To what end? This is just fighting the battle on the Republicans’ terms. You say sex scandal, they say obvious insidious deep state ploy to abuse the power of the government to punish their Freedom Loving political enemies. Everybody goes back to their corners and that’s that. Another several months wasted, oh look the Rs now have the Senate, oh well we tried.
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I’m not sure what is the plan though. Dems convene an investigation to investigate … who? If they call Cawthorn he’s either going to suddenly not remember or worse lie and say well actually it could have been a Democrat who was having those orgies. Then what are Democrats going to do? Are they then going to start subpoenaing random staffers to ask them if they have had key parties? Did a line in the bathroom?
We couldn’t give you health care or voting rights or job security or action on climate change or even acknowledge wealth inequality because we were busy prosecuting an even bigger problem, the claims of an imbecile who writes like a 4 year old. Vote Harris-Buttigieg 2024!
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Weird things can happen in special elections (see also Scott Brown in Massachusetts).
Roy Moore would have won if he were the nominee in 2020.
I don’t think they say that though. Right now, McCarthy has it pretty easy in just dismissing Cawthorn with no one really calling him out for it (while most R’s are just ignoring it entirely). IMO, D’s should be doing everything to force R’s to take sides. I think in general R’s are ready and willing to eat their own (much the same way we see D’s do) and D’s should try to help those fights.
There are examples in regular elections - Akin, O’Donnell - I’m sure more I can’t think of right now.
Is they any actual chance of Cawthorn being primaried/this Tillis stuff working? If no seems like a huge mistake.
That’s pre-Trump though. The GOP (especially the House) is significantly more insane than they were a decade ago.
I could Dems pushing to get a scalp from Republicans in the form of Cawthorn apologizing for being a fabulist, but that’s all you’re going to really get.
The Gaetz stuff seems like there’s a lot more ‘there’, but even then Democrats aren’t going to move until the investigation concludes which is forever.
I guess I see a real chance Cawthorn refuses to apologize and doubles down (he’s already doing that to some extent). Dude seems legit crazy and I don’t think he’s loyal at all to R leadership so doubt he cares at all about pressure from McCarthy.
He might even hate McCarthy more than he hates Dems.
My general view is I see limited downside and possible big upside. If Cawthorn retracts, you just drop the investigation saying you are sorry that you took his claims seriously. I don’t see how that hurts Ds. But the upside is big if it does create division or make Cawthorn the face of the R’s.
This isn’t good enough, that’s the problem. Wrestling the Rs to a draw in the mudslinging is a net loss, because while that’s happening the Rs are actively dismantling the electoral system. This is completely fighting the battle on the wrong front. That’s how it hurts the Ds. They need to pass meaningful voting rights and/or deliver on policy so outrageously popular that they win in spite of rigged elections. Getting down in the mud with Madison Fucking Cawthorn is the kind of navel gazing insider bullshot that is going to make the country a one party sham democracy. But cool, cool, we really owned them in that hearing.
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Lawtwitter says his partner in crimes sentencing keeps getting pushed back because the partner is cooperating which means BIG trouble for Gaetz.
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The Dems keep looking around the room for the Principal to come in and discipline the Republicans for breaking all the rules.
Somehow they still don’t get that if they don’t do it nobody will. They’re still hoping that Bob Mueller or John fucking Roberts or Mitt Romney will solve the problem for them.
Sure, that would be great and what they should doing. But it’s already not happening, and it’s not going to happen - so getting in the mud isn’t going to have any effect on whether that happens. Right now Dems are doing nothing at all (other than writing letters and making angry statements), while R’s are dismantling our democracy. I’d rather D’s at least fight on some front, than just close their eyes and hope somehow R’s fail in their quest.
LOL at thinking the Dems should be doing some lawbro-y investigation to get to the bottom of who is doing key bumps and key parties instead of flat-out rumor-mongering. Don’t waste Congressional resources on this, but do make it a talking point in the politics of personal destruction, like we should be doing with “lady G” references. Quit trying to play politics under Marquess of Queensbury rules.
When Joe Biden was in the Senate they had bipartisan drug-fueled orgies.
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To be clear, this is basically what I’m advocating for. I don’t think they should do an actual investigation, but just use the investigation to get more coverage of the issue. Pretty much the same as all R investigations - it’s not like they actually tried to solve who was responsible for Benghazi, but just used the investigation to control the narrative.
Keep making statements like “we are working hard to get to the bottom of exactly which R Congressmen were participating in these drug orgies”, while at the same time using operatives to leak names, etc. Make R’s play defense for once.
What the fuck?
https://twitter.com/nathanbacatv/status/1509575371154460679?s=21&t=uCNz2HBxlZbPbsK6cHnCwg
I’m sure all of the three persuadable voters who gaf about representatives doing drugs will be sure to vote for Dems.