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Congress: Breaking Your Hearts Since 2010
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I would hope that there would be enough Republicans who realise that their continued political career relies on getting more than just the crazies on board. Being able to say "I was one of the Republicans who voted on the clean CR bill" would go some way to repair the damage.
...
This is me assuming rationality on the part of voters and politicians again, isn't it?
Discounting the fact that they don't want to say that until the general election and with that vote on their record they're unlikely to make it out of the primary.
Go primary system!
The more it gets dragged out, the more that year turns into 11 months, 10 months, etc is my point.
You know what, fuck all the cynicism (not directed at anybody in general).
If there's one thing this whole situation has made abundantly clear, it's that there is a point where the craziness ceases to be acceptable, even to far-right Republicans. In the last thread it was pointed out that Red State is split down the middle on whether or not the Republicans are to blame for this. Fucking. Red. State.
Seeing the absolute backlash against Republicans despite all their spin efforts has restored a lot of my faith in humanity, because now I know that the Tea Party has reached the end of their proverbial crazy rope. The "shift further to the right and say more insane things" stratagem only goes so far; in this case they crossed the line with it and Americans are finally getting it.
I'm not so optimistic as to think that a Democratic majority in the House is a given next year but I'm tired of feeling all apathetic and shitty about government because the Teapers are just going to fuck everything up anyway. It's obvious now that saying insane shit doesn't always work in politics, however, and that's something to celebrate.
What are the chances some of this shit starts dripping down to the state / local level GOP? I mean, as long as they have their state / local strongholds, and their heavily gerrymandered districts, getting rid of them is going to be like getting rid of cockroaches or termites.
If they manage to damage the Republican / Tea Party brand at such a fundamental level in Congress that they start losing local races and state house / governorships, that's really going to have a far bigger impact on the GOP medium and long-term. We're not just talking about 2014 here, we're talking about red states going purple.
That's one possible benefit to this going on longer. I don't know how likely it is to have a big impact, but every one of those local Tea Party nuts who loses their seat representing Bumfuck, Nowhere to a Democrat or even moderate Republican challenger hurts them.
Technically stuff has slowed down a bit of late.
How temporary it'll be, well, we will just have to wait and see.
At a minimum he says. At a minimum, Mr. President, do exactly what we want. At a minimum for fucks sake. How about at a minimum you not close down the fucking government and destroy the worlds economy. How's that for a fucking minimum?
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/the-long-arm-and-hidden-hand-of-jim-demint-20131001
I would be so fucking ashamed to be a Republican right now that I would shut my goddamn mouth and try to look as small as possible until a CR came up for a vote (at a minimum)
Or, alternately, join the Democrats in calling out John Boehner on his fucking bullshit "we don't have the votes" nonsense
I would get every Republican willing to vote on a CR and hold a press conference with everybody, Democrats included, present and say "Here are your votes John."
This shit is ba-nay-nay
Jim DeMint is Slenderman, everybody!
Source
Thank goodness we have our priorities straight, though it is a travesty we force them to launder their own towels like savages.
I still can't help but laugh at his name.
"Von, two, three! Three victims! Mwahaha!"
Honestly, at this point I don't quite understand why there aren't Republicans defecting to I or D.
I get some places it's political suicide, but if you managed to form a bloc of ~20 (former / disenfranchised) moderate Republicans that were the swing in the house, you would have a ridiculous amount of political power. Look at how much say Lieberman had when he told the Democratic Party to fuck off.
There have to be enough Republicans from not-safe districts who can look at Christie and think 'I bet I can do that'.
Certainly no worse than being dragged down by the wingnuts of the Republican Party...and pulling it off could easily put you on the fast-track to higher offices like Senate / Governorship / etc.
Or have you branded a traitor to the Republican Party, but hell...would that really be so bad?
First world shutdown problems, yo.
Everyone who was not insane, ignorant, retarded, greedy or corrupt already has,
That's not fair
some of them are racist
I count racism as a subtype of retarded.
The average death benefits of a servicemember are between 200k and 600k, with most opting for the 400k to 600k option.
So, well over multiple billions.
Don't forget permanently injured folk who need millions in physical therapy and surgeries, as well as lifetime payments.
Demint? Chocola? Club?
You type this after typing that the cynicism in this thread seems over-the-top. No. It's really not for the most part (I'm sure some of it is, like when we get people jokingly [it had better be jokingly] saying we could just extraordinarily-rendition the teapers away to Gitmo). These people in Congress do this because it does help them. Voters are rewarding them.
I'm plenty aware that we've got polls showing us that Congress is currently less popular than hemorrhoids, and that the public blames the GOP more than the Dems, and that we could possibly see a +5 or more swing to the Dems in the house next year, and that even the G.D. Chamber of Commerce thinks the GOP are being morons; however, I'll believe that when I see it. People have such a short memory, and they're so easily fed bad information that I just don't see it happening. Plus, Dems are fucking HORRRRRRRRRIBLE at turning out for mid-terms, while the GOP sure as F isn't.
If we walk away from this with a clean CR and debt-limit raise, and the GOP losing seats in the house then the cynicism may be overdone. Until then I feel like it's pretty spot-on because in any sane world/country/reality the GOP would be absolutely CRUSHED in 2014 in every imaginable way; hell, it's super fucking depressing that these chucklegeese were voted into office while saying "we're gonna shut the government down!"
"NOW THE PEOPLE CAN DECIDE WHAT PART OF THE GOVERNMENT THEY WANT!"
*parks close*
"OH HEY YOU FUCKER WHAT R U DOING?"
As long as there is rich fucks as insane and corrupt as the Koch brothers, there will be plenty of money made by staying R.
Problem is, the moment they stop being in the Congress, money hose shuts down, unless they got a good lobbying spot open, and those seem to largely go to the insane (or willing to pretend insane).
No jumping out of this train now for most of them, not with the insane holding the valet and state primaries.
And many of them seem more greedy for power than money anyway.
No, there is no excuse for it, but there sure is a goddamn reason, you insufferable twat. I can't believe everyone's acting like this is some sort of surprise.
Bill O'Reilly helpfully pointed the finger at Chuck Hagel and suggested he should resign. The fucked up part is they dug up some apparently active duty Colonels who somehow agree?
"Allowed", Bill? Really? Those assnuts in congress were briefed on this shit. Too busy playing poker on their phones again?
Always.
Either way the colonel is a retard.
Because it's political suicide and would destroy the Republican party. Once party integrity collapses, it's all over for any of them.
That said, maybe we'll get an early Christmas Miracle and Erik Erickson will be right:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/erick-erickson-predicts-real-third-party-movement-to-divide-gop
DO IT!!!!!
That's one thing I like about this administration. They haven't pussy-footed around ending careers of these officers who decide they want to get all political. As it should be.
So... Republican senators are meeting with the Republican leader in the Senate to find a "bipartisan" solution. I'm not sure the NY Times understand what "bipartisan" means.
Your Liberal Media, ladies and gentlemen!
Who wouldn't want to be Jim DeMint? Quit your elected office to take a high-paying lobbyist job where you can spew bullshit all day long without ever being held accountable for anything?
I don't know how many times you have to lose before you accept you lost, but it's supposed to only be one time.
Bipartisan in this case means the party of sane people that want this shit to end, versus the party of lunatics who want it to continue because they are under the impression that they are winning......something.
In the New York State legislature, there's a group of Democrats that have formed a coalition with the Republicans. There's technically a Democratic majority, but Republicans still have control.
But that came out of very special conditions (originally two power-hungry Democrats got a little greedy and defected to get the top spots in the state Senate, which completely fucked the normal two party system). I'm skeptical something similar could happen in the house. It's a HUGE risk, and I don't think they'd get much gain from it, outside of doing the right thing. But since when has a House Republican cared about doing the right thing?
I don't think Lieberman's a good comparison. He had six years, not two, and then retired. He also made the decision to go against the Democrats after losing a primary, which meant he didn't have as much to lose (if he didn't take the risk, he would've been out of the Senate anyway). And afterwards he effectively rejoined the Democratic Party in a time where his vote was desperately needed to counteract potential filibusters. Those ~20 Republicans might form a powerful bloc for a little while... but what happens when the 2014 election season starts in a few months and all of a sudden all of the money from their usual sources go to primary challenges and they're constantly getting called a RINO on TV?
In fairness there is probably more progress towards ending this shit made in that gym than anywhere else on the Capitol
People tend to be a lot more informal and honest when they're on an exercise bike with their heartrate at 175 than they are in a suit cloistered in a meeting room