The Commentariat -- June 11, 2016
Presidential Race
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "With his presidential campaign probably nearing its end, Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to get together Sunday night in his hometown of Burlington, Vt., with a couple of dozen of his closest supporters, an aide said Friday. 'He’s bringing in some of his key supporters from around the country to get their input and advice and talk about how to move forward,' said Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs.... Sanders returned to Burlington on Thursday night after his rally in the District. It remains unclear whether he will hold any more campaign events before the polls open Tuesday in the nation’s capital." -- CW
Alan Rappeport assailed on Friday ... at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in Washington[, D.C.] ... as untrustworthy on women’s issues, sharpening her tone against him in her first major speech since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee." -- CW
Digby, in Salon: While Hillary Clinton has a "deep bench" of popular, well-known surrogates -- President Obama, Vice President Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (probably) Sen. Bernie Sanders, and of course her husband Bill -- to campaign for her, Donald Trump has bupkis.
... CW: As if to make her point, shortly after Digby's column appeared, Trump told a crowd in Richmond, Virginia, that he would get sports stars like Bobby Knight & Tom Brady to speak at the GOP convention instead of boring politicians. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "He said he wanted to have them all address the convention ... as examples of 'winners,' rather than 'these people, these politicians who are going to get up and speak and speak and speak.'” CW: So it's going to be less of a political convention & more of a sporting event or festival. Or maybe a Festivus, with Trump dropping in between "feats of strength" by wrestlers & ex-football stars to "air his grievances" about all "the blacks," "Mexicans," "Indians," Muslims & of course "Crooked Hillary" who have done him wrong. But, as Trump would say, believe me, the Trumptivus Maximus pole will be a huuuge 24K-gold-plated, jewel-encrusted "miracle."
Ashley Parker of the New York Times: " tried out several lines of attack against Hillary Clinton, at one point calling her 'unfit to be president,' as he delivered an otherwise noticeably restrained speech to an audience of evangelical activists [in Washington, D.C.,] Friday.... Mr. Trump again stuck mainly to a script, reading from teleprompter screens. But he still ad-libbed in his characteristically clipped syntax." CW: Wonder if his speechwriter included any more quotes from Two Corinthians.
Well, I am not a racist, in fact, I am the least racist person that you’ve ever encountered. -- Donald Trump
... When WashPo reporter Marc Fisher told Trump that his cabbie was concerned that Trump was a racist, Trump asked, right after he said he was the least racist you've ever encountered, "I’m not concerned because I don’t think people believe it. And it’s just something that — who was this taxicab, was he African American?” He goes on to make up a story that Bill Clinton "was called a racist by Obama, and very loudly and very strongly," and "to this day, Clinton, he is haunted by that." CW: Yup. Trump is the least racist person ever.
Matea Gold, et al., of the Washington Post: "The furor over Trump’s assaults on the impartiality of a Latino judge had just begun to subside when he lobbed two tweets Friday morning responding to [Elizabeth] Warren, who had lambasted him as a 'thin-skinned, racist bully' in a speech the previous evening. 'Pocahontas is at it again!' Trump wrote in one.... Trump began going after Warren’s claimed ancestry earlier this year, responding to the senator’s repeated slams of him as a 'loser' and a bully. 'Who’s that, the Indian?' he said at a March news conference when asked about Warren. 'You mean the Indian?'... 'He needs to quit using language like that,' said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a member of the Chickasaw tribe.... 'It’s pejorative, and ... this is not something that should, in my opinion, ever enter the conversation. . . . It’s neither appropriate personally toward her, and frankly, it offends a much larger group of people.'” -- CW
Betsy Martin, et al., of Bloomberg: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday that Donald Trump needs to pick an experienced running mate because 'he doesn't know a lot about the issues' and strongly urged him to change course on his rhetoric.... 'I object to a whole series of things that he's said — vehemently object to them. I think all of that needs to stop. Both the shots at people he defeated in the primary and these attacks on various ethnic groups in the country.' McConnell, perhaps the most careful and strategic politician in Washington, rarely goes off script himself, and has been sending Trump the same message for weeks in hopes he'll pivot to the general election.... He wouldn't rule out rescinding his support of Trump." -- CW
Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: At a summit in Park City, Utah, hosted by Mitt Romney, "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) faced tough questioning ... Friday for his decision to endorse Donald Trump, and he tried to explain to an audience [of GOP poobahs] hostile to the New York mogul the factors that led him to back" Trump. -- CW ...
I don't want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following. Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America. -- Mitt Romney, Friday ...
... Theodore Schleifer of CNN: "Mitt Romney suggested Friday that Donald Trump's election could legitimize racism and misogyny, ushering in a change in the moral fabric of American society." -- CW ...
... AND Steve Benen: Marco Rubio still stands by his campaign-era charge that "Donald Trump shouldn’t be given access to nuclear codes because he lacked the necessary judgment and temperament." But Marco is supporting Trump anyway. "Here’s a sitting U.S. senator, who claims an expertise on matters of foreign policy and national security, who has insisted, repeatedly and publicly, that his party’s presidential candidate simply cannot be trusted to be responsible with the planet’s most dangerous weapons.... Marco Rubio doesn’t believe Donald Trump should be president. Marco Rubio also believes Donald Trump should be president." -- CW
Jonathan Chait: "... since Donald Trump became his party’s presumptive nominee..., [it has become] clear that Trump has absolutely no idea how to run a presidential campaign and lacks the most rudimentary grasp of its basic elements, like having a reasonably sized staff, adequate funds, and knowledge of which states to campaign in.... A Trump victory is plausible only in the case of a gigantic external shock that overwhelms his incompetence: the onset of a recession, perhaps, or an indictment of Hillary Clinton. On the other hand — and it is a big other hand, with long fingers — we have learned that if those or other nightmares do transpire and Trump prevails, his presidency would be far more dangerous than seemed imaginable not long ago." -- CW
Other News & Views
, under pressure from a $140 million legal judgment and facing a determined foe in the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is putting itself up for sale." -- CW
Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post: President Obama "did not speak at Malia Obama’s commencement ceremony [at Sidwell Friends School], which he and the first lady attended, along with family and friends of other graduates of the private school in Northwest Washington." -- CW
Ezra Klein: "Want to know how Republicans ended up with Donald Trump?... Sen. David Perdue [R-Ga.] ... encouraged [his] audience to [pray] for Obama.... 'Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places....'... Comments like Perdue’s are the context in which Trump ran." CW: The Senate should censure Perdue. But it won't. ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: Perdue led the prayer at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority meeting in Washington, D.C. "... this verse — sometimes labeled 'the Obama Prayer' — has been circulating for years among conservatives.... In a statement, Perdue’s office clarified, 'He in no way wishes harm to our president and everyone in the room understood that,' and accused the media of 'pushing a narrative to create controversy.'” CW: Yup, Goober, it's the media's fault you led a prayer for the assassination of the President of the United States in front of a group of politically-active fundamentalist Christians. As to "everyone" "understanding" your meaning -- really? How the hell do you know what a bunch of people you've never met "understand"?
Beyond the Beltway
Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Michael G. Hubbard, the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives ... was convicted Friday on 12 felony ethics charges, leaving him stripped of power and facing the possibility of decades in prison.... Although jurors acquitted Mr. Hubbard on 11 counts, his conviction on the remaining dozen charges prompted his removal as the leader of the House. Mr. Hubbard, who was convicted of improperly soliciting benefits from lobbyists and voting in favor of a measure that helped a company for which he consulted, faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.... His conviction and automatic ouster immediately increased the political turmoil that had shadowed Alabama for months.... The chief justice of the State Supreme Court, Roy S. Moore, could be removed from office this year because of his efforts to resist same-sex marriage, and [Gov. Robert] Bentley is a subject of impeachment proceedings over an improper relationship with an aide, as well as federal and state inquiries." -- CW ...
... The al.com story, by Mike Cason, is here. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for suggesting the musical accompaniment:
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Reader Comments (9)
On Schleifer's paraphrase of Romney's remarks: "Mitt Romney suggested Friday that Donald Trump's election could legitimize racism and misogyny...." just as Romney's election would have legitimized vulture capitalism.
It's nice when you dodge a bullet, but the bullets keep coming.
Ken,
And speaking of vultures, I don't believe I recall Mittens Romney rejecting the support of all the racists, official or otherwise, in the Confederate Party when he was its nominee. He may not be as outwardly vulgar as Ozytrumpias, but he had no problem skating along by dog whistling to voters who hate The Others as much as he does. I also don't recall any efforts on his part to address the institutional bigotry, official or otherwise, that has kept his party afloat for several generations. His only problem is that Ozytrumpias says aloud the things the Rat benefited from--and never disavowed--when whispered or hinted at.
Here's Lynyrd Skynyd with his "Sweet Home Alabama" for all the folks down there who have governed so despicably and are heading for the big House for some R&R. Happy days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye5BuYf8q4o
So last night I got all settled on the couch, notebook in hand in order to capture the sagacious words of the man who would be King but ten minutes in, the screen went blank––someone cut the cord? This was the speech in Richmond–––"I love Richmond! I love Virginia!" the King calls out. The ten minutes I did listen to, however, was what I would call touting one's wares–––"I have the best winery here– come on up here, Karen––she's in charge of the winery and does a fantastic job– tell the folks what kind of boss I am" (Karen obliges––"he's the best") "My golf course here is the very best"––"I tell you folks––we have a movement here––look at this crowd!"
Actually the place wasn't at all filled so they had the people there sit in all the front seats so the camera would just zero in on them. Since the feed line was kaput I was deprived of the King's speech and had to be content with other media delights.
Rachel had Barbara Res, the executive who worked on the Trump tower and worked for Trump himself for 18 yrs. She tells the story of a man who she was close to––who gave her the job usually given to men–-who she felt great affection for but after Donald's marriage problems and affairs Ms Res said he began to change, not for the better. She is now very critical of him, said he is not suited in any way to be President. He has retaliated in his usual gross way towards her.
Mark Cuban tells Chris Hayes Trump cannot self-fund his campaign–-figures he only has 165 million. Only has––yup!
Ralph Reed, the Dorian Gray guy whose portrait somewhere in his closet is looking old and worn, spoke at the Faith and Freedom conference making sure his base understands that "we are NOT looking for a savior (meaning the Donald)––there is only one savior and that is our Lord, Jesus Christ." Ok, then, thanks for clarifying.
Last word from David Brooks (I know, I know, but I liked this)
"Trump is like trying to hug a tornado"
Rep (R) Charlie Dent and other moderate Republicans are frustrated and angry at their party's far-right fringe who refuses to be pragmatic (and I would add do squat!) This article shows once again how a controversial amendment can be shoved into a perfectly fine piece of legislature and gum up the works.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/the-objective-here-is-to-actually-govern/486452/
So today we can say three things for certain: first, Alabama is the quintessential Confederate state (it used be Kansas); hypocritical, holier than thou, law breaking wingnut officials right and left (oh wait, only right) being ignominiously removed from office or on their way to a chain gang, federal laws being flouted because of religious based hatred (and justgarden variety hatred, wingers having more varieties of hatred than Heinz has products) and of course the ubiquitous hatred of blahs and the blah president.
Second, we see Turtle Man Mitchy and Lyin' Ryan, and a whole passel of their ilk mouthing high sounding sentiments even as they prove the laughable illegitimacy of those statements by standing behind an ignorant lying racist, the epitome of Confederate ethics.
Finally, thanks to PD's link to the Atlantic piece which outlines Charlie Dent's attempts to try to please, pretty please, get his winger brethren to stop behaving like 5 year olds living on a permanent diet of sugar and castor oil and do their fucking job. The problem is, they don't have a clue what that is and they don't care.
So, to sum up, criminals, scofflaws, haters, racists, homophobes, and juvenile, ignorant, amoral slugs. The Confederate Party, ladies and gentlemen! No wonder they have to steal elections.
After you read Digby at Salon, read Robert Becker's piece. Interesting.
Bobby Knight seems the ideal surrogate for Trump
http://www.chron.com/sports/college-basketball-men/article/List-of-incidents-involving-Bob-Knight-1849372.php
Famous for throwing a chair during a basketball game in a temper tantrum. He's also known for choking one of his players and other acts/threats of violence, including punching a cop.
1991 — Publicly feuds with Illinois coach Lou Henson, who calls him a "classic bully."
Seriously, Donald said, "Who was this taxicab?" There is really something clinically wrong with that man's brain.