Patterico's Pontifications

3/14/2017

White House Official: We Bought Romney’s Credibility with Frog Legs

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:00 am



In the middle of a long profile of the snake Kellyanne Conway is this fun little tidbit, in which a Mystery Official from the White House mocks Mitt Romney:

During the transition, Conway began publicly criticizing, on Twitter and on television, Trump’s consideration of Mitt Romney for secretary of state. Romney and Trump were in the midst of a high-profile courtship, and Romney was reportedly a leading contender for the job, when Conway tweeted that she was receiving a “deluge” of feedback from Trump fans who would feel “betrayed” by Romney’s selection.

. . . .

Romney dined with Trump in New York and gave a public statement that seemed to retract his previous concerns and expressed confidence in the president-elect. Nonetheless, he was passed over. Trump chose Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO, for the post instead.

“Judas Iscariot got 30 pieces of silver; Mitt Romney got a dish of frog legs at Jean-Georges. And even at that, it was the appetizer portion,” a high-ranking White House official told me. “We’ve sort of taken out his larynx—how can he criticize [Trump] now?”

The episode was, Conway said, an example of her method: operating “dimensionally,” not “linearly,” to get results. She pointed to a dinner where Trump told a group of diplomats that Tillerson was “a man that I wanted right from the beginning.” In the end, Conway hadn’t just gotten her way. She had made the president think it was his idea all along.

Yeah, this is the group you want to deal with. Sooner or later, this administration will lift its leg and pee on you. It’s all about showing your dominance, you see.

After Barack Obama and his crowd, there was a yearning to get some adults in the White House, finally. Instead, we got this.

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

143 Responses to “White House Official: We Bought Romney’s Credibility with Frog Legs”

  1. No man is an island, they’ll find that out sooner or later.

    It’s interesting that they have threatened to primary the Representatives, and Senators in the reddest states.

    That will keep the Right divided and let Dems win enough seats to possibly Impeach Trump.

    And hell–by the time the Trump experts are done winning friends for him, more Republicans will be looking for reasons to be rid of Trump. Trump has someone “helping” him who is drunk on the power of hate.

    Rae Sremmurd (2fd998)

  2. They need to learn their Bible better, if they’re going to pretend to be Christians. It was Esau who sold his patrimony for a dish of potage. A much better analogy for the Romney dinner. The 30 pieces of silver one is what the Trumps are doing with their overseas business dealings.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. And for a slutbag like Kellyanne Conway to mock Romney is like Jesus being mocked by Herod.

    nk (dbc370)

  4. The Trump Team think they can dismiss everything that Romney advocated.

    They are trying to sell those ideas as failed because they are trying to sell the idea that Romney running against the First African American President in an incumbency election is equal to run against Hillary with historic unfavorables and zero talent for campaigning. It’s not an equal comparison at all.

    A lot of Senators significantly outperformed Trump. Not sure if that’s natural. People have always talked about drop off down ballot, and almost every Senator outperformed Trump again–by significant margins, and they were probably up against candidates more talented and likeable than Hillary. (I have to do some homework and see if that has happened before in relatively recent history.)

    Rae Sremmurd (2fd998)

  5. 2016 was a Senate Class Class I election with a high number of GOP incumbents in battleground states. The incumbents’ GOTV, particularly in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, was responsible for the Senators outpolling Trump by a significant margin. 2020 is a Senate Class II election and Trump will have to rely much more heavily upon the RNC GOTV, led by Ronna Romney McDaniel (Mitt’s niece).

    I wonder if she knows the old Italian saying “La vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddissimo.”

    Rick Ballard (1c1d4f)

  6. ‘… previous concerns’ is a rather tepid turn of phrase to characterize the Romney rants regarding Trump. So is a swing at KAC, who was successful whereas Ryan flails and Romney failed.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. @2 nk

    I read somewhere that in that context “potage” was a bowl of lentil soup-which is much better than frog legs IMO.

    To paraphrase Jerry Clower, I never have been so poor I had to eat frog legs.

    As far as Trump goes, are you saying his business is building on potter’s fields?

    Pinandpuller (f2bdbc)

  8. 2016 was a Senate Class Class I election with a high number of GOP incumbents in battleground states. The incumbents’ GOTV, particularly in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, was responsible for the Senators outpolling Trump by a significant margin. 2020 is a Senate Class II election and Trump will have to rely much more heavily upon the RNC GOTV, led by Ronna Romney McDaniel (Mitt’s niece).
    I wonder if she knows the old Italian saying “La vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddissimo.”

    *******************

    True–I forgot to factor in their incumbency. Still–though–is that usual–that they would outperform the numbers of– the top of the ticket candidate? Seems to defy the conventional wisdom of “drop off down ballot”.

    Also–as an aside– the people at Decision Desk had an interesting breakdown of the Trump vote. Weirdly Trump got a bigger percentage of the white female youth vote (39.5%) than the white male youth vote. (37.5%) Supposedly more of the young men voted–third party. (16.1% of them). Might be the real reason Trump is going after Rand Paul.

    https://decisiondeskhq.com/data-dives/how-the-2016-vote-broke-down-by-race-gender-and-age/

    Rae Sremmurd (2fd998)

  9. Yes, the Septuagint calls it “lentils”. “Potage” is from the King James version.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. So anactual recording of Ryan nevermind, but some apocryphal
    Remark relayed by a tray carrier, surf why not.

    narciso (d1f714)

  11. Tillerson is supposed to have bene recommended by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. and Condoleeza Rice.

    http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/donald-trump-rex-tillerson-secretary-of-state

    ….Trump reportedly grew frustrated with the burden of naming someone to the top diplomatic post. He was “looking for a way out,” one person close to the process told The Washington Post. Then, into Trump Tower walked Robert Gates, who unexpectedly offered an unfamiliar alternative: ExxonMobil C.E.O. Rex Tillerson. Trump nominated him two weeks later.

    At the time, Trump didn’t know who Tillerson was, according to a Post report documenting the president-elect’s decision-making process. But Gates, a former C.I.A. director and secretary of defense, made a compelling case for Tillerson, whose company was also one of his clients at the consulting firm he runs with former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, RiceHadleyGates. Rice had also mentioned Tillerson’s name to Vice President-elect Mike Pence the day before, and so his stock began to rise…

    And similarly, in the New York Times and other sources.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/opinion/for-mitt-romney-dinner-and-a-kiss-off.html

    Sammy Finkelman (63d78b)

  12. Recently I was at a local kabob place and the spicy red bean and chicken soup was so good if I were lawyer I’d steal the recipe and call it “Better Than Mediation Spicy Red Bean Soup”. All your birthrights are belonging to us.

    It’s kind of like how when you’re in your 20’s you can’t understand middle aged people talking about better than sex chocolate cake.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  13. Rae Sremmurd (2fd998) — 3/14/2017 @ 11:36 am

    Seems to defy the conventional wisdom of “drop off down ballot”.

    The total number of votes cast drops off but they can split differently, and there can also be more dropoff from one party than the
    other, not to mention people who cast a third party vote for president. It’s pretty common for a Senate candidate to win who is of the opposite party of the presidential candidate who carries the same state.

    Supposedly more of the young men voted–third party.

    That makes a lot of sense. It’s my impressionn women are more “practical” when it comes to voting. There could be some other factors as well.

    Sammy Finkelman (63d78b)

  14. Meanwhile, from the sane side of the bloggosphere; VDH. https://amgreatness.com/2017/03/13/trump-message-messenger/

    The media focuses on Trump the messenger, either because they are not interested in his message or because they see the personal destruction of Trump as essential to the implosion of his agenda.

    As a result, we know all about Trump’s alleged intrigue with Russia, his defense of his daughter’s businesses, his attacks on movie stars and celebrities, his 4 a.m. tweets and loud accusations, but very little about what is otherwise going on policy-wise.

    Even as Trump tweets, quietly he is also attempting—both through executive orders and anticipated congressional action—landmark deregulation, tax reform, and health care reformulations. If successful, he will remake the economy, tilt the Supreme Court rightward, and prune the deep state. He has green lighted energy production, including coal, natural gas and oil, whose consequence could prove an increasing bonanza for the United States and its allies.

    His cabinet contradicts conventional opinion; Trump has brought in experts and reformers from the private sector and the military to reformulate education, environmental, energy, immigration, defense spending, and fiscal policy. Academics, think-tankers, and career bureaucrats in most cases have been passed over.

    Trump may well remake the Republican Party, by bringing in many millions of the working class, at the expense of alienating hundreds of thousands of conservative elites.

    The supposedly vindictive Trump is proving unusually magnanimous for a politician, welcoming in former rivals and critics including Rick Perry, Ben Carson, and Jon Huntsman. His foreign policy team of Rex Tillerson, James Mattis, and H.R. McMaster is non-ideological and centrist, wedded largely to the successful traditions of bipartisan postwar policies, albeit with a realist rather than neoconservative bent.

    The stock market and employers, even if prematurely so, apparently have reacted to both Trump’s reformist rhetoric, and his executive orders, as stocks soar and job growth improves. For all the talk of Trump’s impulsiveness and unsteady leadership, allies are not in fear as the media alleges.

    Privately, friends in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are less worried than they were a year ago about the assurance of the American defense umbrella. Europe’s voters are moving more toward Trumpism than Obamism. It is likely that Israel and the Gulf States are more confident—and Iran more worried. China and Russia are more likely to assume the United States will be unpredictable rather than characteristically compliant as it has been over the past eight years. And that it is largely a good thing in a dangerous world.

    The point is not that after two months Trump has achieved radical reform or has won over skeptics, only that he embraced a conservative correction of progressivism beyond what most past Republican presidents have envisioned or what congressional conservatives believed was possible after 2008.

    Leon (3ad005)

  15. My favorite part of the Apocrypha is where Esau says,”Please, sir, some more.”

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  16. If the truth were to accidentally splash on the Atlantic the peroxide foam resulting would be enough to supply a dozen college raves.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  17. Could Kelly Anne Conway be the female Trump aide who tried to place a call to Preet Bhrarara for Trump on Thursday, March 9, 2017?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/us/politics/white-house-addresses-trumps-unorthodox-call-to-preet-bharara.html

    In the call on Thursday, a woman who said she was from the president’s office left a voice mail message asking Mr. Bharara to call back, according to a person to whom Mr. Bharara described the call. The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter, spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Bharara conferred with his deputy about whether it would be appropriate to return the call, the person said.

    Then he and his deputy, Joon H. Kim, reviewed Justice Department memos governing such contacts, the person added. Because the caller had not specified what the president wanted to discuss, they concluded that it would be prudent to not return the call and to instead contact the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the person said.

    Mr. Bharara called the chief of staff to the attorney general, Joseph H. Hunt. “Mr. Hunt was direct and clear in our conversation that, given written White House contacts policy, my position as a sitting U.S. attorney, and my office’s jurisdiction, it would be improper for me to speak directly to the sitting president without knowing the subject matter,” Mr. Bharara said in his statement.

    “Some might find that inconsistent with what is for the first time, three days later being described as a well-wishes call,” he added.

    After speaking with Mr. Hunt, Mr. Bharara called the White House back and said the attorney general’s office had advised him not to speak directly with the president.

    But that’s not what the Attorney General’s office said!!

    What he was told was that he needed to know the subject of the conversation before he coukkd decide whetehr to take the call or not- that it was not abou a investigation. Bhararar didn’t pass that on. If all Trump wanted to do was to call him to say hello, or to discuss his budget or appointments, that would have been OK.

    Sammy Finkelman (63d78b)

  18. Remember when the Atlantic placed a spy in the Washington Monument during the inauguration, then invented a false quote of umbrage from the Trump camp so they could present the “crowd envy” gag they’d been working on since 2008?

    Yeah. Good times.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  19. Old Goat Quiz

    Great mental exercise for the over-50 crowd.

    Which of the following names are you familiar with?

    1. Monica Lewinsky
    2. Spiro Agnew
    3. Benito Mussolini
    4. Adolf Hitler
    5. Jorge Bergoglio
    6. Alfonse Capone
    7. Vladimir Putin
    8. Linda Lovelace
    9. Saddam Hussein
    10. Tiger Woods

    You had trouble with #5, didn’t you?

    You know all the liars, criminals, adulterers, murderers, thieves, sluts and cheaters, but you don’t know the Pope??

    Lovely, just lovely…

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  20. And anyway, was Kelly Anne Conway really the person who stopped Romney?

    There’s not even a claim in the article that she had anything to do with picking Tillerson – at most, that after Trump had really already decided not to name Mitt Romney Secretary of State, she or ohers arranged this dinner to with Mitt Romney. Once he ate, he could not longer criticize Donald Trump. Or maybe, just simply. once he indicated Trump was OK.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  21. I haven’t seen this level of contempt, since new York sent mark Jacobson the man who whitewashed the scourge who was frank Lucas after the huntress, and he want mauled by wolves.

    narciso (d1f714)

  22. Nobody knows the original name of the current Pope – just Pope John XXIII, Pope John Paul II, and maybe Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Paul VI.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  23. Woodrow Call: Well, Augustus is dead. Died from The Atlantic poisonin’ from them arrows them Indians shot in him. They cut off one of his legs, but the poison got in the other and he wouldn’t let ’em cut it off. Stubborn about it; that’s what killed him, bein’ stubborn.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  24. Albino Luciano, Karl wotyla, ratzinger

    narciso (d1f714)

  25. I was on a conference call this morning with a Saddam Hussain… a double take on my end until I remembered the dead DBag spelled his last name with an “e”.

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  26. Ah montini, how did I forget him.

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. #5 – You hit me between the eyes, Col. Good shot.

    mg (31009b)

  28. mitt would eat anything for some air time

    mg (31009b)

  29. Luciano is John Paul I. John XXIII was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. Paul VI’s last name was Montini, They were all somewhat important before they became Pope.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  30. Rae Sremmurd,

    I haven’t seen a district by district compilation but the House aggregate vote versus Presidential aggregate vote is easy enough to trace back. The hiccups in comparison occur with Perot’s futile gestures in ’92 and ’96. Wallace did the same in ’68 against Nixon. Anderson didn’t come close to disrupting the pattern in 1980 against Reagan.

    I can’t come up with a real Godzilla v Mothra head to head for a true comparison since 1900. Senate comparisons are too class and incumbency related to provide meaningful comparisons.

    Rick Ballard (1c1d4f)

  31. Off topic bleg: A friend of mine is planning to travel to South Bend Indiana for a Bar Mitzvah this Shabbos. He wld like to go Thursday and arrive no later than early Friday. He’s been told a good way is to travel by train from New York to Chicago and then use a more local train to go to South Bend.

    Does anyone know if anyone can get tickets, and how much they cost, or where to look it up opn the web or call or ask and the timetable. He’s been told a ticket to South Bend is more expensive than going from New York to Chicago and then South Bend and money does matter. In an case, what trains should be running by Thursday morning and if they are running can someone get a ticket?

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  32. RV/MH Hall of Fame is just east of South Bend, in Elkhart.

    mg (31009b)

  33. President Negan.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  34. If Trump is still bleeding in 2020 and hasn’t got much of anything done, expect a primary challenge from Mitt.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  35. Old Goat Quiz

    Number 5 was unfair, as it was NOT from the past.

    If you had asked about Karol Wojtyła — the last great Pope — most of us would have got it.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  36. to go from NY to South Bend what he wants is the Lake Shore Limited Mr. F

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  37. I actually do not expect Trump to run in 2020. At the pace he is setting, he will be out of steam by then, one way or the other.

    Besides, it will be FAR easier for the GOP to get 12 years in office by following Trump with a consolidator for 8 years, than by trying to get a GOP win after 8 trying years of Trump.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  38. Sammy, he can’t get the info he needs from Amtrak’s website?

    kishnevi (35dd1e)

  39. Trump’s already filed for 2020.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  40. @5/@36.

    Presbyterians don’t give a damn about the Pope, whatever name he uses at the DMV.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  41. Citing a hit piece in The Atlantic and calling Kellyanne a snake? The ‘alternative universe’ grows larger every day.

    Haven’t been so inundated with alternative facts while reading Molly Ball since her “Hillary Clinton’s March To Victory” piece on Nov 1.

    Harkin (09a7e6)

  42. Sammy

    not to mention people who cast a third party vote for president

    Yep. I should go back and factor that in.

    That makes a lot of sense. It’s my impression women are more “practical” when it comes to voting. There could be some other factors as well.

    I was surprised by it, but I think you could be right. I suspect Libertarians–for whatever reason have had a problem with appealing to females–it might have something to do with what you observe here.

    Rae Sremmurd (2fd998)

  43. Rick Ballard

    I can’t come up with a real Godzilla v Mothra head to head for a true comparison since 1900. Senate comparisons are too class and incumbency related to provide meaningful comparisons.

    Ha! I love this imagery. Thanks for the links–look interesting, and I forgot about George Wallace challenge.

    Rae Sremmurd (2fd998)

  44. It would seem more likely that bannon or some other figure then again has spoken at length about his views and still Michael crowley refused to understand.

    narciso (d1f714)

  45. @41… “Life is a job. You get $14.50 a day, but after you die, you have to pay for your sins. Stealing a hub cap is around $100. Masturbation is 35 cents… it doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up.”

    — Father Guido Sarducci

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  46. @36… whoever told you life is fair was lying, Kev.

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  47. God damn… teh pusher:

    “WHO MADE THIS MONTAGE: CNN or DNC? “In virtually any given week during the Obama administration, CNN could have put a similarly negative pastiche. Anyone remember the network doing it?”

    Just think of CNN as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/259783/

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  48. “BOMBSHELL: Fox News Sources Say Obama Used Brits To Spy On Donald Trump.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/259789/

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  49. “BOMBSHELL: Fox News Sources Say Obama Used Brits To Spy On Donald Trump.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/259789/

    Colonel Haiku (94464c) — 3/14/2017 @ 2:40 pm

    So basically this all just boils down to Obama requesting—through a third party—information that is already available to the NSA. Obama hasn’t actually wiretapped anyone. I’m sure that’ll be enough to justify Trump’s accusation.

    Sean (41ed1e)

  50. 39. kishnevi (35dd1e) — 3/14/2017 @ 1:06 pm

    Sammy, he can’t get the info he needs from Amtrak’s website?

    He wasn’t able to get to an Internet connection today. I wasn’t sure where to look.

    It seems like you don’t save either money or time going through Chicago. The traveling time between South Bend and Chicago is around 1 and a half hours. The price for a ticket to South Bend seems to be about the same as to Chicago, not more expensive, and Chicago to South Bend is around $20. This is the Lake Shore Limited. I don’t know if there are any other trains.

    I notice that it does tell you if there are no tickets are left and I think the number if here are and it looks like several possible one seat left are there. There may be very few left. Maybe there’s no time. Or do people cancel? He would leave like he guessed from Penn Station.

    Elevated or open cut subway service in New York went out at 4 am but is going to restored at 6 pm, and it wasn’t such a big storm or such wind. 5 to 7 inches maybe. So I suppose everything will be all right by Thursday.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  51. “While the American Intelligence Community (IC) plays “not us” when it comes to claims that the Obama Administration spied on President Trump (when he was both a candidate and President-elect), Fox News has learned that in order to avoid a paper trail, fingerprints, and pesky little details like the Bill of Rights, President Obama circumvented all of that by requesting the British spy on Trump.”

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  52. “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice… He used GCHQ. What the heck is GCHQ? That’s the initials for the British spying agency. They have 24/7 access to the NSA database. So by simply having two people go to them and say ‘President Obama needs transcripts of conversations involving Candidate Trump, conversations involving President-Elect Trump,’ [Obama’s] able to get it, and there’s no American fingerprints on this.”

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  53. Odious at best… abuse of the office more likely. But YMMV, depending on what you are willing to stomach…

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  54. Colonel Haiku (94464c) — 3/14/2017 @ 2:40 pm

    Fox News Sources Say Obama Used Brits To Spy On Donald Trump.”

    Tthat would, of course, explain why only British surces (and Louise Mensch, who presumably has British sources) would know about the FISA warrants – except that the sources may be lying, and they might not actually have any connection to British intelligence.

    The only thing reasonably certain is that somebody, somewhere, sure is interested in spreading this story around. It’s not clear actually even what exactly they are claiming.

    We’ve got this now:

    Fox News said that “three intelligence sources” have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command and used GCHQ. Separately, Judge Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge (1987-1995) and also a visiting law professor at Brooklyn Law School, who works for Fox News, appeared on Fox News this morning with an explanation as to how something like this might work, but no actual knowledge that anything like this actually happened besides what Fox News had reported. Napolitano outlined a theory as to how this might work.

    http://www.dailywire.com/news/14ox-news-sources-say-obama-used-brits-john-nolte#!

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  55. You know the intelligence sources could be rogue former British intelligence agents, or not even that, now being paid by Putin to say this. The idea itself is raher implausible — Obama would have had to consider this highly sensitive and would have had to fear leaks from inside the U.S. government. It is not clear anyway whether they claiming any spying was done on Trump himself, or in the United States.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/business/media/mediator-personalized-feeds-news-choice-jim-rutenberg.html

    Allow me to direct you to the real-world, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure news media misadventure of the past week, which I’ll call “POTUS45, Episode 6: The Presidential Wiretap That (A) Was, (B) Wasn’t, (C) Was Because He’s a Russian Agent and Oh, Sister, Is He in Trouble.”

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  56. BOMBSHELL!!I!I!I!III!I!11!!!

    Leviticus (efada1)

  57. “I should add that as of last night, all Napolitano reported was that Obama had this capability. He did not say his sources claimed the Obama Administration had actually done this.

    As of this morning, however, three sources say this is exactly what Obama did, which would help to finally make sense of this New York Times report from January 19 – a report that clearly stated the Obama White House was receiving reports from Trump wiretaps” [emphasis added with the print headline]

    Wiretapped Data Used In Inquiry of Trump Aides …

    The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.

    Remember, prior to Trump breaking this story wide open with his Tweets about the Obama Administration spying on him, in order to make this phony RussiaGate story appear serious, our corrupt mainstream media was eager to make it look as though the Obama Administration was investigating Trump, including, as you can see in The New York Times story above, through wiretaps.”

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  58. Cheer up, Sammeh…

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  59. AMBULANCE chaser!!!!!!!

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  60. The incredible shrinking bureaucracy.

    Thanks for the new EO, Mr. President.

    Bombshell is right Haiku. Running the wiretapping through the Brits shows intent to evade.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  61. Bone thrown: http://www.yahoo.com/news/irs-revokes-white-nationalist-groups-tax-exempt-status-150808607.html

    Across the pond, they need to flush their Blairites with the same urgency, it seems.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  62. And I thought it was just some sort of bad dream Trump was having. Guess not.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  63. What is curious is the head of gchq resigned shortly after two years in office, shortly after the inauguration remember the times piece a week before referred to intercepts.

    narciso (d1f714)

  64. By contrast they have remarkably silent about which officials we in contact with the trump campaign except kisyak he us the toast of washinton

    narciso (d1f714)

  65. “Bombshell is right Haiku. Running the wiretapping through the Brits shows intent to evade.”

    Yes, Thor, agreed! … one would hope a practicing attorney would understand that… no? Let alone an intrepid sleuth-about-town…

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  66. Prolly won’t see it on CNN though…

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  67. I smell a bit of a diversion from the expiring time given to the WH by the House Intel Comm to produce evidence of wiretapping.

    Because any such evidence as described by Napolitano would be in the hands of the Brits, WH has an excuse for not being able to produce what is being sought.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  68. I’m not an attorney, but I go it.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  69. Is it okay for the DOJ to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation with the Intel Committee?

    I thought they were supposed to shut up and neither confirm or deny.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  70. Oddly very few seem interested in this:
    http://ww.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/14/plot-thickens-in-probe-house-it-contractors.html

    And its massive ramifications

    narciso (d1f714)

  71. They’ll share it behind closed doors. And its not an ongoing investigation — supposedly — but whether or not the Obama Admin. used covert surveillance techniques on the Trump campaign or persons associated with the Trump campaign.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  72. There’s a real knee-slapper over at Breitbart this afternoon: “CBO: Full Repeal of Obamacare Insures More Americans than Ryan’s Obamacare-lite Plan“>

    You can’t make this stuff up.

    No wonder Ryan’s constituents are growing to hate him. What an imbecile!

    ThOR (c9324e)

  73. BOMBSHELL!!I!I!I!III!I!11!!!

    Mud forts.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  74. Full repeal of Obamacare requires getting past a filibuster. The Ryan plan does not.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  75. According to National Review:

    The new Congress was sworn in on Tuesday, and the first thing it did was prepare to repeal Obamacare. Senate Budget Committee Chair Michael Enzi (R-WY) introduced a budget resolution Tuesday that includes “reconciliation instructions” that enable Congress to repeal Obamacare with a simple Senate majority.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  76. With this trashfire of a cbo, the prospect of mercy killing is likely.

    narciso (d1f714)

  77. I understand Ted Cruz thinks so too.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  78. Isn’t “buying” Romney’s credibility something on the order of buying the Brooklyn Bridge? Any amount would be too high. Maybe that “shrewd businessman” Trump is the one who got taken.

    gwjd (032bef)

  79. The Ryan plan is the best that you will see. After that it will be a 12-corner knife fight and “principle” will be the first casualty.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  80. I’m not so concerned about a death spiral – it will bring the reluctant to the table – a point that Trump, himself, likes to make.

    Trump has other fish to fry. He can come back to this one.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  81. Mitty likes twinkies

    mg (31009b)

  82. You can’t be nice to some people. Especially not Trump and his toadies. It’s a warning to me, too, when the OSP does something I like, not to forget that he’s still a rabid skunk who hasn’t sprayed or bitten anyone today.

    nk (dbc370)

  83. You think Mcguffin is going on his lonesome, well since tuck the buffet from rick Wilson I mean.

    narciso (d1f714)

  84. President Trump means for the first time since it was pointed out as a holy sacrament, delivered straight from the pen of Saint Ben of Franklin, we have a better than average shot of expunging the blasphemic ritual called daylight savings time forever.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  85. I still wonder what it really is that Kellyanne does for Trump. Are these “gaffes” of hers something they’ve scripted?

    nk (dbc370)

  86. She is the velvet glove, whereas bannon is the mailed fist, by contrast what do palmieri podesta and mook good for ‘absolutely nothing say it again’

    narciso (d1f714)

  87. What Cruz advocates is an “ends justifies the means” approach.

    The KEY sticking point is the inability to repeal the coverage requirement for pre-existing conditions. That is not a budgetary issue. It can only be repealed if you can get past the filibuster.

    What Cruz is advocating is that the repeal be placed in the repeal bill. The Dems will then seek to have it stripped out as being in violation of the Byrd Rule. The Senate Parlimentarian will side with the Dems since its clearly an issue involving the reconciliation. But it is the Senate Presiding Officer who rules with the advice of the Parlimentarian. Cruz is saying Pence should ignore the Parlimentarian, and rule in favor of the Republicans by not stripping out the provision.

    If this is done, then the limitations on what can be done through reconciliation will be lost forever.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  88. Don’t change the subject, moron. Let’s put our collective shoulder to the repeal of a bad idea.
    End government regulation of the clock.
    Repeal Daylight Savings time now! Forevermore!

    papertiger (c8116c)

  89. The hour is now. Strike while the coo coo is hot.

    Coo coo ca choo!

    papertiger (c8116c)

  90. Cry havok and let slip the dogs of war!!!!

    papertiger (c8116c)

  91. Wasn’t coverage for pre-existing conditions part of the original reconciliation bill?

    If it was, then Cruz’ tactic would make this a two way street. If it can be done using reconciliation, why shouldn’t undoing it be permissible?

    If I am correct, which I may not be – let me know, the current system has a bias in favor of growing the state and against shrinking it. Is that a good idea?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  92. “No wonder Ryan’s constituents are growing to hate him.”

    Yeah, his complete collapse from 63% in ’14 to 65% in ’16 after Pepe Nehlen almost demolished him in the primary by grabbing 16% has him giggling cowering.

    He trembles with laughter fear at the thought of Trump’s blundering incompetence wrath.

    Rick Ballard (1c1d4f)

  93. In 2009, the Dems passed different bills in the House and Senate (when the Dems had 60 votes). The Senate bill passed 60-39 on December 24, 2009. It was not supposed to be the final version of the law, which the Dems expected to work out in House/Senate conference after the House’s bill was passed.

    On January 19, 2010, the Senate Dems lost their 60th vote when Scott Brown was elected, so the House passed the bill that had already passed the Senate, which became the ACA. Obama signed it on March 23, 2010. Many House members were not happy with the Senate bill, so they voted for it only on the condition that it would be amended by a second bill.

    The House then wrote that second bill, the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act, which changed various numbers to satisfy members of the House and could be passed by reconciliation. The ACA itself, which included all the statutory changes, never went through the reconciliation process. The second, reconciliation bill, was signed into law on March 30.

    Source: Wikipedia

    Dave (711345)

  94. Right the guy who was taken by first the solon and then patsy Murray in the budget negotiations.

    narciso (d1f714)

  95. . . . to 49% today. What is the word for going from 65% to 49% in less than a year if not “collapsing”?

    Compared to Obama, Ryan looks good. To Trump, not so much.

    I’m enjoying the Ryancare meltdown. All the right people are looking bad. Even long-time Ryan defenders think he’s jumped the shark.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  96. Any state can elect to pull out of DST, papersquirrel. Why have only two done it? But go ahead, give Trump another phony laurel no matter how small.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. There is more than a slight difference between actual voting and a PPP poll. PPP had Ron Johnson at 35% in March. He beat Feingold with 50% in November.

    Breitbart should start up a Pure Pepe Polling company just for Trump supporters dumb enough to fall for Public Policy Polling shenanigans. There’s some decent money to be made off sucker bait.

    Rick Ballard (1c1d4f)

  98. Notice the wording of that poll question. People are angry that they may be the ones losing insurance.
    Ryan has the problem of squaring the circle. There is a way out: be honest, admit some people are going to be in a bad position, but we have to do it, that the circle is unsquareable– and then explain the necessity over and over again until it penetrates through the fog of the media. But he’s not taking that way out.

    kishnevi (9dfc8c)

  99. I’m enjoying the Ryancare meltdown. All the right people are looking bad.

    Why hasn’t Trump shown some leadership and revealed the plan he promised last October?

    “You’re going to have such great healthcare at a tiny fraction of the cost, and it is going to be so easy.” – Donald Trump, October 25, 2016

    “A tiny fraction” must surely mean less than half.

    This plan he promised to give everyone great healthcare at half (or less) the present cost would be acclaimed by all.

    Unless he was just lying out his ass, as usual.

    Dave (711345)

  100. Surprise, a shiny object surfaces…

    Trump & Melania’s 2005 1040 tax return.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  101. As compared to gallop or CBS news:
    http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/jeb-bush

    narciso (d1f714)

  102. We’ve already found out from NYT the WP and McClatchy that the wiretaps, inside sources etc for RussiaGate were lies, fabrications, or the result of illegal activities.
    Because as soon as Trump starting using those as his sources for “How the Obama People Spied on Me” they folded up on their sources and said Trump was crazy talking.

    In other words their “sources” were probably liars, or the sources were fabricated, or the sources were composites of rumor peddlers.

    Now some supposed source within the WH found by the Atlantic! no less is supposedly telling the truth about frog legs and Romney.

    It is possible that a senior source actually was dumb enough to get drunk with a reporter from the Atlantic… the piece just feels to down pat.

    I say this report is fake, but there is no way for anyone to deny it. Its got ha ha high end appetizers after all

    steveg (5508fb)

  103. Frankly the majority of pollsters should be sent into a pyramid and sealed in for at least a generation.

    narciso (d1f714)

  104. Colonel Haiku

    Do they change the pope’s name to protect the innocent?

    My favorite pope name is Sixtus V.

    Pinandpuller (a7f4ec)

  105. Wasn’t there a guy named Cardinal Sin as well? Korean maybe?

    Pinandpuller (a7f4ec)

  106. Phillipines I believe, which means something else.

    narciso (d1f714)

  107. @41 DCSCA

    I took you for a kneeler.

    Pinandpuller (a7f4ec)

  108. Sammy

    The cost of going to Chicago vs straight to South Bend: one and a half hours.

    Not going through Chicago: priceless.

    Pinandpuller (a7f4ec)

  109. I know a few guys who’d better flee the state while they still have a pot to piss in!

    https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/new-bill-would-require-men-to-pay-dollar100-every-time-they-masturbate-broadly

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  110. Hey, Patterico, on a sidebar note, literally, most of your ‘Favorite Sites’ don’t exist anymore.

    Johnny Mustard (b996d4)

  111. Right off the back, I see the problem of assessing the penalty coronello.

    But there is an extended metaphor the nsc was as open as Mrs oleary’s barn, the awan bros might have had something to do with that, its like a south asian themed coen bros, yet every paper except for the post and the daily caller ignored it

    narciso (8d0597)

  112. This was yet another great day.

    First the Brit spying revelation;

    then the EO to shrink government;

    followed by learning Ryancare insures fewer people than repeal;

    and now the Trump tax return circus.

    I’m laughing out loud. Why is it that Trump critics always wind up looking so bad and Trump so good?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  113. STFU Nk. You’d think someone so consistently wrong on most every topic would shut his stupid hole when his betters spoke so as not to draw attention.

    The Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, was the first United States federal law implementing Standard time and Daylight saving time in the United States.[1] It authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to impose DST on each time zone, despite public opinion.
    Same congress and President which imposed segregation, blocked women suffrogates, and imposed the income tax. [Edit]ing Woodrow Wilson. (Sorry piece of trash. If I had the means I’d dig up his sorry bones from what ever [edit]hole they planted him in and kick his corpse all the way to the ocean. Hate that [edit]er.)

    Shortly there after, when the electorate in their infinite wisdom unceremoniously ousted Democrats on mass, assisted for the first time by the women’s vote, the DST was repealed over President Wilson’s veto.

    So how are we still under it’s thumb today?
    Because it was re imposed by Roosevelt as a wartime measure during WW2.

    Then made official by LBJ (another corpse I’d pay good money to see dug up and flung beyond our borders) in the New Deal legislation of the sixties.

    Symbolic You say? So much the better when it’s repeal symbolizes the return of government of the people by the people for the people.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  114. So what’s the best way to counter Putin, have the biggest baddest military out There, the ones who made through the fire of Iraq and Afghanistan, as volodya did through chechnya and dagestan.

    narciso (8d0597)

  115. The Aberdeen cabinet was averse to challenging russia, they ended up in crimea.

    narciso (8d0597)

  116. Now you want to see where I’m dissapointef with trump is how he’s hung out General Flynn, out to dry. You don’t abandon some of his caliber over some pique of your running mate

    narciso (8d0597)

  117. Eat it, Trumpsucker. The law is as I stated it. States can elect to exempt themselves from it. Arizona and Hawaii do, and also some U.S. territories with home rule. But they don’t teach law in Trumpasslicking school, do they?

    nk (dbc370)

  118. Unless you are still mystified by the precession of the equinox, or need to save candle wax until electricical edison lighting bulbs reach your back water neck of the country, then by all means, yeah daylight savings time, you hick [edit].

    papertiger (c8116c)

  119. Now you want to see where I’m dissapointef with trump is how he’s hung out General Flynn, out to dry. You don’t abandon some of his caliber over some pique of your running mate.

    He was a foreign agent, working for Turkey, and Trump didn’t even know.

    Dave (711345)

  120. 60. Colonel Haiku (94464c) — 3/14/2017 @ 3:23 pm

    Quote from link:

    “I should add that as of last night, all Napolitano reported was that Obama had this capability. He did not say his sources claimed the Obama Administration had actually done this.

    Even if he broadcast before Fox reported on the air that three (British) sources said this happened, he would have known this was going to be reported, and this would have been in response to that. He’s not reporting anything except how a possible scenario might work, the way someone might report how a possible military attack by the United States on ISIS in Raqqa or Mosul might come off, if somewhere else the network had reported that such and such an attack using Marines might take place around such and such a date. Then the analyst comes in and fills in possible details. He’s not reporting anything that any person familiar with the way things work would not know. It’s all based on background knowledge, whetehr his or somebody else’s. He has no information that any of this is real. His scenario might not even be possible. His report should not be the lead.

    …this New York Times report from January 19 – a report that clearly stated the Obama White House was receiving reports from Trump wiretaps” [emphasis added with the print headline]

    Not true. The New York Times report did not speak of a wiretap on Donald Trump, but on which people associated with Donald Trump were overheard speaking.

    The New York Times changed its online headline last week from Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides to: Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates because of Trump’s tweet. They didn’t change any other wording I think.

    They still note that in the printed paper the headline was Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides. It appeared on Friday, January 20, 2017 (Inaugurationn day) on Page A1 of the New York Times.

    The possible FISA warrant on a computer server maybe in Trump Tower is separate from the “wiretaps,” which would have been on Russians. Mark Levin may have confounded the two assertions.

    Now in this it is important to understand that, if anything was done (legally and acording to usual protocol) in the United States, it was the FBI that did it, even if it was intelligence related; and if anything was done outside the United States, it didn’t have to be legal under local law, and it was not done by the FBI.

    If both the FBI and the CIA are involved, that means part of the overall investigation is in the United States and part of it is not.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  121. Pinandpuller (a7f4ec) — 3/14/2017 @ 7:44 pm

    The cost of going to Chicago vs straight to South Bend: one and a half hours.

    Not going through Chicago: priceless.

    It’s much cheaper to go to Chicago by bus, (around $80) than it costs to go by bus to South Bend, Indiana (about $170) That’s what it was. That’s Greyhound.

    If someone goes into Chicago by airplane, they need to take two trains to get to South Bend.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  122. @123… from the link…

    “As I of this morning, how every er, three sources say this is exactly what Obama did, which would help to finally make sense of this New York Times report from January 19 – a report that clearly stated the Obama White House was receiving reports from Trump wiretaps” [emphasis day added]

    Colonel Haiku (94464c)

  123. kishnevi (9dfc8c) — 3/14/2017 @ 7:04 pm

    admit some people are going to be in a bad position, but we have to do it, that the circle is unsquareable

    I think some people don’t understand – it’s easy to lose sight of – that there’s a basic mathematical problem here.

    You could square the circle with new taxes and lower Social Security benefits maybe. Or maybe even have health care cost less – but in that case, it’s medical professionals who lose out, at least until they find another way of making money. (this is also called creative destruction)

    The worst outcome is to continue to spend more money for medical care, or even stabilize the amount, while doing less and less of value. But that’s where we are heading unless something changes, and if it changes to Medicare for all. Third party payments are the cause of that problem, at least if combined with unfixed costs, and if costs were fixed, you’d still limit medical progress.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  124. Sammy

    I always see those Mega and Tornado Buses at the local truck stop where I fuel up. There seem to be a lot more regional options these days. I just hope you don’t catch your sister on a Gray Tour bus.

    It’s too bad there’s not a casino in South Bend. They run a lot of shuttles back and forth to hub cities. Or maybe there is.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  125. 128. there’s a lot of introspective out on the Ban’ster today. If the Yeast article is trodding the same ground I apologize for the redundancy from another corner of the landfill. http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/the-insanity-of-the-steve-bannon-origin-myth-1793289956

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  126. Michigan City, East Chicago, Gary and New Buffalo have the casino offerings on lock. It could also be the case of those “kneelers” from the two local universities throwing guided missals at the very thought.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  127. Practicing category error with a five iron, Sutton dillinger has nothing to do with preventing the next crash, just like sarbanes Foxley did nothing for this one.

    narciso (d1f714)

  128. STFU Nk. You’d think someone so consistently wrong on most every topic would shut his stupid hole when his betters spoke so as not to draw attention.

    LOL listen to this Trump sychophant triumphalism. Totally ugly. Totally unpersuasive. Totally embarrassing.

    It’s not even worth responding to but it’s so typical of what’s wrong with the GOP. It’s all about stamping out anyone reasonable so we can get our graft and corruption and power on. For all the hatred Trump has of Romney and Cruz, for all the deranged ranting about how Bush was the worst president in history, his time on top will be very short. At some point Trump’s fans will have to point to his legacy, and my guess is they do a lot of blaming for what went wrong. “Oh, the nevertrumpers wouldn’t help him”

    It’s at that point where they should remember just how ugly the entire Trump faction has been to pretty much everyone. After losing the popular vote, they had no interest in winning over conservatives. They instead laugh when someone like Romney or Cruz tries to show respect to the office of the presidency because it’s proof of some stupid domination theory they have.

    It’s very revealing, but it’s also a good sign that Trump has failed as a president, even at this early stage, because to succeed he and his supporters would need to win over the people.

    “Shut your stupid hole when your betters are talking” is a great way to fail at leadership.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  129. There are actual areas of concern, tillerson seeming like the return of eagkeburger, re conservative review link

    narciso (d1f714)

  130. Tillerson is doing nothing. I hope he shapes up, but so far it’s pretty clear Romney would have been a much better choice.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  131. What to make of this, perhaps this is a smoking gun re the “J” centers. Not implausible given the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway, Gallipoli, the guest worker era.

    http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20170315/hyde-park/turkish-neo-nazis-hack-u-of-c-twitter-account

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  132. Possibly before gulen, the bete noir were the Grey wolves, whose reach extends as far as France.

    narciso (d1f714)

  133. 132. Sutton Dillinger?

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  134. Dodd frank because the ones most reonsible for letting the subprime heist, see put in the henhouse

    narciso (d1f714)

  135. My friend is traveling by van. There were other people too – at first he was going to go with them, then too many people, now they decided to rent a van instead of a car. So no bus and no train.

    Sammy Finkelman (3fda43)

  136. Dustin, I’m not persuasive or a leader, but for my chosen topic I don’t have to be. My allies are powerful universal forces which can not be denied.

    The clock on your microwave oven blinking over and over again “It’s 6:00 PM” not 7:00 PDT, that’s my ally. The clock in your truck that you’d have to dig out the handbook in the glove box for instructions to reset every six months, that’s my ally. The self setting clock radio in the guest room that hasn’t been right since you brought it home and plugged it in, that is my ally.

    We have you out numbered.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  137. They are the subject on this book, the grey wolves inmean
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/review/0060573651/R3G93LS2MY0BOC/ref=cm_cr_dp_mb_rvw_1?ie=UTF8&cursor=1

    narciso (02f62d)


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