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Quote of the day: On second thought . . .

Published on 47 Comments on Quote of the day: On second thought . . .

47 thoughts on “Quote of the day: On second thought . . .”

  1. bebopman

    Eastman has been the Visiting Professor of Conservative Thought and Policy at the University of Colorado, a ridiculous position started at CU just a few years ago during a brief conservative takeover of a school in a very liberal city, The usual complaints about how the school was brainwashing young minds to be commies. Lovely of Mr. Eastman to demonstrate to the young minds how “conservatives “ think. I appreciate it. This should get lots of students rushing to sign up for the “How to overthrow a democratic government “ classes.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Actually, Kevin Drum would support that mission to intellectually diversify the libtard campii of America & stem the WAKING rogue wave.

    1. Salamander

      "because you're a nobody"

      No, I think it was because Eastman et al failed at the attempted coup. Why should that former guy reward a bunch of losers?

    2. akapneogy

      MAGA Trumpism IS the get out of jail free card. All you need to do is decide you should be on the pardon list.

  4. bebopman

    Thus brings up what is, for me, perhaps the most entertaining moment of the hearings so far: the video of former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann describing how he cussed out Eastman over the phone after the coup attempt. It seems as if it wasn’t until that conversation that Eastman realized, “ hey! Maybe this plan might get me in trouble!” Followed shortly by him contacting Trump’s pardon hotline.

    1. Salamander

      I enjoyed Mr Herschmann's testimony, too. What was that place he was zooming in from, anyway? The metal fixtures on the wall and the towel-like wall hanging right behind him made it look like ... a bathroom??

      The baseball bat labeled "Justice" was a nice touch.

      1. Thorwald

        Herschmann is a big art collector. Those are art works on his walls -- including the Baseball Bat of Justice by Sebastian Errazuriz.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Chapman University doesn't offer high enough salary for that because in conservative education they adhere to conservative principles that makers get to take & pointyheaded academics, even conservative ones, offer less socially constructive work than other professions.

    1. Mitch Guthman

      No and he probably won’t. But that’s the nature of the problem: Garland’s under tremendous pressure to rescind the impunity he seems to have granted to Trump’s inner circle. If that happens, Eastman will regret not having thought to obtain a “pocket pardon” á la Milady de Winter because his status as a lawyer won’t be enough to insulate him from prosecution.

      I know people like Marcy Wheeler think the DOJ is actively working its way up the food chain but I think the smart money is still saying that they’re giving the key players a pass.

      1. akapneogy

        "They are giving the key players a pass" so that they can live to fight another day and finish the job that they started?

        1. Mitch Guthman

          Basically, yes. But not intentionally. There’s evidently a high degree of timidity at work. Plus, for Garland, I think he feels stuck in a particularly bad place: on the one hand, he seeks “normalcy” and believes that he’d be critiqued for prosecuting a political opponent. On the other hand, the dangers of a repeat of January 6th are evident and our democratic institutions hang in the balance.

          What I think Garland is overlooking is that people who study these things call a coup d’était which goes unpunished a rehearsal.

          1. clawback

            Yeah. "Normalcy" and being critiqued vs. the downfall of the Republic. The guy really needs to get out if he doesn't have the courage to do the job.

            1. Mitch Guthman

              I agree. The problem, though, is that there’s no way to know what Garland and the DOJ are doing or planning, or have decided. From the outside looking in, it’s hard to know whether the people who say he has been building a case and intends to prosecute the organizers and Trump or he’s decided to content himself with the foot soldiers and give the the president and his inner circle a pass.

          2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

            Garland was the lead prosecutor in getting conviction for our precious high profile White Race Warrior Timothy Mc Veigh.

            I doubt he is feeling scared to incarcerate the next wave of Turnerdiarians.

            1. Mitch Guthman

              I followed that prosecution pretty closely and my feeling is that his participation was ambiguous at best. Yes, he got a conviction on Timothy McVeigh but he also seemed worried about turning over too many rocks and is widely believed to have limited the scope of the investigation. Consequently, many details of their attack remain unexplained, especially regarding McVeigh’s financial support and other connections the conservative movement.

              Settled for the small fish, didn’t want to rock the boat by antagonizing the conservative movement and their powerful allies in the republican party. So, it seems to me that history is repeating itself because Garland seems willing to prosecute the lower foot soldiers but not to prosecute or even antagonize the higher-ups in the republican party who were clearly involved in the January 6 insurrection.

      2. clawback

        I'd like to think he's under tremendous pressure but I don't think people writing angry tweets and blog comments counts. Nor, really, do a few polite complaints from Democratic backbenchers in Congress.

          1. clawback

            A committee or two calling him in to answer a few pointed questions might help him prioritize. Not sure why that hasn't happened.

            1. Mitch Guthman

              Evidently when the Democrats are in charge of congress and the DOJ, appearing before a congressional committee is evidently entirely voluntary. Partly, this is due to the obsession with pre-hearing depositions or rehearsals as a necessity. And partly it is that if you’re timid, to hard to make people show up and answer your questions if they don’t want to.

              1. clawback

                Well yeah, apparently it is voluntary. After all, we have the precedent of the DOJ rejecting specific criminal referral for failing to appear, citing insultingly vague reasons. So by now the oversight role of Congress has become a farce.

                1. Mitch Guthman

                  Technically speaking, it’s not the oversight role or the powers of the congress which are in decline. It’s the timidity of the Democrats both in congress and the executive branch that are in decline. I can practically guarantee you that the day the Republicans return to power is the day that nonstop hearings designed to politically damage the Biden administration will begin and you can be sure that the Republicans won’t take no for an answer from either the witnesses or the DOJ.

  9. George Salt

    Eastman is also a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. And he was trading emails with Ginni Thomas.

    Maybe we have an insurrectionist on the Supreme Court.

      2. KenSchulz

        Stock up on popcorn. With so many players, one is bound to come across a person with the excess of ego over good sense, that convinces him-/herself that s/he can argue his/her side’s case so brilliantly that the opposition will just slink away defeated. It never goes that way ….

    2. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      Does Clarence Thomas not know how things ended up for earlier Black insurrectionists like Nat Turner & Denmark Vesey?

  11. Anandakos

    Eastman is so toast. He suborned the Vice-President to commit a felony numerous times. That Mike Pence is too honest and too smart to fall for Eastman's crazy scheme is no defense. Just because no felony was committed, subornation still did.

    1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

      I see we are already rebutting Johnathan Turdley's eventual defense of John Eastman.

      Only reason Turdz hasn't gotten to it yet is he's too busy piling on the George Washington University Athletic Department for KANCELLING colonialism.

      1. KenSchulz

        Just checked his Twit account; he’s also trying to spin Ginni Thomas into a victim of Democrats’ male chauvinism.

        1. MontyTheClipArtMongoose

          Is he also painting it as white guilt over disbelieving Anita Hill so they are going hard after the wife of the one Anita accused?

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