What Strange Power Does Trump Have Over The Repug Senators?....

[global1]

When these Repug Senators believe that voting not to allow witnesses or evidence in the trial or voting to acquit - is the lesser of two evils - one has to really wonder what Trump is holding over their heads?

To sacrifice their integrity. To disregard an oath to God. To put Party ahead of Country. To risk their legacy for a criminal. To have to face their children or in the future their grandchildren and tell them they didn't have enough guts to stand up to this bully.

I just don't get it. I'm sorry - no job - not even being Senator in these United States is worth destroying one's integrity. So they lose their seat in the Senate - it's not like its the end of the world for them. Everyone of them is comfortable and certainly don't lack money. Everyone of them will get another job if they want it.

What is Trump holding over them? Did he threaten their lives? Does Trump really have deep, dark secrets on each and every one of these Senators that can ruin them? Are they in the loop and do they feel if they take Trump down - they'll go down with him?

What is it? I just don't get it - that all 53 of these Senators are criminals like Trump.

I respect what Romney did today - but he did the right thing. Did it really take guts to do what he did? He's rich. He doesn't need the job. He won't starve if they throw him out of the Party. It will probably - in a strange way - help his image. Maybe he still thinks he can run as his Party's nominee for president in the future.

But I keep wondering - what kind of hold does Trump have on these folks.

[MerryBlooms]

1. Russian Super Pac Money.

[TheBlackAdder]

33. Trump is like Rasputin and one day, the GOP might finally grow sick of his shit and end his reign.

.

It took a lot to get rid of him.

Sometime over the course of the night and the early morning of December 29-30, 1916, Grigory Efimovich Rasputin, a self-proclaimed holy man, is murdered by Russian nobles eager to end his influence over the royal family.

Rasputin, a Siberian-born muzhik, or peasant, who underwent a religious conversion as a teenager and proclaimed himself a healer with the ability to predict the future, won the favor of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra through his ability to stop the bleeding of their hemophiliac son, Alexei, in 1908. From then on, though he was widely criticized for his lechery and drunkenness, Rasputin exerted a powerful influence on the ruling family of Russia, infuriating nobles, church orthodoxy, and peasants alike. He particularly influenced the czarina, and was rumored to be her lover. When Nicholas departed to lead Russian forces in World War I, Rasputin effectively ruled the country through Alexandra, contributing to the already-existing corruption and disorder of Romanov Russia.

Fearful of Rasputin’s growing power (among other things, it was believed by some that he was plotting to make a separate peace with the Germans), a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Youssupov, the husband of the czar’s niece, and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Nicholas’s first cousin, lured Rasputin to Youssupov Palace on the night of December 29, 1916.

First, Rasputin’s would-be killers gave the monk food and wine laced with cyanide. When he failed to react to the poison, they shot him at close range, leaving him for dead. A short time later, however, Rasputin revived and attempted to escape from the palace grounds, whereupon his assailants shot him again and beat him viciously. Finally, they bound Rasputin, still miraculously alive, and tossed him into a freezing river. His body was discovered several days later and the two main conspirators, Youssupov and Pavlovich were exiled.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rasputin-is-murdered

.

[MerryBlooms]

39. Sometimes truth really is wilder than fiction.

Thanks for the blast from the past!

[dchill]

2. It's not just Trump. It's just gotta be Putin.

[2naSalit]

18. That's what I have thought

since those assholes went to moscow on Juky 4th.

[dawg day]

29. They can't all be paid by Putin.

Some maybe, and the others are going along out of fear?

I don't like the GOP, and I think their policies tend to be cruel and damaging. However, before this I would never have thought that all but one of them would be so corrupt. I would have thought a few would be, if nothing else, defiant of authority-- where are all those supposed libertarians?
Of course, the supposed libertarian Rand Paul is a known Putin puppet.

Do none of them even have any pride?

[dchill]

30. Some of them may only be under threat.

[dawg day]

31. Yeah, that might be likely-- some blackmail material, or threats against someone else.

[dchill]

32. Or even a McConnell-backed primary challenger.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. rubles from Putin and fear of Putin

They believe by sticking together they will be favored pets in the inner circle of the rulers of the earth.

Cowards and traitors, every one.

[OAITW r.2.0]

28. Sadly, I think you are correct.

[COL Mustard]

4. Pee Pee Tapes

Or else he has them by the short & curlies.

[bamagal62]

5. Photos. Videos.

Russian money.
Threats to family.
Just a guess.

[napi21]

6. The Sens know his followers do anything he asks and he told them all he would make sure they were

Primaryed in the next election. They'll do anything to keep their own jobs,

[griffi94]

15. This

They'll do whatever it takes to cling to power.

[Brother Mythos]

25. I think we have a winner!

Because, keeping their jobs will make them even more wealthy.

[catbyte]

7. If I were to guess,

I have a sneaking suspicion that the DNC wasn't the only entity Putin's minions hacked back in 2016 and they're holding things over their heads. They are also terrified of this:



They're more worried about being primaried by the cult, of losing the power and prestige of being a member of Congress, that they'd have to find a real job that it overrode their Oath of Office and any desire to do their patriotic duty. It's pathetic, despicable, cowardly, and utterly un-American.

[MustLoveBeagles]

8. I think your guess is right on the money

[2naSalit]

20. Yup!

[applegrove]

34. +1

[dalton99a]

9. Probably illicit/illegal/immoral stuff. Putin found receipts

More likely, they're just fucking traitorous scum - just like him

[Ace Rothstein]

10. They'll be out of a job if they cross Trump.

They'll get primaried by a Trump cultist and be easily dispatched.

[tblue37]

11. Kompromat. nt

[Skittles]

12. it's not Trump, it is Putin

[2naSalit]

21. +1

[uponit7771]

13. ... or ... they could all be sold out and as stupid as he is ?! We're giving them the benefit of the

... doubt when they don't deserve it.

They're some of the dumbest sell outs to Russia I've ever come across

[bdamomma]

14. tRump

and the Russian mafia and this $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Vivienne235729]

16. He has the Russian mafia. They're afraid of being on his hit list and get offed "accidently"?

[2naSalit]

22. I would think it was something like that.

[dustyscamp]

17. Trump has control of their voters. Without them they don't have a chance at getting reelected

[Cuthbert Allgood]

19. He, or someone, has Epstein photos.

[2naSalit]

23. All of the above.

[SMC22307]

24. Cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

They've wanted it for decades; they're going to get it under Dirty Don.

[LonePirate]

26. He snaps his fingers and his loyal cultists will vote out any dissenters during primary season.

For those not up for re-election, they face the threat of no future as a lobbyist or in corporate America or violent threats and/or outcast status if they are retiring from working life.

[Newest Reality]

27. I won't give them...

I won't give them any excuse that implies they are beholden, fearful or being intimidated by anyone in anyway.

Why? I am sticking with a view that they are complicit in order to keep the GOP in power and preserve its fading relevance. When you know that your entire party is demographically, (and in other ways) becoming politically obsolete to the point that you don't even qualify as a worthy or fitting opponent to a qualified party, that spells panic and wresting power and subverting the government is a last ditch effort to remain.

I think this will be more evident as we move forward and, once Trump is out and gone, it is my sense of it that the GOP will start to deteriorate and fracture slowly. In a few decades it will either have failed completely and a new party will become ascendant or it will transform into something different after the flock of dinosaurs pass away. The GOP has been creating its demise for a long time and we just have to hope they won't succeed in assisting Trump in this slow-motion coup.

[fierywoman]

35. kompromat and bribes paid to offshore accounts.(I'm guessing)

[JudyM]

36. Wasn't the RNC hacked?

[fierywoman]

38. And/or didn't the RNC put their server in Russia?

[Joinfortmill]

37. It's all of that and the power and prestige of being a United States Senator