Deep Schmitt

Take it like Tucker.

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A week filled with enough stunningly incorrect predictions to conclusively prove he isn’t psychic has left Jonah in an especially pensive mood. Consequently, today’s Ruminant quickly transforms into a rundown of the greatest hits from a string of misses. Jonah kicks things off with a discussion of Tucker’s firing—has Fox really changed?—before moving into a mea culpa surrounding the debt ceiling bill that passed in the House. Afterward, he addresses a veritable feast of populist asinities on subjects ranging from the boneheaded response to a new Barbie to the cult of the Uniparty. Let the great beclowning commence.

Show Notes:

–Talking Fox on the Dispatch Podcast

–Michael Brendan Dougherty and Noah Rothman on Megyn Kelley’s podcast

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  1. Avatar photo
    Hawks Law Office

    Enjoyed your commentary on Living Constitutionalism, but would add that constitutional originalism also supports a living (small l) Constitution. To understand why, I recommend discussing with Sarah and David the difference between constitutional interpretation and constitution construction. The former focuses on the semantic meaning of constitutional text (i.e. its communicative content); the latter asks how that semantic meaning is properly applied in a given case. Thus, originalists believe that the Constitution is "alive" in two ways: first, Article V allows us to change the semantic meaning of a clause or section by properly following the amendment process; but, second, when semantic meaning cannot resolve a case by applying the "letter" of the law, methods of constitution construction are used to make the same Constitutional language adaptable to new circumstances by applying the "spirit" of the law (i.e., its original purpose or function) in good faith to give effect to both the letter and spirit. Living Constitutionalism is rejected by originalists because it either seeks to change textual meaning outside the Article V process and/or uses constitutional construction in bad faith to change the textual meaning to get the desire result.

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  2. Paulkohlhoff

    People too stupid to know they’re stupid saying things to ignite their base but detracts from serious discussion of serious issues pretty much sums up the last 7 years of GOP politics.

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    1. Bobby D

      I’d suggest that it started with the farce of nominating Sarah Palin to be McCain’s running-mate in 2008. Despite being a conservative, I voted for Obama as an anti-Palin vote. When he and she lost, I figured that sanity would return. And then came Glenn Beck, the women who was a witch, the “legitimate rape” guy, and so on.

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        Thomas Grimmer

        As a (Northeast Catholic conservative) friend of mine said at the time: "I loved how she got conservatives engaged and excited. I hated every time she opened her mouth."

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        1. Bobby D

          I’m with Jonah in thinking that enthusiasm is rarely a good thing. I save my enthusiasm for things like cigars, scotch, and French wine.

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  3. Bobby D

    The pro-life movement has always been a mixed bag. There are many who are morally committed to the cause and have deep moral convictions concerning the sanctity of life from conception. This group is mostly comprised of Catholics and mainline Protestants.

    The movement also contains many who lack moral convictions concerning the sanctity of life (if they’re being honest), and who tend to oppose abortion because they’re opposed to feminism. I grew up within the New Calvinist movement of the 1990s, which was replete with guys like Crowder. In my two decades within that movement, I can’t remember a single instance of adoption, or even an encouragement to volunteer to crisis pregnancy centers. The white evangelical movement is only rhetorically pro-life. The white evangelical movement’s stance on abortion derives from its fierce opposition to feminism and its embrace of a kind of “bro culture” akin to what Crowder promotes. These comments by devout white evangelicals like Greene and Crowder aren’t odd anomalies. The truth is that most white evangelicals, like Greene and Crowder, are opposed to abortion but not because they have pro-life convictions.

    As someone who has pro-life convictions, I believe that the pro-life movement’s unwillingness to purge itself of the non-pro-life, anti-feminist, anti-abortion crowd is problematic.

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  4. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    You could always open the podcast by saying, “Greetings Dear Listeners (including those of you etc etc etc)…”

    Just kidding.

    One theory of the case on Tucker: among other reasons, he may have been fired in part to send a message to everyone else at Fox. If Tucker can be axed, nobody is safe. He had the highest ratings, and if they’re willing to expend him then Hannity and the rest are likewise just as expendable. Tucker’s loose cannon talk, his “pissing inside the tent” (badmouthing Fox and its management), alienating advertisers, unwillingness to get in line these last couple weeks, all just go along with that. By getting rid of Tucker, Murdoch has just scared everyone else in the organization (at least the ones who needed to be scared). Now he can guarantee some loyalty.

    Steven Crowder is a profoundly weak male. An adult male (I won’t call him a man) who publicly makes fun of a little girl with Down’s Syndrome? That isn’t just boorish and gross. It’s pathetic. I would call it childish but that’s an insult to children - the vast majority of whom aren’t cruel enough or insecure enough to do something like that.

    My condolences again on your mother’s passing. Honestly if you wanted to raise money from the TD audience for that mortgage I’d pitch in a little bit.

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    Good one, Jonah. I listened to Megan Kelly’s podcast with Noah Rothman and Michael Brandon Dougherty. She really laid into Noah a couple of times over her anger of Fox’s treatment of Tucker. I could somewhat see her point, and yet I have trouble feeling sorry for Tucker.

    I think Noah soon decided it wasn’t worth arguing with her, and it was probably just as well. She quickly turned to MBD so the two of them could commiserate over Tucker’s treatment. I’m glad I got to listen to that first because your take on things makes much more sense. I hope you do have her on your podcast. Maybe she’d have a better conversation with someone who was actually at Fox when a lot of this was going on.

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  6. Sam19952005

    Have a great party for your mom! I know the people who know you are impressed and proud of you.

    As for the rest of the podcast, thank goodness these type episodes are only 10-20% of the Saturday solos. Sometimes you just cannot stop...it's your show and we are your fans.

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    This comment has been deleted

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    Kevin Johnson

    God bless you and your family. It is inspiring to hear your travails. Some day you will have the best story about the unresponsive person at the venue. I will think of you and yours often, but especially at my next visit to the brewery. Celebrate your fabulous mom, over and over. The idea of the house for your daughter sounds great, although we never know what the youngs will want. We bought a place in Colombia partly to link our kids to their history. It is sweet to see you ask the right questions at key moments, especially about things we all know are impossible to answer. You are a mensch, and bring joy to many of us.

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    Kevin Johnson

    Great stuff. MBD may be righteous in intent, but here he seems blind to the essence of something (Tucker’s Trumpkinism) because he likes the other stuff. Kelley is almost comical in her lawyerly defense of things that are immaterial to the major things you point out. Tucker seeks to mislead people about Trump’s attack on our system. I worry that right-wing worship of Kelley will delay the realization that the Trump Project was a disaster. I think MBD furthers this too…but he is seen as partisan. Many good folks seem glad to land on Kelley as new truth teller. She is fine as a smart voice…but watch out as she picks and chooses dangerous populist stuff.

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      Anne W (Raw5254)

      I had trouble listening to her tirade. I want to like her, and she is smart, but I started thinking she leans a little too far to the right for me. Along with that, her defense of Carlson’s show was over the top. I couldn’t believe how she laid into Noah Rothman! Frankly, she would make a great replacement for Carlson, but for obvious reasons, that’s never going to happen.

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  10. Guycatelli1

    Though you may not want to read this, Caesar was in fact very successful at getting legislation passed -- even a decade before he crossed the Rubicon. The won-loss legislative record of, eg, Cicero, Brutus, Cato, Cassius, Bibulus, Lentulus, Clodius, Balbus, Appius Claudius, Metellus Celer, Atticus, Cinna, Catulus (with one "l"), was much less impressive.

    Once Caesar did cross the Rubicon, within months he got himself legally declared "Dictator", a not unprecedented title. But not too long after that, he was declared "Dictator for Life", in effect a king -- a capital crime in Rome for centuries. That much success, at getting legislation enacted, sealed his fate.

    Part of the fascination with reading Cicero's letters about the key players in the mid-1st-century BC is the foreknowledge that with every passing day, each player is getting closer to his respective violent end.

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