Odds and Ends Tuesday (With Update)

Looks like Benghaaaaazi!!! is finally over:

After spending more than two years and $7 million, the House Select Committee on Bengha[aaa]zi[!!] released a report Tuesday that found — like eight investigations before it — no evidence of wrongdoing by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or other members of the Obama administration.

Although Benghaaaaazi!!! is one of my all-time favorite fake scandals, I do think that whole exercise has run its course.  Republicans clearly lost interest in it, probably because they have bigger fish to fry these days (i.e., how to deal with the fact that the GOP may end up nominating a fascist as its presidential candidate).

And you can put this one in the Oh For Christ's Sake!! file:

James C. Dobson, one of America’s leading evangelicals, *** said Mr. Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ” and was now “a baby Christian.”  ***  In an interview recorded at the event by a Pennsylvania pastor, the Rev. Michael Anthony, Dr. Dobson said he knew the person who had led Mr. Trump to Christ, though he did not name him.

And finally, I have been telling friends lately that I do not think Trump will end up being the GOP nominee.  In fact, I made a bet the other day that he would not secure the nomination.  And why do I think that? Because it does not appear to me that Trump is actually interested in being president -- he only seems interested in the free advertising he gets by running for the job. 

Eric Boehlert recently asked this question, and I think it is the right one:  "Do the two red flags of Trump’s seeming unwillingness to commit resources to genuinely compete for the White House, combined with his desire to fill his companies’ own coffers, suggest that his campaign is actually some sort of large-scale scam or con?" 

Although I happen to think that it is in fact a con, you might ask why I think that is a problem.  And my answer would be that if Trump really is not going to be the nominee, then why should Hillary and her Super-Pac waste millions of dollars attacking him now?

Well, it turns out I am not the only one worried about this:

Hillary Clinton’s top fundraisers are encountering an unexpected obstacle a month out from the party conventions: big money donors suddenly reluctant to give for fear of running Donald Trump out of the race before he locks up the nomination.

“They’re worried about giving money to attack Trump before the convention,” said longtime Clinton ally James Carville, who has been raising money for the campaign in New York. “A lot of New York people think he’ll just quit. People think they will run his ass out of there real quick.”

Now I know it makes good political sense in presidential politics to brand your opponent as early as possible.  The Democrats did that in 2012 with Romney -- by the time Mitt made his now-infamous 47% Speech, the Dems had already successfully branded him as a rich dude who didn't give a shit about average folks.

But Trump presents a different problem entirely.  I just don't think he'll end up being the nominee, mostly because it would just be too fucking awesome if that happened.  Hillary should spend her money trying to improve her favorability numbers and forget about trying to brand Trump for the time being.  After all, Donald seems to be doing a pretty good job of branding himself.

UPDATE:  Looks like Trump's status as a "baby Christian" just might be in jeopardy:

Despite assuring evangelicals last week that he would appoint anti-abortion judges and cares deeply about the anti-abortion cause, Donald Trump has so far been silent about the Supreme Court’s major abortion rights ruling on Monday. And conservatives are not happy.

I'm staggered by the political malpractice Trump and his campaign commit on pretty much a daily basis.  There is just no excuse for it.

Historic Quote of the Week

Mike Lofgren, a former Republican Congressional aide, wrote this back in 2011:

A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress’s generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

I'm not surprised that this is what Republicans were doing.  In fact, I've pointed out before that this has always been the GOP plan. Last year I wrote:

The reason Republicans are intentionally causing gridlock is because it plays into their long-term strategy to destroy government. Sure, it makes them look like worthless pieces of America-hating shit in the short term, but the ultimate effect of what they are doing is that people trust government less and less because they continually see it as ineffective.  And that's just the way the Republicans want it.

What surprised me with regard to the quote from Lofgren is that the GOP actually (and proudly) admitted that this was the plan all along.

Fuck these people.

Tom Tomorrow

[click to enlarge]

Historic Tweet of the Week

"Last American combat troops leave Iraq. I think President George W. Bush deserves some credit for victory."

-- Senator John McCain, August 18, 2010 (emphasis added).

McCain apparently forgot about that 2010 tweet when he made this statement yesterday:  “Barack Obama is directly responsible for [the Massacre in Orlando], because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures.”

McCain was right in 2010 to credit blame George W. Bush for the troop withdrawal from Iraq, because it was George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who negotiated the troop withdrawal, and it was President George W. Bush who signed the U.S./Iraq Status of Forces Agreement in 2008 that ultimately got our troops out of Iraq.

Steve Benen had this to say about McCain's contradictory statements:

Look, I’m aware of the broader circumstances. McCain is facing a tough re-election fight in Arizona, including a competitive Republican primary. He has an incentive to say ridiculous and irresponsible things about the president, and perhaps even try to exploit a tragedy for partisan ends.

But if these are the final months of McCain’s lengthy congressional career, is this really how he wants to go out? Using the kind of rhetoric more closely associated with Trump than an ostensible Republican statesman?

Amen, Brother.

Have We Finally Reached A Tipping Point On Guns?

Yesterday, Fox News personalities Bill O'Reilly and Gretchen Carlson both called for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.  Meanwhile, Donald Trump stated that he will speak to the NRA about new restrictions to prevent people on a terrorism watch list from purchasing guns. 

I must admit I was a bit surprised by all this.   Obama has been calling for these changes for quite some time -- but as we all know, if Obama wants something, the GOP will always oppose it (even if it is something Republicans have supported in the past) because they do not want to give America's first Black president a political victory. Christ, if the massacre at Sandy Hook wasn't enough to cause the GOP to enact sensible gun control laws, then what possibly could be?

Well, the political climate is a lot different post-Orlando than it was post-Sandy Hook.  Barack Obama is down to his last few months in office, and he currently enjoys the status as a popular president.  Perhaps certain folks in the GOP feel that the President's legacy is now set in stone, so a few more Obama political victories won't make that much of a difference anymore.

Trump's motives are a bit more clear.  Donald has basically accused Obama of treason, and has actually suggested that the President is in cahoots with the terrorizers.  But even Donald would have to admit that it is pretty hard to accuse Obama of a capital offense while at the same time believing that folks on the terror watch list should be able to purchase guns.  So I think Donald is simply trying to make it easier for himself to accuse Obama of giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The real question, of course, is whether the NRA will go along with any of this.  I think the answer to that question is a resounding "no fucking way!"  This will put Republicans in a tight spot politically -- the leadership of the NRA is not very forgiving, so any Republican who opposes that organization does so at his or her peril.

Maybe Trump Needs To Be A Little Less Racist

Look, I understand Trump's strategy in this election.  His plan is to be openly racist so that he can get a bigger chunk of the white vote.  Looks like he might want to rethink that strategy:

Hillary Clinton's extended her lead over Donald Trump to seven points in the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey national poll released on Tuesday.  Clinton leads Trump 49-42 among registered voters, a slight bump from the 48-44 lead she had over the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in last week's tracking poll.

Over the past week, Clinton made headway among moderate, male and white voters, according to the tracking poll. Clinton jumped 7 points among moderate voters from last week's tracking poll, now leading Trump 58-33 in that subgroup, according to NBC News.

Trump's lead among male and white voters narrowed since last week's tracking poll. He dropped five points among male voters, to lead Clinton 51-42, and he dropped four points among white voters, now leading Clinton 50-41 among white voters in the tracking poll.

Obviously, Trump needs to increase his support among white people in order to offset all the minorities he's pissing off.  The fact that his numbers are going the wrong way with white folks should send shock waves through the GOP Establishment.

A Bagger Loses Her Primary in NC

I touched on this yesterday, and it turns out that a Tea-Bagger did in fact lose her seat last night.  The best part?  This particular Bagger was endorsed by Donald Trump:

Since becoming the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump has almost entirely ignored the down-ticket races in his party. But he did go out of his way to support Rep. Renee Ellmers, a Tea Party Republican running for reelection in North Carolina’s second district. Trump made robocalls for Ellmers, and she touted his endorsement in e-mails to her supporters.

Early Tuesday evening, Ellmers lost her primary to George Holdings, a Tea Party-backed congressional representative who, thanks to gerrymandering in North Carolina, was drawn into the same district as Ellmers.

Of course, trading one Bagger for another doesn't necessarily help matters much, but there it is.

Odds and Ends Tuesday

Unbelievable as this may sound, a Bagger could lose her seat in the House because she isn't conservative enough.  I had no idea there was anything right of a Bagger, but apparently there is.

In other news, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had this to say yesterday about Trump's recent overt racism:

“This is the most un-American thing from a politician since Joe McCarthy. If anybody was looking for an off-ramp, this is probably it. There’ll come a time when the love of country will trump hatred of Hillary.”

And this is not good:

Florida’s attorney general personally solicited a [$25,000] political contribution from Donald Trump around the same time her office deliberated joining an investigation of alleged fraud at Trump University and its affiliates.  ***

The money came from a Trump family foundation in apparent violation of rules surrounding political activities by charities. A political group backing Bondi’s re-election, called And Justice for All, reported receiving the check Sept. 17, 2013 — four days after Bondi’s office publicly announced she was considering joining a New York state probe of Trump University’s activities, according to a 2013 report in the Orlando Sentinel.

After the check came in, Bondi’s office nixed suing Trump, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

More on the Trump U Bribery Scandal here. I don't know about all you all, but it is finally nice to have a real scandal for a change. Seven-and-a-half years of fake scandals is more than enough for me.

And finally, I am starting to get the impression that Paul Ryan is beginning to regret his endorsement of Trump last week.  After all, he waited a long time before doing so; and right when he finally got around to endorsing him, Trump started his big racism push.  Hilarious.

Quote of the Week[end]

“For everyone who cries wolf on racism — and there are a lot of them on the other side — they are now validated forever.”

-- Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP operative, on  Donald Trump's recent rhetoric relating to minorities and how it affects Republicans in the long run.

Although I've known for awhile that the Republican Party has a racist streak a mile wide -- and that Donald Trump has been the GOP's racist-in-chief for many years -- I must admit that I am stunned by Trump''s latest demonstrations of race hatred. 

Politically speaking, there was really no need for any of it, given that he long ago secured the nomination.  I get it that Trump apparently felt he needed to appeal to the racists within the GOP to wrap up the nomination, but now that he's done that, what's the point of continuing down that road?  I understand that he is out of money and thus needs free media coverage to continue his attacks on Hillary, but couldn't he still say a lot of stupid shit without attacking Hispanics, Muslims, and black people in the process?

And how does the rest of the Republican Party deal with this?  Last week, poor Paul Ryan had to disavow one of Trump's racist remarks the day after he endorsed him.  Is this a good way for other Republicans to deal with Trump, or should the GOP simply embrace Donald's racism wholeheartedly and hope it gets a big turnout of white, racist voters in November?

I know that's a lot of questions, but we are navigating new political waters here.  I still think Trump will eventually pivot and at least try to stop saying stupid shit, but that probably won't happen until after he officially accepts the nomination in six weeks.

UPDATE -- Steven Benen: "In recent years we’ve seen some Republican presidential nominees face accusations of making subtle, obliquely racist appeals, but Trump is relying on overt racism in ways Americans haven’t seen in decades."

What I Would Tell Trump If I Was On His Team

He'd probably fire me immediately, but this is what I'd say:

"Donald, no offense, but you really need to stop writing Hillary's speeches for her -- a good chunk of what she said in her foreign policy speech yesterday was direct quotes from you. For Christ's Sake, you are a reality TV star!  How do you not understand when there is a camera in front of you and you say stupid shit, that you are actually being filmed and all the stupid shit you say is being recorded?"

I liked Nancy Letourneau's take on why Hillary can go where no GOP primary opponent could go before:

She is defining [Trump] for the public and the press in a way that his Republican rivals during the primary couldn’t. It’s not just that they were afraid of offending his supporters (although I’m sure that was a big part of it). But it’s also because challenging him meant taking on things that also made them vulnerable. When Trump became so extreme about Mexican immigrants and Muslims, it was all based on policies and rhetoric that Republicans had been relying on themselves. The case they were left with was to suggest that they would simply be either a little bit more or less extreme than Trump. None of them could successfully challenge the very basis of his extremism.

As Kevin Drum noted yesterday, some members of the media have apparently had enough of Donald Trump's bullshit -- he is now being instantly fact-checked.  Drum presented two examples of this, one from CNN and one from the New York Times:

All I can say is: It's about freaking time. More on this here.

Idiot of the Week

Greta Van Susteren tweeted this today about photos of Pluto recently received by NASA from New Horizons:

"Why did they wait until NOW to release these? pics taken in 2015 and we pay their salaries in tax dollars"

Although ignorant people piss me off, I am even more pissed off by ignorant people who (1) hate the gubmit and (2) think they know everything.

This is the last paragraph of the article about which Van Susteren tweeted: "Though the encounter took place more than 10 months ago, New Horizons is still beaming flyby data home, and likely won’t be done doing so until this coming fall, mission team members have said."