A Few Words About Slime April 25, 2022April 24, 2022 “In an escalation of partisan warfare, a little-known dark-money group is trying to thwart the President’s entire slate,” writes Jane Meyer in the New Yorker. The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens Of Biden Nominees . . . An explicit purpose of the American Accountability Foundation—a politically active, tax-exempt nonprofit charity that doesn’t disclose its backers—is to prevent the approval of all Biden Administration nominees. While the [Katanji Brown Jackson] hearings were taking place, the A.A.F. publicly took credit for uncovering a note in the Harvard Law Review in which, they claimed, Jackson had “argued that America’s judicial system is too hard on sexual offenders.” The group also tweeted that she had a “soft-on-sex-offender” record. As the Washington Post and other outlets stated, Jackson’s sentencing history on such cases was well within the judicial mainstream, and in line with a half-dozen judges appointed by the Trump Administration. When Jackson defended herself on this point during the hearings, the A.A.F. said, on Twitter, that she was “lying.” The group’s allegation—reminiscent of the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that liberal élites are abusing and trafficking children—rippled through conservative circles. Tucker Carlson repeated the accusation on his Fox News program while a chyron declared “jackson lenient in child sex cases.” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the extremist representative from Georgia, called Jackson “pro-pedophile.” . . . {T]he A.A.F.’s approach underscores the growing role that secret spending has played in deepening the polarization in Washington. Rather than attack a single candidate or nominee, the A.A.F. aims to thwart the entire Biden slate. The obstructionism, like the Republican blockade of Biden’s legislative agenda in Congress, is the end in itself. . . . Worth reading in full. What the Republicans have done to Saule Omarova, for example, is similar to what Putin has done to Zelensky, telling the Russian people that Zelensky is a Nazi without mentioning that he is Jewish whose ancestors were killed in the Holocaust. Up is down, black is white. (Saule Omarova is not a communist — she worked for a Wall Street law firm and served in the Geroge W. Bush Treasury Department. As she notes, it was not her choice to be born in the Soviet Union.) It’s one thing for Putin or Stalin or Goebbels to do this kind of stuff. But in falling into line behind Trump’s Big Lie — even after 61 judges found zero evidence of foul play in the election — have the Republicans gone a step too far as they purport to fight for morality? BONUS Dead oligarchs. Just Putin’s way of saying, “You’re fired”? (Thanks, Nick.)