Seriously, the GOP expects their bigots to overcome their own prejudices and vote for Russ Fagg??
“It’s not necessarily the kind of high-stakes debut political strategists would dream up for Tester,“
I don’t know about that. I think this was a boss move that instantly vaulted him into contention for the presidency.
“He’s not a supporter of the president,” said one, Russ Fagg, a retired judge. “It’s an attempt to cozy up to a president who is popular in our state, and it’s disingenuous.”
I’m sorry, Your Honor. You lost me there. Is “disingenuous” one of those fancy legal words that doesn’t mean what we think it does?
I do not know that much about Montana, so my understanding of its politics is limited; however, they are independent enough in thinking that they do elect Democrats from time to time.
Seems to me that Tester’s efforts to protect the VA would be understood by most of them, particularly given that they have a large percentage of veterans in the state. The GOP seems to think that group think works everywhere and on all issues. But people really pay attention to things important to them.
Could you imagine having to address him as Judge Fagg or Mr. Fagg with a straight face? That could be rough.
Clearly a bunch of folks in DC decided to unload personal attacks on Jackson. Oppo research can be a bitch for the best of candidates. What I don’t like about the Ronny Jackson case is that instead of rejecting him because he utterly lacked any relevant experience Washington found it necessary to pillory him ruining his life in the process. Trump is a real dick for appointing him but I blame McConnell and his gang for not telling Trump Jackson was unqualified.
Spanky won’t go anywhere he thinks he’ll get pushback. He’s too weak to appear without a fan club. And he’s WAY too weak to handle pointed questions.
He won’t take Tester up on this.
Cadet Bonespurs could hardly have given a better demonstration of his cowardice and penchant for bullying from the safety of his Twitter account. Tester has a tremendous record of advocating for veterans. In acting as he did, he gave voice to service men and women. Bless Chuck Hagel for calling out Bonespurs for the bully he is. His statements should be magnified and made a campaign theme.
I’m not clear on how you could characterize Tester’s “invitation” as “an attempt to cozy up to a president…” It seems to me to be a challenge, especially when it mentions that he will hold the president accountable. In the recent past, no one who wanted to cozy up to this POTUS would try to hold him accountable for anything.
You don’t lose points in Montana for being independent. Tester is doing what he knows is right. Reminds me of a grook.
WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK
Some people cower
and wince and shrink,
owing to fear of
what people may think.
There is one answer
to worries like these:
people may think
what the devil they please.
Piet Hein
I get your point about the personal attacks. It’s never good but let’s keep in mind the Nannygates from the Clinton era, as only one example of GOP character attacks on well-qualified people… And we are not talking about a well-qualified person in the case of Ronny Jackson.
I fear that to a great extent this (mal)administration would simply ignore any criticism based on lack of experience: this is how we ended up with Betsy deVos who knows absolutely NOTHING about public schools running the Dept of Ed and woowoo Ben Carson (the idiot savant brain surgeon) “running” HUD. Not to mention Current Occupant, who, it seems, is fulfilling his campaign promise of running the country like his companies (i.e., into the ground with nepotism, corruption and destruction of credibility).
Lack of qualifications was NEVER a consideration for Spanky and the Gang.
So, sadly, the only possible way to try to prevent a clearly underqualified individual from the top job at the VA was to push the scandal blowback – this, and only this, has prevented a number of horrible fiascos in recent months.
Sometimes you just have to fight dirty. Whether you like it or not.
Besides which, Jackson is not stupid: he has seen this stuff happen again and again and again in the news almost every night. He’s gotta be nuts to have thought there would be no resistance against this.
ETTD.
RIP, Ronnie Jackson’s reputation.
Merely another case of, as Rick Wilson says, "Everything Trump Touches Dies."™
Fun Fact: One of the victims of Nannygate was none other than Kimba Wood, the federal judge presiding over the criminal investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
Yeah, I know – which is why the Nannygates sprang immediately to mind. 
Karma can be a real bitch sometimes. I hear her laughing some days.
In case you’re like me and wanted to see his missing fingers
https://devilsdude.devilshost.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Jon-Tester.jpg
@lizzymom i dont know if you agree but i think she got a bad shake on that an clinton leaving her hanging
Please proceed President Dennison.
This will do Tester a lot of good. People in his state–especially veterans–will respect him for calling out a guy who turned out to be a drunken Ken doll with no qualifications for a vital job.
Jackson ruined his own life by accepting the nomination while having the sort of history of reported misconduct that the confirmation process has brought to light. The only disturbing thing here is that it took the nomination to actually kickstart an investigation into reports of this sort of unacceptable behavior.
Edit: Also calling Christy fat is a personal attack, the revelation that a nominee is possibly a drunk with a habit of bullying his staff is directly relevant to his fitness for any sort of leadership/managerial position.