Thank goodness the fearless iconoclasts at the NYT are finally, bravely normalizing radical neoliberals from the Bush 2 cadre of failure.
I was worried for a moment.
Now up to two brows furrowed. Collins does go straight for the ‘both sides’ angle, but as she is a GOP senator, I’d still chalk her comments up as mildly encouraging.
Nesrie
5435
How many times do we have to keep hoping that Collins will do/be something different than she is only to have her fall in line in the end… again?
Agreed. I think we have seen enough to know that the ones doing this are just waiting for some sort of spiff for their state to fall in line.
Should we start a GoFundMe for all the Botox necessary to help with the many furrowed brows?
I don’t think that much money exists.
Hansey
5439
Yeah, Collins is only saying this because she knows that what she says doesn’t matter at all. My purely anecdotal observations (I live in Maine, but the very blue part of Maine) is that Mainers are chomping at the bit to vote Collins out. I’m fairly certain this is just her trying to keep some votes.
Collins is goddamn Lucy with the football.
She’s full of shit.
I know McCain gets credit from saving ACA with his dramatic vote, but if it wasn’t for the two women Senators ACA would have been repealed. Now admittedly there is a lot more “deeply concerned” expressions than actual votes against Trump but they both voted against him on a number of occasions. If the two side with Romney and maybe Ben Sasse there is chance the Senate impeachment trial maybe something other than farce.
Timex
5442
We don’t need to wonder, we’ll see what she does before folks vote on her again.
Alstein
5443
You’re assuming we even get a trial. I see good odds the House never sends the articles over until 1/2/2021.
All the newsheads are saying we’re going to see an impeachment trial in the Senate in the New Year.
No we’re not. Mitch will never give into Pelosi’s demands, so Pelosi will sit on the Articles forever.
Nothing will change.
For example, after a key meeting between the Defense Secretary and Trump on Aug. 30, two days after the aid freeze had become public, OMB political staffer Mike Duffey emailed the Pentagon.
“ Clear direction from POTUS to hold ,” he said.
The White House blocked the documents from the House of Representatives’ impeachment probe.
Note: Per CNN, 'clear direction from POTUS" had previously been redacted.
Although I’m mildly curious how Republicans will spin this (they’ll just ignore it and/or yell about leaks) can’t wait for NYT et al to turn this into “bUt bOtH sIdEs!”
Did the POTUS literally ask for quid pro quo? Then no quid pro quo! Suck it fake news witch hunt Dems!
Timex
5447
I would love for audio to come out where Trump actually says that he wants a quid pro quo, just to see what the new story from the GOP becomes.
Show me where he offered a quid for a quo. Can’t, can you? What’s a quo anyway?! Fucking cuck libs.
vyshka
5449
A quo is a black bird isn’t it?
SlyFrog
5450
I really don’t see what the point of this is. People gleefully cackling like they’ve finally caught him.
Is anyone really arguing that the President was withholding the aid? That’s not really their argument. Their argument was that the withholding wasn’t illegal, because it wasn’t for Trump’s personal benefit or for his political benefit, but instead to enforce U.S. policies of anti-corruption. That a quid pro quo tied to his personal benefit may be wrong, but a quid pro quo tied to the U.S. getting what it wants (anti-corruption efforts) is just good statesmanship.
I mean, that’s a complete crock of shit and everyone knows it - Trump has no interest whatsoever in good statesmanship - he was using the power of the office to hit a political opponent. Proving that intent is the difficult issue. But sometimes his opponents just astonish me, constantly rubbing their hands like, “We’ve got him now,” with things like this that are pretty freaking irrelevant.
Part of the problem is that so much of the left has crossed over into just absolute hatred of this guy, that they think they’ve found some silver bullet in every bit of corn they pick out of his shit. They need to find evidence of Trump saying he wants Biden hurt because it would help him politically, or something similar, not this circle jerk stuff they keep trumpeting to each other.
The GOP talking point during the House Intel Committee impeachment hearings was also that there was no evidence that Trump explicitly orderd the hold. None of the people testifying had direct knowledge tying the hold to a Trump order. These new documents point to clear evidence where the order to hold came from.
