You don't see headlines like that anymore!
That's from March 25, 2023, but I'm reading it this morning because that quote was re-quoted in "As Kemp Bows Out of Senate Race, Is It MTG Time?" (NY Magazine). Sample text: "If nothing else, a Greene candidacy will make the Georgia Senate contest one of the most entertaining of the midterm cycle, ensuring that Ossoff’s low-key demeanor doesn’t sedate the electorate."
It sounds like the idea is that MTG is so exciting, people will be newly energized to vote for boring. I'm giving this my "I'm for Boring" tag not because I'm for Ossoff — it's not my state and I haven't followed him — but because I would like politics and government to back way off. Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment? Long experience says no, but I like to keep a tag on the subject if only to mark that it exists as a subject.
Mga Post
63 komento:
“Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?”
Not if a Democrat is elected.
I'm for not-paid-off.
Find someone who loves you as much as MAGA hates the idea of a Republican ever holding a Senate seat in Georgia ever again.
An MTG candidacy would be entertaining, but it would be a sure Democrat win.
The MAGA fumbling of three Georgia Senate races gave us the American Recovery Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
I saw MTG provided a list of demands over the weekend. I support her enthusiasm but find her narcissism to be too much. Trump does hard ball negotiation. MTG just demands.
Over time I've come to like the bleach blonde with the bad-built, butch body.
"Could we just have competence, professionalism" Competence to do what, in service of what values, ideology, policy? What "expertise" should a senator have--expertise in what, for what? Senatorial elections are first and foremost about voting for a vote--a vote for particular cabinet officers and jduges, particular kinds of budgets, etc. etc.
Sigh. I am not enjoying the belligerent style in politics. But here we are, I guess.
The Republicans have many great cowboys here in Georgia.
Why would we want the rodeo clown, MTG?
KKK all the WAY
I've never been impressed with MTG. Her personality is better suited for the House, and the chances of her winning the Senate seat in GA are slim to none.
As mindnumbrobot said, MTG is made for the House. Smaller pool of dark red voters that she doesn't have to persuade, where she can light up social media all day and leave the governing to the grown ups.
“Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work and good judgment?” ……and rainbows, balloons, kittens and sparkly unicorns.
“Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?”
If that’s what’s really wanted, maybe the focus should be on the instances in which government works well and the circumstances that foster its success. As it happens, Michael Lewis, with a bunch of co-authors, just published a book on that very topic: “Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service”.
Of course, there’s more entertainment value in lurid tales of corruption and politicization. Nobody wants to listen to a podcast or read a post about, say, how the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has dramatically reduced mining fatalities.
Remember Mueller Mueller Muller - Saint Mueller!
The Mueller report.
We all thought Trump was a Russian spy - but he out-smarted us!
With the professor's delicate sensibilities duly noted, for myself I'd rather have somebody that will dependably vote in the Senate for the interests and beliefs of people like myself and not some far-Left ideologue like Ossoff no matter how polite, gentlemanly, and effete they seem. With that also duly noted, they also need to be able to win state wide too.
If that’s what’s really wanted, maybe the focus should be on the instances in which government works well and the circumstances that foster its success.
I'm no "enemy of government," but a plane landing safely isn't news.
Stay in your lane, Madge, or maybe off the road entirely.
Bad Republican candidates are why Ossoff and Warnock are in the Senate anyway.
I shall forego the mandatory "working his Ossoff" gag.
AA, "Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?"
That rules out Ossoff.
In the before times, we used to talk about a variety of topics, not just politics. Politics was boring. Sure, Bill Clinton had sexy time with Monica Lewinsky, but she wasn't a Russian agent or sent by Project Veritas.
Boring would be nice, but competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment seem like too much to ask.
My state politics is boring, but Vivek is going to run for governor, so that will be interesting.
The reason we can't have competence in government these days derives from the decision of dems to go all in on the idea that Trump=Hitler. Once they did that, they decided they could no longer cooperate in anything he did, because that would be the same as cooperating with Hitler. Therefore, no matter how rational or popular a Trump policy is, the dems are hell-bent on defeating. This has worked to Trump's political advantage with respect to a bunch of 80-20 issues, but it overall works to the disadvantage of the country because dems have backed themselves into a corner where, for example, they are fundamentally opposed to ANY deportations taking place.
BTW, "boring" doesn't have to mean "wimpy, status quo." It just means our debates aren't led by Raging Red A-hole v. Raging Blue A-hole.
The entire Trump agenda could be championed in a non-Trump manner. When the ideas are strong, you don't have to speak like a jerk to get traction.
AA, "Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?"
You say you want a revolution…
I feel that the following is at least tangential to the topic, but YMMV:
You know the Trump as Pope meme? Some on the left, and supposedly many Catholics, are horrified by it. But does anyone think that a cartoon of that same image wouldn't have appeared in, say, the New Yorker if the Trump side hadn't posted it first?
What happened, what has been happening, and what the Left tried and failed to do with Dark Brandon, is that one side is taking ownership of the most incendiary portrayals of itself and using them to comic effect, leaving the other side looking humorless and lame.
The world is saddled with the worst elite leadership class it has had since WW1. There will be much pain felt before their stranglehold on power is fully removed.
I should add that so far I haven't seen any evidence that MTG operates on any level other than earnest: I don't think she could pull off "posting myself as Pope, for humor."
“leaving the other side looking humorless and lame.”
The left needs no help in assuming that position. Their next step and position will be “doggie submission”, if there is a God
Lazarus said...
“I shall forego the mandatory ‘working his Ossoff’ gag.”
You shouldn’t also note that “Jack” is a common variant of John (or Jon).
Herschel Walker v Stacey Abrams
Trump is a liar, a fraud, an ignoramus, a criminal, a demagogue, and the most dangerous man to ever be president. But damn if he doesn’t still make for great television.
Kak-a-phony
You sound desperate.
Do explain - using facts - how Trump is a criminal. Back it up - of shove it up.
She does seem to be a hardworking Congresscritter of integrity and good character. She mixes it up a little with hostile newscritters, but only when they are especially annoying. Sure there was the exchange of words with Crockett but rare is the Republican woman in Congress who has NOT come under attack from the fake-ghetto fighter from TX. People sometimes dislike her for a reason very similar to the President she strongly supports: she's a fighter for her side who doesn't back down. She works with a sense of urgency commensurate with the task at hand. Currently she's trying like hell to get Johnson and the rest of leadership to codify Trump's changes (DOGE, EOs) into law. By this point in Biden's term, Pelosi had put 11 bills including a reconciliation package on Biden's desk. (She told this to Steve Bannon yesterday, I saw and heard on X.)
There is a big difference between some magazines publishing a cartoon of Trump as Pope and the President of the United States doing it himself.
Is there really, though? Those magazines would've been using the image to poke fun at the grandiosity and narcissism they want to be the whole point (well, half the point - the other half is "convicted felon"™) of Trump. Trump is doing exactly the same thing: poking fun at the grandiosity and narcissism that the Left wants to be half the point of him.
Sure, because the Trump side beats the magazines to the punch, the focus ends up being on how ridiculous the Left's cartoonish view of Trump is rather than on Trump's supposed grandiosity and narcissism*, but the reason for the image is the same.
* I think Trump is grandiose, and every politician or person in public life is narcissistic to some degree. But to say that these traits define Trump and are the motivation for everything he does ignores a whole lot of contradictory evidence, not least his being hounded for years and, although he's plenty rich enough to do and say anything else in the world he wanted, jumping back into the Left's stupid game after being shot in the head.
Once written, twice... said...
There is a big difference between some magazines publishing a cartoon of Trump as Pope and the President of the United States doing it himself.
Only in your mind. The reality is no difference. In the days of Obama, he limited press photography of himself. The result was republishing of photos that were, set up to be what they were, portrayed the President with a backdrop halo. The President made that happen, but the media went along. The difference is now the media protests.
Mike, based on the relatively little I've seen of MTG, I'd agree with your perspective on her. Definitely she fights. What she lacks is the humor - again, from what I've seen.
There is a big difference between some magazines publishing a cartoon of Trump as Pope and the President of the United States doing it himself.
Try not to hyperventilate dude. Retweeting is not exactly "publishing." At least it was humor. Your side virtually worships pols. When Newsweek called Obama's election "the second coming" and then ran another cover with Obama photoshopped to have multiple arms like Shiva and called him "God of all things," they weren't kidding. They really called him "the Lightworker." So go comfort yourself with those photos from last summer's Olympics ceremony where the drag queens mocked the Last Supper.
What she lacks is the humor - again, from what I've seen
It's a little dry perhaps. After that freak from TX said MTG had a "bad butch body" MTG released video of herself at home weightlifting free weights. I smiled at that. YMMV.
MTG is a much better asset in the House, where she can make fuller use of her hard-bitten bouncer side. She's not really Senator material, in my view. Also in my view, Trump needs to put his team to work finding a decent candidate for that state, because it has a complicated demographic for Republicans to win. It's going to take some work, but I think it's achievable. His biggest obstacle is going to be the entrenched, establishment Republican Old Boy network.
"The entire Trump agenda could be championed in a non-Trump manner. When the ideas are strong, you don't have to speak like a jerk to get traction."
So, why hasn't it already been done successfully?
Do explain - using facts - how Trump is a criminal.
Of course he's a criminal. He's a criminal in the exact same way Nelson Mandela was a criminal. He wears it as a badge of honor, as he should.
The world is saddled with the worst elite leadership class it has had since WW1. There will be much pain felt before their stranglehold on power is fully removed.
Hear, hear. They really are the very worst of us.
We'd be better governed and safer if Senators and Reps were assigned by a nationwide lottery, selected from everyone who filed a 1040 showing net taxes paid to the Treasury.
There are stronger candidates the GOP could put up but here is the problem- they have to actually wage a campaign to get the nomination since no one is going to hand it to you like Kemp seemed to want.
Aggie said... "Trump needs to put his team to work finding a decent candidate for that state"
And light a fire under the current Congress. You'd think the breakneck pace of the WH would inspire them to get with it, but I haven't seen any evidence of it yet.
You go Girl!
"I'm for Boring"
What about Boring's cousin, Normal? People voted for that in 2020, and look what they got? What happens to Normal and Boring after they get elected? If they're Democrats, they cling to the party line no matter what. They vote for the same things the zanies vote for, and even say the things the zanies say, though more decorously. If they're Republicans, they don't do much of anything.
I'd rather have people who can think independently and bring some wisdom and experience from a life outside of government, but it seems like what we get are representatives who come out of the same ideological cookie cutters. That's probably too much to ask for. The adults aren't coming back.
“Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?”
Apparently not, that’s why Trump won the election.
You'd get more "Boring" is the Democrats would back off of the extreme TDS. You would get more normal if they would give up wanting men in women's sports, "Maryland man", impeachment de jure, preaching sex to 5 year-olds, "mis-information" monitoring, and a press that played less gotcha with Republication and more gotcha with Democrats.
As for, "Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment?" Much of the noise your hearing is clapping back. Many of us see much of your competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity in stuff that Elon Musk, Marco Rubio, RFK jr, Tom Homan, JD Vance, Stephen Miller.
Can your argue that Elon Musk's DOGE shows less "competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment" than the broken systems that he is uncovering?
Yancey Ward said...
"So, why hasn't it already been done successfully?"
Exactly right.
CJinPA: "The entire Trump agenda could be championed in a non-Trump manner. When the ideas are strong, you don't have to speak like a jerk to get traction."
Yeah, you kinda do. Take tariffs: you can explain them as "We add to the cost of imports. This incentivizes US companies to make the import at the higher cost. So you pay more for it. But the money goes to US workers, who could be your relatives or neighbors, who now have more money to buy stuff from you. At a higher price, yes, but that also means, since all this money stays in the US, higher wages for US workers. As opposed to now, where you get paid a crap wage to buy cheap crap from China."
No one would be able to get past the first sentence before being cut off by Kristin Welker or misleadingly edited by 60 Minutes. Trump's genius is to give them a sound bite they can't resist ("maybe you just buy 2 dolls"), which keeps the topic in the public dialog.
JSM
On the other side, Jasmine Crockett has figured out that, although her ideas are strong (at least to her), she also has to speak like a jerk to get traction. She has permanently code-switched from private-school Jack-and-Jill speech to storefront reverend righteous indignation with a profanity chaser.
JSM
Trump should get Johnny Joey Jones from Fox News to run for that Georgia Senate seat. Born and raised there, combat disabled Marine EOD veteran, and really articulate in a down-home "hey, I'm a dumb farmboy, but even I understand this" sort of way. He could carry the state in a landslide.
JSM
Jon Ossoff 93.91 lifetime progressive voting score. Source: Progressive Punch.
Screw "boring."
As it happens, Michael Lewis, with a bunch of co-authors, just published a book on that very topic: “Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service”.
Wow, what an amazing coincidence! Imagine, the Wizards of Smart just happened to think this up while the Citadel of Government is under threat. All those selfless government servants finally getting the credit they have been denied lo these many years.
"The entire Trump agenda could be championed in a non-Trump manner. When the ideas are strong, you don't have to speak like a jerk to get traction."
This is probably correct.
However, to get elected that champion would have to survive the assassination attempts, the lawfare and multiple indictments, the dozens of women, or men, coming out of the woodwork to claim past sexual abuse, the DNC and FBI and CIA efforts to brand him as a traitor and a Russian agent, the media's constant drumbeat of negativity and lies, the resistance from his own party, and on and so on.
Trump's the right right man for the times and maybe the only man capable of doing what he did.
Didn't MTG tell Crockett that she was having trouble reading because her fake eyelashes got in the way?
That qualifies as humor to me.
Good recall, boatbuilder. Nice to see you drop in and glare at the crowd, Inga.
Sheinbaum says, “Our sovereignty is NOT for sale… unlike our cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
Okay, I admit I added that last part for teh ironicity…
JSM @12:59
Indeed. Her exchange with MTG got her clicks, so now she wears her "Oh no you didn't, girl" mask. She's a fraud. Democrats are famous for this routine of condescending to their audience in an attempt to be "one of them." The contrast with Trump--who is the same person regardless of the audience--is fascinating.
I'd forgotten the eyelashes! Ok, I stand corrected.
Apparently not, that’s why Trump won the election.
More than 100 days into his second term, and you still don't get it.
Good.
AMGD is right. We handed the Senate to the Democrats because a cabal of leftitarian defense attorneys (an insane former Obama delegates included) took over the GOP and worked with that scumbag Steve Bannon to convince stupid or naive conservatives to not vote in the Senate races, lest their votes get "stolen." Some leftist is subsidizing Bannon, and the others are just craven liars.
Governor Kemp should have run. He has run the state very competently. We're in good shape financially and managed the pandemic with sanity and moderation. He's smart and responsive. We also have a lot of good conservative legislators who could step up. MTG is not one of them. Nor is our "Republican" Lt. governor, Burt Jones of the open borders poultry mafia.
Aggie, you're just wrong. I've been lobbying at the statehouse and working on campaigns here since the early 90's. I could name quite a few accomplished and reasonable non-RINO elected officials -- Kemp being one -- and there are others. And even the RINOS here know where their bread is buttered.
The solution would be to have Dan Bongino relocate here.
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