Month: January 2018
Sanders: Democrats Are ‘Obstructionist Losers’
“This is the behavior of obstructionist losers, not legislators.”
— White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, quoted by Politico, after the Senate failed to prevent a government shutdown.
Shutdowns Are a Part of GOP Brand
“This is so basic and runs so deep that people ignore it. But it’s worth repeating: shutdowns are part of the Republican brand. The facts, in this case, show the GOP is at fault. But even if they didn’t, even if the facts showed the opposite, the GOP would still have a hard time because again: shutdowns are part of the Republican brand. They invented them as a policy and legislative cudgel. They’ve used them consistently under Democratic presidents. And because Republicans are generally inimical to the idea that government is a positive force in people’s lives and valorize dramatic and high stakes political gambits they have consistently embraced the concept and strategy of government shutdowns.”
— Josh Marshall
Durbin Recalls ‘Offal Office’ Meeting
“After Lindsey and I left the room and got in the car together to come back to Capitol Hill, it was silence in the car. We had just witnessed something that neither one of us ever expected.”
— Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), quoted by the New York Times, on the Oval Office meeting where President Trump referred to “shithole” countries.
Trump’s Record-Setting Year — for Staff Turnovers
34%
NPR: “If President Trump’s first year in office seemed chaotic from a staffing perspective, there’s a reason. Turnover among top-level staff in the Trump White House was off the charts, according to a new Brookings Institution report. … Turnover in Trump’s first year was more than triple that in former President Barack Obama’s first year, and double the rate in President Ronald Reagan’s White House. A full 34 percent of high-level White House aides either resigned, were fired or moved into different positions in this first year of the Trump presidency.”
Majority Now Strongly Disapprove of Trump
57%
A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 39% of Americans approve of President Trump’s job performance — “the lowest mark in the poll’s history for any modern president ending his first year. … Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Trump’s job, including a majority of respondents — 51% — who now say they strongly disapprove, which is a record high for Trump in the survey.” A new USC-Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll finds just 32%, approved of Trump’s job performance, compared with 55% who disapproved and 12% who were neutral.
Sen. Duckworth To Donald : ‘I Will Not be Lectured about What Our Military Needs by a Five-Deferment Draft Dodger’
In the Senate debate over the shutdown today, Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth ripped into Donald Trump over his attempts to blame Democrats for the effects of the shutdown on military personnel:
Donald on Government Shutdown in 2013: ‘Problems Start at the Top, and the President’s the Leader’
At minute 2:05:
DONALD TRUMP: Well, if you say who gets fired it always has to be the top. I mean, problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top and the president’s the leader. And he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead … It’s a very, very bad thing, and it’s very embarrassing worldwide.
A Lunatic’s Spasm
Most see Trump’s “bigger button” tweet as impolitic,
And most admit it’s a poor example of realpolitik.
But leave it to the North Koreans
Who’ve practiced insult art for eons,
To characterize Trump’s tweet as the “spasm of a lunatic.”