While we wait for Senator Collins to finish the longest public statement of “I’m voting yes” ever given in the English or any other language, I think it is important to take a moment and revisit the two much more courageous votes and statements of Senators Heitkamp and Murkowski. Especially so in the wake of Senator Flake’s weeklong end of summer stock reenactment of Hamlet that got so much press attention.
Here is Senator Murkowski’s statement to the press shortly after she voted no this morning during the cloture vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.
And here is Senator Heitkamp’s, which I also posted yesterday:
Senators Heitkamp’s and Murkowski’s votes and their statements are important for several reasons. Senator Heitkamp is in the final weeks of her re-election campaign and it remains to be seen whether or not this will help or hinder her in seeking another term in the Senate. Senator Murkowski is not up for re-election until 2022. Despite the stated and reported opposition by her Native Alaskan constituents, as well as Alaska’s governor and lieutenant governor to Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, her re-election is far enough off that she could have just kept quiet and voted along with the GOP majority in the Senate and it wouldn’t have come back to bite her if she does choose to run again in 2022. Instead she now has Alaska’s premier ankle biter and matriarch of the state’s most dysfunctionally petty crime family calling out the other attack dogs in an attempt to claw out another fifteen minutes of fame.
What Senator’s Heitkamp and Murkowski have done isn’t just cast a no vote. Read their statements as to why. Neither of them are denying that the President, regardless of what they may or may not think about the election of 2016 and his de facto legitimacy as a result of what occurred in that election, has the de jure responsibility and authority to nominate who he wants to the Supreme Court based on whatever process he establishes to arrive at the nominee. Rather they are both stating flatly that the issue here is that Judge Kavanaugh is not the right nominee at this moment in political and social time in the US. Neither are saying they wouldn’t seriously consider a different nominee with an open mind. This is important. Neither Senator Heitkamp or Murkowski are doing what Senators McConnell, McCain, Cruz, and others did during the 2016 election when they stated that not only would Judge Garland not get a meeting, let alone a hearing or up and down vote to fill the vacancy left by Justice Scalia’s death, but that if Secretary Clinton were elected that they would hold that Supreme Court seat open for as long as the GOP held the majority in the Senate or as long as a Democratic majority in the Senate kept the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in place. Instead they are simply stating that because of the circumstances and politics around this nomination and the current state of American politics and society, for the good of the Supreme Court, the Senate, and the US, Judge Kavanaugh was just not the right person to fill the current vacancy at this time.
Senator Heitkamp’s and Murkowski’s stated reasons for voting no also gets at another important point that we all too frequently ignore, if we even recognize it at all. Specifically that the purpose of the political processes that have been established and then evolved over time, and that are right now being severely stress tested, are the mechanisms that transform what may be politically unpalatable into government and governance that is politically palatable. Part of what Senators Heitkamp and Murkowski took a stand for, in addition to accepting Dr. Blasey’s testimony of what she had to endure in 1982, was the recognition that the US cannot continue going forward where the politics of might makes right, which is at the heart of all forms of fascism, regardless of whether it is a majority or a minority that has that might at any given moment in time, rules the day. They recognize that what the President, Don McGahn the White House Counsel, Leonard Leo who runs the Federalist Society and whose dark money networks bankroll the Judicial Crisis Network, and Senators McConnell, Grassley, Cornyn, Hatch, etc have done with judicial nominations – and in the case of the Republican senators done so going back to the Obama administration – has gone way past the point where the process can be used to transform the politically unpalatable into palatable government and governance.
Senators Heitkamp and Murkowski’s statements and the actions backing them up should sound as a clarion call that the system is fast approaching, if not already at, a breaking point. The subtext of their remarks is a recognition that the majority of Americans who did not vote for the President, despite his electoral college victory, or for either the GOP majorities in the House and the Senate, are fast approaching the point where Republican minoratarian rule, despite its constitutional/de jure legitimacy, is approaching the point of no return. That the relentless pursuit of power at all costs, whether through gerrymandering and voter suppression, manipulating and breaking the rules of the House and the Senate begun by Speaker Gingrich and perfected by Senator McConnell, packing the Federal courts, and/or the attempt to govern solely to the delight and enthusiasm of the President’s electorally minority base of white, largely evangelical and traditionalist Christians in the attempt to create a herrenvolk democracy, isn’t going to simply lock in permanent Republican control over the Federal government. It is going to irreparably break the Federal government and the United States polity and society.
While Senators Heitkamp’s and Murkowski’s stands will ultimately not be enough to stop Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination, the importance of their actions should be recognized nonetheless. They didn’t attempt to demonstrate just how much more moral than everyone else they are while predictably doing what they always do, like Senator Flake who always folds like a cheap suit after giving a sad speech with a crestfallen look on his face. Nor did they attempt to once again demonstrate how thoughtfully moderate they are, while always voting with the most conservative members of the Senate Republican caucus like Senator Collins. Instead they recognized that what the US Senate, the world’s greatest deliberative country club, actually needed was leadership. Not kabuki theater or crocodile tears or a political dance of the seven veils. What we’ve seen this week is a contrast between two senators – Heitkamp and Murkowski – who recognize and understand what leadership is and those who don’t – Flake and Collins. Leadership, either formal or informal, is doing the hard things when everyone is watching, not talking about doing the hard things and then not doing them because everyone is watching and someone might get mad at you.
As one of my professional forebears, Dr. Bernard Fall, so accurately observed in 1964 (emphasis mine):
Civic action is not the construction of privies or the distribution of antimalarial sprays. One can’t fight an ideology; one can’t fight a militant doctrine with better privies. Yet this is done constantly. One side says, “land reform,” and the other side says, “better culverts.” One side says, “We are going to kill all those nasty village chiefs and landlords.” The other side says, “Yes, but look, we want to give you prize pigs to improve your strain.” These arguments just do not match. Simple but adequate appeals will have to be found sooner or later.
Whether they recognize it or not, Senators Heitkamp’s and Murkowski’s actions and statements indicate that they recognize that the US has reached the point when the political arguments just don’t match anymore. And that sooner or later simple, but adequate appeals to resolve these serious problems will have to be found. Sooner or later…
A political battle has been lost, the larger political war for both the nature and the future of the US goes on. Check to make sure you’re registered to vote. Pester all your friends to make sure they’re registered to vote. Pester all your friends to make sure they pester all of their friends to make sure they’re registered to vote. Then vote. Pester all your friends to make sure they vote. And pester all of your friends to pester all of their friends to make sure they vote.
Open thread!
Major Major Major Major
Word.
Kay
Wonderful, Adam, Thanks. I’m hoping the public has also grown tired of the fake “Susan Collins decides” show we’re subjected to every 6 months or so.
She wastes our time.
VeniceRiley
Using my idiot closest family members as a barometer, I think they only thing that would make Republicans start to say “Wait. Stop.” is something drastic along the lines of #CalExit. It certainly won’t be happening because of any election cycle or 2 loss. They’re just too far gone.
jl
Senator Flake is acting out his own last name. ‘Flake’ should be root of many new English words now.
Strong election results and a good non-corrupt Congress are only fixes for the mess we are in. We need to fight for both starting this Nov.
Barbara
The website to crowdfund Susan Collins’ opponent has crashed. I hope this means Susan Collins cannot eat in peace anywhere in the state of Maine for the rest of her natural life.
But her emails!!!
The male contingent of the Supreme court will now consist of a higher percentage of sexual predators than the average prison. USA! USA!
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I’m a Mac user, but whatever you prefer.
Jerzy Russian
Can I marry you? If that is not possible, I will settle for marrying this post.
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: I’m pretty sure this sounded better in the original Entish.
patrick II
I admire them greatly for what they did. I am sad that they stood out so much while voting hateful a hateful shell of a man like Bret Kavanaugh.
Jeffro
@Barbara: This is the same thought I had, writ large: I hope the GOP understands that they don’t get to show their faces in public…and maybe not even in their own offices…again, ever, for the rest of their terms.
They’re going to pay, one way or another. Let’s start on Nov 6th and keep going.
guachi
Had to renew my registration in California. The downside of being in the military and moving then failing to update my current address.
On the upside, California is really easy to register. Sent my registration off about 50 minutes ago. I’m registered in an overwhelmingly Democratic district but I can’t very well post here and Facebook and other places and sit back and not vote, can I?
TenguPhule
or as John Cole put it: “One side wants a nice pasta dish, the other insists on tire rims with anthrax”
And I’m pretty sure all those simple appeals in history eventually boiled down to “Who can kill the other side the fastest and reduce the survivors into powerless peons.”
TenguPhule
Dunkirk, but they sank all the lifeboats.
geg6
I know you are all trying mightily to put as good a face on this as possible, but nothing can make this any better. There is no good news. Murkowski and Heitkamp just sacrificed themselves for nothing. Nothing. I can’t begin to tell you the thoughts I’m having about Susan Collins. If I did, we’d all end up being interviewed by the FBI.
This is a tipping point and we, as a country, just leapt with no parachute or safety lines. I am bereft. I’m not even sure I can find it in me to care at this point.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@geg6:
Call the national suicide hotline:
+18002738255
trollhattan
@guachi:
There are ALWAYS shenanigans going on locally to try and reverse. My Very Blue California city and rather less blue county have a DA and sheriff tag team who could slide into those jobs in any red state you could care to name. He’s a rabid Trumper and she {hearts} the death penalty and won’t prosecute cops who shoot unarmed black men.
zhena gogolia
@geg6:
I’m devastated. I can’t believe the people around me are just going about their business as if nothing’s happening.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Pages is also fine.
trollhattan
@geg6:
November’s not long off. The pushback begins there and it will be worth it watching Donny squirm. Stay tuned, stay involved!
Adam L Silverman
@Jerzy Russian:
While most likely an option under current law, it is, however, highly inadvisable.
NotMax
““[The Senate has been] debased to the level of a forum for hate and character assassination.… I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity.”
– Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, 1950
My, how times haven’t changed.
schrodingers_cat
@geg6: I felt like that when T was elected. I was wondering whether I should pack everything I owned and drive to Canada with my kittehs. {{ }}
Emma
@TenguPhule: Stop it, goddamn it. You have a person considering suicide in this blog and your snarky negativity isn’t helping. Just move out of the country if you think it’s never going to recover.
Anya
@Barbara: The State of Main voted for a crazy Trump-like lunatic so I am not holding my breath and I think she’s relying on that. I just hope she loses what she values the most, her reputation as a fake moderate. Susan Collins is the worst type of a craven politician. How can she with a good conscience call herself pro women and support someone like Cavanaugh for a lifetime appointment?
Martin
@guachi: Not voting is fairly unforgivable around here. Thankfully California wants you to vote. You can register the day you vote. It’s called Conditional Voter Registration here. Your vote gets put aside until the registration is processed and then it’s counted. I won’t promise they’re foolproof at this stuff yet, but you can’t be afraid of progress.
Mary G
I will not give up until a Deplorable kills me. I’m stubborn that way. Susan Rice may run for Collins’ seat in 2020. I’m with her.
SenyorDave
One thought on Susan Collins: FU!
From a Yahoo article on her voting yes:
Decrying the Kavanaugh confirmation process as “dysfunctional,” Collins noted that some of her colleagues had rushed to announce their opposition to his nomination.
Maybe multiple women coming forth with allegations of sexual assault on BK’s part had something to do with it. Or his lies during his testimony – Devil’s Triangle being a drinking game? Or her idea of a thorough FBI report that did not include his college roommate.
So her bottom line is that Kavanaugh may not be a serial sexual assaulter so we should approve him for a lifetime seat on the SCOTUS.
I repeat, FU!
JPL
@Anya: She has to count on that Bart won’t vote on anything to extreme next year. Good luck hoping for that.
Fair Economist
@geg6: Neither Murkowski nor Heitkamp sacrificed themselves. The backlash to this appointment will boost both of them. I mean, geez, Heitkamp probably raised several months’ worth of money this week.
Edit: It’s Collins who sacrificed herself. That opponent fund is going to be huge, and Mainers will be pissed.
Mary G
Mary G
@Mary G:
Feckless
There are NO GOOD REPUBLICANS.
NOT murkowski.
Not Mccain
Not Scarborough.
Seems like the commenariat celebrates a GOP broken clock rwice a day.
Adam L Silverman
Mary G
@Mary G:
Damien
Adam, let’s assume for a moment that the Republican Pigs retain power in the face of overwhelming majorities against them. Democrats win nationally with over 11% of the vote but somehow end up still out of power, which is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
What is a reasonable recourse in that situation? And I ask this seriously, because living as an oppressed majority like Apartheid doesn’t sound like a viable option
Fair Economist
@JPL:
And the next year. His 2020 rulings will come out 4 months before the general.
Mary G
@Mary G:
Mary G
@Mary G:
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Part of me is glad it’s over. The agony of hope alternating with despair has been killing me.
ruemara
I see a lot of
. Enough, sorry, white women are that unreliable that anyone saying that needs to be hit with a fish. 53% voted Trump. 64% were cool with pedo Moore. We saw them say groping was ok. We had KellyAnne show up to cry a touch and say it’s not really important. If the GOTV doesn’t target women of color, latinas & black women explicitly, then those waves of angry women probably will be around 46%. I’m at the believe women but don’t trust them as far as I can throw them stage. It’s like no one remembers the Wendy Davis filibuster and how her own demo voted at the ballot box.
jl
@SenyorDave: Politicians like Flake, Manchin and Collins act like they are corrupt and they think there is some reason why they need to engage in public BS to try, with complete futility, to hide it. The rest of the Congressional GOP is loud and proud about it. Except maybe Murkowski. She made a good vote today,
germy
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
They have on their “We are dead serious about being dead serious” faces. Good for them.
bemused
@SenyorDave:
Collins and the rest of the rotten R’s followed the same makeover Kav script. They were all lying about the testimonies and about Kavanaugh himself. Robotic. Pathological.
lamh36
@Emma: Can I tell ya…if I could leave the country, I would, but being a single woman of color…moving out of the country take a lot more thought that if I was a single white male.
Adam L Silverman
@Damien: I promise to give you an answer after the election results come in next month. I’m not going to borrow trouble from the future.
JustRuss
I’m glad Murkowski voted no, but JFC, BK’s a “good man”? He blatantly lied his ass off, and his finances, which were not investigated, are skeevy as hell. I guess she has to leave herself some wiggle room to get re-elected, but damn.
bemused
@Adam L Silverman:
I noticed that and instantly knew that was deliberate.
Brachiator
And a reminder that voting by mail has begun in some states (it starts in California on Monday). Make every effort to get people to vote.
jl
@bemused: Liars lying about a liar is not pathological from their own perspective. We need to help ensure that a lot of people who see a problem there get to the polls in November.
chopper
@Martin:
here in WA we vote by mail. they even pre-stamp the envelope now. it’s as easy as paying your power bill. i swear to fucking god, whenever i meet someone who says they never had a chance to vote or some other dumb excuse, i feel like hitting them.
StringOnAStick
Greetings from Chile, headed home tomorrow to volunteer my every spare moment. This news is not unexpected, but it fills me with white hot rage.
NotMax
Warren can insert evidence into the Congressional Record. While whatever that is can later be stricken before Record permanence is accepted, it is still out there.
In Williams v. Sabbath, the immunity of any “extension of remarks” or other material inserted in the Record by a member was affirmed by court ruling in 1950 on the ground that the immunity privilege was “absolute.” By inserting material under “leave to print,” a member may open the way for wide publication of statements that have previously had only limited circulation. Words that would not have been in order on the floor, if inserted in the Record in a revision or extension of remarks, may be stricken out and denied publication in the permanent Record, but the effect of the original publication will not have been erased from the public mind.
bemused
@jl:
It really is weird as Kay basically said. Who are they talking to? Their voters don’t care if they are lying and the rest of us know they are just acting. Who are they trying to impress or con?
trollhattan
Is Dead Andy Breitbart still dead? Because he better be otherwise this day has really gone into the shitter.
Emma
@lamh36: I know. I understand. I would not blame you if you did. But since at least for the short run we’re stuck here, we might as well take some shots, yeah?
jl
@Adam L Silverman: “Borrow Trouble from the Future, Spend it from the Past!”
Great GOP policy slogan. Thanks. I hope to sell it to them for upcoming elections.
Mike in DC
@Feckless: Because many of them are actually moderate Republicans or Conservative democrats. Another reason we need more diverse representation in news and opinion media.
Baud
@bemused: A lot of times they are thinking about the footage that might play in attack ads.
Kay
And if you’re worried about voting rights (and you should be) one can do a lot there state level- so win some state races. Governors and sec of states. Legislatures, if you can get them. We could have really robust voting laws at the state level to compensate for the lack of federal protections. It’s a patchwork and it will be hard as nails in the south, but that is an avenue.
It’ll be state law and privately funded litigation and protection on voting rights from now on, which is certainly less than federal protections but also not nothing. We really could create a privately-funded and staffed voting rights infrastructure to replace the loss of federal protections and public enforcement of voting rights laws. We raise a lot of money, liberals and Democrats. We could pay for that.
trollhattan
@bemused:
It seems like a fraternity skit they enjoy playing for themselves. He’s One of Them and they know and enjoy it and loathe anybody questioning him and by extension, them, explaining Blanche Graham’s continual series of meltdowns–Don’t talk about Fight Club! It’s all good and she’s still One of Them.
JoeyJoeJoe
As for me, this is what I expected. The Republicans are assholes, so of course this is what they’re doing. I refuse to let them win. First thing is to get back at them for this. November 6 should be fun, as will be seeing what happens to Susan Collins now. If Joe Manchin’s vote doesn’t change the outcome and he thinks he needs to vote this way to be reelected, let him; a Republican would be much worse. Also, Brett Kavanaugh can be impeached, he can end up in prison, he doesn’t have the power to singlehandledly overturn anything, Justices can be added to the Court, and states can ignore his opinions. If Republicans want to cast aside all political norms and rules for their own benefit, no reason why a state like California can’t tell him to fuck himself if he tries to overturn their intiatives, laws, etc. After the elections, we can continue to make things as miserable for the Republicans every chance we get. I think this is much better than despairing. JUst have to keep fighting/resisting them is all.
Trivia: in an alternative version of the tv show My Name is Earl, Earl catches Stewie Griffin on the tv instead of whatever show he sees that teaches him about karma, so instead of making up for his past acts, he just goes for revenge on everyone who wronged him.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax:
Baud
@Kay: Right. Same with Roe. People are rightly concerned but reproductive rights can be procted by state and federal statutes if we can get our people in there.
Jeffro
@lamh36: Wow, if she feels fake-bullied now, I can just imagine how she’s going to feel across the next couple’a years…
jl
@bemused: I used to scoff at the idea that the whole Congressional GOP is very seriously compromised in some way. There is serious criminal and financial liability there. And all are either involved before or after the fact, or are implicated because they know and say nothing.
The behavior of Congressional GOPers is seriously weird. Only one or two like the late McCain can defy and act halfway normally. Murkowski can defy it, but from what I’ve read, she acts as if she is under some kind of threat. So, my common sense skepticism has been crumbling for a while
Do people disagree? Have I been going a little goofy in the head, even more than usual? I think we are seeing seriously disturbing and weird behavior from the Congressional GOPers.
I expressed myself in semi-dudebro language, which after the Kavanaugh fiasco disgusts me, but between meetings and typing quickly. Apologies in advance.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: Monday is a federal holiday, so Tuesday would be the effective starting date.
chopper
@germy:
don’t drink too much beer, you’ll boof a lot the next day.
trollhattan
Carrie JohnsonVerified account @johnson_carrie
I think a special council satellite office in Trump Tower sounds like a grand idea.
ruemara
@lamh36: Ditto. I am now seriously considering the idea of working with a friend’s charity in africa, but, then I get to be a single woman in Africa alone. Fuck this existence.
chopper
@lamh36:
“MOOOOOMMMM! these dumb rape victims are making me feel bad!”
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
The Congressional scholar is correct. I lamented the other day that we no longer have someone as well versed in the arcana of the Senate as was Robert Byrd.
bemused
@Baud:
I’ve watched these cretins for a long time and came to the conclusion they are bullies and only care about themselves but some of their tactics are just puzzling. Everything they do is to benefit themselves even to the smallest actions they take. It’s hard for me to imagine that footage which might play in attack ads are much of a threat to them anymore. Thinking like a Republican is just too much work.
Woodrow/Asim
Right now, I’m trying to remember my Parents and Grandparents made it to the other side of Jim Crow.
This shit is horrible, true. At same time, I don’t want to shame the fights they made to be free, and for me to be free.
I told my FB friends to do self-care, then focus State/Local, like I said in Cole’s post and Kay just said above.
We can’t fix Congress until we fix the process for right-wing states to be a breeding ground for the kind of crap we see nationally, now. It’s not fun, but it is, sadly, true.
banditqueen
@geg6: Your voice matters here. You don’t need to find a way to make this better–it’s horrible and we were gaslighted–it’s just horrible. Sometimes others need to make the fight and not demand it of you as well. But your voice right now matters. Keep talking here, to your loved husband, to your friends. Call your therapist. Your voice matters.
bemused
@trollhattan:
That makes more sense. No one else counts with them so they are just entertaining each other…much like Kav and his frat boy pals trying to amuse and top each other.
chopper
@lamh36:
if collins and her friends feel “bullied” because people are calling and showing up at their offices with signs, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet. these assholes have been comfortable for a long-ass time because people everywhere used to consider politics to be a spectator sport. those days are gone. people are engaged and they’re fucking pissed.
Omnes Omnibus
I have two things to say on this. First, all decent people are gutted by this, but I know that some people, because of their personal history, are taking it particularly hard. I urge those people to take care of themselves- reach out for help, have a glass of wine, listen to Hamilton twenty times, whatever you need. We are hear if you want talk to us. Second, anyone who was predicting this result who takes any kind of victory lap about being right is a ghoul.
Suzanne
@lamh36:
No, motherfuckers, that’s ***shame***. That is a sign that you should feel badly about ***yourself***, not other people.
Fold it up. It’s done. We lost.
I am quickly coming to the conclusion that we will not win in a meaningful way again, and it’s time for us to take our ball and go home. We can’t make a country with these people.
bemused
@lamh36:
Poor baby. People trying to poke holes in her snuggly blanket.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I have less heartburn than most with Senator Schumer as minority leader. However, whether the Democrats are able to squeak out retaking the majority in November or remain in the minority, I think it is time for a leadership change in the Senate Democratic caucus. It is time for Senators Harris and Booker and Hirono, Senator Klobuchar, Duckworth, etc, and if she’s reelected, Senator Heitkamp to move up while the older generation in the caucus steps back, provides mentoring when needed, and lets the younger Democratic senators take the lead.
NotMax
@geg6
Step back and engage in something which brings you pleasure.
Pleasure is still legal.
lamh36
@ruemara:
Chris T.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
O. Felix Culpa
I just donated to Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign, FWIW. Brave behavior in a risky election campaign should be rewarded.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Boy, you are trying to be sympathetic!
bemused
@chopper:
What did they expect to happen!
schrodingers_cat
I am not going anywhere. This is my karma bhoomi even if it is not my janma bhoomi. And I am not ready to give up on it.
janma == birth
karma == action
bhoomi == earth/place
zhena gogolia
@O. Felix Culpa:
I gave to her yesterday and will contribute to the anti-Collins campaign as well. It’s the only thing that makes me feel better for a few moments.
Woodrow/Asim
@NotMax: “we no longer have someone as well versed in the arcana of the Senate as was Robert Byrd”
Also true. I heard Collins tried to invoke the Founders, and thought that was esp. horrific.
I remember when right-wingers used to come at me with that mythological “what the Founders wanted’ crap. In truth, they did not care then, esp. when they would hate on the fact I’ve actually read a good chunk of the Federalist Papers and could pull quotes at length to debate their asinine statements. I even had one say he preferred the Anti-Federalist Papers (?!?!) as a point around how America should be governed (WTF?)
It was, of course, all means to ends that would have made even those who came up with the Sedition Acts shudder.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
While there’s certainly something to be said for continuity of leadership, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. Except about Booker.
Woodrow/Asim
@O. Felix Culpa: I contributed to Heitkamp as well.
Fair Economist
To remind people again: it’s morally reprehensible, but appointing that sexual deviant drunk is not going to change life in this country from how it would be with any other Trump appointee. The rulings will be the same.
Bill Arnold
Adam, excellent post.
One geeky bright aspect: the Rs and Rs (Republicans and Russians) burned a lot of propaganda assets and exposed some techniques (just a cold reading for this second) in the BKav fight. That’ll make them much easier to identify and fight in the 2018 midterms. If Dems/Progrs (those able) want to directly fight on that front.
Does anyone know who starting pushing the protesters-are-paid-by-Soros-to-yell-at-Senators meme? Haven’t looked yet.
Does Collins know that that lying BCav WSJ OpEd was written specifically to sway her? That BK’s opening angry partisan rant was prepared well in advance? That he will not stop his partisan behavior?
jl
@Woodrow/Asim: I’m obsessed with it, sorry for repeating it again. In 1804 and 1805, in the Founders and Framers time, Congress was willing to go after federal judges and SCOTUS justice who pulled Kavanaugh style crap. I think clear now that Kavanaug is a very knowing, flagrant and repeated perjurer during this and previous hearings.
lamh36
@Suzanne: the tweet has been deleted.
Hey Adam or someone go ahead and delete the tweet I posted on Collins…the original tweeter has deleted because she “misheard”
https://twitter.com/heykmenz/status/1048326061216473090
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
According to some benighted souls here, Bhoomies are the font of all badness.
:)
lamh36
I am soooo angry right now…and I’m trying my best not to wish harm or destruction on folks…and I’m not just talking bout Republicans…
I dont’ want to wish or put anything out in the ether that could swing back on me…but it is DAMN hard.
So I’m avoiding any more political news
geg6
Please, everyone. Leave TP alone. He’s right this time. Quit beating him up. I find that even more depressing than what happened today. His heart is in the right place and it seems he has every right to be a pessimist at this point. I am, too. So if you’re going to pile on him, do the same to me. He was right. We were wrong. Maybe cockeyed optimism isn’t the right way to fight this. Bitter, angry hate seems to me to be more productive than saying it’s all going to be ok. It’s not, not even if we win in November (which is highly doubtful at this point, IMHO). It’s never going to be ok again. So the only way I can see getting through this at all for me is with bitter, angry hate.
MoxieM
@Barbara: She should just haul ass back to Caribou or Presque Isle and I hope she chips a painful tooth on some shot in deer meat or something. And never recovers. Falls in a frozen lake. Gets lost in the woods and never comes back. Ugh, what a disgrace.
And PS. I agree with one and all who said that Adam’s post is terrific. I too applaud the courage and patriotism of Heitkamp & Murkowski.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Done!
Woodrow/Asim
@jl: I’ve been thinking a lot about how we’d investigate Kavanaugh, too.
I think — and this is just me — we need to keep powder dry, _for now_. Unless what’s being whispered is in the FBI report is that huge, it’s not going to make a difference to the shitstorm we have coming now.
What will, is pulling together enough information w/o FBI support to prove out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what we know to be true — that K-Street SCOTUS Boy perjured himself multiple times in his testimony to the the Committee. And in the cold light of a few months from now, I think we keep pushing that narrative with all the facts a House Investigative Committee can bring to bear.
Is that enough to sway 2/3rds of the Senate in these times? Highly doubtful. But it might be enough, for example, to force recusal on some key cases, esp. if they can get access to his White House records in total and prove out a lot of the rumors on what he defended in that toxic Administration.
Add to that the high irony of Garland investigating those ethics charges, and we can make Kavanaugh and his backers keep paying a high price for their actions, if it all pans out. It’s a high wall for actually removing him, but let’s see what the future holds.
Bill Arnold
@Mary G:
Thanks for that! Direct links:
How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump
I’ll probably buy KH Jamieson’s book; here’s a link to her recent scholarship:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_ylo=2017&q=Kathleen+Hall+Jamieson&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5
I see a few that might be worth at least skimming.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
True dat. In Los Angeles County, they will begin mailing materials on October 9.
Los Angeles voters can go online and request a Vote By Mail ballot right now at the official site.
Evidently, the ballot has been redesigned. And, of course, it can be mailed postage free.
NotMax
@geg6
Strive to channel the hatred into productive (not destructive) activity. Nourishing it internally brings negative consequences to you, not them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@guachi:
Your needed to vote D in the state and local election citizen.
lamh36
Like I said…if the thought of Manchin winning re-election while Heitkamp and McCaskill who stood up for women with their votes even in the face of hard re-election campaigns (harder even than Joe Manchin) might just lose theirs doesn’t piss you off…I don’t know what to tell you.
but hey, maybe it’s fitting…male dominated GOP Senate screw over women by likely confirming Kavanaugh, and two women could just as likley lose their jobs for standing strong…
Bill Arnold
@lamh36:
It is hard, I agree. (A Quaker upbringing helps me to control the hate and loathing.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule: Tengu, humor is hard and it’s really not you. Admit it and life will be easier.
banditqueen
@geg6: Well, you’re right about that–Tengu keeps bouncing back–puts up a good fight like any antihero does, so let him be who he is.
Sab
They do seem to grow tough and decent legislators in North Dakota. Does anyone remember Earl Pomeroy, their only Congressman for years in the nineties and aughts? He was a Democrat whose main interest was Social Security. He voted for the ACA when he knew it would cost him the next election. It did. He is now a DC lawyer. I am guessing he is making more money than he did as a Congressman but wishes he was still in Congress.
Yay Heitkamp.
Chris Johnson
@jl: I think you’re absolutely right. The Republicans are doing this because it’s their only chance for escaping responsibility. It’s Russia, and it’s serious, and a hell of a lot of them are completely guilty of outright treason. So they have no choice but to double down: it doesn’t matter what damage is done because their worst consequence is NOT getting voted out and losing.
They’re looking at getting killed one by one in ways most recently seen in the UK. Putin will outright kill them. They are hostages and there’s no retirement plan for what they’ve become.
Might as well go to war with them now rather than continue to behave as if they’re a political party that can be reasoned with. Next is suspension of elections: we are already at war.
You don’t get all miserable and despairing that you’ve lost the discourse and everyone’s agreed to be evil, when you’re at war. There is no agreement here. There is no tolerance to be had for this. We’re at war because the Republicans got taken over by Russia and this is where it led.
ANY misery over what Kavanaugh would do on the supreme court is missing the point. The court is GONE. The country is GONE. It’s time to fight off the invaders and traitors. This has never been about the embracing of right-wing cultural issues. This has been a war and still is and won’t stop being one until we’ve thrown out the invaders.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Robert Byrd was the last senator who knew how to launder sheet really white.
Sister Golden Bear
@VeniceRiley: #CalExit is starting to look right now.
Yes, I’m being selfish. But I’m happy to be in a commonwealth of the Northeast Alliance and the City/State of Austin (although we may have to do a Berlin Airline equivalent to preserve them).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Woodrow/Asim: Actually, everyone here screams about not trying to look at it from the other side, but taking a look at Kavanaugh from a conservative point of view their is a lot to fault there. Just look at what going on, the GOP leadership is having to resort to naked terror tactics to get their own senators to vote for a Federalist Society groomed judged who should have been a no brainier yes vote for a Republican. So, I can see when Kavanaugh feels safe on the court he ends up going off the deep end to the point even the Right can’t take it.
So yes, it’s not the end of the world, just a set back.
Sister Golden Bear
@geg6: As others have said, please call your therapist, or a suicide hotline, or even 911 if needed.
We will get through this together.
eemom
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I want some of what you’re smoking.
Chris Johnson
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: No, it’s a sign that this is not merely a setback.
Think about it. If they failed to get Kavanaugh, they absolutely would be able to play upon that for political/electoral gains. That they are UNABLE to do that, to use another wingnut judge and take advantage of the electoral benefits of ‘oh, the evil liberals hurt this good man!’ means that both their position and ours are more terrible than they look. They CAN’T simply use another judge and take advantage of the PR benefits to them. Why?
Because they need this particular guy to support completely destroying the way this country functions, in ways that just any wingnut judge would not tolerate.
And they need that because they MUST destroy the way this country functions, or they’ll die. They’ll be revealed as traitors and then their best outcome is being in prison, and that’s not plausible because what they really face is vengeance from their former employer.
They have no coherent plan here. This is panic in action and they are driven by terror, and we’re probably well beyond the point where Mueller can do anything, even by revealing this all. With what government? The government is totally compromised.
These are not the actions of an ascendant right wing seeking to impose Handmaid’s Tale on the country. It’s meant to look like that, but it’s not. It’s a monkey’s paw tale. It’s a terrified gang of traitors smashing everything to distract from their own guilt.
Aleta
@Kay: Thanks for this comment. I’ll be following and repeating your suggestions, all of them. Greatly appreciate your sanity and intelligence.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I will say something else – you self declared Realists are making a huge mistake in your thinking by assuming the GOP is some ideological monolith driving by some demonic intelligence. It’s this insipid alliance of authoritarian religious zealots and bunch of well paid anarchists. This Kavanaugh nomination is that contradiction on full display – one group wants the court to scream Jesus 24/7 at everyone and the other wants no law, so they end up with a crazy drunk.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chris Johnson:
NO NO NO
YOU THINK
This nomination was always for the Republicans to lose all along. The only way it couldn’t happen is if a Republican voted against their own parties chose for the position.
Fear is the mind killer, ever heard that?
THINK, damn it.
Aleta
@NotMax: You probably know that Collins tries to model herself on Smith (although Smith voted against some SC nominees). Smith lost her seat to a Democrat (after supporting Nixon on the war), so Collins will go out like her.
Eric Running
“Mitch McConnell is the grave digger of democracy.” See Dr. Christopher Browning’s article in the New York Review of Books.
MomSense
@geg6:
I wish I had words of comfort to offer. This has shaken many of us to the breaking point. You are loved here. I know there is no one else I would trust more than you in this fight. Please rest and take care of yourself.
MomSense
@ruemara:
NotMax
@MomSense
OT.
Misremembrance. That Turkish series I mentioned yesterday is on Netflix, not Amazon Prime.
Salty Sam
From my (admittedly brief and cursory) research into the history of SC judicial impeachment, it appears that conviction in the Senate was not necessary, as the impeached judges resigned in the face of the impeachment charges.
It would seem to me that this could easily be the case with Kavanough, given a thorough (REAL) investigation and sufficiently damning evidence. My lovely spouse disagrees, saying he’ll never resign, but I’m not so sure…
J R in WV
@Salty Sam:
He will never resign, that would be confession of guilt to him, well, it would be to everyone. He would rather be eaten by rats while on live video than to admit guilt. He believes he is part of America’s patriarchy, the leaders of the nation, those who cannot be defeated. Obviously bullshit, he’s a petty alcoholic rage monster, not a patriarch, but still.
Will never resign, ever. Too perfect in his feeble mind to ever admit he is less than perfect in the eyes of god…
Barb 2
Wow! I’ve bookmarked this post!
The current New Yorker has several B K articles. The must read one is about Trump’s use of misdirection. Look what this hand is doing and ignore my other hand. The GOP bastards are absolutely terrified of being exposed and held accountable for crimes against our democracy. Most are up to their eyeballs with the Russians – they think that B K will bail them out.
Trump is chaos and misdirection – this is who he is.
Trump is so the symptom of the disease of the traitors party – the GOP.
The Russians will be focusing on dividing and disrupting democrats. This is war and we are the soldiers on the good side.
gene108
America has been incredibly lucky in having leaders appear in times of crisis.
Washington had the gravitas to keep the American expirement from falling apart at the start.
Lincoln held the union together.
FDR gave faith back that government can work and more.
Obama kept us out of a second Great Depression.
But at some point the luck will run out.
Susan Stockert
Adam I know I’m late to the conversation but I have one very important question to ask you based on 72 years of observing and reading human history and nature and the one all history stands on.
Where does our Military stand? With the people and the Constitution Rule of Law or with the money?
dww44
While I realize this thread is mostly dead, I’ve a question for Adam or whoever can enlighten me. In Heidi Heitkamp’s statement at the end of the second paragraph, she says “that both sides horribly handled the nomination process”. How is that?
Am I wrong in believing that Sen. Feinstein didn’t release Blasey Ford’s information at the specific request of the victim and that those who say that Dems deliberately sat on the info and released it too late in the process. Did Dems release the info or not?
And, what role did Schumer play in this, since I heard some pundit earlier this evening posit that “Schumer had overplayed his hand”.
I am so sick of this bothsiderism.
Bottom line, I appreciate the courage of both Murkowski and Heitkamp’s No votes, but I’m not encouraged by their detailed reasons for doing so.
Adam L Silverman
@dww44: I’ll try to take these in order:
I’m honestly not sure what she’s referring to here. She may have been unhappy with the Democratic caucus’s strategy or parts of it.
You are correct. Senator Feinstein and her staff did not release the info. Ryan Grim who reported the initial story on this has come out and made clear that he did not get the information about the allegations from the Senate Democrats. It is widely argued that either the GOP Judicial Committee staff got wind of it and leaked it for political reasons, the White House in conjunction with the nomination team they put together knew this was out there and they leaked it for political reasons, or reporters sniffing around got wind of this from one of the people that Dr. Blasey told. As of now I think the first two possibilities are more likely, but we don’t know.
Schumer is the caucus leader/minority leader. Whatever strategy Feinstein and the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee had, he was at least aware of, if not signed off on. As for overplaying his hand, that’s garbage. He never had a winning hand. His caucus is 47 Democrats ranging from center left to left of center and two Independents, one of whom can actually define socialism/social democracy and one of whom who thinks he is a socialist/social democrat, but can’t. All he could ever do was hold as much of his caucus together as possible and try to entice two Republican senators to vote no. He held his caucus together. And for those pissed off about Senator Manchin voting yes, I guarantee he did that with Schumer’s blessing. Had Flake or Collins been willing to also vote no along with Senator Murkowski, then Manchin would have voted no as well. As soon as it was clear that there was no way to win the battle, Schumer released him from the whip, as it is called in Congress, so that he could vote yes, shore himself up for his reelection, and make it as likely as possible – right now about 33% or so – that the Democrats retake the Senate in the midterms. If the Democrats do thread that needle, they need Manchin both to get reelected and to be part of the caucus. I know that calculus upsets some people, but that’s the political reality.