This IS going to backfire on Trump and the GOP

[Lucinda]

1. The FBI did exactly what they were tasked to do.
Trump will have a lot less ammo to use about them being corrupt once all his dirt is out.

2. We all know that Grassley and "fiends" stacked the deck.
Warren mentioned tonight that there was info in the FBI docs that they are not allowed to talk about - that supported the claims against Kav..
That will all come out in due time because people are not going to stop digging.

3. McConnell seriously misread the country. This isn't going to blow over.

[shanny]

1. I agree.

I think our opponents are either profoundly stupid or wildly out of touch, or both. Most likely both.

[Lucinda]

6. I think they are in a panic...Those Russian dollars are going to sink many of them.

[shanny]

7. Sad, isn't it?

[Lucinda]

11. LOL Well like our new SCOTUS says

what goes around comes around.

[shanny]

21. It does indeed.

[iluvtennis]

33. +++ agree on the Russian $$

[Athenapallas]

2. The just need him on the court long enough vote on this.

Gamble VS US

basically this case if won by Gamble would make the Presidential Pardon all powerful in a sense. If a person is pardon for a federal crime by the President The states cannot bring state charges against the person for those same crimes on a state level.

[Lucinda]

8. It is certainly the intention...but it still has to pass the full court, AND

in Muller's case, I think he probably has enough information to send different charges to Fed and State courts, which would make the law irrelevant.

[Athenapallas]

9. I hope you are right and I am wrong.

[Lucinda]

13. Trump has been sloppy in NY for years - he truly thought he would never get caught

There is probably more than enough on the state level alone to do him and his family in...

[In It to Win It]

12. That is frightening

I think if the Judiciary agrees that the Presidential Pardon is all powerful, that would be such an overreach.

[Lucinda]

17. Yep. I am not sure that the majority of the court would support it.

They tend to take their checks and balances power pretty seriously...but you never know who has dirty hands...

[Alpeduez21]

23. So much for the party of state's rights making that claim.

[Nevilledog]

38. That is not what Gamble is about.

Nothing in Gamble will increase presidential pardon power.

I have been strongly urging people to read the briefs so that they can understand what the case is about. There have been a lot of poorly written articles about this case, bordering on conspiracy theory level.

The amicus briefs are very interesting.


http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/gamble-v-united-states/

[Dawson Leery]

3. We need the house. Jerry Nadler will investigate this.

[Lucinda]

14. Yep. The only good thing about the 2016 election is that the rot is all being exposed

GOTV is crucial.

[NanceGreggs]

4. There was a Dem on CNN last night ...

... one of those short interviews in the hall at the Capitol. I can't remember who it was - perhaps Blumenthal?

Anyway, what he said was that he'd heard Republicans who'd read the FBI report telling reporters that there was nothing there that was "new" or "damaging" to Kavanaugh.

The Dem said: "Obviously, I can't talk about the specifics, but I can tell you that statement just isn't true."

[Lucinda]

10. Yep. It is all going to come out. And it just occurred to me as I was answering another post,

that the Fed/State charges law that Trumpy is so eager to get through SCOTUS wont really help him. I have no doubt that there is enough crap on Trump that Muller can run fed charges and still have lots of unrelated charges for the NY AG to work with. There will be no pardon ability to avoid state charges if that happens...

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Kavenaugh's Confirmation WILL Backfire, Just Not Yet

Kavenaugh's confirmation WILL backfire, just not yet. If the Repugs try to sink the ACA again using the courts and Kavenaugh moves to strike it down, the right-wing bubble boys will find out that not only we progressives will be enraged, but so will a lot of the complacent and ignorant voters who've been blithely voting Republican and thinking that it won't have any negative consequences.

----

Moreover, even if the Rethugs retain control of the Senate (All too effing likely), control of the Senate will change hands after another Katrina, another financial melt-down, or this Administration's foreign policy blunders catching up with our country. There'll be a lot of hurting people in Red States as well as blue ones and the pain will get through to them where our best arguments couldn't. At that point, any new Democratic majority will be far less inclined to play as nice as President Obama and Harry Reid did not so long ago.

There WILL be a reckoning.

[Lucinda]

15. Exactly. Also, I don't expect Kavanaugh to last long on SCOTUS

He has pissed off a lot of people who have the time and resources to keep digging.

And the election will start a lot of housecleaning when leadership changes hands.
I hope the Senate majority happens soon, but for now, one chamber will be able to move mountains.

[Vogon_Glory]

20. Perhaps, BUT

I can’t help but wonder about Kavanaugh’s health issues. While he’s physically healthier than retired Justice Kennedy and Antonin Scalia was before he flatlined, I can’t help but think about his partying days at prep school and Yale and compare his behavior to the late, unlamented Andrew Breitbart. Has he sobered up yet and is he acting like the model magistrate that, um, “speakers of the truth” like Messrs Trump, McConnel, and Pence say he is? Or will he act out? And if he does act out, will it be very low-key or a spectacular flame-out?

(I’m hoping for a Wilbur Mills level flameout myself)

[LBM20]

16. VOTE IN NOVEMBER!

[Lucinda]

18. Absolutely!

[barbtries]

19. i don't think he misread the country.

he doesn't care. he's got the power and he's going to use it for as long as he does. fuck democracy. i don't doubt he sees the House and maybe even the Senate going to the Democrats so he's making hay while the sun shines so to speak, doing all the damage he possibly can in the time he has.

i can't listen to him speak anymore because he is so deeply cynical and evil - a word i hate to bring out but no other word seems to fit - that it invariably leaves me in an impotent rage. all i got is November.

[Kath2]

29. I forced myself to watch his Kansas rally tonight.

Enough to make me gag, especially after this afternoon. November cannot get here fast enough for me.

[GoCubsGo]

22. Yes.

Excellent point about #1, too.

[KentuckyWoman]

24. It doesn't matter if it does.

We'll have 30 years of Kavanaugh .. or more. You think Citizens United was shitty? Just wait.

[royable]

26. I'm thinking more like 5 to 10 and then the liver disease will take him out.

After all, he likes beer.

[KentuckyWoman]

27. Touche

[fierywoman]

30. Sooner. He didn't just drink a lot. He drank to passing out and throwing up

on a regular basis for what? 2 years in HS, 4 years in college, 2 (more?) years in law school? And do we think he just stopped one day? His face says he still drinks a lot, and it ain't beer. May he rot from the inside out.

[CaptainTruth]

25. Agreed. The left is more fired up than I've ever seen them.

Yes, Kavanaugh on SCOTUS SUCKS... But ... I'm convinced this will help us make electoral gains next month & in 2020. I'll bet Democrats will control both houses of Congress & the White House after 2020, & rage over Kavanaugh will push us over the edge. The Republicans hammered nails into their coffin with the way they handled this.

[Lucinda]

37. Definitely. There really hasn't been a let up in pressure since Trump was elected, and now

there seems to be an even deeper level of contempt for the GOP. People in my world who are usually pretty apathetic are pretty pissed off.

[PatrickforO]

28. Easy to get tone-deaf inside the beltway, isn't it.

Clearly the GOP has misread the visceral anger of millions of American women.

I was at a Democratic Party GOTV gathering today, and one of the local candidates for the State House said she's knocked on about 20,000 doors personally during her campaign, in deep red territory. With home, she has voter registration info, and when she has knocked on doors, women are listening.

She told one story that she knocked on the door of a household, all Republicans, and a woman answered the door. She introduced herself and said, "I'm running for the State House in District XX."

The woman looked back - everyone was watching a football game. She asked, "What party are you?"

My candidate answered, "I'm a Democrat," and the woman took her flyer, nodded and closed the door.

My FERVENT hope is that the Dems will do SO WELL during the mid-term elections that the GOP will cease to be a viable party at the national level.

Let us dream, but as Lucinda points out, our dream may be a NIGHTMARE for the Republicans. They have horribly misread the anger of just about everyone who actually has a moral compass, and they have certainly shown Independent voters that the GOP no longer has a moderate wing.

[Lucinda]

36. I hope so too. It is amazing to me just how much they have gone all in with this...

The GOP leadership seems to be shoveling as fast as they can to keep something buried...

[Freethinker65]

31. Nope. They got exactly what they wanted

They got a conservative to take Merrick Garland's rightful seat, they got the swing vote on the court to retire and got to pick a partisan anti-"left" loyal to them replacement. They got all of this done before the midterms when they, the GOP, may very well lose the House and possibly the Senate.

Expect the court packing to continue at a rapid pace. Loyalty to the GOP is the only requirement. Lie all you want.

[Lucinda]

35. I don't think Kavanaugh is going to be seated for life.

Or for very long at all... There are too many serious people digging for dirt, and I suspect that there will be plenty found. Kav has had his hands in too many things - going back to the Clinton WH years - and he seems to be deeply unlikeable. That makes it hard to keep secrets.

[RainCaster]

32. Chief Justice Roberts needs to feel the disgust we have for his court

Keep those cards and letters coming...

[Lucinda]

34. Absolutely!

[nini]

39. They don't care

They have all the control and they'll keep it by hacking just enough elections to stay in power. We're not even close to rock bottom yet.