On MSBC this morning, Kamala Harris was asked a perfectly cogent, significant question that deserved an answer — should the House hold a vote on whether to conduct an impeachment inquiry (rather than to continue its unvoted-for inquiry). After freezing for a while, she comes out with the long sentence transcribed above:
Kamala Harris seems to lack any instinct for leadership. Please note the pinched smile that appears on her face when she gets to her safe island — "the very integrity of our system of justice." I think she knows she's giving us nothing and the smile seems to say, there, I think I'm getting away with this. I've made it to the familiar incantation — "the very integrity of our system of justice and our democracy." She keeps rambling on and says "the integrity of our system" again.
Doesn't the integrity of our system require a vote of the House? That's the question. Is the answer that the "best interest of the integrity of the system" is just something "to leave to best thoughts of the Speaker"? Nancy Pelosi is "brilliant," so whatever she does is the answer as far as Kamala Harris is concerned?! You don't get to integrity by repeating the word "integrity." And you don't show leadership by having no answer other than whatever is in "best thoughts" of the Speaker.
And if you're questioning whether I left out the word "the" in "I'm going to leave that to best thoughts of the Speaker," I did not. Harris's initial response to the question was frozen silence, and she thawed out enough to get some words out but not to say the "the." She loosens up as she goes, as the smile reflects.
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89 comments:
The coup attempt is losing you the election.
Keep it up.
Feckless.
Bringing back the Star Chamber.
the left were hoping that they could find a female Obama. She's not a female Obama.
This is exactly Liz Warren’s problem- ask her anything off script and if she attempts an answer at all this is what you’ll get. Warren’s go to strategy is to ignore the question being asked and use answer she has memorized. The media will do a good job insulating her but someone will slip and trip her up and expose her.
This is the person Howard thinks should be Attorney General!
LOLOLOLOL
It's Beria's all the way down.
Not long ago a lot of Democrats insisted that the male candidates drop out, so that the party was guaranteed to nominate a woman for President. I'm not hearing that so much anymore. I wonder why.
Probably shouldn't pick a cop for president. Against free speech (twitter), against justice (compensation for false arrest), in favor of railroading Trump however you can.
Under the Dems' system of justice, secret hearings are held. The witnesses can't be crossed by the President's lawyers not can they be examined by the minority party. That sounds like a something out of the old Soviet Union or current day Red China.
That line that the House is "like a grand jury" is utter and complete bullshit and all the Dems should be embarrassed by this. Moreover, the Press should be screaming to high heaven over this manifestly unfair process.
Kamala "Railroading Poor Black Men" Harris talking about the integrity of the justice system...
Nancy doesn't want the house to vote. So- the D's and their corrupt press can attack Trump in a no-man's land of non-impeachment never ending faux-inquiry.
It strips Trump of Due Process - which makes perfect sense in corrupt democratic quarters.
Yesterday I learned that while she was AG her office routinely fought to deny compensation to wrongly convicted individuals. If confirmed, it puts her beneath contempt in my book.
the democrats are an embarrassment. A vile seething pile of lies, corruption, money-grubbing, pay-to-play and more lies.
Sad.
In last night's debate Kamala Harris missed an opportunity to embarrass front-runners Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.
Harris should have asked each of them to say on national television whether she or he ever has talked with anybody who works for the Kasowitz Benson Torres law firm.
The Dem Rubio. Will never be president.
That look... there goes my coffee.
Great legs though.
Leadership? Ego, yes. Competence, no.
You're right. Harris is tanking. I hadn't figured in her apparently chronic inability to lead, not follow.
OTOH, I've begun to think of the Democratic nominees as parts of a larger, single organism. Beto is the id; Buttgeig is the ego; Sanders is the superego. Warren is the frontal lobe. And so on.
"this must be conducted in a way that is not about political benefit" was the biggest lie of all in that statement. It's being done the way it is precisely because of political benefit.
She's a stuffed suit. A product of CA machine politics and has gotten as far as she has because the press supports Democrats no matter what.
Doesn't the integrity of our system require a vote of the House?
Our system requires some level of respect for the law, decency... and yes, integrity on the part of it's human components.
We've been told ad nauseam by our betters that impeachment is not a criminal matter but a political one. It's a tool to remove a sitting president based on ambiguous standards. The phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" is interpretive (even though the word "crimes" is there).
The problem for the pro impeachment set is that if you want to maintain any sort of civil order, you really can't go against the collective political will of the people. They have to convince an overwhelming majority that Trump needs to be removed. So far they really haven't done that, despite the media's ceaseless efforts at attempts to make the case. At this point they know that the odds of them actually defeating Trump electorally are fairly slim.
So "conducts herself and does it in a way that appreciates what this is about " involves secret hearings with anonymous witnesses, hidden evidence, parody public testimony, and whistleblowers who do not have first or even secondhand knowledge of events.
Good to know.
That's what the exposure of the candidates does. Tests for leadership. My comment about her being left blowing in the wind when she tried to get Warren to join her for supporting banning the President on twitter. Leaders do things like that. First they back channel those they want cooperation from. Then go public. Leaders do not get caught flat footed with no response.
Here is the same thing. This is not about supporting Pelosi. This is a question that requires the candidate to explain how their values inform their opinion.
It is impossible to have each candidate respond to infinite number of hypotheticals. Judging how core values motivate the candidate is the only reasonable tactic
It appears her main qualification for President is sleeping with a much older married man to get her political career launched.
I propose that we prohibit Kamala Harris from using the word "integrity." What could go wrong with that?
It's a bill of attainder. Ok. We can get around that.
It's restricting freedom of speech. OK. We get around that too.
It is also proposed that I be invited to the next Dem debate because I clearly have all the right answers.
No vote just proves what a witch hunt it really is. What another huge waste of money. I can't wait for the landslide, and the fall of the Democrats.
Yeesh. She's horrible, and has been from Day 1. Frankly, so is Elizabeth. I was watching my wife watch this thing last night. She would just roll her eyes at Elizabeth. Both of us thought Amy Klobuchar was at least, listenable. I may not agree with her, but she sounds serious, reasonable, and sane.
Let's see, Klobuchar, Little Petey, and Gabbard seem sane. I wouldn't vote for them, but I would pay attention to them. The rest of that crew are either insane, corrupt, or just simply lack the ability to do anything higher than their current job. And that would probably be questioned if any of us paid attention to their current production.
Bafflegab for an answer. Kamala Harris, along with most of the other candidates at that Democrat "debate", has channeled her inner Groucho Marx. "If you don't like my principles, I have others."
Dem Rubio?
Oh please. Marco Rubio has more integrity in his pinky toe.
Blowing Willy Brown did not require leadership.
I don't think she froze at the beginning. I think she responded as soon as the audio got through to her after a small delay in the transmission to her. That said, yeah, her answer was gobbledygook.
Well, they had to fill a spot, since there was no news about someone saving a puppy.
If there is a prize for worst-ever "top tier" presidential candidate, Harris belongs on the short list.
The system's hymen is intact, is what she means.
No lefty comments on this thread. Have they all left for the unemployment office ?
Unemployment checks used to come out on Wednesday. It was the second busiest night after Saturday,
Harris is really bad on TV. She was back in the Kavanaugh hearings
CNN seems to have realized that a Warren nomination would doom the Democrats in 2020. This morning's report was heavy on Buttigieg and Klobuchar.
I’ll take due process, accountability, and transparency over her desired ‘integrity’ any day. Now go get your (knob) shine box, Kamala.
I laugh at Beta's notion that Warren is "punitive."
The Each and Every Democrat Economic Platform is punitive.
Kamella was once considered a strong candidate, mainly because she check a couple of the right boxes (Black and female). But now we've gotten a chance to see her in action. Sorry,Kamella.
The Establishment desperately wants to make Kamala happen, but her campaign is not getting any real traction, and she has been treading water for months. She's not even polling well in her own home state.
Pelosi is running the impeachment inquiry as if it were a grand jury investigation. Is the House meant to serve as a kind of grand jury in impeachment cases? That could prove to be a better model than holding public hearings. Republicans are atttending these hearings, so the President’s side is represented. The trial occurs in the Senate. That’s where the House will have to present its evidence and witnesses in public.
In any case, Pelosi is sparing us from having to watch public hearings. For that she should get a medal for stateswomanship.
I do think it’s a defect in the Constitution that an impeachment can be voted out of the House on a majority vote when two-thirds is required in the Senate for conviction. It should really be two-thirds for both, as was done in the 25th Amendment. We can fix that when we eliminate the Electoral College.
Except for maybe the old dude with dementia, none of these clowns have displayed any instinct for leadership.
If she were a white male she would have been out before Hickenloopy.
Affirmative action in action.
She loosens up as she goes, as the smile reflects.
That's loosening up?
Looks more like she's passing a caltrop-shaped kidney stone.
Kamala Harris seems to lack any instinct for leadership.
Now, now. No one could have seen that question coming...
I'd be willing to bet Willie Brown is familiar with that look on Kamala's face. Looks just like when you are about to do something yucky but you can't let people know you think its yucky.
That picture! It's Ernestine, the telephone operator (Lily Tomlin).
She's a stuffed suit.
@SGT Ted, I would call her an empty suit. Being an empty suit worked (twice!) for Obama, but it won’t work for her.
been giving the "Impeachment Inquiry" Thing some thought; and think i got a handle on it
The Democrats KEEP Saying, that (according To THEM,) a Majority of Americans want Trump out
AND, they think that THAT means they should/could/would Impeach the President
This confused me for a Long Time; but now I've GOT IT!
The new Democrat Party thinks that
A) They are the Majority Party
B) WE live under a Parliamentary form of government
C) an "Impeachment Inquiry" is JUST THE SAME AS a no confidence vote
They REALLY Think;
that if 52 percent of Americans oppose the President; that he must step down
See?
It's Not that they disrespect the US Constitution, or that they are trying to circumvent it
It's that They HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT the US Constitution IS
If you think about it; it explains them out pretty good.
Ignorance is Bliss
’Republicans are atttending these hearings, so the President’s side is represented.’
Matt Gaetz to the white courtesy phone.
"Integrity" is imagined to be a magic word. Repeat it often enough and everyone will think you have it.
In reality, it is a tell, an obvious bluff by a player who has none.
Kevin said...
If she were a white male she would have been out before Hickenloopy.
If she were a white male, Willie Brown NEVER would have let her suck her way to the top
The best thing about a Harris candidacy will be that after she runs somewhere another woman's dream of becoming the first woman President will still be alive.
What could stop her from a massive landslide of votes from every place outside of San Francisco is the electorate's coming to understand that this is a candidate that knows what Willie Brown tastes like.
The logical conclusion would seem to be that the House should just leave it up to "the best thoughts of the Speaker" to determine the outcome of the impeachment itself: why not just have all the members agree beforehand to accept the Speaker's verdict, and vote accordingly?
That would conveniently eliminate the need for debate or presentation of evidence or reasoned argument: The Speaker says "Yay" or "Nay," the vote is taken, and, once the Speaker Hath Spoken, no Member need ever be on the hook to justify whatever was (or was not) done.
In any case, Pelosi is sparing us from having to watch public hearings. For that she should get a medal for stateswomanship.
What flavor is that Kool Aid ? Strawberry?
She is somebody’s puppet.
In the picture Kamala looks like she is deciding whether to spit or swallow.
https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Quotables
Integrity is a disease, and you can only catch it from someone who has it. ("Winterfair Gifts")
Q: is Kamala saying Integrity is above her pay-grade
Yes, definitely the worst top-tier candidate I have seen in a long, long time. She makes Jeb! look Samson-like.
Fluffing is how she made it this far,
and she's not going to/doesnt know how to do anything differently
One too many compromises has compromised her integrity and viability.
Kamala "Railroading Poor Black Men" Harris
Retributive change served diversity-style?
Kammy is a stupid totalitarian. The way the modern totalitarian works is they make a zillion complicated laws and procedures (tripwires) with which no normal, ordinary can comply, and then they target their political opponents with dogged investigations into minute violations of these various tripwires.
She doesn't care about due process, she doesn't care about the rule of law, she doesn't care about evaluating both sides of an issue. She cares about two things: (1) pushing a generic leftwing political agenda and (2) getting Trump.
She's a loser. Drop out NOW, Kamala.
Hasn't she run out of money yet?
At least CNN tried hard to make them all comfortable. The TV set had no American Flags to trigger them. And the set's ceiling overhead was decorated with a calming symbol of authority, the Satanic Pentagram to keep them inside an area of protection from Hillary.
It's amazing that the left in general, and the MSM in particular, thinks the biggest problem with social media is that it doesn't deplatform and silence dissent ENOUGH.
Michael K said "No lefty comments on this thread." Maybe Ann is not approving them. It occurs to me that by approving each comment before it can be posted, Ann is taking a lot more responsibility for what is being said here.
It would be interesting if Ann would comment on her approval process and her thoughts about it.
The job of a senator is to avoid ever taking responsibility for anything. Harris is good at senatoring.
"Dude gotta go!"
very droll Gerald, so have republicans gotten out of 'they thirst for death' habit,
Harris is one of my senators, God help me, and I've detested her for a long, long time, but, honestly, until she offered to become the Democratic candidate for president I never realized what an utterly stupid person she is.
Michael also said "What flavor is that Kool Aid?"
He meant Flavor Aid.
Bay Area Guy said... Kammy is a stupid totalitarian.
______________
You are making mistake to call her stupid : Highly rated Law schools turn loose thousands like her into our society.
from Prescient prophet (much ignored)
“Do you really think that we want those laws to be observed? … We want them broken. … There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on guilt.”
— Floyd Ferris on Government
Dr. Floyd Ferris in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, Part II, Chapter III
In any case, Pelosi is sparing us from having to watch public hearings. For that she should get a medal for stateswomanship - left bank
Let that sink in. An impeachment inquiry - which really isn't since it hasn't been voted on and approved by the House - is now holding secret meetings in an attempt to remove the President.
And people like left bank not only approve of it, they sing its praises.
After freezing for a while… Harris's initial response to the question was frozen silence…
That isn't an accurate description of what we see in this video. Kamala Harris responded after about one second, not after "a while." (I mean "one second" literally; I was watching a clock while listening to the video.) And she didn't seem "frozen." I agree with another commenter (Jake), who said it seemed like there was just a brief delay before the remote video feed reached her. We could test that theory by watching the whole video to see how much of a gap there was before her other answers. Also, there's often a brief gap between a question and an answer while the answerer is making sure the questioner is finished with the question.
Maybe Ann is not approving them.
This ain't Twitter...
narayanan, funny you should mention Ayn Rand. Observing the current Democratic presidential clown car and its media ennablers, I've been thinking how prescient Rand was. In her day she was criticized for presenting, in her fiction, caricatures of "liberals"--but could even Floyd Ferris, Balph Eubank and Gus Webb outdo the current members of "liberal" Hive in grotesquerie and plain nuttiness?
(I leave out Ellsworth Toohey because Toohey was not actually any kind of "liberal" or "progressive." He was too smart to believe in any of that hooey. "Liberals" were Toohey's Useful Idiots.)
Maybe there was a delay as the audio traveled to her, but I reacted to the look on her face and felt myself waiting and thinking, oh, no, she's got the deer in the headlights look. The badness of the answer that ensued and the failure to say "the" before "best thoughts" (and "best thoughts" instead of "best judgment") all made me think she was not able to answer readily.
I could look at the video and see if other questions had the same delay.
I agree that there is an audio delay -- short here -- but it does make her look bad. I've seen the same look in countless other interviews. A smart person then gives an answer that makes you forget the initial weird look. That doesn't happen here because Kamala doesn't know how to anticipate a question.
She has no chance. But at the outset, she did have a chance. Which means she is close to the best the Dems have to offer.
I understand that Dems only care about power and defeating the GOP. But, not to echo Althouse's why-oh-why lamentations, why does it not bother any of them that she is a clueless nitwit?
“the left were hoping that they could find a female Obama. She's not a female Obama.”
OK. Michelle it is, then; got it. :)
I just look at the photo and think about where those lips have been.
She's out of her depth. Kamala could have job in the media. Fill the gap Oprah left. But she's got to get some niceness and relatability lessons first.
I love seeing Kamala lose arguments and lose support!
Here's hoping that a failed Presidential bid makes Harris more vulnerable in her next Senate race.
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