Weekend Open Thread

22 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. Washington Post [my emphasis] reports a set of possibilities for Speaker of the House last night.

   Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R. Minn) — who several Republicans had previously discussed as a possible consensus candidate for the fractious conference — “has begun making calls for the speakership,” according to a person close to Emmer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Reps. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Pete Sessions (R-Tex.),  and Austin Scott (R-Ga.) have publicly declared they’re running for speaker, with half a dozen other Republicans mulling a bid. Republicans have until Sunday to declare their candidacies and the conference will vote Tuesday to choose a new speaker-designate.

   (1) If you knew of a position that had ignominiously dumped the previous three incumbents and in the past 10 months created three disasters worse than anything in the past hundred years while selecting someone, would YOU rush to say “pick me”??

   (2) What do the last 3 failures, the 2 recent failed attempts, and all the named prospects all have in common?   ANSWER  They are not named Kay. Or Virginia. Or Cathy. Those House Committee chairs with greater seniority than McCarthy, Scalise, or Jordan apparently don’t want (or don’t merit) consideration.

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   1. 

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   2. I'd say, those women are smart not to put their hands up for the job in this Congress. It's become an ungovernable mob. Let the next election weed out some of the bomb-throwers like Two-gun Tootsie, Gaetz, and Empty G. If the GOP is still in the majority, they can try again to put one of the saner women in the Speaker's chair.🤞

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2. Do they even have rules for how they are going to select a candidate?

   Chaos and Frustration Rule as Republicans’ Bitter Speaker Fight Deepens – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

   With the large number of relatively unknown candidates in the mix, I can see many of them getting in the neighborhood of 25 votes and no clear front runner. Are they going to drop the lowest vote getter and move on to a second, then third, then fourth ballot? (We know the nut jobs do not like ranked choice voting.)

   Of the declared candidates, Emmer looks like the best which means he won't win. He has experience in leadership. But he has some heavy baggage to carry in the modern GOP. Steve Bannon has denounced him and is supporting a primary opponent for Emmer. Emmer thinks Biden won the 2020 election. He has never made an appeal to David Duke fans. And my personal favorite:  Emmer supported marriage equality.

   Like I said, he's unlikely to win.

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   1. Emmer has an A+ rating from the rabidly anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony group. Emmer opposed the Right to Contraception Act too.

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      1. Be that as it may, he still isn't homophobic enough for the modern GOP.

         Being "right" on 90% of cultural war issues isn't good enough. They will demand someone who is 100%.

         Besides, he has this working against him.

         Trump tells allies he doesn’t support Tom Emmer’s speaker bid (msn.com)

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3. This will leave a mark!

   Romney slams peers in new book

   Perhaps the freshest revelation in Romney’s book is his acknowledgment that many of his colleagues in the Senate, including McConnell, privately shared his poor view of Trump.

   But that harsh assessment — which would set up Romney’s conflict with Trump throughout his presidency — was made most clear in the email Romney sent to Christie in 2016.

   “He is unquestionably mentally unstable, and he is racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, vulgar and prone to violence,” Romney wrote. “There is simply no rational argument that could lead me to vote for someone with those characteristics.”

   Hopefully, the "silent majority" of GOP and unaffiliated voters will listen.

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   1. Then, there is this, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/20/opinion/trump-voters-gop-focus-group.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4kw.8sN2.qR5ky9Za2ptl&smid=url-share

      which makes you feel hopeless.

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      1. Your link requires a subscription or an account.

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         1. Here is the link.

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            1. Thanks.

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      2. I love the ones who said they felt safer under "the former president" who was crass and vulgar.

         And then there is the perennial conspiracy theorists who thinks the Russian invasion of Ukraine is simply a cover for something going on behind the scenes. (As if what is visible in front of you isn't disturbing enough, you need to imagine stuff that's worse.)

          

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      3. 11 Republicans and a majority don't think Trump can win. I don't feel hopeless. 

         Yeah, Republicans are deranged deplorable people who are fed a diet of hateful rhetoric. Don't be discouraged that they believe wacked out things. Though if you read their responses they are closer to Democrats issues than they let on. 

         I also want to say recently there was a gay bar that closed. They blamed it on homeless and everyone agreed except my friends. It's a convenient scapegoat. Same with crime people always jump on it being so bad until you press them how many Amazon packages they have had stolen. People are in a funk spiral because they think that's acceptable.

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4. The problem with secret ballots. H/T Josh Marshall

   "If it’s a secret ballot it’s hard to threaten to kill their families."

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5. October FEC report for the Colorado Republicans is online. 

   Summary page shows a surprising burst of donations:

   11. Contributions (other than loans) From:  

   (a) Individuals/Persons Other than Political Committees  Total   $26,272.20

   (b) Political Party Committees     $0.00

   (c) Other Political Committees (such as PACS)     $60,000.00   

   (d) Total Contributions (11(a)(iii) + (b) + (c))     $86,272.20

   Who are those "Other Political Comitttees" ????

   DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT 2024, INC
   State Party Ballot Promotion  09/19/2023     $40,000.00
   DOUG BURGUM FOR AMERICA, INC.
   State Party Ballot Promotion  09/27/2023     $20,000.00
    

   As best I can tell, the "Ballot Promotion" efforts are part of the Republican National Committee's shift to encourage mail ballots. Other states are doing it —

   After years of peddling false claims of fraud regarding the use of mail-in ballots and early voting, the Republican National Committee is pushing Pennsylvania's “Bank Your Vote” initiative to get Republicans to vote as early as possible — including through mail.

   Beyond that, the state party raised $26272.20  and spent $18997.51.

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   1. A month can be profitable if one doesn't have to pay rent for office space. Anyone know if Davey Williams and his jolly crew still have an office?

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      1. Maybe Ken Buck’s landlord will offer them his office suite gratis once Buck is evicted.

         Anything for the cause.

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      2. They are still paying rent. 

         Don't know who uses the office … there isn't anyone on payroll, as far as I can see.

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   2. They’re touting mail ballots now because that’s how Dems have been kicking their butts; and railing against them is getting them nowhere. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”

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   3. I had to look up the “Doug Burgum for America“ committee. Doug Burgum is the North Dakota governor, and sometime candidate for president. He’s a cultural and financially conservative siftwre billionaire. 
      One pont in his favor: He’s anti-Putin. 
      Why a successful Republican would subsidizethe Colorado GOP under Insane Clown Chairman Williams is beyond me. 

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6. Breaking News! Area Man Repays Brother's Loan. H/T Emptywheel.net

   The right-wingo-sphere froths about Biden's brother repaying a loan six weeks later.

   In the weeks since Comer got his stash of (as Democrats described) another 1,400 records payments for, “life insurance policies, doctor visits, holiday and birthday presents, groceries, vet visits and pet care, and plumbing repairs” and Matt Gaetz deposed the Speaker, the Trump Organization fraud trial in NYC has shown:

   • Eric Trump claimed he “pour[ed] concrete” rather than dealt with the appraiser who described that he had “lofty ideas” about valuation
   • Trump’s retired CFO and co-defendant Allen Weisselberg,
     • Professed to be unable to answer 90 questions
     • Claimed his $2 million severance had nothing to do with his criminal tax penalty, to say nothing of his forgetfulness
     • Was accused, by Forbes, of lying on the stand about his involvement in Trump’s three-times inflation of his penthouses square footage
   • Weisselberg’s son Jack was involved in key loans pertaining to Trump Tower and another NYC property
   • Mazars complained that Trump Organization, “were not getting us all the documents” they needed to do their work

   Every one of these is a scandal worth a congressional hearing. Every one of these should raise questions about whether the guy engaging in so much adjudged fraud while claiming it didn’t matter because he could just find some “buyer from Saudi Arabia” to make him good should be anywhere in politics, much less in the White house.

   But instead, James Comer is waving his dripping dead frog around — a personal check for a personal loan between brothers — like he just found a $2 billion bribe from Saudi Arabia.

   This is … fucking insane.

   Republicans can’t keep their own caucus together. They may not be able to keep government open.

   And all the while, James Comer is there writhing around about about easily debunked conspiracy theories about a personal loan.

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7. So after successfully overturning Roe v. Wade, the GOP has found themselves with the same dilemma as the dog that catches the firetruck.

   GOP trades its moral high ground on abortion for votes

   Critics have long argued that restricting abortion was just another way to subjugate women and constrain their freedom. Abortion became a right-wing issue roughly in sync with the rise of feminism and new manifestations of female power that alarmed social conservatives. Surely, that wasn’t a coincidence.

   But not everyone in the pro-life camp was a misogynist or a charlatan. Some believed. Their sincerity was first exploited by Republican presidents who accidentally appointed judges who upheld the constitutionality of Roe. Then Trump, never one to think too far ahead, ended that ruse with his slate of three anti-abortion appointees. Now he’s eager to backpedal out of being the self-proclaimed “most pro-life president” in history. The polls are telling him he’d rather be someone else.

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