;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 5, 2014
Internal links removed.
Matt Zapotosky & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A federal jury Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption.... After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the McDonnells' alleged misdeeds ... found that they lent the prestige of the governor's office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse.... The former governor was convicted of 11 corruption-related counts pending against him, though acquitted of lying on loan documents. The former first lady was convicted of eight corruption-related charges, along with obstruction of justice. Maureen McDonnell was acquitted of lying on a loan document.... [The McDonnells] face decades in federal prison, though their actual sentence could fall well short of that. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer set a sentencing hearing for Jan. 6, 2015. The moment the first guilty verdict was read, Bob McDonnell closed his eyes tightly, shaking in his seat as he wept.... Defense attorney Henry 'Hank' Asbill, saying he 'didn't expect' this outcome, assured reporters the McDonnells would appeal." ...
... The New York Times story, by Trip Gabriel, is here. The Richmond Times-Dispatch story, by Frank Green, et al., is here. The paper's front page currently links to several related stories. ...
... Justin Jouvenal, et al., of the Washington Post interview three of the jurors. "Three jurors interviewed said their decision did not turn on any one piece of evidence or the testimony of any one of the 67 witnesses they heard, but the accumulated weight of evidence mounted by prosecutors day after day.... Defense attorneys argued that Robert and Maureen McDonnell's marriage was so broken they could not have conspired to use the governor's office to push the products of businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for gifts. But [juror Robin] Trujillo said that seemed implausible since the McDonnells were living together until a week before the trial and prosecutors produced numerous e-mails and other correspondence showing the pair had discussions about finances and regularly coordinated other plans." ...
... CW: That simple, common-sense observation makes you wonder how the McDonnells & their lawyers ever thought the "broken marriage" defense -- whether real or fake -- would work.
... Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: Maureen McDonnell "took the role of long-suffering political wife to a new level. She was flayed, demeaned, belittled and besmirched in court. And she didn't say a word.... All that the McDonnells said they appreciated when they ran for office -- family values, honesty, transparency and that integrity -- was lost not just in their transactions with Williams, but, more important, in the way they acted in that courtroom." ...
... Rachel Maddow elaborates on Bob McDonnell's epic hypocrisy:
In Other Political Corruption News.... Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The communications and financial statements of Jesse Benton, an operative with close ties to Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have been subpoenaed in the grand jury investigation into the alleged bribing on an Iowa state senator in 2012. Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog on Thursday posted part of the subpoena."
John-Thor Dahlburg & Julie Pace of the AP: "Seeking to counter Russian aggression, NATO leaders approved plans Friday to post several thousand troops in Eastern Europe who could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the new unit would send a clear message to potential aggressors, namely Russia.... Confronting another pressing international crisis, Rasmussen said NATO stands 'ready to help' Iraq fight back against a violent militant group, but noted that the Iraqi government has not made any such request." ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... I'm baffled, even troubled, by the contradiction between what [President Obama is] saying and what he's doing [regarding Ukraine].... One could make a case for this week's lofty rhetoric or last week's realpolitik-infused restraint -- but not for both, simultaneously. And to speak of noble principles, while acting on narrower interests, only raises false hopes and sows deeper disillusionment once they're dashed."
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "The building blocks for a lengthy military and political assault on Islamic State (Isis) forces were being put in place on Thursday after Barack Obama and David Cameron agreed the principles of a campaign that will extend through Kurdish northern Iraq, Sunni Iraq and possibly into Syria itself. Cameron made clear that the campaign is dependent on the formation of a broad-based non-sectarian government in Baghdad, ideally by the Iraqis' own deadline of 14 September, as well as support from key countries in the region, including Jordan and Turkey." ...
** Peter Beinart on how the beheadings of James Foley & Steven Sotloff have changed the politics of U.S. Middle East policy. CW: What I don't know that Beinart explains well enough is that a single person who is usually realistic can become a "Jacksonian," at least momentarily, when s/he sees barbaric acts of violence committed against innocent people who might have been the neighbor kids. A good example: Vice President Biden, a highly-knowledgeable pragmatist, who this week promised to follow the jihadists to "the gates of hell." (Beinart claims Biden's rhetoric was strategic.) Yes, there are people who are consistently, even philosophically, aggrieved & vengeful, but I think most of us can be shocked into a retaliatory mood.
... Frank Rich: "... Obama's deliberateness in the face of ISIS’s provocations as well as Putin's -- his refusal to follow the trigger-happy foreign policy of the Bush-Cheney era -- is to be applauded. You will notice that the crowd of pundits and (mostly Republican) politicians insisting that Obama 'do something' about these horrors
... Rand Paul in Time: "Some pundits are surprised that I support destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militarily. They shouldn't be. I've said since I began public life that I am not an isolationist, nor am I an interventionist. I look at the world, and consider war, realistically and constitutionally." CW: Paul's piece falls exactly into the frame Rich illuminates. It's a parody of itself. Paul also claims -- without offering an evidence other than to assure(/warn) us he's just like Ronald Reagan -- that he is not a flip-flopper. ...
... "Rand Paul's Epic Flip-Flop." Benjy Sarlin of msnbc: "The main reason 'pundits' may be surprised, however, is because of Paul's past statements, many of which seem to contradict the hawkish strategy the hypothetical Paul administration apparently would have implemented years ago to contain ISIS. When ISIS initially captured large swaths of Iraqi territory in June, Paul's response was mainly to criticize former President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for enabling ISIS's rise by launching the US. invasion of Iraq. In fact, Paul specifically argued that Obama didn't deserve scorn for failing to prevent the insurgent gains as a result. And while his new op-ed criticizes Obama for saying he still hasn't decided on a strategy to confront ISIS, Paul himself has made similar comments in arguing there might not be a viable strategy to defeat ISIS." ...
... Andy Borowitz: "Arguing that his motto 'Don't do stupid stuff' is not a coherent foreign policy, critics of President Obama are pressuring him to do something stupid without further delay." ...
... Christina Marcos of the Hill: "Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said Wednesday that he plans to introduce a bill when Congress reconvenes next week that would authorize the use of military force against terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)." ...
... Jim Newell of Salon: "Frank Wolf's [proposed bill] will codify the president's authority to basically bomb whomever he wants, wherever, and whenever, forever.... Wolf is a longtime Northern Virginia congressman whose district contains many defense contractors. He's retiring at the end of this term.... One could consider this AUMF Wolf's parting gifts to the military-industrial complex with whom he's had such a mutually beneficial relationship over the years."
Clifford Krauss & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier ... ruled on Thursday that BP was grossly negligent in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout that killed 11 workers, spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches.... Judge Barbier also ruled that Transocean, the owner of the rig, and Halliburton, the service company that cemented the well, were negligent in the accident. But the judge put most of the blame on BP, opening the way to fines of up to $18 billion under the Clean Water Act." ...
... "The Law & the Profits." Charles Pierce: "Economic royalism, and the political infrastructure carefully designed to support it, took a beating Thursday in several courts, even if you don't count the one that convicted the McDonnells in Virginia."
Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's civil rights investigation into the police department in Ferguson, Mo., will focus on whether officers there made discriminatory traffic stops, mistreated prisoners and used excessive force in the years before last month's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said on Thursday."
This court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent. -- Justice Antonin Scalia, in re: Troy Davis (2009)
... Dahlia Lithwick: Justice Antonin Scalia has repeatedly cited the heinousness of Henry Lee McCollum's crime as justification for the death penalty. "Having shown that he never committed that crime, it seems high time to ask whether, in the view of some Supreme Court justices, that would have even made a difference had we executed him.... It never fails to astonish me that the same conservatives who argue that every last aspect of big government is irreparably broken and corrupt inevitably see a capital punishment system that is perfect and just." CW: To Lithwick's long list of what went wrong with the initial case against McCollum & Leon Brown, I'd add "racism."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "A unanimous panel of federal judges in Chicago ruled Thursday that laws banning same-sex marriage in Indiana and Wisconsin are unconstitutional, becoming the third appeals court to rule that gay couples must be allowed to marry.... 'The grounds advanced by Indiana and Wisconsin for their discriminatory policies are not only conjectural; they are totally implausible,' wrote Circuit Judge Richard Posner, an influential jurist chosen for the bench by President Ronald Reagan."
Sarah Kliff of Vox: "In major cities across the country, Obamacare premiums are falling. That is not normal; health-insurance premiums nearly always go up and up and up. They rarely, if ever, decrease."
Ian Millhiser has a useful piece on the importance of the D.C. Court of Appeals' decision to re-hear Halbig v. Burwell, the case in which the plaintiffs are attempting to gut the ACA. ...
... Jonathan Chait puts the plaintiffs' chances before the full panel at zero. ...
... Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic: "The real significance of [the] announcement is how it affects the Supreme Court. The architects of the lawsuit had already petitioned the justices, asking them to take up the case and issue a final, authoritative ruling.... But the best pretext for the justices to take the case would be a split among Circuit Court rulings -- i.e., one decision upholding the lawsuit and one rejecting it. As of this morning, that split no longer exists." ...
... Brian Beutler: If the plaintiffs in Halbig prevail, "Millions of people would lose their health insurance in service of teaching Congress a lesson about the importance of legislative draftsmanship. That's not a very becoming political argument, though, so the Halbig supporters have stapled a grandiose claim to their core challenge. Because many of the people who would lose their insurance would also qualify for an exemption from the law's insurance coverage mandate, they frame it as a principled campaign for liberty.... The conspicuous thing about the Medicaid freedmen and those who would be freed from the individual mandate is that they're disproportionately black and poor. ACA rejectionism isn't enhancing their liberty at all."
Peter Shroeder of the Hill: "The gap between the nation's wealthiest and the rest of Americans has expanded in recent years.... A new study released Thursday by the Federal Reserve found that gains in income have been 'far from uniform' over the last few years, with those making the most doing significantly better than everyone else. Those at the bottom of the scale continued to see their real incomes shrink from 2010-2013, while those in the middle of the pack saw little change, meaning their paychecks still fell behind where they were before the financial crisis. Meanwhile, the nation's wealthiest saw broad income gains."
Paul Krugman: "Europe, which is doing worse than it did in the 1930s, is clearly in the grip of a deflationary vortex, and it's good to know that the central bank understands that. But its epiphany may have come too late. It's far from clear that the measures now on the table will be strong enough to reverse the downward spiral."
Benghaaazi! David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Five commandos guarding the C.I.A. base in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 say that the C.I.A. station chief stopped them from interceding in time to save the lives of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and an American technician during the attack on the diplomatic mission there.... The accusation that the station chief, referred to in the book only as 'Bob,' held back the rescue opens a new front in a fierce political battle over who is at fault for the American deaths."
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorney General Eric Holder reaffirmed Thursday that the Justice Department will not seek to jail New York Times reporter James Risen in connection with a criminal case charging a former CIA officer with leaking national security secrets to the journalist."
NBC News: "Chuck Todd will interview President Barack Obama on 'Meet the Press' on Sunday. The exclusive interview, which marks Todd's debut as permanent moderator of 'Meet the Press,' will cover the threat of ISIS, U.S. relations with Russia and Ukraine, the Ebola virus outbreak, the coming midterm elections and other news of the day...." CW: Very disappointed Chuck didn't go with McCain. The old folks in Peoria are going to be awfully upset.
Carrying He-Said/She-Said Past Absurd. The Economist publishes -- then withdraws, with apology -- a review of a book about slavery in which "Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains." The reviewer complains, "This is not history; it is advocacy." Jonathan Chait comments on the review. Even though he hasn't read the book! he opines, with contemptuous understatement, "I can think of reasons other than ideological bias to explain why almost all the black people would be victims, and the white people villains, in a book about white people who captured black people and subjected them to torture, rape, murder, humiliation, and oppressive forced labor."
Senate Races
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "National Republicans on Thursday moved to take control of the campaign of Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas by sending a longtime party strategist to the state to advise him, a day after his hopes for re-election and those of his party for taking control of the Senate were threatened by the attempted withdrawal of the Democrat in the race. Also on Thursday, the Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach [RTP], ruled that the Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, could not withdraw his name from the ballot, a move likely to set off further legal challenges in the race.... Mr. Taylor said in a statement on Thursday that the secretary of state's office had told him the day before that his letter requesting that his name be removed from the ballot 'was sufficient' for him to withdraw from the race." ...
... Here's Taylor's full statement regarding his interaction with Kobach's staff member, Brad Bryant, Director of Elections & Legislative Matters. This is important. Taylor withdrew his name according to instructions provided by the official whom Kobach put in charge of electionsSounds like Kobach, who is a colossal dick on every count (except maybe he likes puppies, I don't know), pulled a fast one. Taylor's statement, in part:.
I specifically asked Mr. Bryant if the letter contained all the information necessary to withdrawn my name from the ballotgain confirmed with Mr. Bryant that this notarized letter removed my name from the ballot. Mr. Bryant said 'Yes,' affirming to me & my campaign manager that the letter was sufficient to withdraw my name from the ballot.... [After a secretary of state employee notarized my notification] I again confirmed with Mr. Bryant that this notarized letter removed my name from the ballot. 'He again said "Yes.'"
... Dave Helling & Brad Cooper of the Kansas City Star: "Late Thursday, Taylor vowed to challenge [Kobach's] decision.... Wednesday afternoon, [Kobach's] office pulled Taylor's name from the list of candidates running in the state. Just hours later, it was back -- as legal questions swirled around the withdrawal announcement." ...
... Dylan Scott of TPM: "Kobach was asked about Taylor's statement after announcing his decision Thursday. 'At no time did Mr. Bryant state that the filing that Mr. Taylor gave was sufficient,' Kobach said." ...
He is partisan, and mean, and he has made an unmitigated mess of our electoral system. He ought to keep his hand out of this one. -- Joan Wagnon, Kansas Democratic Party Chair, on Kris Kobach
... Jed Lewison of Daily Kos: "Assuming Taylor is telling the truth -- and given Kobach's history as a bigoted right-wing lunatic I'd trust him over Kobach any day of the week -- then Kobach is going to have a hard time explaining what appears to be a nakedly partisan move." ...
... Here's a tiny bit of background on Kobach, courtesy of Kos.
Jamison Foser: "The Iowa Senate race between Republican Joni Ernst and Democrat Bruce Braley offers the clearest example of a politician's hypocrisy you'll ever find: Today Ernst took the precise position on the Social Security retirement age that she criticized Braley for just hours before. Via Paul Waldman.
Beyond the Beltway
Laura Bischoff of the Dayton Daily News: "A GOP-backed law that eliminated 'Golden Week' -- a window when Ohioans could both register and vote in the same week -- and that curbed early voting is unconstitutional and can't be enforced, according to a ruling issued Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Peter Economus. Economus granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by the NAACP of Ohio, League of Women Voters of Ohio and a host of church groups and voting rights advocates. The plaintiffs challenged Senate Bill 238, which Gov. John Kasich [R] signed into law in February, as well as directives issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted [R]. Economus said in his 71-page ruling that they were unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965." Via Charles Pierce.
Living While Black. David Perry, in Daily Kos, on four incidents in which police tased black men for sitting, walking, hands-in-pockets, hands-in-air. In only one of the four cases is there an indication the black man had committed a crime -- fleeing from police. That man, tased 13 times, died.
News Ledes
AP: "U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month streak of hiring above 200,000 and posting the smallest gain in eight months. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. But the rate dropped because more people without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed. Employers also added 28,000 fewer jobs in June and July than the government had previously estimated."
Guardian: "Hours before a ceasefire is expected to take effect in eastern Ukraine, after a significant breakthrough in the five-month conflict, heavy shelling has been heard east of Mariupol port. A commander of a Ukrainian volunteer militia based in Mariupol told Reuters: 'We were under fire all night but we are still keeping the rebels at bay. They are facing us with tanks and artillery.'"
Hill: "A hacker breached HealthCare.gov in July and uploaded malicious software, apparently intending to use the system in future cyberattacks against other websites. The break-in ... was discovered last week by federal health officials, who said no personal data was taken. It is the first successful, confirmed hack of the federal health insurance exchange that went through a rocky launch last year."
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Reader Comments (10)
We can only hope that Transvaginal Bob and Mo get to experience themselves what it's like to get their orifices probed legally. Maybe then they'll begin to feel differently about forcing it upon others.
What an unexpected, but happily accepted, 75th birthday present on September 4 to hear the Bob/Mo guilty verdicts! Their defense was sooo lame. I absolutely detest Gov. Transvaginal Probe for throwing his "good Catholic wife" (so to speak) under the bus.
Must admit, however. that I am ambivalent about the uproar over the beheading of our two journalists by ISIS in Syria. To be sure, I think it is horrendous and sadistic--especially to put on video.
Does that make it more horrendous and sadistic than the killing, by bombs, guns and (in Vietnam) Agent Orange and by our own soldiers, of innocent citizens (especially women and children) who are nameless because they have nobody to speak for them? After all, these journalists were in Syria of their own volition and chose to take terrible risks to get their pictures and stories. Let us just speak up and admit: WAR is senseless, violent and amoral--and brings out the worst in all people--no matter with which religion or belief system they are associated. Amen.
!
Here's a bright spot....
The judge who wrote the opinion that knocked out the ban on gay marriage in Wisconsin and Indiana is Richard Posner. He was appointed by Reagan and Very conservative.
Maybe there's some good in the world after all.
@Haley Simon: Posner is a different kind of conservative. For instance, in the hearing on this case, Posner asked the lawyer for Wisconsin, "How can tradition be a reason for anything?" You don't often hear conservatives arguing against the rectitude of tradition.
The linked post, by Mark Stern of Slate, contains audio of Posner's back-&-forth with the lawyers in this case. It's entertaining.
Marie
What was startling in Rachel Maddow's comments on the McConnell verdict last night was being informed that the governor had rejected a plea deal: ONE count for him (not corruption related) and NONE for Maureen. He could have gotten his wife and mother of his 5 kids completely off the hook. When the verdict kept coming back - guilty, guilty guilty...... - he must have been kicking himself. No wonder he was sobbing.
Jim Newell homes in on this point in an entertaining piece in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/05/bob_mcdonnells_shocking_stupidity_how_could_a_politician_have_been_this_dumb/
Helluva guy.
But the righties will keep eating up any charlatan pol who spouts family values and God - nothing seems to expose the hypocrisy for them.
Oh, mother, where to begin?
Like Victoria, I was thinking what a fool McDonnell was not to take the plea bargain that would let his wife walk and pretty much let him skate on all corruption charges. Idiot. And this is a guy whose calling card in the circles of the high and mighty king makers on the right was his good judgement.
But it's nice to know that the jurors were able to see through the smoke and mirrors the McDonnell defense team employed (in truth, what the hell else were they going to do?). They recognized, correctly, that greed does not require a well functioning family to be an issue.
As it is, he's looking at serious jail time, unless, of course, he gets himself a Bush or Reagan appointed appeals court judge who sees nothing wrong with a little corruption, as long as the money goes to a winger.
But the whole McDonnell corruption schmeer brings up a much larger problem. Plenty of apologists this morning and some who don't think they're apologizing are saying things like, well, politicians are no different than you and me.
Sorry. They are. They're human, of course, well, some of them anyway, but they are different in many other ways. I don't have people like Jonnie Williams showing up at my door waving Rolexes and yachts and golf clubs and ten thousand dollar checks in my face. And if I did, I'd wonder what it was all about. I have trouble accepting a birthday present if it's over $100 (unless it's a out of print book I've been looking for). That doesn't make me special, it just makes me a regular guy who would wonder wtf was up with all the gifts.
The Post, this morning, has an <href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/mcdonnell-gifts/">incredible multimedia graphic charting the panoply of presents from Mr. Williams to the McDonnell's and their grifter kids (oh, what, they thought it was just some nice friend of dad and mom's? The next generation of greedy idiots). The list is staggering.
The fact is, I don't have people climbing through my windows to hand me money and presents because I don't have the ability to make things happen like the governor of a state does. And if I did, I'd tell the guy to forget the gifts and make an appointment to come in and talk, like everyone else.
Politicians are not the same as everyone else.
Which brings us around to that larger point. Not very long ago, this guy was on the short-short list of potential vice presidential candidates for the Rat. The fact that he chose a hypocritical fraud instead of a corrupt grifter is beside the point. How does a guy this morally bankrupt--not to mention stupid--make it that far in the party?
Not long ago I did a review of the possible presidential candidates for the GOP. It's a pretty sorry list of sad sacks, pretenders, liars, hypocrites and con-men, several of whom are in danger of being indicted.
What is about the GOP that they can't find any decent people to run for high office? Is it the culture of entitlement? Is it the antipathy to intellect, to facts, to honesty? Or is it an obsession with looks? Since Reagan, it seems that all you have to do is look the part (Bob McDonnell?) and say the right things (moralizing at the top of your voice and saying "Jesus" a lot), support the right issues (up the rich, down the poor, and fuck all those non-whites), and presto, you're an up and coming superstar in the GO fucking P. Like Bob and Maureen McDonnell.
A couple of years ago in Tampa, Bob and Mo were strutting around like a royal couple in waiting. Today they're looking at matching orange jumpsuits.
This isn't to say that Democrats are all straight out of Plato's Academy of Upright Philosopher Kings. But there's something about the Republican Party today that seems to attract the grifters and con-men and hypocrites like no other time in history.
At least now and then some of them get what they truly deserve. Five to Ten with no time off for good behavior sounds about right.
Sorry, that link didn't seem to work correctly. Here's it is again:
McDonnell gift list.
And guess who is not at all happy about the outcome of the McDonnell trial?
Drum roll......
Jen Rubin! Surprised? Poor Bob. Poor Maureen. It's a tragedy!
It seems that Jen is angry that "business as usual" for pols will now be upset by the fact that Bob is going to the clink because of a few paltry presents, and he, good honest Republican that he is, didn't even do anything in return. I mean, where's the harm?
Reading Rubin really is like peeking into the diary of a not very precocious 13 year old. Is it willful disingenuousness or just adolescent pique?
Of course she goes on to whine that if Bob is guilty then so is Obama. Like, like,...like a million times over. No, make that THREE million! So there. Why? Well....because, er, um......SOLYNDRA! That's why!
So from now on, what are pols supposed to do, huh? From now on "...the watchword is ingratitude." They will just have to give the finger to everyone who invites them to a dinner. Like, EVERYTHING will get you thrown into jail. Like, they can't even, like, let someone buy them a Coke or nothin'. And now Democrat prosecutors will be, like, all over Republican politicians, trying to, like, put 'em all in jail. Just because. It isn't fair!
Jen, of course, typically goes way overboard in trying to demonstrate that a gift of some tickets to the Super Bowl given to Clinton Ag Sec Mike Espy was no different than the McDonnell situation and, outrage of outrages, Espy never went to jail for anything! (snit)
She does point out however, that should this case go to her right-wing buddies on the Supreme Court (pictures of hearts drawn around all their names), there's a very good chance that Bob will skate on all charges given the way Scalia and his pals narrowly interpret the honest services fraud statute, meaning it has to be provable bribery or extortion, otherwise, no harm, no foul.
But all that's down the road. Predictably the wingers are downplaying the McDonnell verdict. The Washington Times has it buried on their site under a headline about the Delaware governor (a Dem, natch) who sent a tweet and accidentally included a picture of a woman wearing what could be a bondage collar. Holy Morals, Batman, give that guy the chair. (But, seriously, a bondage collar? WTF, dude.)
Another day in Right-Wing World. Where conservatives never get a fair shake and everyone's out to get them.
If you thought NBC couldn't chuck up Press the Meat any further after installing dead light bulb Chuck Todd, think again.
They have now announced (no doubt to breathless anticipation), that good ol' Both Sides Do It Chuck will be accompanied on the Road to Semi-Mediocrity (the show is far below mediocrity now, NBC is hoping for Semi-Mediocrity) by Joe (I'm the smartest guy I know) Scarborough and Luke (Nepotism is GREAT) Russert.
If someone wants to start a crowdfunding effort and raise half a million dollars to get me to watch these guys nuzzle each other and congratulate each other on how smart they are, I'll give them five minutes.
Chuck Todd? Luke Russert? Joe Scarborough? This is what NBC calls "edgy" television? Sets my teeth on edge is about all. I'd rather watch a cable access documentary on the history of the slotted spoon.
@Akhilleus. I think the actions of the grifter driven McDonnells says as much about the stupidity of their constituents as the depth of Mo/Bo's hubris. Seems like gullibility is sometimes a conscience choice.
When I look at someone like McDonnell, I do not see an attractive looking guy. Late middle age, smooth white face, carefully styled hair is a diminishing standard of male beauty even before he opens his mouth and the ignorance pours forth. Yeah, everyone's standard of attractive is different. I'm just sayin' for many women his "type" doesn't hold the appeal it once did.
It's a good day when the veneer is shattered and all that's left is the rubble. Wonder if Williams will be taking some Star Scientific vitamins to the Mo/Bo's in prison.