This is exactly why I liked that rhetorical flourish. It persuades, it informs people where he stands, and its a clear rallying cry around the hypocrisy.
It wouldn't be the first time. Powell mentioned it
implicitly in one of her lawsuits:
Mead v. Sheffield.
All she really needs to do is prove that there were enough illegitimate ballots cast to throw doubt on the election, and the entire lot of them would be chucked out. There's already been a precedent set for it, and these fiddly, little nuances are why I keep telling people to hold off on making a definitive judgement until all the chips are off the table and all the chairs are pushed in.
I'm holding out a lot of judgement until SCOTUS looks at some of this, or straight refuses to. That's gonna set up the tone and tenor.
I thought the meltdown over RBG was about her being a liberal deity being replaced with an orang man pick.
Fun fact, Ginsburg was a swing vote. She did not always side with the liberals, as she had a legitimate judicial philosophy. While she is the origin point for the Living Constitution philosophy, hers wasn't merely an excuse to side with the left and had considerably more nuance. She also fucking hated the Roe v. Wade decision despite being the lawyer to the party who won. She was far from a liberal darling until recently, and only then because she was the closest to death and they NEEDED to prop her up until after the election.
This is another weird thing about the Powell case. It is criminal so it will take six months to a year. Everyone expects it to fail at lower courts and get appealed up to the SCOTUS.
So even if her legal filing was literally 100 pages of spelling mistakes and QAnon lunacy it doesn't matter. And it's not. I'm about one-third of the way through and it seems pretty credible.
To put it in perspective
Jim Garrison spent ages trying to accuse people of killing JFK. His case was complete shit and it still went on for ages. Oliver Stone made a film about it and now probably the majority of the population think he's a hero, not a complete nutcase. Same with the Russia collusion stuff. Totally meritless but it still convinced half or more of the population.
And Powell, like Rudy, only has to convince a majority of Republicans the election was in doubt to get them to put pressure on the state legislatures. We know from polls a staggering
97% of Trump voters already think that (
archive).
We also know
30% of Democrats and 47% of the population think it too (
archive). That will only increase as the lawsuit and hearing bombardment continues and the media refuses to address the arguments.
Her lawsuit, shockingly NOT absolute bullshit, is aimed squarely at attacking the one big wrench in the works for freeing the legislatures from worrying. The Executive Branch.
The legislature is -god- here, whatever they order be done will be done. The problem is that they are under pressure from three sides, the populous, the executive, and the judiciary.
For the populous, they are inundated by the media saying there is no evidence, people want Trump to concede, get on with it. This no popular mandate for action.
For the executive, they are under attack by the RINOs and Democrats above them who are doing all they can to rush the results forward and block any meaningful action.
For the judiciary, they are in uphill battles where by proving what is going on is -hard-, and until SCOTUS nothing is final.
Rudy's stuff is combating the first and third, Powells is combating the second one.. Rudy is convincing them there is a problem, here is the evidence, here is your popular support. While also gaining legal advantage through attacking the procedural failures. "Here are the signs of fraud, but legally we have to come at this from the angle of it merely being mistakes". Its the most likely to get something done judicially.
Powells though is tailored towards the second. Nothing can be done to stop the executive branches here... but they can undermine the authority and hold they have on the legislature. Its likely why Powell has been so... ahem, vocal and krakeny. Get eyes on it, ensure the legislature SEES it, let them know the executive is compromised and free them to do what they will.
Personal take here: Its sound strategy, but relies on moving a third part (The legislatures) to action. If it gains any actual traction, that''s your weakpoint and where the democrats will -hammer- their opposition.
I want Trump to pardon Assange and Snowden next, just to make Biden and Obama lose their fucking minds.
I also believe that Snowden is an American Patriot and did absolutely nothing wrong. Fuck the NSA.
Right -now- it'd be politically opportune. A lot of the state legislatures and Trump allies are at least somewhat hostile towards both and he needs to avoid alienating anyone.
Once the results are known, good or bad, though....
