In their own way Republicans Senator’s have admitted Donald Trump broke the law and did something stupid and wrong ….
That’s ALL…
In the next evening after this post they will all standup as a jury and give Donald J. Trump a pass for trying to go after Joe Biden by withholding taxpayer money to an American ally country try….
Tonight, as he has for a long time?
Donald Trump says it was a perfect call….
Nobody will believe him…
But he will NEVER wash the mark of impeachment off his back ….
It won’t bother most of us…
But watching Trump?
IT WILL BOTHER him….
So much so that there are reports that could ask his Attorney General to ‘go after’ those Americans that came forward too tell the truth about Donald Trump’s actions and then attempt to cover his actions up….
In casting their votes?
Republican Senator’s will be giving away even more power of the Congress then has been lost up to now ….
History will NOT be kind to those who carried Donald Trump on their backs…
And somehow?
One could firmly believe ?
The bad karma that Trump has thrown out?
WILL come back at him…..
image…Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post
New Open Thread is HERE!….
Bloomberg
@business
Kweisi Mfume wins Democratic special primary in Maryland for congressional seat held by the late Elijah Cummings, via
@AP
I was wrong…..
They didn’t ALL vote for aquarian….
Morning People…..
Busy political day…..
SOTU speech ….
Buttigieg looking like the Iowa winner
Trump beating the rap later….
Media seem done with Iowa and has jumped to Pelosi tearing up Trump’s speech….
For the Democrats?
It seems we are on to NH where Sanders will get a win…
The suspense will be second place….
Biden or Buttigieg…
Warren seems forgotten….
Biden will be about Nev and SC like Hillary…
Biden picks up another union endorsement ….
Bloomberg
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has 775,000 active and retired members across North America, described Biden as “a longtime friend of working families.”
Sen. Doug Jones will vote to convict on both charges.
Profile in Courage!
Still waiting to see what Mitt will do.
Bloomberg/Jones might be a good ticket to appeal to persuadable voters but they can probably never do it.
Jones already knows he has no chance of reelection this year.
The best VP for Bloomberg or Biden will be a liberal Dem to unify the party. Jones would be a poor choice.
Bloomberg or Biden would likely be looking at women of color for the VP slot.
Kamala Harris would be a good bet for either of them
I’d agree on Harris…
Bloomberg was endorsed today by RI Gov. Gina Raimondo. While she is certainly a Democrat, I have a pretty good impression of her as a pragmatic leader. She might be a good pick. However, she is very unpopular at home, as DSD can probably attest to because the left doesn’t like her.
Bloomberg would likely have a VP with some Congressional experience.
Shouldn’t merely running against Trump be enough to unify that party? Why should anything else matter? “blue no matter who”
What about the votes of people in the other party that they need to try to get? What about the FFRs like me?
If unification is going to be a struggle, even against Trump, then the road might be steep.
This sounds similar to your pitch a few months ago that Democrats should sit out 2020 in favor of an independent John Kasich candidacy.
If you lose with Bernie Sanders (or anyone), it will sound like a great idea in retrospect.
Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) said in a statement Wednesday that he will vote to convict President Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Why it matters: Jones is one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2020, and the decision to vote in favor of removing Trump from office is likely to play a significant role in the deep-red Alabama Senate campaign….
More @ Axios…
As an apparent Valentine’s Day gift, George Conway writes the pitch for his wife’s memoir:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/02/05/george-conway-trump-i-believe/
Conway is following a tradition:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/02/04/i-believe/ba59813d-a55d-4bb6-81ec-2454639354b5/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1998/03/18/i-still-believe/3f96aae6-3442-41e7-9928-1b096936e88c/
Yea….
The process IS busted in Iowa…
The app was busted and possibly the people at the sites’ ability to do fairly simple math formulas (weed?). Perhaps the party should have taken these into consideration.
Yes I’m sure Reefer Madness is to blame for the Iowa caucuses being FUBAR.
So 2012 GOP caucuses were a clusterfuck too. Does that mean Mitt’s people there were hitting the bong?
High fructose corn syrup?
The Mitt people did their job. It was the state party that messed up.
And even at the time, it felt like no big deal, since Santorum was never going to be a true threat to Romney.
Of course Santorum and Newt and some others did foreshadow the kinds of forces that allowed Trump to take over.
Reefer madness, or that old “drinking game” called the Devil’ s Triangle!”
If Kavenaugh ever used the word “rape”, he probably meant “cough”.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, often counted as a moderate, is giving an unrestrained, emotional speech against the GOP (esp. Sen. McConnell) that could just as easily have been given by AOC or Bernie Sanders.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-impeachment-trial-02-05-20/index.html
Sen. Romney of Utah (formerly Gov. Romney of Massachusetts) made it clear that he will vote for conviction, and sent moral challenges to his fellow Senators and fellow Republicans.
Mitt Romney to vote to convict Trump on one count.
Good on Mitt!
I mean that.
I always knew he would do the right thing.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/02/romney-impeach-trump/606127/
Maybe Mark Updegrove, the author of The Last Republicans, about George H and George W Bush , might need a new edition to add Mitt Romney.
Romney is now going to catch Hell from the Trump Republican Party.
He deserves our respect here .I salute him.
I hope james will update his story.
I am about to be called more vicious names on HHR than I have ever been called in my life (especially after what I just posted.) Since they don’t have my email address public, I probably won’t get the death threats I got in 2008 at Politics1.
[CNN] GOP Sen. Mitt Romney says he will vote to convict Trump
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, said he will vote to convict in the impeachment of President Trump.
Romney said Trump is “guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
He said what Trump did “was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values.”
Romney added: “Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”
He said he believed that his vote to convict Trump would be in the “minority” and Trump would not be found guilty.
“My vote will likely be in the minority in the Senate, but irrespective of these things, with my vote, I will tell my children and their children that I did my duty to the best of my ability believing that my country expected it of me,” Romney said.
Romney will convict Trump on abuse of power and acquit him on obstruction of Congress, his spokesperson said.
****
Senators “have failed in our duty to the American people,” Democratic lawmaker says
Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, said the senators “have failed in our duty to the American people.”
In a fiery speech, the presidential candidate criticized the way the trial was run.
“We are the only body on planet earth charged with the responsibility of dealing with the guilt or innocence of this President and we can’t even bring ourselves to have witnesses of evidence,” Bennet said. “Even when there are literally witnesses with direct knowledge of what the President did practically banging on the doors of this Senate saying let me testify.”
“We’re too lazy for that,” he added. “We’re too broken for that.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R) of South Carolina argued that it was the Democrats, rather than the Republicans, who violated due process.
He somewhat incongruously ended with praise for what he sees as the success of the President’s economic policies, especially for African Americans and the working classes.
Kirk Douglas has passed….
He was 103…..
Morning All….
Time to catch our political breaths
Have the Democrats here been giving me enough credit?
from NYCMike:
“No doubt at all that this is a toss-up.
Trump hatred is for real, and there are many “Republicans” like “CG” who will do everything in their power to see a liberal socialist Democrat take over the White House in 2021.”
Everything in my “power!” (even if I don’t actually vote for them)
James, my e-mails to both your pol… and your opt… addresses keep bouncing (I’m getting to be BFF with the Mailer-Daemon). Could you send me another address that might work (or if you don’t have my e-mail address, post a safe, non-vital address here.)
I just sent a test message to ya from an old string…
I just replied; see if you get it.
Yahoo! Mail strikes again; I just got a bounce message from trying to send you this on your opt… address; maybe the PD one will do better.
DHS limits New Yorkers’ access to passes for expedited travel.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-travel/trump-administration-limits-new-yorkers-access-to-travel-passes-idUSKBN2000F3
And a second bounce for your opt… address when I tried to forward the NYTimes Impeachment Briefing on post-acquittal (i.e. post-exoneration, post-vindication) celebrations and retaliations.
Link to on-line version
Do you need to whitelist me or something?
Both posts ARE here with links….
Just got a bounce notice for messages sent to the other e-mail address (here).
Can you send me another address for yourself that (I hope) may work better?
This of course is Trump now going after NY and of course Bloomberg and NYS Gov Cuomo, two guys Trump used to hang with…
Expect to see more of this stuff in the near future as Trump flexes in the glow of the beating the rap in the Senate…
It should calm down as the election gets nearer and Trump TRIES to wiggle a little towards the middle….
These sort of things are NOT the way line up votes….
GOPer’s will be calling his people to have him give this shit up…
Joe Walsh has dropped out of the presidential race.
CG will be devastated
Walsh has said he will whatever he can to stop Trump. Including support any of the Democratic candidates.
Well then, he is no longer devastated. When he votes, CG wants to feel good about his vote. The obvious threats to our democracy are not as important to CG as to some
Morning People….
If anyone gets bored, here is one of those quizzes:
https://www.gotoquiz.com/politics/political-spectrum-quiz.html
My results:
a right social moderate.
Right: 5.38, Authoritarian: 0.69
My results
Center-left moderate Social Libertarian
Left: 2.72
Libertarian: 2.83
One of the questions was does a free market distribute resources freely?
What kind of person would agree with that statement? I bet CG!
So are resources distributed efficiently when a great teacher earns $70k a year, and when Evander Holyfield can earn $100m for a fight? (I don’t know exactly how much Holyfield actually makes in a fight in case James wants to criticize my analysis). Clearly the value to society of Evander Holyfield is at least 1000 times that of a good high school teacher. Why would anyone dispute that?
Holyfield is retired. His last “fight” was for charity.. against Mitt Romney.
or is it that Holyfield (had) a skill in demand that so few others could do as compared to teachers.
yes, Hollyfield has a skill that few other have. Obviously, Hollfield could retire after one fight making more money than almost everyone else made in their lifetime. It is hard to see how this “skill” benefits society such that you believe that the resources were distributed fairly by the free market. If you believe that having this skill means he deserves to be a nulti-millionaire then you must heavily value the social benefits of watching people beat one another up. and believe that is highly desirable to society. Good thing the government doesn’t allow fights to the death.
of course the free market does not distribute money fairly – as my example illustrates.
The S.C. Republican Party has officially disavowed the effort to encourage Republicans to vote in the Democratic Primary for Bernie Sanders.
This may not be the final word.This actually sounds like something Trump would like.If he comes out in support of it?I would imagine S.C. Republican Party will quickly reverse gears.
I saw the preview of the comment as “The S.C. Republican Party has officially disavowed…”
I would have bet $1000 that the next two words were going to be Mitt Romney.
The question is?
Is THAT legit or a wink to let the troops go ahead….
In other words they want people to vote for Bernie.
After all, they weren’t publicly going to say vote for Bernie now were they?
After all they had no problem flooding the Iowa Caucus return lines last Monday.
That is MY feeling also Keith
That’s okay. With the exception of Bloomberg and Klobuchar, I am pretty sure thatSanders is the Democrats strongest candidate- although not strong enough that I would be confident he would win.
It will be interesting to see if Mayor Pete can improve his weak head to head numbers vs Trump. I’ll be rooting for Him – as I am rooting for all of the Democrats to improve their head to head numbers vs Trump.
Trump would roll over the 38 year old mayor from South Bend like he wasn’t there…
Let’s see how the guy does in big diverse states….
Media would love the political massacre…
Good Morning People….
Probably just no one has thought of that yet!
Well it’s begun. Rep. Doug Collins is tying his GOP primary opponent Kelly Loeffler to Mitt Romney in a new ad.
A few days ago I mentioned that Romney might replace the Bushes as the Last Republican.
Trump cultist MikePence is now defending deficits.
Formerly the bogeyman of the conservative movement and one of the main issues that Republicans have flogged Democrats on since the New Deal, huge deficits are now being defended as a positive good in the pursuit of economic growth.
Anyone now claiming to support Republicans ,despite Trump, because of that party’s adherence to “fiscal conservatism?”Well, apparently, that party’s leadership is now giving up the ghost.
Republicans will once again believe in fiscal conservatism once a Democrat is elected President.
He, he, he…..
Yea Z….
The mind fucking will wear off?
Wasn’t intended as a joke. The GOP was fiscally irresponsible under GWB too. Bush will forever be known for his massive deficits after Clinton had a surplus.
As u have said Jack….
‘It’s Trump’s party’….
These knuckleheads HAVE lost their minds….
I saw that a Thai soldier killed 10 in a shooting spree.
So does this help the Conservatives argument that mass shootings in the US is no big deal because it happens in other countries too?
We already know that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. And if that soldier didn’t have a gun, he still might have strangled ten people anyway.
Which would just be justification for no talking about gun control which i have said here over and OVER…
Like Gore…
Pete would lose his own state…
Democrats maybe working hard to make sure Trump gets a second i’m thinking ….
Update…
Businessweek
@BW
BP has paid about $70 billion (so far!) for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Polling sidebar has been updated
RCP has little to changes in Trump vs Biden or Democratic National polling standings…
Nevada polls are all about a month old….Biden 21.0…Sanders 17.5
South Carolina polls with last one 2/2/2020 has Biden 31.0….Steyer 18.5…Sanders 17.0
NH
Sanders 26.4
Buttigieg 22.2
Biden 12.6
Warren 12.2
Last poll waas 2/3-2/7 so that has the debate in it…
I’m going on record with a Biden 3rd place call
The rest of the RCP polling averages…
Ca goes to Sanders
Texas to Biden also..
Mass to Warren
US House of Reps retirements (26 R, 9 D):
https://electoral-vote.com/evp2020/House/retirements.html
‘I’m leaving on a jet plane…Don’t know when I’ll be back again’
Morning All….
Harry Enten
The bettors (e.g. Betfair) have Clinton at 5% and Bloomberg at like 20% to win the nom. Yet, the former has no shot of winning pledged dels and the latter is a long shot. If you believe bettors are “somewhat rational” (& maybe not), a lot of contested convention tied up in there.
Morning…..
Nate Silver
Quinnipiac national poll:
Sanders 25
Biden 17
Bloomberg 15
Warren 14
Buttigieg 10
Klobuchar 4
You can’t sugarcoat this.
If borne out by other polls?Then Bidens national support is collapsing.
Bloomberg ,who was but a blip a short while ago ,is the one surging if this poll is to be believed.
That’s the highest I have seen Bloomberg’s numbers.
I will say this. Bloomberg can’t run the entire campaign through commercials. He will need to make more public appearances, be interviewed and answer questions. Hopefully he is preparing for that now.
Apparently Bloomberg’s African-American support has rocketed to 22%
Just a few points behind Biden.
I agree with Zreebs Bloomberg needs to debate.
Scott?
Go to twitter and type in Mike Bloomberg….
Lots of Blacks on social media are about to get an education on Bloomberg’s 12 years as the ‘law and order’ REPUBLICAN mayor of New York City….
There IS. gonna be trouble for Bloomberg, Sanders, Buutigieg from Black voters…
Gonna be interesting for these guys in southern democratic primaries
Maybe that will matter. Maybe it won’t.
Black voters can be pragmatic too. Im fact they are far more likely to be pragmatic than white liberals on Twitter
Yes….
But I STILL think things may turn out a bit different in the end for Democrat’s….
The sidebar countdown has been updates…
I was a day early on the number’s…
Sorry for the misakes….
Good point.
Black voters in the south for instance often would confound “analysts” by voting for former segregationists ,See George Wallace in his Governor races in his later years.
In S.C. Fritz Hollings ,often known for weird racial remarks ,consistently received overwhelming Black support .
Bloomberg’s alledged racial transgressions are not necessarily going to cripple him among Black voters.
Ya know James. There is a lot of talk here about the need to appeal to black voters. And of course that is true. But the Democratic nominee has to be able to attract white voters too.
Morning…..
Z?
The last Democratic nominee’s HAVE rode on the ‘Black’ vote….
I know I have a problem with repeating myself…
But?
The YUGLY ‘white’ Iowa and New Hampshire have little to do with the demographics of the Democratic Party and the country in general….
Obama and Hillary won the nomination and popular vote on black, white, and everyone else….
Jack’s point about voting for ‘home town’ segregationist’ I believe are vestiges of the past…
As he points out….
Bloomberg, and Buttigieg WILL be running into brick walls in places where the ‘black’ vote will be essential to their needs…
….’Bernie Sanders won the NH primary 4 years ago against Hillary Clinton, who became the eventual nominee to run against Donald Trump….
Hillary Clinton won the NH primary in 2008 against Barack Obama, who would go on to become the evenual nominee and win the Presidency…’
The Dog….
I was wrong in saying Bernie Sanders peaked….
He’s STILL up there….
A new Morning Consult poll finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential race with 25% nationally, followed by Joe Biden at 22%, Michael Bloomberg at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 11% and Elizabeth Warren at 11%.
Politicalwire…
Biden’s support among blacks is completely collapsing. We’ll see if he can win some of that back – or perhaps he will continue to lose black support?
Let me see?
Today is the FIRST actual primary?
This is the SECOND state to vote?
Both states have HOW MANY Black voters ?
Joe Biden’s Black vote is COLLAPSING?
Remarkable….
Truly Remarkable ….
It’s collapsing because they have television and internet access just like we do.
Oh Shit!
I saw a Bloomberg commercial with Obama in it…
They cut and pasted good comment from Obama about Bloomberg and the two shaking hands…
Interesting….
At the Republican cult rally there were chants of “46” for Donald Trump Jr. tonight.