"Good trouble."

Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of @FEC. There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon. pic.twitter.com/7voecN2vpj

— Ellen L. Weintraub (@ellenlweintraub.bsky.social) (@EllenLWeintraub) February 6, 2025

Readers of this tweet need to remember that "good trouble" is a stock phrase, not some impish creation of Weintraub's. It's serious. As Grok tells us: "good trouble" was used by John Lewis, the civil rights leader and Congressman, to describe his experience participating in protests and civil disobedience.

I can see that some people are reading her tweet to mean that she's refusing to leave, but you don't need to read it that way. On the text alone, I would say she might be abiding by his demand that she leave, even though she also wants to say that he did not use the proper method. Is she going to stay where she's been told to leave?  The reference to "good trouble" might suggest that she is, but it's in a sentence written in the past tense: "I’ve been lucky...."

From the NYT article on the subject:

"The Clyburn-led veterans [of the Congressional Black Caucus] have hugged close to Ms. Pelosi to rise through the ranks, and believe younger members should follow their example."

"They have taken a zero-tolerance stance toward primary challengers to Democratic incumbents. They have recently pushed for a pared-down approach to voting rights legislation, attacking proposals for public financing of campaigns and independent redistricting committees, which have support from many Democrats in Congress but could change the makeup of some Black members’ congressional districts. And when younger members of Congress press Ms. Pelosi to elevate new blood and overlook seniority, this more traditional group points to Representatives Maxine Waters of California and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi — committee chairs who waited years for their gavels.... Mr. Clyburn makes no secret of his disdain for progressive activists who support defunding the police. In the interview, he likened the idea to 'Burn, baby, burn,' the slogan associated with the 1965 Watts riots in California. '"Burn, baby, burn" destroyed the movement John Lewis and I helped found back in 1960,' he said. 'Now we have defunding the police.' [Rep. Gregory] Meeks, the political point man for the caucus, said he expected its endorsements to go where they have always gone: to Black incumbents and their allies."

From "The Congressional Black Caucus: Powerful, Diverse and Newly Complicated/The group, which includes most Black members of Congress, remains publicly united. But in private, an influx of new members who think differently about its purpose are making a play for the future" (NYT).

"For many congressional staff members and Capitol workers, in particular people of color, the damage wrought on Wednesday was visceral."

"It will be a long time before they feel safe again at work, they say, knowing that a building once thought to be among the most secure in Washington could be breached by a mob carrying, among other things, a Confederate flag and displaying anti-Semitic iconography.... The Capitol Police have come under fire for seeming, at times, to offer little resistance to the pro-Trump mob. While some experts defended their actions as prioritizing the protection of lawmakers over the securing of the building, many congressional staff members, along with custodial and food service workers, were left wondering whether they were safe.... Black staff members in particular said the rampage had reminded them of the struggles they had often had to come to terms with in order to work for Congress.... One Black congressional staff member who also took a walk through the Capitol to survey the aftermath on Wednesday night said that despite all the damage, he had been stopped in his tracks outside Representative Steny Hoyer’s office, where a poster honoring John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights leader who died in August, had been displayed. It was missing. He looked for it feverishly and found only a broken piece on the ground next to a trash can. The image of Mr. Lewis was gone. All that remained of his celebrated quote, 'Get into good trouble, necessary trouble,' were the final two words — smudged by a boot print."

From "Rampage Weighs on Congressional Staff Members and Capitol Workers/The violence caused by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday has shaken many who work at the Capitol. And some people of color say the law enforcement response reopened old wounds" (NYT).

"The race is not yet won.... we have not yet reached that blessed destination, where we are judged by the content of our character."

"[John Lewis] knew, from his own life, that progress is fragile, that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country’s history, of our own history, with their whirlpools of violence, and hatred, and despair that can always rise again. Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witnessed with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail in ballots so people don’t get sick. Now, I know this is a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we’re seeing circulate right now. He knew that every single one of us has a God given power and that the fate of this democracy depends how we use it. That democracy isn’t automatic, it has to be nurtured, it has to be tended to, we have to work at it. It’s hard...."

Said Barack Obama, from "Barack Obama Eulogy Speech Transcript at John Lewis Funeral July 30."

The John Lewis funeral.

Live streaming:



I was just listening — on my car radio — to the eulogy by Bill Clinton. I want to say a few things about it — my key words are "cancel" and "infect" — but I will have to wait for the transcript.

ADDED: Obama is giving a eulogy now (at 12:46 CDT). There's a third President there today: George W. Bush. He spoke first, so his is the first transcript that's available. Excerpt:

John’s story began on a tiny farm in Troy, Alabama, place so small he said you could barely find it on the map.... Every morning, he would rise before the sun to tend to the flock of chickens. He loved those chickens. Already called to be a minister who took care of others. John fed them and tended to their every need, even their spiritual ones, for John baptized them. He married them and he preached to them. When his parents claimed one from family supper, John refused to eat one of his flock. Going hungry was his first act of nonviolent protest... He always believed in preaching the gospel, in word and in deed, insisting that hate and fear had to be answered with love and hope. John Lewis believed in the Lord, he believed in humanity and he believed in America. He’s been called an American saint, a believer willing to give up everything, even life itself, to bear witness to the truth that drove him all his life, that we could build a world of peace and justice, harmony, and dignity, and love.... 

AND: Here it is, the Bill Clinton speech, the one where I wanted to highlight "cancel" and "infect":

I think three things happened to John Lewis... that made him who he was. First, the famous story of John at four with his cousins and siblings holding his aunt’s hand more than a dozen of them, running around a little old wooden house, as the wind threatened to blow the house off its moorings, going to the place where the house was rising and all those tiny bodies trying to weigh it down. I think he learned something about the power of working together....

[A]s a child, he learned to walk with the wind... [H]e challenged others to join him with love and dignity, to hold America’s house down and open the doors of America to all its people.... [N]o matter what, John always kept walking to reach the beloved community.... When he could have been angry and determined to cancel his adversaries, he tried to get converts instead....

Twenty years ago when I came here after the Selma March to a big dinner honoring John and Lillian and John-Miles... ... I was almost out of time and people were to be present and people were asking me, “Well, if you could do one more thing, what it would be, or what do you wish you had that you had done that you didn’t?”.... I said, “If I could just do one thing. If God came to me tonight and said, ‘Okay, your time’s up. You got to go home and I’m not a genie. I’m not giving you three wishes.’ One thing, what would it be?” I said, “I would infect every American was whatever it was that John Lewis got as a four year old kid and took through a lifetime to keep moving and keep moving in the right direction and keep bringing other people to move and to do it without hatred in his heart, with a song and be able to sing and dance.”

I thought it was interesting that Bill Clinton took those 2 words that are so conspicuous in present-day American culture —  "cancel" and "infect" — and turned it to the positive. We have a cancel culture — Bill was acknowledging — but if we were like John, we'd have love and we'd keep working on winning converts. And we have the awful infection — the coronavirus — but we could come down with an infection of joy and love and dedication to living together in a better world.

"Representative John Lewis, a son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality..."

"... and who then carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress, died on Friday. He was 80.... He was among the original 13 Freedom Riders, the Black and white activists who challenged segregated interstate travel in the South in 1961. He was a founder and early leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which coordinated lunch-counter sit-ins. He helped organize the March on Washington, where Dr. King was the main speaker, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Mr. Lewis led demonstrations against racially segregated restrooms, hotels, restaurants, public parks and swimming pools, and he rose up against other indignities of second-class citizenship. At nearly every turn he was beaten, spat upon or burned with cigarettes. He was tormented by white mobs and absorbed body blows from law enforcement. On March 7, 1965, he led one of the most famous marches in American history. In the vanguard of 600 people demanding the voting rights they had been denied, Mr. Lewis marched partway across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., into a waiting phalanx of state troopers in riot gear. Ordered to disperse, the protesters silently stood their ground. The troopers responded with tear gas and bullwhips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire. In the melee, known as Bloody Sunday, a trooper cracked Mr. Lewis’s skull with a billy club, knocking him to the ground, then hit him again when he tried to get up."

The NYT reports.

Cory Booker should rejoice that the Trump show stepped all over his anti-Sessions tirade.

I don't know why I kept CNN going after Trump said "Your organization is terrible" to the CNN reporter at the press conference, but I did. I live-blogged the press conference, and I wanted to keep going and live-blog the Senate Judiciary Committee panel that came on next. It was extremely interesting and I had a lot to say, but I was horrified at the image of myself sitting in a chair blogging whatever comes on TV next.

The whole world was talking about Trump anyway. Booker's turn on the stage played to an empty house. And he's lucky it did. He was awful! From the transcript:

I want an Attorney General who is committed to supporting law enforcement and securing law and order. But that is not enough....  Law and order without justice is unobtainable, they are inextricably tied together. If there is no justice, there is no peace.

The Alabama State Troopers on the Edmond Pettis Bridge were seeking law and order. The marchers were seeking justice – and ultimately the greater peace.

What does that have to do with Jeff Sessions? How does Booker tie Sessions to the notion of law and order without justice? Booker is taking the extreme step of testifying against his Senate colleague, with whom he cosponsored a Congressional Gold Medal for those who marched in Selma, Alabama. What does Booker have on Sessions?

Booker doesn't say. He resorts to an embarrassing repetition of the not-very-catchy empty phrase "but his record indicates that he won’t":

If confirmed, Senator Sessions will be required to pursue justice for women, but his record indicates that he won’t.

He will be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian Americans, but his record indicates that he won’t.

He will be expected to defend voting rights, but his record indicates that he won’t.

He will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity, but his record indicates he won’t.

He varies the phrase to "His record indicates":

His record indicates that as Attorney General he would obstruct the growing national bipartisan movement toward criminal justice reform.

His record indicates that we cannot count on him to support state and national efforts toward bringing justice to a justice system that people on both sides of the aisle readily admit is biased against the poor, drug addicted, mentally ill, and people of color.

His record indicates that at a time when even the FBI director is speaking out about implicit racial bias in policing and the need to address it; at a time when the last two Attorneys General have taken steps to fix our broken criminal justice system; and at a time when the Justice Department he would lead has uncovered systemic abuses in police departments all over the United States including Ferguson, including Newark; Senator Sessions would not continue to lead urgently needed change.

Throughout this entire sequence, I was waiting for Booker to get into the record and start persuading us that the record really justifies this conclusion. That never happened. And as I read the text this morning, I can see that Booker's beef is that Sessions is too much of a humble servant, taking the law seriously and doing what it requires. Booker is demanding something most of us don't want: an Attorney General who takes sides.

Booker wants someone who has favorites that he will defend and support. He's saying he wants someone biased, impassioned, and politicized. And Sessions is not that man. If you pay attention and think, it works — for most people — as an endorsement of Sessions.

What was even worse for Booker was what happened after he finished. He'd gone first on a panel of 6 — all black men. (Watch the entire panel at C-SPAN here, beginning at 3:38:24.) The second man to speak was Larry D. Thompson, who spoke in concrete detail about working with Sessions. Suddenly, we're in the world of evidence and real life.

The third speaker was Representative John Lewis, who spoke of history and the wrongs of the past but had nothing fact-based to say about Sessions. After Lewis came another man who, like Thompson, spoke from personal experience.

Then we got Cedric Richmond, chairman of the Black Congressional Caucus, who, like Booker and Lewis, spoke in political generalities, with nothing specific about Sessions. The last speaker was another man like Thompson, who knew and worked with Sessions, spoke warmly about his personal interaction with Sessions, and vouched for Sessions's racial virtue.

I thought it was immensely embarrassing for Booker, Lewis, and Richmond. Richmond even used the "back of the bus" complaint about this panel going last:

"To have a senator, a House member and a living civil rights legend testify at the end of all of this is the equivalent of being made to go to the back of the bus. It's a petty strategy. I don't mind being last, but to have a living legend like John Lewis treated like that is beyond the pale."

Who falls for that sort of sophistry? Why did Booker participate in this awkward drama?

I got the impression we were supposed to see this as a hint of the presidential candidate Booker could be. Maybe he could a great candidate some day. Some people might think it's a shame that Trump got all the attention yesterday and the spotlight didn't shine on Cory Booker. I say he's lucky. He was terrible!

"John Lewis tells you something about voting rights and you say, yes, sir, and you shut the fk up."

Charles Pierce pithily dictates the sole method of showing respect. 

But actually, ironically, that kind of respect entails massive disrespect. You say yes and you shut the fuck up in his presence, and that means the only way people can have a serious back-and-forth debate on the subject is if they exclude John Lewis.

***

Pierce has a nice sidebar at his blog under the heading "About this blog." I read it for the first time, by chance, just now. The penultimate sentence is:

It will be the belief of this blog that, as Christopher Hitchens once said, the only correct answer to the question, "Is nothing sacred?" is "No."

An idiomatic expression gone wrong... and Rush Limbaugh is mystified and amused.

On Monday, Rush was riffing on that Maureen Dowd column about The Sherrod Incident, which had this quote from Congressman John Lewis about Shirley Sherrod and her husband Charles:

“I’ve known these two individuals — the husband for more than 50 years and the wife for at least 35, 40 — and there’s not a racist hair on their heads or anyplace else on their bodies”....

Rush stresses the image:

... the media is holding Charles Sherrod up as a paragon of virtue. And John Lewis said that there's not a hair of racism on his head or anywhere else on his body. It's the first time I've ever heard anybody say that. There['s] not a shred of racism any hair on his head, or the rest of the body. What's Lewis thinking when he says that? 

He pauses to let us try to picture all the body hair Lewis has strangely conjured up for us to contemplate the possible racism of.

I can't explain everything about The Sherrod Incident, but I can explain Lewis's linguistic mishap. He began by mixing up 2 common idiomatic expressions: 1. not a [blank] bone in his body, and 2. wouldn't harm a hair on his/her head.

Having said "not a racist hair on their heads," Lewis must have realized that it didn't work the way it was supposed to. It didn't say there's absolutely nothing racist about them, because people have a lot more hair than just on their heads. By going with hair on their heads instead of bones, it's as if he were saying: in the part of them we can see, there's no racism. To avoid creating the implication that there was hidden racism, he had to vouch for the racism-free nature of the rest of their hair. So he tacked on "or anyplace else on their bodies."

This is a good time to remember that great piece of advice about language: "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print." Use original images or avoid metaphor, and you won't get into weird troubles of the "anyplace else on their bodies" sort.

***

Also: Don't be a racist.