Good morning! Another day where federal workers don't get paid, another day where the Orange Cheeto -- with the willing complicity of Mitch McConnell -- holds America hostage.
Joe Scarborough went into an extended oration this morning about Lindsey Graham and the assorted Trump enablers in the Republican party. He talked about Graham predicting the demise of the party if Trump was elected.
"Well, Lindsey was right. Then. But now he's one of the administration's leading henchman in hatching plots to run roughshod over our nation's traditions and turn the party into a rudderless collection of mini-me Donald Trumps," Scarborough said.
"Can you believe Lindsey Graham, a guy who, along with me, throughout the 1990s championed the power of checks and balances, then of course against Bill Clinton, we always talked about Article One and the Constitution and being Constitutionalists. Well, now that same Lindsey Graham, who actually followed John McCain's lead for so long, is actually the Republican who is using his position as Senate chairman of the Judiciary Committee to encourage Donald Trump to declare a national emergency and illegally seize Article One powers if he doesn't get his way on the border wall.
"It is illegal. It will be overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States and if Lindsey doesn't know that, he shouldn't be in Congress. It's that obvious. The courts will overturn this because in the midst of the kind of negotiations that Donald Trump is going through with Nancy Pelosi, it's the first time that this spoiled, pampered brat, who inherited $200 million from his father and then blew through it, that brat has now grown up to be president of the United States and he's 72, 73, I don't know, how old is he? 73? I'll tell you, yesterday -- whoo. but anyway, this is the first time anybody has ever stood up to him.
"You know what that's called? That's called Madisonian democracy. It's been the norm of this constitutional republic for 240 years. and that's just been a balance between two co-equal branches of government. But Lindsey says it's not going Donald's way, so let's just declare a national emergency. We can rob money from people that are suffering in Puerto Rico, we can rob money from people suffering in California. We can rob money from our military men and women, even though the Armed Services chairman has said that would be deplorable. It is truly deplorable.
"And if that's not bad enough, the Iowa Republican congressman Steve King, a man who has long shared a mutual admiration with Donald Trump, spoke his truth in declaring himself a white supremacist. In days past, he would have immediately been censured and removed from the Republican party. He's just mirroring the president's views after that deadly march, is a member in good standing of the House and the Republican party.
"You know, I could go on. We only have three hours every morning. Conservatives like me can on now watch and wait in horror to see the awful legacy and the moral destruction that Donald Trump is going to have on the party that i once loved, and that he hijacked to win the White House. But I can tell you this today -- Trump is leading this horror show but you know who I hold accountable?
"Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Steve King. and all the Republicans on Capitol Hill that are ducking their heads. They are the co-conspirators, complicit by their action or, more importantly, by their silence. The party of Lincoln and the party of Reagan, they're suffering through a massive moral collapse. It is sad and it is dangerous for this country and I believe it is the beginning of the end."
Here's hoping. Because the Republican party of Joe Scarborough existed mostly in his head. Joe seems to have erased the memory of what's been the Prime Directive of the GOP for 40 years now: It's Okay If You're A Republican.
Assuming the county and the Constitution survives, good riddance to them.
