111 Comments

Shameless Party

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Why am I commenting when Cullum has said it all?

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The thing is Bret Stephens wants to go back . he's like a woman with a an a... husband . If he just talked nice , we could be together " Brooks is well and truly done with the crap . The the original article , you may agree . I hope there aren't too many bret , suckers for a line about how it wasn't really the party that was for the insurrection 9and all the rest) , just some nice folks led astray

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Re Bret Stephens colloquy: The intellectuals may have been serious and sincere, but it was always snake oil they were selling. (trickle-down, pacify the proles)

I'm excited to see Kinzinger unshackled (and going where, we want to know?), but I have to say: More Olivia Nuzzi. Great get!

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The party of Honest Abe, and the values he stood for, has morphed into the party of Lying Don and the “values” he stands for.

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"If there is something that rises to the occasion that he did something wrong, then we'll deal with that at that time."

This leads to a few simple questions:

1) Whose standards will be applied to "something wrong:" the legal definitions, morality, the opinions of Team Psychiatric Facility Escapees...?

2) Who is the "we" that will deal with it? McCarthy has been so emasculated that he couldn't deal with anything in the House without a major disruption of some sort from the escapees. The House Ethics Committee which the Trumpettes defanged in the new Rules?

3) What will be Santos' punishment? McCarthy will assure nothing more than a slap on the wrist since the New GOP needs his sorry ass to maintain their majority.

4) Does anyone think that Santos will actually legislate, or just kowtow to the powers that be so that the only truth on his resume will be that he was an unimpeached or non-expelled Congressman?

5) Does he have the stones to run for reelection in '24 with absolutely no local support from the Rs?

6) Will the Nassau County Republican Committee cave to national to try to maintain the House majority?

Stay tuned; I'm sure that many more questions will be asked over the coming months (if Santos lasts that long).

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This newsletter is an always a must read and today’s did not disappoint. Bill’s thoughts on Ukraine was a pleasant surprise. We need more focus on Ukraine and their inspiring story.

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What ever happened to innocent until you admit it? Santos is probably another one with his hands on McCarthy's nether parts threatening to squeeze if McCarthy squeals. McCarthy's speakership is going to be nothing more than a long endless exercise in subjugation to the sewer level in the House.

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"But for Kevin’s GOP, this less about morality than math. If Republicans had a 40 vote margin, Santos might be toast. But with a four-vote margin, Republicans need Santos; and a special election would likely flip the district back to D. So Santos will continue to be Kevin’s dead fish: growing ever more rank and noxious while Kevin & Co. pretend they don’t smell anything."

There! That description is worth the price of admission all by itself!

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founding

Regarding George Santos,we know he won't resign.We know McCarthy won't get rid of him.Since the Republican establishment of that district in New York won't recognize him and want him out, how about a recall?I don't like the idea of recalls.But everything about Santos is total fiction.If there is ever a clear purpose of a recall, this is it. DY

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Newt Gingrich's demand that Republican house members never associate with members of the the Democratic Party was but one nail in the coffin of democracy. But it was a big one.

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The title should change from "The Santos meltdown continues" to "Meltdown from people disgusted with Santos continues".

Neither the Republicans nor Santos have the ethics or shame to meltdown. Yesterday's MTG is today's Santos. & in a couple of years from now, the Republicans will normalize Santos too. The Nassau County Republicans will either fall in line or their current leadership will get expunged with wannabe Santos and MTGs.

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You mean ethics! Rapacious capitalism gave those up from the 1770s.

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https://www.thebulwark.com/the-long-history-of-fighting-over-the-term-conservative/

The split from today's "conservatism" of figures like Brooks and Stephens was foreshadowed by a similar split in the 1950's over McCarthyism. The differences between Bulwark types and National Review types are reminiscent of the fights between Bill Buckley and "new conservative" Peter Viereck.

The Viereck vision of conservatism lost the battle to the Buckley version. With the Buckley tradition at a dead end, perhaps it is time to look again at the old "new conservatives."

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In the end it's about the accountability more than the action. Santos gets away with what would get the rest of us fired, or worse, because those in power don't have the stones to enforce the rules and societal norms that we have taken for granted for years (decades, centuries) to be definitive. Incivility, boorish and crude behavior, lies and obfuscation, bullying, ... it ends only when someone stronger and with power of enforcement intervenes and says that it is not acceptable. Such leadership has been in woefully short supply, and steadily declining, on the political right since at least the 1990s, when Newt Gingrich and others affiliated with him gave grievance, victimization, and culture wars a green light as legitimate means to an end. The result is weaker leaders with less power to reign in the fecal festival and its purveyors, and more desire to give in to the bomb throwers as long as they are strategic partners. It is left for someone else later on to clean up the mess from that deal with the devil and repair the damage.

You know that. Everyone knows that. What to do about it? In the end the chain remains only as strong as the weakest link. We're still waiting for the MAGA GOP plan to make Americans great again when the leaders within the movement thrive on chaos, bad behavior, and lawlessness becoming the new normal, and as legitimized tools in a pathway to power and realizing their ultimate goal: owning the libs, at any cost, in a Götterdämmerung in which they alone will define democracy and freedom. We've been down these roads before. It never ends well. None so blind as those who refuse to see.

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I wish Bill Kristol safe travels in foreign lands. May Bill foster good faith cooperation, advance democracy at home and abroad, and counteract the menacing force of Steve Bannon.

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