What Chris Hayes says.
“Democrats are going to have to choose really soon: do they roll over for phony calls for unity that absolve the Republican Party for its trespasses against American democracy? Or, do they wield the rare power they have won through democratic means to repair democracy and people’s lives?” Well, you know where I come down on that.
At the center of the issue is one Mitch McConnell, who is refusing to negotiate in good faith on an organizing resolution that will determine how the 50-50 Senate will function. There’s a good background story explaining this issue at The Week. I’m not going to try to explain it here. See also Now In The Minority, McConnell Fights For Tools To Block Biden’s Bills by Andrew Solender at Forbes.
Mitch is in the middle of many issues these days. The new article of impeachment will go to the Senate on Monday morning. This means the trial must start on Tuesday barring some agreement to delay it. I assume the timing of this was agreed upon between Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. McConnell wanted to delay the trial to give Trump more time to prepare. Maybe the trial is to be used as a bargaining chip, somehow.
CNN reports that Republican insiders are lobbying Republican senators to impeach and convict Trump this time.
As the House prepares to send articles of impeachment to the Senate on Monday, CNN has learned that dozens of influential Republicans around Washington — including former top Trump administration officials — have been quietly lobbying GOP members of Congress to impeach and convict Donald Trump. The effort is not coordinated but reflects a wider battle inside the GOP between those loyal to Trump and those who want to sever ties and ensure he can never run for President again.
The lobbying started in the House after the January 6 attack on the Capitol and in the days leading up to impeachment. But it’s now more focused on Sen. Mitch McConnell, the powerful minority leader who has signaled he may support convicting Trump.
“Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone,” one Republican member of Congress told CNN. “It is in his political interest to have him gone. It is in the GOP interest to have him gone. The question is, do we get there?” …
… While the bar is high, some GOP sources think there is more of an appetite to punish the former President than is publicly apparent.
The Republican establishment wants Trump gone, I tell you. Not just gone; they want him ruined and neutered and exiled to Siberia, or maybe even Nebraska. They don’t want him continuing to influence elections. They don’t want him to run again in 2024. They especially don’t want him to start a third party, as he’s threatened to do. If he rots in jail the rest of his life, they’d be okay with that. As long as he’s gone. And if he’s convicted by the Senate, that solves their problem. They can stipulate that he never again hold public office in the U.S. So, it could happen. All Senate Democrats plus seventeen Senate Republicans, and he’s convicted.
There are plenty of Republican dimwits in Congress who aren’t getting the memos, but most of them are in the House.
Trump had yet to assemble a legal team, CNN says.
Democrats, including the Biden Administration, actually are more interested in moving ahead with the Biden agenda. I understand President Biden wants to get the trial over with asap. Deocratic senators want to be able to split the Senate’s time between the trial and other concerns. Republicans will fight them on that.
So there are bumps ahead. But Paul Waldman thinks the Republican Opposition Machine may not work as well any more.
That outrage machine works not only by getting conservatives worked up so that, for instance, they’ll turn out to vote in the midterm elections, but also by creating fear in Democrats, fear that alters those Democrats’ behavior. But I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a time when Democrats were less afraid of Republicans.
Yes, there are plenty of moderate Democrats who advocate centrist solutions and worry about ticking off their constituents if they go too far to the left. But as a whole, Democrats now have a deeper understanding of the dynamics of Republican opposition than they used to. That includes Biden himself and those around him.
They’ve learned from the mistakes of the Obama years, including the way his administration and congressional Democrats negotiated with themselves and assumed that substantive concessions and good-faith bargaining could get Republicans to support legislation that would be of political benefit to a Democratic president.
The Biden team is not in the grip of that delusion. All indications are that they start from the assumption that Republican opposition will be total; they’re willing to take a shot at getting some Republican support for, say, a covid-19 relief package, but they won’t waste too much time chasing it.
Let’s hope so.
See also Waldman’s Want to understand the GOP’s problem? Look at its newly elected extremists. “What sells in today’s GOP is performative lib-owning,” Waldman writes. “The most ambitious Republicans, even those who are themselves quite smart and well-educated, see their path to success as pandering to the dumbest and most deluded people in their party.” This means Republicans aren’t likely to become sane or serious anytime soon. But I wonder how a party of grandstanding narcissists, each one dedicated to calling attention to himself by “owning the libs,” can actually function as any kind of party? Especially against a mostly unified Democratic party with a clear agenda?
The 2024 Republican nominee will be someone like Lin Wood, or someone who participated in the Capitol riot and parlays their forthcoming prosecution into martyrdom. No one who has ever held any political office will have a chance. The primary challengers in the next two cycles will fit the same description and all of them (or very nearly all) will win.
I disagree. The deep pocket donors and right-wing media-think tank infrastructure won't support them, and these people can't organize their way out of a wet paper bag. And I think the political landscape *could* change considerably over the next four years.
“What sells in today’s GOP is performative lib-owning,” Waldman writes. “The most ambitious Republicans, even those who are themselves quite smart and well-educated, see their path to success as pandering to the dumbest and most deluded people in their party.”
If that ain't the very definition of a failed organization, I don't know what is.
The RepubliKKKLAN Party didn't just create this, their Frankenstein monster in tRUMP, but they also primed their damn villagers to form a mob to attack the castle – without any noticeable pitchforks, but – with plenty of guns, MAGA flags, hats, and gear.
And those are the only things the "Blue Lives Matter Too" crew brought that they didn't use to beat those wearing "The Blue" damn near close to death; and ACTUALLY DID beat to death one poor cop with a fire-extinguisher!
Fuck you, Moscow Mitch!
Every, and I mean EVERY, Democratic candidate from dog-catcher to the US Senate will use footage of YOUR REPUBLIKKKLAN voters storming America's Bastille: Our US Capitol Building!
And that's in every year, in every election!
Not just in the 2 or 4 year major cycles of elections of national significance!!!
I MEAN EVERY DAMN ELECTION!!!!!!!!!!
SO FUCK YOU WITH A RUSTY AUGUR, MITCH!!!
This isn't original, but there's a difference between the extremists in the House vs the more moderate Senate. The reps in the House come from districts that are very gerrymandered; Senators have to represent their entire state. And so I'm hopeful Trump will be convicted + barred from public office ever again.
I sure hope Team D can break McConnell's lock.
Remember and be wary,
The Sixth of January,
The treason, sedition, and plot.
I know of no reason
Sedition and treason
Should ever be forgot.
I'm late with this so maybe nobody will read it. Anyway:
I think it would be very helpful for the Biden Administration to clarify their call for the country to "unify"… in the following way. It is not a message directed at congress, it is a message directed at all Americans.
What this means is that we don't waste time, effort, or "political capital" on trying to get insane R congress members or Senators to stop their shenanigans in their elective positions. Instead, spend the time, effort and "political capital" on building momentum in society for greater grass roots sense of unity; unity of purpose; unity of support for our democratic republic over dictatorship.
We will never get the Reps and Sens to act responsibly unless we get their constituents to view responsible behavior as being in their interest.
What we see right now is the Reps and Sens co-opting the call of "unity" as an excuse for escaping accountability, and that is not, I repeat NOT, in line with what Biden campaigned on. Biden did not campaign on having the R Senators use faux "unity" as a tool to obstruct government action. And I'm sure Biden would not have a problem making that clear in a public statement.
Looking at the pictures on page bottom, the one on the left still remains the mental picture of the party. Margret Hoover had two American Historians on last evening on Firing Line, and she was styling and in a cheery mood. The Hoover name had a new elevated aura, as the worst president of history slot had a slam dunk contender. It looked to me that all seemed in agreement on that notion. It is not often you get two historians and a conservative to agree on anything. One usually expects, in such such close proximity, that critical mass would be reached and social detonation would occur.
So Hoover gains in historical perspective because the republicans in casual Friday attire (picture on the right) did not even know it was Wednesday. They did not realize , also, that the – it's OK if you are a Republican – fix has exceptions. This was a surprise to me also. I really was worried that nothing was too base for the base, and the former fearless leader seemed to confirm that notion.
The sane Republicans (which seems to be approaching the status of an empty set) and the Democrats should both want impeachment. Otherwise, the image of the Republican party remains picture right and that is not a winning image. They better forget if it will sell in Peoria, and think about whether or not it will sell in Salt Lake City. Science seems to have come to terms with Utah which has abandoned, it seems, the Utah effect. The days of room temperature fusion appear behind them. I doubt if the crew in the right picture is going to see the welcome mat at any Marriot. At a minimum the party base needs to be house broken – if you see what I am saying. I see no indication Margret Hoover is going to accept the feral wing into her party either. It is kind of a not in my neighborhood thing. Impeachment conviction seems in both parties best interests.