Patterico's Pontifications

12/7/2020

Election Soup

Filed under: General — Dana @ 4:54 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Today it was announced that after three recounts, Georgia re-certified the election results:

Georgia election officials announced Monday the results of the state’s presidential race will be re-certified after yet another recount to reaffirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. “We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a Monday press conference, marking the latest blow in the president’s attempts to change the election results in Georgia. Raffensperger’s announcement comes after three counts in the state.

“Today the Secretary of State’s office will be re-certifying our state’s election results,” Raffensperger said. “Then the safe harbor under the United States Code to name electors is tomorrow, and then they will meet on December 14th to officially elect the next president.”

So far, no new reports of death threats to Raffesnperger or his family, or to election workers. But give it time…

President Trump certainly had Georgia on his mind today:

What a peach.

In the meantime, House conservatives are shamefully pushing Trump not to concede the election and to take the fight to the floor. Because this is Trump’s Republican Party:

President Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders on Capitol Hill are urging him not to concede even after President-elect Joe Biden wins the Electoral College vote next week, calling on their party’s leader to battle it out all the way to the House floor in January as he makes unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud.

[C]onservative House Republicans argue that next week doesn’t mark the end of Trump’s desperate efforts to overturn the election results, which he has failed to do through scores of fruitless lawsuits and brazen efforts to pressure state and local leaders to subvert the will of voters and appoint new slates of electors to the Electoral College. They said that Congress should engage in a full-throated debate over the results in key states because of their allegations of fraud, which have yet to be borne out in court.

This is the look of desperation:

Asked if Trump should concede next Monday, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said bluntly: “No. No way, no way, no way.”

“We should still try to figure out exactly what took place here. And as I said that includes, I think, debates on the House floor — potentially on January 6,” Jordan, a trusted Trump confidant, told CNN.

“That’s a ways away,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican another close Trump ally, said when asked if Trump should concede after next week. “There are members who believe there could be value in having substantive debate of what occurred in states with substantial irregularities,” he said. “I don’t believe that 10 hours of debate on that subject would impair the union.”

Asked if he considers the election over on December 14, Rep. Andy Biggs, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, said: “I’m exhausting every option before I consider that.”

… “I dispute the presidential election results,” arguing it’s “almost inexplainable” since Republicans were successful in key races across the board in Arizona other than for the White House, though they lost a Senate race too.

“What you have is the very top of the ticket — that’s where the problems were,” he said.

“What I’ve said all along is there’s a legal process that President Trump has been following, and that’s what the law allows and let’s let the process run through,” said Rep. Steve Scalise, the House GOP whip, sidestepping questions on whether Republicans should challenge state election results on the House floor.

Asked if he views December 14 as the end of the race, Scalise said: “Let’s let the legal process work through.”

Asked last week if he considers Biden the President-elect, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the most senior Republican in the chamber, said: “Two weeks from today he will be,” referring to December 14.

“It’ll all be decided on the 14th,” said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who sits on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s leadership team.

The report notes:

It is not unusual for a losing candidate’s most fervent supporters to take their case to the House floor — something that occurred after the 2016, 2004 and 2000 presidential races. But it is unusual for the losing candidate to mount a weeks-long public campaign aimed at sowing discord and distrust over a pillar of democracy, something that Trump has done relentlessly since losing the race.

Anyway, I don’t think Republicans are going to have to work too hard to convince the President. Not when one considers today’s comments about the election:

For the record, as of two days ago, only 27 Congressional Republicans have acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election.

–Dana

Jonah Goldberg: The Never Trumpers Have a Right to Gloat (Plus Bonus Praise for Allahpundit)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:29 am



Jonah Goldberg is saying he told you so, and he’s right:

For nearly five years now, it has been obvious that Trump was unfit for the job and the arguments marshaled in his defense were cynical rationalizations that, for some, eventually mutated into sincerely held delusions. Sure, some deluded themselves from the beginning, but I’ve talked to too many Republican politicians and conservative media darlings who admitted it in private. And even the griftier gibbons going full Gorka as they fling their own feces for fun and profit in Trump’s defense knew it. At least Steve Bannon, whose greatest contribution to political discourse has been to introduce the concept of “flooding the zone with shit,” is fairly straightforward about seeing Trump as a tool—in every sense. He’s leaked more anti-Trump tales to more anti-Trump journalists than anyone.

For the Bannonistas, following the wrong path wasn’t a hard choice, but an easy one. You think Jenna Ellis, who rates as a Z-team legal talent only because our alphabet is limited to 26 characters, would become a legal adviser to a president under normal circumstances?

. . . .

Now, America isn’t in Hell, but the people who did nothing, or far too little, are daily beset by lesser, fresher, hells of their own making—and I’m making popcorn. The gloriously entertaining spectacle of Trump and his ambitious progeny suddenly having to deal with their own mini-Trumps in the form of Wood, Powell, and their minions is enough to turn their home-brewed dumpster juice into a delicious elixir sweeter even than liberal tears. Mike Pence fading into the shrubbery like Homer Simpson is a profile in strategic cowardice of schadenfreudtastic proportions.

. . . .

I understand that this all sounds awfully self-righteous. But I’ll tell you, I feel like I deserve my gloating. I’m not alone in my right to it, but I deserve my share. I’ve been saying “don’t do this” for five years and I’ve been mocked and shunned for it. So forgive me if I enjoy my I-told-you-so moment. Or don’t forgive me. I’m used to it.

Jonah is correct to take a victory lap and to declare that he was right all along. He’s correct that he deserves his share and he is also correct that he is not alone. One person who doesn’t get enough credit is my favorite blogger on the Web: Allahpundit of the Hot Air blog.

Allahpundit writes at a site where, like most right-leaning sites, the comment section is populated by, to borrow a phrase from Montgomery Burns, slack-jawed troglodytes. His voice has been consistent. His criticism of Trump is everything Trump superfans claim to want (praise Trump when he does right, criticize him when he does wrong) but commenters there throw rotten fruit at him because his criticism is not what Trump superfans actually want (ignore the fact that most of what Trump does is stupid and self-involved, and just praise him no matter what). I can think of no higher compliment to a writer than to say that I model myself after him but I know I’ll never be as good. That’s definitely true of Allahpundit. He deserves to be more widely known. He’s as good a writer as anyone on the Web.

It’s relatively easy for someone like me to stick to his guns on Trump. I don’t earn my living writing this blog. Sure, it kind of sucks to lose readers and receive constant insults for one’s lack of fealty to the Great Orange Buffoon, but that’s fine. If I were a professional writer like Jonah or Allah, though, I’d really be putting something on the line. I admire these guys quite a bit. I don’t see Allah taking a victory lap like Jonah, but he deserves to whether he takes it or not. And so does Jonah. Few have stuck to their guns and remained level-headed and entertaining like him. Hats off to both of them.


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