Much as I believe a conviction of Trump remains a long shot, no one should doubt for one second the titanic impact that bipartisan votes to impeach a Republican President would have in America. Even and maybe especially if the votes come from officials as [***] as Liz Cheney, daughter of blog favorite Dick [***] Cheney and the #3 Republican in Congress.
Republican Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House GOP leader, said she will vote to impeach President Donald Trump, a major break within the party following the storming of the Capitol last week.
“On January 6, 2021 a violent mob attacked the United States Capitol to obstruct the process of our democracy and stop the counting of presidential electoral votes,” Cheney, of Wyoming, said in a statement. “The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing.”
Another Republican representative, New York’s John Katko, has also said he would back Trump’s impeachment.
This bears repeating: Republicans don’t give a rat’s left testicle about unity with Democrats and they don’t care about national “healing”. Republicans are frantic because their party is breaking apart. Trump has given them all the judges and tax cuts that he ever will, and all he can offer them now is grief and bad press. Like I said before Trump is presently as valuable to Mitch McConnell as a 500-Guilder tulip. Too bad for everyone that Trumpism doesn’t just vanish like Kaiser Soze when it’s not needed any more. All those impressionable idiots still want the mass arrests and whites-only nation they were promised.
McConnell and friends know that they can’t survive with the Trumpists. Half the party would be in some sort of plea deal by July. But the party can’t survive without them either. It’s a pickle.
[***] – adjectives go here
RaflW
Already seeing that this catapults Liz to the front of the 2024 race. [puke emoji]
Elizabelle
Lie down with rattlesnakes ….
No sympathy for these fuckers. Simple decency might have given them some clues, but they are devoid of that too.
WereBear
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Couldn’t happen, nicer guy, etc :)
Gin & Tonic
[***] – adjectives go here
Didn’t we get a good tutorial on our favorite Anglo-Saxonism last night?
debbie
Their real pickle is that they’re beginning to lose their donors. Panic in D.C.!
Mai Naem mobile
So will we finally get a string of ‘Republicans in disarray’ stories from the NYT?
randy khan
Apparently we’re now up to 3 Rs voting to impeach. Obviously nearly all of the “stop the steal” caucus is hopeless, so probably the max possible is around 30. I’m expecting no more than 10, though.
Baud
I continue to be impressed that Tom Cotton didn’t fall for it.
WereBear
What they are ticked about, much like the unhappy Trump staffers who are looking at a heckuva gap on the ol’ resume, is how this messes up THEIR plans.
RaflW
But as much as Liz is showing some leadership while McConnell is perhaps sending trial balloons, I think it comes down to this:
Big corporate donors are pulling support.
And like you say, McConnell is recognizing that if Trump isn’t booted in the next couple days, the pressure on Cruz and Hawley to resign really ramps up (They should be made to resign anyway!).
Baud
Watching some of the new video on MSNBC, I’m impressed they cleared the Capitol as quickly as they did.
RaflW
@Mai Naem mobile: That would break Baquet’s dark little heart.
The Dangerman
There are gonna be a whole buncha Folks that take a walk from the Party. The sane ones that are asking their leadership if they are out of their fucking minds and head for the door. The insane ones (ie Trumpers) that will be asking their leadership if they are out of their fucking minds and head for the door. 1/6 was a disaster of monumental proportions for their side. Stone cold fucked they be.
Danielx
They’ve put themselves out on the end of a limb and all Pelosi and Schumer have to give them is a saw.
Pity about that.
Mai Naem mobile
@RaflW: nah, dime store palin SD Governor Kristy Noem is purdier than Lizzy. Just because Noem let her grandma get run over with COVID-19 will be forgotten by 2024. In fact the GOP will make sure that it will celebrated that she was willing to make a personal sacrifice.
Ken
Ah, that explains it. I misread that as “three stars” and was worried you’d fallen and hit your head.
Kathleen
@debbie: I’m going to join meeting to listen to prospective Ohio Dem Party chairs in a few minutes. I don’t even know who’s running.
Shrillhouse
Wouldn’t it make sense for GOP senators to vote to convict? That would stop Trump from ever running again, and give them the chance to say “See? We stopped him!”
Heck, they could expel Cruz and Hawley while they were at it. They’ll just be replaced by appointments from GOP govenors anyways…
patrick II
@Baud:
Cotton seems much more of a true believer rather than an amorphous sycophant like Cruz.
Elizabelle
@debbie: And Sheldon [***] Adelson is stone dead. In addition to being stone ugly. LOL.
Kathleen
@Baud: The more video I see the more horrified and outraged I become. Read a story today where terrorists smeared poop on the walls.
Frankensteinbeck
McConnell is a mean fuck who surely values his own life. He may not have been at the top of the deranged MAGA traitor hunters like Pence, but they don’t like McConnell one bit. Campaign cash is famously McConnell’s obsession, but I suggest he may also want revenge for Trump sending a mob to murder him.
Elizabelle
@Danielx: I hope that limb extends over a moat full of sharks with ebola.
Baud
@Kathleen:
Same here.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Sheldon Adelson just now, to whomever’s in charge: “What, you mean I really don’t take it with me?”
How’s Rupert’s health?
The Dangerman
@Elizabelle: I nominate this for rotating tag line status.
jimmiraybob
I emailed McConnell last week telling him that impeaching Trump now would avoid four years of Trump 2024. Apparently he passed it on to the crazy caucus. Your welcome. I now own the Senate.
Danielx
Two weeks ago Mitch McYertle was rubbing his flippers at the prospect of fucking with Biden for the next four years:
No legislation passed! Huntergate! Laptopgate! Kamalagate! Chinagate! Anythingandeverythinggate!
Tonight he’s trying to keep the Republican Party from splitting completely and permanently, along with getting out with his physical and legal skin intact.
Too bad, innit?
surfk9
Anyone else think Lindsey’s ride today with Trump is to tell him that the votes are there for conviction and The smart move would be to resign.?
trollhattan
@Danielx:
We had all of what, two hours to celebrate Georgia? But it’s still important and could change everything.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Every time I read about the urine and poop-smeared walls I think: DNA
Thank you for leaving your DNA.
Danielx
@Elizabelle:
Fixed.
Baud
@surfk9:
I don’t think he’s brave enough.
trollhattan
@surfk9:
Assumes Lindsays not in evidence. Simplest answer is one final kissup. As to why, well, it’s Lindsay Fucking Graham, weathervane to the stars.
WaterGirl
@Danielx: OT, but how’s your daughter?
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Ewww. Still I suppose it’s…helpful?
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: Good point!
patrick II
If at some future date Kamala is the presidential nominee, Liz might be the republicans best opponent.
CaseyL
@Danielx:
This is indeed a dilemma.
On the one hand: Getting T* out of office ASAP is Job No. 1.
OTOH: I’d honestly prefer to see the trial in the Senate under a Biden Administration and with Schumer rather than McConnell running things, for what I hope are obvious reasons.
Screwit: Getting the traitorous fucker out of the White House has to be the highest priority.
PS: Excellent Firefly reference, TimF!
Danielx
@WaterGirl:
Funny you should ask…she had fever today for the first time. Tomorrow mom is taking her to clinic downtown for BAM infusion, which she will hate – one hour IV plus one hour of observation.
She’s scared, I can”t give her a hug and things suck.
Elizabelle
@Kathleen: Yeah, apparently so.
WaPost, Monica Hesse: Trumpist masculinity reaches its high water mark
I am amazed Trump’s presidency has not been a long string of Louis XIV cartoons — the vanity, the vanity — but that’s probably because most Americans may be too ignorant of the history there. And, French.
randy khan
@trollhattan:
I’ll be celebrating Georgia for a while. Every time I see Schumer referred to as Senate Majority Leader, in fact.
randy khan
@WaterGirl:
Yes, indeed. Damaging government property and leaving the information needed to convict you all at once.
Baud
@randy khan: Same.
CaseyL
@Danielx: I feel for her, for you, for the whole family. Fingers crossed it gets no worse.
dmsilev
@Shrillhouse:
The problem, from the GOP Senatorial perspective, is that even now 70% of Republicans support Trump. Sure, that’s down from the 90+% that it was a couple of weeks ago, but he’s still popular with the base. In other words, they’re afraid of a primary challenge. And possibly of being lynched (and I don’t mean that metaphorically at all).
Kathleen
@Elizabelle: Domestic terrorists. Many of them quite affluent. But they’re “victims”.
p.a.
Conviction almost impossible to conceive, but if the Rs want a ‘clean slate’ in ’24 and a tRumpstench exorcism (thanks future MSM!🤬) I guess it could happen.
BUT tRump is such a vengeful pos I could see him napalming the whole shit-edifice of the party for 4 years even if he can’t hold office again. Except that would cost $$$ he probably does not/will not have, and he’s just fucking lazy.
Geoduck
@surfk9: Nah, he’s just a suckup to the bitter end.
Martin
@Elizabelle: I really didn’t appreciate the magnitude of the homoerotic turn that this movement would take.
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Its staggering to realize that the Georgia run-offs were only one week ago today. It feels like several lifetimes. And I do think part of the reason is that we never got a chance to fully process and celebrate the dual win.
eclare
@Elizabelle: No links because I’m on my phone…an Olympic swimmer wore his fucking Olympic jacket to the riot! I think his name is Klete Keller. The stupidity, it burns (I mean I’m glad he’s stupid, but wow)
SFBayAreaGal
I’ve noticed not much has been said about how deep is the [******] Stephen Miller involved in all of this.
Calouste
@p.a.: If the shitgibbon is convicted by the Senate, he is going to be indicted for crimes committed on 1/6, and probably convicted for those as well. Hard to have much of an influence from prison. I doubt the Supremes are going to uphold a preemptive pardon by Pence for sedition.
Jeffro
Mitch only needs 17 GOP Senators – half of them are there already, the rest are either 4 or 6 years away from re-election (or retiring). Easy peasy.
Especially if it gives 33 GOP Senators cover with their blessed ‘base’.
trump is toast. He’ll be the most-reviled president* in history (obvs) and I have no doubt the Repubs will be telling us all that he was once a Democrat (DONTCHA KNOW) before 2021 is out.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: One week ago. Jebus.
It’s Trump time, on steroids. (As are too many of his supporters.)
raven
Xin Loi motherfuckers.
p.a.
@SiubhanDuinne: There was a character in Catch-22 who always wanted to be bored because time seems to pass slower and it would feel like he was living longer, but the tRump admin proves him wrong. Just 4 years of a confederacy of dunces’ crises, an eternity.
Jeffro
I knew I was too late to trademark my new band’s name…sigh…
p.a.
@Calouste: from your keyboard to the history books🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Jeffro
Every time the GOP manages to round up even 1 Dem, somewhere, ANYwhere, to vote for their bullshit it’s deemed “bipartisan”.
So hey, whaddya know? a BIPARTISAN impeachment! Eat it, trumpov!
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
There was video clip going around earlier today of that little twunt Hogan Gibley or Gidley or whatever, stating that Donald Trump was the most masculine-y male of Presidential masculinity that ever set foot in the White House.
sanjeevs
@trollhattan: Murdoch is in rude health. He was one of the first people in Britain to be vaccinated, well ahead of the ninety-something Queen and Prince Philip
Elizabelle
I think a lot of Congress has to consider that they are personally targets for violence against their person. Maybe against their family members too.
Democrats, yes. But look at how Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham have been hassled in airports. Mitt all by his lonesome (and handling the situation with patience and grace ; Graham — mask down, FWIW — inside a phalanx of airport security and police.)
Trump supporters and Republicans as a whole are more likely to be armed, angry, ill-informed, and dangerous. Militia members. And the insurrectionists are embedded within law enforcement, too. Have military backgrounds and training.
They may not admit it, but some GOP senators may eventually breathe a sigh of relief at Merrick Garland, and the potential for his knocking back the white supremacy movement a bit.
GOP congressweasels have ridden that tiger about as long as they can.
VeniceRiley
Meanwhile, Supremes say it’s fine to make women drive to the pharmacy in the middle of a pandemic to get abortifacients. Just fine.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Danielx:
Rough stuff, my thoughts are with you both. Good luck and my best wishes!
WaterGirl
@Danielx: I’m sorry she has symptoms but good that she can get that treatment. They said 12 and older, so she’s definitely old enough to know what’s up but maybe not old enough to have coping mechanisms for something like this.
Hell, I’m WAY over 12, and I’m pretty sure my coping mechanisms wouldn’t be up to the test of COVID.
Do you guys have two showers in the house? I wonder if it would be safe for her to hug you from behind and then both of you immediately go take showers? Too crazy to even ask about?
debbie
@Kathleen:
Oooh, hope it’s someone good!
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Elizabelle: “… tourists who had accidentally gotten in line for Insurrection Mountain at the Magic Kingdom.”
Now that’s fucking funny.
LuciaMia
For once he was Tommy TightLips. (“I ain’t sayin’ nuttin…”)
WaterGirl
@Baud: Knowing we won Georgia is what is getting me through all this. It would be oh so much more awful if we weren’t looking at house, senate and whitehouse.
patrick II
So, did mom pay his way to the revolution?
Cheryl Rofer
@LuciaMia: Cotton is hoping to survive to become the dictator this bunch was too inept to aspire to.
raven
@eclare: Man that freaked me out. He was a swimmer at USC and his wiki noted that he has a sister that was also an college swimmer I have a friend who was a swimmer here and she has the same last name but no relation!
debbie
@WaterGirl:
I’m thinking it might be. ;)
Nora Lenderbee
@eclare: Klete, short for Kletus?
wvng
Call your Senator, particularly if they are Republican, and tell them you expect them to be on the side of the Constitution and not sedition. It is just possible that in the next few days enough republican Senators will break that Lindsey Graham will be dispatched to the White House to tell Trump resign or we will convict you.
Call your Senator.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I can accept that judgment.
p.a.
If there’s a way for team D to clear the way for progressive legislation while at the same time protecting the republic from the goons for the next week while also maneuvering to assist/encourage the R party to tear itself apart, my $$$ is on Nancy Smash and House Dems. Schumer, Senate, not so much. Hope to be proved wrong.
debbie
The debate about the 25th amendment just wrapped up. Fucking Gym Jordan. Spent his time railing about what the country has come to. Yes, the 25th amendment, but also masks! “I have to wear one or I have to pay a fine!”
I want him and Trump’s other enablers all censured and kicked to the back of the room.
JPL
@Danielx: Not being able to hug is so sad, but I’m sure she knows your are there for her. It does suck.
japa21
A couple of observations.
Everyday, new video is coming out and it shows worse things than the day before. But one thing we haven’s seen, to the best of my knowledge, is any video from the Capitol’s security cameras. I am sure they have several installed and I am sure the video is being scrutinized thoroughly. Of particular interest will be what happened before the actual invasion took place. Who unlocked doors? Who was where and when? Interested in staffer movement.
Second, the GOP talks about unity and both Cheney’s and McConnell’s actions are partly to try to get the Dems to give them a break. Ain’t gonna happen.
I expect Pelosi to go to McCarthy and Schumer to McConnell and say words to the effect that, “We’ll talk unity when and only when every member of your caucus admits that Biden won fair and square, without any fraud involved, and admits that they have lied to their constituents this whole time. And asks for forgiveness for any part they may have ad in riling up the mob. And that McCarthy and McConnell support at a minimum censure, committee losses and possible expulsion fo0r the worse offenders. Cruz and Hawley are non-negotiable They go or no cooperation.”
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne:
I mentioned in an earlier thread and will note again that initially I did not know if this Hogan person was male or female. He’s a guy.
I also noted that it is strange the degree to which GOP men enjoyed being dominated by Trump, even though he would use them and toss them away.
Doubly strange since Trump and his grown sons are some of the most insecure, infantile, un-manly men that I have ever seen in my life.
japa21
@debbie: To the evangelicals, like Jordan, I like to say “You don’t have to be a Christian to wear a mask, but if you refuse to wear a mask I have to seriously question if you are truly a Christian.”
Calouste
Vote on the resolution calling on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment is up around 7:30 EST. We’ll find out how many GOP Reps are willing to torpedo their fundraising in fealty to the shitgibbon. You’d think they’d realize that a few of the right votes might keep some money spigots open, but these folks aren’t smart.
Baud
@Martin:
Oh sure. Blame it on gays.
Martin
Just got a notice from my care provider that they’re going to reduce access for routine and preventative care so they can continue to surge resources toward Covid care.
debbie
Not sure of his reasoning, but I like his conclusion:
SiubhanDuinne
@Danielx:
You are all in my thoughts, and I wish you could hug your daughter. Hope tomorrow goes smoothly and is an effective treatment.
Ken
If so, we’ll soon be testing Trump’s claim (belief?) that he could shoot someone and get away with it.
jimmiraybob
@SiubhanDuinne:
In my view bold and defiant toxic masculinity is at the heart of fascism and authoritarianism in general. Trump’s very special brand of toxic masculine milkshake brings all the fascist boys and girls to the schoolyard and its going to be real tough for any wanky aspiring politician to duplicate a true psychopath poser like Trump – none of the current batch has anything near the Mussolini pose. All current Republican politicians will be branded traitors and wimpy failures.
JPL
@Ken: 😁😁 He would toss Lindsay out of the plane, if that were the case.
counterfactual
@patrick II: His mom, or his pharmacist wife. I’ve seen posts that a pharmacist in Nashville can make $100,000 annually.
Bill in Section 147
So are Republicans now the blood-drinking cannibals in the basement of Rocket Pizza?
Cheney seems to understand corporate money is behind the “Return to Normalcy” GOP platform of 2024 but I am not sure the influenza and WWI have killed off enough of the Trumpists for her to put on Warren G. Harding’s old suit and act pleasant for the win.
The Harding Administration was insanely corrupt but he himself was affable. Cheney, if she stands next to her pops will appear somewhat like she has a soul. When the competition is Rubio, Cruz, Pompeo, Hawley, and various other lumps of white male flesh she might be able to seem almost charismatic too.
But she has a vagina and those things, well, that is a sticky problem for the Real Men of America.
SiubhanDuinne
@jimmiraybob:
And that is just fine with me!
MisterForkbeard
@surfk9: Nah. I think Lindsay saw that the polling results for SC shows that Republicans still like Trump even after this, so he’s being the remora he is and sidling up to Trump again.
He’s also a coward, so I bet the heckling in the airport got to him.
Calouste
@counterfactual: Probably more than that. In some cities pharmacists can get $100K as a starting salary.
dmsilev
@debbie: Guessing it’s the reports of Republicans starting to come out in favor of impeachment and removal. It’s basically the Nixon scenario.
I still think it’s unlikely, but maybe not impossible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Cannot immediately say which magazine is the de facto default when it come to ‘manliness,’ but someone with Photoshop skills perhaps might do a parody mock-up of a cover, picturing Dolt 45 – overlaid with a prominent red circle with a slash obliquely transecting it.
//
Calouste
@Ken: How is he going to do that? He can barely lift a glass of water with two hands. The gun will be pointing at his feet by the time he’s managed the strength to pull the trigger. (And of course he will get away with shooting himself, maybe that’s what he always meant)
jimmiraybob
Any chance that it will be Graham that Trump chooses to shot on Fifth Avenue in order to shore up and inspire his base?
[My crack team of lawyers have prepared a statement: While this extreme measure would in other times seem so far beyond the pale that our client could never ever get convicted of having had prior knowledge that could have prevented this, we are in Trump times. Therefore, it is necessary to state in the strongest terms that our client has no actual information informing this comment. It is mere wild and uninformed speculation in the realm of ironic sarcasm.]
Ken
I can’t remember the exact name, but I saw one in a gas station rack that, from the cover, was a cross between “Guns and Ammo” and “The Paleo Barbeque Diet”. Basically, shoot the meat, cook the meat. Probably needs a truck tie-in.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Inside help.
I have always wondered what turned up on the security cameras. Or if any were disabled prior to the incursion.
VeniceRiley
@Martin: Ugh. On upside- I just got a note that tomorrow our transportation dept is bringing vans of our PACE enrollee senior patients to the corporate office to be vaccinated.
jimmiraybob
On a more serious note, where was Flynn?
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: Not even that – having the House, Senate and Presidency is what is making all this crackup and consequences actually HAPPEN.
If they’d held the Senate, I think Mitch and McCarthy would be singing a very different tune today.
Aziz, light!
Once this reaches the Senate, the thugs will circle the wagons as they always do. No way we get 17 to flip. Their talking point will be that convicting Trump is bad for “healing.”
NotMax
@Bill in Section 147
Not to mention dumb as a box of boulders.
Patricia Kayden
Can’t be said enough!
JMG
The secretary for my primary care physician called this pm and my annual physical, postponed from late October to next week, is now postponed until mid-March. I don’t mind, gives me a chance to lose some holiday pounds, but it’s a sign of how the medical community (in Boston!!!) is moving to covid direst emergency footing.
Subsole
@Martin: A lot of these folks aren’t secure at all in their masculinity. It is no wonder they worship/idolize the male body. Autoandrophilia, I guess you’d call it?
Mike in NC
Yeah, sounds even less inviting than Cracker Barrel.
MisterForkbeard
@debbie: Gym Jordan can go fuck himself. He works in a closed room with a bunch of octogenarians and people in high risk groups. Fuck him if he’s so offended that he has to take basic precautions during a pandemic.
Censure his ass once we’re in regular session. Don’t limit it to a fine.
@Ken: To be fair, he only caused someone to be shot and got 4 other people killed and 60 officers injured. And he did it in the Capitol building, not on 5th avenue. Take THAT, libtard!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard: watching Lindsey walk away from that crowd under police escort, I taught, Damn he looks old, and I googled to see how old he is. He looked a lot older than sixty-five
Another Scott
“If something cannot continue forever, it will stop.”
Corporations breaking with the GOP is what got Moscow Mitch’s attention. “The three most important things in politics are: Money, Money, Money.”
Good, good.
But not enough. There have to be real consequences.
Nobody can hide. They must tell us which side they’re on – Trump’s or the Constitution’s.
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
@NotMax: Girls and Corpses.
Mike in NC
@SFBayAreaGal: Miller probably wrote 90% of Fat Bastard’s insurrection speech. Not a bright guy.
Ohio Mom
Bill in Section 147 @94:
COMET pizza, not ROCKET pizza. It’s a cute little neighborhood joint, we stopped there three years ago when we were in DC for a wedding.
narya
@WaterGirl: @randy khan: I’m wondering if the evidence was collected before it was cleaned up, though. I can envision folks wanting to clean up that kind of desecration and not thinking about it being evidence.
Spanky
Tonight’s background music.
Prolly not to everyone’s taste, but it tamps down the adrenalin and ideation.
Mary G
Uncle Joe and Auntie Kamala starting to clean house:
Happy the first one I’ve seen is on a Jared project.
I don’t trust Republicans in general and Mitch McConnell in particular as far as I could throw an elephant. They’re already scheming away on methods to sabotage the new administration, and they can move pretty fast. Reagan was six years after Watergate; Donald fucking Trump eight years after GWB.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@debbie: I thought I was keeping up, but obviously not. What’s shifted in the last hour?
JPL
One representative might not be voting tonight.. sad
Lauren Boebert is refusing to comply with the metal detector or allow a bag search. Now standing in the House doorway. Security is refusing to allow her to enter. Appears to be a standstill.
Just One More Canuck
@eclare: “Klete”? Seriously?
Calouste
@Another Scott: Didn’t Meijer already come out for impeachment, or at least called for resignation? McMorris-Rodgers would be a big one, she was in the GOP House leadership.
MisterForkbeard
@Mary G: I have literally already seen this cast as “Biden is looking to cast blame for why his vaccine rollout may fail his initial promised timelines. It appears he’s going to blame it on Trump.”
Sigh.
@JPL: Neat! She can’t vote or do anything until she follows the rules. Must be a first for her.
japa21
@MisterForkbeard: Regarding the woman that was shot. I have seen video of that several times, and it always looking in at the shooter. He is holding the firearm very firmly, staying in one place. Suddenly he moves out, changes his aim and fires. Something triggered that shot. What was she doing that drew his attention and caused him to pull the trigger? It was not a wild shot into a crowd.
It is possible I have missed something.
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
I have a hard time imagining Pence giving him a pardon. The people who suck up to him do it because they want what Trump can give them. Once he can’t deliver anymore, he will be cast aside faster than you can imagine. If Trump is impeached and removed, Pence will have no reason at all to give him anything.
Steeplejack
As a side note, I’d like to know how Liz Cheney became the “number 3 House Republican” after one term in office. She just started her third term, and she became chair of the House Republican Conference at the start of her second one (in 2019). Is she that much of a superstar, or is she just Dick Cheney’s daughter with inherited connections? Or is it just that the GOP bench is so pathetically thin?
NotMax
@Just One More Canuck
Always confuse him with his brother Hobnayle.
:)
Geminid
@Aziz, light!: This only reaches the Senate on a fast track if McConnell wants it to. And he won’t pull the trigger on a trial if he doesn’t have the republican votes to convict. But we will know the score in a couple days.
Spanky
@Martin:
RASPUTIN’S JUNK!
DRACULA IN A WOMEN’S PRISON!
I hope I can get them goodies on VHS!
lamh36
“respectful but defiant”…escort that bish right out.
RaflW
@Kathleen: Kneeling before a sportsball game = disrespecin’ tha flagggg!
Smearing poop around the nation’s capitol = I got carried away, oops.
MisterForkbeard
@Steeplejack: There are exactly three female republicans of any note at all:
1) Nikki Haley, who kind of pretended to be moderate and reasonable and then pissed it all away under Trump. Token minority and female trotted out to make R’s look reasonable
2) Ivanka Trump, because nepotism
3) Lynn Cheney, because nepotism
Nepotism is a huge thing amongst Republicans.
Calouste
@Roger Moore: I agree. I think it’s far from certain that Pence would issue a pardon if the opportunity is there. One of the things is he would only be a caretaker for a week. Ford still had two years to go until the next election and wanted to make that pesky Nixon issue disappear.
MisterForkbeard
@lamh36: That doesn’t SOUND very respectful, disobeying reasonable police requests. Maybe they should just pretend she’s a black person and do something about it.
Mary G
@JPL: She’s not alone. This sounds like a threat to me:
Ken
Flight risks?
EDIT: Oh, I see, whether they’ll vote against Trump.
WaterGirl
@JPL: If her gun is in her bag, I believe that is against the law.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Maybe Cheney is a big fundraiser. I haven’t read anything on that either way.
Ken
You say connections, I say FBI surveillance footage. Potato, potahto.
WaterGirl
@Calouste: Yes. Unless there are 2 Meijers.
Mike in NC
@Brachiator: Junior and Eric decided to grow beards since they lack chins.
lamh36
Sure Lurkalot
@JPL: I went for a masked walk with a friend today…Boebert is not our rep but the fact she represents the square state is both disturbing and embarrassing. I hope she’s never allowed on the floor. Let her sit in her apartment with her gun for 2 years.
WaterGirl
@japa21: she was coming in thru the broken window. If you don’t stop the first one, you’ll for sure have more come through.
eclare
@Steeplejack: I always got the whiff that she got the position because she’s female. Women voted in big numbers in the 2018 midterms! Get me a woman, stat! Women who voted for Democrats will obviously vote for Liz!
YMMV
Spanky
@Mary G:
You asshole! NEVER end a sentence with a preposition!
Escort these clowns out of the building and arrange a meeting with DCPD. Maybe they should get acquainted with DC’s no-carry laws. I doubt any of them have a DC permit.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Also too, cannot be pardoned for crimes or acts in duly passed article(s) of impeachment. Lack of conviction does not negate that or somehow reverse the House action, it is a finding (the validity of which is a different argument) that the content of the articles did not rise to the level of removal.
That was one of the reasons Nixon was advised to resign (and did) before impeachment was voted on by the full House (certitude of conviction, of course, being the final straw).
JPL
@Mary G: McCarthy has lost control of his party, and should step aside.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Why wouldn’t McConnell want an acquittal?
Calouste
@Steeplejack:
I think it’s a combination of a) the House GOP having some kind of rotation system, where people can’t keep a position for more than a few terms, and b) a lot of GOP Reps not having a lot of tenure, in addition to the factors you mention.
JPL
@lamh36: Oh no.. I hope she recovers quickly.
Mike in NC
@dmsilev: While Tricky Dick was an evil specimen he did have one or two scruples. Trump has not and evil is baked into his DNA. Look at his father and grandfather, then his kids.
trollhattan
@MisterForkbeard:
2nd Amendment solution to an obvious 2nd Amendment problem. Done and dusted.
That she thinks this is the time for ammosexual political theater at the Capitol (or anywhere) indicates she’s dumb as a sack of rocks.
lamh36
Pence in letter to Pelosi says no the 25th Ammendment.
No surprise, he’s always been a cowardly P.O.S.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: Sounds like a threat to me.
Martin
Goehmert just walked around the metal detectors. Told DC police they couldn’t stop him.
Patricia Kayden
trollhattan
@Mary G:
“Rodney and Steve, sittin’ in a
treeholding cell.”Barbara
@japa21: I watched the clip that was annotated by the Washington Post. Babbitt was being hoisted up by one or more people beside her so that she could catapult herself through a broken window. I think, also, because she was elevated above those around her and the Capitol Police officers had walked away, they had a clear shot of her without risking the officers or people in the crowd who were not trying to enter the chamber.
I doubt if the shooter knew that more heavily armed officers were running up the steps and could have grabbed her from behind and pacified the crowd. Watching those people smashing the glass and threatening the officers was harrowing. Once a gun was fired, they melted away from the door. It’s a miracle fewer people were shot.
ETA to add that what was truly disgusting was people refusing to open a clear path for EMS because, as one of them said, “she’s dead anyway.” Fucking sociopaths.
brendancalling
McConnell now says he’s “pleased” the Dems are impeaching him and says Trump committed impeachable offenses.
Turtles live a long time for a reason.
zhena gogolia
@MisterForkbeard:
Liz. Lynn is her mother, another ghoul.
WaterGirl
@Spanky: She has been warned by the DC police that she can have the gun in her office, but not in the hallways or on the floor, I believe. So she may already be in violation, and therefore unwilling to have them search her.
Is she free to walk out?
Barbara
@lamh36: I read earlier that she was going to the hospital to get the antibody treatment, which is more effective the sooner you get it after testing positive. I hope that this is not an update on that report.
lamh36
Late Heads up…Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Zac Posen and Nora O’Donnell on #FindingYourRoots
MisterForkbeard
@eclare: Wasn’t Cathy McMorris-Rodgers the previous person to hold that position? She definitely got it because R’s didn’t want to look TOO sexist and had to put a woman in power.
Same way they put Michael Steele in as head of the RNC when Obama won.
Bill Arnold
@sanjeevs:
Murdoch is rumored to indulge in transfusions of the blood (or plasma) of the young. I don’t know if it’s true.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Then Goehmert needs to be escorted out.
edit: why the hell are the metal detectors set up in such a way that someone can say fuck you and walk around them. Maybe on 1/5, but not on 1/12.
MisterForkbeard
@Patricia Kayden: Neat. Have the Capitol Police charge him with a crime. He’s entering into a restricted area without being allowed.
Stop letting these holier-than-thou irresponsible fucks get away with nonsense.
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold:
Once the blood stopped working he had an entire Jerry Hall.
Bill Arnold
@Cheryl Rofer:
Pompeo is in the (primary) ring too.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Rodney Davis represents my district. Horrid.
sab
@MisterForkbeard: Michael Steele did a good job for his side. Swept Congress in time for 2010 census redistricting. Then they canned him.
Brachiator
@lamh36:
I didn’t know the new season had started. Saw some fascinating clips on YouTube.
I like stuff like this as a respite from the political madness.
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold:
The idea of having Pompeo preening around the country like Jackie Gleason for eighteen months running for president gives me pre-nightmares. Sanctimonious oaf.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: I’d go further. Ask the Capitol Police if entering a restricted area while refusing the security checks is a crime. Disobeying a Police Officer is a misdemeanor offence. Entering a restricted area without permission is also chargeable. He did both here.
And then have them follow up publicly. I’ve had enough of this crap.
EDIT: It comes down to the GOP refusing to be citizens and follow rules. We all go through metal detectors and sensors when we go to the airport, courthouses, and some hotels and corporate buildings. They’re refusing to do what everyone else has to, because THEY’RE special and better than you.
This is not a hard thing to politick.
MisterForkbeard
@sab: Well, he rode the Tea Party lion for awhile. But he actually seems to have a brain, so I’m not surprised he did well. Also not surprised he got canned as soon as they didn’t need a token black guy.
NotMax
@Bill Arnold
Monkey glands are so-o-o passé, don’tcha know.
//
Kathleen
@debbie: It was one of a series of Zoom meetings of the ODC Executive Committee. Two women are running. Questions were good. Both of them have very good Kay-esque ideas about what will constitute an effective party. Both said they want to court rural voters. I would love for NYT reporter to come to Ohio and only find Democratic voters in The Diner.
You might enjoy this clip from the Business Courier about Rob Portman (I had no idea McConnell was considered part of the “Cincinnati Congressional Delegation”):
Martin
@WaterGirl: At a minimum I’d have an armed Capitol officer shadow them everywhere they go until they can be arrested.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
trollhattan
Yay? Not sure we’re ready but if they say so. (We do have ICU capacity, so there’s that.)
WaterGirl
@Martin: A grandmother like Nancy Pelosi knows the you can’t make a rule and then not enforce it, otherwise you totally lose credibility.
She has to stand her ground on this. There have to be consequences for blowing off the metal detector and for (possibly) attempting to carry a gun into the chambers.
I wonder if someone is strategic enough to have her do this without a gun in her purse, so she can be “manhandled” and then be proven totally innocent.
Martin
@WaterGirl: McConnell is cutting his losses. He sees how this is going, it’s only going to get worse. Sometimes you have to remove the arm to save the body.
Martin
@WaterGirl: I agree. She may not be aware of it. Not sure they even have a Sgt at Arms right now.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Yeesh, sorry!
Geminid
@WaterGirl: McConnell might want an acquittal. But I think he let it be known today that he believed trump had committed impeachable offenses. Also, that his party needed to cut trump loose. So he may want a quick conviction and is engineering that. But like I said in a previous post, we’ll know more in a day or so about what McConnell’s game is.
daryljfontaine
@WaterGirl: Read several threads down where you were looking for alternative tags for posts regarding the insurrection.
I nominate “The Whiskeydick Rebellion”, not to be reductive of its impact, but sure enough to mock the fuck out of these shitweasels.
D
Mary G
Lapdog isn’t waiting for the vote, No 25th for you:
Impeachment it is, then.
dmsilev
Just got a news alert saying Pence has ruled out using the 25th. So it’s impeachment then.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I laughed
NotMax
@Martin
As it is directed at the turf of the House chamber and not the building as a whole I would expect the sergeant-at-arms has jurisdiction for enforcement.
eclare
@MisterForkbeard: That name sounds familiar, not sure. But basically women are interchangeable. Like POC, as you noted, Steele.
Barbara
@brendancalling: He is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. He is an adept tactician, although not exactly a grand master of strategy. He is much more effective at blocking than legislating. I actually doubt that Republicans are wise to go all in on impeachment, however, there is no doubt that this is the day they have dreaded, when they are put on the spot of having to decide which of their two masters to serve, the moneyed donor class or the resentful whites who have been emboldened by Trump. It doesn’t help that more than a few of the latter also donate money and time. Among other problems, there is more than a negligible chance that many will simply not vote, and worse, that some will engage in George Wallace third party politics.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Is her appearance on that show live? I would think it would be taped.
i don’t see Nancy Pelosi skipping the 25th amendment-related vote to be on TV.
Mike in NC
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I would imagine hanging out with Trump could really age a person.
Wapiti
@wvng: Lindsey Graham will be dispatched to the White House to tell Trump resign or
wethe other Republican Senators will convict you.Weaselly Graham will never betray master, no, never.
HumboldtBlue
Live feed of House proceedings.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: My UNSEAT Rodney Davis magnet has been on my car for so long, i wonder if it would even come off.
trollhattan
File under “Things I already knew”
Mary G
@trollhattan: It’s a nightmare down here still. Orange County has more than 3,000 new cases a day, positivity rate almost up to 20%. LA County not good either.
Kathleen
@RaflW: Real Men Smear Poop!!!! ‘Murica!
lamh36
@Brachiator: New season started late last year, but this is continuation after the winter break
Kathleen
@lamh36: Damn! Thanks for the update.
Spanky
Nixon was smart enough and sane enough to game out how his impeachment would go down. Trump … not so much. No resignation from him.
trollhattan
Shut up Tom Friedman, shut up today, shut up tomorrow, shut up in six months, shut the hell up!
Mike in NC
@MisterForkbeard: When Nikki was governor of SC, her husband had one job in government and another in the National Guard.
MisterForkbeard
Josh Marshall has a good article about why things seem to be accelerating (warning, you need TPM Prime to read it): https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-quickening-why
Basically, the US Attorney in DC has said people will be shocked when they find out what happened in the Capitol, and that top Congressmen have been briefed on this – it’s likely what’s causing the waffling by McCarthy and the tepid impeachment approval by McConnell. What happened is bad and the public doesn’t know about it yet. I think this is the big one, but there’s another:
The second reason he thinks this is accelerating is because Trump public talked about how awesome he was, didn’t do anything wrong, and essentially threatened more violence if he was removed. He’s pretty obviously crazy and non-repentant and no one can claim he’s learned his lesson, not even Susan Collins.
lamh36
@MisterForkbeard: I’m betting, as Jim Clyburn speculated, someone in Congress gave the rioters directions inadvertently or not
JanieM
@Martin:
Well, I do wonder who’s supposed to do what about this shit.
ETA: I mean, did the police not have a backup plan? Maybe they assumed (to be charitable) that these murderous fuckwads would actually just meekly do what they were asked to do?
Geminid
@Barbara: The hard core trump supporters will aways hold republican leaders responsible for failing to “stop the steal,” and may be lost to the party anyway. No matter what, there will be a Republican civil war, and McConnell may calculate that he had better take the initiative with a first strike, so to speak.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan:
And, if I may add, fuck the fuck off!
WaterGirl
Where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is the rest of the House leadership?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MisterForkbeard
@lamh36: I’ve come around on the “Boebert was tweeting Pelosi’s location” thing.
Evidently they were all specifically told NOT to say anything about anyone’s location. Boebert publically broke that rule. Not out of line to suspect she or other sympathizers gave explicit instructions to people.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: On what, on Pence’s 25th amendment? Or Boebert/Gohmert breaking the law to get into the chambers?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Pence is choosing to go down as both.
Edmund Dantes
@Barbara: they were not running up the steps. And in fact after gotten up and talking to the suit guy next to the three uniformed Capitol police that had just moved to the wall away from the door they decided to all walk away from the door and were leaving.
this is when the crowd redoubled efforts at the door. She climbs up. And is the first to breach and thus the first he trains his gun on after having it at the ready to point to any part of the entryway.
Barbara
@MisterForkbeard: I missed the U.S. Attorney announcement. It’s hard for me to believe that a significant number of Republicans will go from voting to reject the electoral votes of two states last week to impeaching Trump this week. Not in the house, anyway. I am still doubtful that 17 Republican senators will vote to convict. I think the key is whether there exists documentation that can be made public to show that Trump was in contact with people storming the Capitol as it happened. If he was, that will be too hard to overlook.
Also, I feel like wherever the Trump children and their SOs go someone should play Laura Branigan singing Gloria over the loud speaker. Of just start singing or humming it. Watching Kim Guilfoyle dancing to that song just makes me feel rage all over again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: everything he did, he did in pursuit of a political future that was never there
p.a.
Organizer Ali names Gosar, Biggs, MoBrooks as his contacts/co-planners.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2021/01/10/reps-andy-biggs-paul-gosar-implicated-capitol-insurrection/6614177002/
Mike in NC
@lamh36: His sole job consisted of giving Fat Bastard a tounge bath whenever called upon.
Barbara
@Edmund Dantes: The guys with tactical weapons show up on the tape immediately after Babbitt was shot. The basically unarmed officers leave immediately before she was shot. It’s hard to interpret, that’s for sure.
sab
@MisterForkbeard: Sorry. I grew up in a moderate Republican family, so I rather like Michael Steele. I am personally a lifelong Democrat and very very much to the left of him, but since we have to accept two parties I absolutlely want him on the other side. Belief in rule of (due process) law and the Constitution and all of that.
raven
@Barbara:
1. The Camp Auschwitz guy was right there.
2. She was dead but they didn’t know that yet.
Marcopolo
Cori Bush, my new congresswoman, was just on Chris Hayes show. Her comments vis a vis R members complaining about the new metal detectors was priceless. She was also on point about needing to kick out her seditious colleagues. Worth watching if you get a chance.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
And provide the Nancy Reagan look of adoration, as Melania will not.
Calouste
@Barbara: There were only 8 Republican Senators who voted against certifying the election, and 43 who voted for it. Not like the House where the majority of the GOP caucus voted against. Not saying that those 17 votes are there, but it is not completely unrealistic.
RedDirtGirl
@JPL: Probably not safe enough in your case, but I sometimes rub backs with people to get that human contact in a safe-ish way.
sab
@mrmoshpotato: I am so fucking embarrassed that 40 years ago I bought and read a couple of his books.
Edmund Dantes
@Barbara: no there is a different video filmed from farther back that shows them slowl sauntering up the stairs. I have linked it here before. Let me see if I can find it.
https://youtu.be/AZ9oThRuMVs
I am not interpreting in what I am saying. If you match up with the Washington pos video. You can see that the guards that used to be in front of the door are on the wall.
the door guys then start to walk away as the suit guy confers with the tactical guy. You can see Bobbit jumping into the window at that point.
Mike in NC
@sab: Michael Steele is a member, maybe a founder, of the Lincoln Project.
mrmoshpotato
LOL!
Barbara
@Geminid: If I had to bet, his game is for enough high profile senators to vote to convict to justify an argument that donors should not abandon his party.
mrmoshpotato
@sab: Maybe he wasn’t an asshat back then. I don’t know. :)
Warblewarble
Gungirl solution, GLOCK HER UP.
WaterGirl
@MisterForkbeard:
On Boebert/Gohmert and others breaking the law to get into the chambers. Where is she physically? Did the leadership witness this bullshit and do nothing?
NotMax
Code fix.
@Calouste
Two-thirds of senators present are required.
No proxy voting in the Senate, so if some members find themselves “unavoidably detained”….
“Damn. Was that today? Silly me.”
raven
@Edmund Dantes: I always thought she went first because she was small and they boosted her through,
Miss Bianca
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I fucking agree.
Barbara
@Edmund Dantes: I had not seen that video. What a shit show.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
It’s not a law, it’s a rule.
Doesn’t excuse nor support their actions, just sayin’.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: Kim G. was like a puppet. One of the guys told her she should dance, and she did it on command like a little wind-up doll.
Ugh.
zhena gogolia
@sab:
It’s okay. I bought The Purpose-Driven Life at the behest of church. To my great credit, I threw it in the garbage soon after.
Mary G
@Edmund Dantes: Somebody’s got some ‘spaining to do.
WaterGirl
@p.a.: I saw that last night and was surprised that no one here was talking about it. And then promptly forgot about it until now. :-)
lamh36
@WaterGirl: at the Capitol right
ETA: Oh wait…you mean why they doing bout the GOP ignoring the metal detectors
HumboldtBlue
@WaterGirl:
They’re on the floor of the house holding an impeachment vote.
RSA
@narya:
I had the same thought about those touching pictures of Andy Kim cleaning up the Capitol. I hope he handed his litter bags to the FBI for fingerprint analysis.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
Vote underway is to hold a vote on a submitted article of impeachment tomorrow.
planetjanet
@HumboldtBlue: Thank you for posting the link. Watching business proceed in the House is remarkably soothing.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Well, the metal detectors may be a rule, but I believe it’s a law that prohibits bringing a gun into the chambers – it must be kept in her office if a gun is on the premises, and they warned her about that last week.
Even if the metal detectors are a RULE, do representatives just get to completely disregard the rules with no consequences? Why make rules, then?
What good is a metal detector if the people with weapons can choose not to go through it? I’m not yelling at you, but I’m appalled.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: Oh, ffs. That fucking bitch poser. That’s it – I’m calling her office tomorrow and asking for answers to some questions. Like, where was she while her Democratic colleague Jason Crow (CO CD6) was being an actual Big Damn Hero and escorting fellow members to safety? And just why was she tweeting about the Speaker’s location, precisely, when members had been told not to do that? You know, stuff like that.
She should be fucking arrested right now for weapons charges, and then investigated to see if others need to added. Just for a start.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: I meant with the metal detectors in the House tonight and representatives basically flipping off the rules, with no consequences.
WaterGirl
@HumboldtBlue: Then surely they know what’s going on with the metal detectors?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@WaterGirl:
they probably haven’t had time to codify the rules on these procedures and vote on them, and the consequences. Pelosi got a rule passed that imposes fines for not wearing masks on the House floor, and specified that it’s deducted from salaries, they can’t use campaign funds. Maybe she’ll get similar rule passed regarding security. The ultimate sanction is expulsion which requires a two-thirds vote, and that is not going to happen. Sometimes, often, assholes just get away with being assholes.
They Call Me Blue
@Danielx: True story: when I was about 15 I accidentally jammed a long splinter through my big toe, in the bottom and out the top in front of the toenail. Had to get some stitches after I got it out. The day the stitches came out I went surfing and was bit on the bottom of my foot by a small shark attracted by the blood around the removed stitches, not a huge deal but enough to make me decide to get out of the water and go home. I have a fond memory of my dad calling our family doctor and saying “This may sound like an odd question, but can you get rabies from a shark bite?”. Answer: No.
Gravenstone
@japa21: Best guess, it looked like she was reaching for a weapon. If he had VIPs behind him, that would certainly prompt a lethal response.
catclub
@trollhattan: The idea of having Pompeo preening around the country like Jackie Gleason for eighteen months running for president gives me pre-nightmares. Sanctimonious oaf.
I think he is the most likely frontrunner. IN front of hawley and Cruz.
Most like Trump. Girthwise
Ken
My thought is mook shield. I hope the recordings allow identification of the heroes who so patriotically boosted her into the lead.
catclub
yeah, rabies means mammals.
Captain C
@Roger Moore: “I’ll pardon you for whatever Federal crimes you allocute to. In detail.”
(Okay, Pence almost surely won’t do this, but it might work if he did.)
HumboldtBlue
The complicity of members of the Capitol Police, the FBI and probably DHS is the reason this coup attempt was conducted.
These guys had inside help.
Captain C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Say what you will about Dick Cheney, but I wouldn’t want someone with his connections to go Papa Bear over his daughter on me.
Captain C
@lamh36: Is it thinkable that someone like Boebert tried to get elected to Congress specifically to bring and possibly use a gun onto the floor of the House?
The Lodger
@eclare: Klete? Is that Danish for Cletus?
The Lodger
@Nora Lenderbee: So maybe he’s short and Danish.
yellowdog
@Baud: Cotton is dangerous.