Repub Venality Open Thread: Lindsay Graham Is Giving His Voters What They Want

“Being toasted” or “is toast”? Discuss.

@Baud: Yeah. Like Kavanaugh is gonna age well in a week or two.

I hope we can stop Trump from nominating any more justices. None. He is a crook, as the FTF NYTimes has proved this afternoon. No appointing anyone to benefit himself and his family, legally.

makes me think that the Russian Dark Money paid off Kavanaugh’s debt and bought his new palatial estate because of how his pro-offered opinions on how to handle Presidential “ethics” unfold and the idea that states cannot pursue legal recourse once federal pardons have been issued. Mitchie and the boys could all then get their get of free cards once treason charges are handed out by the Mueller investigation….

It does feel a little bit like “the other side” is starting to bump up against life outside the echo chamber…

In little ways,
and I imagine it’s only gonna get worse,
and then MAYBE change for the better,
or maybe all just go up in flames.

@RedDirtGirl: It has to get worse. The GOP only has two tricks left. The first is to rev up their base with hate like they did in 2016. The other is to let Dems control everything and then join the pile on from the usual suspects. Option 2 isn’t available to them until 2021.

@debbie: I’d be for that. How to you propose to pressure Trump?

It’s the Upside Down. Republicans run the show and we have to stand by and watch. It’s infuriating and it’s frustrating, but I’m hoping that after the Midterms and Mueller’s report, the Upside Down gets tossed and sanity returns. Please!

They’ve been a co-conspirator

Every Accusation is a fucking confession.

Politico has another Lindsey Graham rah-rah piece that says pretty much the same thing. Written by lobbyist also from South Carolina:

Combine what Graham sees as a breach of institutional norms with a personal betrayal and for him it’s explosive—the political equivalent of mixing sodium with water (or worse, putting mayonnaise on barbeque). It may have other political benefits, but based on my over 20 years listening to and following Lindsey Graham, it is fundamentally a compromise of honor both personally and institutionally that, as he says, really pissed him off. In this case, “bless your heart” was not going to cut it.

I continue to doubt all this, still thinking he blew up because the prosecutor lady was coming too close for comfort to the July 1 calendar entry, but who knows?

@piratedan:

Mitchie and the boys could all then get their get of free cards once treason charges are handed out by the Mueller investigation

And all of them mysteriously wind up committing suicide by stabbing themselves in the back and zipping themselves up into those sport duffle bags.

And if Kavanaugh fails on that second nomination, GOPers must try a third time. This is the precise hill they need to die on, with Kavanaugh as their very best leading man.

I have two words for the Democratic majority: Extreme vetting.

@Mary G: Even Wittes talks about the significance of the July 1 date on Kavanaugh’s calendar.

I am not the biggest fan of Benjamin Wittes — the understatement of all understatements — but I commend him for writing his most recent article and taking a stand. I think that could help give cover to the more cowardly senators.

@Adam L Silverman: Does the Federalist website also belong to them, or do they just have the name in common? I always see people asking the editor where he gets his money, implying that it’s Russia.

@Mary G:

it is fundamentally a compromise of honor both personally and institutionally that, as he says, really pissed him off.

Merrick fucking Garland.

Fuck christian fascists.

@Baud: amen, dig in on Kavanaugh. Don’t give Hardimann or Coney Barrett a shot

I remember when Lindsey was an impeachment manager, and he ramped up his Southern accent and played the regretful warrior, duty-bound to perform that unpleasant task. What a fucking phony.

@Mary G: Literally Republican PR

Bruce Haynes is vice chairman of public affairs for Sard Verbinnen & Co., a global public relations firm. A native of South Carolina, Haynes was chief of staff to former U.S. Represenative Bob Inglis (R-SC), and former staff counsel to former Governor Carroll Campbell.

Vande Hei may be gone from Politico, but his stench lives on.

@Jim, Foolish Literalist: fuck Lindsay and his southern accent. I’ve lived in Virginia 45 years and whenever I hear a southern accent talking about honor and integrity and tradition they’re invariably justifying fucking over black people.

@Adam L Silverman:

If McConnell had the votes, he’d call the vote. Until he does, everything else is noise.

Matthew Daly @ MatthewDalyWDC
Murkowski appears in no hurry even as McConnell pledges to move forward with Kavanaugh vote this week. ‘He talked about a vote last week, too,’ she told AP. Collins, riding with Murkowski on the Senate subway, smiled and told Murkowski, ‘Good answer.’

You think Murkowski remembers when she lost a primary to a Tea Bagger and the Turtle pretty much abandoned her? I think she does. Not that I have any fantasies that she’ll flip. She’s a conservative from a conservative family in a conservative state, but it’s fun to watch her tell the Turtle to go pound sand for a couple days.

@debbie:

Remind him he no longer has the votes and that he’ll look like a loser if he doesn’t compromise.

Trump doesn’t do deals with Democrats unless he expects to cheat them at it.

@Adam L Silverman: IANAL but it seems to me that doofus with the CSI: Zillow case gives them a hook, and they can bring in McGahn and that other guy, Burck?, who seems to be up to his jowls in this

@debbie: But what do you want to do it he doesn’t cave? Only choice is to do what they did to Garland.

@Adam L Silverman: A Palestinian exile in Norway I follow on Twitter has been talking about it all afternoon, and WaPo put up a story.

Not many details yet, and as you always say, some of the reporting will turn out to be wrong, but it’s pretty brash of MBS if he ordered it.

Emma Dumain, at McClatchey is doing a lot of work for Graham by calling it a scathing takedown of Democrats. First of all, it was really and unhinged paranoid hateful tirade. Recall that the entire press/media world felt that Howard Dean’s shout to his supporters showed a man too crazy to be president. But this now is a sign of some strength or virtue? Second, I’m not aware of any Democrats who were taken down nor any who are backing down.

@Baud:

Not caving means no deal. Trump needs to make deals like sharks need to swim to breathe. Stand strong and wait for him to cave. If he won’t, we at least know the SC can function with eight judges. The last option should be to “Garland” his next choice. You couldn’t do a better job of justifying their cries of “Both Sides!” Far better to Resist.

Project JEDI. No, this is not the Onion.

At the center of it all is the Pentagon’s newly appointed Chief Information Officer, Dana Deasy, a polished and soft-spoken executive who left a retirement filled with hiking with his wife in North Carolina to plunge into one of the most controversial and highly-charged Pentagon procurements in years. In his role, he works directly with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and top Pentagon officials, who he said are following the process closely.

In his most extensive comments to date on the cloud contract, which could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade, Deasy laid out his strategy for what’s known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program, and told The Washington Post during an interview at the Pentagon, “I’m here for a very specific purpose. I want to help the Defense Department put the best long-term technology in place.”

Deasy does not have a military background and was most recently the global chief information officer at JP Morgan Chase. Even though there is tumult and contractor warfare swirling all around him, Deasy said his philosophy is to “keep pushing ahead. We are going to build the right cloud environment. I tell the team every day, ‘Just focus on that.’” He reiterated that the department is running a fair and open competition, with no favorites. An award is expected next year.

I predict like so many other things, this will not end well at all.

@debbie: I’m confused now. If we wait for him to cave, we are Garlanding his choice. It’s unavoidable.

@debbie:

Trump needs to make deals like sharks need to swim to breathe.

No.

Trump needs headlines of himself “winning” and will lie brazenly about everything to get there. Remember, every “deal” he makes must give him something and take something from someone else. That’s his whole life philosophy in a nutshell.

This twitter thread is remarkable — another friend of ol’ Bart talking about spiking drinks and being a “transporter” for the local Klan:

This is Donald Joseph Urgo. He went to Georgetown Prep with Brett Kavanaugh.Brett Kavanaugh was accused of spiking punch with Quaaludes and Bacardi 151 to take sexual advantage of women.Urgo lists in his yearbook “Killer Qs and 151.”The FBI has been told not to investigate. pic.twitter.com/FhEuU5eoxP— Alt. U.S. Press Sec. (@AltUSPressSec) October 1, 2018

No, really. I need an edit button.

oh for fuck’s sake, Hayes, nobody wants to hear from fucking Wilmer. Have him over for dinner if you feel the need to fawn over the old fool

@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was just thinking he had been very quiet about Kavanaugh. When is he going to make McConnell look out the window.

I wonder if Hayes thinks Wilmer and Michael Moore represent where he will be in 30 years.

@Adam L Silverman:

And this was the result:

you are a bad person, Adam.

@Baud: Who is “he” in your first two sentences?

@WaterGirl: Sanders.

@TenguPhule: Schumer suggested today that a Democratic majority would bring back the 60-vote rule for SC nominations…

This is why I say never send a man to do a woman’s job.

@Baud: That’s what I thought, but then this sentence made no sense to me:

“When is he going to make McConnell look out the window.” Why / how could Sanders get McConnel to do anything? Sorry If I am slow on the uptake tonight.

@WaterGirl:

It’s a reference to the 2016 primary.

In other words if I’m sitting in a room with Mitch McConnell and I say, you know Mitch, I think it’s important that public colleges and universities be free and we’re going to lower interest rates on student debt and we’re going to pay for it through a tax on Wall Street speculation. Well, I kind of know what Mitch McConnell is going to say. He doesn’t think it’s a great idea.

But if I say Mitch, take a look out the window there are a million young people who are marching, who know what’s going on, who support this legislation, who are not going to vote Republican unless you do the right thing and don’t burden them for half their lives with this outrageous [debt] then Mitch’s thinking changes on that issue. We have to change the dynamic of American politics.

http://time.com/4188073/bernie.....ite-house/

@Major Major Major Major: It’s a large part of why we are where we are today.

@Baud:

Instead of stonewalling Trump’s nomination, we would be proposing a compromise (Garland). I don’t see those as the same thing, but okay.

@Major Major Major Major: I don’t know that if we go to 60, two years later there will be 50 votes to go back to 50. All the crap with getting Conrad and Lieberman and Nelson on board during the ACA process is coming back to me.

@Baud: She does seem to be genuinely enjoying herself. I’m glad.

@Adam L Silverman: he’s in Ohio, right? I hope Kasich gets his righteous on

and before anyone feels the need to tell me, I know. I’ve had my eye on Kasich since he was the first version of Paul Ryan, but too arrogant and prickly to play Eddie Haskell for the Sunday shows. But he’s a self-righteous bantam with a chip on his shoulder and he hates trump.

@hueyplong:

if Kavanaugh fails on that second nomination, GOPers must try a third time. This is the precise hill they need to die on, with Kavanaugh as their very best leading man.

I have two words for the Democratic majority: Extreme vetting.

I have two myself: Merrick. Garland.

I have two more: Court. Packing.

@Adam L Silverman:

Wittes is a conservative, but he’s not a Federalist Society type. He, like all of us, has his personal and professional blind spots. And as a non-lawyer who is a legal/judicial scholar, he’s spent a lot of time interacting with these folks and developing friendships with them.

Interesting series of non sequiturs.

He strikes me as, at the very best, a long winded Beltway concern troll….including in his pious hand wringing drek today.

@WaterGirl:

I think that could help give cover to the more cowardly senators.

If it accomplishes that, great. I kind of doubt it, though.

@Adam L Silverman:
Jesus. “Let Trump be Trump.”

Let’s not.

@Adam L Silverman:

Trump is now mocking and imitating Christine Blasey Ford: “I don’t know. I don’t know. Upstairs, downstairs, I don’t know. I don’t remember.”

Is this his “Where the WMD at?” moment?

@Adam L Silverman:

If I was advising the Democrats in the House and the Senate, the first thing I’m advising the members on each chambers Judiciary Committee is that despite the sturm and drang it will cause, the Federalist Society, the Judicial Crisis Network, Leonard Leo, and Leonard Leo’s other activities all need a good dose of committee investigatory sunlight as a disinfectant. Drag Leo and his operations and his funding into the sunlight and see how appealing and palatable he, them, and it are to the American people.

Yes x a million or more

Sunlight Dems, you have your orders!

Letting these roaches run around in the dark just breeds more and bigger roaches.

@Mary G: I saw somebody did and got so excited I emailed my editor! Thank you. You said lovely things.

@JPL: This is the audience at Trump’s rally, right?

@Randalms:

67 votes to remove a justice. 50 plus one to seatt one. Come 2020 eleven is the new nine. F@&k the norms and save the country

Ay-effing-men. 51 votes on everything, including increasing SCOTUS to, oh, 15 justices. Just to be sure.

John Clune, an attorney for Ramirez, said Tuesday on Twitter that his client spoke with the FBI for more than two hours Sunday in a “detailed and productive interview.” The agents “were clearly motivated to investigate the matter in any way they were permitted,” he added. But he asserted that Ramirez had provided the names and contact information of more than 20 witnesses who might be able to corroborate her allegation that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her at a party when they were at Yale, and that, as far as Clune knew, the FBI had not contacted any of them as of Tuesday.

“Though we appreciated the agents who responded on Sunday, we have great concern that the FBI is not conducting — or not being permitted to conduct — a serious investigation,” he said.

Attorneys for Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who said she was assaulted by Kavanaugh when they were teens and who testified to the Senate last week, wrote FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Tuesday to say they were concerned the FBI had not sought an interview with her.

“It is inconceivable that the FBI could conduct a thorough investigation of Dr. Ford’s allegations without interviewing her, Judge Kavanaugh, or the witnesses we have identified in our letters to you,” the lawyers wrote, demanding an immediate answer to what they said were days of silence from the FBI.

This is perfectly Normal. Normal. Normal. //

@Adam L Silverman: I kind of doubt this even hurts them at this point–it may even help. Anyone still supporting the Republicans is not going to be repelled by Trump insulting rape victims; they probably think it’s cool. Their opposition can hardly get any more outraged or riled up, but Republicans could be more energized than they are. Throwing them some douchey red meat to turn up the heat some more might work.

@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think there are at least six senators who do not want to vote on Kavanaugh at all and that right now there is a game of chicken between them and McConnell. It is why Kavanaugh made a point of saying he is not going to withdraw, but really if more bad stuff comes out I wager that McConnell will blink. I don’t know how it ends but I don’t think McConnell is playing from a position of strength.

huh, Rupert not airing the Sixty Minute Hate

Laura Rozen @ lrozen
no one covering it, not even fox

@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kasich (and/or Flake, and/or ?) can try all they want, but odds are that after the midterms, Trumpov continues to limp along his own mad self, possibly to the 2020 nom, possibly not, but almost certainly causing the much-delayed GOP civil war along the way.

My bet is that he is not the Republican nominee in 2020, personally. He’ll do whatever it takes to try and salvage his “fortune”, since it’s all that really matters to him. But Kasich, Flake, and the other “moderates” can’t hold a candle to whomever will be waiting in the wings (Cotton, Ernst, Trump Jr) to harness that white resentment one more time.

Kavanaugh does seem to be bring out teh crazy in all kinds of ways; he has become a hero to the ‘incel’ people. I can’t really call that group a community or movement, since their common thread seems to be that they are too repulsive to get laid and IT IS SOCIETY’S FAULT.

@WaterGirl: Better than me too. She really is an amazingly strong woman.

@Adam L Silverman: Un-fucking-believable. Except that it’s not. Oh my god, he is openly mocking a very credible woman accusing a very prominent man of sexual assault; he thinks it’s funny. Just like the reporter who never things. My god, this man truly disrespects and hates women. All day, every day.

@Matt McIrvin: Of course those people are lost. They aren’t who we are looking to persuade. We want the people who couldn’t be bothered, the people who didn’t thinking voting made a difference. We need to show them that it does. Talking about reclaiming Trump rally people is a red herring.

@WaterGirl: Thinks, not things. Argh!

@Adam L Silverman:

Go on, we know you’re cashing those sweet Soros checks every week.

@WaterGirl: We recorded and watched that too. I thought Clinton was bold to do that cameo. Good on her.

@Martin: this. Absolutely this. And everybody will understand the fairness.

@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ratings must be down. He says pretty much the same lines every time, as evidenced by Daniel Dale’s tweets. Throw in one current thing, like Dr. Blasey Ford and the rest is all the Electoral College, Lock Her Up, The Economy is the Best Evah,” yada yada yada.

@TenguPhule: She probably belongs to the same country club as Kavanaugh and his parents. Nothing would surprise me.

Daniel Dale is taking the night off, but…

Brian Tashman @ briantashman
36m36 minutes ago
Trump’s now complaining about how the media covered his inauguration’s crowd size!

39m39 minutes ago
Trump is now talking about ………… Roseanne

@TenguPhule:

Engaging in the same crap gets us nowhere.

@eemom: I am thinking back to canvassing for Barack Obama in the final weeks before the Iowa caucus in the first week of January.

You might be surprised by how big an impact Andrew Sullivan’s big article in support of Barack Obama had. People who were squishy – maybe they liked Barack but it seemed like a bridge too far…. it wasn’t once Andrew Sullivan came out for Barack. Hoping that happens here, too.

@Major Major Major Major: and that’s ok. That’s smart politics.

@TenguPhule:

More like the mocking the disabled reporter moment.

@Baud: It had a few good moments (my favorite being a moment when the young social media guy and Miles disagree completely on whether it’s good or bad to feed a troll), but I’m afraid it’s not aimed at the young demographic sponsors love.

@Adam L Silverman: For the past few days, my default thought pattern has been BURN IT ALL DOWN KILL KILL KILL KILL

and just when I think maybe I’m overreacting a little, this happens.

@Adam L Silverman: Holy shit. That was 10x worse than I pictured after reading the words he had spoken. Wow.

@Adam L Silverman: well, to be fair, for that one it’s standard to get a sapling instead.

@B.B.A.: My default has been nothing matters. They don’t care. They are, as they say, going to plow on through. So I’m really glad to see people here with some hope. It makes me feel better.

Link fail, sorry.

Trump: scary time for young men

@Adam L Silverman:

Kavanaugh’s life as he knows it is over.

This is as good a definition of “Everything Trump touches turns to shit” as any. Manafort, Cohen, Flynn, Gates, etc. etc. They had a nice little grifting life and Trump fucked it all up by turning the spotlight on them.

@Dorothy A. Winsor:

I do think they’re going to manage to force it through and put him on the court, with Pence casting the tie vote.

But I also think that the genie is out of the bottle now and more recent accusations are going to start bubbling up. People like Kathleen Parker are doing desperate damage control to prevent that from happening, but once the dam breaks, there’s no holding back the water.

At this point, my wish is that the SC goes back down to 8 justices because Kavanaugh ends up serving a prison term and the Republicans still refuse to vote to impeach him.

@Adam L Silverman: Um, Adam, it doesn’t matter, since they’re all playing on the same team: The Global Oligarchy Putsch. Loot the rich countries’ treasuries & taxpayers & move capital out at the speed of light while the proles are trapped within their borders with no one to blame but Those Others

Srsly, it all makes sense once you realize that to the Kochroaches & Mercers & Adelsons, Vlad the Paler is just one of them, doin’ de Lawd’s work by wrecking those eebil gummints that might be able to stand up to them. By the time they realize that a bazillionaire with nuclear weapons, nerve gas & assassination squads is a qualitatively different sort of oligarch, it’ll be too fucking late for them. Or us, probably…

@Baud: I believed in Barack and fervently believed it was my job to get him past Iowa so others would believe, too.

Whatever works, even if it was Andrew Sullivan.

@WaterGirl: I agree with the sentiment. I’m still going to shudder at his influence.

@debbie:

Engaging in the same crap gets us nowhere.

Sometimes the only way to fight a dumpster fire is to use an even bigger fire to smother it.

The time to go high is over. Low it is. To the knife, if it comes to that.

@Baud: Co-sign.

And the hits just keep on comin’

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/10/read-it-senate-gop-releases-letter-suggesting-kavanaugh-accuser-julie-swetnick-is-too/

@Adam L Silverman: at least you got one. All I have is a card saying a tree was planted in my name by the Human Fund.

from Rachel Maddow : New York State tax authorities reviewing NYT story.

Maybe trump’s brother and sisters will flip.

@Omnes Omnibus: I totally get that. And believe me, I’m not giving up.

@Omnes Omnibus:

People have been in worse positions and fought on.

For the record, few of those had happy endings for those in the crosshairs.

Those of us lower on the pigment chart have BEEN HERE before. And its not comforting to be told “well we survived it last time”. Because those of us who are not white are thinking “What is this ‘we’ thing, Kimosabe?”.

@Adam L Silverman: What, direct deposit is not good enough for you?

@Martin:
Probably not a good time to be ‘spainin’ things to me.

@MagdaInBlack: Fair. I don’t know anything about you. But so far every take I’ve seen on that story elsewhere was focused on litigating her sexuality – including her defenders. It’s driving me crazy.

@TenguPhule:
Please don’t dominate the rap, Jack
If you’ve got nothing new to say
If you please, don’t back up the track
This train’s got to run today

@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, really. Who fed that story to the Wall Street Journal? Or did they make it up??

@Adam L Silverman: They only interviewed the initial 4? Not the other witnesses named? Not the people disputing Kavanaugh’s descriptions of his behavior? Not the character witnesses or other accusers?

Yeah, the fix was definitely in.

Jason Kander stepped out of his mayoral race, citing PTSD. Wow.

@Adam L Silverman:

Oh, so that earlier report was like Mueller being done by the end of September? I hope so.

@Adam L Silverman: This is my shocked face.

WE NEED TO WIN THE SENATE. NOW!

@Adam L Silverman:

Susan Hennessey @ Susan_Hennessey
One of the pivotal and defining moments of 2016. McConnell really hasn’t gotten his due as a central villain in the Russia plot to undermine the US election, but I’d guess history books will correct that over the long term.

Seems like just yesterday, though I think it was five years ago, all the great minds of the Beltway told me that gridlock in Washington was due to the fact that Barack Obama refused to have Mitch McConnell to the White House living quarters for a drink.

@RedDirtGirl: I hope he does what he needs to do to get well and comes back to the fight. Most importantly, I hope he does what he needs to do to get well.

@Adam L Silverman: or at the very least, call him as a witness in the public hearings about Russia

@Adam L Silverman:
You mean, The Tertle lied?!!?! And he looked like such an honest man! How can we ever believe anyone ever ever again? Oh, woe is upon us! (Wails. Gnashes teeth. Rends garments in despair.)

Ah yes. I remember the days when a nominee had to withdraw in shame because they hired non-documented domestic help…

@MagdaInBlack: And they wonder why women never report being sexually abused/raped. Old white men attacking women for the sins they committed in their youth.

This weasel:

It’s important to talk about mental health like all other health. When people like former Secretary of State Kander are willing to do so, it moves the entire discussion in the right direction.— Senator Roy Blunt (@RoyBlunt) October 2, 2018

You can talk about it, but I voted Yes to gut the ACA so the question is, how are you going to pay for it.

@WaterGirl: I get the feeling Sullivan himself is gearing up to go all in for Trump in 2020. More in sorrow than in anger, etc., but the mean feminists just went too far and there are foreigners everywhere he looks…

@Adam L Silverman: @Amir Khalid: Hasn’t this essentially been out there – maybe not ‘common’ knowledge, but certainly known – since about June 2017?

“The Apprentice” looks like a good book, but nothing terribly new that most of us haven’t known/been following/been freaking out about since, oh, spring of 2015?

@Matt McIrvin: Maybe he should step away from his mirror for a few minutes.

@Barbara: That wouldn’t be very Burkean or Oakeshottian.

@different-church-lady: Do you want to play this as a game? You knew what my point was. Agree or disagree, but don’t be willfully obtuse.

@Omnes Omnibus: Games are fun.

THIS IS NO FUN.

@different-church-lady: You are playing one now. Have a good night,

@Jeffro: There’s Drumpf ripping off Mick Jagger again.