Virtually the entire G.O.P. is now trapped in a tightening vice

[Tom Rinaldo]

All of their elected officials and candidates for major offices had to decide prior to this mid term election cycle: distance themselves from Trump or hitch their wagon to him. Almost all of them chose the latter. Their last theoretical window of opportunity to pull back from Trump closed for any Republican elected official on the State or National level who did not express sharp alarm at the revelations detailed in that anonymous "high Administration official" Op-Ed published in the NY Times. Silence equaled full complicity from that moment on.

They gambled on weathering the storm by hunkering down and sheltering in place, hoping the damage wouldn't be catastrophic after the latest round of shocking revelations blew over. They took a calculated risk, knowing that attempting to break from Trump at such a late stage would cost them dearly with Trump's base, and that angering Trump's base now spelled doom for many candidates already struggling to stay afloat in the face of a surging blue wave election.

They gambled wrong, and it will cost them more now than mere control of one or two Houses of Congress come November. This storm will not blow over. Manafort's cooperation, on top of Cohen's cooperation, on top of Gate's cooperation, on top of Flynn's cooperation etc. just nailed shut the coffin. A month or so back, when Republican politicians made their final calculations, Trump was experiencing some improvement in his polling. That was before McCain's funeral, where the contrast between human decency and Donald Trump became ever so starkly clear. That was also before Bob Woodward's expose became the hottest selling book in the land. Trump is going down politically even before he goes down legally. And the handwriting is on the wall that he is going down legally also.

All of the Republicans who blew past every flashing yellow light and even a few stop signs in their haste to stand by Trump no longer can stand against him, and they can not stand on their own. Each and every one of them now are damaged goods even if they don't yet know it, although they probably do.

Some day, most likely, the Republican Party will rebuild - but even that is no longer a certainty. If it does it will coalesce around a handful of "Never Trumpers" plus Republicans who served at the state level who avoided wrapping themselves in the sickly glow of Trump's vanity, hatred, incompetence, and greed. Meanwhile I expect we will see lot of squirming between now and election day from many Republicans who are about to face the electorate.

[Iliyah]

1. Overall they got a lot what they wanted which sucks . . .

Supreme Court Justice(s); racial judges installed; Deregulations; deportations and detentions - basically fucking up America's pro-immigration rules; chipping away at healthcare, snap, HUD, social security; screwing up education; tax cuts for the wealthy while messing up the working middle class and poor; rising costs; stealing elections with the help of Russia - suppression of votes, messing with ballots and gerrymandering; trying to install their insane religious beliefs on us; and much more.

Hopefully the USA can regroup for the better, but the GOPers need to be voted out and for pete's sake get them out of all three branches.

[Tom Rinaldo]

2. Fully agree

They got much of value to them through Trump, and they knew that would come at some cost. Now comes the sticker shock for them. And a massive clean up effort by all Americans of good will. The damage is deep.

[Beartracks]

45. GOP pushes its "values" and priorities at the cost of democracy. n/t

[hibbing]

20. + 1000

I'm actually frightened for the future. The environmental damage that will take place is going to be horrible. Next up is SS and Medicare. Also the racists feeling comforted and supported by the idiot in the White House is doing tremendous damage to our society. Sometimes age is an advantage, I'm glad I'm not in my twenties to see what becomes of this country I can't imagine it getting better.

Peace

[Demovictory9]

42. some we can undo

[cstanleytech]

43. True but both scotus spots were conservative judges really.

Hopefully the next Democratic president will be able to appoint liberal judges plus thanks to the Republican party for setting the standard we will not need 60 votes in the Senate to do so.

[yardwork]

50. I disagree that replacing Kennedy with Kavanaugh is politically neutral.

Kennedy was the key swing vote for gay rights, for instance. Kavanaugh (or whomever they eventually appoint) will be extreme right.

[yardwork]

48. Mission accomplished. Now they'll throw Trump under the bus.

In the end, they'll say that he was always a Democrat. Watch.

[lpbk2713]

3. They gonna need a lot of help from Uncle Vlad.

And that help won't come cheap. I hope the NSA is watching.

[lagomorph777]

9. Vlad The Poisoner will be very busy cleaning up every Russiapublican who has any inside knowledge.

That will only increase their misery.

I could not be happier.

[erronis]

27. Maybe vlad should just spread some novachok in the House men's locker room

It'd be sort of like Tom Lehrer's "I Got It From Paul, Paul Got It From Don."

We could trace the die-off to know who was being f'd by whom.

[Initech]

4. The question we should be asking isn't who is involved in the Russia scandal.

The question we should be asking is who in the GOP ISN'T involved in the Russia scandal? I've been saying for a long time that they are all in on it, and it seems now that they're dropping like flies because they've been compromised. So who isn't?

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Exactly

Possibly some of their Governors, like Hogan in MD and Baker in MA, and there must be others. But the web that the NRA is at the nexus of seems to entangle virtually everyone in the National Republican Party

[Initech]

6. What I want to know is - what did Mitch McConnell know?

I think he's the ringleader in all of this, and he will be going down with Trump, Hannity, Pence, DeVos, and the rest of the gang. He must have known that something was up before the election. But what?

[lagomorph777]

11. #NRAROUBLES have been used as a massive Kompromat scheme.

Vlad the Poisoner is very clever.

[Initech]

24. Pooty is a real life James Bond villain.

If only there were a real life 007 to save us from him!

[lagomorph777]

26. These guys are our Bond heroes (among others, especially journalists)

[ailsagirl]

7. Little pun there: "vise"

But vice does just as well!

[Scurrilous]

8. K&R

[DFW]

10. Oh, believe me, it's a certainty that they will rebuild.

Probably nastier than ever, too.

Their backers will pump a few billion into advertising, social media and physical paraphernalia, and we will be gawking with incredulity as if it were 2010 all over again. We should not make the mistake of making 2018, even if it turns out our way, into 2008 again. If there is one rule that is permanent in this game, it's that nothing is permanent.

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. Yeah. But having gone with unfiltered nastiness this time around...

...given the bast taste that left, I think they will take a little time to concoct some type of suitable sugar coating first when they do. You know, some update on "compassionate conservatism", maybe stressing competency and integrity next time around.

[erronis]

28. I fear you're right. If we could nip it in the bud...

Anybody displaying anti-social, racist/etc. behaviors could have a nice stay at one of those summer camps conveniently built during the disastorous Dump Rgeime. About 5 years of re-education by watching the Idiot On Loop should cure any but the most insane.

[diva77]

31. +1,000,000 This!

[blue-wave]

12. Couldn't happen to a

nicer bunch of traitors.

[Texin]

14. Yup. I believe ever single one of them - male and female alike - and some Dems too likely

took the NRA's Russian payola in *campaign* donations. They are all equally damned and damnable, and that's why the GOP is practically killing themselves about getting Kavanaugh comfortably ensconced as a Supreme. They all need him to shut down any investigations into this most egregious political obscenity in the entire history of the United States of America. By god. They may damn well ride the ship down to the sea in the mid-terms (provided Vlad Putin doesn't pull a Kremlin rabbit out of his ass to get it delivered for them), but they won't face criminal prosecution for treason. That's a lock.

[bucolic_frolic]

15. Yes, we can hope, but maybe

they know the fix is in just like 2016 and they can get away with anything. From the moment McConnell wouldn't give the light of day to the Merrick Garland nomination, you knew something wasn't right. They just kept mumbling silence because they knew. They knew something else was going on even though Trump was a loser in all the polls. So don't count your chickens.

[Tom Rinaldo]

17. Given what we are fighting against there are no certainties, true

But I dare say I am starting to feel more optimistic about the U.S. emerging from the far end of this dark tunnel during the foreseeable future.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. True, and yes, so am I

and we have knowledge of what they might be doing whereas in 2016 we did not. Citizens today may not fall prey to social media mind control as in 2016. So I the pessimist say we should be hopeful. Just be wary.

[FakeNoose]

33. That happened before Trump was their nominee

Not sure of the date, but it was in Jan. or Feb. 2016.

That tells us that McConnell was in from the beginning, or maybe even before the beginning.

[Beartracks]

46. Mitch seemed pretty confident when kneecapping Merrick Gsrland. n/t

[certainot]

16. the only thing they can cling to for bargaining power is the left's incredible stupidity re

relative to their most important weapon - talk radio

it might have to be up to mueller to find out putin's ben using limbaugh and sons for 10 years, even while they whack mueller and the 'deep state' with their invisible 2x4 all day

[FakeNoose]

34. I don't think Putin was involved in the radio noise

That was Scaife and a few other ultra-RWNJs who started that up.

Scaife blew his entire $500 million Mellon Bank-fortune on RWNJ newspapers and radio stations in the '90s and "aughts." That's how Limbaugh became a household name and media bigshot. Most of Scaife's newspapers have folded or been sold in the last couple years. (He died about 5 years ago.)

[certainot]

41. sure. manafort was mccain's campaign co chair and palin, who was in contact with russians

for oil and gas (alaska) may have been pushed on mccain over lieberman or pawlenty in exchange for limbaugh's support - which came immediately after mccain took palin.

breitbart became a major talk radio feeder over the more MIC friendly drudge around then.

in 2009 limbaugh was instrumental creating "climategate" from emails hacked by russians. climategate sabotaged obama at copenhagen climate talks and has been saving putin billions in oil revenues ever since.

putin knows radio propaganda and if his enemies are liberals/dems/US media then it's perfect because they have no clue how much it dominates US politics and media.

all they had to do is figure out how to feed limbaugh - maybe they even pay him for freelance work, whether he knows where it's coming or not

[Adrahil]

19. They are just CERTAIN the Titanic will not sink.

No reason to run for the lifeboats.

[Initech]

37. Hey it's built with 6,000 hulls don't you know!

[elmac]

21. from now on lets call the GOP the party of tRump nt

[Initech]

38. I prefer to call them the Russian People's Party.

Since that's who they represent now.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Well said and an excellent analysis.

Thanks for the thread Tom Rinaldo

[The Wizard]

23. My guess is Mueller

followed their campaign "contributions" back to Moscow.

[Blue Owl]

25. Commence crushing

n/t

[ailsagirl]

49. .....

[diva77]

29. IMHO, there is at least one achilles tendon in your analysis: election fraud

The proprietary corporate software & hardware being used to "run" "elections" has been permanently deployed. And then we have gerrymandering, voter ID laws, voter purges from rolls, un-investigated "glitches", crooked elections officials, obstruction of recounts, phony audits, etc etc.

I wish I could have the confidence you have in what you say in the OP.

Behind every rethug is a bevy of juggernaut corporations that will find another way to wield power and influence if the rethugs splinter.

[Tom Rinaldo]

32. They play a long game

After winning some big advances for their side (and billions they have already pocketed) they can swallow a setback if that is what is needed to not totally blow their cover and set off forces they can not have confidence about ultimately controlling. The overall status quo in America remains quite favorable to their vested interests regardless of their worst case scenarios resulting from specific election setbacks - it will take decades to turn this country around against the forces of special interests that have been fueled by open and virtually unlimited checkbooks.

With it becoming increasingly apparent that the nation as a whole has turned against Trump with ever more damning information coming out against him seemingly daily, they can't get away with just putting a thumb on the scale. And it is much harder to cover up putting a whole leg on it, and that is what it now would take to keep Republicans in power in the House at the very least. Talk of a huge Blue Wave is everywhere. I don't think they will risk trying to argue that it just evaporated. They might try to save a few key individuals but unless the public opinion starts shifting strongly toward trump in the next 7 weeks (and I can't see that happening) I think they will take their lumps rather than blow their cover.

[BarbD]

35. We must remember not to be seduced by our love of instant gratification.

I agree with you about the long game. It's more than a few battles won, we have to continue to fight the war of evil that is never ending.

[Beartracks]

47. This.

[lastlib]

30. I hope it crushes them.

I want to hear their screams when their balls are crushed like an eggshell. It will be music to my ears.

[ffr]

36. More pro-Russian dirty tricks coming to the 2018 midterms too.

We need the rubes out of or educated this election cycle.

[Thunderbeast]

39. An existential question if I am a GOPutinist legislator:

Do I save the smoldering remains of the party by impeaching Trump AND Pence before the January takedown of the House? Do I want President Ryan or Hatch or President Pelosi?

[Honeycombe8]

40. Apparently not Lindsay Graham, who is pushing investigation of the FBI & DOJ. nt

[ThoughtCriminal]

44. Hunkering down in the basement

is a bad idea when the forecast is a massive flood.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

51. Vise. But vice works in this case, too.

This is a vise:


This is a vice (a lot of them, actually):



One might say that the GOP are trapped in a vise on account of their many vices.

[Tom Rinaldo]

52. LOL Thanks n/t