When I first read this, I didn’t think there was any way that it could possibly be real, but now I’m not so sure…
Former Fox News pundit Erick Erickson claims to have spent yesterday evening grocery shopping with a Republican congressman who, as he made his way up and down the aisles of a D.C. Safeway, vented about Donald Trump, whom he referred to as “(A)n evil, really fucking stupid Forrest Gump.”
And, here, by way of The Maven is an except from Erickson’s subsequent report, which was published today.
“(D)ammit,” [says the congressman], “he’s taking us all down with him. We are well and truly fucked in November. Kevin [McCarthy] is already circling like a green fly circling shit trying to take Paul’s [Ryan] job because nobody thinks he’s sticking around for Nancy [Pelosi]…”
“It’s like Forrest Gump won the presidency, but an evil, really fucking stupid Forrest Gump. He can’t help himself. He’s just a fucking idiot who thinks he’s winning when people are bitching about him. He really does see the world as ratings and attention…”
“Judiciary is stacked with a bunch of people who can win re-election so long as they don’t piss off Trump voters in the primary. But if we get to summer and most of the primaries are over, they just might pull the trigger if the President fires Mueller. The shit will hit the fan if that happens, and I’d vote to impeach him myself. Most of us would, I think. Hell, all the Democrats would, and you only need a majority in the House. If we’re going to lose because of him, we might as well impeach the motherfucker. Take him out with us and let Mike [Pence] take over. At least then we could sleep well at night,” he said before going off on a tangent about how the situations with Russia and China scare him. Then, “You know having Mike as President would really piss off all the right people, too. They think they hate Trump. Mike is competent,” at which point he sighs and laments that there were, in his mind, more than a dozen competent choices in 2016.
So the implication is they wouldn’t vote for impeachment if they might be opposed in primaries, I asked. He confirmed he does not think the votes are there to impeach the President if any of the Judiciary Committee members are facing primary opponents. But get through that and, if Mueller is fired, he thinks so and thinks a majority of the House would vote to impeach President Trump.
“I say a lot of shit on TV defending him, even over this. But honestly, I wish the motherfucker would just go away. We’re going to lose the House, lose the Senate, and lose a bunch of states because of him. All his supporters will blame us for what we have or have not done, but he hasn’t led. He wakes up in the morning, shits all over Twitter, shits all over us, shits all over his staff, then hits golf balls. Fuck him. Of course, I can’t say that in public or I’d get run out of town…”
Speaking of Paul Ryan, he announced this afternoon that, having accomplished what he’d set out to do, he’d be retiring from Congress. I’m sure it’s not the end that he’d anticipated just a little over a year ago, when he smugly announced the dawn of a new era, a epoch of change led by a “unified Republican government,” but, given what we’ve seen happen under his tenure, it’s not at all surprising. [While he said that he’d done everything he’d set out to do, all he really accomplished was the passage of a reckless tax cut for the super wealthy that doomed his party’s chances in 2018.] Here’s a video clip from the start of the Trump administration, when Ryan, thinking that he had the world by the balls, anticipated being able to pass every single piece of conservative legislation he and his corporate donors wanted without a care in the world.
Hey @SpeakerRyan how's this going so far? pic.twitter.com/29LP344fnG
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) November 8, 2017
It’s pretty hilarious in retrospect… With every branch of government under their control, all they could do was pass tax cuts for the super-wealthy. That’s it. They couldn’t repeal Obamacare. They couldn’t roll back the New Deal. Sure, they’d attempt to whittle away at things, but, when it came right down to it, the American people actually liked universal health care, and those tax cuts for the super-wealthy, instead of energizing the Republican base, guaranteed that they’d start losing races even in places like Virginia and Alabama. The Republicans had it all, but, having sold their souls to get it, it was all for nothing. They told themselves that they could live with Trump’s “pussy grabbing, the birtherism, winking acceptance of Naziism, and all the rest of it, just so long as they got a shot to remake the country the way they wanted it, but, when the time came, it all fell apart. The foundation was built on shit, and they just couldn’t manage the unstable coalition of racists, fascists and corporate CEOs that had delivered them to power. So, now, with the end in sight, our elected Republicans are bitching at Safeway, trying to figure out how they might cut ties with Trump and save their party. But, as we know, it’s far too late for that. The party was dead the moment Donald Trump wrapped its withered husk around himself and ascended to the White House. And, now, not just him, but every one of the cowardly Republicans who put their own careers above their country, are going to find themselves consigned to the dustbin of history. The question isn’t whether or not the Republican Party will survive, but whether or not the nation will be able to withstand the forces of hate and violence that they unleashed in their quest to have it all.
[You know, at this very minute, Donald Trump has staff members like Stephen Miller combing through Safeway security camera footage to determine the identify of this unnamed congressman, right?]
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I was thinking about statues today. Why is it that we only erect statues of people we respect and value? Why don’t we also commemorate the Benedict Arnold’s of the world? Why don’t we remember the weak and evil… cautionary tales of what can go wrong when we collectively lose focus? For a long time, I’ve been thinking about Mueller statues, and when the first ones will start going up. Today, though, I started thinking about “never forget” statues of Donald Trump, supported by the likes of McConnell and Ryan. I wound’t want such a thing outside my house necessarily, but I think that it should exist somewhere… a constant reminder of what can happen we weak and corrupt men come to power.
This is precisely how most of the life long Republicans I know talk about Trump. They can’t stand him, see him as a direct threat to their party and think 2018 will be a Dem landslide. And they worry most about his foreign policy impact. Precisely. Sounds just like them. Oh and tax reform was their primary objective for this past year… See Ryan. PS the people gunning for his seat and others are white nationalists, so it’s way way to early to be cheering.
Re: statues… Statues are commemorative. They celebrate. Memorials are for evil. They mourn.
I found the comment about him (Ryan) wanting to be out of office by the time Pelosi takes over to be really interesting… like the kind of kid who, when he starts losing at a game, takes his ball and goes home. So pathetic.
As for the observation about how the calculus of impeachment could change once people know whether or not they’re going to have primary opponents on the right, I wonder how much that changes given the fact that we have increasingly fewer safe districts for Republicans. I mean, in 2016 it may have been the case that, because of gerrymandering, etc, Republican incumbents just had to make it through the primary season, but isn’t it different now, given that Democrats have been winning seats in districts that trump won by over 20%?
“how the calculus of impeachment could change once people know whether or not they’re going to have primary opponents on the right”
The thing that struck me the most. No principles, no scruples. Only self interest.
You know its bad when paul ryan starts looking like a reasonable person.
yep.
https://www.theroot.com/meet-the-white-nationalist-most-likely-to-take-over-for-1825180770
I don’t doubt the “Trump effect” will give many Democrats added momentum going into the 2018 elections, but I’d be cautious about coasting on that. Democrats were (overly) confident about winning the White House in 2016, and we all know how that turned out …
Instead of just waiting around for anti-Trump sentiment to lift them into control of the House/Senate, I think Democrats really need to develop and promote a compelling (as in clear, easy-to-understand) vision that would inspire not just die-hards, but also less committed voters, to come to the polls … creating a wave that is sufficient to not only win national-level races, but statehouses, and down-ballot seats, as well.
In other words – what do the Democrats have to offer besides being “anti-Trump?” And, if they do end up winning the House and/or Senate, what do they plan to actually do with that power?
Re ‘the calculus,’ what I’m hearing from pundits is that the GOP may impeach after the 2018 elections but before they leave office. I had feared what they would do in lame duck session, but I don’t fear this.
The rise of white nationalists as opponents to establishment GOP and tea party candidates makes me super nervous though. We have learned by now not to under-estimate these folks, and no, they aren’t like normal Republicans. They really aren’t. Open racism is different that subconscious racism. Dems are no better than the GOP on subconscious racism and internalized bias. But we no longer have the open racists, the GOP took them. Now they are paying for it.
Why have I heard very little about potential local candidates so far this election cycle? I’m not interested in who’s going to win what primary in a locked district. Who’s running for governor? Before anybody jumps in with “do your own research”, the very fact that I have to do that is a bit telling about the state of local political outreach. Maybe it’s too early, but I’m not really motivated to vote for somebody. I guess I’ll just go to the polls to vote against somebody.
Saw this one on Twitter the other day RE: Ryan – Atlas Fled.
JcP– There’s a local candidate forum in A2 tonight: http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2018/04/ann_arbor_candidate_forum_toda.html
You may not have heard much because the filing deadline has not been reached yet. There have been candidate forums, however. The Dem Party recently hosted the gubernatorial candidates. They had to turn people away. (link to live stream) https://www.facebook.com/washtenawdems/videos/1836250846395380/
I’m not sure why you imagine the information will come to you. There is limited interest in local elections and so media coverage, while there, doesn’t rise to the top and no one watches TV anymore, so candidates are limited in outreach. But they are out there. Ann Arbor Votes is a good resource for local candidates.
It seems what you are complaining about is really the lack of interest by the public in down-ticket elections. How would you suggest amending that?
https://politics.theonion.com/entitled-deadbeat-finally-breaks-out-of-20-year-cycle-o-1825185530
Axios is reporting that Ryan is going to be forced from the position of Speaker of the House:
One source close to leadership told us: “Scuttlebutt is that Paul will have to step down from speakership soon. Members won’t follow a lame duck, he’ll have no leverage to cut deals, and the last thing they need in this environment is 6 months of palace intrigue and everyone stabbing everyone else in the back.”
https://www.axios.com/ryan-speakership-summer-mccarthy-scalise-freedom-caucus-78bfd3b7-7cc2-47f4-ba4e-aebf63f08700.html
“he sighs and laments that there were, in his mind, more than a dozen competent choices in 2016.” <– Relatively, sure; but in absolute terms, this may be the scariest quote in this post.
Wonkette speculates the Safeway shopping congressman is none other that Peter King.
https://wonkette.com/632462/which-gop-congressman-cussed-trump-to-erick-erickson-at-the-safeway-a-wonkvestigation
Interestingly enough, Samantha Bee (and staff) also think it’s Peter King:
https://medium.com/@fullfrontalsamb/we-used-all-our-detective-skills-to-figure-out-which-congressman-delivered-the-profanity-laced-b182447a29e1
“We the People” are in such a sad and frightful situation at the moment.
Our GOP representatives and some Democrats are so afraid to stand up for our country, this, our beautiful nation that once belonged to the majority and was attempting to include and equalize everyone; is now clearly trying to split the nation into the rich against poor, white against color, big business against the small individual and smiling about it. Consistently, the GOP continue to put Trump ahead of country and financial gain above all else. The Republican members of the House and Senate see and understand what Trump has done to our United States of America and yet, they continue to stand beside this poor example of a human being. All those religious fundamentalists that helped to put Trump into the White House need to ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” Indeed, consider the “wall”, disrespecting Native American land and treaties, the separation of families, Trump’s incompetence and limited mental functions when meeting with other world leaders, his word choices and approach to women and finally, his belief in Russia as our friend even with the recent uncovered indictments proving Russian hacking into our American voting process. Where is common sense? Where are the courageous, the people with a backbone, and what happened high ideals? It doesn’t appear that the GOP ever had any. Again, it is the party over the people.
From Newsweek:
TRUMP SPEAKS AT FOURTH-GRADE LEVEL, LOWEST OF LAST 15 U.S. PRESIDENTS, NEW ANALYSIS FINDS
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-and-fury-smart-genius-obama-774169%3famp=1