oblong

It’s safe to shop at Walgreens

At the end of the day I guess I blame McCarthy. He knows he doesn’t have the votes. Those 20 members, despite their motivations, are entitled to vote for the speaker they wish. He’s the one who is making this foolish now. They stood their ground. It’s time for the GOP to accept reality and come up with a solution.

Dingell won't run for Senate.

It would have be a lightning round type game though... you have 2-3 seconds to answer. Jody Reed? Mike Bordick? Bip Roberts? Luis Salazar? Chris Getz?

Making up a game called "Did they play for the Tigers" featuring washed up Middle Infielders would be fun.

I think a senate seat is a step down for Pete at this point.

You also have our Big 3 who are term limited in their current roles. Whitmer/Nessel/Benson.

"I seen that" in the Detroit News push alert. I remember when she upset Abraham in 2000. I think she would have beaten Engler in 1994 if Dems didn't nominate Wolpe. I think that was when the UAW still had some stronger sway in the party.

How soon, or has it started yet, does the Fox crowd start to blame democrats?

To elect Jefferies I assume. Otherwise what does the GOP have to offer the Dems? Assignments? Non Assignments? Jan 6 continues?

If someone else prevails does MK stay Majority Leader?

It's simply a game of chicken between the FC and McCarthy. Whoever flinches is wounded. FC doesn't care if nothing goes further. They can blame McCarthy and look like heroes to their voters. They win even if the country loses. If McCarthy or the GOP flinches then the nation knows the FC owns them.

I'm fine with the org not putting lipstick on a pig. We don't need a press conference with Fernando Vina and Jason Johnson circa 2004 telling us things will get better. Those are the types of things available to him at this point so why bother? Last year they did the big splash with Baez and now everyone wants him gone. Do fans learn nothing?

Right. One is an actual policy. The other is just showmanship and fake investigations. Policy can be negotiated and parceled out bit by bit.

Maybe his carrot is some bogus investigation they can play with as a toy. It would be something stupid but they can use to fundraise and give the Kirks something to chew on.

In case you don’t know Sen Patty Murray is now 2nd in line to the presidency. It’s Joe followed by two broads. Imagine that. In this day and age.

Scalise is now talking and somehow blaming Democrats.

The bots are out of control. I responded to a tweet last week, nothing special. It got over 10K impressions.

Michael's tweet thread shows some famous last minute politcal drama.... here's Leslie Stahl saying "Bush!" over and over... this was at Joe Louis Arena when the idea to name Ford as VP candidate fell through.

but wouldn't that still stick it to them by making them have a weak speaker? Then he can deal with them. If I were them I would argue that I am doing my job but the other side is a shit show and we have to get going. Until there's a speaker then nothing happens. Having a weak GOP majority in some ways is better for Dems going into '24. Nothing will get done and they have the power so they take the blame.

I don't know. I don't know how any of them can win enough of the flanks.

Nixon secretly sabotaged the peace talks in Oct of '68, having a spy indicate to the South that he would give them a better deal. He was afraid a peace agreement would tip the election to Humphrey. That planted the seeds later on for watergate. His fear in the Pentagon Papers thing was the discovery of that Johnson knew he did that. It was great theater. Nixon knew Johnson had his plane bugged. Johnson knew he knew he had his plane bugged. Nixon knew Johnson knew he caused the talks to fail. Two guys with no morals playing chicken. Of course after the election LBJ got on his hands and knees in the bedroom and showed Nixon his taping system, telling him he'd want something like that so that the academics don't get to write the damn history.