Rattus rattus
"Truth on our level is a different thing from truth for the jellyfish." -- T. S. Eliot
Yesterday I watched a documentary similar to the great episodes of "Wild Kingdom" I enjoyed many years ago. What was truly amazing was that it was live. It was about a rat attacking a jellyfish. And not just any rat, but a Rattus rattus, commonly known as a "house rat." And the rat attack came in the House against the defenseless, out of water jellyfish.
The disembodied voice of a ournalist said, "This is the first time in history that this has happened." That is correct. However, had he been Richard Marlin Perkins, that journalist might have connected some kind of recent events with another House rat, at least it qualifies as pretty recent if you are my age.
Newt Gingrich resigned from being Speaker before getting booted out. He had qualities much closer to Gaetz's than that of the jellyfish. Newt used timing to become the Speaker of the House, and he had more juice in the party than Matt does. But Gaetz thinks that now is his time to make a bold move within the republican's aquarium.
Advocating government shut-downs? Newt led two in 28 days. He thought that would be evidence of his being a populist rat. He was also convinced that impeaching President Clinton would result in republican picking up 30+ seats. But he was wrong when thinking that the common family would embrace a rat in their house.
No, house rats are actually destructive. They spread germs and viruses similar to those left on a theater seat by Lauren Boebert. They leave a stench.
Now, while Gaetz is of a lower intellectual capacity than Newt, we can recognize their goals as the same: a combination of self-promotion and a desire to destroy the federal government. Both have tried to rapidly increase the rat population in the House. Yet, as we know, when Rattus rattus over-populate, they begin to fight among themselves. Rats such as Majorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert provide an example.
After watching the vicious rat attack, I saw the corpse of the jellyfish talk to reporters. It was half-Richard Nixon's bitter 1962 concession press conference, and half- Sponge Bob Square Pants. Thus, it was funny, but not really funny.
Needing something to make me laugh loudly, I next watched the defendent's deposition with the NYS Attorney General's Office. If you haven't watched it yet, I promise it is a giggle.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It’s been such pleasure reading your essays all these years (Mar 2004). You’ve kept me sane. 
Like the alley behind the unregulated butcher's, the freaking Internet is crawling with them.
Roger Stone and ‘Ratf—ing’: A Short History
The flamboyant political aide is often tagged with the term. But its origins—and Stone’s relationship with the word—are complicated.
By BEN ZIMMER January 25, 2019
Roger Stone, now under indictment on several counts related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, has always reveled in being a political mischief-maker. It’s a reputation he has burnished since he was 19 years old, when he was involved in the “dirty tricks” operation of Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign. More recently, he bragged publicly about purported contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign, the subject of Friday’s indictment.
When asked in the 2017 documentary Get Me Roger Stone why he has embraced the role of “dirty trickster,” he shrugged and said, “Well, I’m stuck with it now. It’s going to be in the first paragraph of my New York Times obit, so I might as well go with the flow.”
“Dirty trickster” is one thing. But Stone, who says he will plead not guilty to the charges against him, hasn’t been so eager to embrace another, more profane Nixon-era label with which he’s often tagged: “ratfucker,” or a political operator who engages in roguish behind-the-scenes behavior to undermine rivals. He’s inexorably linked to the term, even if he doesn’t like it. “Stone’s specialty is being a ‘ratfucker,’” wrote Will Greenberg of Mother Jones in 2017. Abigail Tracy of Vanity Fair called him a “professional ratfucker” last year—a description echoed by the Law & Crime website after Friday’s indictment.
Where did the word “ratfucking” come from, and how did Stone become one of its prime targets?
As first recounted by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men, the term “ratfucking” entered the lingo of the Nixon campaign thanks to Donald Segretti, who was hired by his old college friend, Dwight Chapin, to sabotage the campaigns of Democrats running in the 1972 primaries. As undergraduates at the University of Southern California, Segretti and Chapin, along with other future Nixon staffers including press secretary Ron Ziegler, had been involved in a group called Trojans for Representative Government that gleefully engaged in shady tactics to win campus elections.
“The Trojans called their brand of electioneering ‘ratfucking,’” wrote Woodward and Bernstein. “Ballot boxes were stuffed, spies were planted in the opposition camp, and bogus campaign literature abounded.”
CONTINUED...
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/25/roger-stone-and-rating-a-short-history-224218/
Big. Big fucking rats. And good dogs know what to do with them after catching them.
After Boebert and her consort were escorted out.
(thanks for the )
A more thorough cleansing and stronger disinfectant will be required to e-rat-icate the current stench in the US House of Representatives.
