I'm not saying whether a publicly televised hearing was or was not necessary. I'm saying that no new information was gained and the Dems really didn't care to acquire new info. They only cared about embarrassing the president. That is wrong. That is not keeping the executive branch in check. The hearing was strictly a political stunt. It had no other relevance.

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 11:50:00 AM (view original):
I'm not saying whether a publicly televised hearing was or was not necessary. I'm saying that no new information was gained and the Dems really didn't care to acquire new info. They only cared about embarrassing the president. That is wrong. That is not keeping the executive branch in check. The hearing was strictly a political stunt. It had no other relevance.

---

I'm saying that no new information was gained

Maybe to you. There are a lot of people who are not as plugged into politics as you and I. A highly visible public hearing that reiterates the facts against a possible criminal president is important to reach those less plugged in people.

the Dems really didn't care to acquire new info

See above. Clarifying and reiterating known facts is an important process.

They only cared about embarrassing the president

It's not about embarrassing him. It's about exposing the truth as publicly as possible. It's exceptionally likely that the President is a felon many times over. It's the responsibility of the oversight committee to be as vocal about that as possible.

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 10:50:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I'm not sure how you can say the democrats were fine. They didn't achieve anything. They asked questions just to embarrass the president. Very few actually cared about getting substantive answers about anything important. We learned only what we already knew. Trump lacks character. We also got a bunch of speculation from Cohen. Nothing informative actually came from it.

Can't quibble in general with this except for:

1. There IS 1 or 2 fellers squirming over how often their names were bandied about because they likely face a day of "circus hearings" themselves.
That being that long time Trump accountant feller (what's his name?) along with Donny Jr..

2. The slow march to truth was advanced one more step with the BEGINNING of these "hearings" by various congressional committees, MUCH MORE so with the hearings held privately OFF camera!

3. The public SHOULD have been informed thru this hearing that the SDNY has ongoing investigations into the Trump organization and family.

4. The likelihood of one of these "committees" demanding tax returns from Trump just increased greatly and THAT is likely to result in a reaction from Trump that could greatly expedite the "snowball's" roll towards some sort of compelling resolution.

IMO, anything that expedites all these ongoing investigation's (Mueller's INCLUDED!) to a conclusion is definitely better for our Country.

Here's the thing, Bob. Everything except for #3 could have had the same results without making a public spectacle out of it. It was clearly nothing more than a partisan political stunt that degraded all of our elected leaders.

Posted by cccp1014 on 2/28/2019 10:56:00 AM (view original):
Even CNN said the Democrats mostly embarrassed themselves. bad luck sees what he wants to see.

we all see what we want to see. You do, I do, BL does, strikeout does, Taint does.

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 10:50:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I'm not sure how you can say the democrats were fine. They didn't achieve anything. They asked questions just to embarrass the president. Very few actually cared about getting substantive answers about anything important. We learned only what we already knew. Trump lacks character. We also got a bunch of speculation from Cohen. Nothing informative actually came from it.

Mr Trump does not need any help embarrassing himself. He's pretty good at it.

That is a fact for sure.

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 12:17:00 PM (view original):
Here's the thing, Bob. Everything except for #3 could have had the same results without making a public spectacle out of it. It was clearly nothing more than a partisan political stunt that degraded all of our elected leaders.

Couldn't AGREE more. But I think that was the point of it. Politics. Political stunt. No quibbles. And absolutely revealing and degrading to a whole LOT of Representatives of various political districts........ none more so than AZ's own Paul Gosar. Downright embarrassment to the entire State and Country. Moron of indescribable proportions. Right there with the embarrassing Jim Jordan and the sanctimonious Meadows racist from N. Carolina.

Believe me, NOT every resident of Arizona is as batshit crazy as Gosar.......... a few are even more NUTS!

Facts? Those old things? Their popularity peaked about the same time as the black-and-white TV, and they are now about as relative as phone books.

Posted by laramiebob on 2/28/2019 12:09:00 PM (view original):

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 10:50:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I'm not sure how you can say the democrats were fine. They didn't achieve anything. They asked questions just to embarrass the president. Very few actually cared about getting substantive answers about anything important. We learned only what we already knew. Trump lacks character. We also got a bunch of speculation from Cohen. Nothing informative actually came from it.

Can't quibble in general with this except for:

1. There IS 1 or 2 fellers squirming over how often their names were bandied about because they likely face a day of "circus hearings" themselves.
That being that long time Trump accountant feller (what's his name?) along with Donny Jr..

2. The slow march to truth was advanced one more step with the BEGINNING of these "hearings" by various congressional committees, MUCH MORE so with the hearings held privately OFF camera!

3. The public SHOULD have been informed thru this hearing that the SDNY has ongoing investigations into the Trump organization and family.

4. The likelihood of one of these "committees" demanding tax returns from Trump just increased greatly and THAT is likely to result in a reaction from Trump that could greatly expedite the "snowball's" roll towards some sort of compelling resolution.

IMO, anything that expedites all these ongoing investigation's (Mueller's INCLUDED!) to a conclusion is definitely better for our Country.

Sounds like pretty solid analysis to me but I don't agree with the original premise that Dems didn't achieve anything. They did their JOB. They continued to expose a man who runs a criminal enterprise and backed his way into the presidency. The hearings are checks and balances at work. I don't give a damn if their one goal was to embarrass Trump. He SHOULD be embarrassed. I sincerely hope the hearings further expose his criminal bullshit to his sycophantic supporters and the WORLD. Though judging from GOP questioning and reactions they're going to cling to this dog and pony show of a presidency with every last fingernail because it's FAR too late to do anything remotely resembling the right thing. Cohen was contrite and honest. He's a guy who got sucked in, chewed up and spit out by the ugly Trump machine. He lied originally because that was probably his best option, to be loyal. But he ended up as Fredo in the shittiest remake of the Godfather ever. All bets are off when you're going to prison and losing your lifelong career. Yes, he's FLIPPING. That's what guys who work for CRIMINALS historically do when the **** hits the fan.

"Facts? Those old things? Their popularity peaked about the same time as the black-and-white TV, and they are now about as relative as phone books."


That's something most of us old farts can all agree on. Perhaps that explains my disdain for the majority of the 2 legged's out there running aboot.

You guys ever ask why there is not a bi-partisan bill to ban lobbyists? Hmmmm.....

Posted by cccp1014 on 2/28/2019 3:49:00 PM (view original):
You guys ever ask why there is not a bi-partisan bill to ban lobbyists? Hmmmm.....

Then all the worthless, lazy*ss politicians would actually need to try to stump for their causes instead of sitting back watching others get paid do it.
We certainly wouldn't want them to actually work, would we?
Then who would have the time to throw all the BS at the "opposing" Party? (Aren't they all supposed to be on America's "side"?)

Posted by bad_luck on 2/28/2019 12:00:00 PM (view original):

Posted by strikeout26 on 2/28/2019 11:50:00 AM (view original):
I'm not saying whether a publicly televised hearing was or was not necessary. I'm saying that no new information was gained and the Dems really didn't care to acquire new info. They only cared about embarrassing the president. That is wrong. That is not keeping the executive branch in check. The hearing was strictly a political stunt. It had no other relevance.

---

I'm saying that no new information was gained

Maybe to you. There are a lot of people who are not as plugged into politics as you and I. A highly visible public hearing that reiterates the facts against a possible criminal president is important to reach those less plugged in people.

the Dems really didn't care to acquire new info

See above. Clarifying and reiterating known facts is an important process.

They only cared about embarrassing the president

It's not about embarrassing him. It's about exposing the truth as publicly as possible. It's exceptionally likely that the President is a felon many times over. It's the responsibility of the oversight committee to be as vocal about that as possible.

16M viewers

the Comey and Kavanagh hearings got 21M

Posted by all3 on 2/28/2019 5:07:00 PM (view original):

Posted by cccp1014 on 2/28/2019 3:49:00 PM (view original):
You guys ever ask why there is not a bi-partisan bill to ban lobbyists? Hmmmm.....

Then all the worthless, lazy*ss politicians would actually need to try to stump for their causes instead of sitting back watching others get paid do it.
We certainly wouldn't want them to actually work, would we?
Then who would have the time to throw all the BS at the "opposing" Party? (Aren't they all supposed to be on America's "side"?)

No politician is on America's side. Any politician is only on his or her own side. If tat happens to coincide with America's side, great! If not, too bad.