I don't even care . F*** that guy Sen. Ben Sasse blasts Astros during Amy Coney Barrett hearing www.washingtonpost.com › ben-sasse-astros-cheaters “I'd like to talk about the Houston Astros, who are miserable cheaters,” Sasse said. AD. After pointing out that ...
There's actually a viable option available that wasn't during the Bush Shamnesia era, criminalize Trump crimes and make it a bipartisan vote. That'll put these slimy off election-year sons of b****es on the same record as their voting **** streaks. American people might even get some reforms curtailing the authoritarian executive... https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...onist-history-trump-is-already-being-written/ The Greek philosopher Diogenes supposedly walked the streets of Athens carrying a lantern in the daytime; when asked why, he said he was looking, without success, for an honest man. Had you transported him to Washington today and told him to wander among the members of the Republican Party, Diogenes would have no more luck. But as they face the very real possibility that their corrupt bargain with President Trump will end in political catastrophe, they’re starting to get worried about how they’ll be judged in a post-Trump world. So the revisionist history is already beginning. To “We don’t think judges should be political” and “We’ll protect preexisting conditions,” you can add “I never liked Donald Trump anyway.” As The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany reports, people still working for Trump are worried about getting jobs in the future. One campaign staffer told her, “There’s just that stigma of being a Trump person.” So how do you avoid the stigma? It’s not too early to start. Consider Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who may run for president in 2024. The Washington Examiner obtained a tape of a recent conference call Sasse did with constituents, in which he unloaded on Trump in a way no other congressional Republican has, at least not yet. “I don’t think the way he’s led through covid has been reasonable or responsible, or right,” Sasse said, and complained about how Trump “kisses dictators’ butts.” Here’s more from Sasse: The United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership, the way he treats women, spends like a drunken sailor. [...] He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists. All true, of course. But we should note that when Sasse was facing the possibility of a primary challenge from the right, he muted his occasional criticisms of Trump and was rewarded with an endorsement from the president; only now, with his own reelection a certainty, is he speaking so freely. Also note that this wasn’t a private meeting with a handful of donors or party operatives. It was a conference call with constituents, which he surely knew might find its way to the media. Consider the contrast with Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was asked in a debate this week whether Trump is a moral and ethical person. “Yes,” Gardner replied, hastening to add, “I wish he could be more specific in his communications with the American people.” Awkward formulation aside, Gardner was attempting to fall back on a common Republican rationalization when asked about Trump’s monstrousness. They usually say something like “I wish he wouldn’t tweet so much,” which is supposed to allow them to sound a little bit scolding without criticizing Trump in any meaningful way, as though the problem with him is just a few errant tweets. So is Sasse more honest than Gardner? Not in the least. Both are simply adapting to the situations they find themselves in. Gardner is probably going to lose, but if he alienates Trump supporters, he’ll definitely lose. Sasse, on the other hand, has what Gardner doesn’t: the freedom to position himself for the post-Trump era. He’s betting that the greatest advantage for a Republican in the next few years will be found in claiming to have been part of the team on whatever the party decides it still likes about this period in its history — such as stonewalling Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court, lying about why they were doing it, and then jamming Amy Coney Barrett through — while also saying you found Trump personally repugnant. The assumption is that Trump will not only lose this election but lose badly, and the worse that loss turns out to be, the more the party will want to distance itself from him. A blowout election — especially one that delivers the Senate into Democratic hands — will forever mark Trump as a loser whose stench Republicans will want to rid themselves of. So from ambitious Republicans, we’re likely to see an expansion of that “I wish he would stop tweeting” critique into something broader, but still carefully calibrated. They’ll say he screwed up the pandemic, and they didn’t like his racism and sexism or his personal corruption. They’ll watch their constituents closely to determine the least dangerous criticisms, and what things they should avoid saying. And if Trump is indeed on his way to defeat, he’s going down in a blaze of lunacy that will give people like Sasse more latitude to criticize him later. Sasse said something else on that call that was revealing, in which he predicted what the internal Republican debate will be about Trump. “The debate is not going to be, ‘Ben Sasse, why were you so mean to Donald Trump?’” he said. “It’s going to be, ‘What the heck were any of us thinking, that selling a TV-obsessed, narcissistic individual to the American people was a good idea?’ ” If that’s your prediction — and it seems like a good one — then the best thing to do is get on the front end of it right now, before anyone else has. And as Sasse knows, there’s nothing political reporters love more than intraparty conflict. Which means that he can get lots of attention and be remembered as the first important elected Republican in Washington to really stick it to Trump. But all that clever positioning shouldn’t make us forget the truth: Though most of them will deny it, just about the entire Republican Party was with Trump every step of the way. The fact that the rats are starting to abandon the sinking ship now doesn’t change what they did and who they are.
shrug...don’t even care most of these people allowed Trump to fck around unchecked for almost 4 years...when they did say something, it was usually via sources the GOP must pay for what they’ve done to this country
They spread their legs to get with power. Now they'll be doing the walk of shame and talking all kinds of **** to try and salvage some dignity. However, the next chance they have they'll be right back to spreading their legs again. If Trump was winning right now they'd all still be praising dear leader.
I brought this up in the Astros forum but it wouldn't surprise me if he was a Twins fan as a lot of people in NE are fans of the Twins and was still bitter about them getting swept.
He is running this year. Sasse feels sassé because he won his primary and has a 99% chance of winning. Weasel wants to run for 2024
Trump is so gracious. I especially like how he constantly talks about "helping states" like some ******* dictator who owns the country and grants resources as he pleases. He will never understand that his role should be to be a public servant and that all of his powers, including the one to redistribute resources, are granted by the people.
Would be interesting if Trumpists actually abandon Ben's ass en masse, causing him to lose the election.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/worse-than-saigon/ Worse Than Saigon By BEN SASSE August 16, 2021 6:30 AM While President Joe Biden cowers at Camp David, the Taliban are humiliating America. The retreat from Afghanistan is our worst foreign-policy disaster in a generation. As the Taliban marches into Kabul, they’re murdering civilians, reimposing their vicious Islamist law, and preparing to turn Afghanistan back into a bandit regime. The U.S. embassy has told Americans to shelter in place. Refugees are fleeing to the airport, begging to escape the coming bloodbath. None of this had to happen. America is the world’s greatest superpower. We ought to act like it. But President Biden and his national-security team have failed to protect even the American embassy in Kabul. They have broken America’s promises to the men and women who long for freedom — especially those thousands of Afghans who served alongside our military and intelligence services. They are turning their backs on the women and children who are desperate for space on the remaining flights out of hell. Gross incompetence has given the Taliban a terrible opportunity to slaughter our allies. Eighty-eight thousand of our Afghan allies have applied for visas to get out of the country, but this administration has approved just 1,200 so far. I’ve been among a bipartisan group of senators that has pushed Biden to expedite this process, but to no avail. At this point, it’s not clear how many we’ll be able to get out. Every translator and ally who stood by us is now at risk. This bloodshed wasn’t just predictable, it was predicted. For months, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have warned the Biden administration that this would happen. Now the administration is acting like this is a surprise. It’s shameful, dishonest spin. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been all over cable news pretending this isn’t a disaster. Administration apologists can bleat talking points all they want to, but they can’t drown out the screams of the women Taliban forces are systematically brutalizing. The administration naively talked about a “diplomatic solution.” The Taliban were never interested, and have broken every agreement they have signed. Just look at recent headlines. Last week alone, 27 children were murdered at the hands of the Taliban. The Taliban executed 22 Afghan commandos as they attempted to peacefully surrender. They’ve made their intentions known — these butchers are bragging about the slaughter online. The Taliban don’t give a rip about getting invited to the U.N.’s international cocktail party in Brussels. Bromides about the Taliban’s “role in the international community” aren’t going to call them off. The Taliban aren’t going to stop being the Taliban because Jen Psaki scolds them. America’s retreat is a major propaganda coup for the jihadists. The Taliban will claim to be a “superpower-slayer.” The Taliban helped their allies stage the 9/11 attacks almost exactly 20 years ago, and after our retreat they’ll be able to brag about humiliating us again. Make no mistake: The Taliban will exploit every image of American retreat. Pictures of desperate Afghans perilously crowded around the unguarded airport in Kabul are painfully reminiscent of images of Saigon — images that cemented communist victory in Vietnam and showed American weakness to the world. Jihadists are flocking to the “hallowed ground” where they have just defeated the “infidels.” Afghanistan will become a sanctuary for terrorist groups all over again. China and Russia will look to capitalize on Biden’s weakness and incompetence, too. Their message is simple: Why should Ukraine or Taiwan put any faith in the United States after seeing how Washington has abandoned its allies in Afghanistan? America’s enemies are salivating at the thought of taking advantage of the president who surrendered in the War on Terror. The sad thing is, many in my party are trying to blame-shift as if the last administration didn’t set us on this course. Here’s the ugly truth: Neither party is serious about foreign policy. For a decade now, demagogues have lied to the American people about our mission in Afghanistan. President Trump pioneered the strategy of retreat President Biden is pursuing, to disastrous effect. The politicians and pundits who make excuses for this shameful retreat will dishonestly claim that it was this or fighting so-called “forever wars.” They pretend that our only choices were a massive occupation or an immediate withdrawal. They ignore the reality on the ground. Their cheap talking points have led to chaos, persecution, and death. Politicians don’t tell this truth: America didn’t have a nation-building occupation force in Afghanistan. The last time we had 100,000 troops in the country was a decade ago. We’re not waging “endless wars” in Afghanistan any more than we’re waging endless wars in South Korea, Germany, or Japan — or Kosovo, or Honduras, or any number of other nations where we have forward-deployed forces. A relatively small number of troops has successfully supported our Afghan allies by providing the backbone for intelligence and special-operations missions. Americans weren’t building empires or fighting unwinnable battles. We were defending airfields and decapitating terror organizations while keeping a light footprint. Americans have heard of some high-profile goons, such as Qasem Soleimani and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. But our heroes in Afghanistan have killed a lot more Bin Laden wannabes whose names you don’t know — precisely because we killed them before they could take down a World Trade Center. We fought and won this war in Afghanistan, not on American shores. But you wouldn’t realize that from the isolationist rhetoric surrounding Biden’s choices. It’s important to recognize the work that our special forces and intelligence operatives did after 9/11. The partnerships they built with our Afghan allies were premised on the idea that America isn’t capable of this kind of betrayal. I’ve had a dozen conversations with American intelligence officers and special operators over the past few weeks, and they’ve told me that they swore to their Afghan recruits that if they fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Americans, we’d protect their wives and children. Those promises are being broken. America is supposed to be better than this. The Biden administration is spitting in the face of all these heroes, but we owe them a debt of gratitude. The work they did mattered, and still matters. Our troops didn’t lose this war. Politicians chose defeat. We never had to let the Taliban win, but a bipartisan doctrine of weakness has humiliated the world’s greatest superpower and handed Afghanistan to butchers. In the next few weeks, the situation in Afghanistan will get much worse. Americans need to pray for that troubled country. President Biden needs to man up, come out of hiding, and take charge of the mess he created. Secure the airfields and get as many souls out as possible. Time is short.
