It's The Corruption, Stoopid

Nothing fails like prayer, but Republican rationalization is running a very close 2nd.

MSNBC, Steve Benen:

House GOP leader tries, fails to defend Trump profiting from presidency

At a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, a reporter asked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a close White House ally, if “the federal government should be spending money at the president’s resorts, especially when he is not staying at them.” According to CQ Newsmaker Transcripts, this was the GOP leader’s response:

“The president’s resorts are hotels that he owns. If people are traveling, it’s just like any other hotel. I know people will look at it. I don’t know that that’s different than anything else.

“Is it different than if I go and stay or eat at a Marriott here or eat at the Trump? The president isn’t asking me to. He’s competing in a private enterprise. It’s nothing, something that he controls in that process.”

I appreciate the fact that McCarthy didn’t just dodge the question. This appears to be an issue to which McCarthy has given some thought, and for those of us wondering whether Republicans care about allegations of presidential self-dealing, it’s good to hear a GOP articulate the party’s perspective.

The trouble, of course, is that McCarthy’s argument is woefully inadequate.
There were attempts to suggest McCarthy was just "playing dumb", but I think you'd have to be pretty dumb to think we'd buy the shit he was trying to peddle.

It's interesting that McCarthy's loud braying about "The Trump Economy" (the only thing Repubs have that might boost their favorables) gets drowned out by the ridiculous things 45* pulls out of his ass almost every day.

And don't forget that the GOP can't win anything if we all get to vote.

They reiterated that yesterday in NC.

Vox:

September 11 was supposed to be an uneventful day in North Carolina’s state capitol. Instead, it became a case study in the lengths Republican lawmakers in the state are willing to go to push through their agenda.

The state legislature was in session Wednesday morning, but Democrats were told there wouldn’t be any votes. So some lawmakers joined Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper at a ceremony for the victims of 9/11. Others stayed in their districts. Democrat state Rep. Grier Martin told me he took the time to go on a run.

Only nine Democrats went to the floor of the General Assembly. They were met with 55 Republicans ready to stage what Democrats are now calling a political ambush.

Republican leaders scheduled a surprise vote to override Cooper’s budget veto, an unprecedented partisan play that blindsided the state Democrats. Cooper called it “trickery, deception, and lies.”

North Carolina has a Democratic governor. But the state legislature is controlled by Republicans. Since late June, the state has been stuck in a legislative impasse; Cooper vetoed a two-year budget bill, arguing it underpaid teachers, awarded unnecessary giveaways to corporations and failed to include a Medicaid expansion. Republicans have been itching to override his veto ever since, unwilling to negotiate health care for low income North Carolinians.

But as of last November, state Republicans lost their veto-proof majorities in the state legislature, when Democrats flipped 16 seats across the state Assembly and Senate. On September 11, Republicans in the General Assembly saw their opportunity. Half of the chamber was empty. They voted to override Cooper’s veto. Now it goes to the state senate, where Republicans need one Democrat to join their ranks to officially override the veto.

“Basically, we have to stand guard on the floor,” Democratic state Sen. Jeff Jackson said.

Republicans are liars crooks and losers - they have no honor.