Interesting timing. I just hit “post tomorrow” on a 1500 word rant about “don’t use scandal as a political tool unless you don’t have scandal in your circle”. My thesis was that the party of D was ill advised to rely on scandal when they’re knee deep in “issues”.
Ten minutes later I bumped into on a live video of Al Franken addressing Congress. I only tuned in 30 seconds because the banner on the screen had all the news I needed. “Al Franken resigns”.
No shit.
Does anyone think this would’ve happened if Hillary won the election?
Remember, Al was squeezing tits on camera 8 years ago. Why is it a big deal now? An outbreak of civility and good manners? What could Al have done and for how long would he have done it had the election gone a different way? It’s Al’s misfortune that 2017 is the year Hollywood’s dam broke and started the pervnado. (God I love that word!) Possibly it’s Al’s misfortune that his party is trying to clean house and play a better game.
Meanwhile the CBS talking head was saying:
“…this is bad news for Republicans…”
Sure.
Yeah, there’s all sorts of maneuvering. Alabama’s bible thumping Roy Moore has been weakly accused of something far less than Al Franken and bright minds are working scenarios. Perhaps Moore will lose now? How can we spin this? Can we blame Trump? Russia? Global Warming?
Regardless of CBS and their ramblings, it’s never good news when one of your reliable votes and productive fundraisers takes a dump on himself. Duh!
In the long term, this is good news for everyone. Republic is served best by excellent parties in contention. I don’t want one party that dominates the other. I want all of them to compete. Compete hard. Try to be better than their opposition; not just scream the loudest but actually be good at governance. Lately both parties have been careening around fat, drunk, stupid, and apparently pervy.
If the Dems are cleaning house, good for them. Even if it took Trump’s win and many months of screaming helplessly at the sky to motivate them. It’s never too late to stop sucking pond scum in the ditch of bad decisions. If they really roll up their sleeves and clean up their act I salute them. I’d be happy if the party of R also sought excellence. I want both sides (and any third parties that are ready to punch above their weight class) to nut up and spend 2018 in Thunderdome going at it with hammer and tongs. I want the best and the way you get the best is competition.
If Trump’s terrifying hair is what made both parties get back to basics… so be it. This will be a fine accomplishment and a reason enough to love our messy, goofy, nation and it’s loud annoying president.
In seemingly unrelated news, the DOW is up 31% since Cheeto Jesus was elected by Deplorables and Russian spies. (24,140/18,332) I’m sure CBS can explain how that’s bad for Republicans too. They’re smart like that.
Obviously, life is more complex than a simple index. A soaring DOW can mean many things, including inflation or a bubble. But it’s never “bad news”.
Also, for the sake of humanity, would someone please take Paul Krugman behind the barn and beat him with a calculator. Why is he still employed? He said “the stock market will never recover from Donald Trump’s presidential victory“. It recovered immediately and then hit the afterburners into a 31% run which is still going. It’s almost mathematically impossible to make worse predictions than that flaming dipshit Krugman.
[This is Curmudgeon’s dog. I was off sniffing rabbit tracks and found him ranting at the computer. Humans! They can’t be left unattended can they? It’s tough being Curmudgeon’s editor. You never know when he’ll do something stupid like start ranting about politics or chase the mailman.
Anyway, I dragged him away from his keyboard and shoved his head into a snowdrift. Then I barked at him for an hour. After that I took him for a walk. That seemed to work.
He promises he’s back on the bandwagon. He says his next post will involve circular saws and/or acorns. Thank you for your patience.]
Please make sure you read Franken’s “resignation” carefully, and don’t forget to parse the words. Remember that this is the party of “It all depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is.
As I understand it, he may actually resign in like, you know, a few weeks. Or not…
I agree that he said “in a manner of weeks” which is somewhere on a spectrum between sitting through as many votes as his overlords insist upon and “several dozen weeks ’till the next election cycle when I’ll still be an incumbent”.
I still have no idea what Clinton means when he says “is”.
God I needed that today . . and a triple bourbon. All is well.
Glad to help. Enjoy the drink.
Great writing, as always!
As for Franken, if Judge Moore wins on Tuesday, Franken will find an excuse to “un-resign.”
All of this is maneuvering to make this behavior bad BAD! I say! Because they couldn’t start with Trump, they had to burn some of their own first. If they had started with Trump, the GOP would have shrugged and pointed at Bill Clinton. But with enough groundwork, Trump is vulnerable. I suspect they have several women that will testify about his behavior, and he probably is guilty as Clinton and Weinstein. Rich entitled frat-boy behavior knows no party. Democrats want him gone. I give it 3 months.