Welcome To Your Future, Shroom

Watching Democrats tie up Republicans and the White House into knots over this Kavanaugh mess is quite entertaining. Spring an attempted rape accusation at the last minute, force a delay of the Judiciary Committee vote, and tease a hearing for the accuser, then object to it without an FBI investigation.

This is what Democrats have accomplished from a position of weakness. Imagine what they can do with real power after the Midterms.

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

67 thoughts on “Welcome To Your Future, Shroom”

  1. I don’t want us Dems to force the Repugs into capitulation; I want them to collapse and die of their own inbred corpulence.

  8. I feel like an elaboration of your 7:28 is a lead post in itself, CC.  I’ll concur with the one you have there, now, as well.

  9. …for all my false bravado, by the way, i will have no clue about anything until the midterm results are in.  Maybe 2016 was a fluke and 49% of the electorate doesn’t support the Party of Unabashed Sexual Abuse and Thinly-Veiled Racism.  We’ll see.

  10. Two agreements with Bink in a day – write that down. Definitely an expansion of your 7:28 is in order, Poobah. All of the CP5 were younger than Kavanaught when they didn’t commit the crimes IMPOTUS urged that they be KILLED for. (Sorry about ending sentences with prepositions, but I find that I do that more and more as I get older. I’m just too goddamn lazy to structure the sentences to avoid that error.) And if my memory serves no one identified them as the assailants. (Hmmm, better check that out). Kavanaught, well, he’s been identified.

  11. inquistr:  Judge Brett Kavanaugh Was Obsessed With Vince Foster’s Death

     
    When Brett Kavanaugh was associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel under Kenneth Starr from 1994 through 1997, it was his idea to reopen the investigation into the death of Clinton White House Counsel Vince Foster, whose death was previously ruled a suicide, and the case was closed by Independent Counsel Robert Fiske.
     
    Today on Jake Tapper’s show The Lead on CNN, political consultant Paul Begala said considering the horrible things he did to the family of Vince Foster when he worked as the associate counsel, he wonders what kind of things Brett Kavanaugh could have done in high school, referencing the accusations of sexual assault by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.
    “By reopening the investigation of Vince Foster’s suicide Kavanaugh tormented the Foster family in the most vicious, cruel, abuse of power I think I’ve ever seen in 30 years. If he would do something that horrible, I don’t know what he was like in high school.”

    Princeton Professor Sean Wilentz stated in an article for the New York Times that Kavanaugh was insistent that President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton had something to do with the death of Foster.
    Foster said he had received allegations tying the Clintons to Foster’s death, and despite Fiske’s extensive investigation, he thought it deserved additional scrutiny.
     
    Professor Wilentz says that the sources turned out to be conspiracy theorists from outside of the mainstream.
    “One was Reed Irvine, a self-appointed debunker of the ‘fake news’ of mainstream media. Another was Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, an English author of a book entitled The Secret Life of Bill Clinton that posited that the Oklahoma City bombing was an F.B.I. plot gone awry. A third was Christopher Ruddy, today the chief executive of Newsmax and confidant of President Trump, but at the time on the payroll of the right-wing tycoon Richard Mellon Scaife to promote conspiracies.”
    Despite the fact that Kavanaugh’s personal memos indicated that he personally believed that Foster killed himself, Kavanaugh kept the case open, even requesting a DNA sample from Foster’s daughter at one point four years after the death of the White House counsel.
    “He sent investigators in search of follicle specimens from Mr. Foster’s bereft, blond, teenage daughter. (‘We have Foster’s hair,’ one agent working for Mr. Kavanaugh reported in triumph).”
    Kavanaugh was reportedly trying to prove that a blond hair on Foster’s jacket had belonged to the first lady. Kavanaugh conducted a number of interviews trying to tie Foster romantically to Hillary Clinton, and also asked the first lady herself about her feelings for Foster.
     
    Kavanaugh kept the investigation going for more than another year, and in the end had to admit that he had no more than the Fiske investigation had turned up.

  12. Here’s my elaboration, Bink, Pogo. How do you spot a woman hating racist? Somebody who would execute black teens proven innocent and put a privileged white who nearly raped a 15yo on the Supreme court.

  18. it’s not like brett and merrick don’t still have a job. …..  a job for life at that.

     

    after this and the media go away, I wonder if we’ll be able to say the same for dr. christine blasey ford.

  19. ny times via msn:

    [….]
    In the letter to the Judiciary Committee, Dr. Blasey’s lawyers said that she has been the target of “vicious harassment and even death threats” since her name was made public on Sunday in an interview published in The Washington Post. Her email has been hacked, she has been impersonated online and she and her family have been forced to relocate out of their home, according to the lawyers, Ms. Banks and her partner, Debra S. Katz.
    “While Dr. Ford’s life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen U.S. Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident,” the lawyers wrote to Mr. Grassley. The hearing “would include interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds that she is ‘mistaken’ and ‘mixed up.’”
    Dr. Blasey, who is sometimes referred to by her married name, Ford, “wants to cooperate with the committee and with law enforcement officials” but believes that a “full investigation” by the F.B.I. would be necessary to form a nonpartisan assessment before any hearing, the lawyers wrote.
    [..continues…]

  20. the guardian:

    […]
    In response, committee chairman Chuck Grassley stressed his position that Ford “deserves to be heard” and that the invitation to testify on Monday “still stands”.
     
    However, he said in this statement: “Dr Ford’s testimony would reflect her personal knowledge and memory of events.
     
    “Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for delay.”
     
    Though Ford’s letter does not explicitly state whether she would appear before the committee on Monday, it raises concerns that she would face an unfair “interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds that she is ‘mistaken’ and ‘mixed up’”. In an appearance on CNN on Tuesday evening, one of her lawyers, Lisa Banks, sidestepped several direct questions about whether her client would appear at the Monday hearing but strongly suggested she would not.
     
    “She’s not prepared to talk with them at a hearing on Monday,” Banks said, adding: “This is going to take some time. There shouldn’t be a rush to a hearing here. There’s no reason to do that.”
    [….]
    Senator Orrin Hatch, a senior Republican on the committee, said in a tweet on Tuesday night: “The FBI does not do investigations like this. The responsibility falls to us.” He concluded: “We should proceed as planned.”
     
    Hatch, who played an important role in the Anita Hill hearings, was promptly reminded by others on Twitter that the FBI had investigated her claims against then Supreme Court nominee Thomas.
    [….]
    Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the committee, who has pushed Republicans to allow time for an investigation before holding a public hearing said she agreed with Ford “100%” and said senators should “honor” Ford’s wishes and grant a delay.
     
    “I agree with her 100% that the rushed process to hold a hearing on Monday has been unfair and is reminiscent of the treatment of Anita Hill,” Feinstein said, referring to the woman who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his supreme court confirmation hearing in 1991.
    […continues…]

  21. some good news for a change

    wapo:  Political nonprofits must now name many of their donors under federal court ruling after Supreme Court declines to intervene

     

  22. newsweek:

    Kavanaugh Accuser Christine Blasey Ford Forced Out of Home After Death Threats: Lawyers

     

    [….]…
    their client has “been the target of vicious harassment and even death threats.
    “As a result of these kinds of threats, [Ford’s] family was forced to relocate out of their home,” lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks of the Katz, Marshall & Banks law firm, told Grassley in the letter, which was published online by The Hill.

  27. “Fueling Democratic Advantage For Control Of Congress”

    let’s hope the dems don’t run out of gas before November.  they still have to show up at the polls and vote.

  29. cbs news:

     
    A new poll released by Quinnipiac University Tuesday shows Democratic Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke down nine points in his race against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Fifty-four percent of likely voters said that they would support Cruz in the election, compared to 45 percent who said they would support O’Rourke.
     

     
    The two candidates have overwhelming support within their parties: 94 percent of Republicans would vote for Cruz, and 94 percent of Democrats would vote for O’Rourke. Independent voters support O’Rourke by 51 percent. O’Rourke also has the youth vote, as a majority of voters between 18 and 39 would support him. Ninety-seven percent of black voters are also in favor of O’Rourke, and 54 percent of Hispanic voters are supporting him.
    […]

    A recent NBC News/Marist College poll found O’Rourke only four points behind Cruz, trailing him with 45 percent to Cruz’s 49 percent.

    […continues…]

     

  30. however from business insider:  Ted Cruz, in deep red Texas, is at risk of losing to rising Democrat star Beto O’Rourke, poll shows
    The Democratic congressman aiming to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz in Texas has pulled even in the race, a Reuters poll found, a spark of hope for a party seeking a Senate majority to curb President Donald Trump’s agenda.
    The Reuters/Ipsos/UVA Center for Politics Poll released on Wednesday of several competitive U.S. Senate races offered a mixed picture of Democrats’ chances in November of winning the two seats they would need to take control of that chamber.
    It showed tight races in Arizona, where Democrats are hoping to win a seat held by a retiring Republican, and in Florida, where Republicans aim to unseat a Democratic incumbent.
    […]

    Among the bright spots for Democrats: U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas had a 2-percentage-point lead over Cruz among likely voters in the state and U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona had a 3-point lead over Republican congresswoman Martha McSally in the race to succeed U.S. Senator Jeff Flake, one of Trump’s most vocal critics from within his own party.

    […continues…]

     

  31. KGC

    Hillary Clinton shouldn’t go anywhere until Bernie Loudmouth and Trump Liemouth are consigned forever to be forgotten in history except to be dredged up as bad examples when compared to her.

     

  32. After years of being told that Democrats don’t have a spine, it’s wonderful to see the shoe on the other foot!  And despite being disappointed that Democrats didn’t fight hard enough, I never thought they were trying to give our country over to a foreign power.

    Republicans = begs benedict

  33. Something I just learned on NPR:

    Schubert’s diminutive frame – added to his rather plump body – earned him the nickname ‘Schwammerl’ (little mushroom).

  34. Tess Cruz threatening the people of Texas with an ad which claims Beto, if elected, will BAN BARBECUE.

    Apparently, coleslaw is safe….for now.

  36. Jaime

    Wow a morel joke ..so rarely do you get a chance

    With the caveat that she did nothing, the Clinton name is so toxic that she just stirs of his base

    I agree with Craig I wish she had stayed in the senate and then become a supreme

  38. Well, I hope all the women who oppose little morel go vote for whoever is running as a dem and I furhter hope that the midwest indeed swings seats to blue.  The RCP numbers for the House look promising, but you know what that means at this point.  The Senate, not so much.

  39. ugh  I just heard the asshole in chief say they would be helping the innocent   what does that mean?

  41. This article from WaPo shows that Hatch and “assley are at it again.  Same stuff they did to Anita Hill.  It’ll play well with IMPOTUS’ base, but it won’t play well with women voters in November.  They don’t like to see old pasty white men beat up on women who are trying to provide information that the pasty old white men are just going to ignore anyway.  And it appears Lindsey Graham’s manhood, what there was of it, died with John McCain.  

  42. I agree that staying in the Senate would probably have been the best long term “could have been”, but for now, I don’t want to hear anyone say “Go Home” unless they toss out all the old white men before asking her to leave.

     

     

  45. KC, helping the innocent probably means granting pardons to Don Jr. and Ivanka if Manafort’s testimony implicates them.

  46. Pogo,

    One of today’s Wapo articles mentions the possibility of female staffers of GOP Judiciary committee members questioning Dr. Ford in hearings.  Party of Cowards.

  47. If they do, ez ad campaign for Dems: “you elected X to do a job in D.C., X passed off his duties to staffers”.

    (This was posted in response to your 2:38, idk i’m a time traveler i guess)

  49. Bink, you’re not one of those folks who suffer under the misapprehension that time is linear I hope.

  50. Stratigerially** speaking if Ford doesn’t attend the hearing on Monday  Dems should release an ad saying he shut me up then and they are shutting me up now

     

    **I got the spelling from Shrub

  51. I just finished installing the latest iteration of my sound system in the media room. Found an FM station that seemed able to wring it out. Here’s what they were playing:

     

  52. Grand Old Perverts — certainly living up to their name

    How many goopers have stepped down this year due to some kind of sexual misconduct?

    And then there the ones that should

  54. I spend time in Cleveland as a result of having a mother in law there.  It is insane how many of the folks there can’t say a bad word about Trump.  Not sure how they feel about Kasich, but I suspect it’s the way they feel about Trump – they are after all both republicans.  I don’t get it – they are completely blind to the lack of support beyond campaign slogans that SFB has provided for their deteriorating industry and income.  Of the top 10 jobs in demand in OH in May, only 2 – truck drivers and maintenance workers – were industrial related jobs that did not require a college degree – and there was only one of those.  That said, manufacturing and goods producing industries were the fastest growth areas.  2018 job projections show manufacturing down by 18.5% over the last decade, good producing industries down 12.5% over that period and natural Resources, Ag & Mining down 3.4%.  Construction is the one blue collar bright spot with an increase of 9.6%.  The data are a bit complicated.

  55. I would like Bill and Hillary Clinton to decide for themselves what they want to do, how they want to do it, where they want to do it, and that they just go do the fuck out of it. They’re good, they say what I want to hear, and I appreciate every damn thing they feel like doing, everywhere they do it, when they could be sitting home on their asses just counting the money.

  58. Lady on the view: Willie, what about all your fans turning their back on you over this?

    Willie:    Well, I don’t care…..lol….hell, I’ve been a democrat my whole life……no secret there

  61. Just saw my first Tedious Cruz ad.  He’s going after Beto on border control, playing on the fear of violent criminals who have been deported numerous times. I fear this type of ad will erode support for Beto.

  63. abc news:

    Trump calls Florence ‘one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water’

    President Donald thanked first responders in a Twitter video where he described Florence as “tough” one of the “wettest” hurricanes ever.

    “This is a tough hurricane,” he said. “One of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.”
    He added: “Florence has been a nasty one. A big one like that area certainly has never seen before.”
     

  64. vanity fair:  “Cut Bait”: As the Kavanaugh Nightmare Escalates, Trump Is Gripped with Uncertainty as Ivanka Suggests Cutting the Judge Loose

    […]

    According to three sources, Kavanaugh’s imperiled confirmation has unsettled Trump and the White House. “Everyone knows his predisposition is to punch back, but this is a different situation than an election,” a former West Wing official briefed on the strategy discussions said. In the past, Trump responded to allegations of sexual misconduct by channeling his mentor Roy Cohn: deny everything, and go on the attack. But he’s been surprisingly measured in his defense of Kavanaugh. In a news conference today, Trump told reporters, “I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this,” but refrained from attacking Ford.

     
    According to sources, several factors are at play. White House advisers are worried that more damaging information about Kavanaugh could come out. Two sources told me the White House has heard rumors that Ford’s account will be verified by women who say she told it to them contemporaneously. People worry, without apparent evidence, of another Ronan Farrow bomb dropping. One source says Ivanka Trump has told her father to “cut bait” and drop Kavanaugh.

    Another reason Trump hasn’t gone to the mat for Kavanaugh is that he’s said to be suspicious of Kavanaugh’s establishment pedigree. “‘He’s a Bush guy, why would I put myself out there defending him?’” Trump told people, according to a former White House official briefed on the conversations. Trump also has expressed frustration with White House counsel Don McGahn, who aggressively lobbied for him to choose Kavanaugh, a source said. “Trump wants this guy on the court, but Trump knows there are five other people he could put on the court if this falls apart,” a former official said.

    But the threat of losing the House and Senate seems to have helped convince Trump not to go scorched-earth on Ford. If Trump antagonizes women voters, it could increase the odds Republicans would lose both houses in Congress. “Trump knows the Senate is not looking good,” an outside adviser said. “It’s all about the impeachment, he knows it’s coming.
     

    Even before the Kavanaugh crisis, Trump has been worried about Republicans’ declining fortunes, and he’s been finding ways to shift the blame. Trump told a friend in the Oval Office last week that it would be Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan’s fault if Republicans lost the House and the Senate, according to a person familiar with the conversation. “This is the election about Ryan and McConnell—it’s about those guys,” Trump said. Trump referred to his 2020 campaign as “the real election.” “It’s pure Trump. He has to come up with a way he’s not responsible if Republicans lose,” a former West Wing staffer said.

     

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