Aug. 30 Open Thread: We Want Democrats Who Aren’t Afraid to Fight

While mainstream Democratic leaders timidly fail to oppose Trump’s judicial nominees, a Massachusetts candidate for Congress shows how it should be done: Barbara L’Italien, the same woman who punked Fox News a few weeks back when they mistakenly booked her to talk about immigration, has added a new promise to her campaign: She will try to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over his history of sexual harassment. When will Democrats learn that voters want fighters, not compromisers?

Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis has bigger problems than the monkey comment on his back: He’s been outed as an administrator of a Right Wing Nut Job page on Facebook. So Florida voters will get to choose who’s an extremist: An outspoken white supremacist or someone who wants Medicare for All. Yeah, I don’t trust them to make the right choice either.

As for the claim by DeSantis’ spokesman that “monkey things up” is a phrase DeSantis uses frequently, Media Matters checked and found no record of him ever using it in public. They did, however, find that the “he didn’t mean it as racist” excuse is the same one conservatives trot out every time. They don’t seem to understand that your subconscious bringing up the word “monkey” in relation to a black person is the racism.

Remember, there is no perfect political candidate. Andrew Gillum, the upset winner of the Democratic primary, is carrying some baggage into the race with him: An FBI investigation of some financial dealings involving a public-private redevelopment partnership.

Presidential counsel Don McGahn found out he was leaving the White House the way so many others do: via public tweet. Trump found time in his busy schedule to humiliate him know in the most delicate way possible.

Now we know what Trump wanted to do with all the money he’s making by jacking up fees at Mar-a-Lago: buy out all the dirt on him the National Enquirer accrued through the years. It didn’t happen, which is to expected when a guy only pretends to be rich.

Josh Marshall is the only one I’ve seen who’s paying attention to the story of a former CIA agent who’s running for Congress against Tea Party loon Rep. David Brat in Virginia. Her opponent got ahold of her security clearance form, supposedly through a FOIA request, which is nonsense because these documents are personnel records and not open to the public. Marshall points out that this is exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a lawless administration.

A writer named Greg Olear is convinced Trump won’t fire Jeff Sessions and that Trump will resign before the next Congress is sworn in. He makes a good case, and while I agree that Trump’s only concern is himself, I’m not convinced Trump is smart enough to know what’s good for him.