Chinaperson? That's extremely woke, recognizing that men AND women can be of that persuasion.
10
As for the chances of Trump winning a Nobel: ain't going to happen. No electoral college at the Nobel Committee. And as for the swamp: it's deeper and scarier than ever. And a lot more crocs. Or is that "crock"?
10
Collins is of course very funny but follow on FB? Do you really think Zuckerberg is public spirited or are you impressed just because he's married to a Chinawoman and he is a billionaire? I have been saying for YEARS that FB and Twitter are tremendous violations of privacy. So is "targeted" advertising (what? my device actually has a unique IP address?) And the 192.168 network doesn't cut it. How do you think the NYT gets to you so quickly with their own "targeted" advertising? People didn't want to hear it. Now the birds have come home to roost, right? How did anyone actually keep track of their family and "friends" before (long before) Facebook?
2
Another home run, Gail! Thanks (as always) for making me laugh instead of assuming the fetal position and weeping for the state of our country.
10
I am so tired of lying and corruption, not of winning.
8
Ms Collins column hit the nail on the head.
The three GOP men running for Senator Donnelly's seat
are staging the most ridiculous, low brow, campaign to see
who can be the biggest Trump lackey.
Trump is hitting South Bend next week for one of his idiotic rallies. I'm sure all three men, Rokita, Braun, and Messer, will be at The Masters feet with frankincense and myrrh.
8
The political class in this 'exceptional' nation is classless and humorless except for their sheer idiocy, which does at times bring a bit of ironic levity until you consider that these folks legislate to the rest of us. The sooner citizens learn that politicians are by nature followers without a whit of imagination and with a dearth of real character the better.
3
I thank you Gail for your consistency in providing us with humor while the horrors known as Trump's presidency and the self imploding GOP abound.
What is it with these people and their claims to drain the 'swamp'. When you are immersed in one how can you see with all the murkiness.
What seems apparent is that a segment of the population has lost their minds collectively and individually.
Ms. Collins didn't mention Mike Pence's adoring gaze behind Trump or his embrace of Arpaio. His brother sounds like a real winner too.
I guess a guy whose stewardship of his coal mine that killed 39 people and who spent a year in jail is an improvement on a white supremacist and an accused pedophile.
Way to go, GOP! I see the bottom beckoning you at last.
10
Pence, Mitch and Trump walk into a swamp. And get Lost.
The End.
10
how tragic as a country. don't blame the politicians, blame their self-destructive voters. if these politicians are representing their people then i don't want to meet those people.
11
If Economics Is Like Sex, then so is draining the swamp. The Trumpian Theorem is: the more and bigger swamp critters wallow in it, the faster the swamp will overflow and drain. Brilliant!
2
I live in Indiana and believe me, we are being bombarded with ads for Rokita, Messer, and Braun to be the Republican nominee for the Senate. All three of them are doormats for Trump.
Their entire schtick is to claim they are more behind Trump than Michael Cohen is. They all support the WALL.
None of them is pitching a single new idea. Oh, and they love to brag about their Christianity. They will never admit that
supporting Trump is not reconcilable with being a Christian, and I'm not talking sex scandals. Just think about Trump University for one minute. That fraudster is our president.
9
You think things are bizarre in 3d World countries around the globe? Heck, what passes for the GOP today, in so many instances, trumps any nuttiness or banana-republic-ness one could possibly conceive of anywhere on the planet. These guys are like aliens. The outer space kind.
This is how you make America great again? Yeah, I guess, if Trump meant great, big laughingstock.
Phew, am I tired of all this winning.
4
For all those pondering 'draining the swamp:' it does not mean reining in lobbyists, curtailing corruption, or introducing transparency, or even efficiency to government. Here's what it really means: getting rid of every single person, place, or thing that could be even remotely labelled 'liberal.'
Let's return the favor in November shall we?
6
Nicely said, Gail. More bluntly: Republicans are using a dragnet to recruit some more bottom dwellers as candidates.
This makes the choice simple: vote Republican to fill the swamp -- vote for a Democratic candidate to create a majority that can start the overdue cleanup process in earnest.
12
More good stuff from Gail C, as always. But please continue to remember:
Flint still doesn't have clean water*
(* and yes, it has improved, but the specific AND symbolic message is important. Fun to make fun of odd politicians, but we have real issues that aren't making the news...)
8
Republicans can't drain the swamp in Washington, mostly because they are a huge part of the swamp, especially right now.
Gail, I wish you'd write about Rep. Tom Rice of SC, who has a hefty campaign chest. Whoever wins the Democratic primary, none of the contenders has raised that kind of money. Until we have campaign reform or the Republican base gets totally fed up with Trump and his cronies, we are stuck with Mr. Rice.
The Democrats include Mal Hyman, a professor of political science, Bruce Fischer, a retired psychologist, Robert Williams, a state representative and MPA, and Bill Hopkins, an attorney. All are well-educated, well-versed on the issues and able to serve SC well.
8
Interesting? Maybe. Crazy? Oh, yes.
10
How did we end up with some of the worst possible people to govern running and then winning? On the Republican side(yes, I'm biased, with 46 years of excellent reasons) the candidates in every state are mostly abysmal in knowledge, honesty, qualifications, devoid of humor and intelligence.
Has Congress always been filled with the opposite of what the Founders envisioned?
History tells us that the educated man of the upper classes with merit galore(the Founder generation) was no longer the dominant type in Congress after the 1st generation of American politicians died off. Not too many worthy patricians since then, not that rich men make the best politicians. Lincoln for example, the best of the best. Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt show that men from rich families where good values were passed down can make good presidents.
Trump's grandfather and father had dubious values, passed down to their son. Trump took to heart his father's love of "killers", and loves pretending to be tough.
The real Trump is scared to fire anyone face to face and was badly frightened when a protester got on the stage with him during the campaign. I saw it live. Plus the lie about a bone spur to avoid Vietnam. Coward all the way.
Honorable people mostly avoid politics like the plague. The new Black Plague, with human rats and fleas.
19
Donnelly is in trouble as much because he keeps trying to woo the Republicans and ignoring pleas from many to take a more progressive stance. He somehow thinks he can convince Republicans to vote for him even though he has a D beside his name while alienating progressive Democrats who cannot be convinced that even a conservative D who supports Trump and other Republicans 60%+ of the time is better than letting a Republican get elected who will vote with them 100% of the time. All the Republicans running are extremists. No middle ground there for sure.
8
Donnelly realizes in Indiana, you have to appease to conservatives. In the divisive world of politics, he is probably one of the most bipartisan and level-headed. Hopefully playing nice is enough to get him re-elected, as whomever runs against him will be extremely well funded (Koch Brothers, etc).
His bus-driving commercials (I work for you!) are a real relief among the 'I love trump' ads.
6
Politics in the United States is more and more like a Marx Brothers movie.
18
America loads its pockets with lead weight and goes for a swim.
19
Democracy is messy. It’s also very fragile, and truth is its underpinning. Every time a person involved in public discourse lies, a block comes from the bottom of the Jenga tower.
I think McConnell is weak, but calling him “Cocaine Mitch” is a lie. There’s no solid link between McConnell and cocaine. I don’t care WHO said it or why.
Trump and his cult members are a clear and present danger to this nation. They not only lie, it’s tempting for others to lie to get rid of them.
If you can’t win an election by telling the truth, go home. And if you vote for a liar, YOU are as dangerous to the nation as the liar.
If you have to choose between liars? Choose the one who lies the least. But vote. Otherwise, you abdicate your duty.
19
I think this batch of candidates should adopt & modify the old classic by the Standells -- "Dirty Water" -- as their theme song.
Just the title will do for the likes of Pruitt, but here's one one verse, where not much modification is needed:
"Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles
(Aw, that's what's happenin' baby)
That's where you'll find me
Along with lovers, muggers, and thieves"
Think of it - Roy Moore & Trump himself easily embody their view of a "lovers" role. As to muggers & thieves, well, just pass around a hat with anyone of these candidate's name in it & you've got a winner with any one of them, randomly selected. They might not be mugging you as if in a back alley, but we're pretty much feeling it as if it were the case.
6
Do these candidates who are clamoring to demonstrate their devotion to Trump really believe that Trump represents the values and ideals of America? The Republican party has descended into a cult of personality. They are no longer the party of Lincoln, they are Trumpists.
16
Just wanted to mention that the UK's Financial Times emails on the topic of "Money and Power in Trump's America" are entitled Swamp Notes. Great for a mirthful moment, but wish I were crying crocodile tears instead of being enraged that Trump is allowed to get away with his appalling public behavior, let alone his misdeeds, and by so many people even seems to be cheered on.
18
There’s another Pence? Oh noooo. There’s something very sinister about Mike Pence and I’m not sure what it is. I can’t decide whether it’s the fact he looks like the crazy assassin monk in the Da Vinci Code, a department store dummy with self-awareness, or an android who believes himself to be human - or maybe it’s something else entirely.
I think it’s those eyes. Lifeless eyes. And the expressionless face that always looms behind Trump’s shoulder.
37
AND, calls his wife, “Mother”, and believes in conversion therapy, and thinks God literally ‘speaks’ to him. One heartbeat away from the presidency of the one who feasts on Big Macs. Just adding.....
5
Trump won the presidency by descending to the lowest common denominator, a cesspool of bigotry, racism, hate and ignorance. These guys aren't stupid, just brazenly immoral opportunists. Why shouldn't they get a big piece of mud pie?
18
It seems that roughly 30-40% of the country feels that a dictatorship would better suit their needs, which consists mainly of “other people” not getting any benefit from a government “of, by, and for the People”.
America is scary in 2018 where life is becoming ever more difficult as the New Robber Barons work against the country to enrich themselves.
It really is no wonder that people are feeling insecure.
17
It is becoming all too obvious that these swamp creatures are running for office because their is little or no real oversight once you get into office.
The Robber Barons have gotten control of all three branches of our government, and that is not what the founding fathers had in mind.
It is time to prosecute these criminals for not living up to their oath of office.
24
One has to wonder if Don Blankenship, about whom I've seen at least two documentaries, thinks that "a wealthy Chinaperson" is being politically correct because he used "person." Almost definitely.
10
In the midst of all this swampy, depressing political chaos, Ms. Collins reminds us that laughter is good medicine. I’ll be laughing all the way to my poling place this fall. #bluewave
25
in the December 1932 election, 3 candidates ran for president. the conservative Incumbent Field Marshall von Hindenburg, the Nazi candidate Hitler, and the communist party candidate Ernst Thaelmann. In his campaign Thaelmann argued that a vote for Hindenburg was a vote for Hitler and that Hitler would lead Germany into war. The bourgeois press including the "social democrats" dismissed this as "Moscow inspired". Hindenberg was re-elected while the Nazis dropped approx. 2 million votes to Hindenberg. True to form the "social Democrat leaders" refused the communist parties plea to form an 11th hour coalition against Nazism. As In many other countries past and present, the "social democrats" would rather ally themselves with the reactionary right than to make and find a common cause with the communist or REDS. Meanwhile a number of right wing parties coalesced behind the Nazis and in January of 1933, just months after the election. Hitler was invited by Hindenburg to become chancellor. History is a cycle and until we are aware the part we play it will continue to repeat.
8
As long as DJT is president, these lowlifes will continue to run for office. They feel enabled.
30
This really is mind-boggling and not ha-ha funny but very scary.
How did the Party of Lincoln become a haven for failed businessmen, self-proclaimed Christians totally lacking in a conscience, and guys who want to run for office because they hate women, nonwhites, clean air and water, science, a healthy citizenry, the truth, and their own government?
More to the point, why would anyone take themselves to the polls on election day to vote for these swamp creatures out to destroy democracy, human decency, and honesty?
And, has anybody seen or heard much from the party of opposition, the Democrats? The GOP swamp rats are filling the void.
22
The party of Lincoln disappeared in the 1960's when the "Dixiecrats" moved over to the GOP because they were unhappy with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and LBJ's Great Society. It was hijacked further by Richard Nixon appealing to his "silent majority." Any true sense of financial responsibility went out the window under Reagan. You have a few old school (New England) Republicans that hew to the old days (e.g., Susan Collins, George HW Bush), but they are few andfar between.
6
Yes, this year will be interesting. I watched Mike Pence praise pardoned former sheriff Joe Arpaio for being what was reported to be a champion of "the rule of law." Only what came out of Pence's mouth was "the rule of low." I watched it again to be sure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DexFmFguGhw
Nice Freudian slip.
20
I am reminded of an adage (attributed to the Chinese): May you live in interesting times.
I say, enough already! Can we please try some boredom?
12
Too much winning for you?
5
Dearest Gail, thank you so very much for your ending which gave me the biggest LOL that I badly needed.
Just when you think it really can't possibly get any weirder, it does!
Bless your heart, and keep your witty columns going. Need it now more than ever during these dark days in American politics.
9
Goodbye, America. You were great.
17
well I wonder if nauseating would be a better word than interesting.
9
Are you sure Pence's brother didn't just leave the convenience store business to "spend more time with (his) family"? (Queare: name one prominent person who actually DID go home to spend more time with the family after flopping at something.)
8
Uh, pretty sure every politician in the history of America has tangents of all these traits. Humble people are usually not worthy of the job either. By the way, we had a "journalist" run for office near Dallas. He lost.
These two are die-hard "Republicans," in its new iteration, in this age. Seriously un-American, corrupt, and embarrassing to the nation. Kick them all to the curb. (That includes some Democrats, like Feinstein, Schumer, and Pelosi, among others.) Vote for people who actually represent their constituents, and want to do the right things for the country.
2
Dear american fellows! "I am so sorry"!
I grew up in Belarus through the times of the last decade of the Soviet Union, its collapse and the criminal 90s; now we enjoy a long term period of stability (questionable and arguable). It has been three different epochs, different systems and means to survive. But there is one thing that has always prevailed. The hopeless feeling that the country has been rulled by the elite, by the lucky ones to be born in the right family and to know the right people. Only those lucky ones would enjoy the prosperity and own the right to break through a very low glass ceiling and many other rulls. It is a daunting feeling to know that your fate has been decided and you should know your place, no matter how talented and hard working you are.
I managed to shake off that feeling only after living in US for 15 years thanks to witnessing geniun believe that every individual matters, every citizen is valued and can affect a change! Let me tell you, coming from a frame of mind with my history and submurging into the state of personal importance was truely liberating. You truely think that anything is possible and just that amazes you! It is a privalage!
And I am sorry that the privilege is being stripped away from you! The further it goes, the more it settles in my gut that you are being invaded, lied to and used by elites as well. I am so sorry! But I still believe that you can change it! Americans, you still can have your country and freedom back!
14
This is my country? It’s as if I live on an alt-planet.
9
Republicans have given the privilege to serve the nation, a dirty name. However, it's the Republican electorate which chooses these representatives from the bottom of a barrel. They get what they deserve. Trump, Pence, and many other Roy Moore-like snollygosters.
But what about the rest of us? Well, I guess we also get what we deserve since so many sit out elections and many of the sane, responsible Americans who do vote don't get involved in supporting sane candidates prior to election night.
Hoping for a better outcome doesn't cut it. If you want sane representatives get involved. Donate what you can afford and volunteer some time to promote a good candidate. A healthy democracy demands more than going to the polls every year or two. Democracy demands citizen involvement. Without that, we get Trumps, Pences, Lambs, Ryans, and other such wormy apples.
12
Politics have always been a dirty business. My inner guidance until recently was, "All politicians are corrupt. The system is corrupt. The question is who will help 99% of us most while they engage in the corruption?"
Then President Obama and Senator Elizabeth Warren came along. They have proven to me that politics do not have to be corrupt. They have given me hope. They have caused me to ask smarter questions of candidates and expect more.
My gratitude to them for stepping up and agreeing to help manage OUR United States Government is beyond words. Thanks to all the Socially Conscious, ethical people who are stepping up right now to bring honor back to OUR United States, states and local governments.
Get all The Con Don and other Robber Baron operatives out of OUR governments at all levels right now. It's up to WE THE PEOPLE to use OUR votes to kick out corrupters.
14
We are witnessing the Trump effect: He brings out the worst in those who associate with him especially those who ride on his coattails, clamoring for power.
10
These candidates explain a lot about the mess we are in---very swamp like.
3
It is my understanding that Don Blankenship, a native son of West Virginia, didn't actually own the Big Branch mine where the explosion killed all those men. He just ran it for Massey Coal, which has since sold the mine. Blankenship was Massey's point man in southern West Virginia. He broke the United Mine Workers's dominance in the southern coalfields and made Massey a ton of money and quite a bit for himself.
4
(Wry smile emoji.) This used to be a serious country. Not perfect. Not particularly un-swampy. But serious. Anymore? Not so much. (Angry emoji.)
6
We keep electing people like this. Marx said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.
A nation gets the government it deserves.
5
I had dinner last night with a man who has spent his life as a Republican lobbyist in California and he is absolutely discouraged, disgusted and disappointed in the condition, and leadership, of his party. The willingness to lie for a man like the president who has no moral compass is astounding to him, and his characterization of Blankenship in particular can’t be printed here. He was extremely concerned about our ability to return to America as a land where opposing sides can talk and compromise for the common good, because he doesn’t see it happening with the radically extremist and fundamental Christian conservative views of today’s party. So if this guy is scared, I’m seeing things in a darker shade of pale than before.
12
We lived in Indianoplace when Mike and Greg were growing up. That was the period when there was a law prohibiting unaccompanied women from sitting by themselves at a bar. The y could only be there for one reason, right? As silly as it sounds, that's when the mindset of the Pence boys was formed. We didn't live in West Virginia but did live in an adjoining state. The semi-serious joke was that everyone in West Virginia had the same DNA. That's not so far-fetched when one considers there has been no in-migration to WVA in decades.
Hey, folks! These candidates could comprise a significant percentage of the Senate. Pay attention and beware.
7
In the spirit of humor, I would like the NYT readers to know that shortly after 9/11 I wrote to the Bush Whitehouse recommending that the President make Rudy Giuliani Ambassador, at large, to the United States. Since he was the most admired Mayor, and possibly citizen, of the United States at the time for the manner and sensitivity in handling that disaster I figured he should travel throughout the U.S. speaking to the people on behalf of their government and urging them to unite in that spirit that existed during WWII. Naturally that was not done. But it is a reminder to me that human beings can rise to great heights at times, but staying there is the real challenge. Hopefully Giuliani will understand that as he descends to the bottom.
3
The only thing we need to demand from candidates at this point, and hold them to it, is legislation that would make all elections 100% publicly financed, with limits to how long campaigning can go on. Like they do in countries with far less issues with corruption and misrule -- all the other successful nations.
The root of all of this is money in politics. Also, the apparent fact that most Americans vote on the basis of commercials. I don't know which is worse.
8
Gail, "this stuff" may be "interesting," but it is also depressing, and it is destroying the ethos of the patriots that founded and have sustained the nation.
5
Reads like absurdist theater -- except -- it isn't. Laughing/crying all at the same time. The new normal.
10
As always, Gail's columns are very amusing and make for enjoyable reading; however, all humor aside, we, as a country, are in some very perilous times, times which threaten the very heart of the United States. It appears a great many of the candidates for office are those with, at best, questionable qualifications. Perhaps public service, in the Trump era is no longer a calling for people of honor, a situation that is very dangerous indeed for the future of us all. Let us try to focus on
those who do have integrity and help them overcome those who clearly are in the race only for their own benefit and bottom line.
VOTE!
VOTE!
169
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
9
I don't know what is more depressing: The EPA chief flying first class to Paris, Morocco and Disneyland; planning another trip to Australia; wasting taxpayers' money on soundproof phone booths, a 24-hour security detail and trying to get an EPA office in Tulsa, all the while turning the EPA into the Environmental Pollution Agency. Or the vice president calling convicted felon Joe Arpaio a "champion of law and order." Or Trump thinking he deserves a Nobel peace prize. Or the felonious Michael Grimm and a murderous coal mine owner running for the Senate.
16
They must be called "primary" elections because all the people running are acting like grade-school name-callers.
8
Whenever I hear the "Drain the Swamp" war cry, I'm reminded of the most intelligent political reporting from the pen of Walt Kelly. His daily cartoon, "Pogo", was set in the beautiful Okefenokee Swamp located on the GA/FL state line. He created hundreds of "political critters" to help his readers understand the lighter side of the incompetence in Washington. We were guided through the wisdom of the four-panel essay by a possum, (Pogo), and an alligator, (Albert). Gail Collins is our Walt Kelly, but with a dog on the roof to go with hundreds of swamp critters.
4
I remember feeling happy knowing Gail's column would deliver good laughs. Ah, the days of times past. Gail does her part. I fail at mine. Trump and the people he attracts aren't funny. Not his House and Senate abettors, cabinet and judicial appointees, aids, candidates, voters, televised liars' club. Not his assembled plunderers, polluters (I could dot dot dot here -- there's too much to list). I can't rise to laughter at the mention of any of those folks.
10
Indeed, "C". But "B" is not far behind. Just give it time and Giuliani and the Trump children will propose Trump's Tweets for the Nobel prize in literature, the same way that the House proposed the president for the peace Nobel prize.
If they gave it to Santos, I do not see a fundamental difference. I predict that in the future some Nobel prizes will become embarrassing instead of a source of pride and prestige.
1
The problem that Gail Collins alludes to first in her column here ("draining the swamp") is based on a simple mistake in the reporting due to street noise that has snowballed with time into an establish truism with no basis in fact.
At the time that Trump first mentioned his goal to DREDGE the swamp outside Trump Tower, a fire engine was racing by making its god-awful noise and the reporter heard "drain", but no.
Trump's goal was obviously to dredge a sad & silting swamp, to make it deeper and slicker in order to hold even more good old American dollars & American crocodiles too (no immigrant crocodiles allowed!), and I think he's succeeded brilliantly and yet: nobody gives him the credit he's so obviously due!
I mean, how else can you explain, for starters, his entire Cabinet, especially Scott Pruitt?
8
Does Pence’s brother think Arpaio is a defender of the rule of law? Is there any way to defeat the brother and vote pence out st the same time? They are ignoring the constitution anyway, so who cares?
9
I'm sorry....but I bet to differ with your assessment that none of the Indiana Republican Senate candidates is "particularly crazy." Take a look at their recent statements and television commercials.
I would contend that all three are exceedingly crazy and far-right extremists to boot!
12
I wonder whether Mitt Romney's dog could get on one of these ballots?...
He'd be a sympathetic candidate and most likely passed through some or all of these states while strapped to the top of the car on the way to Canada thereby establishing his residency.
1
Is it possible that we have been sailing on the high seas of misconception for decades and have only now set foot upon the shores of a new and thoroughly unknown country run by deranged shamans, cannibals of the truth, and monsters of misdirection? How like pilgrims we are facing the cold winter of irrationality, venality and criminality : keeping the pale fire of democracy lit while the storm rages at our doorstep. Fear not my fellows, Spring will come again and those who have kept faith will flourish.
4
Will Pence stand behind the president, clapping and smiling as Trump soon will announce the ironic creation of a white house faith based initiative today?
Another shiny object for his base.
This truly is the dumbing down of America.
An outrageously reckless president standing before religious leaders as if himself a moral leader.
Is this a George Orwell novel into which we've ventured??
176
Or have we somehow dropped through a rift in space and ended up in an alternative universe, in which black is white and up is down?
12
It reminds me more of Kurt Vonnegut.
4
Mary Jane Sieben, we are in an incredibly dark and twisted Wonderland.
The Red King screams, "LOCK HER UP!" and has thrown Alice in the dungeon for being an undocumented immigrant.
I'd have fun carrying on further in that vein, but it's way too depressing.
I especially enjoyed the "tick...tick..." as an image of the GOP as the latest in tick-borne diseases. However, unless the disease is its own vector, that would be a mixed metaphor: The GOP backfilled the wetlands and put in a Trump-designed golf course, leaving the rest of us watching the steady advance of the bloodsuckers.
1
Well, yes, Gail, this stuff is interesting.
In the same way watching a cancer spread is interesting.
It may even, technically, be comic. But it's hardly funny.
7
Chinese proverb/curse...May you live in interesting time. How appropriate.
Swamp=cess pool! This president, along with the GOP have besmirched the honor, creditability and decency of the office. of the presidency and the offices they hold. The voters of the nation need to stand up and reinstate some standards and vote for representatives who share and endorse the values principals and laws that this country was founded on. It is an insult to the voters to have these individuals on the ballot.
7
The Republicans are so unintellectual and devoid of any worldly knowledge.
Swamps are actually places the contain ecological treasures that need to be preserved and enjoyed by all. Having traversed them in a boat I can bear witness to my statement.
What these Republicans are actually doing is creating a diversion by claiming to "drain the swamp" while they keep widening and filling their cesspool of horror.
5
You cannot make up this stuff but I have been saying this since the election in 2016!!
2
Something to ponder: even should we somehow be rid of Trump, Pence would become president. Don't know whether to laugh or cry.
8
Hilarious. And sad. Only conclusion is that the people have totally given up
3
Gail, what I really want to know is have any of these "unconventional" Republicans ever driven to Canada with a golden retriever strapped to the roof of the family station wagon? My money's on that interesting guy from West Virginia, or is it Nevada, Dan Blinkingboat. Polluter to jailed felon to aspiring U.S. Senate candidate. Wow!
God save America.
6
Thank you for making me laugh in a political climate that makes me want to cry. May Pence step on those upturned rakes one of your readers referred to. Maybe they'll smack him in the head and drive some sense into him. Our political field is more like a Monty Python skit than real life. How frightening.
6
Killed 29!
What's so bad about that? He could have killed 1029!
When one takes all things West Virginia into consideration, one can conclude that their opioid epidemic is a perfectly rational response.
How dare Mitch snort Cocaine! Especially when coal dust is so plentiful in the local venue. It's so available, whether you want it or not. WV's favorite son had to move out west!
Coal: Many power companies are moving to solar and wind energy. Of course there is some intermittency in delivering those forms of electricity, but life moves forward. Some bold new comer might want to try delivering that message to voters in the next election. Unfortunately, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink."
6
You did it, Gail: you made this stuff kind of interesting in a comic-macabre way.
The swamp in Pence's native Indiana used to be called the Limberlost ... is it still there? Or is the real environmental disaster of that swamp draining metaphor already triumphant?
3
Our best and our brightest, lining up to serve. Oh, the pride! Well, OK maybe it is not pride, exactly, that I feel come election time.
But, this I can promise. I will go out and vote. I will make sure I know the names of the people who are running and at least something of their politics.
And I will not, not, not, just decide that they all stink and stay home. Electing awful people is dispiriting. Having to live with the awful people everyone else voted for is worse.
7
It's not my fight, but actually it is. Come on, Democrats and disillusioned Republicans, make sure you vote for anyone who represents the polar opposite of the sitting lunatic. Then maybe we'll get some peace, both inside and outside the U.S..
5
The only observation I have is that the demands of running for public office - endless fundraising, personal, vicious attacks - are so extreme, that we are left with a collection of egomaniacal crackpots.
5
Okay, so convenience stores aren't casinos, but Gregg Pence managed to bankrupt a whole chain of them. That makes him hands down the most Trump-like of the Indiana bunch. If that is what Indianans really want to send to Washington.
7
At age 81, I am old enough to remember when I was proud to be an American. I was lucky to be born while FDR was in the White House, and I am proud that Dwight Eisenhower’s signature is on my commission when I became an Air Force Officer in 1958.
Since I was born in Niagara Falls, NY, my father’s family, immigrants from Scotland, missed the better country by less than a mile.
6
It's probably safe to assume that the letter nominating Trump for the Nobel last year was signed by "John Barron."
5
Hey, don't be so unkind to Blankenship over "Cocaine Mitch". At least he went to the trouble to dig up a rationale for this moniker.
There are people we all know who wouldn't even bother to do that.
1
It's amazing when you think that the Republican Party used to be the party of sober-minded restraint. Now they're a fun house clown riding a unicycle off a peer into vat of gasoline and fireworks while trying to sing the national anthem.
3
These kind of inane horse-race columns completely overlook our crumbling democracy. This isn't really the time for hee-haw like pointing and laughing at the looney tunes who are highly likely to win elections. At least Gail didn't write about Mitt strapping a dog to the roof of his car.
1
Come on Gail, that "other" Pence is a former Marine! and loves the Second Amendment and has the family hair. What other qualifications could he possibly need to run for public office?
6
Hey, c’mon Gail. You may have lost the thread here. Maybe McConnell’s not been doing coke. He’d be too afraid of losing his Putin lifeline. But consider what poor Elaine has to live with. You don’t think that her father, like any good parent, wouldn’t try to help her with an occasional blitz?
1
Greg Pence for The House? Perish the thought! Mike Pence was a Congressman, then Governor - and now is a heartbeat (or impeachment, or involuntary confinement) away from the presidency. The two Pences share a flat but severe personality and a flat but severe worldview.
If there were a family we don’t need to become a political legacy, it is the Pences.
8
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/us/politics/09obama.html
Might be said:
"...You know the difference between you and me? I make this look good - in the NYT...
(from MIB)
No - not "Mitch Isn't Barack"...
One Pence is too many Gail. I guess the qualifications for running for political office these days is a breathing human being.
1
"Don’t you think there’d be more progress reports by now on how well the swamp-draining is going?" ROFL. Thank you, Gail, you made my day.
1
America Deserves Better.
But Better is off hiking the Appalachian Trail...
3
Yeah, and Rob Ford's brother (Canadian crazy drunk/crack cocaine addict) is running to head up Ontario. And has a good chance.
Ah, dynasties!
3
These people.
3
Deplorable proves to to be the enduring accurate description to describe these liars, crooks, thieves and frauds.
7
A cheater President and his porn star, a coal mine owner who did get a bunch of people killed running to represent the same people he harmed, Cocaine Mitch, the GOP steamed about a comic not liars, a governor tying up his naked hairdresser, married men trying to buy their girlfriends an abortion, a bunch of old men legislatively trying to make women carry an embryo to term from 6 weeks, it goes on and on and on.
This is hands down the wierdest idea of "conservative" in my lifetime. This is our religious council - the morality police of America, disdainful of others, teaching us their lofty values. Gazing at a Hieronymous Bosch painting squirming with the curious rot of human behaviors is nothing compared to the outright bizarreness of the mad men of the GOP right now.
7
Did the media investigate the Nation's Magazine's report about Mitch's father-in-law, and if not, why not?
1
How about the Georgia gubernatorial candidate Hunter Hill (thankfully behind in the primary polls) who points a gun at a teenage boy in a TV ad and says anyone dating his daughter must have "Respect" and must love the 2nd Amendment.
4
Ms. Collins....since for some un-explainable reason you have become fascinated with WV politics....allow me to bring you up to speed. Then you wont feel so crushed and confused when things dont turn out the way you seem to so desparately want them to.
WV has long been the province of the so-called "absentee landowner".....most of the state is in fact owned by wealthy people that work on Wall Street and golf at the WEstchester Country Club.....Let me jog your short term memory......WV used to regularly elect John D Rockefeller,#4 to be its senator.. Virtually everyone running for office in WV owns a coal mine. And if they dont....they are suspect. Every coal miner will complain about "useless safety rules that prevent them from getting the job done"....and a coal operator that allows certain corners to be cut is considered a good boss.....Its the coal operator that breaks strikes and cheats on pay that gets run out of the state.
The National Attention on WV politics is strictly self-serving for people who dont give a "U-NO-WUT" about WV.....people such as yourself only want an easily manipulated Senator who will do the Bush-Clinton Axis's bidding and IMPEACH TRUMP....which in itself is a foolish short sighted goal that serves no national purpose.
1
You have to let a lot of "things" crawl out of the woodwork and from under rocks to find a cast of miscreants like these guys. And we thought "Lyin' Ted Cruz" was the worst.
6
Love this stuff, Gail; thanks for the regular chuckle.
This column does make me worry a bit about one particular group, though.
Since these repubs are teetering on the brink of cosmic reality consider the plight of the Seths, Stephens, Jimmys and Trevors.
Just where to the late night comics go to top this group?. There is no way they can get further into the lunacy than this bunch without being called in for drug testing.
I do wonder though that, with his employment history, brother Pence might do better in working in the White House---after all a six month stint there now qualifies one for retirement benefits
Keep up the great work.
3
Sorry, but, no, this is not interesting or engaging. This is a sad and very idiotic demonstration of how we elect our officials. Very soon, we will be drawn down further as they falter through contradiction and ineptitude.
3
My money is on Blankenship, he is perfect for the West Virginians who seem to love to self destruct. As to Greg Pence, please Gail tell us that he doesn't call his wife "mother".
3
“... Messer keeps bragging that he’s working to get Donald Trump nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize [because Obama got one].
There, I fixed it!
4
There is an ad running in Georgia by republican governor candidate who is sitting in a room full of guns, and pointing his shotgun at a kid who shows up to date his daughter. Apparently trying to impress the gun crowd.
These cretins have turned into the caricatures of themselves.
6
Gail,
Let's not forget the Joe Manchin the guy thes repubs are attempting to run against. He also has pharmaceutical ties. His daughter, who has no education/training in anything pharmaceutical or medical related, is CEO of Mylan where she okay'd the 600% price rise in price of Epi-pens.
2
Meanwhile, the Democrats are furiously assembling a platform of women -- preferably ex-sex workers -- to run with Stormy Daniels, their top candidate for office if you judge by the media attention...
Get out and get some sun, Gail.
We all know that this is going to boil down to boys v. girls, people of color v. whites. No need to research any issues or follow any platforms when it all has become identity politics 24/7...
Congrats on the company's 1st quarter profits. You guys sure are turning a profit at your paper with all the young guns now in charge, eh?
1
'Cocaine Mitch' ... I like that, I don't care if it's a stretch. Or whether it's even true or not. Those bug eyes McConnell has. He looks like he's wired out. Even though he's so laid back on the outside. ... Besides I can not stand Manchin ... I think he might be the worst Senator of all. Even a Republican who tosses out crazy sayings is better.
1
I can't say that republican voters don't deserve this smorgasbord of fools and con men but the rest of us not so much.
6
Trump* is the most deceitful and ignorant 'man' ever to hold high office.
The 3 stalwarts aiming to unseat Donnelly are racing to be the one most copacetic with Trump*.
Either I'm in a pharmacologically-induced delirium or the dysfunction of H. sapiens is boundless.
3
The faux macho Rokita ads are so bad and so full of smirk and swagger that you think they are an SNL parody.
3
Horrible candidates in the GOP, but to the 36% of the MAGA maniacs it doesn't matter. Whoever looks and sounds most like Trump gets their zombie vote.
10
The frauds running for office don't bother me nearly as much as the loons who actually vote for them.
7
Not "interesting", bizaare, or maybe surreal.
2
"A wealthy Chinaperson"? Really? It's true that you can't make this stuff up!
7
Hey, listen, at least "Chinaperson" is gender neutral.
I'm really enjoying "Cocaine Mitch." I'm actually laughing out loud. Unfortunately, I think it's actually hysteria. I can't seem to stop. Will this never end?
Cocaine Mitch, huh? McConnell never really struck me as cocaine type of guy. He seems more like a Mueslix man if you ask me. Mueslix Mitch. That has a nice ring to it. Although, Boehner is selling pot now so you never know. I will say, as bad as Blankenship is, a platform supporting McConnell's departure is sorely tempting. That man is perversely destructive to our government institutions. If "Cocaine Mitch" gets him kicked out, I'm okay with that compromise.
4
And we thought the GOP opposed death panels.
How did it come to this. Miscreants, liars, thieves, corporate murderers, polluters, drug merchants.
And this is the face of the Republican party going into the midterm elections? Along with Trumps threats and tweets, this is the best material Democrats could hope for.
If we blow this one, it's our own fault.
1
come on gail.... being a republican politician is the easiest job in the world. the base has been brainwashed to believe that the government always fails at what it attempts so when you get into office you have nothing to do but rake in the money and wait for just the right lobbying job before quitting and going back to wisconsin or wherever......
4
Drain the swamp? Trump and the republicans are the swamp!
3
Last night, our Vice President was riding the Arizona Stage with America First Policies' advocacy director Carl Higbie (self-identified racist, on his old radio show). Also, VP Pence was HONORED to call Joe Arpaio - a champion of The Rule of Law.
Coming to a rally near you - the "Mike Pence" BRAND! - GO MEET "Sheriff Joe" who cost Maricopa County $140 million in fines, judgments, settlements, etc. - Event is CERTIFIED "racist friendly".
"In 2013, Carl Higbie was a right-wing radio host who said that he believed, “wholeheartedly, that the black race as a whole, not totally, is lazier than the white race, period.” Higbie also argued that “the black race” had a “lax morality” and that black women believed that “breeding is a form of employment.”
"In 2016, allies of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign made Higbie the spokesman of the (Trump-aligned) Great America super-PAC."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/trump-ally-defends-claim-th...
Of course, the Trump administration made Carl Higbie - its chief of external affairs for the federal government’s volunteer service. Of course, he was forced to resign. Of course, the "Trump Pence 2020" campaign is happy for him to entertain "these people".
5
Joe livin in a Machins primary opponent can't even make a story about West Virginia's primaries? Her name is Paula Jean Swearengin and she is pretty darn awesome.
Giuliani just called Trump a liar by declaring Trump knew of Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels.
Gosh, U.S. politics has become so much more titillating than Iranian politics!!!
Keep the scandals coming .................. Let's see which one finally breaks the camel's back.
4
"Economics is Like Sex". Oh what a lucky significant other and/or mistress/mister Jonathan Lamb has.
1
So basicly,Gail, Don Blankenship's comments about Mitch MCConnell are all valid......is that what you're trying to tell us?
As if Mitch McConnell has done anything positive for the USA>
NOT. If anybody needs to be defeated its Mitch. Dang, Gail....wake up and smell the coffee.
1
Gail,
Anything that humiliates Mitch McConnell, I am 100% for it.
He is second only to Trump as the most detested man in America.
4
Students of propagandizing and public relations should read Gail's stuff. She is the pre-eminent smear tactician, and her family and friends are justifiably proud of her advancement of the art.
Step One is just to rant and make up stuff, but we are far past that. The dedicated propagandist paints a picture that is guaranteed to disgust the reader that easily attaches to any political enemy she names after the visuals are created.
The Soviets were better at this than, say, the Nazis, but only in the American progressive warfront has political agitation through the use of language been developed to this degree.
So, you know her family and friends? Good for you!
All this talk about draining the swamps is Republican code talk about destroying wetlands.
As for the swamp as a metaphor for corruption, Republicans are committed to replacing swamps with cesspools of corruption. They are committed to creating an America awash in moral fecal microbiota.
The moral health of our society ie threatened. Republicans power much be reduced at the ballot box next November, before bad hombres like Trump do more harm to the American people, the American environment, and above all America an an ideal, a beacon of hope for the world.
5
Conservatives will ultimately destroy the world. Our own GOP brand of them are the most ignorant, hypocritical, lying group ever assembled in a supposedly Democratic country. This stuff may be interesting, but it is also terrifying. How does a corporate hack found complicit in the death of 29 WV miners even have the gall to run for their survivors's senate seat? The stupidity, the mind-blowing hypocrisy is unfathomable. The fact that any candidate for dog catcher would align himself with the lying tweeter-in-chief makes my head explode. GOP 2012: Russia is our greatest enemy. GOP 2016: Russia is our greatest friend and benefactor. EVERY GOP candidate must be voted out or the dream of the USA is dead.
2
wouldn't Blankenship be a previously convicted felon? as such he couldn't even vote in florida
but he could be a senator from west virginia???
3
"Every Republican talks about draining the swamp." To paraphrase a reader's comment a couple of weeks ago, it seems that the Banana Republicans are refilling that swamp with sewage.
5
ah Republicans - the best and the brightest!
3
“Cocaine Mitch”? Does coca grow in swamps?
I don’t know if any of these “petite dotards” is fit for office, but I’m fit to be tied!
Melania: “Donald, it’s 4 a.m. — time to get up and tweet! Don’t forget to run spellchecker (and Grammar) before you hit Send! The Nobel people are fussy!”
2
Just what we need, more clone- like trump candidates and mike pence's brother. Drain the swamp, just adding to it. (Pruitt? He's just floating along on. Rubber tube)
1
Now I can’t cut the pills in half — for sure.
One question—- How can any person with a brain vote and elect these guys??
4
You can always bet that ignorant people elect ignorant representatives, and ignorant representatives destroy the country. That is why Democracy in an ignorant nations will inevitabley become self destructive.
5
Blankenship should really leave the nicknaming to Trump. Cocaine Mitch is seriously weak....
3
"Economics is like Sex." Poor man, think what this says about his sex life. He certainly won't fit in the Trump swamp, unless he means you have to pay for the sex....
5
Funny Fake 45 just said that paying Stormy Daniels did not violate campaign finance laws. What law school did he go to? And, BTW what law school do Cohen go to...Phoenix U does not count.
3
Conservatives seem determined to have the meaning of the word Republican evolve into this: clownish; absurd; displaying asinine or ridiculous characteristics.
5
I know you right-wing republicans just thrill as seeing "'sploidy heads 'splodin'", but are you too just getting even just a little tired of this never-ending circus??
2
Funny and sad. These Republicans mentioned by Ms. Collins are variously delusional, criminally negligent, incompetent, clueless, and have numerous other major flaws. And they are the best their party has to offer.
And yet, in West Virginia and Indiana, the GOP will probably win. Sure, rational people would reject these fools, but the voters in West Virginia and Indiana aren't rational. They think abortion is some important big deal, they are desperately afraid of having their guns taken away, their political ideals are archaic and illogical.
So these foolish red states will go on electing rapacious idiots, in all likelihood. I have no sympathy for them at all, whatever happens to them, as it's impossible to feel sympathy for anyone deserving of that much contempt.
10
I would not use the word "interesting". "Pathetic" may be. Part of it is that I have to read about these imbecilic dolts without any respite. What happened to the intelligent people of this country? Did they self immolate?
2
At least MY has AMY MCGRATH you all are responsible for your own state. get on with it. Mitch is a dinosaur and once he and his minion Bevin are gone, KY will be turning blue, and solar....
2
You are a brave lady, Gail, trying to make comedy out of politics when the Guilliani/Hannity comedy routine is up staging everyone.
7
Interesting? More like nauseating! The damage that Russian meddling has inflicted upon the U.S. political system could reasonably be answered with a nuclear attack on Moscow!
2
A sewer has over flown and is flooding our country with so much sewage I don’t know if we’ll ever recover. It just keeps coming and coming.
9
The Republican Party is an ensemble of the execrated. It's hard to imagine a more concentrated menagerie of cynical, bigoted, hypocritical, spineless, corruptly partisan, politicians. Their implicit racism coupled with misogyny, and homophobia, is a trifecta of ignorance and intolerance. When you add their galling financial basting of the rich, and their attempts at the economic emaciation of the poor and disadvantage, you have an indelible portrait of political criminality.
3
If you think that a circus full of ugly clowns is interesting, be my guest. But it must be scary for the people in their districts to tolerate self-serving misfits who think that politicking equates politics (the art of the possible). And further, those who are hoping to be Trump-like, forget a little detail, that the ugly American in- chief is not a uniter, a divider instead, on the basis of fear and hate, the worst possible combination for societal peace.
3
Um, you forgot the part about Mr. Pence getting all giddy because Sheriff Joe was in the house and then Mr. Pence forgot about all of the racial profiling, the failure to investigate hundreds of child abuse cases, the millions of taxpayer dollars in lawsuit judgments and that pesky federal conviction, just so he could explain to the crowd that Mr. Arpaio is all about "the rule of law" right before the deafening applause.
I guess since Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence couldn't get their first choice (Judge and Mall Stalker Roy Moore) into the Senate, they've thrown their support to Mr. Arpaio.
They're not draining the swamp; they're dredging it to make it even deeper.
4
"You can’t say this stuff isn’t interesting." Oh yes I can! It's sickening.
4
And they wonder why we fly over their states.
As a Democrat I'd feel safer in Syria than indiana or wisconsin or any place down south.
5
And THIS is the best Indiana can do?
1
And let us not neglect Blankenship's recent video ad in which he claims that the "Govment" blew up his mine and then put him in jail for it.
Has the Republican Party always been this paranoid/crazy, conspiratorial? Oh wait, wasn't there that McCarthy guy, and the attempts to impeach Earl Warren and ....
Forget the question.
3
Well, I guess if you didn't laugh you would just be crying - although I seem to be doing a lot of both these days.
Thanks for the insight and laughs, Gail.
Let me guess - this pool of winners are all white and over fifty?
4
The trash sticks together. By now, I hope everyone understands that the Republican message can be distilled to the fetid concept of white supremacy. That is how you elect a corrupt, treasonous con man who soils the office of the presidency every single day. The promise of white supremacy is that holy grail. America must choose at this momentous crossroad. And choose wisely it must.
3
I believe that the chain of convenience stores was called "Tobacco Road" and they made a lot of their money pedaling cancer. That's right, the same anti-science people that are climate deniers also denied that tobacco caused cancer. Must be that they are viewing the world from a higher moral ground.
7
The temerity of Republicans, the thumbing of their collective noses at all of us, of Trump, Pence, Pruitt, McConnell, Ryan, Carson, Mnuchin, Kelly, Zinke, blows my mind.
Think about it, everyone of these people has lied, acted corruptly, used their position to take public funds and enrich themselves and their 1% overlords.
Have we ever seen a more corrupt, sleazy, swampy administration?
8
"Don’t you think there’d be more progress reports by now on how well the swamp-draining is going? "
Gail, I used to read every column you wrote, but I haven't since you started the Trump bashing in 2016. This one seemed interesting, though, so I returned to your column. Then I read the above quote. Gail, there are plenty of progress reports on the successes of the Trump presidency. However, you won't hear or read anything about success in the (Palin) "lamestream media".
She's particularly referring to Drain the Swamp, not tax cuts and other Trump accomplishments you may approve of.
I really do not think even the most ardent Trump supporter can argue he has drained a swamp. At the very least, you put up with same swamp for the policies and appointments you like.
Please get real.
3
The only successes of the trump presidency seem to be of enriching his family and friends at the expense of the country. He has also succeeded in making us a global laughing stock.
2
Mike Pence is like the farmer in the center of a field, walking by rakes that are upturned and ready to trip him up.
With "moral values" as his main claim, there he is----standing by a president in serious moral calamity who can't be true or faithful to anyone.
Pence gets an F on his report card for any moral high ground. The radical experiment of the Trump/Pence administration is officially doomed. And fully inconsistent with democratic principles.
6
Will VP Pence run for his brother to Keep it in the family? Poor guy sounds like he needs money and the swamp is right there calling.
13
It's worse than a reality show...this is flat out dangerous.
12
Hopefully in these primaries the Republicans will rip each other to shreds and maybe a Democrat can eek out a win. I appreciate your pieces Gail and enjoyed reading about the Republicans and their snarky comments on their opponents. I can't see it cleaning up because we now have a president who lives in a world of snark and endless absurdity. In these two races, may the dirtiest campaigner win so we can read even more garbage filled tweets.
2
What amazes me is how there is so little detailed analysis of the essential long term shift of the GOP from conservatism into a twisted Libertarian Right wing nightmare, the lets destroy all government that protects the environment and citizens from corporate and financial abuse. The Republicans cannot drain the swamp because the are the swamp.
17
Very few other people on earth could make the descent of a once-great republic into sordid irrelevance amusing. Gail, it's a rare gift you have, but still don't know whether to laugh or cry.
20
Drugs in shipping containers? That's not just a plot device on 'Narcos'?
Fascinating.
3
All that swamp mud is sure obscuring the features of current GOP candidates.....apart from all our excitement about that increased $1.50/week payroll increase thanks to the GOP tax bill (or maybe it's because my health insurance went up 58% this year thanks to the GOP and lots more increase next year expected!)
9
“Interesting,” yes. In the same way it’s “interesting” to watch maggots consume the innards of a road-kill skunk. And even less appetizing.
13
I am so sick of Trump and the Republicans disparaging swamps. Swamps are some of the most crucial ecosystems on this planet for biodiversity, clean water and protection against punishing storms which have intensified with climate change (remember Katrina?)The ignorance is astounding! By the way, swamps are protected and it’s illegal to drain them. Trump is probably pulling that phrase from his past crooked real estate days when he payed off, extorted or just plain broke the law to drain and then build hideous buildings on swamp land.
18
Sorry Gail it maybe interesting but it is really scary! To think the way 2016 came off the idea that there may be the slightest possibilty that any of these "swamp things" may get elected is darn right frightening.
I just hope that the Democrats and Independents get their act together and put up viable candidates and get out the vote.
4
The swamp won't be drained until they are all tossed out. Both parties. Regrettably there's no way to do that, as they control the drain.
2
I really am torn between laughter or tears.
4
Don Blakenship’s calumnies about Elaine Chao (and her family) who is now the Secretary of Transportation and formerly was the Secretary of Labor are outrageous. no evidence exists that Ms Chao, or her father, or her husband (Mitch McConnell) had any knowledge about cocaine found on one of the ships owned by the shipping company owned by Ms Chao’s father. The use of racially tinged names for Ms Chao’s father is especially repugnant. Let’s hope he voters of West Virginia judge Mr Blankenship on his words and deeds and do not allow him the privilege of representing them.
6
My hating the Republicans doesn't mean I suddenly like the Dems. Down with the two-party system.
1
Okay, Nick, but just one more time please go to the polls and vote Democratic in November to help halt this terrible all-Trump all-the-time Republicanism. We need to call a halt to the destruction before we can fix the party system and for now, all we've got as a tool is our vote. Don't waste it!
4
In Indiana we are faced with a constant barrage of ads from Senate candidates arguing over who is the bigger Trump supporter. Are these folks truly living in some alternate universe? Do they just disregard all the lies that come from the President? Also, the ridiculous notion of Trump 'draining the swamp', just at Scott Pruitt for proof that the swamp is alive and well. So utterly depressing that our candidates have such a low opinion of voters.
151
More depressing is that the candidates opinions are spot-on, at least in the red states
10
Candidates have low opinions of voters because conservative lies are instrumental in getting those hypocritical candidates elected. I have a low opinion of voters who stand by Trump and the GOP after 50 years of stealing from the American worker.
13
The wife writing: I just can't get over "wealthy Chinaperson." Could it be engraved somewhere? Maybe Michelle Wolf would do something on the primaries, like a 5-hour standup marathon. Oh wait, they're doing it themselves, except it's going to last longer.
4
Joe Blue Dog Manchin has reliably voted with Republicans in the Senate, so much so that it's tough to say he's really a Democrat. It's probably accurate to say he's the most liberal "Republican" in the whole field.
8
The new Environmental Protection Agency won't let us drain the swamp (wetland, you know) so they just added alligators.
2
I feel like I just read the script for the next episode of House of Cards.
4
reading about American politics and politicians is a great tonic for non americans in western democracies who think their own politicians are nuts or sleazy.
fosters a sense of gratitude combined with a superiority complex.
6
Yeah, we Americans used to be the ones with superiority complexes. Now, I try to pass myself off as a Canadian.
Crazies abound, especially in the GOP. Maybe we need the UN to send election observers for some of these primaries and special elections. The GOP has been working on destroying our institutions that have, historically, supported our democracy for decades. Trump and the current GOP are simply the result.
All those who have failed to vote in the past must step up to this challenge now.
6
Gail just doesn't get it. Blankenship may have overlooked a few silly mine safety regulations. But he was a job creator. And West Virginia needs jobs, especially for coal miners, whose only skill is mining coal. Draining the swamp is going well for Republicans. It's just that its meaning hasn't been understood. It means getting rid of bothersome government regulations that hamper the stability and growth of important industries. Like coal mining. If we mine enough coal, maybe we can find a way to liquify it and start powering our cars with it. Drain the swamp -- and fill the tank! Blankenship is also a role model for convicted criminals who deserve a second chance: Defeating Democrats instead of killing coal miners.
5
Take a deep breath, and try not to choke on the dirty air.
1
*You can’t say this stuff isn’t interesting.” I don’t so much need interesting. I long for the old days, when I didn’t need to know or care very much about politics...
2
"May you live in interesting times" -- the purported curse of Confucius: now that was from the really old and quite interesting days of the "Warring States" period of ancient China (400 BC or so).
As much as we'd like to live in perpetual tranquil times as if we were in the Shire of Middle Earth along with Bilbo Baggins and a bunch of Hobbits, it is without this due amount of attention to politics and the events about us, local and global, that we fall into periods like these now most interesting of times.
Whether it be in the Middle Kingdom, Middle Earth or middle America, we all have a responsibility to be part of the solution, otherwise, to riff on Eldridge Cleaver, we either get caught up in or become part of the problem.
2
Donald Trump has definitely had a major impact in the way folks run their campaigns. First you claim to drain the swamp. Next you win and join the swamp rats. It is a winning formula. Especially in the red states where Americans seem to love kabuki theater to real policy discussions. Welcome to the 2018 circus show started by Trumpum and Penceley in 2016.
4
I am a life long democrat and this will be the first time ever I will not contribute any money to the party because of their pathetic performance and not getting rid of corruption within the party. May be Ms Collins should shade some light on the democratic candidates too. I will still vote for the Democrats across the party line. None of them stood up to the new historic wave of Republican Party corruption, racism, bully and most of all undermining our constitution.
2
Before we get too smug gloating over the GOP's terrible candidates, let's remember how many millions used their sacred right to vote to cast a ballot for Donald Trump.
6
At least 3 million less than for Hillary.
If anything, this should emphasize the need to keep pointing out the similarities to trump so that voters don't take any election for granted and stay home.
2
It is time for Mitch McConnell to leave. It is long over due! He has been so much of the problem for the last 10 years or more!
8
As a resident of the metropolitan area of Gail's hometown, Cincinnati, I can say that the swamp is appearing nightly on my TV begging for votes. And, as a resident of what we call the tri-state, I get to "enjoy" campaign ads not only for Ohio races, but those from Kentucky and Indiana as well. It's an embarrassment of "riches," I tell you.
The Republican candidates here might not be quite as bad as someone who is responsible for the deaths of 29 workers yet who is walking around free, but they're pretty bad. In fact, they appear to be trying to out-crazy each other in an effort to appeal to the "base" in the primary. It's so bad that it seems that the Republican Party has a requirement for running for office on its ticket: one must rise to the bat-guano level on the crazy meter to qualify. And they all seem to be competing to see who can latch onto Trump with the strongest suction.
Things are so bad here in Ohio that one of the Republican candidates for governor, Mary Taylor, is running an ad that accuses Mike DeWine of being a liberal. Google him to see just how ridiculous that is. But it's apparently playing well here.
I cannot wait for Tuesday to be over and I'm not sure if I'm just that excited about voting or if I just want the torture on my TV to stop. Probably both.
The swamp denizens are doing just fine here. But they all keep yelling incessantly about draining their own habitat.
7
Gail - don't forget Georgia. One Republican candidate for governor (Brian Kemp) is running an ad featuring the candidate pointing a shotgun at a teenager who purportedly wants to date his daughter and forcing the young man to recite the candidate’s love of firearms. Another candidate (Hunter Hill) is running an ad showcasing his ability to load an assault rifle. All of the Republican candidates have vowed to sign a religious liberty bill which will turn Georgia into a national pariah in the manner of Indiana and North Carolina (please boycott all things Georgia should this come to pass).
5
Well, the funny farm animals are alive and well in DC and across our land. How some of these people have any credibility is beyond me. But also, the use of the term "the swamp" has not been very well questioned by the press. What, exactly, are the implicit assumptions loaded into that term? Hey press, did deeper!!!
3
Perhaps if Mitch actually did USE some illicit substance, he might get some actual work done. Ok, maybe not. Is it just me, or are the Swampsters and wannabes multiplying??? It's like there's a toxic miasma around D.C., attracting the creatures in their insatiable quest for power, celebrity and ill-gotten gains. Seems to be emanating from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Just saying.
5
I think these candidates mean, when they say "drain the swamp" they mean let's get rid of the Democrats. I mean the Republicans could not possibly think that they are part of the problem.
But if I were a voter, probably the author candidate, Lamb would be a good choice. At least he seems to have a sense of humor. I mean anyone who writes a book titled "Economics Is Like Sex." is onto something.
1
Meanwhile the Federal “pocket parks” throughout DC – honoring our nation’s history and national heroes – have no National Park Service funding to keep them looking like someone really cares about history, heroes, and the citizens and tourists who frequent these now pitifully diminished green spaces. And the NPS refuses to let the DC government and residents help!
4
Honestly, Ms. Collins, I don't know where these people come from. If they didn't actually live and breathe (?!) who could possibly imagine such specimens?
"Cocaine Mitch?" Well, his political career has been one very long, never-interrupted high--for the fossil fuel industry. Maybe he was stoned when he came up with the idea of short-sheeting the Constitution in 2016 when President Obama had ten months remaining in his second term.
And this Don Blankenship in West Virginia? His résumé isn't nearly as honorable as that of Virgil Solozzo who was responsible for far fewer than 29 deaths. All he wanted was "protection" for his cocaine racket out of Turkey. Wait! Perhaps there's a connection with...oh, never mind.
And the brother of the mannequin who's next in line if Fate should decide that No. 45 has completed his life's work? A failed businessman; a failed state employee. I would venture to say that, in Indiana, that might be enough to get elected to Congress. You don't need any experience in government (which is the problem, but I digress). But I have a problem with all these Republicans who absolutely hate government but snap at each other in line when it comes to buying an endorsement from a shadow donor. Oh, sorry; I meant "earning" an endorsement. Republicans are altruistic and do things for free, such as doing "the people's business."
But I can't let go of "Cocaine Mitch." His soul-mate AG Jeff Sessions wants folks who smoke a joint jailed for life.
Just think...
3
Lately, Sox, I've been wondering--where is my pot? Didn't we vote for legalization of marijuana? I really need some pot to get through this.
While driving through South western Pennsylvania last weekend, I saw a billboard that stated: “ Wind dies, the sun sets, but coal is forever.” The irony was not lost on me.
117
Coal is also the whale oil of the 21st century.
2
Yup, interesting. Interesting in the manner of a carnival freak show. We are approaching the point where a candidate's desire to run for major public office will offer incontrovertible proof of his unfitness. The sincere ones will be gently shunted off to the lunatic bins. Only the thieves will be deemed sane.
2
Has the bar always been this low for candidates in these races ? I’m seriously asking because this is far more worrisome than amusing.
4
And after reading about Blankenship installing his own private water system to avoid the toxic coal waste his company dumped, there is one thing we know for sure- “You can lead Don Blankenship to West Virginia water, but you can’t make him drink.”
5
Since Indiana and the name Pence are mentioned, what ever happened to the 1,000 or mroe jobs that Mike Pence paid Carrier so the jobs stayed in Indiana? Just askin'
13
And since the economy creates about 180,000 jobs per year or about 500 jobs per day.
That is two days worth of job creation.
Important for those 1,000 people but not going to change the economics.
1
Initially the number of jobs to be permanently eliminated was 1400, then Trump arrived and claimed to have saved 100% of 1100 jobs, the finally amount was around 800. More importantly the much touted investment behind Trumps claims and Pence's / Indiana investment was never about keeping jobs but as admitted a month after Trump's visit by Greg Hayes, chief executive of United Technologies the $16 million investment would go toward automation. “What that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs,” he told CNBC's Jim Cramer. Despite rhetoric to the contrary the greatest current threat to manufacturing jobs (and others as well) is automation, not immigration or offshoring. To late to close the barn door on this, the horses are long gone.
5
toom--Indiana used to be a good place to live, in the days of Richard Lugar, and Lee Hamilton. What has it become? Glad I don't live there, anymore.
3
Maybe we should rethink the swamp metaphor. A swamp is a type of wetland. As a waterbody it has a lot of positive functions. I admit that mosquitos and water snakes breed there, but it also helps to purify water, fix carbon, provide shoreline stability, feed birds and control floods (that and more from Wikipedia). The toxic waste dump metaphor mentioned in another column is much more applicable to the current situation. Hurray for the healthy swamp that democracy is supposed to be.
28
I thought Trump campaigned against political dynasties, and now his Veep wants to start one.
31
read up on his brother..... he's an embarrassment even for a low life like mike pence.
1
Trump may not have drained the D.C. swamp, but he has successfully transformed the Tidal basin into a Superfund site.
75
So Gail, why is Ms. Nixon running against Mr. Cuomo? No one seriously thinks New York is ready for a female governor, do they? Perhaps Nixon was just a distraction to prevent the Republicans from nominating a woman. What do you think?
1
Why isn’t NY state ‘ready for a female Governor’?
Are you just for real - or just visiting from the 1950’s?
1
Perhaps NYers want a genuine Democrat elected to the position.
1
You make the primary races sound even more salacious than the daily news from the White House and the Cabinet and Congress.How can we possibly absorb any more jaw dropping revelations?Our plate is full just staying in touch with the swamp which is the Trump administration.We need some good news.How about writing about some of the courageous and admirable candidates running in primaries?
19
All this talk of draining swamps yet not one of these candidates is an Environmental Scientist or an Engineer.
I think one should run, offer to drain the swamp and his slogan will be “Build the Drainage Channel!” Get Mexico to pay for it, maybe.
18
Good article - Gail Collins. Yes, I cannot say this stuff isn't interesting. It's very interesting and worrisome to read about these candidates with a shady background who should be rejected by voters in their primaries.
Gail Collins asked a question: "Every Republican talks about draining the swamp. For nearly a year and a half, the country’s been run by a Republican president and a Republican Congress. Don’t you think there’d be more progress reports by now on how well the swamp-draining is going?"
Yes, I would think there would be more progress reports by now on how well the swamp-draining is going but that's never going to happen. The Washington, D.C. swamp has been inundated and flooded with a laundry list of 37 politicians & business folks who have left Trump's administration or been fired.
Remember Omarosa Manigault, Sebastian Gorka, Steve Bannon and Anthony Scaramucci? There's 32 more you can look up through the NEW YORK TIMES online.
And, most importantly remember all were brought to our nation's capitol by POTUS.
30
I'd rather not remember these names. it is hard enough to deal with our current crop of sewer dwellers.
1
"You can’t say this stuff isn’t interesting."
You could, perhaps casting it more as entertaining and addictive than interesting, if you allow a difference. Maybe there isn't one.
You are in good company, in terms of either assessment: Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Will Rogers, HL Mencken. Tom Lehrer and so many more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_satirists_and_satires .
Thank you for making our current political fiasco a bit more tolerable.
39
and Molly Ivins! How dare you leave out Molly Ivins! and don’t go trying to blame Wikipedia!
1
rjon:
I deserve that. Especially since we lived in Houston for 17 years--even allowing that she wrote from Dallas-Ft. Worth. And even the NYTs.
Why do conservatives keep nominating people who's lives are not conservative, just their speech. They all insist that they can cut the waste in government, cut taxes and not affect their schools, roads, benefits etc. Of course this never happens! Instead you get Kansas.
56
Well, they HAVE cut gov't 'waste' (read that spending) and put the money directly in their overseas bank account. Voila! Mission accomplished - government spending and the government itself, shrunk to nearly the size that will drown in a bathtub. But still, the money has traveled to them. What to do?? How about a private phone booth worth more than the house we citizens live in? It's not spending for the government, now is it?
8
Your column makes me wonder if the GOP reads the local police blotters, local court calendars, and various business transactions of dubious quality to come up with potential candidates. Sure the Democrats have their share of candidates of lesser quality but the GOP seems to go out of their way to shine.
29
But we gave them a MANDATE, don'tcha know . . .
1
Gail, Leeets hope the lucky charm for the Democrats is the guy named Lamb, whose name alone makes him possibly a kissing cousin of Conor.
yeah, this is a stretch but is it any crazier than the president claiming he can't obstruct justice because the crime(s) he's accused of committing aren't crimes at all?
yeah, when gaslighting makes no sense, even as a deliberate lie, you know we're way down the rabbit hole.
We're getting to the point of madness when its tough to know what to say regarding anything.
But when you have a former prosecuter with a respected career (up to a point) shilling for Trump on FOX, calling the FBI warrant-based search an invasion of "storm troopers, you know how low we've gone.
Giuliani built his career using the same legal tactics he's now attacking on TV and supervising the same office he now calls Nazis", Trump better take note.
its one thing to lie with impunity and quite another to hoist your credibility on a false petard.
Trump and his minions can't even shoot straight--incompetence in governing and incompetence in the cover up. I just hope their screw-ups stay at the same or even a higher level--our country and the rule of law depend on it
80
Beautiful work here Ms Collins.
You have done a wonderful job sketching out the absolute craziness of our candidate selection here in our crazy world.
For me it is convincing.
There is a much better way to do all this stuff.
How about using a random, raffle selection just like
Power-ball to select say ten candidates for the vote?
Imagine the super valuable advertising market and the whopping viewership we could get?
In a couple of election cycles we could pay-off the deficit.
And the show, "Your Next Congressman."
Just a few simple qualifications like citizenship, buying your ticket for say a thousand bucks, never having been found guilty of a felony or institutionalized and a high-school diploma- and you are in the running.
You think I'm just kidding around?
We would finally get some real serious, issue-oriented Congressman for a change, who would actually support the interests of the middle-class.
Tell me that would not be a great improvement.
And with term limits, it would be some great T.V.
38
I like your idea. I would like to propose randomly selecting 435 NYT commenters and send them to Congress. At the very least you would be assured they can read.
And in other news, brother Mike Pence has just indulged in full-throated endorsement of Joe Arpaio. The family seems eager to besmirch their country and their state.
Manchin has made a wide range of bad votes getting a lot of attention from those of us who still think there's hope, but not if we support Republicans and coal and Trump. Why must we choose between bad and worse? Republicans put loyalty to party above loyalty to ideals and humanity.
This kind of thing makes it hard to continue to complain about Berniebusters, who at least have a spine.
Evil, be thou my good (Paradise Lost)
When evil becomes commonplace, we've lost our way.
195
Slightly off topic, but this about Hitler hits the bullseye:
"“Thinking about the end of Weimar democracy in this way—as the result of a large protest movement colliding with complex patterns of elite self-interest, in a culture increasingly prone to aggressive mythmaking and irrationality—strips away the exotic and foreign look of swastika banners and goose-stepping Stormtroopers. Suddenly, the whole thing looks close and familiar.” Yes, it does.
"What set Hitler apart from most authoritarian figures in history was his conception of himself as an artist-genius who used politics as his métier. It is a mistake to call him a failed artist; for him, politics and war were a continuation of art by other means."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/how-american-racism-influe...
101
Unfortunate for all of us -- including them -- that Berniebusters don't have brains at the end of their spines.
3
I read that article. It's quite an eye opener. But it makes you wonder if the 'gods' don't truly like a good joke once in a while.
Dear NYTimes,
Sorry, we Indiana Republicans can't accept just ONE Nobel in recognition of Donald Trump's wondrous achievements. Obama received the Peace Prize in his first year, and Trump has done hundreds, no thousands, of times as much as he has. We demand that in addition to properly recognizing President Trump, the committee should rescind the prizes awarded to Obama (and a list of other past winners to be provided later.) Alternatively, the committee could award Trump more than one prize. For example, in addition to the Peace Prize, a case could be made for awarding Trump the Economics Prize for his tax cut and magnificent hotel casinos. With a little creativity, a justification for the Physics Prize linked to Trump's courageous stand on the fake climate warming debate could be crafted, too. It's only fair.
But if the Nobel Committee refuses to honor our best and winningest president ever, the USA should withdraw its support from the competition and institute tariffs on imported Nobel Prize souvenirs and books about previous prize winners. The US is not going to stand for second class treatment; the Prize Gap is huge, growing, and Democrats don't care. We Republicans have been carrying the rest of the world for a lot of years and it's time for some payback.
Is it too early to start lobbying for next year's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts?
(Signed) Republican Congressional Candidate Committee for Justice in Awarding Prizes.
320
Trump could also be nominated for Physiology or Medicine Prize for the letter he dictated to his former doctor asserting his exceptionally great physical fitness and overall good health.
90
Nice try, Lew, but Gail's got you beat by a mile.
6
Surely Trump's tweets deserve the Man Booker Prize for Literature, his swamp do-over The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval, and winner of The Aryan Brotherhood's Man of the Year.
16
Economics for Don is like Sex
Cohen would have served Oedipus Rex,
All country wide
The swamp cleaners abide
The Ship of State now has clean decks.
if you'd like the Decks cleaner please vote
Paper ballots or on Putin you'll dote,
This does seem the season
For Donald's High Treason
If you don't like it, voter, please show't.
196
Larry, your comments are the greatest. What would the NYT do without you?
7
Welcome back!
6
"You can’t say this stuff isn’t interesting."
Interesting? Indeed.Reminds me of the superb BBC "Hamlet" in which Fortinbras, mourns the sudden deaths of Laertes, the Queen, the King, and the Prince, calms Horatio, orders national mourning, a noble burial for Hamlet and martial rule by him for peaceful resolution of the primordial chaos, and then turns as his trumpets sound, looks straight into the camera, and smiles icily -- while he winks, wordlessly, at the viewer. He exits the reeking stage.
Interesting, indeed, as we find ourselves again pondering "that undiscovered country."
70
Read history, everybody. The names and faces may change, but humans have been playing the same games, and making the very same mistakes, for as long as they have separated themselves into factions. Shakespeare is as relevant now as he ever was.
9
Reading your column makes me feel like I am in a dentist’s office, Gail. First euphoria and laughs from the nitrous oxide of your wonderful column and then the pain when the anesthetic wears off and I realize that someone like Blankenship might become a senator.
235
well, if someone like trump could become president, why not senator blankenship? would serve west virginia right...the ultimate irony...
2
When Doug Jones won the special election in Alabama for the US Senate seat, people said, "well, Democrats shouldn't be optimistic....not all Republican candidates will be as awful as Roy Moore". Not so fast; turns out, not all are, but most aren't much better.
I think that the GOP primaries are controlled by a version of Gresham's Law; bad candidates are driving out the good, or the good are becoming debased.
130
This crop of GOP candidates belong in a Stephen King movie. They are truly like the "Children of the Corn"...
146
Funny you should mention Stephen King. This morning I was thinking how much his novel The Dead Zone describes the Trump presidency (except that trump is not as smart as Greg Stillson)
2
West Virginia was once the setting for some of the most violent, protracted labor battles in US history, between coal miners and owners. It's where Mother Jones became a legendary figure. If Blankenship is nominated, let alone elected, it would be like West Virginians spitting on the graves of their ancestors.
659
My grandparents lived in West Virginia, and every summer we would drive up to visit them. I loved the journey through the beautiful mountains. Years later when I visited them the mountains were so ugly. The trees were gone. My grandfather said it was due to strip mining. He was so ashamed that the mountains had been ruined during his lifetime, and that he had been unable to save them. The people of West Virginia are wonderful. It is so sad to see what has become "almost heaven" West Virginia.
20
Blankenship should have been sentenced to 20 years for his malfeasance that caused 29 deaths.
I certainly hope he is not a relative.
1
The mine deaths, the bankruptcies, the outrageous self-dealing, the tired old saw about “draining the swamp,” the ridiculously inadequate resumes, the blatant hypocrisy, the daily lies, etc.:
It’s not that you have to have these features to run for office — it’s that morally bankrupt people share these characteristics, and morally bankrupt candidates will always win under the current rules of the game.
Anyone with a bit of conscience will not engage in these tactics. And since enough of the public is uneducated, unsophisticated, apathetic and just not curious — well, the one who can tell the best bald face lie is gonna win.
We need to reconsider the inadequacy of our current method of electing public “servants.”
78
To run for office, the bar has been lowered considerably when you look at how many folks voted for Roy Moore for senate. What do you have to do to be ineligible in the eyes of most people? Shoot someone? Trump did say he could get away with that.
71
I'm thinking about volunteering to be the 5th Avenue target.
I figure this guy has misfired so often, so bigly, that if his marksmen ship were like everything else he does I'd be quite safe. And then I could sue him for everything he's worth.
On second thought, why bother? As Michelle Wolf noted the other night, he's rich in Idaho perhaps, but just doing OK in NY.
1
The bar has been lowered? Even an ant couldn't Limbo' under it.
1
Interesting that after 18 months of GOP-run Washington the office of water management, aka NYT, WaPo, and the rest of the “fake media”, are the only ones doing any engineering in the swamp. You’d think with control of all three branches the republicans would want to tackle corruption head on.
You’d think, instead of peddling obviously disingenuous slogans like “drain the swamp” the GOP would be running on their signature policy plans, since voters love tax cuts for the 1%, polluting the environment, and stripping benefits and education of every last penny.
81
Will there ever be a time when voters demand that their candidates display some knowledge of the US Constitution, a familiarity of how government works, and maintain a strict adherence to issues, needs, and solutions when campaigning? Political discourse in the United States has degenerated into nothing more than hurling insults, broadcasting outright lies, and the blatant buying of elections. Congress has become a clown show, and while there is a man sitting behind the Resolute Desk, he is by no means a President.
142
Paul, Trump wouldn't pass a U.S. naturalization test even if he prepped for the interview all year.
6
Truer words have not been spoken. Yes, Hillary was a flawed candidate, but I wanted a better world for my eleven year-old daughter, and Hillary may have been the one to help us achieve a better tomorrow. Instead we have a man fouling the White House in ways which my generation will not likely see repaired or remedied in our lifetime. We have gone down the rabbit hole and we are in an alternate reality. God help us all.
6
Referred to by many as the President-Pretend...
4
You have to wonder if we're living in some sort of alternate Alice in Wonderland universe. I keep waiting for a rabbit to run by screaming “I’m late!” while the Cheshire Cat grins away, then disappears (except for his grin, of course) and the Queen of Hearts decides to behead somebody.
That seems more feasible than what’s going on now.
41
Interesting? I guess. Interesting how American politics seems to attract candidates that are so bad they appeal only to "low-information" voters. So bad that they count on other voters to become so disgusted and emotionally drained that they shrug it all off and don't vote at all. So bad that they thrive in our current hyper-polarized post-truth environment. Well, interestingly, so far they seem to be correct, as America sinks lower and lower into a swamp of its own device.
47
Can you change your final line to: You can't say this stuff isn't depressing.
60
"You can’t say this stuff isn’t interesting."
So are root canals, but this is where we put ourselves. Here's to hoping Democrats know what they're doing, for everyone's sake.
49
The midterms are six months away, and I already feel campaign fatigue. Probably because Trump still hasn’t ended his 2016 run.
56
When they talk about "draining the swamp," you have to wonder: what exactly do they think corruption is? Any public expenditure except throwing money at the Pentagon? Any law that restricts businesses instead of restricting the public? Does corruption simply mean disagreeing with them? Disagreeing with Fox? Is everything a conflict of interest except enriching the powerful? Is it corruption if a public servant instead of a lobbyist writes a law? Is "the swamp" democracy itself? I honestly don't get it.
51
I'd call him "Smokey Eyed" Mitch, for the perfect smokey eye he makes with the ash of all the facts he burns, but I'm afraid that people will think I'm poking fun of his looks rather than his propensity for lying. Plus it's already been done.
76
This isn't the saddest politics piece tonight, though - that honor goes to the article about the uptick in small donations to democrats. Sounds great, right? Only these donations are for the primaries - to fight other democrats instead of the GOP! Just proves we've learned nothing since 2016.
Talk out out and get together under one tent, Dems, or men like Trump and Blankenship will have the last obscene word.
35
commom sense, I totally agree with you. Some of the Democratic Primaries here in Ohio are really dangerous and might help elect Republicans. I[m talking about the Democratic Primary for Governor and the Democratic Primary for Congress in the 2nd District.
BTW, i support Rich Cordray for Governor and Jill Schiller for Congress. I think they are the best candidates who have the best chance of winning. Maybe not "perfect" enough for some, but the best chance of winning against Republicans.
12
Is this the best the GOP has to offer. Wouldn't it be nice if the people running for office actually believed in the government instead of seeking to either profit from their service or deliberately destroy it. The GOP needs a serious time out until they she'd their apathy towards the government. You can't effectively do a job if you don't believe in or respect it and the American people deserve better.
58
If you're a West Virginian looking for a shortened lifespan, a premature death or simply enjoy poisoned air, water and earth, then this is definitely the year to vote Republican.
Senate candidate Don Blankenship (R) is a proud filthy coal mine owner; if you're not killed working in one of his mines, you have a good chance of drinking his coal waste from your kitchen sink.
Senate candidate and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has spent most of his time in office suing the EPA , trying to overthrow the Clean Power Plan, disrupting ACA implementation, and suing other states to force them to accept the zero-gun-regulation laws favored in the Wild West.
Morrisey also succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to delay the Clean Power Plan, thereby helping insure that the Republican Dirty Coal Power Plan has more chances to kill Americans and the planet.
And for Indianans, Mike and Greg Pence's Indiana convenience store-gas station chain was called 'Tobacco Road'; it specialized in polluting people's lungs and the planet's lungs, but Mike 'I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order" Pence and his brother truly believe they were doing the Lord's work...of moral, intellectual - and eventually - economic bankruptcy.
Between killing humans with zero safety rules, zero environmental rules, zero healthcare and an infinite amount of coal, oil, gas, guns and cigarettes, they appear to be a giant Death Wish.
Working Hard For Your Early Death: GOP 2018
867
A nice summation of some things that Gail’s brilliant column left out. Bravo Gail, from West Virginia, where, I learned today, my member of Congress signed a letter nominating trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s as though I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole, although, more it’s likely an abandoned mine shaft
393
Pow! Another brilliant one, Socrates. Thanks again!
106
Wow, this is great!
14
Taking just what is known to be true about most politicians of any stripe, it's of some wonder America has a standing government at all. As well, nothing truly uplifting appears sustainable. When all is said and done, even if Robert Mueller qualifies a proven case, with what is America left when it's still the money that talks?
31
Kakistocracy = A system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.
594
"Government of the donors, by the donors, for the donors" to guarantee energy companies their profits:
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-04-19/trump-may-invoke-...
and
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/30/political-inequality_n_7183556...
27
We hit the trifecta. Aren’t we lucky?
10
Kakistatrophy, more like.
7
As much as i enjoy Gail's pieces, this is serious. These people of whom she writes are all complete disasters as people i would trust with the most menial tasks. These prople are running for important offices that can and will have an impact on how this country is run in the future and i feel helpless as i have no vote regarding thes prople.
As i have previously stated in comments on assorted other columns of Gails and others, can we seriously discuss secession. From NJ through New England
these states contribute far mire to the country than we get back. Socially we are far more accepting than the "taker" states, so why should we be shackled to the whim of Mitch Mcconnel and the other collaborators in the Senate and house over whom i have no control.
317
Looking at the candidates Collins describes here in Indiana, and with the benefit of closer observation, I do not think that any of them would do as much good in government as they could by working in a car wash. But even at the car wash you would have to supervise them well.
281
The better answer rather than succession is "NationalPopularVote." Please look it up. Majority rule will solve all of these problems. Democracy works. Let's give it a try.
11
I totally agree. I feel sorry for blue state representatives who have to work with these ignoramouses in Congress. No wonder we have become like a failed third world state. I am all for a divorce from red state America.
12
You missed one factoid about the fellow who primaried Richard Lugar: As state treasurer during the Great Recession he misplaced half a billion dollars, leading to, among other things, a three hundred billion dollar cut in education funding. Still from the point of view of us Hoosiers, the one good thing about the 2016 election was that we managed to offload Mike Pence and replace him with a dull, very competent main street Republican.
159
Who are you calling competent? Surely not Governor Holcomb! Although since it goes back as far as Mitch Daniels and through Pence, look at the disaster in the Department of Child Services that Holcomb ignores other than commissioning a "study." Indiana children are suffering because of inaction and inattention.
35
Yes, you offloaded Pence onto the whole country. He's now functioning as Trump's impeachment insurance.
14
Thank you. That was going to be part of my response. Indiana not only didn't really offload Pence, they just moved him farther up the food chain!
Sad, but it seems that it is more important to vote against a candidate, than for a candidate, and even the candidates who may seem worthy of your vote, probably aren't.
Point of view aside, just vote, in record numbers, and we'll see where the country stands.
58
Back in the 60s Nelson Rockefeller wanted to run for the Republican presidential nomination but as a divorcee his campaign never got off the ground. That a candidate, even one as mainstream and as widely respected as Rockefeller could not earn the respect of most voters due to his marital record seems quaint compared with the tales told by Gail.
268
Ah, but Gail, so MUCH of the swamp has been drained ALREADY that regular status-updates probably were considered superfluous. Just as an example, consider all the berserker environmentalists who have been cut-off from influence at the highest levels of EPA policy-making. That alone probably is larger than the Atchafalaya (in central Louisiana, the largest non-political swamp in America).
Already, that slightly-brackish, something-seems-to-be-rotting smell is starting to dissipate on the Potomac.
2
Yes, the EPA, for example, exudes a fresh, clean aroma these days, doesn’t it?
115
@Richard: Why not move to Flint and sample the water up there? Nah, you can stay in New Jersey and get the same quality liquid refreshment a few short years from now.
16
Yes Richard, certainly Trump can be proud of getting the science and scientists out of environmental regulation. His Chief Economic Advisor has eliminated whatever academic rigor exists for qualifying economists, since he only plays at being one on TV. I suppose next we'll have Sean Hannity advising on foreign policy, or domestic policy, or economic policy... since qualifications, experience, and expertise are no longer required, everybody is qualified to be everything. Who says Republicans don't believe in equality?!
168
Ms. Collins, if you have the memory of an elephant, perhaps you remember asking your Readership if we fell asleep during the Vice-Presidential Debate, while the fire alarm went off here.
Watching Pence give the Nation an address that evening, ensured a long night's journey into dawn for this voter, and I never expected us to be diverted and discombobulated by the antics of Trump who is not well. He is no longer mentioned in this rural area. Cuomo is taking some heat.
If we can skim through this dark passage in history, and pretend that we were just in need of flexing our wings for a renewal of spring, and stable, steady beginnings, we might be able to come out of this, as one Nation for All Americans.
'Austria', a responsible pragmatic friend, tried to do her civic duty recently, but got turned away because she found herself at the wrong address. She was given a little flag with 'I Voted'.
We are voting (D) across-the-board to avoid falling into the swarm of these unfortunate Republican stingers. They are supposed to be fierce this coming Season. 'Jerusalem' tuned in to see if we are still in possession of our wits.
Less said about Mr. McConnell, the better. His posture with former President Obama and the Last Administration was odd, and now you tell us there are two Pence(s) for our thoughts, which in view of economic solvency sounds like one too many for the well-being of our Nation.
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Two too many Pences.
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Gail aside, are you upset by the pablum and narrowed irrelevance of commentary, the deception and pain? The battle royal paradigm pretends to be partisan but is a fight over power. Who wants it? Pence, honored to meet a convicted racist? Pruitt and cronies trading millions in illegal favors? Bolton barking for war? Kelly saving the idiot? Mnuchin and wife gripping sheets of new bills? Or Stormy, crossing the moat to silence dispute: “I spanked him, slept with him; didn't want to, and I am not a victim.”
The new American power vision has two parts: one, the racists' myth, people taking comfort in their anger and hate; two, a rapidly accelerating privilege fetish of corruption and theft, a growing injustice emblazoned by lies and violence (separating families, deporting soldiers' spouses, cutting women's health services, banning transgender military service. “Free thinking."
Tie it globally: Israel steals old files, Russia drops chemical bombs and buzzes US aircraft; America slams its doors, turning off the key to its vitality and innovation. Gays and raped women are global scapegoats, blamed and shamed. Families, divided, are sent to separate countries; fiat pricing and quotas replace regulated markets; choices divide us: workers or the rich; Martin Luther King or Robert E. Lee, racism or civil rights, peace or force threats. Dictator wanna-bes arrange PR summits.
Resist the disruption.
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The new word on the street is Trump traded military weapons to Ukraine for their shutting down cooperation with Mueller. See: "Did Trump Bribe Ukraine to Stop Cooperating With Mueller?" [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/trump-bornstein-mueller-que...].
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More: Rudy just said on Hannity that Trump paid back the $130K to Cohen (has Trump ever paid anybody?), shattering the lie that Trump himself repeated, the lie Trump had Sanders repeat from the White House briefing podium, the lie he repeated on Air Force One.
Is this the legal representation Trump wanted from Rudy? To be exposed as a liar by direct contradiction? Of course, he still denies the affair!
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@Walter Rhett: Thank you for resurfacing every now and then. Your comments are needed here more than ever. Yours are the types of comments; once upon a time- were the norm here. Great analysis and critique. Please contribute more often.
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If I were responsible for managing a mine wherein 29 people lost their lives, I’d think twice before bestowing nicknames on political opponents for their supposed transgressions. Do you know about glass houses, Mr. Blankenship?
My goodness, where does the GOP find these people?
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The GOP doesn't have to find them. The party's values naturally attract them.
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This is what happens when you start draining the swamp. You never know what's going to come crawling out of the muck.
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they don't have to find them they can't wait to feed at the trough.
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More and more, it feels like "None Of The Above" should be a legal choice on ballots.
Problem is, 'it' would probably win.
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How about "None of the above" is a legitimate ballot selection for every race, and if it gets more than the "50% +1" needed to win, the whole election is a mulligan, except none of the prior candidates are allowed to run in the repeat election. A whole new slate is required. We'll need a Constitutional amendment, since politicians would never go for something so voter-friendly.
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Well, that's a terrific idea. When the gov has nobody to run it, go out into the highways and byways and hire some folks with managerial experience.
they couldn't do any worse and possibly do far better.
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Yes, that should be an option for voting. But only if it goes along with a mandatory voting law. I suspect if everyone is forced to vote, even if they choose none of the above, we will have a much different - and much better -- government. Along with run offs if no candidate gets 50%. I'd like to see how the GOP does in a true democracy -- not not very well I can't imagine.
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Always good for a laugh Gail. Teh Pence family seems to be composed of those who did not read the 11th commandment, Thou shalt not commit hypocrisy.
Failed businesses, not sure if it is required to be a high level Republican, but bilking the public is. Good old mike praising a man who has been found guilty of contempt. Those goo god fearing Republicans running a convicted mine owner responsible for the deaths of several miners, tells you what kind of people republicans prefer to have running the country, they fit right in with the swindler in chief.
However we have to keep in mind thsee are just the people we see on the TV or read about, but about 2 out of 5 Americans think this is acceptable, and if you do not like it, they will show up at your favorite coffee house with their AR15 and silence you.
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Pence has read only one of the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not be in the company of women not your wife.
The rest he brushed by.
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I've really come to the conclusion that only people who are so far out on the fringe that they are breathing pure ozone run on the Republican ticket now days.
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Substitute methane for ozone and that pretty much makes them swamp creatures.
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I would be freaking out if these people were my family members or neighbors much less my elected officials who actually have power.
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Rebecca Solnit pointed out that more people work in museums across the country than in the entire coal industry. Maybe museum people need aggressive lobbying to increase the NEA, NEH, IMLS and a K Street office. For all the obsession over coal, the coal industry, and W. Virginia, there are other, even larger, groups out there.
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There are 25 million people living in Appalachia as defined by the census bureau. That is not insignificant
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@mother: So Republican candidate Don Blankenship did jail time for killing a larger percentage of America’s coal miners than we realized. Thanks for letting us know.
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I was laid off (along with 4000 others) from the largest textbook publisher in the world - a follow up to a major layoff of 5,000 eight years ago. Our competitors have also laid off thousands. Thousands of retail jobs are also disappearing. Where is the outcry for those lost jobs?
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Pence is a businessman whose business went bankrupt...Just like Donald Trump.
I would like to know how well he made out from that business.
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bankrupt like GWB as well....
I did read that Greg Pence and his wife own 2 Antique Malls worth millions
1