Rachel Maddow in eastern Ukraine: On last evening’s TV show, Rachel Maddow really seemed to be flying.
To our taste, she wasted a lot of time with a lot of piffle-fed topics. She wasted time discussing herself, as she constantly does.
At one point, she turned to her favorite topic. Early on, she made an odd remark:
MADDOW (8/28/14): The defense rests! Today was the last day of testimony in the federal corruption trial of Republican Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.They’re facing “many decades in prison?” We were surprised by that statement. In its reporting on the trial, the New York Times routinely says that the McDonnells face “up to twenty years” in prison.
Today, the judge in the case rejected a request by the defense counsel for an acquittal. And so, tomorrow the jury is going to hear closing arguments. After the closing arguments, the jury will start its deliberations.
Governor McDonnell and his wife are facing 14 felony charges. If they’re convicted of those charges, they are facing many decades in prison.
The Washington Post, the tabloid of record, rarely seems to say how much time the McDonnells could face. In January, though, when the miscreants were indicted, the Post reported thusly: “The couple could face a maximum of 30 years in prison, though they probably would serve far less.”
For ourselves, this prosecution increasingly seems ill-advised. There is no law in Mr. Jefferson’s state forbidding a pol from taking money and loans from a businessman. Meanwhile, Governor McDonnell seems to have done virtually nothing to help Jonnie Williams, the businessman who extended $170,000 in gifts and loans to the governor and his wife.
(Most of that was in loans. To create a bit of perspective, the amount in question represents roughly one week’s salary for cable stars who are paid $7 million per year.)
To us, this prosecution increasingly seems like an overreach. On Maddow’s show, however, it provides a never-ending chance to imagine one’s enemies being frog-marched off to prison, whether for “basically” the rest of their lives or for “many decades.”
(On July 28, Maddow said the McDonnells are “facing basically life in prison.” Last December, when it seemed there might be no indictment, she said the point of such prosecutions is to see that “people are punished and incidentally humiliated and ruined.”)
Technically, Maddow has a high IQ. With adult supervision, she could probably be a fabulous journalist.
That said, we often marvel at her deportment and at some of her apparent values.
We’re often amazed at the way she longs to see people get ruined. Her longing to see the McDonnells rot in jail has persisted through the course of this underwhelming trial. She loves to complain about this heinous offense described below, as she did again last night:
MADDOW (continuing from above): Governor McDonnell and his wife are facing 14 felony charges. If they’re convicted of those charges, they are facing many decades in prison.Maddow’s complaint went on from there. On the videotape of the segment, you can watch Maddow clowning and snarking at remarkable length about the fact that McDonnell drove Williams’ Ferrari on one or two occasions.
Now, nobody knows exactly how the prosecution and the defense are going to sum up their cases or what image they will try to leave in the minds of the jury.
But regardless of what they say, I think this one probably will stick:
As a surprise part of this trial, the evidence reviewed in court over the course of these many days of testimony in Richmond, included many, many, many photos of Governor Bob McDonnell driving a white Ferrari—a white Ferrari, the use of which was one of the gifts, was from a Virginia businessman, who federal prosecutors say constituted a bribe of the governor.
The governor and his staff and his lawyers seem to have understood early on that the white Ferrari thing, with all of these pictures of it, was not a good look for the governor.
Last year, even before the start of the trial, the governor’s spokesman tried to explain the white Ferrari away. Quote, "The governor’s spokesman said, as a favor to the businessman, the family drove one of Jonnie Williams’ cars and his Range Rover back to the lake house, and then they drove the Ferrari back to Richmond." Quote, "There was no recreational use of the vehicles."
Understand that? The use of the Ferrari was not at all recreational! There was definitely no fun involved!
Bob McDonnell was merely doing an onerous favor for a Virginia resident! As governor, he’s also responsible for being a valet parking attendant of not inconsiderable skill. But it’s not fun! It’s definitely never been fun!
During the trial, Governor McDonnell reiterated the “favor” excuse, adding that he didn’t even want to drive the white Ferrari. He said his kids egged him on to drive the car not once, but twice, during the lakeside vacation that the businessman paid for.
Governor McDonnell even testified that he didn’t even know that the Ferrari was at the lake house. He hadn’t noticed it! It had been tucked away in a garage, perhaps under a cover. He said, at some time during vacation, quote, "We saw it was a very significant high-performance car."
Plus, the Ferrari was white!
“I think this one will probably stick,” the pill-popping star opined last night. To appearances, Maddow wants the McDonnells to spend “many decades” in prison because, on one or two occasions, they got to drive somebody’s car.
We really wonder about Maddow’s innards when we see her performing her Hunt for the White Ferrari shtick month after month after month. What makes a person long to see other people destroyed over such consummate trivia?
On several days this week, we talked about tribal impulses as they surface in eastern Ukraine and in the Islamic State.
We asked if you ever think you see the same atavistic impulses surfacing over here, especially within our own tribe. When we watch Maddow wet herself at the thought of McDonnell being frog-marched to jail, we wonder which wires are hanging loose inside her high-IQ brain.
Go ahead—watch that segment. She’s clowning and snarking and creaming herself as she hopes that two people get ruined.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming, "Race-Baiting in Ferguson," to bring you this news: Maddow Derangement Syndrome Returns in Full Fury."
ReplyDeleteFor viewers on the West Coast, "Mansions of Journalist County" will be shown in its entirety. Some day.
Cranking old codger calls out creaming wet thespian tribalist before mansion of meat loaf maven is metaphorically offered in oleaginous oil.
DeleteKZ, just go away.
DeleteBob isn't trying to draw any parallels between the McDonnell trial and the situations in Ukraine and with ISIS, is he?
ReplyDeleteIf so, will somebody who loves him please check on him?
If you go away, drop Bob off somewhere helpful when you do.
DeleteYou'd almost think her glee over their comeuppance is because they aspired to status beyond their position. They were the crabs trying to climb out of the barrel and Maddow is cheering on the crabs pulling them back inside. It is an odd sentiment in a country that prides itself on upward mobility when people take pleasure in knocking down those who try and fail. Maybe Maddow feels insecure about the permanence of her own rise in the world and has to reassure herself that when others fall, it is because they really deserved it -- that way it will never happen to her. I agree that it is pretty ugly behavior and sort of embarrassing because it exposes so much of her psyche to public view.
ReplyDeleteInteresting theory. I don't watch Rachel, What little I see of her is flipping through the channels. Last glimpse she was climbing into a military personal carrier of some sort dressed in Army gear. Months ago caught a moment of her discussing the McDonnell situjation. Her focus, at least that night, was that McDonnell wasn't cool enough to drive a Ferrari- "dude, you driving a Ferrari, seriously dude?" I just can't take her act seriously.
DeleteA Ferrari is a car. Why must someone look cool driving it? Why does anyone think driving an expensive car is a good thing? I would be worried about scratching it and annoyed about having to shift.
DeleteManual transmissions are for losers.
DeleteLosers believe traffic across the GW Bridge was effected by the Ft. Lee lane closures.
DeleteLosers say effected when they mean affected.
DeleteNo you putz. Rubes do.
DeleteBeing Bob means never having to say you were wrong.
ReplyDeleteInstead, double, triple, quadruple and quintuple down by calling it "consummate trivia."
And just when you think his hatred of Rachel Maddow has hit rock bottom, he proves you wrong.
If you could find something nasty she said about Al Gore between 98 and 2000 he could bore straight through the basalt, past the core, and burrow all the way to Bejing!
DeleteCheck a globe. If you burrow from the USA, you come out closer to Australia than to China.
DeleteExcess literalism is a symptom of mental illness or brain injury.
DeleteIf the core is molten how do you keep your trajectory straight?
DeleteA compass? GPS?
DeleteThe outer core is molten, but the inner core is solid. A magnetic compass and GPS are both useless deep inside the earth.
DeleteThis is an interesting technical challenge.
Gee Bob, and just think, when you were a lad growing up if an unmarried woman got pregnant, the point of prevailing social mores was is see such women were "punished, incidentally humiliated and ruined."
ReplyDeleteYou trolls aren't even trying any more.
DeleteWhen you call someone "pill popping," you damned well be willing to supply the link.
Delete"Pill popping". Lol.
DeleteHe did. It comes from that post he did about her fanciful biographies.
DeletePerhaps he did. It certainly doesn't show up when Mr. Google peruses the fabulous archives. Perhaps Alexander Becker swallowed the evidence before he became invisible.
Delete11:09 it is hard to try when you are laughing at a post so hard you cream.
DeleteAnonymous @ 12:02 which post was "that" post? Was it the one with hint of Pyongyang, or the taste of tomahawks? Could it have been the one about ghosts or sleepless nights over infrastucture, or maybe the whole series about her weird fetishes about television sets. It is hard to get them straight. Frankly I was so mad during the six part series revealing Chris Matthews almost getting somebody killed in a tire puncturing incident a decade ago, I trembled with rage throughout the Maddow bio epic from Bob.
DeleteWas the Matthews incident the one where he promoted the "story" that Clinton thugs were terrorizing a Clinton sexual abuse victim, if I'm not mistaken didn't they also kill her pet?
DeleteSeems Chris is quite the right wing tool when the money is right, but why mention it.
@12:55, now you know how others feel when Maddow does a job on them (or someone they respect).
DeleteNo one in their right mind can think the pathetic McDonnell's deserve life in prison for their crimes. It is obscene when Maddow gloats about it. Somerby captured that obscenity nicely. Notice how you feel and cultivate some of the empathy Maddow so obviously lacks.
I see you, too, were quite caught up in the Chris Matthews saga and cannot remember which Bob post covered the
Deletepill-popping either.
I remember the Matthews saga in real time. He got fabulously wealthy pissing on liberals' interests.
DeleteDid he really piss on liberals' interests or just some prominent liberals?
DeleteWould you describe Chelsea Clinton's compensation as "fabulous" based on work performed in comparison to Tweety or Rachel?
It was very much in liberal interests that Gore be elected instead of Bush.
DeleteI'll remember that the next time Bob writes that he doesn't blame Nader or his voters.
DeleteAt least Nader isn't selling his efforts to the plutocrats.
DeleteHint: She claims to be bipolar.
ReplyDeleteReally? Now I am pretty sure Bob claims to like women but I hadn't hear Maddow say she was bi.
DeleteAre you 12 years old?
DeleteAre you 12:52 AM?
DeleteHow much is 170 large in cigarillos?
ReplyDeleteLike consummate liberals Ken Starr and about half the House and Senate back in the day.
ReplyDeleteSince you won't find out from Darlin' Rachel what the McDonnells are actually charged with, I present the following as a public service. Here are the counts in the indictment:
ReplyDeleteThree counts of honest services wire fraud (#2,#3,#4) 18USC1343
Six counts of obtaining property under color of official right (#6,#7,#8,#9,#10,#11) 18USC1951
These counts are essentially accusations of nine instances of accepting bribes, the first three by telephone and the last six by affecting interstate commerce. Public officials commit honest services fraud when they deprive their constituents of the intangible good of ethical governance, but the Supreme Court requires that they take money for their dishonesty. "Under color of official right" is the legal term of art for bribe taking.
One count of conspiring to commit the three counts of honest-services wire fraud (#1) 18USC1349
One count of conspiring to commit the six counts of obtaining property (#5) 18USC1951
Three counts of making false statements (#12,#13,#14) 18USC1014
One count of obstruction (#14) 18USC1512(c)(2)
These counts are essentially governmental piling on -- adding conspiracy and coverup as separate counts.
So the question is whether the governor did anything in return for taking loans and gifts. It doesn't seem he did much more than set up some meetings from which his benefactors got nothing of tangible value. The governor's wife isn't an elected official so it's hard to see why she was charged with bribery.
Each of these counts is a felony, and several of the statutes criminalize violent acts. Thus the maximum sentence for each is 20 years, so if you're lazy you simply multiply 20 years by 14 counts and report that the McDonnells could spend the rest of their lives behind bars. (It's actually 13 apiece. RFM wasn't indicted on count #14, and MGM wasn't indicted on count #12). But this is absurd. Federal sentencing guidelines group together like crimes (same fact pattern, same victims, etc.) for purposes of setting the appropriate prison time. There are even online tools that will give an estimate of the sentences. The one I used didn't implement conspiracy charges, but assuming RFM is convicted of the rest, the estimate is 5 - 71/2 years.
Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteYou're not wrong, deadrat but Maddow and her differently-abled low IQ fans operate under the delusion she's not identical to them.
ReplyDelete"(Most of that was in loans. To create a bit of perspective, the amount in question represents roughly one week’s salary for cable stars who are paid $7 million per year.)"
ReplyDeleteAside from guilt or innocence Bob, I am rather surprised you take this
perspective on $170,00.
Maddow really seemed to be flying....with a lot of piffle-fed topics...
ReplyDeleteimagine one’s enemies being frog-marched off to prison...she longs to see people get ruined...Her longing to see the McDonnells rot in jail....you can watch Maddow clowning and snarking...the pill-popping star opined...We really wonder about Maddow’s innards...What makes a person long to see other people destroyed....When we watch Maddow wet herself at the thought of McDonnell being frog-marched to jail, we wonder which wires are hanging loose inside her high-IQ brain...
She’s clowning and snarking and creaming herself as she hopes that two people get ruined.
Do you suppose Somerby admires Maddow's behavior or do you suppose he is strongly offended by it? What clues do you find in his use of language?
DeleteIt wasn't until she creamed herself on loose hanging wires that I that her high IQ really didn't compensate for the other deficiencies. I mean, who plays with with wires while flying wet?
DeleteThe problem with Maddow is that it's not comedy but she wants it to be.
ReplyDeleteI would bet if Maddow gave up her paying gig for a stab at professional comedy she would end up like Bob.
DeleteNo, she wouldn't be able to tolerate the heckling and would run to academia, where students can be punished with low grades for talking back.
DeleteWell, unlike Chelsea Clinton, she does have a PhD to show for all those graduate hours.
DeleteJohn Stewart, in his interview with Rachel, tried to tell her that her joking around was not good journalism. She defended herself by, basically, saying that journalism needed more comedy. I think trying to get your news from a clown is not a good idea.
DeleteShe's not identical to them. Ken Starr and the Clinton-chasin' posse were acting as agents of the government, and so had actual subpoena power and so forth. Maddow has a news-tainment show on the TV.
ReplyDelete"Self-righteous brain dead morally bankrupt liberalism does."
ReplyDeleteI long to see the person who made that comment destroyed. Man, that's good entertainment!
"To our taste, she wasted a lot of time with a lot of piffle-fed topics. She wasted time discussing herself, as she constantly does."
ReplyDeleteSomerby in this post.
"Full disclosure. We used to do a comedy bit on the subject of “simple solutions.”
(One such “simple solution:” “We’re going to send it all back to the states! We’ll let the states run the government, those magnificent states!” That was one premise in that bit. You can fashion the punch-lines.)
We used to try to make people laugh at the existence of “simple solutions.”
Somerby starting Wednesday's post.
Gosh, I wonder what the difference is between a vanity blog and a national public affairs show? What idiot here thinks Maddow and Somerby do the same job?
ReplyDelete1) $ 7 million annually.
Delete2) None. What idiots think Bob doesn't do exactly what he criticizes others for doing.
"What idiots think Bob doesn't do exactly what he criticizes others for doing.(?)"
DeleteIs that bad? Not sure what you are talking about but is that important if true? Rach is criticized by BOB for being a poor liberal leader whose dickish, Franklin-esque demeanor and lack of preparation hurt liberal causes long term. If Bob does the same things he accuses her of (you didn't mention specifics so I don't know what you mean exactly.)and is also sickish ,self centered, sarcastic, horrible or whatever - it doesn't have to broader impact on our politic as it does with Ray Ray. So - if he does do as you say - if he is guilty of the same things he accuses her of - is it important? Why?