Look how crap reporting and spin in the manufactured Pope/Trump fight was transmogrified into fact by swathes of 20-something wannabe reporters eager to score face-time and climb the greasy pole. The Rethugs know every false fact will meet an eager audience.
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He-man woman haters club?
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NYT: McConnell and GOP “have lost touch with reality”.
I am grateful for the editorial, but do they really think their endless “Both-Sides-Do-It” narrative played no role in emboldening this?
That no one in establishment “journalism” could ever have seen this coming?
They are shocked, shocked to find naked GOP partisanship crippling America?
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Jeffrey Toobin has a spot on piece in my magazine this week.
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The Nation has perhaps a more pointed but coherent analysis of the damage that Scalia has wrought.
But my main point is: The GOP has given the Dems a remarkable opening. Obviously, they want to treat President Obama as second-class somehow. The refusal to even consider his Supreme Court nomination is that latest seam in the GOP wholecloth. And the implicit racism in the GOP’s contemptuous attitude towards our re-elected President is becoming more blatant.
The dismissal of giving consideration to the possible nomination of Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada, a Hispanic and conservative, is just more of the same.
Will the GOP put another nail in its coffin with its refusal of its elected Senators and Reps to do their jobs? Will many voters decide its time to end the GOP charade?
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McConnell has lost touch with Reality and The Constitution.
Truer words were never spoken. This is the height of GOP arrogance and disrespect for a sitting President. It’s almost like the death ride of the Valkyries since they seem to sense this is the last hurrah for the GOP, legislatively at least, for a very, very long time. Perhaps McTurtle and other GOP Senators do read the demographics and understand they may well be on a very long term losing streak with so may voting blocs against their 1950’s policies. Heck, even Trump wants to take us all back to the days of white supremacy in all things. Ain’t gonna happen!
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Sure he doesn’t like it. Other papers and websites do pay notice to the NYT’s editorials and other major papers often follow within days with editorials that similarly denounce bad behavior.
In this case, expect the GOP to get roasted by the LA Times, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco and FL based papers. Even some pure Red State papers will strongly criticize the GOP’s stance here as it’s unprecedented and lays a foundation of unrelenting opposition down the road for any judicial nominees. McTurtle doesn’t care though since he recognizes his ship will soon be taking too many torpedo hits to stay afloat, hence he’d rather take the long chance of grounding the ship on a shoal, wounded but still in the fight, than sinking in deep water with the loss of all hands.
Fat chance of that happening I say! Glub glub!
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“This is what passes for moderation in today’s G.O.P.: simply stating a willingness to do the job you were elected to do.”
Well, when your personal philosophy is to tear down the institution you were elected to, yeah, basic job performance is above and beyond. All the people laughed at the Nick Offerman character in the Park & Recreation show, “tearing down government from the inside to outsource to private profiteers”, but that’s exactly the philosophy of a number of the moles currently serving in government.
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Folie a Deux on an epic scale…
They Might Be Giants starring George C Scott and Joann Woodward.
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And it only took them, what, 25 years?
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I disagree. Very few people are directly affected, at least in the short term, by the shutdown of the Federal Government. People’s visceral negative reaction is more to the fact that the government is refusing to do its job, rather than the fact that it affects them directly.
I think Josh’s blog post on the subject is spot on. This is a tremendously poor position for the Republicans. The test will be to see how long the Democrats can keep it in the news, and as a campaign issue. This is a good start. In a couple weeks when the President actually nominates someone the news stories will either be “Republicans cave and meet nominee” or this same story again.
If they can continue to hammer away at this until November, their are a number of Republican Senators who will get pasted with it at the ballot box, or be forced to break ranks, whether they have the power to move the judiciary or not…
Then you get stories on “Republican’s breaking ranks and criticize their own party” on this issue.
The Dominoes continue to fall. This sort of naked obstructionism is a losing position under normal circumstances. In an election year?
It’s hard to ask people to rehire you after you spend a year refusing to even consider doing your job…
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I think the shock is the lack of nuance…
We expect this sort of thing to be subtext. We expect the Senate to go through the motions, but know that they’re not actually going to confirm the President’s nominee out of petty malice.
The shocking part is the fact they’re no longer pretending. They are either so confident or so delusional that they no longer feel the need for the comforting veneer of civility.
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If the Congress and senate refuse to follow the Constitution then would it not be fair to say the Obama can simply appoint a judge and use the fact that the senate is refusing to do their job and putting the country in a bind. Seems like once all rules are broken no one follows them. The gop, the gun nuts and the freaking teabaggers are taking this country down the road to utter destruction.
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Well, that’s strike one against your being correct right there. Josh Marshall has an impressive record of terrible predictions.
And if they can stick to their guns, one of their few actual skills, the story will fade into white noise. Remember when it used to take 50+1 votes to pass something in the Senate? For a while, it was news that the new threshold was 60, now it doesn’t get mentioned. It’s just the new normal.
Except for the fact that it hugely motivates their base - something the Democrats continually suffer for ignoring, but never bother to remedy.
The McConnells need the Chuck Todds and the Major Garretts much more than they need FOX.
FOX is a cheerleading section for a determined (but relatively concentrated) population sector of Right Wingers.
Todd and Garrett, along with people like Andrea Mitchell** paint American Social Reality
** It was Mitchell who introduced the story ABOUT WHAT MR. OBAMA IS CORRECTLY DOING in a phrasing which made it appear that Obama was being confrontational with Congress. Mitchell, who, presumably, is supposed to have some “journalistic neutrality” was, for all who saw her. the person who gave America one of the first impressions that Mr. Obama WAS confrontational.
That is journalistic malpractice at its height (or depth)
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This may not be the exact place to ask the question I have but here goes
We have read much of the past comments made by Schumer and Biden about naming judges to the court under certain circumstances… What I would like to know is what was the republican response to those statements? It would seem quite a coup if they challenged those thoughts publically. It would be simple for Schumer and Biden to say they have spoke in error and then quote the republican stand against their comments, over and over and over. Followed by we recognize what they said was in error and the republican response was correct (of course assuming the republican said anything).
I think he has lost the Senate in November. It was going to be hard for him to hold before this stunt. If the Democrats play their cards right it will be impossible. It will also help either Hillary or Bernie beat any of the Republicans, especially Trump or Cruz.
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It’s disgraceful what Obama has done to these fine gentlemen. They’d be perfectly sane senators – leading healthy productive lives – if it wasn’t for Obama driving them crazy with all his devious mind games.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Thanks, Obama!
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Or so terrified of the frothing-at-the-mouth caucus.
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Yes he can make a reassess appointment… One president did this - I believe it was Eisenhower