January 23, 2021

Turned off by Biden's approach, GOP opposition to stimulus relief intensifies

Biden may find he can get a big plan or a bipartisan plan — but not both

President Biden’s pitch for bipartisan unity to defeat the coronavirus and resurrect the economy is crashing into a partisan buzz saw on Capitol Hill, where Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on ground rules for running the Senate — let alone pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.

Biden’s relief package is being declared dead on arrival by senior Senate Republicans, some of whom say there has been little, if any, outreach from the Biden team to get their support. Liberals are demanding the president abandon attempts to make a bipartisan deal altogether and instead ram the massive legislation through without GOP votes. And outside groups are turning up the pressure for Biden and the Democrats who control Congress to enact economic relief quickly, even if it means cutting Republicans out of the deal.

In the face of these competing pressures, Biden may discover he can get a big covid-19 stimulus bill or a bipartisan deal — but not both. The path Biden chooses with his first major piece of legislation could set the tone for the remainder of his first term in office, revealing whether he can make good on his promise to unify Congress and the country.

“It’s important that Democrats deliver for America. If the best path to that is to do it in a way that can bring Republicans along, I’m all in favor of that,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. “But if Republicans want to cut back to the point that we’re not delivering what needs to be done, then we need to be prepared to fight them. Our job is to deliver for the American people.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/23/covid-relief-biden-gop/

January 23, 2021

To fight impeachment, Trump turns to 'Butch' Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer at a small firm

Source: Washington Post

To fight impeachment, Trump turns to ‘Butch’ Bowers, a South Carolina lawyer at a small firm who has defended state Republicans (complete article title)

When Republican politicians in South Carolina have faced possible impeachment, ethics charges or other serious accusations, they have often turned to Karl S. “Butch” Bowers Jr., a lawyer with a military background, taciturn demeanor and a small office near the State House in Columbia.

Now Bowers is taking on his biggest case yet: defending former president Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, this time against a charge that he incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol.

The longtime GOP attorney is little known outside of South Carolina and has no powerhouse law firm behind him. Colleagues say he is better known for behind-the-scenes negotiations than courtroom oratory.

In Bowers, Trump is getting a seasoned lawyer at a time when prominent Washington litigators have little interest in working for the former president — and a measured figure who offers a sharp contrast to attorneys Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who spent the past several months unspooling wild conspiracy theories that the election was rigged.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/butch-bowers-trump-attorney/2021/01/22/c1b58dd0-5cd6-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

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Whaaaa????

Lin Wood wasn't available?

January 23, 2021

Trump is gone, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is keeping up the cult

Opinion by Dana Milbank

President Biden had been on the job for not quite 28 hours when Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, announced in a video clip from the Capitol basement, sans mask, that she had “just filed articles of impeachment on President Joe Biden.”

She filed these articles “on” him based on things he allegedly did years before becoming president, because his very “residing in the White House is a threat to national security.”

Republicans love to say that Democrats were out to get Donald Trump from the start because one of their members, Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.), first filed impeachment articles 11 months after Trump took office. Now we have H. Res. 57, “Impeaching Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States, for abuse of power…” — filed on Biden’s first full day in office.

Such zany behavior is to be expected of a person who wore a face mask proclaiming she was being “censored” even as she delivered a nationally televised speech on the House floor during Trump’s impeachment. Four days later, she was temporarily suspended from Twitter for repeatedly claiming that Georgia’s election results (the same ones that made her a member of Congress) were stolen. Fresh from her Twitter suspension, she declared Biden to be the president of “Communist China.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/22/trump-cult-marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon/

January 23, 2021

Former president, private citizen and, perhaps, criminal defendant: Donald Trump's new reality

By George T. Conway III

The question came out of the blue and has haunted me ever since. It was Jan. 17, 2017, three days before Donald Trump’s swearing-in, and my wife and I sat with him in the near-empty main cabin aboard the Trump Organization’s Boeing 757 en route to Washington for a pre-inaugural gala.

So, asked the president-elect: Should he retain or fire Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the powerful Southern District of New York? I gave what I thought was an obvious, anodyne answer: All other things being equal, it’s better to have your own people in place. Within two months, Bharara was gone.

To the charge of naivete that night, I plead guilty: I didn’t consider then that Trump might have had his personal legal interests in mind. But it is impossible to escape the self-interested intent behind his question. From the earliest days of his administration, it became painfully apparent that in all matters — including affairs of state — Trump’s personal well-being took top priority. Four years and two impeachments later, he has managed to avoid the full consequences of his conduct.

But now that run of legal good fortune may end. Trump departed the White House a possible — many would say probable, provable — criminal, one who has left a sordid trail of potential and actual misconduct that remains to be fully investigated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/22/trump-lawsuits-george-conway/

January 22, 2021

Lauren Boebert Faces $5,000 Fine After Setting off Capitol Metal Detector: Report

Pro-gun Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert allegedly set off a metal detector and refused to comply with U.S. Capitol Police Thursday, a report said.

The newly elected Colorado congresswoman, an ardent support of former President Donald Trump who campaigned on a conservative platform that included fierce opposition to gun control, could face a $5,000 fine if found to have flouted new security rules implemented in the wake of the Capitol riots.

Shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz tweeted: "They're trying to disarm @laurenboebert on the floor of the House of Representatives because, ultimately, they're coming to disarm many, many more."

Three minutes later, journalist Hugo Lovell tweeted: "House Republican Lauren Boebert now sets off the metal detector and refuses to comply with US Capitol Police, waking into the chamber [sic].

https://www.newsweek.com/lauren-boebert-fine-capitol-metal-detector-1563660

January 22, 2021

Rep. Lauren Boebert Targets Biden's Paris Agreement, WHO Orders With First Bills

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert has introduced her first three bills in Congress. All three take aim at President Biden's recent executive orders.

The first bill would prevent the U.S. from spending any money to rejoin the Paris Climate agreement unless the Senate ratifies the agreement.

“Responsible energy production supports more than 230,000 Colorado jobs,” she said in a statement. “The Paris Agreement puts these jobs at risk and will increase energy costs.”

The second bill would prevent funds going to the World Health Organization until America holds the international health organization and China “accountable for their role in the global pandemic.”

This was a constant refrain from former President Donald Trump, who downplayed the pandemic in its early days and whose administration was criticized for its response to the coronavirus and attempted to pull out from the WHO.

Boebert’s third bill would overturn Biden’s mask mandate on federal lands and interstate travel on planes, trains or buses. She called it “continued federal overreach.” Boebert defied public health orders by keeping her restaurant open during the early days of the pandemic.

https://www.cpr.org/2021/01/22/rep-lauren-boebert-targets-bidens-paris-agreement-who-orders-with-first-bills/

The darling of the RWNJ crowd is off and running...

January 22, 2021

The Week the Trump Supporters Disappeared

In Washington, D.C., our leaders sealed themselves off from a rebel force that didn’t arrive.

As the new President took the oath of office on Wednesday, there were neither parties nor protests in the streets of Washington. Instead, there was mostly quiet, punctuated by the sirens of convoys careening around, the churn of helicopters overhead, and newscasters narrating the unseen news for viewers around the planet. Deep within the rings of checkpoints and soldiers, Joe Biden became President. People outside the security watched on their phones or not at all; most of them were reporters, soldiers, or police. There were rumors that a pro-Trump gathering would be held on the plaza at Union Station, but no such spectacle appeared: a few preachers droned about Hell and feminists while passersby heckled them and pigeons swooped low over their heads. At Judiciary Square, a lone middle-aged man made his way along the sidewalk, wearing a plain winter hat rolled low over his forehead and a disposable blue medical mask. He was an unremarkable figure except for the sign he carried: “THIS LOOKS LIKE PYONGYANG / THERE ARE ONLY POLICE AND MILITARY / NO CIVILIANS.”

The man didn’t want to speak, he explained to reporters. His signs contained everything he wished to express. He pulled a second placard from behind the first and propped it against a nearby tree: “BIG TECH CENSORSHIP KILLED DEMOCRACY.”

The same eerie silence had stretched throughout the week, even as Washington and state capitals across the country braced for assaults resembling the insurrection on January 6th. A national manhunt sought the people who had stormed the Capitol, in defiance of the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Biden. Social-media companies purged the profiles of Trump supporters and militia members accused of inciting violence. Americans found themselves locked out of downtowns and public buildings. And after all that—perhaps because of all that—only a handful of protesters turned out for Trump.

A lone woman walked among the reporters near the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, wearing a maga sweatshirt and carrying a sign that read “Impeach 46”—but she, too, declined to speak. A Trump supporter wandered around in a spotless white suit and shiny white shoes, with an American-flag bandanna tied over his mouth, wondering aloud why more of his comrades weren’t there. Jesus groups preached into loudspeakers against homosexuality and Muslims; a few outlandish YouTubers trawled for someone to prank on camera. These were provocateurs, come to sop up the overflow attention of a rowdy crowd but instead finding themselves, awkwardly, at the center of the action.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/the-week-the-trump-supporters-disappeared

January 22, 2021

A Majority Of House GOPers Want To Oust Cheney From Leadership After Impeachment Vote

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is staring down just over a majority of House Republicans who support toppling the No. 3 House Republican from leadership after she voted to impeach now-former President Trump for inciting a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month.

According to reporting from Politico, at least 107 House Republicans have communicated to the leaders of that effort that they would support removing Cheney from leadership on a secret ballot, while others have threatened boycotting future conference meetings if she remains in power.

The intensifying campaign against Cheney, who called her decision to impeach Trump a “vote of conscience,” signals that Trump’s ideological stronghold on the party continues to echo in the chamber since his departure from office on Wednesday.

Multiple GOP sources involved in the effort told the publication that after voting to impeach Trump last week, the highest-ranking woman in the House GOP put herself in hot water — risking not only her leadership but also facing a primary challenge from state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, and angering some of her Wyoming constituents. A local county Republican Party in Wyoming unanimously agreed to censure Cheney last weekend over her impeachment vote. The Wyoming GOP had previously put out a statement that essentially combed the party’s inbox and relayed angry messages aimed at Cheney after her support for impeaching Trump.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/liz-cheney-house-republican-leadership-revolt

This is getting good.

"I'm not saying Cheney is in trouble, but Lauren Boebert is tweeting out her current location..."

January 22, 2021

Senate Democrats must investigate the insurrectionists

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin

A group of Senate Democrats lodged a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday against Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) concerning their efforts to undermine the election, culminating in the violent insurrection on Jan. 6.

In the complaint, signed by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the Democrats declare: “When Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley announced they would object to the counting of state-certified electors on January 6, 2021, they amplified claims of election fraud that had resulted in threats of violence against state and local officials around the country.” They also argue that in “proceeding with their objections to the electors after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley lent legitimacy to the mob’s cause and made future violence more likely.”

The Democrats argue that the Senate must determine “whether the senators failed to ‘[p]ut loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department’ or engaged in ‘improper conduct reflecting on the Senate’ in connection with the violence on January 6,” citing the Code of Ethics for Government Service and the Senate Ethics Manual. They want the Senate, among other things, to investigate whether Cruz and Hawley communicated or coordinated with three Republican House members — Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), and Mo Brooks (Ala.) — who have been accused of aiding the insurrection, an allegation that has not yet been proved. Democrats also cite Hawley for “rais[ing] his fist in support of protestors who had already gathered there.” Finally, as I and others have publicly recommended, the Democrats ask Cruz and Hawley to “preserve all relevant emails and documents in order to ensure that a thorough investigation can occur.”

Democrats know that asking colleagues to punish Cruz and Hawley for simply exercising their right to demand votes on their objections, no matter how specious, is a nonstarter. They therefore walk a fine line:

Even more intriguing is an argument that Whitehouse made in a prior statement: "Because of massive potential conflict of interest, Senators Cruz, Hawley, and [Ron] Johnson (at least) need to be off all relevant committees reviewing this matter until the investigation of their role is complete.” Cruz and Hawley, galling as it might be, sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee (although new committee assignments have yet to be made under the power-sharing arrangement being negotiated).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/22/senate-democrats-investigate-insurrectionists/

January 22, 2021

Unchained Fauci Recites Entire Periodic Table of Elements at White House Briefing

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A newly unchained Dr. Anthony Fauci stunned the White House press corps on Friday when he recited the entire periodic table of elements at a coronavirus briefing.

Without warning, the esteemed virologist named all of the hundred and eighteen chemical elements on the table, starting with hydrogen and ending with oganesson, along with their abbreviations and atomic numbers.

“That felt amazing!” Fauci exclaimed, visibly throbbing with excitement. “Now let’s do it backward!”

According to White House sources, Fauci’s realization that he can now speak freely about science has resulted in several such outbursts since the Inauguration, including during a vaccination-strategy meeting, when he began explaining the theory of relativity.

“He went to the whiteboard and started scrawling these insanely long equations,” a White House staffer said. “It was like he was possessed.”

Another staffer agreed. “It’s great having Tony fully engaged, but he’s got to dial it back a little,” the staffer said. “Right now, it’s kind of like having Bill Nye the Science Guy in the room.”

For his part, Fauci acknowledged that he has not yet fully adjusted to his recent liberation. “Don’t worry—after a day or two I’ll calm down,” he said. “Hey, do you want to hear the first hundred digits of pi?”

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/unchained-fauci-recites-entire-periodic-table-of-elements-at-white-house-briefing