekends’?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT: Sessions reviewing firing Andrew McCabe for inappropriate discussion of on-going investigation during the 2016 campaign. The investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
boatboy_srq
@Jeffro: Which just means they need to FOAD.
Honestly, unless the replacement is the Murikan Fascists, any new party to replace the GOTea as it has devolved would be an improvement.
LAO
@JustRuss: I’m not criticizing Lamb or his ad, I think that he ran a terrific campaign. I was making a different/larger point against the “demonizing” Pelosi or Ryan. Lamb based his criticism on actual policy differences — which as you note, made it a good ad.
Adria McDowell
Personally, I think we should tie Ryan to the Nunes shenanigans because Paulie Munster could have removed Nunes as House intel committee chair but didn’t. Cuz he has no spine and is probably in hock to the Russians himself, ya see.
But then again I really hate that dude on the same level I hate Trump and Bernie.
Gin & Tonic
@Joey Maloney: This may surprise people who haven’t been there, but the restrooms at the Port Authority terminal are well-lit. clean and safe. In the NYC that lives on in Trump’s memory, they were, um, not so much.
boatboy_srq
@Roger Moore: In the GOTea lexicon, there are only two legitimate electoral outcomes: VICTORY!!!11!1!, and VOTER FRAUD!!!11!1!.
OzarkHillbilly
@PPCLI: “Let them eat a candy bar!”
JPL
@LAO: It did hurt Ossoff, but I think the ads are stale now. imo
jl
@LAO: I’d need to see all of what Lamb supposedly did and said that ‘demonized’ Pelosi. My understanding is that he just said he would not vote for her for leadership role. If that is all, so what? That is just stating a preference about party leadership in the House.
Jeffro
@boatboy_srq: True. An improvement, but still nowhere close to ‘good’.
I have to admit, I almost don’t want them to get better or re-learn how to disguise all the awful, dumb, racist, short-sighted things the Republican Party typically stands for. Almost. I’m not even sure it matters. The party’s floor seems to be in the high thirties/low forties either way, which is just fucking nuts (while also telling us a great deal about human nature a la Davis X. Machina’s “curtain rods and sparrows”)
Aleta
@Corner Stone: And he says in public he’s pro-choice. In these times, “in public” makes him a Dem. (There are exceptions, but no points for them.)
(I don’t know if he means “since it’s legal,” or that it’s a right he will fight for no matter how the SC blows.)
Litlebritdifrnt
The thing that always pisses me off about Ryan is that he is the poster boy for the Republican ethos of pulling up the ladder. Shutting the door once you are through it. After his Dad died he and his family sucked on the government teat of survivor benefits but now he wants to take that away from everyone. He should burn in hell, if I believed in hell.
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wasn’t it just awhile ago, that they were complaining because he didn’t feel it was appropriate to discuss Huma’s emails?
GregB
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That is so Dirty Don can further tarnish a witness with the added bonus of screwing him out of pension money.
The venality if these scumbags has no floor.
Joey Maloney
@Gin & Tonic: My personal memories of the Port Authority are from the mid-70s, so…yeah.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in NC:
I agree. Much like Pence (and TBH most Republicans), those two clean up well. The veneer of tailored clothing and knowing which fork to use goes a long way toward hiding the pure evil of their actual policies.
Corner Stone
@Aleta:
I think his answer on this issue is pretty nuanced, actually. As others have said, I think he is personally against abortion but for a woman’s right to choose.
I personally wish we could move the framing to “women’s access to medical care” full stop. But the God botherers have made a living in keeping the phrasing we currently have to deal with.
LAO
@jl: To be clear — Lamb didn’t demonize Pelosi. I was referring to the standard Republican practice of demonizing Pelosi and how, (1) I didn’t think it actually works and (2) that I think that Democrats demonizing Ryan would be equally unsuccessful.
TenguPhule
@clay:
WASF: The Economy.
TenguPhule
@Jeffro:
Blasphemy.
NorthLeft12
@Adam L Silverman: About Kudlow’s past…when it suits the right wing, forgiveness and second, third, fourth,…..and more chances are absolutely called for.
However, that does not apply to the poor, minorities, and anyone else who is not useful to them.
...now I try to be amused
@MisterForkbeard:
I like to say: “Even if you vote for the best Republican, you vote for the worst Republican.”
catclub
@Betty Cracker: see also “Kudlow is usually wrong ” at Calculated Risk.
jl
@LAO: OK, thanks for clarification. As for ‘demonizing’ other party’s leader, I think it depends whether there is a specific policy issue behind the attack. If not, I think it just works as an ideological dog whistle for the loyal base to get them out. A lot of Pelosi bashing that I hear about is not tied to specific issues and works mainly to get out rabid GOP primary base.
Ryan, as leader of the House, will always pursue policies that favor rich and hurt middle and working class and poor. Pointing that out is not really the same kind of demonization. It’s just putting a face on a reality about future direction of policy if GOP retains control.
Yelling about Pelosi and ‘San Francisco values’, and pointing out that Ryan will tirelessly work to seriously hurt you in very specific ways if you are not rich, are two different things.
Chris
@Mike in NC:
I will never stop being thrilled that Romney and Ryan were smacked down in 2012, even though Trump came next.
charon
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Headline over at VOX:
Conor Lamb decisively won the health care vote in the Pennsylvania special election
Health care was a top issue for 52 percent of voters, and they broke hard toward the Democrat.
Roger Moore
@Ridnik Chrome:
Spending the rest of his life on unemployment and screaming every time somebody thinks about cutting it would be a far more fitting punishment.
NorthLeft12
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I understand and share your anger regarding Paul Ryan’s hypocrisy, but to me part of the problem is that even people on the left make accepting government assistance sound shameful and wrong. It was not an entitlement for Ryan’s family, and it is not an entitlement for anyone else.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
Fuck that. Give him a sparrow, a curtain rod and a dry place under a bridge.
charon
@charon:
From the VOX piece …
Aimai
@NorthLeft12: it was a dpecial white entitlement split off morally from the unearned/unentitled nonwhite people who get medicaid or welfare. It should be pointed out that he accepted help that he denies to others and we should not collude in normalizing this split between “good white widoes” and bad single mothers.
Roger Moore
@GregB:
I think the main goal is punishing him for disloyalty. They want to remind everyone else of the penalty for crossing Trump.
ET
Republicans love to run against Nancy Pelosi I guess Republicans should get used to people running against Paul Ryan.
gene108
@The Moar You Know:
Donald Trump ran as the protector of Social Security and Medicare, which set him apart from the rest of the Republican field, who were talking about privatization and other forms of fucking those programs over. For him, it was just another con-job on the rubes, but strengthening Social Security and Medicare is a winning issue.
For a ridiculously large number of people Social Security and Medicare is all they will have, when they retire.
Jay S
@schrodingers_cat: As saved as an a Opus Dei Cathotic can be http://www.newsweek.com/larry-kudlow-donald-trump-economic-adviser-459226
hellslittlestangel
Based on that ad — and pro-gun and anti-Pelosi aside — he seems like a good guy.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
I suspect he’s unsalvageable.
jl
@gene108:
” Donald Trump ran as the protector of Social Security and Medicare :
The GOP has made outright lies and disinformation campaigns a mainstay of its con job, and what is worse, our miserable news media seems to go along. Portraying Lam as some kind of GOP-lite Democrat is part of that. I think even extending to Lamb’s position on gun control. I read news reports that Lamb doesn’t favor any new measures on gun control, but saw a retrweet from Josh Marshall this morning that Lamb had ads out arguing for stronger background checks. I am all the way across the country so don’t know for sure, but something there doesn’t add up, does it?
SFAW
@Brachiator:
If Ryan’s popularity matches either of those, or Pelosi’s, then the graph above is meaningless. If his trendline matches either generic, or Pelosi’s, there’s only slightly more value, but only if there’s a delta between any particular pair. If there’s a divergence in numbers or trending, then the information has some value, although I question how much.
Many years ago, I worked for a company whose annual growth, over the course of a few years, was about 40 percent. Which seemed GREAT! Until I subsequently discovered that the annual growth for that industry segment was also 40 percent. In other words, without a meaningful comparison, data in a “vacuum” (so to speak) doesn’t add much knowledge.
J R in WV
@Jeffro:
Pretty sure Richard Pryor said that after he set himself on fire freebasing – but I could be wrong… or more than one person said it.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Porque no los dos?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
How long until the investigators are simply replaced by those who wave these sad sacks through without doing actual investigation?
TenguPhule
@SFAW:
Sorry, mutually exclusive.
Heresy is restricted to believers.
Blasphemy is open to all.
boatboy_srq
@gene108: Lord Dampnut as “protector” of anything is easily refutable. Just ask Carrier assembly workers in Indiana or Harley Davidson builders in Kansas how well he did protecting their jobs.
jl
@SFAW: I think a substantial segment of voters hate both major political parties. So, I think it will be hard to disentangle opinions that stem from partisan stereotyping (‘demonizing’) of Pelosi and Ryan, their ID with party leadership, and their stands on specifiic issues. All you have to say is that they are part of party or Congressional leadership and a lot of people will automatically say that they stink.
Jay S
@SFAW: Here’s Generic R/D polling https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-generic-ballot-polls/ You can do the arithmetic.
ETA one is favorable and the other is support so not quite the same metric.
Brachiator
@charon:
This is very interesting. Not Social Security. Not Medicare. Health care.
This is the elephant in the room. Trump and the Republicans promised to repeal and replace Obamacare with something better. They failed miserably and then ran and hid from their own voters to avoid responsibility. This should be an easy target for Democrats.
Obviously, this does not say that Social Security and Medicare are not important. But damn, when your enemy hands you a stick, beat them over the head with it.
Jeffro
@J R in WV:
I thought what Richard Pryor said then was, “OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Oh, you mean after he set himself on fire…my bad…
TenguPhule
@boatboy_srq:
Problem is that most of the reporters are not bothering to ask these questions.
Jay S
@Brachiator: Heath care includes ACA, Medicare, Medicaid as well as hospital and insurance costs. Social Security will become a big issue once Ryan unveils his “reforms”.
Leto
@hueyplong: Maybe, but I know for sure Rick James said that exact phrase.
Ruckus
@dr. bloor:
They aren’t his bosses, they are his owners.
Ruckus
@Ridnik Chrome:
Wouldn’t you rather have those restrooms clean?
If I’m remembering correctly isn’t he one that has never held an actual job?
Brachiator
@Jay S:
The broken promises, the outright lies by the GOP regarding Obamacare is its own specific failure. The GOP should be held responsible for this. AND for their dishonesty regarding Social Security.
Cckids
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Also, he never acknowledges that his family was well-off enough that they didn’t need those benefits to live on. My mother died when my siblings & I were under 5; my dad used our benefits to help pay for daycare for us & to replace her income. None of it was saved for college.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
hear hear, drives me crazy the way he was able to sell himself as a bootstraps-striver
JaneSays
I saw a basic summary of Markos’ findings, and I found them intriguing.
Democrats should: run against the deeply unpopular Ryan and McConnell
Democrats should NOT: make impeaching Dolt45 one of their campaign promises
Which is not to say that Democrats should not move forward with impeachment if/when they retake the House, just that they shouldn’t make their plans to do so a focal point of their campaign messaging, because it will turn off a lot of the people who helped Conor Lamb win last night. Had Lamb made any suggestion that he wanted to impeach Trump during his campaign, Rick Saccone would be the Congressman-elect right now.
Matt McIrvin
Ryan’s favorables went up from 11% to 21%–that’s almost double!
Matt McIrvin
@JaneSays: Interesting. Nancy Pelosi’s de-emphasis of impeachment is one of the left grievances against her.
charon
@Brachiator:
Medicare is healthcare and Paul Ryan is a threat to Medicare.
Meanwhile, the Orange Shitgibbon can be counted on to keep badmouthing all things Obama including “Obamacare” in the runup to November.
JaneSays
@Matt McIrvin: There’s no real upside for Democratic members of Congress to talk about impeachment right now, since there is very little reason to believe at this point that an impeachment would have any chance of success in the Senate, regardless of what happens in the midterm elections. Even if the Democrats pulled off a 52-seat majority (pretty unlikely, but possible), that still leaves them 15 votes short of the 67 needed to actually remove a sitting president from office.
Now… I do fully support impeaching Trump once the new Congress takes office in 2019, even though it is very unlikely to result in him being actually removed from the presidency. I want impeachment to be on his permanent record, and I want every last quisling Republican who helps to keep him in office in spite of his gross malfeasance to be on the record with their vote.
HinTN
If anyone commented on it I missed it, but the new Kos CIVIQS polling thing has a good chance to revolutionize that feature of our information driven politics. It’s worth a look.