I’m sure you have all heard by now
* NY Times staffers report that McCarthy wanted Trump to resign, and other details embarrassing to McCarthy
* McCarthy denies everything
* Reporters pull a Hedley LaMarr (“Oh, sorry, I just remembered. I AM armed.”). Specifically: Oh, sorry, we forgot to mention. It’s all on tape.
About four years ago I mentioned that the smartest person dealing with Donald Trump was Omarosa. She had dealt with him numerous times in the past as part of his reality show, so she knew that he would simply lie about everything. She therefore taped every single conversation with him. Best of all, she didn’t immediately reveal that she had the tapes. She wrote or told interviewers about all the evil shit Trump had said, like a cagey lioness, hiding in the tall grass, setting her trap for an unsuspecting antelope, just waiting for Trump to deny everything. He was easy prey, the antelope predictably heading to the watering hole at sundown, insulting her and lying about everything right on cue, whereupon Omarosa went full Hedley LaMarr and said, “Oh, sorry, I AM armed – with tapes.” After a couple of lame attempts to have his spin doctors handle the situation, Trump finally let it go, a rare thing to see. He obviously didn’t want any more of her tapes becoming public.
These two NY Times guys have just sprung the same trap on McCarthy. They let him lie his ass off, deny everything, and rant about the liberal media, before they revealed that they had it all recorded.
That was a great move, but the best news of all for us political junkies is that the reporters assert that this tape is just a drop in their immense bucket of recorded material! This means that politicians really can’t deny anything they have written in their new book. While they may not have tapes to support every single claim in their book, they may have just that. That means that any denial of their story is a major gamble because it could make things much worse if there is tape to back the story. The politicians will have two choices – either admit they are guilty as charged, or risk a denial that might be refuted on tape – thereby proving them both guilty and dishonest, while simultaneously prolonging the life of a negative story in the media cycle.
(Their trap is also a helluva marketing scheme. That book is already #1 on the best seller charts, and it hasn’t been released yet.)
All of this raises a fascinating question. Who made these tapes? Liz Cheney was on the one they have already released, but she swears that she is not the culprit. So where did these tapes come from?
I suppose most on this site don’t want to believe it, but ALL POLITICIANS ARE FUCKING LYING BASTARDS.
And there’s no santa nor any evidence of an easter bunny. Might as well blow all the dreams up at once. Reality can be cruel.
Definitely a false equivalence. It’s the usual conservative argument: the scandals we fabricate about the Democrats are about equal to the scandals we actually commit, so it’s even.
In terms of honesty- well, Obama “lied” about whether we can keep our doctors, so that makes it even with Trump’s lies about the election which prompted a coup against the government of the United States.
The liberals, especially the leftmost ones, are delusional and they are going to lose the government because they are losing the culture wars in the purple states. But the liberal failure is that they don’t grasp reality, not that they deny it. They have lost sight of the fact the being a liberal really means sticking up for the concerns of the little guy, giving a voice to the voiceless, not kow-towing to professorial concerns about racial theories and gender fluidity (which actually alienate the very working classes they are supposed to be championing).
As far as I can see, Hunter Biden is a bad egg who has had a serious problem with drug abuse, and who has taken advantage of his last name. He’s definitely a weaselly mofo, but there is nothing inherently illegal about accepting money and gifts from foreign interests if you are a private citizen and your dad is a famous, powerful person. But you do have to pay taxes on it, and he seems to have failed in that regard. He may be guilty of criminal tax evasion and money laundering, and possibly unregistered lobbying. But he’s not in power, and has apparently not exerted any influence over those who are. He’s just a bad guy, a deeply troubled guy, and a weasel, albeit one with powerful relatives.
Giving a voice to the voiceless? Sounds like kow-towing to race and gender politics.
Personally as a member of the working class I can work 60 hours a week and somehow manage not to be a dick to trans people. Its almost like you can do multiple things at the same time. Dems are “losing” the messaging battle but that’s because its harder to play defence. The GOP is constantly in a perpetual Gish Gallop and it takes time and effort to deal with that level of bullshit.
A little more smashmouth from the Dems might help. For example, next time Lauren Boebert opens her trap, very loudly remind everyone that her husband is a sex offender.
The Dems might lose for three reasons:
1 – Too many GOP States control voting and they’re perfectly willing to fuck over urban voting districts to get what they want.
2 – “Its the economy stupid.” Unfortunately things could be better. I wouldn’t really put the blame on Biden personally but he’s going to have to shoulder more of it than he should.
3 – American’s are contrarian as fuck in their voting habits. They’ll happily vote against the incumbent because “fuck you that’s why”.
What the Dems have forgotten is that “the voiceless” includes working class America, not just assorted minorities. Once the Dems were their voice, but now, while liberals still represent their economic interests, the liberal messaging is so repulsive to that group that the working class whites are actually willing to vote against their own economic interests just to stop putting up with liberal overreach. When people will vote against their own pocketbook to toss you out of office, you know you have to work on your messaging.
Plus the conservatives are willing to pay lip service to the religious right, many of whom are one- or two-issue voters.
My pickleball doubles partner is sort of a one-issue voter. She’s a teacher, not at all racist, compassionate – but she’s a top female athlete, and her one issue is that she now has to compete against chromosomal males. She finds Trump and his crowd repulsive, but will continue to vote against liberals until they show at least a hint of common sense on this issue.
Joe and Hunter say just deny everything and it’ll all blow over, even if they have your personal laptops.
Didn’t Tucker claim he had EVERYTHING from those laptops and was going to blow the kid off this a year ago, idiot? Where’s the evidence? I know dumbfuck conservatives who insist there’s pictures of him fucking Obama’s kids in there because the chick he’s fucking is black…must be Obama’s kid right, they all look the same.
Moron.
Speaking of Tucker… see this
Right, they’re as honest as the day is long. Those laptops don’t exist!!! Tucker doesn’t have them so they aren’t real! Libs will say anything to deny the truth.
Well, Tucker told so many lies about the matter that it did appear that the whole story was fabricated.
When the laptop turned out to be real, it was like finding out that the school nerd really did have a girlfriend in Canada.
As I recall, Tucker had it all written down and then the dog ate his homework.
(Actually it got “lost in the mail,” which was logical, because we all send double top secret, super important stuff via UPS, and don’t keep any copies of it.)
Why are so many of the rabid right wingers who come around here named Steve? Is there a reason for that, or is Steven the new Chad or something?
Also, are you irradiating your testicles, steve aggro? Tucker says you have to irradiate your testicles or you will not be manly!
That’s because “Steve,” “steve,” “Steve Acra,” “steve acra,” “Stephen” and “stephen” are all the same guy. I allowed an exception to the sock puppet rule, even though it’s confusing, because he is not trying to disguise his identity. It’s obvious that they are all the same person.
However, it does get a little messy because there are two other conservative-leaning commenters named “steven” and “Steverino” who are not the same person, nor is either of them the first guy (as far as I know).
Anyway, no harm, no foul. They’re just some guys who don’t agree with you. I suppose your Universal Steve rule is just based on a coincidence.
I for one thought it was the same person as steverino.
Anything is possible with proxy servers and VPNs. I can make myself seem like I live anywhere.
But they do seem to be different people based on their IPs.
I don’t know if anybody will care about this because I admit that this is something of a personal obsession of mine that doesn’t seem to interest anybody else. I’m surprised these two New York Times journalists pulled this off, because the New York Times is no longer the ‘Gray Lady’ or ‘the newspaper of record’ (if it ever real was.) One of the two New York Times journalists who authored this book is Jonathan Martin, who is the smuggest and laziest ignoramus I’ve ever seen interviewed (I’ve seen him occasionally on CNN’s Inside Politics.)
In terms of the ‘liberal media’, I don’t think he’s left or right, he just offers the most trite conventional wisdom.
The British television show referenced here occasionally, Yes, Minister (and Yes Prime Minister) wasn’t just cynical of politicians, it was also cynical of journalists (which is odd, since, in my opinion anyway, the British political press is actually by far the best I’ve seen in the English speaking nations.) The program portrayed the British political press as lazy alcoholics who waited around in Potter’s Bar (that name is a pun itself) for politicians or civil servants to leak government documents to them.
Anyway, I’m impressed and surprised that Jonathan Martin and his co-author pulled this off.
Apologies to douches …
The irony is this might lose the speakership for McCarthy. But not because he’s a traitorous fuckstain, because he was mean to Trump.
I really liked Jonah Goldberg’s take on this: “I think there would be no more fitting end to Kevin McCarthy’s dream of becoming speaker than the “scandal” of him being exposed as privately believing the right and moral thing.”
I’m inclined to believe Liz Cheney’s denial that she recorded or leaked the call. If you ask who had the most to gain from leaking the tape, the answer is probably Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan. They would probably be McCarthy’s biggest rivals for becoming Speaker. McCarthy of course isn’t letting a little thing like being caught on tape keep him from denying he said those things. I am sure someone with more musical talent than I have will do a Kevin McCarthy version of Shaggy’s “It wasn’t me.” As lies go it pales in comparison to the claims of election fraud.
As for Trump, last I heard he wasn’t attacking McCarthy over this. McCarthy actually criticized Trump on the House floor after the riot. But a few weeks later he went to Mar A lago to apologize and beg Trump not to take his House minority leader position away from him. Trump probably admires McCarthy’s sheer gall to lie so brazenly. They deserve each other. In a right and just world, Liz Cheney would become Speaker. Even with a Republican wave, the GOP would probably gain less than 40 seats because of all the gerrymandering. I wonder if Peloso could convince her caucus to support Cheney for Speaker along with 20 or 25 of the more ethical GOP reps (ethics graded on a curve obviously). Maybe if Jim Jordan was the GOP choice it might happen. I’d prefer Mccarthy to him.
Isn’t Liz also on a speaker? If she recorded it it would be her voice live. People say it’s that nutjob Elise Stefanik trying to usurp the job.
As I understand it, Cheney was on the call because she was the 3rd ranking member of the GOP caucus at that time. She was later stripped of that position for telling the truth about Trump. I believe Stefanik replaced Cheney, but that was months after the call. I don’t know that Stefanik would have been on the call. But I’m not positive about that. Cheney might have wanted to leak the recording for well deserved revenge. But she denied it and as I wrote above, others have motives to kneecap McCarthy. There is actually a significant chance Stefanik won’t be in Congress next year. The NY legislature increased the percentage of Dems in her district by 20% through gerrymandering. But there is a lawsuit challenging the redistricting because gerrymandering is illegal under NY State law. Or at least that’s what CBS news said this morning.
Well der…
They have a third choice, which is to not say anything and let their hypocrisy get washed away in the next news cycle. They know that their base doesn’t care about truth, the Constitution, or democracy. They just want fealty pledged to the Big Orange Turd.
I’m pretty sure the base just wants all of the liberals to shut their mouths. The irony is the more the progressives talk, the better the GOP does.
Never underestimate the ignorance of the American voter.
Exactly, fwald. The base is so fucking stupid that it would work. How many times has Orange Shitstain lied about stuff for which there was audio and video proof he was lying?