Remembering wistfully the days of the Three Amigos.
Somehow I missed this story when the NYT ran it four days ago, but my attention was drawn to it when The State ran it this morning.
The NYT’s hed was particularly disgusting:
As Other Republican Senators Bolt, Lindsey Graham Cozies Up to Trump
Kinda makes you want to hurl, doesn’t it?
An excerpt:
“He’s very popular in my state,” Mr. Graham continued. “When I help him, it helps me back home. And I think it probably helps him to be able to do business with an old rival who’s seen as a deal maker.”
To Republican critics of Mr. Trump, Mr. Graham is risking his reputation with such a calculus.
“Lindsey Graham knows better,” said Peter Wehner, who advised former President George W. Bush and is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. “Deep in his heart, he must know that Donald Trump is fundamentally unfit to be president, and he has to pretend that Trump is. And when you engage in a game like that, there’s often a cost to it.”
Mr. Graham is willing to take the risk….
It’s really a shame to see this. Especially when Lindsey’s best buddy John McCain, as sick as he is, is determined to go down swinging against the guy Graham once quite rightly termed “the world’s biggest jackass.”
Because the thing is, he does know better. And therefore, he owes us better…
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Lindsey has always followed the wind in Washington and the muck in SC …
Yes. And it’s a truthful headline. And his cozying up looks particularly bad today. And will even more so as the Mueller investigation continues.
While I think he’s cozying up to Trump in an effort to be in a position to guide/restrain Trump, it’s a bad idea. Those who curry favor with a despotic regime end up either becoming a part of it or being disposed of when they oppose something the despot wants. I know that Trump hasn’t managed to set up a ‘despotic regime’ in this country, but it isn’t from lack of trying.
Not big news, he just went into the room where he saw the most cameras and microphones.
Don’t worry, we only have about 30 years before he’s no longer in office.
Russia won the election and still controls the hearts and minds of a large segment of the US population…
Lindsey’s in legacy-mode and constantly beside himself
Jimmy C wants another Nobel prize,the old slut
He is what we thought he was.
Read his words. He is is using Trump’s popularity in the state to his advantage. Nothing new here.
Yes, Doug, there is something new here. You haven’t had long conversations with him. You haven’t been at events where he was snubbed by the base, and he shrugged it off, and kept doing what he thought was right.
I have.
This is new…
Well, my observation of his behavior goes back at least ten years. I didn’t invent that belief out of thin air. It was obvious then and it is obvious now. He’s looking for SOMETHING. Hmmmm… would he be out of the realm of possibility for a Supreme Court appointment? Something that kept him in a job for life without the hassle of running for office any more?
I think a lot of people, Lindsey included, are discovering that the best way to manipulate Trump’s behavior is to shower him with excessive praise. Trump’s narcissism makes him the perfect target for this strategy. In Lindsey’s case he’s probably terrified of Trump’s extreme military overtures toward North Korea. Sure Lindsey is a war monger. But I doubt he wants nuclear war with North Korea. People are getting scared. And with good reason. Trump is very dangerous.
“People are getting scared.”
Are you literally SCARED? How much of your day do you spend in a state of fear over nuclear war with North Korea?
Concerned? Ok. Scared? Of what? We’ve been hearing the same stuff from North Korea for a long, long time. Trump won’t start a nuclear war unless the Joint Chiefs allow it to happen.
Since I’m a numbers person not a words person let’s try to assign some probabilities. (This has the added benefit of annoying Brad 🙂 A year ago the odds of a nuclear war with North Korea were low, perhaps 1% within the next year. With Trump’s election and his bombastic nature that increased to 2%. Then the North Koreans suddenly increased their capabilities. Detonating a hydrogen bomb is a very big deal. By the summer we were looking at a 3-4% probability. Trump and Kim then engaged in a war of words that may make the POTUS look tough but it actually did nothing to get Kim to give up his weapons but instead made him more likely to use them. The Joint Chiefs have no leverage over Kim. Briefly the odds spiked to around 10%. Things have since calmed down a bit so we’re down to 5% or less.
The bottom line is this: we probably won’t have a nuclear war with North Korea. But on November 7 we only had a 28% chance of electing Trump according to 538 but the lower the number the better. 1% is concern; 10% is scary; 20% downright terrifying.
Yep, that’s pretty annoying.
So is the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Saying it’s “two-and-a-half minutes to midnight” is utter nonsense. It’s an analogy, a metaphor, to which these numbers guys have arbitrarily assigned a numerical value.
I would think that scientists would have more respect for measurable things than to pretend they can assign a measurement to something like that…