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Thune Says Senate Will Reject Electoral College Challenge

It’s not the ringing condemnation of Donald Trump’s fascism that South Dakota and the nation need to hear, but at least South Dakota’s senior Senator is pouring cold water on the flames of Trump’s election derangement:

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, warned on Monday that efforts to challenge the Electoral College vote in Congress next month would fall short in the Senate.

The GOP senator — who has publicly and privately pushed back against the effort being led by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) — argued that it would be futile to force both chambers to vote on an objection to the Electoral College vote that is “not going anywhere.”

“I mean, in the Senate, it would … go down like a shot dog,” Thune told reporters. “I just don’t think it makes a lot of sense to put everybody through this when you know what the ultimate outcome is going to be” [Jordain Carney, “No. 2 GOP Senator: Efforts to Overturn Election Would ‘Go Down Like a Shot Dog’,” The Hill, 2020.12.21].

A shot dog? That’s a wiener injected with Foster’s, right?

Even if Thune isn’t sending code to Gooney McBuckshot that he’ll serve brats at the boogaloo, he isn’t “slamming” the Trump coup crankers. He’s just observing that the Senate doesn’t have the votes to sustain an attempt to throw out Electoral College votes. That’s a little lighter than his milquetoast acknowledgment of President-Elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory last week, when he blandly referred to “people who feel strongly about the outcome of this election” and said “it’s time for everybody to move on.” Thune has failed to follow up with the direct condemnation of Trump’s efforts to foment “wild” protests in the streets of Washington on January 6 to support his mad bid to illegitimately cling to power.

Senator Thune, I’m glad you’re confident the Senate will reject any Electoral College challenge. I’d be gladder if you’d say why—because you recognize the illegitimacy and danger of the Trumpist traitors who want to use force to overthrow our Constitution and the rule of law. Even if Trump whimpers out of the White House on January 20, his fascist followers are sticking with us like lamprey eels committed to sucking the life out of Western democracy; we need you and other Republican leaders who still believe in our Republic to bravely, consistently, and daily renounce this attack on our American ideals.

11 Comments

  1. Moses6 2020-12-22 12:11

    Well now has Thune found his big boy pants.Lets wait to hear if Mike says anything.

  2. grudznick 2020-12-22 12:31

    Shot dogs and lamprey eels in the same blogging. A wonderful day for grudznick because I rarely read about those two things together.

  3. Mark Anderson 2020-12-22 13:30

    I liked Thunes statement it seemed so South Dakotan. Then I read yours Cory, a wiener injected with fosters is a show stopper. Its all bars at closing time.

  4. o 2020-12-22 13:54

    Senator Thune never allowed his reply to lapse into personal responsibility: he never said HE would shoot down the President’s attempt to overthrow the election. He never said HE rejects the President’s attempts to commit sedition. It is “the Senate” that will not allow this, and that is not the same thing. It is as if he is still looking for political cover more than make a definitive, personal statement of his position.

  5. leslie 2020-12-22 14:50

    Jethro Thune reveals his Murdo roots shooting dogs for fun.

  6. Anne 2020-12-22 14:58

    A friend who has been a Senate staff member says that some GOP members are beginning to fear how their association with Trump and those who signed on to the Texas suit will be politically disastrous to them. Talk is that Barr resigned so quickly so he would not have to vote on an Amendment 25 movement that some think might be necessary with Trump becoming completely out-of-control over the election loss.

  7. leslie 2020-12-22 15:09

    Or it gives Trump cover to get a pardon from Pence on the way out. Barr is just selfishly covering his own. He doesn’t have a moral bone in his fat “Catholic” body.

    See comments that covid failure is direct responsibility of 52 senators who failed to convict impeachment.

  8. grudznick 2020-12-22 19:42

    Mr. Trump is probably going to be angry about this, until Mr. Thune shoots his dog. I’m just sayin…

    (for those bloggers into Mr. H’s visual depictions, Mr. Thune is the shooter of dogs, probably with a bolt action .30-’06 wit a 4x cross-post scope, or maybe a lever action 30-30 with an open iron sight, and Mr. Trump is the eel)

  9. jerry 2020-12-22 20:39

    Vladimir Thune is a shooter of bull, that’s all.

  10. John Dale 2020-12-23 02:20

    One must crawl before one walks.

    One must present evidence after an objection and a second.

    Thune, like anyone else, would be wise to see the evidence presented, then decide.

    But then, Thune is also in hot water with conservative groups who want him to be more hawkish on the budget.

    I would look for a conservative up-and-comer lady to politically knee cap him.

    At this time, I do not think that’s Borglum, but I time will tell ..

Comments are closed.