New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and other women Senators were wrong to force Senator Al Franken out of the Senate, without having an ethics investigation first, with clear cut evidence of sexual harassment and abuse by the Minnesota Senator.
Kirsten Gillibrand acted like a bully in leading the charge in such an aggressive manner, and it will harm her in her quest to become the 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee, which she clearly is desirous of becoming.
This blogger has been skeptical of Gillibrand before, and in 2008, the idea that she would be appointed to the US Senate by New York Governor David Patterson to replace Hillary Clinton, who was becoming Secretary of State, was astounding, as she did not have the best Congressional record of the various people named as contenders for the appointment.
Gillibrand had a very conservative record in her upstate NY district, and then suddenly became very liberal, a situation which seemed suspicious to this blogger.
Although this author said back in 1998 that Bill Clinton should have resigned in the sex scandal which led to his impeachment that year, it was not proper 19 years later for Gillibrand to say that Bill Clinton should have resigned, and in so doing, smacking Hillary Clinton in the face.
It adds to the image of Kirsten Gillibrand as an opportunist, who cannot be trusted to be President, but the possibility of her being the nominee always seemed a long shot.
Now it will be less likely, with her mercenary attitude, and rush to judgment, denying us a Senator, Al Franken, who was one of the stars of the Democratic Party, and helped to cause Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation of Donald Trump, which led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Ronald writes, “It adds to the image of Kirsten Gillibrand as an opportunist, who cannot be trusted to be President, but the possibility of her being the nominee always seemed a long shot.â€
I was already there before this went down.
From this Jimmy Dore video, I particularly like the astute tweet from Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the administrations of U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Here is the link to that video:
http://youtu.be/VP0cCx39eyc
Even if Franken resigns, the problem is not resolved.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/07/if-franken-resigns-is-the-problem-solved/#.Wik852IyXFE.facebook
Zero Tolerance Is Never the Answer
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/08/zero-tolerance-is-never-the-answer/#.Wirp0-VtHkg.facebook
Focus group of Roy Moore supporters.
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/in-new-focus-group-potential-voters-still-voice-support-for-roy-moore-1113768003855
“Forty years ago in Alabama, there’s a lotta mamas and daddies that would be thrilled that their 14 year-old was getting hit on by a district attorney,†one voter said.
Answers like that reveal how stupid they are! Hence why we get people like Trump, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Bachmann as our “leaders” in government!
Southern Liberal., I could not have said it better than you have!
Why Democrats Shouldn’t Abandon the Moral High Ground
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/11/why-democrats-shouldnt-abandon-the-moral-high-ground/#.Wi6762D-t4g.facebook
Speaking of stupidity, Roy Moore wants to get rid of all the amendments to the Constitution except for the first 10. The following amendments he wants to repeal are:
11th Makes states immune from suits from out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders; lays the foundation for sovereign immunity.
12th Revises presidential election procedures.
13th Abolishes slavery, and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.
14th Defines citizenship, contains the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and deals with post–Civil War issues.
15th Prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color or previous condition of servitude.
16th Permits Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on the United States Census.
17th Establishes the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote.
18th Prohibited the manufacturing or sale of alcohol within the United States.
(Repealed December 5, 1933, via 21st Amendment.)
19th Prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on sex.
20th Changes the date on which the terms of the President and Vice President (January 20) and Senators and Representatives (January 3) end and begin.
21st Repeals the 18th Amendment and makes it a federal offense to transport or import intoxicating liquors into US states and territories where such transport or importation is prohibited by the laws of those states and territories.
22nd Limits the number of times that a person can be elected president: a person cannot be elected president more than twice, and a person who has served more than two years of a term to which someone else was elected cannot be elected more than once.
23rd Grants the District of Columbia electors (the number of electors being equal to the least populous state) in the Electoral College.
24th Prohibits the revocation of voting rights due to the non-payment of a poll tax or any other tax.
25th Addresses succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities.
26th Prohibits the denial of the right of US citizens, eighteen years of age or older, to vote on account of age.
27th Delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives.
Yes, Rational Lefty, Roy Moore is insane!
Listening to the women means conducting investigations
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/12/listening-to-the-victims-means-conducting-investigations/#.Wi_UzCe_KI8.facebook
And speaking of Gillibrand, Trump attacked her this morning in a nasty Tweet.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/12/politics/trump-tweet-sexual-misconduct-russia/index.html
The contest between Roy Moore and Doug Jones represents everything that divides our country today: an extremist vs a Democrat.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/12/12/the-question-on-the-table-in-alabamas-special-election-today/#.WjAq-9P2X2E.facebook
Votes for Moore and Jones are very close.
Tweet I saw says turnout is at 72%-77% of ’16 presidential race in heavily black counties, but just 55%-60% in rural white counties. (https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/940778153533992961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwashingtonmonthly.com%2F2017%2F12%2F12%2Fquick-takes-live-blogging-the-alabama-senate-election%2F)
Projection is in! Jones has won!!!!! 🙂
I have a response to Princess Leia’s posts, just before this one comes up, regarding Election Night in Alabama for U.S. Senate.
The way the votes flowed came across like Virginia over the last three presidential election cycles (2008 Democratic pickup for Barack Obama; 2012 Democratic hold for re-electing Obama; 2016 Democratic hold for Hillary Clinton despite the Republicans and Donald Trump having flipped the presidency).
I am referring to the counties as they came in. The Republican ones (especially with populations under 50,000) came in nearly or completely counted before the more populous ones (especially Mobile County, with its county seat Mobile, which carried for re-elected Republican Richard Shelby in 2016) before the Democratic and swing counties (like Talladega County, with its county seat Talladega; Lee County, with its county seat Opelika; both carried in 2016 for Shelby) catapulted Doug Jones to victory. And there was, of course, Democratic counties (especially Jefferson County, with its county seat Birmingham) with outstanding vote still out which were among the late ones to come in.
When I follow elections live, I nowadays look first to exit polls reporting the gender vote. Yes, those do tend to get tweaked. But, there were just over 2,100 respondents in the CNN exit polls, for the gender vote, just after Alabama closed at 08:00 p.m. ET. The last I looked (12.13.2017 @ 07:45 a.m. ET), it was nearly 2,400 respondents.
What was clear, after the state’s polls closed, was that it looked like a tossup. That it was initially a 50/50 percent size of vote from males and females. That Roy Moore was carrying males by +17 and Doug Jones carrying females by +15. (I think I recall those numbers.) Anyway, those numbers changed to be 49 males/51 females for their percentages in the size of the vote. Roy Moore carried men by +14. Doug Moore carried women by +16. Most recent margin has it that Jones’s Democratic pickup is apparently between +1.5 percentage points (and with a raw-vote margin of +20,000-plus form around 1.4 million votes cast).
If you want the CNN Exit Polls, including the map, here is a link:
http://www.cnn.com/election/2017/results/alabama-senate
Here, uploaded at YouTube, is the call when CNN projected the outcome.
I want to add this:
I now predict that the Democrats will flip the U.S. Senate—to follow the U.S. House and a majority count of governorships—with a midterm election wave in 2018.
This special U.S. Senate election in Alabama, from 12.12.2017, has given Democrats 49 seats headed into 2018.
The three most recent midterm election cycles, which were national wave elections (against the party of the incumbent U.S. president), and which flipped the U.S. Senate, came in 1994 (Republican), 2006 (Democratic), and 2014 (Republican). The 1994 and 2014 Republicans and 2006 Democrats, heading into those midterm cycles as the minority party, did not lose a single seat. Those waves came to them.
This is what I think will happen if the Democrats win a majority-control pickup of the U.S. Senate in 2018: All 49 Democratic held seats will get retained. The Team Blue pickups will be won from Republican-held seats in Nevada (Dean Heller) and Arizona (open now that Jeff Flake bowed out). Any more will come from a tier of up to two states: Tennessee and Texas. Or reverse that order. (Plenty of Democrats would find it delicious to unseat Ted Cruz from the Lone Star State.) Any more than these would be followed by Nebraska (Deb Fischer). So, I would say a minimum would be 51. The maximum would be 54.
I won’t comment any further with analyzing the U.S. House and governorships. I just wanted to get it across that the Democrats are, heading into 2018, in position to flip majority control of the U.S. Senate.
D, you and I are on the same page on the US Senate elections in 2018!
What a glorious night, a feeling that there is hope for the future! 🙂