Now Perticone brings Twin Peaks references! He needs his own pop culture newsletter.
Johnson's choice to string together "This is not a time for petty politics" and "House Republicans will continue to work in good faith" is a staggering display of bad faith pettiness, made exponentially more staggering when juxtaposed with his addition of "even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately." Reading it made me feel like I was slapped unconscious, and when I awoke I was involuntarily standing and clapping in awe of this display of unbridled assholery. Mike Johnson wins the dooshnozzle of the week award, hands down.
When the Republicans' footdragging threatens the financial security of civil employees by loss of funding for their positions, there should be corresponding financial repercussions for these "Honorable" representatives (I sometimes wonder if there is an etymological relationship among the words Republican, representative and reprehensible). It would be only fair if these "honorables" suffered the same consequences and found their monthly stipends suddenly sequestered and untouchable. Perhaps the House janitorial staff could conveniently overlook the lack of comfort tissue in the R's offices private facilities. But, considering that the janitorial staff is probably among the first affected, that bit of revenge takes care of itself.
Thanks, RM. I took Latin for 2 years in high school ( a lo-o--o-ong time ago). It was more of a flippant rhetorical question. (winking emoji here, since I haven't the foggiest how to access them in this app.)
My HS had Latin, but I did not take Latin in HS (I took German). Because I did graduate work in rhetoric I basically had to teach myself some Latin and Attic Greek.
TBH, I regret not taking Latin in HS... but you cannot see the future. I have used more Latin in my life than German, lol.
I can only hope that God will fill Mike Johnson's thoughts and prayers with images of Bucha, Mariupol theater and Azovstal steel plant if he does not shepherd a funding bill for Ukraine. I hope he has endless flat tires for demanding a border bill that he will not put up for a vote. I hope he loses his healthcare when he does not vote to avoid a shutdown.
Something to be said for the Westminster practice under which losing a vote of confidence, e. g. on a money bill, triigers the dissolution of the house and an election. Somehow the Republicans would find it necessary to govern if that were the alternative.
"Heitkamp didn’t outright claim that Rosendale is guilty of what she alleged she heard..."
Doesn't that have such a familiar ring? People are saying... I've heard people saying...Many people say so... I don't know why it wouldn't be true...and so on.
Though at this point I don't know why a married man impregnating a 20 year old staff member would be considered a bar to holding office. In fact by Republican standards these days it would almost be considered a qualification.
This was my thought as well, no Republican would seriously find this disqualifying? Not after Herschel Walker forced his mistress to get an abortion and almost won a senate seat.
Talking about your own (or your team’s) “good faith” effort is like talking about how humble you are. Good faith, like humility, is manifested in how you behave, not how you try to explain or excuse yourself.
We learned all about Republican "good faith" back when McCarthy reneged on the budget deal he made with Biden Jeffries, Schumer and McConnell and started this whole nihilistic cycle of stupidity.
YES! I wonder what prompted the majority of House Republicans back then to make this literally insane radical their Speaker? (referring to Gingrich - Mike Johnson is also a radical that they made Speaker - his radicalism is just of a more mainstream, religious fundamentalist strain)
Enjoy all your work and insight, but the reference to the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano was an apt and elegant reference. Hat tip from a native of that part of Orange County.
So Mike Johnson says the House has been "working nonstop". Then why did the House bug out of Washington for two weeks?Just spitballing here but I think the real leader of the House is Donald Trump.He now has the taste of telling Mike Johnson what to do on anything.TFG says Jump and Johnson replies; how high?
Somehow it is super encouraging that the Air Force was able to put together "resiliency teams." It seems like even a few years ago that would have been inconceivable. Minds do change and good things do happen! Now if they could just bottle that and sell it, maybe we could spike the water supply.
"Despite the counterproductive rhetoric in Leader Schumer’s letter, the House has worked nonstop, and is continuing to work in good faith, to reach agreement with the Senate on compromise government funding bills in advance of the deadlines. . . .
This is not a time for petty politics. House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach an outcome as soon as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately."
-----
I do believe that speaker Johnson must think that the American public writ large is as gullible the average MAGA knuckle dragger. Does he really think that a majority of Americans have forgotten the sick games being played by the ironically named House Freedom Caucus: "give us this and we'll be happy," and once they get it they will either insist that it's not enough or tank the entire deal. We've witnessed them shooting down a bill that included almost every demand that they made for two reasons: the Mango Malignancy wants to use immigration as a cudgel against the Dems in the general election and because there is absolutely no way that they will pass anything that will give even an inkling of success to those on the other side of the aisle. Until MAGA Mike gets a spine, and also grows a pair, *no* border security legislation will make it through the House -- the Fulvous Flatulence's bomb throwers will stand in the way. It is obvious, imo to a majority of Americans, that Johnson is taking his marching orders from the MAGA oberste Fuhrer, and the possibility of meaningful legislation, bipartisan legislation, is inconceivable.
The disfunction in the House, and the growing disfunction in the Senate, is due to the Peach[tree dish] Pestilence's sycophants and proxies carrying out his perverted wonts rather than the needs of their constituency. This terminal disease can only be cured when the Cadmium Orange Cancer and the MAGAdroids are either isolated or completely excised from the American body politic (option 2 is my preferred option).
Oh, and one more thing: Johnson's pronouncement that"[t]his is not a time for petty politics" would ring considerably truer if he wasn't already playing petty politics. IMO, the definition of "petty politics" are acting within political theater, and/or gaslighting the voting public that you are actually accomplishing something, and/or obstructing legislation that has bipartisan support because it "violates one's ethics and morals" -- both sadly lacking in a preponderance of the party (the "O" in GOP once meant "Old," in today's New GOP it stands for "Obstructionist").
I was gobsmacked when I heard that rumour on Talking Feds this morning, but even more gobsmacked that there has been nothing about it in the NY Times, WaPo, Politico etc. This is the first place I’ve seen the rumour repeated.
I actually went to google as soon as I heard it yesterday, and multiple outlets were reporting on Heitkamp's statement and that Rosendale's camp was denying it. I hope she wasn't just spreading malicious unfounded rumors. I know that's part of the MAGA playbook, but I would like to be on the side that does better.
This morning, a friend reminded me that Feb 29 is the 4th anniversary of COVID in Seattle -- the day she first heard of a COVID death in the hospital where she worked as a nurse serving people living homeless. She is one of the many who ultimately burned out. A hopeful thing she also told me about was working to support others in the use of meditation to ease the effects of trauma. I sent her the link to Will Selber’s piece about the ART--another set of intersections that promote the health of people who most need help and--until pretty recently--were the least likely to get it. Joe, your updates are always worth reading, but this one was a standout. Thanks.
The Republican conference is such a shitshow. Rinse and repeat.
I just don’t get it. HFC demands stuff they will never get. The process plays out as everyone predicts with a bunch of twists, turns and maybe a few shutdowns. And agreement was made at exactly the same terms it was before hfc drove off the cliff. HFC gets big mad and yells and screams about “the uniparty, RINOs, communists, socialists, etc.” then elections happen and these same people get elected again even though they have accomplished nothing.
What they get is that the HFC is treated as important and influential in government and gets to be on TV (even if their only influence is destructively making other people unhappy).
The contrast to how Nancy Pelosi would have just told a Democratic equivalent to pound sand is notable though (she did so for The Squad, and Jeffries is continuing the same way). But this is enabled in part by Democratic voters not rewarding bomb-throwing, unlike MAGA.
If they lose. It’s the deep states fault or RINOs or communists.
This dysfunction all originates from their voters. Chuck Todd did a podcast on Friday with 2 authors who talk about it. Our politics will never change until Republican voters demand Republican legislators to solve problems. It won’t happen with democrats listening more to rural voters. It’s a good conversation
The distortion does more than magnify. It also incentivizes them to exploit the distortions and insulates them from consequences of doing so. Thus it encourages dysfunctional voters.
My disagreement is with incentives of the voters. The legislators are obvious. They want to be reelected and it’s easy to do in deep red areas.
But the real issues is the voters in those deep red areas seem to want nothing but to “fight, fight, fight.” Until they demand their Republican legislators demand something be done from a policy perspective and punish their legislators if they don’t deliver, nothing will change.
I listened to a good podcast on this on Friday from chuck todd. Worth a listen. Basic thesis is the following: demanding dems to “listen” better/more to rural voters won’t work. They will never vote for a dem. They need to demand their legislators to not be bomb throwers
I know. I think some of these "normies" have had made comments to the effect that these guys don't vote for anything. There are plenty of spines available, should any of these guys want one.
Yep. That is what is so amazingly stupid: have ridiculous demands that will never get passed by any congress, scream and yell and hold the speaker hostage, shutdown the government, get the same deal they could have gotten before the government shutdown, rinse and repeat. What is amazing that leadership and the normie republicans just don’t make a deal with dems. You get the same exact result (hfc saying you’re a traitor or a RINO or a communist) except you don’t have to deal with the shutdown.
That is what I find so exhausting. You end up at the exact same point. Might as well, if you’re a normal Republican, do it faster. Same deal, same people bitching at you that your a RINO, no government shutdown. I just don’t know what I am missing n
I wonder how much the stupid agreement McCarthy made re: only needing one person to submit a discharge petition plays into this. If Johnson puts something forward that the HFC does not like, they might submit the discharge petition. I wonder if the Dems would vote for Johnson this time, with concessions demanded.
Oh it’s disastrous. It will stick with republicans for a long time. Every speaker will have to agree to this demand or they won’t get their votes. We know that these republicans aren’t principled and insanely greedy so they will say yes to anything. The house will be hosed for a longtime if a republican takes power
"robbing Comer to pay Gaetz, if you will."
Haha! I will.
That is some sharp writing. Beautiful.
I love his writing.
From this federal employee, I really appreciate you keeping us up to date on what's happening with the potential shutdown Joe.
I am happy to be "fee funded". I didn't know what it meant 10 years ago, but it's turned out to be really important to our lives.
Now Perticone brings Twin Peaks references! He needs his own pop culture newsletter.
Johnson's choice to string together "This is not a time for petty politics" and "House Republicans will continue to work in good faith" is a staggering display of bad faith pettiness, made exponentially more staggering when juxtaposed with his addition of "even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately." Reading it made me feel like I was slapped unconscious, and when I awoke I was involuntarily standing and clapping in awe of this display of unbridled assholery. Mike Johnson wins the dooshnozzle of the week award, hands down.
Yes, they are working so hard that they needed to take recess with just a few days to spare for the funding bill.
Lord knows they need the rest.
When the Republicans' footdragging threatens the financial security of civil employees by loss of funding for their positions, there should be corresponding financial repercussions for these "Honorable" representatives (I sometimes wonder if there is an etymological relationship among the words Republican, representative and reprehensible). It would be only fair if these "honorables" suffered the same consequences and found their monthly stipends suddenly sequestered and untouchable. Perhaps the House janitorial staff could conveniently overlook the lack of comfort tissue in the R's offices private facilities. But, considering that the janitorial staff is probably among the first affected, that bit of revenge takes care of itself.
reprehensible is from the Latin: reprehendere--to blame, censure, rebuke.
republic is from the Latin: res publica--our public (common) thing.
representative is from the Latin: repraesentare--to place before.
So, while all are based in Latin, that is the only similarity/relationship .)
Thanks, RM. I took Latin for 2 years in high school ( a lo-o--o-ong time ago). It was more of a flippant rhetorical question. (winking emoji here, since I haven't the foggiest how to access them in this app.)
My HS had Latin, but I did not take Latin in HS (I took German). Because I did graduate work in rhetoric I basically had to teach myself some Latin and Attic Greek.
TBH, I regret not taking Latin in HS... but you cannot see the future. I have used more Latin in my life than German, lol.
I have said many, many time that Latin was probably the most valuable course I took during my
high school and college studies.
I can only hope that God will fill Mike Johnson's thoughts and prayers with images of Bucha, Mariupol theater and Azovstal steel plant if he does not shepherd a funding bill for Ukraine. I hope he has endless flat tires for demanding a border bill that he will not put up for a vote. I hope he loses his healthcare when he does not vote to avoid a shutdown.
Once “hope and prayers” are said by a Republican congressman you know the legislation is dead.
Something to be said for the Westminster practice under which losing a vote of confidence, e. g. on a money bill, triigers the dissolution of the house and an election. Somehow the Republicans would find it necessary to govern if that were the alternative.
We need to change the rules so Congress doesn’t get paid during a shutdown.
Parliamentary systems seem to keep governance more at the forefront. Maybe the Constitution needs some major updating.
God knows that if he told Johnson anything he didn't want to hear, that Mike Johnson would just start impeachment proceedings against God.
Clever. "Mike Johnson's God is not going to tell him anything he doesn't want to hear."
It a common affliction of Xtians who have taken Christ out of Christian.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
One has to love this:
"Heitkamp didn’t outright claim that Rosendale is guilty of what she alleged she heard..."
Doesn't that have such a familiar ring? People are saying... I've heard people saying...Many people say so... I don't know why it wouldn't be true...and so on.
Though at this point I don't know why a married man impregnating a 20 year old staff member would be considered a bar to holding office. In fact by Republican standards these days it would almost be considered a qualification.
This was my thought as well, no Republican would seriously find this disqualifying? Not after Herschel Walker forced his mistress to get an abortion and almost won a senate seat.
AND without any mention of Trump and his wandering wayward appendage.
Talking about your own (or your team’s) “good faith” effort is like talking about how humble you are. Good faith, like humility, is manifested in how you behave, not how you try to explain or excuse yourself.
We learned all about Republican "good faith" back when McCarthy reneged on the budget deal he made with Biden Jeffries, Schumer and McConnell and started this whole nihilistic cycle of stupidity.
No , I think Newt Gingrich started the nihilistic cycle of stupidity in 1995 , when he decided it was better to oppose than to govern
You are right about the origins of the bad faith. I was simply siting the most recent evidence of it in this particular Congress.
YES! I wonder what prompted the majority of House Republicans back then to make this literally insane radical their Speaker? (referring to Gingrich - Mike Johnson is also a radical that they made Speaker - his radicalism is just of a more mainstream, religious fundamentalist strain)
Enjoy all your work and insight, but the reference to the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano was an apt and elegant reference. Hat tip from a native of that part of Orange County.
Consistently one the most informative and best written newsletters around. Plus occasional fashion tips! 👍👍👍
So Mike Johnson says the House has been "working nonstop". Then why did the House bug out of Washington for two weeks?Just spitballing here but I think the real leader of the House is Donald Trump.He now has the taste of telling Mike Johnson what to do on anything.TFG says Jump and Johnson replies; how high?
Somehow it is super encouraging that the Air Force was able to put together "resiliency teams." It seems like even a few years ago that would have been inconceivable. Minds do change and good things do happen! Now if they could just bottle that and sell it, maybe we could spike the water supply.
"Despite the counterproductive rhetoric in Leader Schumer’s letter, the House has worked nonstop, and is continuing to work in good faith, to reach agreement with the Senate on compromise government funding bills in advance of the deadlines. . . .
This is not a time for petty politics. House Republicans will continue to work in good faith and hope to reach an outcome as soon as possible, even as we continue to insist that our own border security must be addressed immediately."
-----
I do believe that speaker Johnson must think that the American public writ large is as gullible the average MAGA knuckle dragger. Does he really think that a majority of Americans have forgotten the sick games being played by the ironically named House Freedom Caucus: "give us this and we'll be happy," and once they get it they will either insist that it's not enough or tank the entire deal. We've witnessed them shooting down a bill that included almost every demand that they made for two reasons: the Mango Malignancy wants to use immigration as a cudgel against the Dems in the general election and because there is absolutely no way that they will pass anything that will give even an inkling of success to those on the other side of the aisle. Until MAGA Mike gets a spine, and also grows a pair, *no* border security legislation will make it through the House -- the Fulvous Flatulence's bomb throwers will stand in the way. It is obvious, imo to a majority of Americans, that Johnson is taking his marching orders from the MAGA oberste Fuhrer, and the possibility of meaningful legislation, bipartisan legislation, is inconceivable.
The disfunction in the House, and the growing disfunction in the Senate, is due to the Peach[tree dish] Pestilence's sycophants and proxies carrying out his perverted wonts rather than the needs of their constituency. This terminal disease can only be cured when the Cadmium Orange Cancer and the MAGAdroids are either isolated or completely excised from the American body politic (option 2 is my preferred option).
Oh, and one more thing: Johnson's pronouncement that"[t]his is not a time for petty politics" would ring considerably truer if he wasn't already playing petty politics. IMO, the definition of "petty politics" are acting within political theater, and/or gaslighting the voting public that you are actually accomplishing something, and/or obstructing legislation that has bipartisan support because it "violates one's ethics and morals" -- both sadly lacking in a preponderance of the party (the "O" in GOP once meant "Old," in today's New GOP it stands for "Obstructionist").
fnord
fnord!
I'm just doing my part to open the eyes of the masses.
fnord
I'm rubber and you're glue..............
I was gobsmacked when I heard that rumour on Talking Feds this morning, but even more gobsmacked that there has been nothing about it in the NY Times, WaPo, Politico etc. This is the first place I’ve seen the rumour repeated.
I actually went to google as soon as I heard it yesterday, and multiple outlets were reporting on Heitkamp's statement and that Rosendale's camp was denying it. I hope she wasn't just spreading malicious unfounded rumors. I know that's part of the MAGA playbook, but I would like to be on the side that does better.
This morning, a friend reminded me that Feb 29 is the 4th anniversary of COVID in Seattle -- the day she first heard of a COVID death in the hospital where she worked as a nurse serving people living homeless. She is one of the many who ultimately burned out. A hopeful thing she also told me about was working to support others in the use of meditation to ease the effects of trauma. I sent her the link to Will Selber’s piece about the ART--another set of intersections that promote the health of people who most need help and--until pretty recently--were the least likely to get it. Joe, your updates are always worth reading, but this one was a standout. Thanks.
party of Putin. Also The Bulwark needs to highlight the plans in Project 2025
"Robbing Comer to pay Gaetz." You can seriously turn a phrase, Joe Perticone.
I listed the wrong author before the edit. The perils of the split screen come to life.
The Republican conference is such a shitshow. Rinse and repeat.
I just don’t get it. HFC demands stuff they will never get. The process plays out as everyone predicts with a bunch of twists, turns and maybe a few shutdowns. And agreement was made at exactly the same terms it was before hfc drove off the cliff. HFC gets big mad and yells and screams about “the uniparty, RINOs, communists, socialists, etc.” then elections happen and these same people get elected again even though they have accomplished nothing.
What they get is that the HFC is treated as important and influential in government and gets to be on TV (even if their only influence is destructively making other people unhappy).
The contrast to how Nancy Pelosi would have just told a Democratic equivalent to pound sand is notable though (she did so for The Squad, and Jeffries is continuing the same way). But this is enabled in part by Democratic voters not rewarding bomb-throwing, unlike MAGA.
To them, it's a win-win game: They either get what they want or things grind to a halt and they get to rant that nothing gets done.
Now this is exactly right.
If they win. Awesome.
If they lose. It’s the deep states fault or RINOs or communists.
This dysfunction all originates from their voters. Chuck Todd did a podcast on Friday with 2 authors who talk about it. Our politics will never change until Republican voters demand Republican legislators to solve problems. It won’t happen with democrats listening more to rural voters. It’s a good conversation
"This dysfunction all originates from their voters."
Don't forget the system of government that prioritizes their voices.
That magnifies them but the problem originates from the voters
The distortion does more than magnify. It also incentivizes them to exploit the distortions and insulates them from consequences of doing so. Thus it encourages dysfunctional voters.
To be fair, i agree with you.
My disagreement is with incentives of the voters. The legislators are obvious. They want to be reelected and it’s easy to do in deep red areas.
But the real issues is the voters in those deep red areas seem to want nothing but to “fight, fight, fight.” Until they demand their Republican legislators demand something be done from a policy perspective and punish their legislators if they don’t deliver, nothing will change.
I listened to a good podcast on this on Friday from chuck todd. Worth a listen. Basic thesis is the following: demanding dems to “listen” better/more to rural voters won’t work. They will never vote for a dem. They need to demand their legislators to not be bomb throwers
And they apparently they will likely vote no anyways. They want the government shutdown.
Yep but what is crazy is that it hurts other republicans. It’s the inability of “normie” republicans to employ similar tactics on the HFC
I know. I think some of these "normies" have had made comments to the effect that these guys don't vote for anything. There are plenty of spines available, should any of these guys want one.
Yep. That is what is so amazingly stupid: have ridiculous demands that will never get passed by any congress, scream and yell and hold the speaker hostage, shutdown the government, get the same deal they could have gotten before the government shutdown, rinse and repeat. What is amazing that leadership and the normie republicans just don’t make a deal with dems. You get the same exact result (hfc saying you’re a traitor or a RINO or a communist) except you don’t have to deal with the shutdown.
That is what I find so exhausting. You end up at the exact same point. Might as well, if you’re a normal Republican, do it faster. Same deal, same people bitching at you that your a RINO, no government shutdown. I just don’t know what I am missing n
I wonder how much the stupid agreement McCarthy made re: only needing one person to submit a discharge petition plays into this. If Johnson puts something forward that the HFC does not like, they might submit the discharge petition. I wonder if the Dems would vote for Johnson this time, with concessions demanded.
Oh it’s disastrous. It will stick with republicans for a long time. Every speaker will have to agree to this demand or they won’t get their votes. We know that these republicans aren’t principled and insanely greedy so they will say yes to anything. The house will be hosed for a longtime if a republican takes power
Of course but it’s cruelty to their own members. It doesn’t hurt libs at all