Except that most of the men on the Republican party are, in fact, irredeemably lost. The key to the two senators mentioned is not so much their gender as the fact that they are among the last very few sane Republicans left. The only other “sane” Reps are on their way out the door. I actually suspect more of them will rediscover their moral values once their power is no longer reliant on accepting this kind of behavior.
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Pffft! Even if Soros was the demon on the left that they claim, it’d be easy to find over a dozen on the right who have been long-time string-pullers. Even a small amount of money that isn’t on the right or at least neutral gives them conniptions.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Scaife_Foundations
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/John_M._Olin_Foundation
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch
etc, etc, etc…
(Disclaimer: SourceWatch is Center for Media and Democracy, a tentacle of Soros eeeeevil.)
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Funny story, my wife took our 9-year-old daughter to see it in the theater. It wasn’t quite age-appropriate, not yet…
Yeah, 9 does seem pretty young for it. 
Yep, live and learn. Mrs. Quesera covered Queserita’s ears for certain stretches of it.
Better than the family with an (approximately) 6- and 8-year-old who went to the screening of In Bruges we went to back in the day, tho.
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This is a useful bit of nuance on Collins. Her voting record aligns pretty well with the Blue Dog Democrats, she’s well to the left of the current Republican party.
I would not make this argument about Murkowski. She’s reliably conservative (intended here to mean “wrong”) on abortion, civil rights, crime, and drug reform. She’s from Alaska, so it’s no surprise that she has an awful record on the environment, firearms and energy policy, and she’s mixed at best on a host of other stuff, including education and health care.
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Sadly, in this day and age, that is what counts as a “moderate” and “sane” republican. It is a really really low bar.
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Attitudes and behavior pretty much always go together…
As usual, the Onion is prescient. It is sad that this is supposed to be humor, though.
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I don’t see how this makes any difference. The Republican party has made it very clear that they find rape and sexual harassment tolerable, and even desirable. They are morally bankrupt and immune to evidence, compassion or reason. There are more Republicans in the Senate than Democrats. They’ll vote, it will be strictly along party lines, and unfortunately that’ll be it. What other outcome are we expecting here?
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The saddest part is the prediction that Facebook would still be in business in 2040.
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The dynamic changes significantly though. If the Dems do well enough in the mid terms. And taking the senate means they’ve done crazy well.
For the moment the GOP seems most concerned about challenge from the right, and direct challenges from Trump and his block. Amid all the independant polling pointing towards good shit for the DNC there are a handful of things you can look at in isolation to say the hard right shift is the way to go. And the GOP’s notoriously biased internal polling is purportedly telling them the same. A handful of prominant Trumpings during internal shit fits (even where that’s leading to failure in actual ellections) is probably not helping.
So long as they think pushing back on Trump is riskier than backing him for their re-election chances. They’ll continue to back him. And so long as public opinion doesnt decidely swing in favor of “Trump’s a criminal”.
That’s effectively what happened with Nixon. You had DNC majorities in both houses. But not big enough to remove from office with a party line vote. When the smoking gun tapes came out. Public opinion went from pretty much exactly where we are now (though IIRC Nixon had higher approvals) to hugely anti-Nixon. And it was no longer feasible for a lot of GOP members to deny wrong doing without sand bagging themselves. When Nixon resigned Articles of Impeachment had already been drafted with bi-partisan support.
Post midterms. With all signs pointing to the Dems taking back the House (the Senate is borderline impossible just on the math) it will be undeniable that a leftward challange is the risk for at least a portion of the GOP. And the GOP may lose their ability to keep their legislators in line. At least a few could be expected to peel off. And with DNC control in the House they gain control of investigative apparatus and supeona power. Effectively meaning we get real congression investigations in public. Which could have a massive effect on public opinion.
The same risks come with Kavannah. Senators like Susanne Collins can be brow beat into voting for confirmation now. But if they become convinced their seats are at risk to Dems next go around. Maybe not. With such a narrow majority it becomes much, much easier to peal off 2 or 3 at risk GOP senators.
That’s why they haven’t ditched Kavannah. Its virtually impossible they could force a new nominee through before the midterms. To avoid compromise, and minimize impact at the polls they need this done now. They won’t be able to make it happen after and they don’t want to risk a controversal confirmation fight during the election itself.
Other than that you don’t need successful impeachment. The House can impeach with simple majority. It’s conviction and removal from office in the Senate that takes a 2/3 majority. And even if you can’t get to 2/3 (at the start or in thr end). There is still a public trial that the GOP will not be able to completely control. That’ll dominate the legislature for months, require public disclosure of evidence, dominate the White House’s time. For as long as it takes to wrap up. And thats before you get into speculation about effects on elections, public opinion, or actual results.
So just as an example. If the the Dems take the house in November. And impeach come January, when new members get seated. Then there likely wont be a new supreme court justice seated until that whole mess is done sometime late next year (at the earliest). Simply because not much else can be done during that whole process.
More over every Major pro-choice group in the US has been making specific threats to end her if she votes for Kavannah. Whether he gets seated or not. Or whether it results in the over turn of Roe or not. They aren’t playing around, and while there’s been little attention payed nationally these people are on the ground in Maine. Heavily.
Apparently New England, and Maine Specifically, has the highest polled support for legal abortion at around 70%. And when Collins has gone washy, or voted against reproductive health concerns in the past. These prochoice groups have been able to rapidly back her up. By lowering ratings, cutting funding, backing her opponants or rivals in other offices.
On this issue they’re taking a hard line. She votes yes. They revoke all support, regardless of outcome. And throw everything behind a challenger come 2020. That whole “vote no or we donate all these moneys to an opponant in 2020” program seems to have grown out of the same push.
There’s already a very large push for a leftwing challenge with dollar ammounts and PACs perpared if she votes Yes.
At the same time if she becomes a key no vote. The national GOP has not been quiet about chucking primary challengers at anyone who steps out of line. They’ll be pretty vindictive if she removes their chance to pack the SC with ideologues.
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Agreed. But it still feels like the nice guy finishes last. That evil and corrupt have a serious advantage over anyone who lives by a code of ethics.
Party unity is one thing the Republicans have a bid lead over versus the Democrats. Whenever things turn partisan it feels like the odds are in favor of the GOP.
Based on how the Roy Moore accusations unfolded, the one time Republican operatives did try to pull this, the Washington Post’s reporters sussed it out almost immediately. It never went to print as an accusation; all of the coverage of it was that someone was trying to delegitimize the claims of the other women.
Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer have so far been consummate professionals when it comes to unearthing and reporting on sexual harassment and assault allegations against a number of powerful people. I trust them to have done their homework on this one.
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I made mistakes I deeply regret because I was severely mentally ill, but the thing is I regret them. Sometimes we bar ourselves from future pursuits because of our past choices. Accepting that reality would improve my opinion of the man, but I doubt he is capable.
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Murkowski seems to get picked out because she likes to play games. The noise she made on the healthcare vote has people convinced she may be moveable. And that seems to be her point, she can extract concessions from her own party. Pork primarily, by making it seem like she’s moveable. Even though she’s a reliable party line vote from the far right of the party.
It kills time. If they don’t get a vote before the election, they aren’t likely to have the room to force through a party creature. If this doesn’t resolve itself before the current senate session ends. They need to decide if they’ll keep the session open. When they need every one of their at risk senators out campaigning in the home states. Or to put it off till after the election.
DNC senators can head out to campaign. They’re already a minority, and members not up for election can stall just as well without them.
The GOP would have to keep every at risk member in Washington. Fighting out a controversial Supreme Court Nomination during an active election. Becauase 1 or 2 lost votes is a disaster for them.
Apparently the current session is set to end in two weeks (though the GOP won’t say that for sure).
Or they can give up until after the election. Which means Kavannagh is likely done. And they start over, potentially with less ability to move one sided.
Even Avanatti. He very much comes off as the show boating attorney, trying things in the press before anything can hit the courts.
But everyone of his seemingly hyperbolic, sketchy seeming claims. Has turned out to be true. And his PR hint dropping has always preceded a pretty major news story.
If he says he has at least one victim, and multiple witnesses. Ready to go. He does.
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You mean like Jeff Flake? Oh wait, he’s still toeing the party line even though he’s not running any more. These “critics” of Trump are completely useless. Although I’d find it gratifying if some of them say they’ll vote for Kavanaugh and suddenly decide not to when the actual vote happens.
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I think they knew what was out there, that they hoped it wouldn’t go public, and that it is a feature, not a bug of this nominee. By they, I mean the GOP, and perhaps the FBI. By feature not a bug I mean, had this not come out during the nomination process anyone who had this knowledge would have a sure control over his voting going forward. I have no proof of this, but the whole 65 women from high school letter thing is really sticking with me. The GOP knew sexual impropriety was going to be an issue, yet, they went ahead anyway.
People in this story who I am done with: Kavanaugh, Biden, Avenatti.
Having a circus lawyer represent Stormy Daniels felt, at the very least, like it wasn’t necessarily harmful to her interests.
