Originally published at: GOP leaders grovel to Trump as impeachment hopes fade | Boing Boing
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What a bunch of sniveling poltroons, kow-towing to a disgraced ex-“president”. Next, as they pave the way to the next insurrection, they’ll start JAQing off about whether there were some positive and healthy aspects to what happened at the Capitol on 6 January.
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The liberals on the hill really should have a plan b. That being a massive wave of declassifying documents from that administration, changing election law that requires everyone running for president having to release their federal/state taxes, passing laws that would cancel penalties for breaking NDAs against presidential candidates and passing a wide host of transparency efforts. Let’s see what happens when Biden is the one who ACTUALLY drains the swamp.
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There was barely a Plan A with that bunch. Don’t expect any substantive changes or reforms from Chuck and Nancy or any establishment Dem, including Biden.
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C’mon Harris. You got this.
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Let’s be clear about this, though; there was never a chance of conviction. Maybe McConnell could have peeled off a small fraction of them and still may, but if this vote has over 7 GOP votes to convict I’ll be shocked.
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There is a chance of getting him banned from holding office again, which would be the main practical effect of the effort in any case. It’s not like ‘conviction’ from the Senate is going to punish him in any meaningful way. Though forcing the Fascists to go on record is a good thing too.
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The Republican party can’t bear to get split apart, and it can’t stomach two decades of rebuilding a new base. They think maybe they can tame the Trump loony base. But they don’t control the Trump loony base, I don’t think even Putin controls it, these people are like some chaotic natural force now, a wildfire or a plague of locusts. The GOP needs to cut its loses, but it can’t.
We’ve all known it will get worse before it gets better, the only question is how much worse. Seems like it would have taken the mob actually executing Pence on a livestream in the senate for the GOP to change its ways.
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But you can tell he didn’t give a shit about the impeachment trial, because he did not whip the vote, as he normally would. If he actually gave a shit about the insurrection, he would have gotten his caucus in line like he always does. He’s doing the bare minimum to wipe the stink of Trump off him so he can continue to accrue wealth and power to himself. That’s all he cares about…
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I hope you’re right, but I don’t see that happening with the votes required.
That’s the point.
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At some point we have to start recognizing and dealing with the GOP as a fringe party with few electoral prospects. They might control some statehouses and we will have some constitutional battles about state rights, but on a federal level, they should be marginalized if only to get shit done. Once shit starts getting done, they really won’t matter. They need their 40 years in the desert.
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Right. There may be some back room dealing going on, but at this point I’m not even sure his vote is possible. My feeling is he was gauging the party’s temp under the fig leaf of righteous outrage. Since the party has proved yet again they’re nothing but cowards, he’s probably going to fall right back in line.
Edited because autocorrect makes me look stupid sometimes. I’m not stupid, you’re stupid autocorrect!
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They absolutely do, that’s why the daughter is planning a run for Florida governor. But they don’t have the sheer careless power that Trump does. For some reason I will never understand, his rabid fawning fans love him more the more he completely ignores him. It’s idolation beyond anything I’ve ever seen, but it is not transferrable. They have precisely zero loyalty to the GOP. If the Patriot Party or whatever he decides to call it sparks up, they will follow him like lemmings.
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The problem is that they are not. They have half the senate and they gained seats in house. They are a existential threat to our democracy – or some portion of the party is, while the leadership refuses to take that threat seriously, and the few people there who DO take it seriously are being attacked by their own party members.
Agreed, but we’re not there yet.
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I’m not saying they are not an existential threat. I’m saying that we should use the fact that they are losing the long game as a fact on the ground. And then divide and conquer.
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Are they though? That’s not clear right now.
Have you read the most recent Letter from Heather Cox Richardson?
Because she’s not confident that we’re out of the woods yet or that the leadership of the GOP (who are not exactly moderate themselves) are going to win the party.
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Can we take a moment to once again officially recognize how tacky Trump’s interior decor is?
It’s like a funeral home for Russian oligarchs -French Baroque supplied by Pottery Barn .
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