United States Congress of Fail - Part 4

[GreyhoundFan]

"For students from Oklahoma, a look under the fractured hood of democracy"

Spoiler

So, the meeting with the senator did not go well.

There were handshakes and photos and smiles at the beginning. Not a bad start. A typical Washington reception. But then the students asked questions and they didn’t like the answers — or nonanswers — they received from Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), their state’s senior senator.

Tate Michener, a high school senior, said he asked what Inhofe thought of the pay gap between men and women who performed the same jobs. The query didn’t land well, apparently.

“He said he didn’t agree with the premise of the question, so he wasn’t going to answer it,” Michener said.

The students were not impressed.

“We’re about to jump into the real world,” said Katavia West, a senior who is joining the Air Force after graduation. “You can’t just not answer a question because we’re students.”

The visitors to Inhofe’s office were from Lawton High School in Lawton, Okla., a city of close to 100,000 with significant minority populations and deep ties to nearby Fort Sill, a large military base. The students, 19 of them, traveled 1,421 miles by plane to the nation’s capital to spend last week studying government, engaging with teens from other states, debating issues and meeting with their representatives on Capitol Hill.

And what a time to be in Washington for a look under the hood of democracy. The Capitol itself is ever-gleaming and magnificent, but its inhabitants are a loathed bunch. Not all, but still. Eighty percent of respondents to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll in October said Congress was “basically dysfunctional.” And that was before it shut down the government twice in less than a month.

The news isn’t rosy at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, either. Based on approval ratings, President Trump is the least popular president one year into a term in the modern era.

Young people especially are put off by how Washington runs — or doesn’t. Almost half of young Americans — 47 percent of those ages 18 to 30 — said they were not proud of the way democracy works in America, according to that same poll.

But the Oklahoma students were not here to bash Congress or the president or democracy.

For some, the trip was their first time on a plane. For many, it was their first visit to Washington. For all, it was a thrilling opportunity to see their national government in action and their leaders up close — even if those leaders said things they didn’t always agree with.

Disagreeing, after all, is what Washington does best. Earlier, the students were led on a tour by friendly interns from Inhofe’s office who took them on the Senate subway and to National Statuary Hall where, for good luck, they rubbed the feet of a statue of Oklahoman Will Rogers, who once opined: “Congress is so strange; a man gets up to speak and says nothing, nobody listens, and then everybody disagrees.”

In a statement, Inhofe said he enjoyed meeting with the students and answering their questions.

“They were a sharp group and I hope they come back and visit me again,” he said. “I encourage all student groups to stay engaged by visiting or contacting their elected representatives, learning policy issues and engaging with people from different views or perspectives.”

The Lawton high schoolers were taking part in a program created by the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that has been arranging Washington insider experiences for students interested in politics and government since 1971. About 850,000 students have taken part over the decades, including nine who are members of Congress and many others who work on the Hill or in government.

The week in Washington includes trips to Arlington Cemetery, tours of the Library of Congress and the Mall, and meetings with diplomats. The students share hotel rooms (and points of view) with teens from throughout the country. Last week’s participants included students from Alabama, California, Florida and Michigan. The program costs on average $1,800, including airfare, meals and lodging. About 22 percent of students receive financial assistance.

The goal, says Close Up chief executive Tim Davis, is to experience Washington in a way that gives students a sense of how much they can contribute by taking part in the system and introduces them to other students who might be from different backgrounds but share an interest in politics.

“We want them to walk away knowing that this is not brain surgery and that they should go back and get involved and do something,” said Davis, who was a participant in Close Up in its first year. “This has the potential to be transformative for young people.”

Phillip Shell, 18, a senior at Lawton, is one of those young people who feels transformed by Close Up. This is the second year he has made the trip to Washington. Shell plans to attend Oklahoma State University, major in mechanical engineering and, one day, land a job with a major defense contractor. He considers himself a conservative Republican but thinks he has become a bit more moderate. He’s willing to listen to others and consider their viewpoints, something he doesn’t see much of on the national political scene.

“It’s almost childish in a way how politicians argue,” he said. “There’s a bit too much drama in Washington.”

But that dim view of American politics hasn’t scared Shell away entirely. He says friends have told him he would make a good president. And although he initially shied away from thinking of a career in elected office, he now wonders if it might be in his future.

“What I’ve learned is that being a politician isn’t something you’re born with,” he said. “You can learn to be a politician.”

For many of the Lawton students visiting Washington, education is the biggest issue. Oklahoma ranks near the bottom of states when it comes to funding for students and teachers, and dozens of school districts have gone to four-day weeks to cut costs.

“We have such poor resources, but our teachers do the best with what they have,” said Grace Hibberts, a senior, during a lunch break in the House cafeteria. “Some of our government books are so old, they don’t even have Obama in them. Some of our science books still say Pluto is a planet.”

The students praised their teachers for their commitment, particularly their AP history teacher, Dink Barrett, who accompanied them. But they worried about how their fellow students across the state are suffering, and even though most funding for education is local, they wanted their leaders in Washington to know it’s a big deal for them.

Later that day, the students raised their concerns about education in a meeting with Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), their representative in the House. They wanted to know if he considered their concerns about education as important as concerns raised by adults.

Cole told the students that people like him are there to help to advance their ideas and make the country a better nation for them, said West.

“He was very nice and answered all of our questions,” student Julianna Ramos added.

So, the meeting with the congressman went well.

 

[onekidanddone]

Well Fuck You Bob...Fuck you very much. Here I thought you might even have some honor.  Yea, not so much.. Trump unzips his fly and you just get in line.  

Corker warms to Trump and flirts with reelection bid

Quote

It was just a few months ago that Bob Corker, soon after announcing his retirement from the Senate, began to blast President Trump, calling him a childlike president who was putting the United States “on the path to World War III.”

Trump fired back, tweeting that the Tennessee Republican had “begged” for his endorsement and “couldn’t get elected dogcatcher.”

But in recent days the two men have reconnected, warming their long-chilly and acrimonious relationship as Corker has moved closer to shelving his retirement plans and launching a late reelection bid.

Corker has had several conversations with the president in which the possibility of a 2018 campaign has been broached, according to five Republicans who were not authorized to comment on the discussions.

Corker also has been cultivating his bonds with the Trump family and top White House staffers, they added — and Monday he met with Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, for coffee.

There was more activity Tuesday as Corker met with Vice President Pence at the Capitol — although aides insisted the meeting was unrelated to politics — and Republican colleagues said he was leaning toward launching a campaign.

“You’d see the Bob Corker who almost completely supports the president’s agenda, who has a common relationship with the president, but who from time to time will disagree with the president,” Tom Ingram, a political confidant of the senator, said when asked to characterize a possible Corker campaign.

Explaining the easing of past differences with Trump, Ingram shrugged. Corker “was compelled to deal with the White House [after his retirement announcement], and they discovered, ‘Hey, let’s get over it,’ ” he said.

Ingram and other Corker advisers said he will make a final decision in the coming weeks, but they hesitated to offer a firm timeline. The filing deadline for Tennessee candidates is April 5.

The president and others have listened to the senator’s concerns about the competitive Tennessee race. But Trump has not made a decision on whether he would give his blessing to a comeback, a White House official said.

A potential Corker reentry into the race could be complicated for Trump. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is the front-runner for the nomination and a strong ally of the president. Her campaign had strong words for the prospect of a Corker bid.

“Anyone who thinks Marsha Blackburn can’t win a general election is just a plain sexist pig,” Blackburn campaign spokeswoman Andrea Bozek said in a phone interview with The Washington Post. “She’s the best fundraiser in the country and is beating Phil Bredesen in several polls. We aren’t worried about these ego-driven, tired old men.”

Still, Corker’s thaw with Trump represents a remarkable turnaround for a lawmaker who had emerged as a razor-sharp critic inside a party that has largely been reticent to offer more than occasional reprimands of the president.

While many elected Republicans privately grouse about Trump, it has often only been those who are safely ensconced in political winter ,or retiring — such as Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and, until this week, Corker — who have spoken up. Those who will face voters this year mostly remain wary of alienating the president’s supporters, who they are counting on to stave off a potential Democratic wave.

Corker’s moves signal that he is closer than ever to rejoining the GOP’s rank and file, where being a Trump ally is accepted these days as necessary, especially in a red state — a far cry from the drama-filled days in October when Corker called the White House “adult day care” and a “reality show.”

Corker’s reconsideration sparked tensions in Tennessee on Tuesday over whether the senator’s flirtation with a return is an attention-seeking gambit by an indecisive politician or an effort by a veteran Republican to help his party hold on to the seat and protect its slim Senate majority.

Democrats nationally are hoping to expand their Senate map in the South after Alabama Democrat Doug Jones’s upset Senate victory in a December special election. The likely Democratic Senate nominee in Tennessee, former governor Bredesen, is a proven winner statewide, and his chances have been rated as competitive by nonpartisan election analysts.

Corker’s advisers argue that Blackburn’s hard-line style puts the Senate seat at risk and say Corker’s more moderate political persona could be a better fit in a traditional Republican state in a tumultuous election year. Politico reported Monday that an internal GOP poll last month showed Bredesen beating Blackburn in a hypothetical election — a poll that has been widely circulated by Corker’s allies.

Blackburn, 65, raised more than $2 million in the final quarter of last year, and she had more than $4.5 million on hand last month. Her primary rival, former congressman Stephen Lee Fincher, raised about $1.5 million in the most recent quarter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment Tuesday, underscoring the sensitivities about Corker’s flirtation with running for reelection and the ongoing talks with Trump.

Another factor prompting Corker to rethink retirement, Republicans said, is his high-profile perch. If he ran and won, he would continue to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and would probably be in line to take over the powerful Senate Banking Committee in the coming years.

Corker is not the only Republican lawmaker giving indications of a forthcoming Senate campaign — part of a rush of activity as the midterm elections loom and GOP nervousness continues to grow.

Republicans are increasingly confident that Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Trump ally, will reverse course and run for the Senate, Republicans said, and one senior GOP official said Cramer has been telling people this week that he will run.

“We’re just respectfully reconsidering right now. I’ll have a decision by the end of the weekend,” Cramer said Tuesday evening. The congressman cited the sweeping GOP tax bill that was passed recently as a factor in his thinking about the Senate run, saying the “enthusiasm for that has grown in the last couple of weeks.”

Former North Dakota Republican Party chairman Gary Emineth announced Tuesday that he was ending his Senate campaign, predicting that Cramer would run. Republican state Sen. Tom Campbell is still in the contest. The race against Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) is one of GOP’s biggest pickup opportunities. North Dakota is one of 10 states Democrats are defending that the president won in 2016.

Meanwhile, the exact status of the Trump-Corker relationship remains a subject of debate. Corker’s orbit describes it as improved to the point of being friendly, with invitations to ride on Air Force One and casual phone calls. And some Republicans close to the president say Trump is happy to have Corker court him and could eventually be persuaded to support his reelection, should the senator choose to run for a third term.

But numerous Republicans close to Trump were less rosy. They said Trump may hear out Corker but warned that he would never formally throw his support behind him — even if Republicans worry that the Tennessee seat is in jeopardy — because he does not forgive Corker for calling him a child.

More likely, they said, was that Trump would welcome Corker’s embrace but formally stay out of the Republican primary race. Or, he could decide to endorse Blackburn instead.

 

[Cartmann99]

28 minutes ago, onekidanddone said:

But numerous Republicans close to Trump were less rosy. They said Trump may hear out Corker but warned that he would never formally throw his support behind him — even if Republicans worry that the Tennessee seat is in jeopardy — because he does not forgive Corker for calling him a child.

More likely, they said, was that Trump would welcome Corker’s embrace but formally stay out of the Republican primary race. Or, he could decide to endorse Blackburn instead.

 Trump is going to treat Corker just like he did Mitt Romney after Romney spoke out against him, and then decided he wanted to be a part of the Trump administration. Trump will expect Corker to grovel and then he'll stick the knife in. 

[GrumpyGran]

12 hours ago, onekidanddone said:

Well Fuck You Bob...Fuck you very much. Here I thought you might even have some honor.  Yea, not so much.. Trump unzips his fly and you just get in line.  

Corker warms to Trump and flirts with reelection bid

 

It's getting ridiculous now. How can anyone vote for someone who has no self-respect? Or situational awareness? He's not going to support you Bob! He just wants you to humiliate yourself by kissing his ass.

[fraurosena]

 

Haha hahaha ha hahahaha ha bhwahahahaha *takes a deep breath* Haaaaa...haha ha ha haha ha... snort... hehhhh... 

Is there anyone with any sense that actually believes that there really will be sanctions and that they will be enforced?

[GrumpyGran]

9 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

 

Haha hahaha ha hahahaha ha bhwahahahaha *takes a deep breath* Haaaaa...haha ha ha haha ha... snort... hehhhh... 

Is there anyone with any sense that actually believes that there really will be sanctions and that they will be enforced?

I don't believe this man. This man married a rich little bitch who has absolutely no clue what the real world is like. She's a climber who doesn't have the intelligence to achieve based on any valuable assets so she's sleeping her way up. Ask yourself, does he know that or not? Either way it doesn't make him look particularly smart. This man was just so excited to see his name on money. Russians are probably in his house every day while he's at work.

[Rosalie]

2 hours ago, fraurosena said:

 

Haha hahaha ha hahahaha ha bhwahahahaha *takes a deep breath* Haaaaa...haha ha ha haha ha... snort... hehhhh... 

Is there anyone with any sense that actually believes that there really will be sanctions and that they will be enforced?

I guess Puppet Master Putin got himself a good laugh today. Hope he didn’t have a mouth full of coffee when he opened his Twitter app.

[fraurosena]

Silly dems, why on earth would the Repugliklans agree to undermining their chances of throwing the elections?

[GrumpyGran]

17 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Silly dems, why on earth would the Repugliklans agree to undermining their chances of throwing the elections?

What a tricky path they tread now. Struggling to keep gerrymandering in place and increase voter suppression while providing a backdrop to claim voter fraud if they lose.

[GreyhoundFan]

As a mobility-challenged person, I am angry about this: "House passes changes to Americans With Disabilities Act over activists’ objections"

Spoiler

The House on Thursday passed legislation that would amend the Americans With Disabilities Act over the objections of disability rights advocates and Democratic leaders, who warned that the bill would remove incentives for businesses to comply with the law.

The ADA Education and Reform Act passed on a 225-to-192 vote, with 12 Democrats joining all but 19 Republicans to approve a bill that proponents say is aimed at curbing unscrupulous lawyers who seek profit by threatening businesses with litigation without actually seeking to improve access for the disabled.

But activists for the disabled say the bill, if enacted, would essentially gut the ADA’s provisions dealing with public accommodations by removing any incentive that businesses have to comply with the law before a complaint is filed.

“We know of no other law that outlaws discrimination but permits entities to discriminate with impunity until victims experience that discrimination and educate the entities perpetrating it about their obligations not to discriminate,” said a September letter issued by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities and signed by more than 200 disability rights groups. “Such a regime is absurd, and would make people with disabilities second-class citizens.”

On the other side are business groups, such as the International Council of Shopping Centers and the National Federation of Independent Business, which say the bill would stem “drive-by lawsuits” — so called because the lawyers who threaten them often do not physically inspect the premises.

But the bill’s critics say it would not necessarily stem the phenomenon, because lawyers could still demand monetary settlements that do not include fixing the problems they identify. The abuses, the critics say, are better handled through state laws and local legal disciplinary authorities.

“No federal civil rights statute imposes such onerous requirements on discrimination victims before they can have the opportunity to enforce their rights in court,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), speaking against the bill on the House floor Thursday.

Under the bill, those wishing to sue businesses in federal court over an ADA public-accommodations violation must first deliver a written notice to that business detailing the illegal barrier to access and then give that business 60 days to come up with a plan to address the complaints and an additional 60 days to take action.

The legislation garnered some bipartisan support, including from one of the most liberal members of the House.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a lead co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview that she has “witnessed too many rip-off artists in California that are in it for just making a buck.”

“I want public places to be accessible to persons with disabilities,” she said. “I want them fixed, and I’m not interested in making a few attorneys rich, and I’m not interested in gotcha stuff. I just want them to be accessible.”

The bill’s prospects in the Senate are uncertain. No similar bill has emerged from a Senate committee, and top Democrats — including Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) — are strongly opposed.

 

[Rachel333]

Have we talked about how Mitt Romney is running for Senate in Utah?

He'll definitely win -- Mormons in Utah love Mitt Romney -- and for all his faults it will be nice to have an anti-Trump Republican in Congress.

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Rachel333 said:

Have we talked about how Mitt Romney is running for Senate in Utah?

He'll definitely win -- Mormons in Utah love Mitt Romney -- and for all his faults it will be nice to have an anti-Trump Republican in Congress.

Hi, it's you're resident optimist chiming in here. 

I'd like to remind you that that race hasn't been run yet. Who knows how much anti-Repuglklan sentiment there is right now, with all those indictments and plea deals happening in the Mueller investigation? It's just the beginning of the year, and we can expect much more bombshell news out of that front before November, so who knows how much anti-Repugliklan sentiment there will be 6 months from now? Maybe by then anyone, even a Utah-beloved Mitt Romney, will be seen as tainted simply because he is a Repug. 

So it isn't entirely out of the realm of possibilities that Jenny Wilson might take the seat right out from under him. 

[Rachel333]

Yeah, I am definitely not that optimistic.  I'd be happy to be wrong though. 

[GreyhoundFan]

6 hours ago, Rachel333 said:

Have we talked about how Mitt Romney is running for Senate in Utah?

He'll definitely win -- Mormons in Utah love Mitt Romney -- and for all his faults it will be nice to have an anti-Trump Republican in Congress.

My concern is that once he's in congress (if he wins), he'll be just like so many of the "never" Dumpy Repugs and roll over.

[onekidanddone]

11 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

My concern is that once he's in congress (if he wins), he'll be just like so many of the "never" Dumpy Repugs and roll over.

Exactly. I hope we don't see him rolling over and showing his jugular like a good little ReThug. Like Corker who, despite his conservative ways, had at least a tiny spine, and now seems to be crawling back to Daddy with his tail between his legs.

[candygirl200413]

He also sold his soul that one time to the orange fuckface so I would never be optimistic that he could do any positive. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Another House Republican announces retirement plans"

Spoiler

Five-term Rep. Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) announced Monday that he plans to retire at the end of the year rather than stand for reelection, leaving behind a deeply conservative district in central Florida.

Rooney, 47, was considered a rising star among Florida Republicans, but he never hid his frustration with the gridlock that gripped Congress for most of his decade in office.

He becomes the 28th House Republican to quit politics — at least for now — this election season. That group includes several committee chairmen and a handful who resigned in pursuit of private-sector jobs or amid scandal. Fourteen more House Republicans are leaving their seats to run for another office. Eighteen House Democrats have announced that they are not seeking reelection; half are running for higher office.

“After what will be 10 years in the United States Congress representing the good people of Florida’s Heartland, it’s time to ‘hang em up’ as my old football coach used to say,” Rooney, a grandson of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, said in a statement.

He said that he looked forward to “serving Florida again in the future in a different capacity.”

Originally a coastal district around Palm Beach, Rooney’s district now stretches across Florida toward Tampa and is home to some of the state’s more conservative terrain. He and President Trump won the district in 2016 with about 62 percent.

A member of the House Appropriations Committee, Rooney was on track to potentially become chairman of the once-powerful panel that controls the federal purse strings — but that would have required sticking around for another decade or so.

Last week, after the school shooting in Florida that left 17 dead, Rooney issued a statement denouncing Congress for inaction on school violence. “We have failed in our duty to keep our kids safe,” he said in the statement Saturday.

Rooney did not voice support for new gun laws but did call for a large boost in money for school security and increased funding to community health centers to specifically deal with mental health issues.

Another one going away. Sadly, his district is rather red.

[candygirl200413]

And now a slight delay from your regular programming (aka I'm finishing my homework but saw this and gagged and was like I need to share this on FJ):

Orange fuckface earlier:

Mittens:

Does mittens think it's better that he doesn't at him?

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, candygirl200413 said:

And now a slight delay from your regular programming (aka I'm finishing my homework but saw this and gagged and was like I need to share this on FJ):

Orange fuckface earlier:

Mittens:

Does mittens think it's better that he doesn't at him?

Well now, it looks like my optimism wasn’t that misplaced after all! 

Because if our theory about presiduncial endorsements holds up, it’ll be senator Jenny Wilson for Utah.  

[GrumpyGran]

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Sadly, his district is rather red.

Maybe not as red as it used to be. Scott and the legislature in Florida could turn this district blue by inaction. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Don’t blame ‘Washington.’ Blame the GOP."

Spoiler

Dysfunctional Washington refuses to work out its differences to solve problems that matter to Americans.

So say pundits and policy activists, perhaps hoping that diffuse criticism, rather than finger-pointing, will yield a government willing to govern.

But the problem isn’t “Washington.” It isn’t “Congress,” either. The problem is elected officials from a single political party: the GOP.

Republicans in the White House and Congress are the ones standing in the way of helping “dreamers.” They are not merely obstructing gun reform but also rolling back existing gun-control measures.

You’d never know it from the usual “blame Washington” rhetoric, but there are lots of common-sense policy changes, on supposedly unsolvable issues, that large majorities of voters from both parties support.

These include protecting dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants brought here as children. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, 81 percent of Americans, including 68 percent of Republicans, said dreamers should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship. Other polls have had similar results.

And yet, dreamers are scheduled to start losing their protected status in two weeks.

Who set this in motion? President Trump, a Republican.

And who has blocked a legislative fix? Republican lawmakers. Call it caving or call it compromise, but Democrats have repeatedly ceded ground on their immigration principles — including by agreeing to fund a border wall.

The Senate held three votes last week to help dreamers. All three failed.

The first was on a “clean” proposal that offered dreamers citizenship. Nearly all Democrats voted for it; all but four Republicans voted against it.

There was also a bipartisan “compromise” plan. It included a path to citizenship for dreamers, funding for border security and a prohibition on dreamers sponsoring parents for legal status. That also failed, with nearly all Democrats voting for it and nearly all Republicans against.

Finally there was a plan to protect dreamers in exchange for gutting the legal immigration system, an idea that until recently resided only among the far-right fringe. Only this bill did a majority of Republicans support, even though they knew it was DOA thanks both to Democratic opposition and to defections within their own party.

On guns, too, Congress has been portrayed as generically dysfunctional, always at reasonable-people-can-disagree loggerheads. But here, too, there is widespread agreement among voters — from both parties — on modest gun-control measures.

Nine in 10 Republicans support background checks for all gun buyers. The same share supports preventing the mentally ill from purchasing guns.

Majorities of Republican voters also support banning gun modifications that can make semiautomatic guns more like automatic ones; barring gun purchases by people on terrorist no-fly lists; banning assault-style weapons; and creating a federal database to track gun sales.

Again, that’s what Republican voters want. Those preferences have been ill-served by NRA-funded Republican politicians, however.

Republican lawmakers killed universal background-check bills considered after Sandy Hook and San Bernardino. They voted against reinstating the assault weapons ban five years ago, and not a single Republican is co-sponsoring the same proposal now in the Senate. Last year, Republicans voted to roll back an Obama-era rule that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy a gun.

And the Republican House has already passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would force states that prefer stricter gun-control measures to cede their ability to enforce them, states’ rights be damned.

Commentators have been tiptoeing around some of these patterns, calling Congress “deadlocked” and slamming Democrats for being “unwilling to consider compromise.” Even the awe-inspiring Marjory Stoneman Douglas High student survivors, while calling for stronger gun-control measures, have appeared cautious about disproportionately picking on Republicans.

“I was very partisan in the beginning and violently attacking the GOP. I was angry and scared. Now I know that people from every party are supporting us. Everybody is demanding change,” junior Cameron Kasky tweeted when a critic accused him of spouting “Democrat talking points.”

Kasky is, of course, correct that Americans of all parties demand change. But politicians of all parties do not.

Kasky, his classmates and other survivor advocates using language urging nonpartisan “compromise” may understandably fear alienating possible allies in their righteous cause.

That may well be the right calculus in these politically tribal times.

But for the rest of us, obscuring which politicians stand in the way of that elusive “compromise” may instead allow them to keep getting away with it.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Rep. Matt Gaetz wants you to know who he is, and his plan is working"

Spoiler

Everybody went to high school with Matt Gaetz, in some form. You know the type. Contrarian, but well-argued. Obnoxious, but not a bully. An okay baseball player, but a much better debater: loud, fast and fearsome. Not boastful of family money, but not stealth about it either. You pictured him becoming a litigator, flashing cuff links like a sidearm, or becoming a congressman by 34 and then drafting legislation to terminate the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), 35, doesn’t wear cuff links. At least he is not on Valentine’s Day last week, while he’s waiting for the tiny elevator to his office in the Cannon House Office Building.

“You’ve got ‘Fox and Friends’ at 8:15 a.m. tomorrow,” his chief of staff says.

“Eight fifteen?” Gaetz says, disappointed. “I usually prefer the 5 a.m. hour.”

Why on Earth would anyone — even a congressman — want to be on camera before dawn?

“Because the president is watching,” Gaetz says.

The congressman who is always on television grew up in a house that was used in “The Truman Show,” a film about a man who is always on television. His parents still live there, in Seaside, Fla., 500 feet from the gulf. A sign on their white picket fence says THE TRUMAN HOUSE.

The walls of Gaetz’s office are painted pasta-sauce red, a color picked out by his mom. Behind Gaetz’s desk is a big photo of a F-35 fighter jet, perhaps the costliest weapon in human history, which is headquartered at the giant Air Force base in his district. On the opposite wall is a TV muted on Fox News, which is covering the latest school shooting.

Another Wednesday in America. Matt Gaetz is 13 months and 11 days into his first term. He’s still on Step 1 of Operation: Disrupt Congress.

“Well, the first thing is people gotta know who you are,” he says. “If you are anonymous, you are a less capable disrupter. So, Step 1: Get known.”

What’s Step 2?

“I’ll let you know when I’m done with Step 1.”

He’s scheduled to be on Lou Dobbs that night. He has interviews the next day with the New Yorker and GQ. Everyone wants to know what his deal is, but in a superficial way, a way that feeds a news cycle. Why did he give a ticket for the State of the Union to an alt-right Internet troll? Why did a staff member crowdsource legislation from the anti-Clinton sewers on Reddit? Why did Gaetz sit for a long interview on Infowars with Alex Jones, the clownish conspiracy theorist? 

“I have to say, I have never watched Infowars,” says Gaetz, whose sartorial flourish is a stable of two-toned wingtip shoes (today: black and tan). “I know that they say zany things that are patently untrue. But I also think that MSNBC says zany things that are patently untrue.”

Sometimes the president calls after he appears on TV, he says, and here lies the answer to any question about his motives. You’re a rookie but you’re hitting like Mickey Mantle, Trump says, according to Gaetz. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the president’s view of Gaetz.

“In my 13 months, I’ve assessed that nothing in this town actually happens in the absence of presidential leadership,” Gaetz says, sipping on one of many Diet Pepsis that sustain him through the day. “So a relationship with the president seems to be important if you want to impact outcomes.”

Gaetz comes from a line of politicians. His grandfather was a mayor and state senator in North Dakota. His father. Don Gaetz, the former president of the Florida state Senate, made his money running a for-profit hospice company. His mother, Vicky Gaetz, suffered severe complications while pregnant with her second child — she’s in a wheelchair to this day — and was advised to terminate the pregnancy. She didn’t. Matt’s younger sister Erin is now 32 years old, and the reason he believes abortion should be illegal.

When Matt was 10, the family relocated from southern Florida to the Panhandle and into the house that would become Jim Carrey’s in “The Truman Show.” Dinner with the Gaetzes was intellectual combat; Don was a champion debater in college, and Matt was an imposing and memorable presence on the debate team at Niceville High School, according to classmates.

From 2010 to 2016, after Matt got a law degree, both he and his father were Florida legislators and roommates in Tallahassee.

“We call them Papa Gaetz and Baby Gaetz,” says Evalyn Narramore, chair of the Democratic Party of Escambia County, on the border with Alabama. “Even amongst Republican circles, Matt’s not super popular. He only won his primary by about 35 or 36 percent of the vote, and he had six Republican opponents. He just got in there, and of course now he’s trying to out-Trump Trump.”

“They are workers,” says Pensacola real estate developer Collier Merrill, a friend of the family. “Even when Don didn’t have an opponent, he was walking every day to knock on doors. He rose pretty fast, into Senate president. That trickled down to Matt now. All of a sudden he’s rising quickly in the ranks.”

Matt Gaetz is not rising in the ranks. At least formally. He’s still a rookie congressman in the attic of Cannon, and his mug shot from a 2008 DUI arrest is still front and center on a Google search. (Charges were dropped.) But by introducing a resolution calling for the resignation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, by going on television and demanding an investigation of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton affiliates, and by hitching a ride on Air Force One to a Trump rally in Pensacola in December, Gaetz is casting himself as a counterweight to people who outrank him in power and experience.

Who needs to wait 10 years for a committee chairmanship when you can amass your own clout and cozy up to the president through nontraditional means?

In the 1990s it was nearly impossible to get rank-and-file members on television, says Doug Heye, who worked in communications for the House, Senate and Republican National Committee. Over the past 20 years, the rise of cable news and social media changed the incentive: Now a TV hit can be captured, shared with a targeted base, and injected into the public discourse, and suddenly the lowly can be high.

“I remember having a conversation 10 years ago with a friend who was convinced Michelle Bachmann was as powerful a member of Congress as there was,” Heye says. “Certainly, we can confuse prominence and power.”

(“By the way,” Heye emails after hanging up, “I’d add that a Washington Post profile of a first-term member would have been unheard of 10 years ago!”)

Gaetz made sure, at last month’s State of the Union address, to lean into the aisle and snag a selfie with Trump, whom he thinks is innocent of any wrongdoing related to Russia.

“We are now more than a year into this presidency, and there are people in his own government who hate him,” Gaetz says, seated behind his desk near a packet of paper titled “FBI & DNC messages: Obamagate.” In the reception area is a screen showing three Twitter feeds, a cascade of news and bile in real time.

“And there are people in this town — in both parties, in the establishment — who want to see him gone,” Gaetz continues. “If they had the nuts, we’d know it by now.”

The thing about Matt Gaetz is that he’s not solely a grandstander. He knows policy. He’s big on animal welfare and — despite slinging a one-line bill that would eliminate the EPA — joined a climate-solutions caucus in the House. He wants the Affordable Care Act gone; he wants marijuana rescheduled. He doesn’t think it’s conservative to hate gay people. He says that term limits and a balanced-budget amendment would deliver us from the debt and gridlock that have caused some of his party elders to flee Congress.

“I don’t even think the biggest divide is between Republicans and Democrats,” Gaetz says, deriving some conclusions from his year on the Hill. “I think it’s between institutionalists and reformers.” Perhaps he’ll be ready for Step 2 if he’s reelected in the fall — he already has two Republican challengers — but right now he’s distracted by the televised tragedy in Broward County, his first home. At one point his eyes lock on a particular headline: MANY DEATHS IN HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING.

“God,” he mutters. “That’s horrible.”

He’s pro-gun. So is his district. Within the hour, he tweets “thoughts and prayers,” a rather institutionalist tweet for an avowed reformer.

A stranger’s reply flickers across the Twitter screen in the reception area: “F--- your prayers.”

What a jerk.

[onekidanddone]

• A pride of lions
• A gaggle of geese
• A pod of whales
• A mischief of mice (this I had to look up)
• Aaaaaad wait for it.... wait for it...A cluster fuck of Republicans

[GrumpyGran]

13 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Don’t blame ‘Washington.’ Blame the GOP."

  Reveal hidden contents

Dysfunctional Washington refuses to work out its differences to solve problems that matter to Americans.

So say pundits and policy activists, perhaps hoping that diffuse criticism, rather than finger-pointing, will yield a government willing to govern.

But the problem isn’t “Washington.” It isn’t “Congress,” either. The problem is elected officials from a single political party: the GOP.

Republicans in the White House and Congress are the ones standing in the way of helping “dreamers.” They are not merely obstructing gun reform but also rolling back existing gun-control measures.

You’d never know it from the usual “blame Washington” rhetoric, but there are lots of common-sense policy changes, on supposedly unsolvable issues, that large majorities of voters from both parties support.

These include protecting dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants brought here as children. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, 81 percent of Americans, including 68 percent of Republicans, said dreamers should be allowed to stay and eventually apply for citizenship. Other polls have had similar results.

And yet, dreamers are scheduled to start losing their protected status in two weeks.

Who set this in motion? President Trump, a Republican.

And who has blocked a legislative fix? Republican lawmakers. Call it caving or call it compromise, but Democrats have repeatedly ceded ground on their immigration principles — including by agreeing to fund a border wall.

The Senate held three votes last week to help dreamers. All three failed.

The first was on a “clean” proposal that offered dreamers citizenship. Nearly all Democrats voted for it; all but four Republicans voted against it.

There was also a bipartisan “compromise” plan. It included a path to citizenship for dreamers, funding for border security and a prohibition on dreamers sponsoring parents for legal status. That also failed, with nearly all Democrats voting for it and nearly all Republicans against.

Finally there was a plan to protect dreamers in exchange for gutting the legal immigration system, an idea that until recently resided only among the far-right fringe. Only this bill did a majority of Republicans support, even though they knew it was DOA thanks both to Democratic opposition and to defections within their own party.

On guns, too, Congress has been portrayed as generically dysfunctional, always at reasonable-people-can-disagree loggerheads. But here, too, there is widespread agreement among voters — from both parties — on modest gun-control measures.

Nine in 10 Republicans support background checks for all gun buyers. The same share supports preventing the mentally ill from purchasing guns.

Majorities of Republican voters also support banning gun modifications that can make semiautomatic guns more like automatic ones; barring gun purchases by people on terrorist no-fly lists; banning assault-style weapons; and creating a federal database to track gun sales.

Again, that’s what Republican voters want. Those preferences have been ill-served by NRA-funded Republican politicians, however.

Republican lawmakers killed universal background-check bills considered after Sandy Hook and San Bernardino. They voted against reinstating the assault weapons ban five years ago, and not a single Republican is co-sponsoring the same proposal now in the Senate. Last year, Republicans voted to roll back an Obama-era rule that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy a gun.

And the Republican House has already passed the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would force states that prefer stricter gun-control measures to cede their ability to enforce them, states’ rights be damned.

Commentators have been tiptoeing around some of these patterns, calling Congress “deadlocked” and slamming Democrats for being “unwilling to consider compromise.” Even the awe-inspiring Marjory Stoneman Douglas High student survivors, while calling for stronger gun-control measures, have appeared cautious about disproportionately picking on Republicans.

“I was very partisan in the beginning and violently attacking the GOP. I was angry and scared. Now I know that people from every party are supporting us. Everybody is demanding change,” junior Cameron Kasky tweeted when a critic accused him of spouting “Democrat talking points.”

Kasky is, of course, correct that Americans of all parties demand change. But politicians of all parties do not.

Kasky, his classmates and other survivor advocates using language urging nonpartisan “compromise” may understandably fear alienating possible allies in their righteous cause.

That may well be the right calculus in these politically tribal times.

But for the rest of us, obscuring which politicians stand in the way of that elusive “compromise” may instead allow them to keep getting away with it.

 

In a rotten nutshell. The real problem is the idiots who vote for them, vote against their own interests. The GOP is good at one thing, convincing lazy mindless voters that they aren't responsible for any of the bad things that happen. While actively, and more disturbing, visually doing everything they can to inflict misery on 75% of the people in this country. Yet the mindless continue to cling to them.

I have to believe that the majority of the voters in this country don't support Repubs and their destructive agenda, the real one, not the fake one they trot out to the media.

So I have to go with Vote Every Republican Out. You can't trust them, not a one of them. All owned by the NRA and big money.

[onekidanddone]

10 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

In a rotten nutshell. The real problem is the idiots who vote for them, vote against their own interests. The GOP is good at one thing, convincing lazy mindless voters that they aren't responsible for any of the bad things that happen. While actively, and more disturbing, visually doing everything they can to inflict misery on 75% of the people in this country. Yet the mindless continue to cling to them.

I have to believe that the majority of the voters in this country don't support Repubs and their destructive agenda, the real one, not the fake one they trot out to the media.

So I have to go with Vote Every Republican Out. You can't trust them, not a one of them. All owned by the NRA and big money.

For years I voted for the Republican who ran in my Congressional district. She was moderate, worked across the isle and was a decent and kind. I used to figure we needed moderate Republicans to counter act some of the more crazy ones. That was until she signed the 'Contract With America" under the Newt. After that I was done. She lost my support after that.

Fast forward to now. We have a basically moderate middle of the road Governor Larry Hogan. He didn't endorse Trump, didn't go to the convention and wrote in his father's name for president. All well and good, but dear Larry hasn't stood up and denounced Trump. Hogan has opted to just stay silent. Not good enough, not any more.

Part of me is sad to see the old time 'moderate Republican' go. Part of me wonders if that has been a myth all along. All of me is fucking fed up. Larry darling, how will it feel to be a one term wonder?