Joe Biden: Republicans Swamped By ‘Significant Sort-Of Mini-Revolution’

May 5, 2021

In the midst of a pile of political shit, the workings of Republicans today once again proved how incredibly unhinged they’ve become, and how anti-American their entire operation is focused — nothing for the people and way-everything for the party, all obvious to everyone.

MoscowMitch flashback:

Dumb-ass story via CNN this afternoon:

President Joe Biden responded on Wednesday to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comment that “100-percent” of his focus is “on stopping this new administration,” asserting that he had heard such threats from the Kentucky Republican before and worked through them.

When asked Wednesday whether he still thought he could work with McConnell after the Senate minority leader had committed to obstructing the new administration, Biden chuckled.
“Look, he said that in our last administration, (with former President) Barack (Obama, that) he was going to stop everything — and I was able to get a lot done with him,” Biden told reporters in the State Dining Room, following remarks touting the administration’s new restaurant revitalization fund.
“Again, look — everything I’m proposing that be done to generate economic growth, employment, and put us in a position where we can out-compete any other country in the world with research and development, and moving ahead: I pay for it.”

The clash between Biden and McConnell comes as the two navigate unique challenges — the President looking to balance soliciting Republican support for his infrastructure plan with actually getting it passed, and the minority leader watching a brewing fight in the other chamber over House Republican Liz Cheney, who stands to lose her leadership post over remarks criticizing former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that he won the 2020 election.
McConnell had been asked about that conflict and whether he’d do anything to support Cheney when he instead pivoted to say his attention was squarely on stymieing Biden’s plans.

“One hundred-percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration,” McConnell responded, turning away from the actual question that was asked.
“I think the best way of looking at what this new administration is the President may have won the nomination, but Bernie Sanders won the argument about what the new administration should be like. We are confronted with severe challenges from the new administration and a narrow majority in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn American into a socialist country, and that’s 100% of my focus.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki poked at McConnell when asked about his comments earlier Wednesday, suggesting the administration’s focus was on benefiting the country instead of stopping a political opponent.
“Well, I guess the contrast for people to consider is 100-percent of our focus is on delivering relief to the American people, on getting the pandemic under control, and putting people back to work, and we welcome and support engagement and work with the Republicans on that,” Psaki said.

Earlier, Joe talked about what a complete mess the Republican Party is right now, which according to Joe (and, really, any sane observer), is currently in a “significant” mutation:

He’s never seen shit like this before…
Although the Republican brand has been building to this for decades — at least since Ron Reagan, maybe even backwards to Dick Nixon — the whole apparatus is now in a shitstorm of fucking craziness, lies and cruel actions sucked into the forefront by horror-longing for the T-Rump. I don’t know about Joe’s comment about needig a second party, though, with what we’ve got right now, WTF!
And the GQP may not be at its worse point yet — Susan Del Percio, a Republican strategist, writes pretty-much straight-on at NBC News this morning on how bad the shit:

It is very likely that next week House Republicans will call for a vote to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the No. 3 House Republican, from her leadership position as House Republican Conference chair. The reason? She believes in our country’s foundational democracy, and she’s not afraid to say it — over and over and over again.

She’s also not afraid of former President Donald Trump, nor is she afraid of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Cheney has repeatedly called the Jan. 6 insurrection “a threat to democracy” — a surprisingly controversial statement given what all of America witnessed on live television.

The Republicans in Washington know Cheney is right. They simply do not care.
They talk about the need for unity as they work to take back control of the House in 2022. But what has the GOP been unified about, except something to do with Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss?
The Republicans (in the House especially) have not offered one constructive policy position, nor have they shown much interest in working with the Democrats on any reforms.

With the exception of a few other dissenters, the only messaging coming out of the Republican House conference is their support for Trump’s “Big Lie.”

Plenty of former Republicans and current Republicans who supported Biden (myself included) applauded. We appreciate Cheney planting her flag on the right side of history. But our appreciation was short-lived. Because, while her stance is admirable, the reality is that being right, principled or honorable no longer matters to Republicans in Washington or to Republicans in leadership positions at the state party level.

Trump still owns the Republican Party, and most of its members don’t even realize they have sold him their souls.
Trump has sold the conservative base a narrative in which they are victims, even though it is he and his allies who are attacking American democracy.

You cannot punch through this wall of delusion; the truth is warped, and Trump’s carnival of fun-house mirrors is not leaving town anytime soon.

As impossible as this may seem, the GOP has not hit rock bottom — not even close. The party does not want to leave Donald Trump and Trumpism behind; it would rather knock the stuffing out of true conservatives like Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Cheney.
I hear a lot of people discussing the emergence of a “new wing” of the Republican Party. But that’s not going to happen.
The Cheneys and Romneys of the party will be long gone by the time the Republican Party turns itself around.

Until then, the GOP will continue to nominate the most extreme representatives.
Perhaps, eventually, such extremism will knock state and local leaders out of power. But when?
It will be a long and ugly time for the party.
We thought Trump was the worst. But it turns out the worst is yet to come.

Shit-on-a-stick…

(Illustration: ‘National Buffoons,’ by Daryl Cagle, found here).

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