POLITICS SCHMALITICS

[romad1]

I think I would be annoyed to have to work for any of these people.   I once interned for a GOP rep and the guy was getting free labor from me but insisted I use his title when talking to him.   While that seemed pretty innocuous to me at the time, it really bothered me when i saw how he treated others.  

Now Slotkin seems like she'd be a bit more difficult than others to work for, just a feeling.  Daughter from a wealthy family and all that. 

That said, they are ham sandwich and I'm voting for that over any GOP person until Trumpism and MAGA is no more. 

[pfife]

7 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

voting against appointments from the minority doesn't actually accomplish anything - it's nice symbolism, but does it matter? I'd guess most members make those votes because they are hoping to bank some goodwill capital to get something later that will be worth more than a symbolic no vote that doesn't stop anything. I guess there is a level where more 'symbol' can be good thing but in the end, stuff that doesn't make a difference, doesn't make a difference.

OTOH, if any of those votes could have stopped one of those appointments, then I agree with you.

Banking on goodwill capital with maga is foolish. I prefer senators who arent foolish 

[pfife]

Besides, everyone knows the way to curry favor with MAGA is to create an award to give to trump.   Voting for somoene hes going to throw under the bus within a year.... isnt.

[Motown Bombers]

El-Sayed was just on Fox News, but sure, going on Bill Maher that one time is the issue. 

[pfife]

Does MAGA even care if the nominees get confirmed by the Senate?  Hes got several 'acting' cabinet officials currently and had dozens and dozens of them in Trump1.

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Motown Bombers]

 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

8 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

voting against appointments from the minority doesn't actually accomplish anything - it's nice symbolism, but does it matter? I'd guess most members make those votes because they are hoping to bank some goodwill capital to get something later that will be worth more than a symbolic no vote that doesn't stop anything. I guess there is a level where more 'symbol' can be good thing but in the end, stuff that doesn't make a difference, doesn't make a difference.

OTOH, if any of those votes could have stopped one of those appointments, then I agree with you.

I wouldn't want my name or reputation at all associated with what this administration is doing. They're doing bad, immoral, unlawful things daily, especially Noem and her department. That's one major reason to cast a vote against. Getting to have the clear, moral clarity that you opposed this lawlessness and inhumanity at every turn means something imo.

[Motown Bombers]

15 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I wouldn't want my name or reputation at all associated with what this administration is doing. They're doing bad, immoral, unlawful things daily, especially Noem and her department. That's one major reason to cast a vote against. Getting to have the clear, moral clarity that you opposed this lawlessness and inhumanity at every turn means something imo.

Nah, you just want your name and reputation to be associated with a guy who thought the US deserved 9/11 and actively helped campaign against the opposition to this administration. 

[chasfh]

15 hours ago, romad1 said:

I don't anticipate it being close.  Gas prices + war + Trump's general putzery + blasphemy + JD Vance + Mike Johnson = a 1994, 2006 or 2010 wave. 

As long as it's a free and fair election, I agree.

[chasfh]

Lessons for the Democrats?

By Calder McHugh

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during the 2026 Liberal National Convention in Montreal, Canada, on April 11, 2026. | Andrej Ivanov/AFP via Getty Images

MONTREAL — What happened last year in Canada is by now a matter of political lore. Harnessing a wave of Canadian nationalism in opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s belligerent rhetoric, Prime Minister Mark Carney implored voters to get their “elbows up” and led his Liberal Party to victory after trailing badly in the polls. Then, in January, Carney won international acclaim for delivering the most consequential speech at Davos, arguing that a “rupture in the world order” required a new approach from middle powers like Canada. Yet even as Carney’s global stature grew and his popularity surged, his Liberal Party remained short of a majority government — until last night. By sweeping three special elections, Carney finally has a majority in Parliament. The victory should keep Carney in office until 2029, and it enables him to more easily enact a domestic agenda that includes trade policies designed to reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the United States. But it also offers lessons for center-left parties around the globe as they struggle for relevance amid the rise of the populist far right. The election results come on the heels of a jarring — and perhaps revealing — moment in Canadian politics. Last week, Marilyn Gladu, a former Conservative MP, crossed the floor to join the Liberals, becoming the fifth member in a year to do so, along with three other Conservatives and a New Democrat. Gladu, however, stood out among the group. A social conservative who won her safely Conservative riding in 2025 by over 15 points, when she arrived on stage at the Liberal Party Convention in Montréal on Friday, she was such an unlikely convert that her appearance was met with a mix of modest applause and pointedly folded arms. In the media scrum afterward, as journalists shouted questions about her seemingly contradictory past positions, she insisted that this is what her constituents want. “It’s going to be good for the riding … good for the country … and it’s good for me personally as well,” Gladu said. The last point is the operative one. Success has begotten success for Canada’s Liberals. People like a winner. And Carney has laid the groundwork for this directional change. As POLITICO’s Nick Taylor-Vaisey recently noted, the current version of Canada’s Liberals looks a lot more like that of the early 2000s, when social conservatives were more commonplace within the party. And while much has been made of the backlash to Trump that has advanced Liberal Party fortunes, Carney has also signaled he intends to be a big-tent leader, ideologically and stylistically different from his more polarizing predecessor, Justin Trudeau. A technocratic former central banker more comfortable in board rooms than on the stump, Carney has nevertheless leaned into gladhanding with voters. He has cast himself as a change candidate — and revisited a decade of Liberal policy on climate, taxes and federal public service expansion — without entirely jettisoning Trudeau’s priorities. “If I’m a Conservative … I want to campaign against giving Liberals a fifth term rather than Mark Carney a second,” said Gerald Butts, the chairman of the Eurasia Group and a senior strategic advisor to Carney and Trudeau. “But in order to do that, you have to make the case that he’s the same old, same old. And I think that’s going to be a tough brief.” For now, as political parties of all stripes around the globe become more insular and more insistent on purity tests, Carney’s broadening of the definition of a Canadian Liberal is expanding his coalition at home. And his willingness to forcefully buck the United States has made him a leader in nascent global attempts to build a new Western alliance without Washington as its beating heart. But, as pollster Philippe Fournier said, “When you have a big tent, how much can you stretch the fabric until it snaps?”

[Motown Bombers]

LOL Dems did that in 2024. Harris campaigned with Liz Cheney. Kinzinger and Olivia Troye spoke at the convention. The far left said Dems and Republicans were the same.