Democrats have a simple way to fight back, if they have the backbone: Tie Congress in knots. Not so much in the House, but the Senate does most of its business by unanimous consent. Just have a Democratic senator on the floor at all times, to object to unanimous consent whenever it is requested. The Rethuglicans will knuckle under within a few days. Maybe hours.
Schumer, Pelosi, Warner, and Schiff should go to the White House for the meeting, with press on hand. They should invite McConnell, Ryan, and Burr to join them and make clear that they have done so. Get the message out that this meeting is way outside the bounds of responsible oversight. Donât keep their disapproval a secret. The battle for the Constitution is being fought on television and the media. Get into the game. Play to win.
Walk out, dammit! Walk out noisily and with plenty of cameras around.
So, Trumpâs goons deny access to a public hearing to two legitimate, bona fide news organizations with capitol credentials, physically shoving one reporter from the room, then inviting only GOP members of Congress to another âbriefingâ. See a pattern here?
From todayâs WaPo. Leslie Stahl recounting an interview with Trump and the subject was his repeated attacks on the press:
âI said, you know that is getting tired, why are you doing this â youâre doing it over and over and itâs boring,â Stahl said. âHe said you know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.â
Substitute Rule of Law, FBI, Justice Department for âPressâ and you have Trump in a nutshell.
Register people to vote. Get to the polls. A Congress with a spine and a conscience could rein in most of this! And it is clear this Congress only wants to placate Trump.
It feels like things are going to get so much worse, before the system can begin to right themselves. The GOP in Congress are craven, cowardly, and in the long-run - sunk as a party.
Preach it!
But, between now and November they are going to try by every means at their disposal, to have Russia interfere with the Mid Term Elections and to subvert and sabotage the Mueller Investigation.
The GOP is complicit in this scam: note that none of the Republican members have supported the prerogatives of the gang of eight.
The Democratic Leadership needs to go full revanchist.
Revanchist Democrats are who I want in charge.
This response is way too technical. By all means make these points in some letter, but something snappy and proportionate is called for. Put it this way: do we really think that if the GOP found itself in same spot as the Dems, they would roll over like this? More substantively: Trump isnât setting a dangerous precedent. Heâs doing something very wrong and unacceptable period.
The Trump GOP Congress (and Dear Leader himself) are the greatest threat to our Constitution and freedom in decades.
When will the MSM start paying close attention?
Maybe when our Democrats start saying so?
Nothing says âWeâre stirring the masses to actionâ quite like decrying âex parte dissemination.â
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues to improperly purge progressives and improperly steal primaries from progressives. What about that dangerous precedent?
What makes you think the system will right itself. The current situation did not just happen, its been going on for years. Republicans have been flouting convention at least since Newtâs âContract On America.â Democrats winning one or both houses on Congress isnât going to magically right things. It will be a long hard slog and require as sustained effort from all involved, including keeping voters engaged.
Russia? Drink!
Our elections are influenced by over a billion dollars in MSM propaganda ads, and after the elections, over 20,000 lobbyists in DC alone, then pay hundreds of millions of dollars in legal bribes to our representatives to steal democracy from the people. No Russian influence needed!
We briefly had publicly funded presidential campaigns. Reagan won that year.
They are and theyâve decided its in their interest to play along with him rather than rock the boat.
So, are you saying that bourgeois Democracy is inherently decadent and evil, and the Democrats are as bad as the current Malignant Dixiecrat Russian Allied GOP, or that we need not worry about repeated and ongoing Russian interference?