GOP Fractures Part VII: Liz Cheney's House Floor Speech

By artappraiser on Tue, 05/11/2021 - 8:43pm |

Previous news thread, Part VI, covering April 3 thru May 9, IS HERE.

"I know the topic, Mr. Speaker is cancel culture, I have some thoughts about that. But tonight I rise to discuss freedom and our constitutional duty to protect it."

Watch @Liz_Cheney's courageous floor speech pic.twitter.com/Dxxd7ZUAlJ
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) May 12, 2021

Also there's a related thread by NCD covering May 8-10: Republicans Believe in Nothing....But Trump

URL:

https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1392277067446853635?s=20

10710 reads

Comments

This is what a patriot looks like. https://t.co/QtbjwD09RL
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) May 12, 2021

"I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former President's crusade to undermine our democracy."
-- Liz Cheney, May 11, 2021
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 12, 2021

“It's not about right or wrong...”
— Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican.

“It’s not about right or wrong” kind of says it all. https://t.co/DX6peuFCbj
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 11, 2021

NEW: @Liz_Cheney is vowing behind the scenes that she won't stop taking aim at Donald Trump and his false claims that the election was stolen from him.
The move to stick with her position comes as she's being ousted from House GOP leadership.https://t.co/JRhK3hW8xP
— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbCNBC) May 11, 2021

ICYMI, Mitt yesterday:

Expelling Liz Cheney from leadership won’t gain the GOP one additional voter, but it will cost us quite a few.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) May 10, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/11/2021 - 9:00pm

If the coalition for democracy includes everyone from Liz Warren to Liz Cheney, that's a pretty big tent, and I'm in.
If you're one of the people whose purity demands that you can't be in a coalition with either of them, you're not focused on the real problem here.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 12, 2021

“Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that.”

- Liz Cheney
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) May 12, 2021

This is leadership.
This is integrity.
This is Liz Cheney.

And I’m damn proud to support her. https://t.co/hep7hW58sb
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) May 12, 2021

I’m committed to telling the truth and pushing back on the conspiracy theories being peddled to the American people.

Thank you @PressClubDC for the opportunity to discuss this and the other major issues we’re facing as a nation. https://t.co/VtSB2QYkQq
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) May 10, 2021

My column: The Trump G.O.P.’s Plot Against Liz Cheney — and Our Democracy https://t.co/oj3CGYzHrV
— Thomas L. Friedman (@tomfriedman) May 11, 2021

Media: @MaxBoot: "It was #DonaldTrump who turned the @GOP into the party of American authoritarianism. That process is now continuing with the purge of @RepLizCheney from the House #Republican leadership." https://t.co/OwE6BUTqZ4 @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/ncjWca5xrr
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) May 11, 2021

"It is elementary to have to say this, but we did not become a great nation by believing or espousing nonsense, or by embracing lunacy. And if my party continues down this path, we will not be fit to govern."https://t.co/1Qz8QOuYfX
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) May 11, 2021

Opinion | Jeff Flake: In today’s Republican Party, there is no greater offense than honesty <-- BRAVO https://t.co/eXudm2iuUL
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 11, 2021

Who else thinks Liz Cheney should replace weak @GOPLeader McCarthy?
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) May 12, 2021

For reporters planning to cover the McCarthy press conferences to follow his Trump-driven ouster of Liz Cheney, ask him just one question...

"Is Joe Biden the legitimately elected President of the United States?"

Watch.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 11, 2021

Schumer: "Down the hall from us, House Republicans are plotting the demotion of a Republican member for the crime of repeating the truth: that Joe Biden is the president of the U.S. and that Donald Trump is lying. Liz Cheney spoke truth to power, and for that, she’s being fired."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 11, 2021

Politics is divided into those who love American democracy and those who loathe it. Tonight, Liz Cheney stood up for those patriots who love it pic.twitter.com/Po9cqMNxkq
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/11/2021 - 9:19pm

"Trump’s unfavorable ratings were 15 points higher than his favorable ones in the core districts, according to the full polling results... Nearly twice as many voters had a strongly unfavorable view of the former president as had a strongly favorable one."https://t.co/hWqd6XOmok
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) May 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/11/2021 - 9:22pm

Analysis: Would the GOP be cut in half if Trump walked away?

by Philip Bump @ WashingtonPost.com, May 11, 2021 at 12:07 p.m. EDT

[....] As NBC’s Benjy Sarlin pointed out over the weekend, this appears to reflect a consistent throughline of Graham’s relationship with Trump: If Trump took over the party, it would become dangerous to extricate him. If Trump were rejected in 2016, some of the enthusiasm he engendered on the right might have faded, but the party probably would have continued on a consistent path. With his nomination and subsequent presidency, much more of the base bought in to his vision of the party and his leadership.

Trump was never a loyal Republican, a concern that in 2015 prompted the party to demand he sign a document pledging he wouldn’t run as an independent. Were he to walk away, he could fracture the GOP.

The size of that possible fracture is an important question. If Trump were to demand his base reject the Republican Party but only 1 or 2 percent did so, the party could shrug at the threat. If, as Graham suggested, he would get half of Republicans to look elsewhere, that would be an existential problem.

The most direct polling aimed at answering that question comes from a Suffolk University survey conducted in February for USA Today. It found that a Trump-backed third party would lead to about half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents joining his effort, with a quarter sticking with the GOP and the last quarter being undecided about what they would do. That, right there, seems to confirm Graham’s point.

But it is not necessarily that clear-cut. That poll was conducted two weeks after Trump’s second impeachment trial, a period in which defense of Trump was conflated with right-wing loyalty. There are some suggestions that Trump’s hold on the party has faded since then, including polling from NBC News conducted last month.

Asked whether they considered themselves more supporters of Trump or the Republican Party, half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said that they were more supporters of the party — the highest measure on that question since NBC began asking.

That, too, is a rough evaluation of the question. We get more detail from an interesting bit of analysis conducted by the polling firm Fabrizio Lee, one of Trump’s own pollsters. In March, the firm divided the Republican Party into what it called five “tribes,” ranging from never-Trump Republicans to the “Infowars GOP” — that wing of the party that supported Trump and false information.

Most of the party fell into the “Trump boosters” and “diehard Trump” categories. The former expressed support for Trump but were more supportive of the party. The latter were strong Trump supporters, butwithout an embrace of false information. The fifth tribe was made up of the “post-Trump” Republicans, a group that liked Trump but was ready to move on.

Asked whether they supported the party or Trump more, you can see how each group differs. Because the groups aren’t the same size, though, it’s important to note that the party overall was about evenly divided between loyalty to Trump and loyalty to the GOP. A quarter of the party falls into that “diehard Trump” group that’s more supportive of Trump, while only about 15 percent fall into the “never Trump” group that prefers the GOP.

[....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/11/2021 - 9:40pm

From what i saw, Republicans faded a bit on Trump after Jan 6, then quickly got their 2nd win, as they pulled together to dilute impeachment #2. Since then a lot seem willing to follow Trump no matter what, complete fealty to an arbitrary but oersonality-dominated vision. I keep going back to The Mule in Asimov's Foundation Trilogy - no one suspects The Mule of having that much power, he seems like a joke, a fool, yet he's able to entrance people, controlling galaxies. There's something weird about Trump, the devotion doesn't make sense, but it's there all the same.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 2:49am

just ran across John Avlon at CNN doing his "Reality Check" splaining to CNN viewers that big picture nationally, taking account the whole of U.S. voters, including the all important, GOP-leaning Independents, his popularity is dropping all the time:

Ronald Reagan left office with a 68% approval rating.

Donald Trump had literally half that 34% - and he’s getting more unpopular, even especially with GOP leaning independents. https://t.co/QemjJYppHb
— John Avlon (@JohnAvlon) May 11, 2021

So in a way, I see this happening: it really is GOP trapped in a death spiral caused partly by their own gerrymandered districts?! They've got these loony tuned Trump-loving activists working fervently down at local level demanding Trumpism, supported by foaming-at-the-mouth Tucker Carlson fans, etc., while the more reasonable GOP voters and Independents are silent, going about trying to live their lives. I think maybe the latter don't even realize what is happening?

Going back to Mitt's tweet, I suspect it is really more correctly and objectively assessing the situation than just tossing off a supportive comment: won’t gain the GOP one additional voter, but it will cost us quite a few.

More moderate people are: more moderate, doh, they are not going to be out on the streets marching against Marjorie Taylor Greene types wrecking the GOP, they are just going to vote her type out next time.

And even though Fox News nighttime( and associated meme spreaders on social media,) offers support in the likes of decent ratings compared to CNN and MSNBC for Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, how much of that is infotainment appeal and how much is true passionate believers? People who really are going to get out and vote that way, especially in midterms? I think: death spiral unless more moderate people get active at GOP local level, along the lines of: enough of the crazy Trumpism now, it was fun, lower taxes were great, but that's enough, you have grown tiresome.

Especially if lockdowns are over, cross fingers. I imagine lockdowns fuel crazy anger with conservative types, seems the case allover the world. If there's more "waves" of covid, though, bad enough to cause lockdowns, then more people will go with Trump craziness and culture warring again, rather than complain about more traditional things conservative faithful do about Dems? I do believe Joe gets this, that covid is the most important thing first and foremost to keep a handle on, but I am not as sure about every Dem politician.

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 3:30am

RUT-ROH, this news tops Cheney's speech for sure! Already trending on Twitter as "Over 100 Republicans":

More than 100 Republicans, including some former elected officials, are preparing to release a letter this week threatening to form a third party if the Republican Party does not make certain changes, according to an organizer of the effort. https://t.co/K6ANeMEO7Z
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 11, 2021

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 5:20am

Stop talkin’ about it and just do it. https://t.co/3LNDWs5Bva
— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) May 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 5:42am

some of the hundreds of tweets of the story; it's on Yahoo News now and that's brought an extra lot of traffic to retweeting, it seems like everyone that is interested in politics is retweeting the story and it's still before 6am ET

Enough is enough. https://t.co/H1po8ZfWlh
— Evan McMullin (@EvanMcMullin) May 12, 2021

A 3d party effort to save this country from the lunacy of GQP is happening. Sane Republicans: Abandon fools who threaten democracy & join sane Americans of varied political philosophies to counter the GQP before it’s too late @MilesTaylorUSA @EvanMcMullin https://t.co/eKgHil2iSL
— Kurt "Masks Save Lives" Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 12, 2021

This is great for the future of the American democracy:
Over 100 Republicans threaten to form 3rd party unless GOP breaks from Trump https://t.co/9qobi95Et9 via @Yahoo pic.twitter.com/mrxWe5tL0g
— Nyamalo, Granddaughter of Princess (@AfriDevMama) May 12, 2021

@GOP So Over 100 Republicans line up to threaten they'll quit if the GOP doesn't back away from President Trump. I say GO FOR IT! we don't need your sorry asses anyway. there are plenty of republicans that will be happy to take their places! Get over yourselves, No One Cares!
— RadioPutASpellOnYou (@RadioPut) May 12, 2021

Over 100 Republicans have declared that they'll form a third party if the GOP doesn't break with former President Trump.

This is a game of democrats. Those who'll do the action will do nothing to Trump/the GOP, and, will take their place as a black mark in dustbin of politics!!!
— A Friend (@AFriendAF) May 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 5:50am

Joe Walsh very pessimistic:

When I came out three years ago to publicly oppose and fight against Donald Trump, I knew my future as a Republican was over.

I fear the same will happen to Liz Cheney. Because Trump & Trumpism will control the Republican Party for a long time. Probably for good.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) May 12, 2021

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/12/2021 - 1:11pm

Sanders is so different than his most militant supporters on so many questions. https://t.co/F1AygYYOzL
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 13, 2021

Obviously nobody’s midterm vote is going to hinge on who holds the number three post in the House GOP caucus, but the whole party trying itself to the mast of a never-popular already defeated president is in fact the kind of thing that costs votes.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:16am

By Rich Lowry, editor of National Review and also a contributing editor with Politico Magazine.

Opinion: Sometime in 2023, Donald Trump will presumably make the most momentous decision by a single person affecting the fate of the Republican Party in decades. https://t.co/d1BLR9xoSt
— POLITICO (@politico) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:40am

Trump has already won - all attention is on him. The Reality Sun King, "le Twat, c'est Moi!"

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:47am

If House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's lightning-quick removal of Liz Cheney helps score him the House's top gavel, he can say it all started in the Sunshine State. https://t.co/QtQkHVRazm
— POLITICO (@politico) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:46am

Party of the nanny state:

"we'll pay you not to go play with matches in the middle of the highway at rush hour"

Darwin is denied. Vaccine & mask denialists are accommodated. Democracy is saved. U-S-A! U-S-A! What would William Buckley think?

Whoa: @GovMikeDeWine just announced Ohio is using federal COVID-19 relief dollars to conduct a $1 million lotto drawing for those who have received the vaccine pic.twitter.com/2TU2ixArT5
— Tyler Buchanan (@Tylerjoelb) May 12, 2021

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:52am

ruh roh agin, looks to me like she's out to win the top celebrity House Representative race with the most media *mentions* by any means possible, just like her idol Trump,

Rep. Greene aggressively confronts Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, causing New York congresswoman to raise security concerns https://t.co/nKPsboOiIA
— Thomas Edsall (@Edsall) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 3:07am

The shunning that @EliseStefanik deserves. I hope it was worth it to her when the mob turns, as it always does. | ‘I Probably Won’t Ever Speak to Her Again’, @thedispatch https://t.co/DjIjUM5ETS
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 2:19pm

‘A call for American renewal’: A manifesto from over 150 Republican Party reformers https://t.co/TjvlhtOhgy via @DeseretNews
— Thomas Edsall (@Edsall) May 13, 2021

(when Edsall tweets it, you know it's politically important, not just bluster)

NEW, from me:
"The contemptible, even dangerous behavior by the overwhelming majority of House Republicans does not automatically mean that they will be punished politically. The arc of off-year elections is short, and it may not bend toward justice."https://t.co/PqRtRDiSXL
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 13, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/13/2021 - 4:33pm

Liz Cheney: Fox News has "a particular obligation" to tell viewers election was not stolenhttps://t.co/SqF6uc6bvi axios
— Dr. Joseph Frusci (@JFrusci) May 14, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/14/2021 - 9:02am

Stefanik would be a substantial move leftward from Cheney. She is more liberal than 98% of House Republicans:https://t.co/Az7Ui2gXea
Cheney is right in the middle:https://t.co/0v2EuDIboJ
— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) May 5, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/14/2021 - 9:59am

tongue in cheek:

Trump intervening decisively on behalf of the moderate Stefanik against the much more orthodox conservative Chip Roy is another example of the former president’s relentless efforts to reduce polarization and bring down the temperature in American politics.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) May 14, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/14/2021 - 10:03am

OIC.

So, insisting on truth is embracing a “personal vendetta” while “standing up for conservative ideology” is best served by picking someone far less conservative but who pays fealty to what u 100% know is a dangerous lie.

Ya got ur fecklessness in under the wire GPB.

Congrats. https://t.co/GiWMxxoCTq
— Clifford Asness (@CliffordAsness) May 14, 2021

Here's what I see you saying

People send you to Washington D.C. and pay you a salary to "fight the other side".
You don't go along with quite a few of our founders like our first president who didn't want to see us develop political parties.
You don't represent people in your district who didn't vote for your party.

Then there's that fervent ideology kills. Look at Israel and Palestine.

And then there's Asness' point: if this is what you think, what the heck is Trump's ideology anyways?

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/15/2021 - 12:31pm

Yes, he says "conservative Republican ideology", but he means "Trump brainfart-of-the-minute manic obsession", since "ideology" is being way too kind.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 05/15/2021 - 12:34pm

Jennifer Rubin @ WaPo today: The stampede away from the GOP begins

[...] A MAGA Republican House majority controlled by the disgraced former president would be a threat to the republic. Making a midterm election about the unfitness of the challengers rather than a referendum on the incumbents is a gift to the Democratic Party, which would love nothing more than to make McCarthy the poster boy for toadyism to a despo.t who tried to steal an election.

But for all her gusto and courage, Cheney might simply be a victim of wishful thinking that there is a Republican Party to be rescued. The chance that non-MAGA Republicans will constitute a majority of the House or Senate Republican membership is virtually nonexistent. The more realistic option — from the point of view of pro-democracy, pro-sanity Americans in the center right — may be to flee the party [...]

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/15/2021 - 3:32pm

what Reed Galen and Tom Nichols think needs to be done:

https://t.co/8zNqdmBCKY
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) May 16, 2021

Unfortunately for the rest of us, that means hearing and reading more about Trump and feeding his narcissism.

by artappraiser on Sun, 05/16/2021 - 1:22pm

new poll of Republicans on what strategy should be:

Looking ahead to ‘22 and ‘24, what do Republicans think the party’s strategy should be?

53% say the party needs to focus on message and ideas to win over more voters, but 47% say the GOP already has enough voters and should focus on pushing for changes to voting rules instead. pic.twitter.com/azXjAAKkq4
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) May 16, 2021

by artappraiser on Sun, 05/16/2021 - 7:44pm

SENATOR LINDSAY GRAHAM HAS DECLARED WHICH SIDE HE IS ON!!!

Graham: 'I accept the results of the election' (Because: Politics! And if we can win, then we can more easily make sure Dems find it hard to vote, ya stupids!)

By Jordain Carney @ TheHill.com - 05/17/21 02:00 PM EDT

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Monday that he accepts the results of the 2020 election, and urged Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, to focus on the upcoming midterm where the party wants to win back control of Congress.

“I accept the results of the election. ... 2020 is over to me, I'm ready to march on and hopefully take back the House and the Senate in 2022,” Graham told reporters in South Carolina.

Graham’s comments come as Trump has remained focused on the 2020 election, doubling down on his false claim that it was “stolen.” Trump’s legal team has lost dozens of challenges in court and GOP state officials along with former Attorney General William Barr have dismissed suggestions of widespread fraud, but that has done nothing to lower Trump’s rhetoric.

While Graham, who voted to certify the 2020 results in January, said he accepted the results, he added that he would endorse making changes to election laws heading into 2022, including tighter voter ID requirements.

“I think what we need to do is reform election systems. ... So I think it's smart to reform our laws to make sure you are who you are,” he said [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 2:04am

"Identity politics" takes a twist in 2021. The age of data science, surveillance, machine learning & facial recognition, where we can tell if you bought Mars bars a week ago to offer you them again, pick up your voice via your phone and use what you said for another set of ads, but we're gonna be fucking around with drivers licenses and identity challenges as a basis of choosing our government. We talk about streamlining medical records since Clinton's days, but simplified voting is a bridge too far. Yay Republicans! Making government not work since 18xx!!!

(I don't mean it always works under Democrats, but at least drowning and suffocating it and otherwise screwing it up isn't a stated goal)

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 05/19/2021 - 1:57am

Liz Cheney & Mitt Romney
should start their own party called
Can You Believe This Shit.
— John Ales AF (@IAmJohnAles) May 11, 2021

Sen. Mitt Romney told me that it's more important to probe what happened on Jan. 6 than other incidents, like the protests from last summer, as House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy wants.

"I think the area of inquiry that is most critical relates to the attack on the Capitol.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 18, 2021

“I was there," Romney told HuffPost. "What happened was a violent effort to interfere with and prevent the constitutional order of installing a new president.” https://t.co/nDoZVHCnCC
— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 19, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/18/2021 - 11:43pm

they got to muzzle her somehow:

BREAKING NEWS: Sitting Congresswoman Endorses Secession, Requiring Her Immediate Expulsion From Congress https://t.co/BTaqGfGGZJ
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) May 24, 2021

by artappraiser on Mon, 05/24/2021 - 1:25pm

I think we know my view, that secession is a right of man like divorce, the right to free assembly, etc. Of course an orderly or rules-based secession is preferred, but if Trump started placing family members in cabinet positions and locking any dissenters up, or if the Jan 6 riots had succeeded, secession would've been one of the more sensible responses. But we somehow can't split secession from the issue of stopping the evil of slavery - why, I'm not exactly sure - ain't that tough. Hell, Walkway Virginia seceded from Virginia to not be a part of slavery isn't that positive?

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 05/24/2021 - 2:43pm

House GOP leaders rebuke Greene's Holocaust rhetoric as 'appalling'

Top Republicans stopped short of calling for disciplinary action, while Democrats haven't ruled it out.

@ Politico.com, May 25

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/25/2021 - 11:22pm

A lot of my readers on the left think that the anti-monopoly/populist movement on the right is totally fake, which is funny because none of the people I meet in right-wing infrastructure think that, in fact they're working very hard to kill it off. https://t.co/bYhKTZE0ph
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2021

Groups like FreedomWorks have been attacking Republicans, lots of Tech-funded nonprofits going after the GOP members who are trying to promote antitrust. If you remember back to 2009-2010 a lot of corporate groups attacked GOP members open to climate legislation too.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2021

I pay way more attention to what these corporate interest groups do than the banter in the media around these topics, they are taking it pretty seriously so I take it pretty seriously.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2021

The 2009-2010 is important because corporate interest groups were good at punishing any Republican who was pro-climate legislation and driving them out of the national party or at least suppressing them. This time the GOP base is more populist, they have less luck.
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) May 26, 2021

by artappraiser on Tue, 05/25/2021 - 11:29pm

SCOOP: The Republican Governors Association on Tuesday threw out Mike Lindell after he showed up to its spring conference. He had gone on Steve Bannon’s radio show and promised to confront Brian Kemp and Doug Ducey about the 2020 election at the event.https://t.co/DASBCUJMJ3
— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) May 26, 2021

by artappraiser on Wed, 05/26/2021 - 12:36am

so Lindell found himself a surrogate:

MyPillow CEO flew Kristi Noem to GOP governors conference on his private jet https://t.co/2xRKhPjuXA
— Heal the Planet (@fwtoney) May 28, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 5:16pm

Gosh, who could that one person be that Paul Ryan referred to?

Paul Ryan is trending on Twitter b/c, per CNN, he is giving a speech tonight to urge the GOP to reject the "populist appeal of 1 personality" b/c "we're not going anywhere."

Also Paul Ryan is on the board of Fox Corp, which exists to amplify the populist appeal of 1 personality. pic.twitter.com/MeWue4Nzts
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) May 27, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/27/2021 - 10:34pm

Joy Reid retweeted:

This is a wild story. The inmates are trying very hard to run the asylum.

Inside the Wild GOP Civil War Playing Out Under the Radarhttps://t.co/2E2Gli2Nhd
— Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1) May 28, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/27/2021 - 10:36pm

Desperate & dangerous: like Trump, Matt Gaetz seems to have concluded that goading us into violence against each will save his political career. pic.twitter.com/oCc0vgrway
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) May 28, 2021

by artappraiser on Thu, 05/27/2021 - 10:38pm

She says "Matt and I" several times in this vid; they are a team now!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you an important message from the spokesperson for the Republican National Committee: pic.twitter.com/6G5gCLnvf4
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 27, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 12:09am

Gidget & Moondoggie - they're simply divine, dontcha think?

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 2:03am

lol, PERFECT!

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 2:06am

believe it or not, they have more embarrassing legislators in Canada!

Canadian Lawmaker Is Exposed on Camera for a Second Time

After appearing naked during a virtual House of Commons session in April, a member of Parliament said that he urinated while on video this week.

By Ian Austen @ NYTimes.com, May 28, 2021Updated 7:15 a.m. ET

OTTAWA — For the second time in just over a month, a member of Canada’s Parliament has apologized for exposing himself during a virtual legislative session.

The lawmaker, Will Amos, who is a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party, said in a statement posted on Twitter on Thursday evening that during the session the night before, he had “urinated without realizing that I was on camera.” [....]

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 1:18pm

Mitt's basically with antifa now:

Dear GOP voter,

As you watch @MittRomney vote for the January 6th Commission, never forget that Mitt marched with BLM; a Marxist group that advocates for abolishing the nuclear family, private property, police and Israel. They also loot, riot & kill.

Mitt supports BLM.
Not you. pic.twitter.com/vzYKvJxdPq
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) May 28, 2021

by artappraiser on Fri, 05/28/2021 - 4:06pm

Ex-RNC Chair Blasts Republicans After They Block Jan. 6 Commission: 'Pathetic Cowards' https://t.co/yq5241AZ8P
— Heal the Planet (@fwtoney) May 29, 2021

by artappraiser on Sat, 05/29/2021 - 5:18pm

George Will: The Reaganite optimist Paul Ryan on the future of the Republican Party

@ WashingtonPost.com, June 9

[....]The 2016 presidential election forced him into an excruciating collaboration. Had he sought reelection in 2018 from Wisconsin, he would have been volunteering for continuing complicity. So, he retired.

The Republicans’ 2012 vice-presidential nominee was, however, chosen by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to deliver on May 27 the first in what will be a series of speeches by Republican leaders on their party’s future

[....]

Ryan referred obliquely to Jan. 6 — “it was horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end” — and warned against basing conservatism on “the populist appeal of one personality, or of second-rate imitations. . . . Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle. They will not be impressed by the sight of yes men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago.” This elicited a belch of stale invective (Ryan is “a curse to the Republican Party”) from the man who was the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose the White House and his party’s control of both houses of Congress in just four years.

Some conservatives took characteristically strident exception to these Ryan words: “Culture matters, absolutely, yes, but our party must be defined by more than a tussle over the latest grievance or perceived slight. We must not let them take priority over solutions — grounded in principle — to improve people’s lives.” Having three school-age children, Ryan is keenly aware that “as the left gets more ‘woke,’ the rest of America is getting weary.”

He is scathing about Democrats’ identity politics that “has gone from ideology to obsession.” Theirs is a “dreary view of America as a collection of groups in perpetual conflict with each other” — “constantly accusing, suspecting, claiming victimhood.” But he correctly says, “too many people on the right are enamored with identity politics,” defining the party “by resentments instead of by ideals,” abandoning individualism for “the selfishness and grievance-collecting of tribe against tribe.”

Ryan, who never met Reagan, was 18 when Reagan left the presidency. In the eyes — eyes squinting with suspicion when not protuberant with anger — of those currently setting the GOP’s tone, Ryan’s invocation of Reagan is distasteful. It is discordant with their aversion to fiscal discipline (especially when their party holds the presidency; their hero ran a $1 trillion deficit at full employment). And with their growing enthusiasm for protectionism and other forms of industrial policy. Ryan, however, suggests effective language for 2022:

“Joe Biden was put into the presidency by swing suburban voters — the kind who normally vote Republican, but in this case did so only for Congress and not for president. They expected a center-left unifier. The problem is, he has focused on unifying, not the nation, but the Democratic Party, surrendering to its progressive base. . . . In 2020, the country wanted a nice guy who would move to the center and depolarize our politics. Instead, we got a nice guy pursuing an agenda more leftist than any president in my lifetime.”

[....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 1:13pm

GOP Fractures Part VII: Liz Cheney's House Floor Speech

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