As Kevin McCarthy Embraces James Comer’s Wet Dreams of Dick Pics, George Santos Discusses “Paths Forward”
I don’t, yet, have the stomach to write up the shittiness of the Hill reporting on Kevin McCarthy’s embrace of James Comer’s wet dreams of dick pics and SARs.
Suffice it to say access merchants like Jake Sherman are transcribing Big Kev’s preordained decision to back impeachment without mentioning that he is supporting an inquiry because he has no evidence of wrongdoing on Biden’s part, a constitutional abomination.
This WaPo story is the rare story on the development that makes the corruption behind McCarthy’s decision — and his own weakness in adopting it — the story, as it should be.
To appease those lawmakers, Republican leaders are weighing whether to use a potential impeachment inquiry vote as a bargaining chip in the funding negotiations. But even if the inquiry is included in the talks, it’s not certain that Republicans have the necessary 218 votes to pass it. Some lawmakers are staunchly against it, and McCarthy has said that an impeachment inquiry would occur through a vote on the House floor, as opposed to his unilateral decision-making.
“I think it’s abusing the process,” Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) said, lamenting how political impeachments have become. “We’ve been good about letting [the] Judiciary and Oversight [committees] run their course, and I’ve not seen a compilation of facts or evidence that had been put together that would convince me or anybody else at the moment that the next step is an impeachment inquiry.”
House Republicans have been investigating whether Biden benefited from his son Hunter’s business dealings, but they have yet to discover evidence directly connecting the two. While they have uncovered allegations that the Justice Department stymied the investigation into Hunter Biden’s financial misdeeds, along with testimony about his penchant for touting the family brandto reel in business deals, investigators on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees have not unearthed any evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
The fact that McCarthy is capitulating to the most radical members of his own party out of desperation makes developments in Brooklyn more significant.
On August 15, EDNY indicted George Santos’ fundraiser, Samuel Miele, for impersonating McCarthy’s former Chief of Staff, Dan Meyer, in conversations with fundraisers.
That case was reassigned, as a case related to Santos‘ own fraud prosecution, to Judge Joanna Seybert. Within a week of the charges, the Miele case shifted to discussions of “possible dispositions,” code for a plea agreement, as suggested in a letter asking for a continuance of even an initial hearing to September 5.
Since that date, the parties have engaged in meaningful discussions about possible dispositions of this matter without the need for a trial. The parties are jointly requesting that the Court exclude the time from today’s date through September 5, 2023, to allow the parties to focus on those discussions instead of trial preparation.
Last week, after EDNY had provided some discovery to Miele, both sides joined in asking for another longer continuance to discuss what was explicitly described as a plea.
The parties now write to advise the Court that the government has made two substantial discovery productions in accordance with Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and that negotiations concerning a potential resolution of this case without the need for a trial are active and ongoing. Under these circumstances, the parties respectfully submit that excluding additional Speedy Trial time to accommodate the defendant’s ongoing discovery review and facilitate plea discussions will serve the ends of justice and outweigh the best interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.
The day after the continuance in Miele’s case, prosecutors in Santos’ case asked for a continuance of a status hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday, in part, to “discuss possible paths forward in this matter.”
Further, the parties have continued to discuss possible paths forward in this matter. The parties wish to have additional time to continue those discussions.
By all appearances, Santos is further from a plea than Miele is, probably for good reason. Miele has testimony against Santos to offer as leverage; Santos has his seat in the House (though depending on the precise nature of his relationship with Andrew Intrater and Viktor Vekselberg, Santos might be able to trade testimony as well).
But this is a public integrity case, and as such, a resignation is one of the things that prosecutors are permitted to use in negotiating a plea deal.
And EDNY is discussing very short timelines, with Miele’s next hearing currently scheduled for October 6, and Santos’ next status hearing scheduled for October 27.
Which is to say that Big Kev may lose the deciding vote that made him Speaker even before discussions of impeachment and shutdowns are resolved.
“depending on the precise nature of his relationship with Andrew Intrater and Viktor Vekselberg, Santos might be able to trade testimony as well).”
McCarthy’s Londongrad-on-the-Potomac.
Another ripping understatement: “a constitutional abomination.”
Ha! I believe even you understated that
Just is slow but it’s coming. When it finally arrives, multiple dominoes will fall in rapid succession. It’s only a matter of time. Thankfully the clock is running out very quickly.
Sorry, that should read JUSTICE is slow….
Nancy Mace, the self-proclaimed centrist reasonable GOP hope was buttonholed on CNN and said that it’s enough to have suspicions but no evidence to start impeachment proceedings. After all, these will dig up more evidence according to her.
Some of her more rational colleagues (a dwindling number) realize this hammer can be used in the other direction, and it should also be noted that four independent grand juries indicted Defendant-1 on 91 counts, some of them were unanimous votes. That tells me there is a there there as opposed to the ordure shoveled out by Comer and Jordan.
Tom Sullivan over at Digby covered this nicely:
https://digbysblog.net/2023/09/12/are-republicans-americans-in-name-only/
“I do not make this decision lightly. And regardless of your party, or who you voted for these facts should concern all Americans,” McCarthy said.
Kevin neglected to specify what “facts” he was referring to.
The fact might be that Big Kev is afraid of losing Large Marge … “I can feel it in my bones
Any day you’ll be up and gone
Oh I’m losing you
It’s all over your face someone’s takin’ my place
Could it be that I’m losing you”
https://youtu.be/uP4CEPaiAzU
The Righteous Brothers had something to say along those lines:
Now there’s no welcome look in your eyes
When I reach for you
And now you’re starting to criticize
Little things I do
It makes me just feel like crying (Baby)
‘Cause, baby, something beautiful’s dying
Marge and Kev has a sad…
https://youtu.be/zeH8uV6ptcQ
Oh, but they’ve “uncovered allegations”!
For which all they have to do is a hit on Fox News, after which they replay said hit in which they allege stuff with no factual basis. It worked with the “rigged election”–why not this?
WRT to readers unable to get past WP firewall following Marcy’s link about “Andrew Intrater and Viktor Vekselberg”, Open Secrets has a writeup here. Which, BTW, kind’a suggests Santos is not just a dishonest whacko, but a Russian plant.
Here’s an unpaywalled version of the Post article:
https://archive.ph/eVpjT
Failed to load on two different browsers. Is address complete?
It opened for me in Chrome. Suggest clearing your browser cache.
I can see it on a Windows Machine and Chrome.
It’s the wrong link anyway. Here’s the right one: https://archive.ph/JtoHu
Recently that site has been disappearing for minutes(?) at a time but try it later and it’s fine.
Santos meets all the requirements:
1) Body habitus and appearance that could easily support a legend background (or hide a true background) from any number of countries (including Russian)
2) Sketchy past with kompromat that suggests he could easily be manipulated via MICE principles
3) Flexible political leanings that are generally “conservative” but could be molded to fit the particular need of the handler
4) International ties to help with moving money
You said that more antiseptically than I would.
A while back I remember Santos trying to hide $$ source, I think it was during plea talks on other things. The source revealed was his parents. Wondering if Russian spooks funneling $$ through his parents, knowing Brazilians usually remain inter-generationally close. [g]
Yep, that’s exactly what I was getting at….
Yes, though not a steely-eyed mole with a carefully created legend to infiltrate Congress and steal info (like Devin Nunes ;-) but a bozo and petty crook they could persuade to stand purely to make a mockery of and (further) discredit the democratic process, like one of Prigozhin’s “games”, laughing over their vodkas in the Kremlin. The interesting part is how he came to stand and who helped him.
Here’s an archive of the WaPo story: https://archive.ph/JtoHu
Straight out of the Trump playbook… like telling Zelensky we just want you to announce an investigation, or telling Justice to just announce, “we’ll do the rest”. Just announce an inquiry – we’ll do the rest.
“Kevin, we’d like you to do us a favor, though. . . “
And Politico is reporting the absolutely shocking news that “Trump has been weighing in behind the scenes in support of the House GOP push to impeach President Joe Biden,” including regularly talking with Elise Stefanik and meeting two days ago with Marjorie Greene and Speaker “My Kevin” McCarthy: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/12/trump-privately-discussed-biden-impeachment-with-house-gopers-00115357.
Insert shockedinspectorRenault-Casablancameme.gif here.
Can anyone name one piece of legislation that the republicans have put forward since they took over? It’s so beyond frustrating to have such a spineless speaker and the vandals committed to nothing else by their own power. Certainly governance isn’t their raison d’etre.
I think the question is better phrased as one piece of useful, or important, legislation. They’ve filled the bin with various screeds, nonsense and self-serving bullshit that they would consider “legislation”.
The House GOP has submitted quite a bit of legislation — unfortunately, much of it is partisan hackery they know won’t pass either House or Senate and is really nothing more than campaign positioning.
Like this POS by Texas’s Rep. Chip Roy: https://mstdn.social/@[email protected]/111030505376832450 — he wants to kill funding for the climate envoy John Kerry even though Texas has been fried by record heat this hottest summer ever. So much fucking stupid self pwnage.
And Texas was frozen several winters back, and still hasn’t fixed their power grid.
And why would they what with Cancun so close.
Lol, good one!
Just read the polar vortex forming now which could shape our late fall/early winter weather. Sure hope Texans learned not to trust buttheads like Chip Roy and Greg Abbott.
When the sun goes down in the Artic (as winter approaches), it normally begets a polar vortex. Interesting reading: https://www.severe-weather.eu/global-weather/polar-vortex-forecast-winter-2023-2024-cooling-weather-impact-united-states-canada-europe-fa/
Last year in February 2023, the vortex weakened and faltered (allowing cold artic air and precipation flow South causing a ton of precipatation in California to the point that it relieved the four year old drought in one short season (and then some). It was a blessing and a curse.
I am not a meteorologist (IANAM), so I cannot say why the polar vortex broke apart in the 2022-23 winter season. One of the possibilities is a sudden stratospheric warmings may cause this phenomena. As the world warms, I am sure that this will be more of a problem.
That was one of the pieces I read about the vortex — the challenge is forecasting for a La Niña (last year) under climate crisis conditions and what is likely a neutral ENSO state this year under climate crisis conditions.
Not a meteorologist, either but I suspect the onset of a shift between La Niña (2022-23)/neutral/El Niño (late 2023-24) may have affected the vortex/jet stream system last winter. May also have been latent effects of the January 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption which spewed massive amounts of water and particulate into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Doesn’t make much difference what the underlying cause; volatility is increasing and making predictions more challenging, and Texas hasn’t been adequately prepared for any possibility.
It is not just that POS. There has been concerted effort, for at least last year, through dark money into Federalist society tied groups seeking to defund, and outlaw anything to do with green energy in a number of red states. They are having success.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/08/rightwing-backlash-reverse-clean-energy-success-texas
With respect to EW’s first sentence, I’d offer what Ethel merman had to say about Ernest Borgnine in her memoirs:
Kevin McC today launched the investigation, citing ‘some really awesome evidence’ (paraphrasing) that Joe Biden is a crook. We know that’s not so because as Raskin pointed out there is nothing in the records, and FWIW Joe Biden has released his taxes for years, but none of the Trump family has consistently done so.
The tell will be whether the impeachment hearings will be public like the Ds did and whether rebuttal witnesses will be allowed. If the answers are ‘no’ and ‘no’ it will be the screaming whitewash we’d expect.
One thing I forgot to note was that the Speaker already committed to holding a House vote before launch on September 1, but since Gaetz is apparently making a play for the gavel McC caved to the pressure knowing that Comer, et al, have already been busted for lying about the closed-door hearings.
Whether our courtier press will call them out roundly for the lies remains to be seen, but I suspect the MSM will relish the chance for horse race coverage and false equivalencies between Biden and Defendant-1 and barrel ahead with breathless prose. It’s what the editors will want.
OT but I saw a report about an Aussie capitalist saying that productivity is down because the unemployment rate is too low (he said 40-50% which is in Hooverville territory), so perhaps he should go first. It will be interesting to see what the Aussie press does to him.
It’s true that the poor don’t work harder because they’re paid too much. It’s also true that the rich don’t work harder because they’re not paid enough.
Honestly, if there were actually something there for the Republicans to latch onto, we’d know. How would we know?
Because Jim Jordan and James Comer would be shoving it at every camera in their vicinity and screaming about it every minute of every day. The fact that they’re not tells me all I need to know; they’ve got nothing and they know it. So they’re trying the Joe McCarthy “List of Communists” approach.
I was going to ask Where is our Joseph Welch; but the true question is: what happened to the citizenry who responded to Joseph Welch’s confrontation with McCarthy?
I dunno how rare the WaPo appraoch is. The Bloomberg radio team has been beating that drum for a week, at least.
Nice connecting of the dolts. Marcy.
This is neither here nor there, but yesterday (Sept. 11) we were driving to JFK Airport – not too far from Santos’s District 3 – after a long weekend of wedding celebrations for punaise jr, and his lovely bride. Riding through outer Brooklyn in a Lyft, we passed a BFD station where firefighters were milling about in full regalia, presumably on their way to a 9/11 commemorative event. The contrast of their service and courage (speaking collectively of FDNY), regardless of their political affiliations, stand in stark contrast to the rotten and corrupt doings of George Santos.
Love it.
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Isn’t it fair to conclude that Santos has a near-zero chance of reelection? And if so, why would prosecutors assign any value to sparing the nation less than a year of Santos’ tenure in Congress? Presumably they don’t care whether McCarthy loses his speakership and that’s the only thing that Santos has any power over. There was at least an argument for letting Agnew use resignation to avoid prison because Nixon’s imminent demise was likely to make Agnew president, but why would they care whether Santos served out his term? And isn’t making an example of his corruption the most urgent larger goal here? Just as throwing the book at the rioters has already arguably had a strong deterrent effect on right wing terrorists, isn’t it massively important to deter the hordes of grifters and conmen who have taken over GOP politics? To me, DOJ made a horrific error when they failed to make examples of the people behind the 2008 meltdown. If deterrence is a legitimate legal concept (it is right?) what more important examples are there than the 2008 crooks, Santos, Trumpworld and above all SCOTUS? The corruption has become so obvious and extreme as to make DOJ and the US into laughing stocks.
Why would prosecutors care, since he won’t win reelection? Because the people of Santos’ district deserve representation NOW, not just after January 3, 2025.
Right, but does restoring that year of representation justify letting Santos escape accountability for such flagrant corruption? His corruption is a more obvious, easier to grasp, and more infuriating example of what so many GOP representatives and SCOTUS justices have been doing. If you let Santos walk what does that say to more subtle criminals like the Thomases, the members of the Freedom caucus, Trump’s grifting cabinet secretaries, etc. etc. etc.? The most damaging thing about all of this corruption is that it makes people cynical about government.
$5 sez that if DoJ let Santos skate with resigning his office, he’d probably just become a lobbyist.
And exactly who is going to return lobbyist Santos’ phone calls? Unless instructed to do so by Leo, Putin or the Saudis, etc? And don’t they already have more competent messengers? He loses his seat and nobody knows him.
If that is the outcome of the investigation- Santos as lobbyist, then who says crime doesn’t pay?
Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy is likely burnt toast, while being surrounded with Joe McCarthy-ism.
Seems to me a Democrat should move to vacate the chair. McCarthy is awful by any measure, and any replacement will also be terrible, but my bet is that replacement will be even less effective than McCarthy. And the ensuing chaos would throw sand in the gears of the outrage machine. Sure, it could spell doom for getting the appropriations bills passed any time soon but it’s not like we haven’t been down that road before, and the delay in passing them is going to happen anyway.
The Republicans made the one vote rule for vacating thinking only a nut job Freedom Caucus Republican would use it. Oops.
I like that idea; if they won’t burn their own house down, why not toss a match on the accumulated MAGA detritus?