Ah, the Christmas spirit

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

P.S.  "Privileged", nastyass.

Chickenshit dick

President Trump canceled a meeting with Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while he was waiting in the White House.

Corker, who has been publicly criticizing Trump for more than a year after being passed over for the job of secretary of state, told reporters the president stood him up at the last minute ahead of their prearranged discussion Wednesday.

The retiring Tennessee senator, who is chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, the preeminent international affairs body in Congress, was expected to raise the issue of Syria.

[...]

Corker over the weekend indicated next year may make it more clear to him whether a centrist Democrat might be better for the country than another term of Trump.

[...]

Trump had no public events on his schedule today, according to the White House press office's daily guidance. He was only due to attend an intelligence briefing, a lunch, and two holiday receptions Wednesday evening.

  Washington Examiner

Workin' hard.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Gina Haspel's briefing - Part 2

Something prompted Lindsey Graham to be honest about how things work in DC.

In remarks after a briefing from CIA Director Gina Haspel, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) suggested there is no plausible way that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman didn’t order the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, and said that the evidence is overwhelming.

[...]

Graham said Tuesday that you’d have to be “willfully blind” to not know Mohammed was responsible — a clear rebuke of Trump’s argument that this whole thing resides in some kind of gray area.

[...]

The senator said there was indeed a “smoking saw” — a reference to the reported bonesaw that was brought to dismember Khashoggi — and that Pompeo was being a “good soldier” by toeing the administration’s line.

[...]

“If they were in a Democratic administration,” Graham said of Pompeo and Mattis, “I would be all over them for being in the pocket of Saudi Arabia.”

  WaPo

Precisely. So would that be bullshit, or is it bullshit that the Republican administration is not?

[Republican Senator Bob] Corker also suggested that the briefing last week, which featured Pompeo and Mattis but not Haspel, was entirely misleading.

[...]

Q: After hearing from Haspel today and Mattis/Pompeo last week, was there a difference in the message or the determination that MBS was responsible (for Khashoggi murder)?

*pause*

CORKER: “Um, difference between darkness and sunshine.”

[...]

To be clear, these senators aren’t just accusing the administration of missing the point on Khashoggi; they’re saying they feel misled and that the administration has obscured the truth.

And what do you suppose they'll do about that?

These senators are serving notice that they won’t back down without a fight — a fight that could tar both Pompeo’s and Mattis’s legacies.

Or are they just covering their asses with their constituents by sounding out and doing nothing?

We'll see when the Sanders proposal on Yemen comes to a vote.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rare GOP complaints about Trump action

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker warned the Trump administration on Thursday that its information “clampdown” on the alleged killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi can’t go on.

  Politico

Wanna bet?

The Senate Intelligence Committee is continuing to receive intelligence updates on Khashoggi, an aide said. But Corker said he has been able to view only intelligence that’s a week or more old. On Tuesday he asked to view intelligence in a secure compartment in the Capitol and received an “apologetic” call from an official who informed him that no more information would be given to members of Congress.

[...]

Corker, like many senators, said he believes that bin Salman is likely responsible for Khashoggi’s killing, though he concedes he isn’t yet certain. And the Trump administration’s decision to withhold its most recent intelligence from Corker, an occasional Trump critic, underscores the president’s desire to keep close information that could harm the Saudis’ position among members of Congress.

But even absent a smoking gun, some Republicans have been direct about bin Salman’s involvement.

“This guy is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it? I feel used and abused,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Fox News this week. Bin Salman “can never be a world leader on the world stage.”

The info must be really bad, because there's no reason to believe that the GOP Congress wouldn't rally behind whatever Trump wants to claim.

Corker said he is “disappointed” about the blackout, but he understands why the intelligence pipeline to Congress has stopped. The Trump administration, he said, is trying to regroup in the face of bipartisan outrage toward Saudi Arabia’s possible role in the death of a journalist.

See what I mean?

President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that it “certainly looks like” Khashoggi is dead, calling it “very sad.”

"Sad." That'll really put the fear into MbS.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia this week to discuss Khashoggi’s disappearance and briefed the president on it Thursday.

“They assured me they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi and will do so in a timely fashion. And that his report itself will be transparent,” Pompeo said. “I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that.”

Self-investigation by the Saudis. There's something we can have complete faith in.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 10/20:

Bob Corker: a Republican standard-bearer

Watch this to the end (and the spiteful grin on Corker's face).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

There is too much power in the presidency

And there has been for some time.  Maybe they're starting to understand why that's not good.  Why is the president allowed to make ANY decision on "national security" reasons himself, much less impose tariffs for that reason?

Sen. Bob Corker appears resigned to the fact that the Senate won’t be acting to rebut President Donald Trump on trade policy before voters go to the polls in November.

The Tennessee Republican had previously talked up the possibility of attaching legislation drafted with Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Patrick J. Toomey to a must-pass reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The effort got a lot of attention when it was rolled out, but its apparent death might be much less noteworthy.

The bill would provide a process for reviewing tariff determinations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, like those the Trump administration imposed on steel and aluminum. Specifically, it would require the president to submit to Congress any proposed trade restrictions under Sec. 232 for approval within 60 days.

[...]

With a bicameral agreement reached on the FAA reauthorization that’s become something of a kitchen sink, and the bill needing to move in both the House and the Senate ahead of Oct. 1, Corker’s coalition appears to have no shot of even getting a vote.

[...]

The coalition of GOP critics of the president’s trade agenda, also including Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, won a rather symbolic victory in July. Back then, senators voted, 88-11, to express support for congressional authority over presidential decisions to impose tariffs for national security reasons.

  Roll Call

Well, that was a waste of time, wasn't it? A vote to express support. Then what happened?

The companion proposal that would carry the force of law has been looking ever since for a legislative vehicle that includes revenue language.

Not only is there too much power in the executive, there's a lot of bullshit lawmaking in the Congressional.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bob Corker is leaving; he has nothing to lose

The president personally lobbied Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday to back down on his bill that would put new restrictions on the White House’s ability to impose tariffs.

But Corker told Trump he would not pull his bill, which has growing support on Capitol Hill. Instead, he plans to push ahead, potentially weakening Trump’s hand heading into the G-7 meetings with the divisions among Republicans over trade now fully on public display.

[...]

A meeting among G-7 finance ministers last weekend ended in rancor, with economic officials from the other six members issuing a rebuke of Washington. Unable to agree on a joint statement about the agenda ahead of this week’s summit, the other six economic deputies instead asked Mnuchin to relay to Trump their “unanimous concern and disappointment” over tariffs.

[...]

The two-day meeting in Quebec will be the first opportunity for many heads of state to challenge the U.S. leader in person following the imposition on metals imports.

  WaPo

We'll see.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday that would give Congress new authority to check the president’s trade moves, going forward with the legislation despite a personal appeal from President Trump to back off.

Corker’s bill would require congressional approval when the president enacts tariffs under the auspices of national security, as Trump did last week in imposing levies on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

The legislation, which Corker released with a total of nine Democratic and Republican co-sponsors, is the most forceful congressional response to date to Trump’s protectionist trade agenda. For the first time, at least some Republicans are uniting behind a concrete plan to force the president to change course on trade, after months of pleas and appeals achieved little.

[...]

Trump attempted Wednesday to stave off the legislation. Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is not seeking reelection, said the president called him Wednesday morning and asked him not to file the bill.

But Corker rebuffed Trump’s request. “ ‘I’m a United States senator, and, you know, I have responsibilities, and I’m going to continue to carry them out,’ ” Corker said he told Trump.

Corker said that during a lengthy conversation, the president argued that the senator’s bill would limit Trump’s negotiating authority.

  WaPo

Because he's been so good at it so far.

“It’s a difference of opinion,” Corker said. “He feels that this takes away his negotiating ability, and this in no way takes away his negotiating ability. It’s not any different from him meeting with Kim Jong Un, and, if they reach a deal, him bringing it to the Congress for approval. I’ve explained it’s exactly the same thing.

“He’s obviously not pleased with this effort,” said Corker, who has clashed with the president in the past. “We had a heartfelt conversation. Finally, a lot of time had gone by, and I had other meetings.”

He's going to get tweet-raged as soon as this hits Fox News and His Lordship realizes people other than himself know what happened.

Corker acknowledged that some Republicans are unwilling to cross the president, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has ruled out bringing up the measure as a stand-alone bill.

Mitch McConnell is a disgusting pig.

But Corker’s bill appeared to be gaining traction on and off Capitol Hill on Wednesday. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced its support, as did Koch Industries.

Maybe the Kochs could lean on McConnell.

At the same time, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) played down prospects for a legislative response passing the House.

“You would have to pass a law that he would want to sign into law,” Ryan said. “You can do the math on that.”

The last I knew, Congress can override a veto.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bob Corker is about to be Tweet-slammed

I should hope to god they will. Why wouldn't they? Oh. Never mind.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Keeping score

Aside from Jeff Sessions, Trump keeps score on who hasn't been loyal.  Well, somebody keeps score for him.

Many of President Trump’s political aides made it a priority to ensure that the Tennessean, who has accused the president of “debasing” the country with his “untruths” and “name-calling,” did not reenter the race. So they went straight to the one person with the ability to give Corker a new lease on his political life: Trump himself.

They frequently reminded the president of Corker’s criticism, at times even providing specific examples. They kept folders documenting the attacks from Corker and other Trump detractors.

[...]

On Tuesday, Corker announced that he would not run, ending a stretch of uncertainty that put the Republican Party on edge.

[...]

Corker’s decision ensures one thing: Trump’s two most vocal Senate Republican critics will be gone from the chamber next year, barring further surprises. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has lambasted Trump, is also retiring.

[...]

The White House has also distributed lengthy surveys asking candidates to explain why they like the president and the president’s agenda.

  WaPo

Christ.  Banana Republicans.

Looking ahead to the fall midterm stretch run, the senior White House official said, Trump hopes to be on the road as “often as four or five times as week.”

And if any Republican into whose territory he wanders thinks he's going to do anything but perform a campaign speech for his own re-election in 2020, they're going to be sorely disappointed.

In the case of California, it's an entire state he's punishing.

He doesn't have to make sense to feel like he's successfully punishing someone.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

How Bob Corker was outed on the tax scheme

As the House and Senate moved toward approving the final version of the GOP tax bill, the International Business Times (IBT) revealed in an explosive story Friday that a loophole slipped into the bill in the final minutes will directly enrich President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as wealthy senators and key members of Congress, including the provision’s writers.

[...]

Controversy swirled around the timing of the measure and the fact that deficit hawk Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee abruptly switched his vote in favor of the bill, whose tax cuts the Congressional Budget Office estimated will add $1.4 trillion to the deficit by 2027. Corker had been the lone Republican holdout in the Senate and had previously voted with Democrats against the bill. [...] [Reporter] David Sirota’s IBT reporting quickly went viral as Corker’s apparent cushy accommodation was splashed across social media under the hashtag #CorkerKickback.

[...]

IBT had been closely following the debate over how the tax measure would treat income passed through a tax shelter known as an LLC, a “pass-through” tax entity because profits pass through to its owners who report them on their personal tax returns.

[...]

Which version of the pass through would end up in the final tax bill would be determined by the joint House and Senate conference committee. At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, the committee released a final version that appeared to follow the Senate approach, the more rational version, according to tax experts Sirota spoke to. “At 5:45 we were sort of like, ‘Okay, I don’t think there’s much to really write,’” Sirota said. “‘It looks like they kind of got it out.’ But I said, ‘I’ll talk to a couple of tax lawyers who have been following this.’ And what do you know? One of them comes back to me at 6:15 and is like, ‘You know, they added this one extra line that’s not in either of the bills. It talks about depreciable assets. This is the loophole.’ He said something along the lines of, ‘It’s narrow enough that it shows intent for a specific kind of investment vehicle.’”

[...]

The original House tax cut on pass-throughs, Sirota explained, was broad enough to argue that it was merely an ideological, across-the-board tax cut rather than something that picked specific winners and losers. But the additional line was included with one intent in mind. That line carved out a particular tax windfall for owners of rental-income generators like apartment buildings or commercial office complexes, depreciable property with few or no employees.

“That’s when we realized this is an absolutely enormous story,” Sirota said.

[...]

When asked to comment on the pass-through for a followup story, Corker didn’t seem to be familiar with it, Sirota said. “He called it ‘ridiculous,’” Sirota said. “But then he called back — he must have talked to somebody — and he said, ‘You know, I’m not sure I want to criticize it that way. You know, I need more information. I haven’t really read it. I’ve only read a summary of the bill. I haven’t read the bill.’ Which is, of course, another story: You’re the key vote on a $1.5 trillion [deficit] bill, and you’re announcing your support for it, admitting that you didn’t even read it. So your defense is, ‘I didn’t know about the provision because I didn’t read the bill that I’m voting for.’

[...]

To take the heat off Corker, [Utah Republican Orin] Hatch replied on Monday, insisting that he had authored the loophole.

[...]

However, the Hatch alibi could not withstand new reporting that revealed Corker’s chief of staff, Todd Womack, had been investing heavily in a real estate LLC in the run-up to the bill and also stood to profit from the provision. Worse, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, in a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week, admitted that the decision to include the pass-through came from an effort to “cobble together the votes we need to get this bill passed.”

[...]

Republicans have been redistributing the country’s wealth upwards since the days of Ronald Reagan. What actually is precedent-setting about this tax bill, [Sirota] said, is how explicit it is.

“There’s no pretense in this bill,” Sirota said. “There was a thing the Republicans put out in their summary when the bill came out. I tweeted out the graphic. It was sort of in a section about trying to prevent people from using their LLCs to put their wage income into their LLCs. They called it ‘safeguards’ — and I’m paraphrasing here — ‘We have put safeguards in to make sure that the business income taxes not go to wage earners.’ They are very crystal-clear that this is a tax bill not for workers. This is a tax bill for corporations and business owners."

  Capital and Main

A big fuck you to the people they supposedly represent. Of course we all know who they actually represent, and they don't give a shit if we do.

In all, 14 Republican senators (see list below) hold financial interests in 26 income-generating real-estate partnerships — worth as much as $105 million in total.

[...]

While Republicans have argued the House version of the bill contained the controversial provision, experts have told IBT the provision appeared in the legislation only after the bill was finalized during House-Senate Conference Committee deliberations.

[...]

Beyond Republican senators, other major beneficiaries of the provision could be President Donald Trump, who owns or directs over 560 companies, most of which are LLCs or LPs. Democrats in recent days have seized on the provision — and its potential benefits to Republican lawmakers.

  Zero Hedge

Come on. NO Democrats stand to benefit? I find that hard to believe.

Anyway...here are the Republicans:

I can see how that provision might be a game changer for Corker.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

About Bob Corker

He'll be getting out just in time to hopefully stave off more scrutiny.

I spent most of this past summer investigating Corker, whose personal finances have been an open scandal for years. Everything you need to know about the Senator can be discerned from this chart.

Click on that link and you'll see: Corker went from having an estimate net worth of zero when he entered the Senate in 2007, to being (as of 2015) the fourth-wealthiest man in the Senate, worth $69 million.

  Matt Taibbi

I wonder how you get into the Senate with a net worth of zero. (Actually, the chart shows it at below zero.)

Corker was a country-club Republican who used an old Southern formula to get elected. He benefited from a lurid race-baiting RNC ad that showed a white woman winking and asking Corker's African-American opponent, Democrat Harold Ford, to "Call me!"

Aha.

How do you increase your net worth by 69 million dollars while you're working full-time as a Senator?

[...]

Corker took office in January, 2007, during the last gasp of the Bush/Rove political juggernaut. The Iraq war had gone south and the Republicans had just been routed in midterms. The financial crisis was just around the corner. And nobody paid attention to the smooth-talking freshman Senator from Tennessee, who turned out to have some financial issues.

[...]

It wasn't until Corker took office and filled out disclosure forms that his finances became public – sort of. Few in the media seem ever to have read the "liabilities" section of Corker's first disclosure, where the former mayor and construction magnate listed a series of massive outstanding loans. At the low end, Corker appeared to owe a hair-raising $24.2 million. At the high end, $120.5 million.

He desperately needed that Senate seat then, didn't he?

It has always been Corker's contention that when he sold his business [to a local developer Henry Luken] prior to running for the Senate], his debts were also sold, meaning he was not technically in debt when he went to Washington. Still, he continued to list the loans as liabilities.

Maybe we should check into that sale to Henry Luken.

But even if the loans were discharged when he sold his company, it's what happened after Corker got elected that boggles the mind.

[...]

Corker tested the limits of the profiteering possibilities in the legislative branch, essentially becoming a full-time day-trader who did a little Senator-ing in his spare time.

In the first nine months of 2007, Corker made an incredible 1,200 trades, over four per day, including 332 over a two-day period.

With a little insider help perhaps?

"Soon after taking office in January of 2007, rather than continuing to have a broker make discretionary transactions on his behalf throughout the day or week on a wide range of stocks in various companies, the senator felt it would be prudent to eliminate this arrangement," Johnson said.

[...]

I can offer no commentary shedding light on what this means, except to say that at the bottom of all of this is the still-incontrovertible fact that Corker made a truly awesome number of financial transactions while in office.

By 2014, when Corker sat on the Senate Banking Committee, a position that gave him regular access to prime information about the future direction of the markets, the Tennessee Senator still had his foot on the gas. He made 930 stock trades that year.

Of his colleagues on the committee, Rhode Island's Jack Reed made 39 trades, Pennsylvania's Patrick Toomey 26, and nobody else made any – meaning Corker made 93.5% of all trades made by the legislators most plugged-in to the country's finances.

[...]

Corker's activities didn't go completely unnoticed. A few ethics groups cried foul over the years.

Anne Weismann, director of the Campaign for Accountability, which filed a complaint against Corker in 2015, described Corker's trading history in damning terms.

"Senator Corker's trades followed a consistent pattern," she said. "He bought low and sold high. It beggars belief to suggest these trades – netting the senator and his family millions – were mere coincidences."

[...]

Corker's name sometimes comes up in stories about other members of Congress who trade auspiciously and often. There are conflicting views on the propriety of such activities, and Corker has never been formally censured.

Of course not. There's a nice little racket going there for more than just him.

When Corker took on Trump this fall – saying the White House was "an adult day care center" and that Trump's behavior threatened "World War III" – he suddenly became a darling of sorts in the liberal media.

Now he's a bad guy again, for reportedly doing what he's always done, acting in his own financial interest while earning a paycheck as a U.S. Senator.

A very, very wealthy bad guy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

About that tax bill

[W]hen you’ve got a bill being compared to the Fugitive Slave Act, you’ve got a really dead fish on your hands—and the Republicans are now looking like such big fools in the gyrations they’re doing trying to pass it that they’re pretty much writing the Democratic commercials for 2018 every time they get in front of a microphone. Monday’s carnival act was Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who’s retiring after this term and who, apparently, would like us to believe that he’s already checked out.

Corker, you may recall, opposed the original Senate tax bill because it will send the deficit spiraling into the Van Alen Belt, and he is what the pundits like to call a “deficit hawk.” Late last week, though, he came around and announced that he would be voting for the bill, which pretty much put paid to any Democratic attempt to jam things up, Lisa Murkowski having already been swayed by the vision of oil derricks against the Arctic sky and Susan Collins being god knows where from one moment to the next. However, at the last minute, a number of people—most notably, David Sirota and the crew at the International Business Times—noticed that a late revision in the bill would stand to make both Corker and the president* a pile of dough.

  Charles P Pierce

A last-minute addition to the tax plan will benefit people invested in real estate.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn then went on This Week [...]

STEPHANOPOULOS: [This provision] apparently was added at the last minute. Why was that done? Why was it necessary to include that provision?

CORNYN: Well, we were working very hard. It was a very intense process. As I said, the Democrats refused to participate. And what we’ve tried to do is cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed.

OK, so Cornyn didn’t say flat-out that they were trying to tempt Corker off his perch but, as I always say, a nod is as good as a wink to a blind trust. Naturally, on Monday, Corker pronounced himself shocked—SHOCKED!—at the suggestion that he might have changed his position because he stood to profit handsomely from doing so.

He also claimed he hadn't even read the new provision.

“I never saw the actual text.” Despite not reading the bill -- and having time to read it before the final vote scheduled for this week -- he reiterated his support for the bill...

Looked at in the best possible light, Corker’s conundrum illustrates the unseemly haste with which this transformational adjustment of the tax code was cobbled together in order to get the president* and the congressional Republicans a “win” before Christmas. At worst, it looks like Corker got bought off.

Call me jaded, but I suspect it's the latter. Collins, Rubio/Lee and Murkowski were both bought off with their own special deals.

Looked at in the best possible light, Corker’s conundrum illustrates the unseemly haste with which this transformational adjustment of the tax code was cobbled together in order to get the president* and the congressional Republicans a “win” before Christmas. At worst, it looks like Corker got bought off.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Will they get it done?

I don't think it's spine he lacks.  I think it's empathy.  After all, he's leaving.  He doesn't have to make a choice to appease anyone.

I also read that Collins may well vote yes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Aaaaand there it is

They couldn't keep him from naming names very long.

A love fest!  Jesus, what a ridiculous POS.

The "love fest" is between him and the mirror.

Fight - Round Three?

Addressing the media on Capitol Hill, the outgoing Tennessee Senator [Bob Corker] again blasted Trump for what he deems a failure of leadership.

“You would think he would aspire to be the President of the United States. And act like a president of the United States,” Corker said. “You know, that’s just not going to be the case apparently. And it’s up to others who serve in an elected capacity — whether they’re governors or mayors or senators — to try conduct themselves in a manner that is more becoming of a leader. He’s obviously not up to that.”

And then he made this remarkable claim about the White House staff.

[I’ve had] multiple occasions where the staff has asked me to please intervene. He was getting ready to do something that was really off the tracks.

  Mediaite

D'oh! (Video of Corker's comments here - and there's much, much more.)

“I’ve seen no evolution in an upward way. As a matter of fact, I would say it appears to me that it’s almost devolving.”

Another Corker video wherein he says he's just given up on trying to get Trump to "rise to the occasion" of being president.

Keep it comin', Bob.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Keep 'em coming, Bob

As Senate Republicans prepared to meet with President Donald Trump on Tuesday during their weekly caucus lunch, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told NBC News on Monday that the meeting is just a photo op.

“Tomorrow’s a photo op. Nothing more, nothing less, and I think to read anything more into it would be spending a lot of time on something that shouldn’t be spent a lot of time on,” he told NBC News.

  TPM

Go, Bob, Go

In the midst of this highly ambitious [tax plan] agenda, which even the most skilled and focused administration would be hard-pressed to carry out on time, Trump is … raising beefs with two Republican senators whose votes he badly needs [...] John McCain and Bob Corker.

[...]

You gonna take that, Donald? Huh?

Republicans have 52 votes in the Senate. Minus McCain and Corker, they have zero margin for error. They would need every other vote, including Susan Collins’s. Trump may believe that his social-media bullying campaign is an effective way to prod recalcitrant members of his party into line. It has certainly worked many times before — his crude insults of people like Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio resulted in their eventually submitting. But Trump may not be distinguishing between young pols on the make and retiring senators who have nothing to lose.

  NY Magazine

Why do people continue to talk like The Most Notable Loser thinks about anything? He's nothing more than a giant gasbag with every nerve exposed, who constantly hits out but can't take a punch. He has no scruples. He has no empathy. He has nothing resembling a functional brain beyond the base stem.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

What Glenn says is at least partially true. Politicians rarely speak up when their career might suffer. Same with military people. They wait until they're out with their big pensions. Still. I'm all for anybody squeezing The Most Notable Loser's corpuscles. I'm waiting to see his head explode.

I don't know about the part that Corker gained courage after being attacked by the Dotard.  Could be true that he wouldn't have done it otherwise, but I don't know.  From things I've read, he started having trouble with The Most Notable Loser right away.

“The president has great difficulty with the truth,” Corker said in a CNN interview at the Capitol, where Trump is due to meet with senators later in the day to forge consensus on a tax reform plan. “He is purposely breaking down relationships we have around the world that had been useful to our nation.

“I think the debasement of our nation is what he’ll be remembered most for.”

  Raw Story

And Corker is spreading it far and wide.  CNN, ABC.

“When you look at the fact that we've got this issue in North Korea and the president continues to kneecap his diplomatic representative, the secretary of state, and really move him away from successful diplomatic negotiations with China, which is key to this, you're taking us on a path to combat,” Corker told "Good Morning America" today.

[...]

Corker, as Trump plans to travel to Capitol Hill today to pitch tax overhaul to Senate Republicans during their policy lunch, said, “What I hope is going to happen is the president will leave this effort, if you will, to the tax-writing committees, let them do their work and not begin taking things off the table that ought to be debated in these committees at the proper time.”

  ABC

That was in reference to Dolt 45's tweet saying 401(k)'s are not going to be touched, in contradiction of an earlier report.

[Corker] added that when it comes to the diplomatic efforts underway to manage the rising tensions with North Korea, he would like for Trump to “leave it to the professionals for a while.”

Ready for the nasty tweets. Let the show begin.

That was quick.

(Of course Corker has previously disputed that statement about his decision not to run again.  He - and "sources" - say The Most Notable Loser was trying to convince him to run again.)

Aaaaaanyway...I can't get this post typed fast enough.  He's still spewing bile this morning....

He can't do anything like a normal person.   (Should I wait a few minutes for his next tweet or go ahead and post?)

Corker has got him steamed up.

Okay, Federica, McCain.  Head on over to CNN and pile on.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rebuttal from the Times Reporter

Don't worry.  Trump supporters will never see the rebuttal.

Who's the Fool?

Nasty man.  And it's another lie.  Times reporters are probably always recording, and Corker would know that.  (Think about Scaramucci.)  I read somewhere (can't find it now) that Corker called the Times, not the other way around. He would only have called them to vent about Trump if he expected them to print it.  And even if he didn't initiate the call, he knew his interview would be printed.  He's not as stupid as the president and all the people who believe the asshat.

He said on Sunday that he had made all those comments deliberately, aiming them at “an audience of one, plus those people who are closely working around with him, what I would call the good guys.”

  NYT

Deadly wildfires in California, two mainland states still struggling to recover from hurricane damage, US territories devastated by a hurricane, ongoing protests in St. Louis over racial injustice and police brutality, US military personnel killled in Niger, North Korea launching nuclear missiles - need I go on? - and this is what's on Dolt 45's pea brain.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: From the Times reporter: