Pobody's Nerfect!

 

Salazar: Remember, they're just starting in the job… Let's see how they do the next two years. And then we can judge them. But not because of one mistake that they put a reporter. Maybe they made a mistake and they put that. I mean, listen, those who do not have any sins, they… pic.twitter.com/aZrldiTswL

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 25, 2025

I think there's nothing more off-putting for me than the idea that you can actually brush off a national security breach with "But they're new!"   Like, this is an argument for if the waitress gives you a burger with pickles and you definitely said, "Hold the pickles," but it is not an argument for cabinet-level officials who have an insecure chat on their personal phones (because those work phones shouldn't even have Signal on them) and have others on the line who have no business accessing that information.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard literally evaded questions today in a way that implied she was not familiar with classification as a process or policy regarding secure comms. You'd think, wouldn't you, that sort of thing would be part of the basic job requirements, wouldn't you? Cabinet positions aren't entry-level--some competency is required. 

Nancy Pelosi is a Leader

It's very difficult for me to understand the pushback against having Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. She has been an extraordinary leader for the Democratic caucus in the House, as Speaker, and as Minority Leader. She has maintained a discipline and, among other things, ability to count, a sense of what needs to be done and can be done, that has exceeded the leadership of the GOP at times--

And I don't make any mistake about this: this is why she gets demonized as that harpy liberal Commie demon by politicians on the right, and why every Democratic congressional candidate might be tarred with the brush that they are in lockstep with her weird San Francisco hippie values, for a level of political signaling that is pretty much at home in the 1960s. This is their line of reasoning as reactionaries against a progressive vanguard that brings civil rights and down with dumb war and up with the environment and Hooray for Women's rights, and We're here and Queer!

But, because I live here in 2018, I'm not actually seeing a problem here with that thing. Although I was born a few months before Nixon was (strongly) reelected, I was nonetheless born into a timeline where he was wrong and resigned in disgrace and where there have now been a few "Years of the Woman" and Roe Vs. Wade is settled law (hmmm) and certain rights have been secured for LGBT folks, and we aren't almost just about as racist as we all used to be and of course we wouldn't sacrifice the planet we all have to live on to secure a couple thousand coal jobs for a minute in redneck-land just to get Republicans a White House berth for...

Oh, wait, we are still fighting all this shit and Nancy Pelosi has been out here doing this thing and we actually don't have one effective person else to name against her, and if for some reason, the current POTUS and Veep were suddenly, erm, lawfully indisposed, we'd be looking at Madame President Pelosi because of how succession works?

That is my favorite song, and the one I would dance to all night long. I might question whether she was a bit quick to say "no impeachment" in the case of Bush/Cheney, but the cause(es) that might get our current executive branch up the river never initiated with her. They started from shit we actually watched Trump do during his campaign and a case that developed with the oversight of Trump's own DOJ. And these are different times. 

I have no doubt that she would be of enormous counsel to any person who did emerge from a leadership tussle if not herself, but why would Democrats want that when she could just be the Speaker, because she never did a thing wrong in that position? For people who just want to see new faces--we have them, but they need to back their faces up first. 

I get that people are itching to see younger, newer, more strident people in leadership because it feels like it's time--but it's time for new members to get mentored, learn all the ropes and maneuvers, be ready to learn how to take falls and survive losses. This isn't because we just revere maturity because it is stable, but because we need stability for all these young reps to mature and be better and more capable and get more things done because they know how the system works so that a Democratic House majority can survive beyond two years. 

There is a value in understanding a long game. Pelosi has that. Respect it. 

 

Jeb Bush Makes Me Feel Bad

Jeb Bush has secured the crucial "Jeb Bush's mom" endorsement https://t.co/7nxhoNBLOo

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) January 23, 2016

This week, Jeb Bush seems to have brought his mom around to supporting his campaign, which is great, because she wasn't that excited before, to be honest. This surely means Jebmentum is on its way. Or not.

See, I think the guy has a "unforced error" problem that is going to be insurmountable. Take the water crisis in Flint. Now, Marco Rubio ducked and said he didn't really know about it, and Donald Trump ducked and said he didn't have anything to say about it. But here is Jeb Bush:

“I admire Rick Snyder for stepping up right now. He’s going to the challenge, and he’s fired people and accepted responsibility to fix this,” Bush, a former Florida governor, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Yep. "Heckuva job, Rick Snyder." After a year and a half or so of covering it up and ignoring it, the Michigan Republican is finally getting around to spreading the blame between his administration and anybody else he can point at. And Jeb calls that leadership. But when you're happy to tout getting an endorsement from your mom, maybe a participation trophy does look like a major award.

How Ron Fournier Pissed Me Off 2

Maybe @POTUS should wait until Monday, Pearl Harbor Day, and declare, "The only thing we have to fear is calling this thing terrorism."

— Ron Fournier (@ron_fournier) December 4, 2015

Now, don't get me wrong. Just because I've done two in a series doesn't mean I've decided that Ron Fournier is a Very Bad Man and I think I should mess with him--no. He's just a Both-Siderist of the High-Broderist line. I'm usually not pissed with people because I think they're hopeless and hacky--those people just get the usual factcheck to the boards. I think, absent constructing false frames and then awkwardly trying to poke what the president is doing into it, Fournier could even be a useful productive journalist-citizen.

Useful to who, I just can't even...

So, on Day 1 of the San Bernardino Massacre, President Obama is actually asked by Norah O'Donnell what he thinks about the events yet ongoing, when people still thought the assault was perpetrated by three white dudes. He brings up terrorism, as in, why would we be letting people we wouldn't allow on planes, have guns? So, not uncomfortable talking about domestic terrorism, just not pinning this one down on terrorists when it's too soon in the investigation to tell. But he's now clear with calling it an "act of terror". Because he's the president and not some rando whose speculation doesn't mean anything, it made sense for him to hold off on calling it "terrorism" until an investigation cleared up the details. Because what presidents say matters on a different level than what regular assholes say, you know, like me, the D-list blogger, and like Ron Fournier.

Why am I pissed off? Because this attitude of demanding that the president say some combination of "radical Islamic terrorism" is really nonsense. We are allies with Saudi Arabia--ish. Are they milquetoast Islamists? How do we work things out with Pakistan or whomever? Do we call them out for having radical Islamicooties and say we can't be friends? No, because that is childish, bigoted and dumb.

Yes, I'm saying a lot of Republican faces are childish and dumb. I totally mean it. What does saying the magic words "radical Islamic terrorist" even do? Will the radicalized jihadists hear that, and think, "Oh snap. they're on to us. I don't even want to play this game, now." Nope. They still will be radicalized, and what's more, they will feel validated for getting a shout-out. They will totally clip out the moment they got treated like a big-boy terror cell and paste it in their scrapbook for inspiration on how to do it so big next time.

What world leaders say isn't just for a really small audience. Like in Mockingjay 2, Haymitch points out to Katniss that she isn't just talking to the rebels anymore, but has to make a message for rebels, for loyalists, for the Capitol, and for everyone. That's how leadership works--talking for and to all the people. In case Fournier did not know, this is how Obama leads. That's his job.

The Speaker of Nothing Will Most Likely Abide

You know, deep down, I want to believe that the Congress, as currently constituted, still understands that Rep. Ted Yoho is a dunce and Rep. Louie Gohmert is floridly delusional.  And I mean, floridly.  They are both avid batshit peddlers, and in their way, could each advance aspects of conservatism as it now exists in ways we would be frankly astounded by, as if yokels at a freakshow. (Did I mention the Speaker of the House is third in line for Chief executive in the ultimate emergency where the top two are disposed of?)

Still and all, I think batshittery will give way to experience, and despite the regular dunking of the only adult in the GOP  Kiddie pool, Boehner  will continue his tenure of pulling snouts out of the water. It seems thankless. I bet it is.

And maybe there's an off-chance the GOP lottery will draw a non-House GOP
stalwart, like Ted Cruz (I know they like him, anyway--at least he isn't dipstick dumb and batshit cray, amirite?)  Also Ted Cruz is way down with the House GOP.

Not sure what it means when I am wishing Cruz for a leadership position, but OMG--I know Boehner is dysfunctional, but Yoho and Gohmert are not capable persons. Anything but one of them.

The G20 Summit Summed Up

Right about now, I'm thinking I might like to be a world leader of some kind if it means I get to cuddle actual koalas. They are, in a word, adorable. But then there's Putin.

His koala looks a bit skeert.

I don't think his struggling koala is why he left early though. There was some world leader drama, there, people.  The UK's David Cameron particularly got up in Putin's grill.

I sort of would have wanted to be a fly on the wall.