Discussion for article #246063
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That doesn’t seem so much as caught off guard, but slamming the GOP for their quick politization. It’s a good argument. I can’t imagine anyone is really actually surprised.
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So the news hits the NYT website and exactly one half-hour later McTurtle releases his statement. That means Yertle’s period of mourning lasted three times longer than I would expect. The terrapin hybrid’s kindness knows know bounds.
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I would be greatly disappointed in Democratic Leadership if they were caught off-guard by any extreme position from the Republicans these days.
With the Republicans, it’s always a safe pick to imagine the worst possible outcome. Then double that. Then double it again.
And still not come close to how insidiously evil their actual position will be.
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Because like they usually do, the Democrats and progressives bring a knife to a gunfight. They think that there is some sort of fairness in any of this. They think there are rules – like some referee in the sky is going to throw a yellow flag if the other side does something wrong.
If you are in a fight, you fight like your life is on the line. If they are staggered, then you hit them again and again and again in the softest spot they have. You don’t stand there and decide that below-the-belt is off-limits while they go for it. There’s a word for that: Losing.
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. . . the progressive legal community was still caught off guard by the fast, brash statement.
I’ve read carefully through this article and none of the quotations from members of "what might be generously called the progressive legal infrastructure” support the thesis that liberals were caught “off guard.” Indeed, they were surprised, even in a highly polarized political environment, at the extend to which GOP was willing to put politics before simple courtesy. But that is quite a different thing from being caught off guard.
Ms. Fox, on recent evidence, has a habit of deciding on her conclusion first, then finding quotations and examples that can be distorted to support her previously selected conclusions. The dishonesty of this process is pretty transparent to readers who can apply even a modicum of critical thinking.
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Shame on the Democrats for being so naive.
The Repulsive Party will always immediately move to block any lawful move by Obama.
After all, he isn’t really a legitimate President (anointed by the Kochs), he was just elected by the people.
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“”'I seem to recall dem statements coming out pretty fast," a spokesman for McConnell said."
And naturally the media left that hanging, asking for no proof at all, since, you know, to then GOP=good and President=black.
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Good job, Ms. Fox.
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This!!! Oh so true but no one at TPM cares. No one supposedly in charge and least of all Ms. Fox. I shudder to think that TPM reporters like this are proud of their lazy journalism and bias. Horrible distortion by Ms. Fox in order to take a shot at the Democrats.
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Wrong. Anything but a “good job”. It is a story that was written with a preconceived conclusion, followed by specific distortions to try to support her personal conclusion. Wretched from top to bottom.
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It’s a little naive of those silly progressives to expect basic human decorum from fully grown GOP men and women (well… men). I mean, looking for the best in other people is probably better for your blood pressure and overall happiness, but it’s not exactly been warranted to this point.
Still… 10 minutes of progressive eye-rolling likely didn’t cost much.
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No one was “caught off guard”, other than by a death that was unexpected to the extent that any death of a 79-year old can be unexpected. In fact, McConnell’s jumping of the shark is not a conservative victory at all and was strategically dumb. He has innumerable ways to slow-walk a nomination without appearing to obstruct in such an obvious manner. He’s gotten big push back from editorial pages in local papers everywhere and I expect there will be hearings at a minimum.
Not to mention that McConnell’s actions have cut the tributes to the great wisdom of Scalia down to the barest minimum, which is a loss for the Rs. Not to mention that if I were Scalia’s family I would be really pissed at Mitch for opening his big mouth before the body was even cold. Big loss for Mitch here.
Very bad journalism, and no, Josh, I will not be paying to join your site.
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Actually, while there is no “Referee in the sky” to watch over the proceedings of our political process there is, or has been by necessity an agreed upon decorum that has guided our nation through some very difficult issues. When this decorum brakes down there is great potential for our system to collapse. The American Civil War is the most obvious example of this occurring.
It was Harry Truman, I believe that said, “There is a special arch angle that watches over drunks, fools and the United States of America.” Right now the drunks and fools must be taking up all the time of that angle as it seems to have been ignoring the needs of the United States of America of late.
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I’m still a little confused…
now that GOP stands for God’s Own Party… shouldn’t Scalia have been lifted bodily unto heaven and wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for Pinhead Mitch’s pronouncement have come from a burning bush somewhere?
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Well, maybe I need even more coffee in me – but the article lays out evidence that the progressive left legal folks and political folks were caught off guard at the timing of McConnell putting aside any usual decorum for this what would normally be a very solemn occasion. The quotes given seem to support that. No one is arguing the left wasn’t expecting politicization of this event or anything – I take from this article that those very folks were taken off guard by the sheer lack of manners coming from the ultra-right to take the place of the normal human etiquette one would expect. It’s the timing–not the politics–that caught them off guard.
So you folks believe Ms. Fox went in writing this article with her own agenda?
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It was a public goat-fucking induced by self-generated panic.
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McConnell, who combines a certain Kentucky courtliness with razor sharp political elbows…
McConnell - a shrewd political tactician…
You can tell she previously worked at US News &World Report.
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Being surprised at the GOP’s lack of decorum is quite a different thing from being caught “totally off guard.” And take a look at the gratuitous rhetorical slap in the phrase “what might generously be called the progressive legal infrastructure.”
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I take it that McConnell was simply laying a blueprint for how the Senate can abolish the SCOTUS. If the senate never confirms anyone, the Justices will eventually die out.
Clearly the Constitution was written with the assumption that the Congress would not be filled with jackasses bent on destroying the constitutional order. Big mistake!
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