Trump's 'tapes' tweet is too much. Hasn't the GOP had enough?

[DonViejo]

Trump's 'tapes' tweet is too much. Hasn't the GOP had enough?

By Jennifer Rubin May 12 at 10:15 AM

President Trump tweeted this morning, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” One doesn’t know if this is a threat or another bit of bluster. Congress should immediately issue a subpoena for all tapes of presidential conversations, just to be on the safe side. The sheer bizarreness of his tweet will, for those not immune to Trump’s lunacy, reintroduce questions about his mental stability. One wonders when, if ever, Republicans will declare they’ve had enough.

The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol remarks to me, “I think there is movement among Hill Republicans, for now mostly in private and behind the scenes. And then, I think (and history suggests), the dam will break suddenly.” One hopes that is right, but outwardly, the Republicans by and large continue to support Trump and defend his nonsense.

The 2016 election demonstrated that the party once united by political thought (e.g., smaller government, objective truth, respect for tradition, the rule of law) and respect for civic virtue would accept a thoughtless, entirely unscrupulous leader for the sake of holding power. (“Sure, he’s totally ignorant about the world, but we’ll get the Supreme Court.” “Well, he’s obviously lying about a bunch of issues, but he’ll sign whatever the House gives him.“) En masse, most Republicans — including those at some premier publications (which are now unreadable to all but the Trump cultists) — declared willingness to defend ignorance, bigotry, dishonesty and ineptitude on the chance that they’d get a top marginal tax rate of 28 percent. The calculation, to those not driven by partisan zeal, seems shockingly small-minded and tribalistic. (At least Hillary Clinton’s not there to raise taxes!) One marvels at other trades they’d make. (Lose an independent judiciary for sake of a meaningless and offensive travel ban?)

Republican Party identification has begun requiring intellectual vacuity. One has to be free from shame to agree that it’s no big deal when Trump confesses he fired former FBI director James B. Comey because he decided Russian interference in the election was “just a made-up story.” A slew of FBI agents is now investigating the “made-up story,” the entire intelligence community verifies it and members of both parties acknowledge that it occurred. To go along with such utterances means condoning Trump’s inability to accept reality (Russia did, in fact, meddle) and refusing to concede that pressuring and then firing the FBI director must be impeachable, if not criminal, conduct. This mind-set forces Trump defenders to say daft things such as: Trump has the right to fire Comey, so what’s the problem? Democrats didn’t like Comey, anyway. It doesn’t matter that he gave a pretextual answer for the firing.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/05/12/trumps-tapes-tweet-is-too-much-hasnt-the-gop-had-enough/?utm_term=.29f00c178120&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1

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Pro-Trump Republicans will get nothing, not even retention of a House majority

By Jennifer Rubin May 12 at 9:15 AM

Republican members of Congress deluded themselves that President Trump’s narcissistic personality, dishonesty and abject ignorance didn’t matter. Turns out, he’s so clueless that he essentially confessed to obstruction of justice in firing FBI Director James B. Comey, who was intensifying the Russia investigation. (In his interview with Lester Holt, Trump detailed multiple conversations with Comey, one in a dinner interview setting, asking whether he was being investigated. He further conceded that the cover story for Comey’s firing was false.) They’ve put their faith in a president who doesn’t understand that he seems to have confessed to his own mendacity. (“In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’ ”)

Trump’s acting press secretary is so inept as to declare, “We want this to come to its conclusion, we want it to come to its conclusion with integrity. And we think that we’ve actually, by removing Director Comey, taken steps to make that happen.” Uh-huh. This is the White House that the House and most Senate Republicans have staked their political futures on.

In fewer than five months, Trump has gotten rid of his FBI director, national security adviser, acting attorney general and initial nominees for Navy and Army secretaries (two of them!), labor secretary and deputy treasury secretary. His White House is staffed by generals, relatives and people who have never served in government. The staff’s feuds wind up reported on the front pages. This is the White House that Republicans reflexively shield from criticism.

Trump’s travel ban failed multiple times. His tax “plan” has been panned as grossly irresponsible and a gift to the rich. He could barely get a health-care bill through the House — a bill that bears little resemblance to his campaign promises and has the support of a meager 21 percent of voters, with 56 percent disapproving, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll. Trump’s favorability is down to 36 percent.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/05/12/pro-trump-republicans-will-get-nothing-not-even-retention-of-a-house-majority/?utm_term=.5cb28bf69abe&wpisrc=nl_popns&wpmm=1

[Beartracks]

1. No, not while they still try to ram their anti-American agenda....

... through Congress.

===================

[murielm99]

2. If the repubbies act at all,

they will wait until after the 2018 midterms. They will try to retain, steal, lie and cheat their way into keeping as many Congressional seats as possible. Democrats may not be able to do as well as we think in 2018. When they think it is safe, they will install Pence, and go on their merry destructive way.

We have to do everything we can to stop them. We have to GOTV, use the judiciary, the press and social media to fight. We have to try to be united. We have to respect each other in this party, from the moderate Democrats, to the far left. We have to support Democratic candidates, even if we do not agree with all of their positions or find them pure enough.

Let the repukes fight with each other. We can't do that now. It will be too late if we don't behave in a united manner.

[Solly Mack]

3. Yep