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General Category => General Forum => Topic started by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 12:39:21 pm



Title: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 12:39:21 pm

from The Washington Post....

Trump pins blame on McCain as latest GOP health-care bill sinks

The president sent out a video compilation of past remarks by the Arizona senator.

By JOHN WAGNER | 10:32PM EDT - Monday, September 25, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_925w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-24/AP/Trump_Taxes_66276-bfa97.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-24/AP/Trump_Taxes_66276-bfa97.jpg)
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Huntsville, Alabama, last week. — Photograph: Brynn Anderson/Associated Press.

WITH the latest Republican plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act collapsing, President Trump focused his ire during Monday night on Senator John McCain, distributing a video that showed the Arizona Republican on board with the mission in the past.

“A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O'Care,” Trump said in a tweet that accompanied the video. “My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk!”


(http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/oo227/Kiwithrottlejockey/Washington%20Post%20pix/20170925twvdjt_TwitterVideoDonaldJTrump_zpsnhf1knv5.jpg~original) (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912487929783754755)

As of Monday night, three senators — including McCain — had voiced opposition to the pending legislation, all but ensuring its defeat. Republicans can only afford to lose two GOP votes if they are to pass the bill without any Democratic support.

Senators Susan Collins (Republican-Maine) became the latest to announce her intentions to vote against the bill, joining McCain and Senator Rand Paul (Republican-Kentucky).

Trump seemed most upset about McCain's role in sinking what has been a priority for Republican lawmakers for years.

During a radio interview earlier in the day, Trump called McCain's opposition “a tremendous slap in the face to the Republican Party.”

“You can call it what you want, but that's the only reason we don't have it, because of John McCain,” Trump said during a call-in to the “Rick & Bubba Show”, a syndicated radio program based in Alabama that airs across the South.

In a long written statement on Friday, McCain said he “cannot in good conscience” vote for the bill written by Senators Bill Cassidy (Republican-Louisiana) and Lindsey O. Graham (Republican-South Carolina), taking issue with the hurried process leaders have used to move the measure ahead.


• John Wagner is a national political reporter covering the White House for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Senate GOP effort to unwind the ACA collapses on Monday (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/new-version-of-health-care-bill-will-help-alaska-and-maine--home-of-two-holdout-senators/2017/09/25/24697f62-a188-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • The latest repeal effort was bad news from the start (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/the-aca-repeal-effort-was-bad-news-from-the-start-with-little-public-scrutiny-and-little-chance-for-success/2017/09/25/635a060e-a1e4-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • ‘Reasonable’ Republicans are betraying us, too (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reasonable-republicans-are-betraying-us-too/2017/09/25/47eedd88-a22d-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/25/trump-pins-blame-on-mccain-as-latest-gop-health-care-bill-sinks (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/25/trump-pins-blame-on-mccain-as-latest-gop-health-care-bill-sinks)


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 12:39:53 pm






GLOAT!!






Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 27, 2017, 12:41:49 pm
..mmmmm....yeah..nah...only 4 more years....😋😜

...just like having a National MP in Musturtun😉


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 01:15:50 pm

Musturtun?  Is that the name of a building or something?

It definitely isn't a locality on any map I own and google is unable to locate it.


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 01:17:03 pm

Hahaha.....Trump and the GOP would have to be the most incompetent government ever.

Between them, they control the US presidency, the Senate and Congress, yet they are still too useless to pass any of the legislation Trump promised to his retarded supporters.

Hilarious farce, eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 27, 2017, 01:24:49 pm


Ktj...."Hahaha.....Trump and the GOP would have to be the most incompetent government ever."


....yup.....only Hillary could have been worse...we had a lucky escape😜


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 01:33:16 pm

I imagine Hillary would have managed to get legislation passed.

Mind you, Bernie would have been 1000% better than Hillary and 1,000,000% better than the dumb twat who is currently residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 27, 2017, 01:40:03 pm
Ktj...."I imagine Hillary..."

..you can imagine about Hillary all you like....because Bill always imagines about Monica😜


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 01:41:57 pm

Bill managed to get a shitload of legislation passed by Congress and the Senate.

As did Obama.

Unlike useless Trump and the useless GOP.

Trump + the GOP = EPIC F-FOR-FAIL


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 27, 2017, 01:45:56 pm
Ktj..."Bill managed to get a shitload of legislation passed by Congress and the Senate."

...when was this....in between blow jobs from Monica😜

..yeah..and he fixed global warming....and he fixed North Korea....oh yeah...he was very busy🙄


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 01:52:10 pm

An EPIC F-FOR-FAIL for the useless Donald Trump and the useless GOP.

By six months into their presidencies, Bill and Barak had each got a shitload of legislation passed.

Trump's score so far is a big fat ZERO!!


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 27, 2017, 02:40:12 pm
Yes...I agree...Trump is doing a great job.....saving us from Hillary😜

...we need to give him an honorary knighthood


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 02:40:26 pm

Yep....I see the IDIOT (Reality/Doanld) is currently posting inane twaddle into this thread.


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 08:22:49 pm

from The Washington Post....

Tuesday started as a bad day for Mitch McConnell.
It only got worse.


Each blow had its own unusual circumstances, with President Trump's own erratic performance
playing a role, but McConnell's failures came in nearly every facet of congressional leadership.


By PAUL KANE | 10:13PM EDT - Tuesday, September 26, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_950w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/National-Politics/Images/854087682-4021.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/National-Politics/Images/854087682-4021.jpg)
For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky), seen here walking to his office in the Capitol, Tuesday was a bad day.
 — Photograph: Win Mcnamee/Getty Images.


SENATE MAJORITY LEADER Mitch McConnell lost just about every way possible on Tuesday.

The Kentucky Republican had to abandon, again, an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/senate-gop-effort-to-unwind-the-affordable-care-act-faces-critical-test-tuesday/2017/09/26/097b2dc2-a25f-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html) amid an uprising from the more moderate wing of the GOP caucus. Then he learned that one of his most influential Republican chairman (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republican-senator-from-tennessee-announces-his-retirement/2017/09/26/df106d96-a2f3-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html) would not run for reelection next year, setting up a potentially divisive race to succeed the senator.

Finally, before 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, McConnell suffered the final indignity (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/moore-vs-strange-polling-opens-in-alabama-republican-primary/2017/09/25/9c7192f8-a253-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html): His preferred candidate in Alabama, Senator Luther Strange (Republican), lost the GOP nomination in embarrassing fashion to a conservative insurgent who vowed that his victory would send a message that McConnell and his allies should “run scared for a while”.

While no stranger to defeat in the past — he spent eight years as minority leader — McConnell's string of losses in such a short timespan on Tuesday punctured much of his well crafted image as the consummate insider who could deliver.

Each blow had its own unusual circumstances, with President Trump's own erratic performance playing a role, but McConnell's failures came in nearly every facet of congressional leadership.

Roy Moore's resounding win in the Alabama special election, after McConnell's allies spent more than $10 million on Strange's behalf, served as the first time Senate Republicans suffered a major defeat from a right-flank challenger in more than five years. Coupled with the retirement announcement of Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee), it means that GOP incumbents will face more challenges next year and that McConnell's promise to help them fend off insurgents will not carry the same weight.

On the legislative front, where McConnell was considered a master of the Senate, the leader could not herd his Republican colleagues or craft a parliamentary process to meet their competing needs. The result was an embarrassing failure to do what they promised voters they would for seven years: Repeal and replace former president Obama's signature health care law.

It left some hard-charging conservatives furious about the outcome.

“There is a complete lack of congressional leadership and no accountability to get results,” said Senator David Perdue (Republican-Georgia), first elected in 2014 and a critic of senior GOP senators for abandoning the repeal effort. “From the get go, three Republican Senate chairmen failed to support our efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare as we have all promised to do.”

McConnell's inner circle did not even try to sugarcoat the failures and what they meant for Republicans heading into the 2018 midterm elections. Moore's victory, according to the leader's advisers, is a direct result of congressional Republican's failure to repeal a health law they vowed to replace for seven years, nor deliver any other tangible legislative victory in the first eight months of Trump's presidency.

“It should be a wake-up call to every Republican. The deep dissatisfaction among the base with the pace of the Trump agenda is very real,” Josh Holmes, McConnell's 2014 campaign manager and still close adviser, said on Tuesday. Holmes said the entire party must now unify and deliver on their vow to overhaul the tax code so voters will see more money in their pockets.


(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_800w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-26/Getty/854459024.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-26/Getty/854459024.jpg)
GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore greets supporters in Montgomery, Alabama. — Photograph: Getty Images.

In a late night statement, McConnell fully endorsed Moore and called for party unity.

“He ran a spirited campaign centered around a dissatisfaction with the progress made in Washington,” he said. “I share that frustration and believe that enacting the agenda the American people voted for last November requires us all to work together.”

What made the Alabama race potentially a sign of things to come, was the degree to which Moore and his supporters tried to turn McConnell into a boogeyman within his own party.

On Tuesday, before the election results were official, most Senate Republicans remained staunchly behind McConnell — who, next June, is slated to become the longest serving GOP leader in Senate history. He has won eight straight leadership elections by acclamation, with no challenger, and none appears on the horizon in the near term.

His colleagues say McConnell is willing to absorb the criticism that conservative activists fire at him, particularly if it keeps the friendly fire away from rank-and-file Republicans.

“Being the spear-catcher for the conference is part of the responsibility of being in leadership, and Senator McConnell, as he likes to point out, is a big boy,” said Senator John Cornyn (Texas), the majority whip. “He can take it.”

But one thing that could hamper McConnell's long-term standing would be if he became a real albatross to his own incumbents in primary elections ahead. Two years ago this week John A. Boehner (Republican-Ohio) announced his resignation as House speaker because even close supporters feared voting for him because conservative activists had grown to despise Boehner.

Senator Richard C. Shelby (Republican-Alabama) saw McConnell as a tangential issue to Alabama voters, who know Moore well from his controversial record as a staunch social conservative on the state Supreme Court.

“I don't think McConnell is the only issue there. Roy Moore is a unique individual,” said Shelby, who used McConnell's campaign team to beat back a primary challenge last year.


(https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-26/Getty/854168156.jpg&w=850) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/Wires/Images/2017-09-26/Getty/854168156.jpg&w=1484)
Alabama Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore and wife Kayla ride their horses to vote in the GOP runoff election
on September 26th in Gallant, Alabama. — Photograph: Hal Yeager/Getty Images.


Internal Alabama politics also played a key role, because Strange received the appointment to succeed Attorney General Jeff Sessions from then-Governor Robert J. Bentley, who resigned amid scandal a few weeks later.

Acting Governor Kay Ivey, bowing to local political pressure from GOP rivals who did not like Strange, called a snap special election rather than give Strange until 2018 to find his footing. “They need as much time as they can get to get on their feet, so to speak, and build a base, and four or five months is not a long time to do that,” Shelby said.

Still, as he has done with other incumbents, McConnell went all in for Strange with his constellation of super PACs and Washington-based organizations flooding Alabama airwaves for weeks with anti-Moore ads.

Nothing broke through, and once Stephen K. Bannon left his White House post advising Trump, he returned to run Breitbart News and raced to Alabama to throw in with Moore and vow more primary challengers to McConnell's incumbents.

Trump's support for Strange was meant to shore up relations with Senate Republicans after their caustic August shouting match carried out through the media and Twitter. Corker, in a meeting with Trump recently, pleaded for the president to go to Alabama on Strange's behalf. Trump did so, but in a rambling 90-minute speech Friday night, the president suggested “maybe I made a mistake” in supporting the appointed senator.

It did not even matter that Moore spent the final week voicing his opposition to the very health care repeal legislation that Trump was touting.

Alabama Republicans chose the candidate they believed was “more interested in breaking” Washington rather than one who would loyally back Trump, Holmes said.

That's the message McConnell is taking away from this week — one he will carry with him in the months ahead, particularly on the tax-cut effort.

“They've got to reunify,” Holmes said.

If not, McConnell will face more weeks like this one over the next year.


• Paul Kane is The Washington Post's senior congressional correspondent and columnist. His column about the 115th Congress, @PKCapitol (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/category/pkcapitol), appears throughout the week and on Sundays.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Moore declares victory (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/1871b964-a326-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_video.html)

 • Firebrand Moore wins Alabama Senate primary in blow to GOP leadership (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/moore-vs-strange-polling-opens-in-alabama-republican-primary/2017/09/25/9c7192f8-a253-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • The Fix: Winners and losers in Alabama’s special election (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/26/winners-and-losers-from-the-alabama-special-election)

 • After Alabama, GOP anti-establishment wing declares all-out war in 2018 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-alabama-anti-establishment-wing-declares-all-out-war-in-2018/2017/09/26/96d1f54a-a2d0-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • Trump pins blame on McCain as latest GOP health-care bill sinks (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/25/trump-pins-blame-on-mccain-as-latest-gop-health-care-bill-sinks)

 • Senate GOP effort to unwind the ACA collapses on Monday (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/new-version-of-health-care-bill-will-help-alaska-and-maine--home-of-two-holdout-senators/2017/09/25/24697f62-a188-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • The latest repeal effort was bad news from the start (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/the-aca-repeal-effort-was-bad-news-from-the-start-with-little-public-scrutiny-and-little-chance-for-success/2017/09/25/635a060e-a1e4-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • ‘Reasonable’ Republicans are betraying us, too (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/reasonable-republicans-are-betraying-us-too/2017/09/25/47eedd88-a22d-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)

 • Everything is on the line for McConnell in Tuesday's Alabama Senate primary (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/everything-is-on-the-line-for-mcconnell-in-tuesdays-alabama-senate-election/2017/09/23/c293fa84-9fce-11e7-9083-fbfddf6804c2_story.html)

 • This is not how Mitch McConnell wanted to head into recess (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/this-is-not-how-mitch-mcconnell-wanted-to-head-into-recess/2017/08/03/a0917036-77b2-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/tuesday-started-as-a-bad-day-for-mitch-mcconnell-it-only-got-worse/2017/09/26/d4e75bc2-a311-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/tuesday-started-as-a-bad-day-for-mitch-mcconnell-it-only-got-worse/2017/09/26/d4e75bc2-a311-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html)


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 27, 2017, 08:24:39 pm

EXCELLENT NEWS.....the GOP at war with itself and Trump's wishes being IGNORED.

Hahaha....Trump and the GOP couldn't even run a piss-up in a brewery, let alone pass legislation in Congress and the Senate.

Then there's that wee matter of the wrong person winning the primary in Alabama.

Oh dear....how sad....serves them right for being stupid, dumb righties, eh?  ;D


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 04:24:54 pm

from The Washington Post....

Can the GOP ever finesse the contradictions in its coalition?

Tuesday was perhaps the worst day among many bad days for establishment Republicans.

By DAN BALZ | 2:32PM EDT - Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_935w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/Editorial-Opinion/Images/US_Senate_Alabama_09115-82377.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/Editorial-Opinion/Images/US_Senate_Alabama_09115-82377.jpg)
Senator Luther Strange conceded to Roy Moore on September 26th in the Republican primary election for the Alabama U.S. Senate race.
 — Photograph: Associated Press.


THE REPUBLICAN PARTY has become an unstable and potentially unsustainable coalition. The danger has been apparent from the day President Trump began his quest for the White House. Roy Moore's victory in the Alabama Republican primary provided the exclamation point.

Moore's victory was telling for what it showed: that the Trump message has more power at the grass roots than the president himself. Trump was persuaded to embrace Senator Luther Strange in the GOP runoff against Moore. But it was the anti-Washington, anti-establishment message of the twice-removed state Supreme Court justice that prevailed on Tuesday.

That this is a period of turmoil and flux in American politics states the obvious. Tribal voting has become the norm, with the country divided into red and blue camps. Come December in Alabama, when the general election between Moore and Democrat Doug Jones is contested, those firmly established patterns again could determine the outcome. In deeply red Alabama, Republicans will expect to win, even with an establishment-rattling, ultra-conservative candidate like Moore.

Yet the red-blue alliances and the left-right differences are no longer sufficient to explain the tensions and divisions that mark the politics of the Trump era. They still shape political debates and policy differences; they still help predict general election voting patterns. But alone, they do not provide the fuller framework for such an unusual time. Neither party is offering answers.

For establishment Republicans in Washington, Tuesday was perhaps the worst day among many bad days. It was a trifecta of disappointment and rejection. The failure of the party that controls so many levers of power to govern effectively and the consequences of that inaction rarely have been on such public display.

The day started with the Senate leadership's capitulation on health care. Once again, Republicans could not muster the votes to pass legislation to replace the Affordable Care Act. This represented another embarrassment for the party leadership, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), whose inability to deliver has made him a repeated target for presidential criticism.

There then was the announcement by Senator Bob Corker (Tennessee) that he plans to retire at the end of his term in 2018. This was not just another blow to the GOP establishment. His decision holds out the prospect that Tennessee's long tradition of sending to Washington governing Republicans in the mold of former Republican leader Howard Baker could be on the wane.

Finally, on Tuesday night, there was Moore's victory, though it was hardly a surprise. Polling in the weeks before the balloting showed “Big Luther” Strange, the president's designated candidate but more importantly the candidate fully embraced by the McConnell-led Republican establishment, trailing consistently. Still, the blow was felt when the votes were counted.

All the issues that came together on Tuesday were visible well ahead of this week — discernible but not always fully appreciated or accepted. Over the past two years, Republicans held out hope that they could finesse the growing contradictions of their coalition. They will have to recalibrate those assumptions.

On health care, the futility of trying to fulfill a pledge to repeal the ACA has been evident almost from the day Trump was sworn in. After seven years of empty promises and show votes without consequence, Republicans discovered that they have neither a true consensus on the policy nor the political muscle to overcome that weakness.

Corker's decision to quit the Senate at the end of next year, despite being chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a time of great danger in the world and the need for politicians with steady hands and sound judgment, speaks to the frustrations of many politicians in Washington. His decision yells out: “It's a lousy time to be in Congress”.

Many lawmakers do want to get something done. But that isn't easy in today's polarized political climate. It has become particularly problematic for majority Republicans whose membership includes many lawmakers whose principal goal is to stop action in Washington, not facilitate action.

The larger challenge for Republicans is trying to find a way to govern in the midst of a civil war. The party establishment proved powerless in its efforts to deny Trump the GOP nomination last year, then assumed he could not be elected, then tried to make peace with the fact that he had won. GOP leaders nonetheless held out hope that Trump would be a somewhat malleable president, that he would follow their lead on policy and use the unique megaphone that he has developed to advance the cause.

But that hope was based on two false assumptions: First, that Trump's agenda was their agenda, that he was as interested in party success as in personal success. Second, that the divisions that had immobilized congressional Republicans long before Trump became a candidate would somehow disappear if the party controlled the White House. They didn't.

In reality, the president's independence and his efforts to prove to his voters that he is trying to fulfill his promises have added to the problems congressional leaders have run into this year. Trump's most loyal voters are as likely to see McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Republican-Wisconsin) as feckless and not doing enough to help the president as they are to dislike House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (Democrat-New York).

The upshot of Trump's frustrations at not getting his way and the congressional leadership's failure to deliver anything truly meaningful is that the rallying cry to “drain the swamp” has been given as much resonance today with insurgent conservatives as it had during the campaign. Roy Moore proved that in Alabama.

Trump and the establishment made an uneasy pact during the election because they had no choice. That alliance was symbolized by the first two appointments the president-elect made to his White House staff: Reince Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chair, as chief of staff, and Stephen K. Bannon, the anti-establishment leader of Breitbart News, as chief strategist. But Trump's coalition is not the Republican coalition and never has been.

Today both Priebus and Bannon are gone from the White House, let go in what were never-ending personnel battles in which they were sometimes allies and sometimes opponents. But the constituencies they represented and still represent are caught up in a monumental conflict over the future of the Republican Party. Bannon's appearance on behalf of Moore signaled this war is not ending.

The GOP today is an awkward combination of establishment Republicans who have embraced the president out of what they consider necessity; grass-roots citizens only partially attached to the Republican Party and for whom Trump's populist, “America first”, anti-Washington rhetoric strikes a chord; and “Never Trump” Republicans who formed an important part of the party before Trump came on the scene and who are looking for a home and don't know what to do.

This is a conflict with no certain outcome and no clear timeline. It reflects instability across the political spectrum and the shifting sensibilities of many voters. Above all, it reflects politics in the age of Trump and all that has come to mean.


• Dan Balz is Chief Correspondent at The Washington Post. He has served as the paper's National Editor, Political Editor, White House correspondent and Southwest correspondent.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: What Roy Moore's win means for the GOP establishment (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/23be21ca-a38c-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_video.html)

 • VIDEO: Senate GOP's health-care push stalls again (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/1548b604-a2fc-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_video.html)

 • VIDEO: Senator Corker opens up on his retirement: ‘I am in no way frustrated’ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/7944dbea-a3b2-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_video.html)

 • Can Democrats beat Roy Moore in conservative Alabama? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/who-is-doug-jones-and-can-he-defeat-roy-moore-in-conservative-alabama/2017/09/27/c89e2df2-a2fb-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/can-the-gop-ever-finesse-the-contradictions-in-their-coalition/2017/09/27/8e54ee44-a3a3-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/can-the-gop-ever-finesse-the-contradictions-in-their-coalition/2017/09/27/8e54ee44-a3a3-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_story.html)


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 28, 2017, 04:27:18 pm
Yes..I agree...Donald Trump saved us from Hillary😳


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 04:31:19 pm

The GOP is at war with itself.

Just goes to show how STUPID righties are, eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 28, 2017, 04:33:02 pm
Yes, I agree..Donald Trump is a very good president...we are sooooooooooooooo lucky😉


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 04:36:18 pm

from The Washington Post....

Conservative victory in Alabama deepens split among Republicans,
as insurgents challenge incumbent senators


By LISA MASCARO | 4:00PM PDT - Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(http://www.trbimg.com/img-59cc1431/turbine/la-na-alabama-gop-senate-candidate-roy-moore-holds-campaign-event-in-fairhope-alabama-20170927/950) (http://www.trbimg.com/img-59cc1431/turbine/la-na-alabama-gop-senate-candidate-roy-moore-holds-campaign-event-in-fairhope-alabama-20170927)
Stephen K. Bannon, a former White House advisor and now editor at Breitbart News, speaks at a campaign event for Republican Senate
candidate Roy Moore in Alabama. — Scott Olson/Getty Images.


ROY MOORE's upset victory (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-alabama-senate-20170926-story.html) in the Alabama Senate primary sent shock waves through the Republican establishment on Wednesday, portending a GOP (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html) civil war as outsider candidates in other states threaten to challenge incumbents.

The potential showdowns are reminiscent of the Tea Party (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/tea-party-movement-ORCIG000068-topic.html) uprising that just a few years ago cost Republicans the majority in the Senate (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-senate-ORGOV0000134-topic.html). Now President Trump (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/donald-trump-PEBSL000163-topic.html)'s populist rise to power — honed by his former advisor Stephen K. Bannon (http://www.latimes.com/topic/business/media-industry/stephen-bannon-PEBS00023-topic.html) — has generated a new wave of long-shot candidates capable of upending the 2018 mid-terms.

In Mississippi, state Senator Chris McDaniel (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/chris-mcdaniel-PEPLT0009137-topic.html), who met with Bannon to consider challenging two-term incumbent Senator Roger Wicker (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/roger-f.-wicker-PEPLT007072-topic.html), called the results in Alabama “a great awakening”.

“The GOP establishment's stranglehold on American politics is finally coming to an end. It should encourage conservative challengers all across the republic,” he said. “The environment couldn't be any better.”

Arizona's Kelli Ward, who is challenging Senator Jeff Flake (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/jeff-flake-PEPLT002099-topic.html), said after Alabama she felt “inspired and motivated”.

“Voters elected President Trump to shake up the status quo and get big things accomplished,” she said.

Nevada Senator Dean Heller (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/dean-heller-PEPLT007855-topic.html) is another incumbent who faces a challenge by a candidate, Danny Tarkanian, with potential backing from Bannon's allies.

And in Tennessee, incumbent Senator Bob Corker's sudden retirement, announced hours before the polls closed in Alabama, sent several potential candidates scrambling for what promises to be an intense primary.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html) braced for more incumbents to resign rather than face challenging nomination fights.

As a result, Republican professionals who until recently felt that their control of the Senate was secure because the states holding elections in 2018 mostly lean red have started to worry. The departure of incumbents and the rise of candidates who Democrats (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/democratic-party-ORGOV0000005-topic.html) easily can attack as extreme might put their majority at risk, they fear. At minimum, the new wave of challengers likely means more money spent and a Senate Republican Caucus that will lean further right, and be harder to control, after the next election.

“You're going to see in state after state after state people who follow the model of Judge Moore,” Bannon told a cheering crowd at Moore's election night party in Montgomery. They are candidates “that do not need to raise money from the elites, from the crony capitalists, from the fat cats in Washington, D.C., New York City in Silicon Valley,” he said.

The night before the election, Bannon specifically denounced Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/mitch-mcconnell-PEPLT004312-topic.html) (Republican-Kentucky), who has also been the target of Trump's anger for the Senate's failure to pass key elements of his agenda.

“Mitch McConnell and this permanent political class is the most corrupt and incompetent group of individuals in this country,” he told a crowd of Moore's supporters. “They think you're a pack of morons. They think you're nothing but rubes.”

In the aftermath of Moore's victory, Bannon's allies continued to press that theme. “This is a repudiation of the Republican establishment,” said Andy Surabian, an ally of Bannon's and now senior advisor at the Great America Alliance, which backed Moore's campaign and is looking at other races.

“It's a win for Trump and an absolute rejection of Mitch McConnell and the establishment.”

More establishment-oriented Republican strategists cautioned against reading too much into the outcome in Alabama, noting that special circumstances helped shape the race: Moore benefited from Luther Strange's appointment to the Senate by a governor who named him just before resigning his own job in the midst of scandal. And Moore has a long history in Alabama politics, which gave him what one Republican strategist described as a “cult-like following” of evangelical Christians that is unlikely to be replicated.

As the former chief justice of the state's Supreme Court, Moore was dramatically removed from the bench in 2003 for refusing to take down a display of the Ten Commandments at the courthouse. After being re-elected by voters, he was suspended in 2015 for failing to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling favoring same-sex marriages. He ultimately resigned.

Long-time Senator Richard Shelby (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/richard-shelby-PEPLT005988-topic.html) (Republican-Alabama) downplayed the ability of outsiders like Bannon to shape statewide races or claim credit in Alabama.

“I don't know if he's on Moore's wagon,” Shelby said in an interview ahead of the election, “or if he's creating a wagon for Moore.”

Still, the Senate Leadership Fund, a political action committee allied with McConnell, poured $9 million into the race, mainly on attack ads, but failed to dent Moore's ramshackle campaign.

That's an indication of the limits of the establishment's weapons, some Republican strategists suggested.

"Steve Bannon has declared war on the establishment, and so far he has one scalp on the rail," said Rick Tyler, a Republican campaign consultant who previously worked for Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. "I would suspect he can do very well in Tennessee and the other states, and his patrons appear to be ready to part with their dollars to make that happen."

The danger signal for Republican leaders is that even as Trump mused publicly and privately about being blamed for Strange's loss — at a rally ahead of election day Trump suggested he may have made a mistake and endorsed the wrong candidate — the race in Alabama turned into a referendum on the failure of the GOP majority in Congress (http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-congress-ORGOV0000131-topic.html) to deliver on the president's agenda.

McConnell, in particular, loomed large as a symbol of the Republican log-jam in Congress. The majority leader has become a favorite punching bag for conservative grass-roots challengers who take aim at their own party.

Republican leaders allied with McConnell are gearing up for a fight, much as they did to block the rise of Tea Party candidates in 2014 whom they saw as popular in primaries, but unable to win statewide general elections.

At the same time, they were rushing on Wednesday to embrace Moore, determined not to give Democrats an opening in a red state such as Alabama in an election cycle in which Republicans were hoping they could spend their money on offense against incumbent Democratic senators.

“I urge all of our friends who were active in the primary to redouble their efforts in the general election," McConnell said late on Tuesday, after Moore's victory, in a message to supporters.

The Democratic candidate in Alabama, former federal prosecutor Doug Jones, who is known in the state for having won convictions against former Ku Klux Klan leaders after reopening an investigation into the bombing in 1963 of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church, hit the campaign trail on Wednesday greeting the lunchtime crowd at a popular diner in downtown Birmingham.

The general election in Alabama, which takes place in mid-December, remains a long shot for Democrats — the Deep South state hasn't elected a Democratic senator in 25 years — but Moore's nomination now gives Jones a chance to peel away centrist Republicans who don't share his far-right views. Democrats are likely to step up their efforts. Former Vice President Joe Biden is headed to Alabama to campaign for Jones.

“There's an energy, I think, right now for change that we haven't seen in this state in decades,” Jones said in a recent interview at his campaign headquarters in Birmingham.

“They're realizing that a one-party state just hasn’t worked … and they're looking for a little bit of political checks and balances.”

But Moore is also preparing for the fight ahead, well aware that his race has set the tone for those to come.

“Washington is watching this very closely because it's a prelude to the 2018 elections,” Moore said after a campaign rally in Florence, in the far northern part of the state. “There's a lot of people in these states — out West and across the South and the midsection — they’re waiting to see if someone can take on the Washington establishment. For better or worse, I've taken on the Washington establishment — or they've taken me on.”


• Lisa Mascaro covers Congress in Washington, D.C. for the Los Angeles Times. She writes about U.S. policy, economics and political culture. A Los Angeles-area native, she has reported across Southern California, edited, traveled the States and worked in Texas. While the Washington correspondent for the Las Vegas Sun, she contributed as the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. An economics and political science graduate of UC Santa Barbara, she also studied in Budapest, Hungary.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-alabama-senate-aftermath-20170927-story.html (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-alabama-senate-aftermath-20170927-story.html)


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 04:36:56 pm

Hillarious....the GOP is in open warfare against itself.

EXCELLENT ENTERTAINMENT watching the trainwreck of a dysfunctional American government in action.


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 28, 2017, 04:46:44 pm
Hey..it could be worse..it could be Hillary in charge....we should always be thankful to Donald😜


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 05:20:07 pm

Donald Trump and the GOP are a total disaster.

Even though the GOP are in the majority in Congress and the Senate, they haven't yet managed to pass a single piece of Trump's legislation.

Which means that ALL of Trump's election campaign promises have turned out to be LIES.

Hahaha.....just goes to show how TOTALLY USELESS and INCOMPETENT American righties are, eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 28, 2017, 05:39:41 pm
Ktj....."TOTALLY USELESS and INCOMPETENT"

..yeah...nah...very similar to kiwirail🙄


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 05:53:23 pm

Donald Trump and the GOP are a total disaster.

Even though the GOP are in the majority in Congress and the Senate, they haven't yet managed to pass a single piece of Trump's legislation.

Which means that ALL of Trump's election campaign promises have turned out to be LIES.

Hahaha.....just goes to show how TOTALLY USELESS and INCOMPETENT American righties are, eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 05:53:41 pm

from The Washington Post....

Alabama defeat leaves Trump weakened,
isolated amid mounting challenges


The president and the GOP establishment appear to be in crisis,
with mid-terms drawing ever closer and little to show legislatively.


By ROBERT COSTA | 9:50PM EDT - Wednesday, September 27, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_875w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/National-Politics/Images/US_Senate_Alabama_31486-af6f1.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/27/National-Politics/Images/US_Senate_Alabama_31486-af6f1.jpg)
Senator Luther Strange speaks to supporters after he conceded the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate to Roy Moore
in Homewood, Alabama. — Photograph: Butch Dill/Associated Press.


AS HE headed to Huntsville, Alabama, in a last-ditch effort to lift the floundering campaign of Senator Luther Strange, President Trump was fuming — feeling dragged along by GOP senators who had pleaded with him to go and increasingly unenthusiastic about Strange, whom he described to aides as loyal but “low energy”.

His agitation only worsened on the flight back last Friday. Trump bemoaned the headlines he expected to see once Strange was defeated — that he had stumbled and lost his grip on “my people,” as he calls his core voters. He also lamented the rally crowd's tepid response to the 6-foot-9 incumbent he liked to call “Big Luther”.

“Trump was never fully behind Strange to begin with,” former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said on Wednesday after Strange was trounced in Tuesday's GOP primary in Alabama. “But the party coaxed and cajoled him to get on the Strange train, and he did.”

For Trump, the trip to Alabama marked the dispiriting start to one of the lowest and perhaps most damaging stretches of his already troubled presidency, leaving him further weakened and isolated with few ways out of the thicket of challenges he faces, according to a half dozen people close to him interviewed on Wednesday.

His political vitality within his party — counted upon by Republicans who fear primary challenges in next year's mid-term elections — suddenly stands in question, as neither his vocal campaigning nor millions of dollars from the Republican establishment could save Strange from defeat by insurgent challenger Roy Moore.

Trump's legislative agenda lies in tatters, as Senate Republicans failed again this week to rally around legislation that would gut former president Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. He is also increasingly under siege by members of both parties for his administration's response to Hurricane Maria, which has left Puerto Rico devastated and begging for help from Washington.

By Wednesday, the downtrodden president tried to start anew by unveiling a tax plan at an event in Indiana — a proposal immediately met with withering attacks from the left as a deficit-busting giveaway to the rich and from the right as not aggressive enough in slashing tax rates. The Drudge Report, influential among conservatives, dubbed it “more betrayal”.

Trump also waded back into the health-care debate, falsely stating that the Republican legislation was held up by a hospitalized senator.

“We have the votes for health care. We have one senator that's in the hospital. He can't vote because he's in the hospital,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday — an apparent reference to Senator Thad Cochran (Republican-Mississippi), who turns 80 in December and has dealt with various health problems.

Cochran responded with a corrective tweet: “Thanks for the well-wishes. I'm not hospitalized, but am recuperating at home in Mississippi and look forward to returning to work soon.”

Trump's loose, confident talk extended elsewhere on Wednesday. In Indiana, the president was full of bravado as he made his tax pitch — and if there was lingering frustration with Strange, he did not show it.

“These tax cuts are significant,” Trump said at the state fairgrounds. “There's never been tax cuts like what we're talking about.”

But Trump's critics did not buy the president's assurance and said the tax speech could not paper over his problems.

“In Alabama and with so many things, Trump has helped to light a fire he can't control, and there's no sign he knows how to get out of this situation,” said Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who worked in George W. Bush's White House. “It's going to cause him to lash out more rather than less as he starts to feel like the walls are closing in.”

Several of Trump's long-time friends and associates said he is doing what he always does in times of trouble: attempt to overwhelm with liveliness. But they acknowledged that Trump may not be enjoying the experience.

“I'm told he's unhappy,” said veteran Republican consultant Roger Stone. “He's surrounded by people who don't understand politics and don't understand why he won the presidency. Instead of sending a message in Alabama to get behind his policies, they sadly lost the opportunity.”

Said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg, “The president will think about what happened in Alabama and remember everybody who told him to go all in. If you sent him polls from the [U.S.] Chamber of Commerce or the Senate Leadership Fund, the next polls you send will go in his trash can.”

Together, those groups, along with other mainstream GOP organizations, spent more than $10 million to boost Strange.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, stewed over their own fates, anxious that Moore, a former state Supreme Court judge, would become a national burden for the party because of the long list of incendiary comments he has made on race, religion and sexuality.

Hushed talk of retirements dominated conversations on Capitol Hill, one day after Senator Bob Corker (Republican-Tennessee) announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018, with Republican lawmakers wondering whether they could survive a GOP political storm that only seems to be growing.

Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who backed Moore and introduced him at his victory party, encouraged conservative outsiders in Mississippi and other states to move closer to launching Senate bids, one person close to him said.

“There's a big lesson here: Stick to the program,” Bannon said on Wednesday on Breitbart News's Sirius XM radio show. “There's a lesson, stick to the program, your base will be there, and you'll grow your base.”

Steele, however, said Strange's defeat did not mean Trump had lost his political sway with Republican base voters.

“Voters in Alabama knew the whole endorsement for Strange was a wink and a nod. They got that Moore was a Trump guy,” Steele said. “So did he endorse the candidate who lost? Yes. But the reality is more nuanced than ‘Trump lost in Alabama’. He lost, but his voters know why and still love him.”

In the West Wing, there was relative calm as officials plowed forward, hoping to leave behind the dramas of Alabama and Trump's campaign against NFL players protesting police brutality during the national anthem. They agreed with Steele that while the GOP was fractured, Trump's coalition remained.

“He knew what was coming in Alabama on Friday,” said one person close to Trump. “He knew how McConnell had become an issue there — and he said as much over dinner on Monday.” That evening, Trump had met with a group of prominent conservative leaders at the White House.

The person added, “What he wants to do is get back to taxes, make sure the Senate gets that done as soon as possible.”

Aides said that Trump knew that those who privately supported his endorsement of Strange, such as White House chief of staff John F. Kelly, were doing so because Trump at first was eager to do so and saw a chance to patch up relationships in Congress.

Trump was defensive in his remarks about the race to reporters on Wednesday, a few hours after he deleted a series of pro-Strange tweets. He also characterized Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Republican-Kentucky) as a drag on Strange.

“I have to say, Luther came a long way from the time I endorsed him, and he ran a good race, but Roy ran a really great race,” Trump said, adding that Moore's campaign used McConnell as a weapon against Strange.

The atmosphere of uncertainty and recriminations following the Alabama race prompted Republicans, even those close to Trump, to feel urgency to pass something — anything — that could somehow stabilize the party.

“If there was ever a time when Republicans feel pressure to perform, it's now,” said Representative Mark Meadows (Republican-North Carolina), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. “If big things don't get done by Thanksgiving, there really won't be enough spin to say Republicans here have done anything but fail.”


• Robert Costa is a national political reporter at The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/alabama-defeat-leaves-trump-badly-weakened-isolated-amid-mounting-challenges/2017/09/27/5983f748-a39c-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/alabama-defeat-leaves-trump-badly-weakened-isolated-amid-mounting-challenges/2017/09/27/5983f748-a39c-11e7-b14f-f41773cd5a14_story.html)


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 05:54:58 pm

Excellent news.....the incompetency of the Trump presidency and associated GOP government is facilitating the downfall of America.

China will be laughing, watching America become a FORMER top-dog superpower.

And won't that be great for the world eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Kiwithrottlejockey on September 28, 2017, 06:11:47 pm

The American mid-term elections next year are going to be a shitload of entertainment.

Especially if the GOP are still at war with themselves.

Based on the way things are going, it will be WWIII in American politics.

SNIGGER.....hilarious, eh?


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: aDjUsToR on September 29, 2017, 12:38:39 am
KTJ you are obsessed with Trump. You live in Masterton. Trump lives in another country. Time to get a grip. Time to get a life.


Title: Re: Yet another epic FAIL for Trump and the GOP
Post by: Donald on September 29, 2017, 06:55:59 am
...yup....there are issues at play there......maybe some kind of fetish or crush on Donald Trump🙄