Open Thread
Oct. 9 Open Thread: This Just In… Tom Carper Loves Big Pharma…That Is All
The State News looked into the anti-Carper full-page mailers attacking him for his Big Pharma ties. They found the Patients for Affordable Drugs Action but didn’t get a whole lot of answers about any kind of strategic connection among the group’s targets. They did find that the money comes from a Concerned Billionaire while the […]
Oct. 5 Open Thread: Drunken, Lying, Privileged Partisan Hacks Are People, Too
I’m starting to wonder if the Republicans haven’t overplayed their hand on Brett Kavanaugh. For a day or two they gained ground in polls by stoking the fires of white grievance, even stampeding the press and people who should know better (lookin’ at you, Nate Silver) into believing that Republicans were so angry about his […]
Oct. 4 Open Thread: That’s Justice Partisan Ratfucker to You
Knowing what he knows now, Donald Trump probably would have nominated someone other than Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court. We know that from the Washington Post, which laid out how Kavanaugh is Don McGahn’s last act in the White House, and reports that Trump is furious (when is he not?) with McGahn for dropping […]
Oct. 3 Open Thread: Stop the Presses, Trump Is a Tax Cheat
Raise your hand if you thought the Trump family fortune was achieved by following all tax laws to the letter. Yeah, thought so. Still, the New York Times deserves credit for investing thousands of man-hours to ferreting out all the ways the Trumps cheated the IRS, and for determining that the “$1 million loan” with […]
Oct. 1 Open Thread: Coons’ Pyrrhic Victory
So Chris Coons did all that for nothing. Republicans have made clear that they won’t actually investigate Kavanaugh, because if they did they couldn’t get him confirmed. They’re OK with that, having decided that the House is already lost but fighting for Kavanaugh will help the GOP’s chances of keeping the Senate. Expect the clamor […]
Sept. 29 Open Thread: Biden Lies Low in the Shadow of Anita Hill
For somebody who’s supposedly weighing a presidential run, Joe Biden sure has been quiet during the year’s biggest political drama. Not without reason — Republicans are following his 1991 playbook for the Anita Hill hearing, using things he said to Clarence Thomas as justification for their deference to Brett Kavanaugh. Biden has had a comity […]
Sept. 27 Open Thread: Kavanaugh Personifies Class Privilege
The Brett Kavanaugh saga has exposed the ugliest side of America — its upper crust. As Chauncey de Vega notes, Kavanaugh has benefited at every step of his life from the fact that he’s a support network of class privilege. The problem isn’t what Brett Kavanaugh did as a youth, Josh Marshall says. It’s that […]
Sept. 26 Open Thread: UD Poll Shows Huge Leads for Carper, LBR
A University of Delaware poll found enormous leads for Sen. Tom Carper and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, but the most shocking figure was Republican Senate candidate Rob Arlett’s anemic 22% support. Both parties are dying, but the GOP is dying faster. This Kavanaugh stuff really has people worked up. Michael Tomasky, a longtime journo not […]
Sept. 24 Open Thread: Democrats Thrust the Knife Deeper
I don’t know if Democrats planned all this — my first instinct is they’re not smart enough — but even if Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to what will become a farcical Keystone Kourt, they already have won more than they lost in this confirmation fight. Not all Republicans are stupid (and no, not all stupid […]
Sept. 22 Open Thread: Delaware GOP Disavows Scott Walker
It should tell you something about this country’s politics that the three most likely destinations for people with mental problems are the nuthouse, the big house and the statehouse. Russell “Scott” Walker is trying for the latter, but he’ll have to do it with no help from the state GOP, which took the unprecedented step […]
Sept. 21 Open Thread: GOP Is the Party of Failing Upward
The best thing about the Trump interregnum has been the way it shines light into the myriad dark, ugly corners of the American upper crust. Most of the richies Trump assembled into a cabinet either inherited their money, like DeVos, or stole it, like Wilbur Ross. (Those who had no money to start with, like […]
Sept. 20 Open Thread: GOP Senators Want a Justice Who Glows in the Dark
Republicans remain committed to forcing radioactive Brett Kavanaugh on an ungrateful nation, but a few of them fret to WaPo’s Robert Costa about the political fallout of ramming through the nomination. Republican senators are basically putting their hand over the victim’s mouth and pawing at her all over again, a nice image for women to […]
Sept. 19 Open Thread: Kavanaugh or Bust
Confronted with Brett Kavanaugh’s sudden radioactivity, the GOP has decided on the only course it knows: Full speed ahead. Senators seemed to settle on a narrative by last night, to wit: This whole thing has been unfair to him. Never mind that this woman never wanted to come forward publicly, she had no right to […]
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