Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?

[Mongrel]

[Mongrel]

Oh and, of course:

[Mongrel]

What the fuck.

[Yoji]

Yeah. If memory serves, Blake Farenthold was whining about how he wished he could just challenge Murkowski to a duel.

But yeah, let's focus on her saying something mean about the fat fuck into an open mic. How scandalous.

[Mongrel]

New Yorker: Mooch is already losing his shit.

“They’ll all be fired by me,” he said. “I fired one guy the other day. I have three to four people I’ll fire tomorrow. I’ll get to the person who leaked that to you. Reince Priebus—if you want to leak something—he’ll be asked to resign very shortly.” The issue, he said, was that he believed Priebus had been worried about the dinner because he hadn’t been invited. “Reince is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac,” Scaramucci said.

Scaramucci also told me that, unlike other senior officials, he had no interest in media attention. “I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock,” he said, speaking of Trump’s chief strategist. “I’m not trying to build my own brand off the fucking strength of the President. I’m here to serve the country.” (Bannon declined to comment.)

Scaramucci said he had to get going. “Yeah, let me go, though, because I’ve gotta start tweeting some shit to make this guy crazy.”

Minutes later, he tweeted, “In light of the leak of my financial info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45.” With the addition of Priebus’s Twitter handle, he was making public what he had just told me: that he believed Priebus was leaking information about him. The tweet quickly went viral.

Cocaine, right? Like, a fucking boatload of coke?

Has he even been in this job for a week yet?

[Yoji]

A week tomorrow, yeah. And based on this administration's current trajectory, I'm guessing he'll be replaced by Francis X. Clampazzo when he inevitably flames out.

[Friday]

[Mongrel]

Being the dealer to the White House must be a nifty position.

[Mongrel]

Oh man! DC is one-party consent for phone recordings so:

[Mongrel]

Uh, this is real bad guys.

The GOP intro'd a new bill 4 hours ago and are voting on it now:

[Mazian]

Just failed 49-51 with Collins, Murkowski, and McCain (!) against.

[Mongrel]

Repeal failed. Collins, Murkowski and.... McCain! voted against it.

I guess in the end, after all his bullshit and sleaze, he did do the right thing. Huh.

EDIT: Dammit Mazian!

[Mongrel]

And the bill just got returned to the calendar for next week.

WTF?

Is McConnell hoping McCain dies in the interim or something?

[McDohl]

If I understand right, if the Senate is down a body, then if Murkowski and Collins hold the line, then it moves nowhere.

[Mothra]

Way, waaay too fucking close for comfort.

[pacobird]

It's too fucking good. They're running out of time to actually get anything done this session.

[Caithness]

Looks like I still have health care today.

[Thad]

I guess in the end, after all his bullshit and sleaze, he did do the right thing. Huh.

I'm as surprised as you guys are, but I guess I can Monday morning quarterback it as a result of his obsession with his legacy, which has got to be stronger now than it's ever been. If this is the last chapter of his biography, "shows up fresh from brain tumor surgery, gives a rousing speech, and then does one last maverick face turn and rescues the legacy of the man he fought so bitterly against" makes for a perfect Hollywood ending. When they make the movie, they'll play it up like Senator Paine changing his vote and Darth Vader saving Luke from the Emperor all rolled into one.

And the bill just got returned to the calendar for next week.

WTF?

Is McConnell hoping McCain dies in the interim or something?

If I understand right, if the Senate is down a body, then if Murkowski and Collins hold the line, then it moves nowhere.

And despite everything wrong with Ducey, he doesn't want to see this thing pass, so he's not going to appoint someone who'll vote for it.

Don't know if this has been brought up in the Arizona thread (haven't been back there), but if McCain dies or retires, the governor appoints a replacement (must be same party, so even if we had a Democratic governor we'd be getting a Republican senator, albeit probably a more moderate one than whoever Ducey will pick), but that replacement only serves through the next statewide election.

Appointees very rarely go on to be elected.

So there's a very real chance that, in November 2018, not only will both Arizona senate seats be on the ballot, they'll also be the two most vulnerable Republican seats in the chamber.

[Mongrel]

I guess in the end, after all his bullshit and sleaze, he did do the right thing. Huh.

I'm as surprised as you guys are, but I guess I can Monday morning quarterback it as a result of his obsession with his legacy, which has got to be stronger now than it's ever been. If this is the last chapter of his biography, "shows up fresh from brain tumor surgery, gives a rousing speech, and then does one last maverick face turn and rescues the legacy of the man he fought so bitterly against" makes for a perfect Hollywood ending. When they make the movie, they'll play it up like Senator Paine changing his vote and Darth Vader saving Luke from the Emperor all rolled into one.

I'd like to think that, legacy or no, he's enough of a human that the bit about throwing sixteen million people off their health care in one year gave him pause.

But geez, it really couldn't have been any closer than that.

[Mongrel]

Also a friend of mine pointed out how oddly appropriate it is that cancer saved healthcare.