Nobody knows for sure how it would play out

The counter example I keep hearing is that Republicans stuck by Nixon until impeachment hearings were underway in the House and those eventually encouraged most Republicans to abandon him and press for his resignation. Of course, this was back in the 1970's when Republicans weren't quite so ideological and monolithic as they are today but it's possible that enough Republicans might abandon ship as hearings go on. But I don't think we should launch impeachment proceedings based on what we *think* might happen with the Senate. If the House conducts Impeachment Hearings and votes to impeach Trump, they've done their job and then the Senate will have to do it's job and the chips will just fall where they may.

WTF (re: Slate & Rachel Maddow)

"The Howard Bealeization, or Glenn Beckifaction of Rachel Maddow is a reminder that partisan paranoia has bipartisan appeal. Maddow is right to question the summarizing of a 300ish-page report into four measly pages, to insist on transparency, to challenge the motives of the Trump-friendly AG—and she’s not alone in doing so. But for Maddow, every piece of information remains a clue that might take down the Trump empire. There is no adjustment for how the report has been widely received, no skepticism about what the report might actually contain, just cockamamie connections, the feverish belief that every single thing we don’t know is the all-important fact, that the smoking gun of collusion is out there, and that, yes, Robert Mueller is still going to swoop in and save us."


https://slate.com/culture/2019/03/rachel-maddow-mueller-report-trump-barr.html?via=homepage_taps_top

I've been seeing variations on this theme since yesterday

As expected, Trump is claiming total exoneration even when HIS OWN AG'S SUMMARY- as carefully slanted as it probably was- STATED PLAINLY that it didn't totally exonerate Trump but how the hell do news organizations get away with calling this as not only some kind of "win" for Trump but also an endorsement of his re-election in 2020? Being "vindicated" doesn't mean all of the other awful crazy stuff Trump has done just goes away now. Independent of anything that he might have done criminally, he is clearly unfit for the office. This is just absolutely batsh*t insane crazy talk from people whom aren't Trump and should know better.

The "glow" from Barr's summary will probably fade in a few days and may even go the opposite direction as some people sober up, especially if we get to see the actual Mueller report. I guess that it is better that this happening now, as opposed to giving him a "shot in the arm" during next year's election season.

Slightly OT but does anybody think that Mueller was ultimately ordered to wrap things up fairly soon after Barr was installed?

Boy! It sure didn't take long for Trump/GOP to start overplaying their hands

They are circulating an "enemies list" of people to media companies to try to get them blacklisted from future appearances, demanding that media companies kneel before Zod....er...Trump and apologize for daring to spend the last two years reporting on the Trump Russia story (oh the horrors!), and, most absurdly, trying to get Rep. Adam Schiff kicked off the House Intelligence Committee of which he is the chairman.

All this and the Mueller report hasn't even been released, just a "summary" quickly cooked up by Trump's AG within 48 (or less) hours of Mueller's submission of his report last Friday. A summary which, by the way, clearly states that Mueller's report does NOT actually totally exonerate Trump.

Meanwhile, the corporate MSM isn't holding much back either, wildly proclaiming that Trump has "won" and Democrats have "lost" and that, regardless of the last wild two years in office with behavior so offensive and unfitting of the office of the Presidency of the United States, Trump's path to re-election has just been cleared.

This is truly the weirdest timeline.

Why all the hate for AOC?

Not talking about the Republican hate for AOC (that's pretty much a given at this point) but what I'm seeing of some fellow Democrats towards AOC is bothering me. And it's not really garden variety minor criticisms and nitpicks about her that disturb me, but it's like wild, outlandish slurs that I've heard from DEMOCRATIC Facebook friends against her like her being "our version" of Donald Trump and feeding into/promoting the right-wing distortions and outright lies about the Green New Deal.

+1000

”hobbyhorse conservawhackos”


We all need to start using this!

To hear Republicans talk

it's as though we've all been living life high on the hog and that we've had things too good for too long and now it's time for (the rest of) us to "be responsible" and "tighten our belts".

So, what's the plan moving forward?

Should any politician who has something embarrassing in their closet go full disclosure now so that it can't be used against them at a weak/difficult moment? Should they pre-emptively resign? I get the outrage about Northam- and his attempts to publicly respond to it were extremely clueless and tone-deaf- but I want to seriously know what the game plan is going to be from here on out. Northam isn't the first Democratic pol we've thrown overboard in order to maintain our ability to maintain "clean hands" while politically attacking Republican hypocrites like Trump, Roy Moore, et. al and he won't be the last but this- helping ignite public controversies over Democratic politicians whom upset them and/or Trump- seems to be how Republicans plan to maintain/increase their hold on power.

He'll run almost totally on smearing the Democratic candidate (esp. if they're a woman)

If he makes it to 2020, I'm not sure that I see a clear path to re-election, esp. with an energized Democratic Party (there's no reason to believe they won't be at this point). He will probably win handily in red state bastions (no surprise) and get the votes of his loyalist "base" of deplorables, but I don't think that he will win the states that he very narrowly won in 2016. I would like to think that enough people- outside of his base- are tired of his routine, tired of the chaos, and believe him to be irredeemable/ineducable at this point and will either stay home or pull the lever for anybody else.

Who wants "special rights" again?