United States Congress 5: Still Looking for a Spine

[Destiny]

18 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

It's as if they're not at all worried of ever having to win an election again.

To be fair, they probably aren’t. They just figure Russia will hand them all elections going forward.

[AmazonGrace]

Because it's a slow news day.

[AmazonGrace]

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/duncan-hunter-campaign-charges/index.html

Because it's a slow news day.

[AmazonGrace]

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have tweeted nothing about Manafort, Cohen or Hunter. They're not "deeply concerned", "not commenting until they find out more details", not even "thoughts and prayers".

Just zip. Nada. Zilch.

Biggest news in forever and they just pretend it didn't happen.

[GreyhoundFan]

22 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have tweeted nothing about Manafort, Cohen or Hunter. They're not "deeply concerned", "not commenting until they find out more details", not even "thoughts and prayers".

Just zip. Nada. Zilch.

Biggest news in forever and they just pretend it didn't happen.

Nah, this is what they're doing:

 

[Howl]

*does a little happy dance*  It's only Tuesday and it's already an EPIC Infrastructure Week! 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I adore Ted:

 

[JMarie]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/duncan-hunter-campaign-charges/index.html

Quote

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, routinely -- and illegally -- used campaign funds to pay personal bills big and small, from luxury vacations to kids' school lunches and delinquent family dentistry bills, according to a stinging 47-page indictment unsealed Tuesday.

The charges of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy were the culmination of a Department of Justice investigation that has stretched for more than a year, during which the Republican congressman from California has maintained his innocence.

The detailed indictment portrays the Hunters as living well beyond their means and said they "knowingly conspired with each other" to convert campaign funds to personal use.

Quote

The Hunters overdrew their personal bank accounts more 1,100 times in a seven-year period, according to the indictment from the US Attorney's Office in San Diego, resulting in $37,761 in "overdraft" and "insufficient funds" bank fees.

"By virtue of these delinquencies -- as well as notifications of outstanding debts and overdue payments from their children's school, their family dentist, and other creditors -- the Hunters knew that many of their desired purchases could only be made by using campaign funds," the indictment says.

Quote

Hunter was a founding member of the "Trump Caucus" in the House during the 2016 campaign, and alongside Rep. Chris Collins, was the first of two sitting congressmen to endorse Trump for President back in February 2016. Collins was indicted earlier this month on insider trading charges.

Quote

Investigators found that Margaret Hunter concealed the name or location of their destination by purchasing tickets for personal vacations by using websites like Expedia. Among the trips using campaign funds: a 2015 family vacation in Italy over Thanksgiving totaling more than $14,000; an April vacation in Hawaii costing $6,500; and a $3,700 trip to Las Vegas and Boise in July 2015.

In addition to family trips to fast food and fine dining establishments, as well as venues like the Del Mar Racetrack, the Hunters allegedly also spent thousands of dollars of campaign funds on routine purchases for personal items at Costco ($11,300), Walmart (more than $5,700), Barnes & Noble, Target and Michael's craft store.

In one of Margaret Hunter's trips to Target, she allegedly spent more than $300 in campaign funds for "a tablecloth, three square pillows, a three-brush set, a metal tray, four temporary shades, four window panels, a white duck, two Punky Brewster items, a ring pop and two five-packs of animals," according to court documents. She described the purchases as being needed for "teacher/parent & supporter events."

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

This is true.

 

But if the majority of the Repugliklans in Congress are indebted to Russia (and I honestly think a lot of them are in one way or another), then this argument is still moot. It's in Russia's best interests to keep the presidunce in office. Don't be surprised when they do absolutely nothing other than state: "Now is not the time. We don't have enough information. We will have to wait and see." 

Utter bollocks, of course, because impeachment procedures are not about deposing a sitting governmental official, although everybody acts as if it is. It's the congressional version of a trial. The Repugs, however, are very afraid of what will be uncovered when the presidunce is put in the hot seat and having to answer questions.

[AmazonGrace]

3 hours ago, JMarie said:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/duncan-hunter-campaign-charges/index.html

Hunter was a founding member of the "Trump Caucus" in the House during the 2016 campaign, and alongside Rep. Chris Collins, was the first of two sitting congressmen to endorse Trump for President back in February 2016. Collins was indicted earlier this month on insider trading charges.

The third congress critter to endorse Trump was Sessions...

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/271109-gop-senator-expected-to-endorse-trump

[fraurosena]

A paradigm case for impeachment. 

For that to work, you have to have a Congress that is incorrupt and willing to act with integrity though. Sadly, you don't.

[fraurosena]

Huh. I wonder if the Repugs will really do something or just go "Meh" 

 

[fraurosena]

I've no idea of the veracity of this, but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if it were true.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

They're only just now coming to this conclusion? 

 

[fraurosena]

In other words, you are promising the Dems will do what Congress should and Repugliklans won't.

Paul Ryan warns that if Dems win, they’ll hold Trump accountable

Quote

he New York Times had an interesting report about a week ago, pointing to Republican concerns that Donald Trump is insufficiently concerned about the 2018 midterm elections.

The article noted, among other things, that GOP leaders have tried to impress upon the president “just how bruising this November could be for Republicans – and how high the stakes are for Mr. Trump personally, given that a Democratic-controlled Congress could pursue aggressive investigations and even impeachment.”

It’s a fair point to emphasize, but there’s something cynical at the root of the observation: Republican lawmakers have effectively told the Republican president that they’ve looked the other way on Trump’s scandals and misdeeds, ignoring their oversight responsibilities and undermining the entire idea of checks and balances, but Democrats won’t.

House Speaker Paul Ryan appears eager to make a related case to the public.

House Speaker Paul Ryan warned that Democratic gains in November’s congressional elections could make it impossible to get anything accomplished and expose President Donald Trump’s administration to more aggressive oversight.

Should Republicans lose control of either the House or Senate, “you’ll have gridlock, you’ll have subpoenas,” with the whole legislative system “shutting down,” Ryan said Wednesday in Beverly Hills, California, at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference.

This is not a good argument. Just at face value, I don’t imagine many political observers would say the legislative process has worked efficiently and effectively since the GOP took control of the levers of federal power – they’ve passed one big bill, and they did so in a reckless way, rife with mistakes and abuses – which makes dire warnings about “gridlock” difficult to take seriously.

For that matter, there have been plenty of times in American history in which the parties have shared power in D.C. For Ryan to assume that the entire system would “shut down” if Republicans had to compromise with Democrats is a mistake.

But it’s use of the word “subpoenas” that jumped out at me.

What the retiring House Speaker seemed to suggest was that Democrats, if given any meaningful authority in Congress, would take steps to hold the president accountable for his actions.

Or put another way, Ryan wants voters to back Republican candidates in order to ensure that the pro-Trump cover-up can continue on Capitol Hill. “Vote GOP in 2018,” the slogan effectively goes, “We’re against oversight and accountability for Republican presidents.”

Early on in Trump’s tenure, the New York Times’ David Leonhardt wrote a memorable piece, explaining, “This combination – an anti-democratic president and a quiescent Congress – is very dangerous. Even though many members of Congress think [Trump’s] approach is wrong, they have refused to confront him because he is a member of their party…. So they look the other way. They duck questions about him, or they offer excuses. They enable him.”

Vox’ Ezra Klein added at the time, “[F]or now, the crucial question – the question on which much of American democracy hinges – is not what Trump does. It is what Congress does.”

To hear Paul Ryan tell it, Congress should do practically nothing, and voters should help the Republican majority ensure that doesn’t change.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

An excellent piece by Dana Milbank: "Republicans won’t have anything left to salvage"

Spoiler

What President Trump and his cadre have done is very bad.

What Republican leaders are doing is unforgivable.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) stood on the Senate floor Wednesday morning for his first public remarks since the seismic events of the day before: The president’s former personal lawyer pleaded guilty to fraud and breaking campaign finance laws, implicating the president in a crime; the president’s former campaign chairman was convicted on eight counts of financial crimes, making him one of five members of Trump’s team who have been convicted or have admitted guilt; and a Republican congressman was indicted, the second of Trump’s earliest congressional supporters to be charged this month.

It was time for leadership. McConnell ducked.

Instead, he hailed Trump’s campaign rally in West Virginia the night before. He disparaged President Barack Obama’s record. He spoke about low unemployment “under this united Republican government.” He went on about coal, taxes, apprenticeship programs, health research, prisoner rehabilitation and more — and not a peep about the corruption swirling around the president. When reporters pressed McConnell in the hallway for comment, he brushed them off.

McConnell’s counterpart in the House, Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), was equally cowardly. “We are aware of Mr. [Michael] Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” was his office’s official statement. “We will need more information than is currently available at this point.”

What more do you need, Mr. Speaker? What more will it take, Republicans? It seems nothing can bring them to state what is manifestly true: The president is unfit to serve, surrounded by hooligans and doing incalculable harm.

A scroll through Republican lawmakers’ tweets since the Cohen-Manafort combination punch late Tuesday found shameful silence. GOP House leaders Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Steve Scalise (La.) tweeted about a murder allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant.

It briefly appeared that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) was doing the right thing. He tweeted a suggestion to read Gerald Seib’s Wednesday Wall Street Journal column proclaiming the “darkest day of the Trump presidency.” Fourteen minutes later came a corrective tweet from Grassley: He meant a previous Seib column, on another subject.

Among the few Republican lawmakers demonstrating dignity: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), ex-FBI agent, commended his former colleagues for “upholding the rule of law.”

This intolerable silence of the Republicans — through “Access Hollywood,” racist outbursts, diplomatic mayhem and endless scandal — is what allows Trump and his Fox News-viewing supporters to dock their spaceship in a parallel universe where truth isn’t truth. At Tuesday night’s rally in West Virginia, Trump’s irony-challenged audience could be heard chanting “Drain the Swamp!” and “Lock her up!” (Hillary Clinton, that is), just a few hours after Paul Manafort’s conviction and Cohen’s guilty plea.

Republican lawmakers fear that with 87 percent of Republican voters backing Trump, crossing him is political suicide. But this is circular. Support among the Republican base remains high because Republican officeholders validate him.

It took a year from the Watergate break-in to Republican Sen. Howard Baker’s immortal 1973 question about a Republican president: “What did the president know and when did he know it?”

Instead of Baker, today we have Texas’s John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, saying: “I would note that none of this has anything to do with the Russian collusion or meddling in the election.”

And Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.): “Thus far, there have yet to be any charges or convictions for colluding with the Russian government by any member of the Trump campaign.”

And Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah): The “president should not be held responsible for the actions of the people he’s trusted.”

And Grassley: “I don’t think I should be speculating.”

But there doesn’t have to be collusion, or even speculation, to recognize that something is terribly wrong. There is no good answer to the question Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis posed after his client said under oath that Trump directed him to pay off two women to influence the election: “If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”

A few Republican senators (Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, Richard Burr) have rhetorically distanced themselves from Trump. But their modest efforts don’t sufficiently protect the party, or the country, from Trump’s sleaze and self-dealing.

The moral rot is spreading. Two weeks ago, Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) was arrested on charges related to insider trading — from the White House lawn. On Tuesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and his wife were charged with using campaign funds for travel, golf, skiing, tuition, tickets, clothing, makeup, dental work and more, often while claiming the funds were being used on charities.

His office’s Trumpian response: “This action is purely politically motivated.”

If Republicans don’t put some moral distance between themselves and Trump, there will soon be nothing left to salvage.

 

[AnywhereButHere]

Because The West Wing was an awesome show and eminently quotable:

Every time I think of the republicans in the congress and senate, I think of Marlee Matlin's character explaining leadership during a gun debate among the staff.

Quote

You say that these numbers mean dial it down. I say they mean dial it up. You haven't gotten through. There are people you haven't persuaded yet. These numbers mean dial it up. Otherwise you're like the French radical, watching the crowd run by and saying, "There go my people. I must find out where they're going so I can lead them."

I just want to shake them (and some democrats too) and tell them LEAD damnit! Don't just follow the braying of the loudest idiots in the pack. LEAD!

[AmazonGrace]

Wut 

 

 

[AnywhereButHere]

@AmazonGrace Holy cow. I didn't know whether I felt "confused", "disgust", "WTF" or needed to "laugh". I think my face just became a mash up of all those voting icons at once!

That was just one big dump on NY and the east coast, ivy league (yet John Gotti esque) liberals.

And because I'm apparently on a West Wing quoting spree: Orrin Hatch "needs to go write his book now." and get the hell out of DC.

 

Oh, and it's absolutely cracking me up that Duncan Hunter spent a shit ton more on In-N-Out than he did on gourmet meals. Dude! If you're going to commit campaign finance fraud - at least go for the good stuff on the regular and make it worth it! Nothing wrong with a good In-N-Out burger, but I think you could probably fund that meal on your own, no?

[AmazonGrace]

I read somewhere that his family was frequently broke 

 

[Audrey2]

56 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Wut 

 

 

I just ate In-N-Out last week in Southern Oregon. A single hamburger meal was between $5 and $6, my cheeseburger meal was $6.15, and I'm thinking the double double meal was just over $7. I don't remember how much the shakes cost. How do you spend $3300 on In-N-Out? That's a massive amount of burger meals! Was his campaign exclusively eating In-N-Out, like Trump's McDonald's habit?