The Commentariat -- December 20, 2017

Afternoon Update:

Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "The House, forced to vote a second time on the $1.5 trillion tax bill, moved swiftly to pass the final version on Wednesday, clearing the way for President Trump to sign into law the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades.... The final House vote was essentially a formality, as the changes, which were made to comply with Senate budget rules, did not significantly alter the overall bill."

*****

** Thomas Kaplan & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Republicans took a critical step toward notching their first significant legislative victory since assuming full political control, as the House and Senate voted along party lines on Tuesday and into early Wednesday to pass the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades. The $1.5 trillion tax bill, which is expected to head to President Trump's desk in the coming days, will have broad effects on the economy, making deep and lasting cuts to corporate taxes as well as temporarily lowering individual taxes.... The Senate voted 51 to 48, with no Republican defections and no Democratic support.... The day was not without hiccups, however, as several small provisions in the tax bill were found by the Senate parliamentarian to violate the budget rules that Republicans must follow to pass their bill through a process that shields it from a Democratic filibuster. As a result, the House will need to vote again on the tax bill, probably on Wednesday, since both chambers must approve identical legislation. The approval of the bill in the House on Tuesday came over the strenuous objections of Democrats, who have accused Republicans of giving a gift to corporations and the wealthy and driving up the federal debt in the process.... The House voted 227 to 203 to pass the bill, with 12 Republicans voting against it and no Democrats voting for it. Eleven of the 12 Republicans were from California, New Jersey and New York, states that would be hit hard by a provision in the bill limiting the deduction for state and local taxes.... 'Today, we are giving the people of this country their money back,' Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said before the House vote. When the bill passed the House, a giddy Mr. Ryan smiled broadly and banged the gavel with force as he declared victory." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: You've done enough, Mr. Ryan. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? ...

Look, we expect that it likely will, certainly on the personal side, could cost the president a lot of money. -- Sarah Sanders, yesterday

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post already gave that one . Sometime, just to throw us off, you should try moving your lips without lying. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

... Adam Cancryn of Politico: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) thinks criticism of her support for the tax heist is "unbelievably sexist." "She's also been criticized for conditioning her support for the Senate's tax bill on passage of a pair of bills aimed at stabilizing Obamacare markets. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to her they will pass -- but House Republicans have balked at any 'bailout' for insurers. That prompted speculation that her demands won't be met, as it's still not certain that the House will accept the insurance measures in a year-end spending bill." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Really, Senator? You're taking money out of Mainers' pockets & giving it to Donald Trump & what irritates you is that pundits have suggested GOP leaders have duped you? And that's so sexist? Well, I for one don't think you've been duped. I think you know exactly what you're doing -- transferring money from ordinary Americans to people like yourself. Your vote on this bill is conscious & unconscionable. Getting all huffy about it doesn't make your shameful act of Grand Theft America any less shameful. I'd say the same about every one of your deplorable GOP colleagues, of whatever gender. Now don't you feel a little grateful that some people think you're just a dimwitted naif & not a mean, craven hypocrite? On the other hand, I've been picking on Bob Corker just because he's a man. ...

     ... Anyway, let's find out what-all the GOP leadership is doing to keep its ObamaCare promises to you. ...

     ... Rachel Bade & Jennifer Haberkorn of Politico: "Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are about to lock horns over Obamacare -- part of a House-Senate clash that needs to be resolved by Friday to avert a government shutdown. McConnell promised moderate GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine that he would prop up President Barack Obama's signature health law in a must-pass, year-end spending bill -- so long as she backs tax reform. But Ryan's more conservative conference is flatly rejecting that idea and urging the Wisconsin Republican to stand firm against his Senate counterpart.... If [Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer [N.Y.] doesn't back the subsidies language -- or the funding bill altogether -- it's possible that McConnell won't have the votes to move the legislation through his own chamber, letting Ryan off the hook." ...

     ... Collins Bills DOA in House. Alice Ollstein of TPM: "Just a few hours before the Senate prepares to vote on a massive overhaul of the American tax system, a host of House Republicans told reporters that the promises made to secure the vote of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) have no chance of passing the lower chamber and becoming law. Collins announced Monday that she would vote for the tax bill based on promises from President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to support two health care bills aimed at mitigating the expected damage from the tax bill's provision killing Obamacare’s individual mandate." ...

     ... Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the "The No. 2 Senate Republican, said Tuesday that the GOP's tax bill will make Obamacare 'unworkable,' which he hopes will force Democrats into negotiations to replace the law.... Senator John Thune [South Dakota], the No. 3 Senate Republican, also said he hoped there would be a bipartisan deal but said another option is trying to find 50 votes for a modified version of the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: But you know Mitch is going to tell Susan he really, really tried to keep his promise to her & Susan is going to look "concerned" all the way to the bank. Is it "unbelievably sexist" to call this whole charade a Kabuki dance? ...

.. Alex Shephard of the New Republic: "Over the course of the year, [a few] Republicans have condemned Trump on the Sunday shows and on social media. And now they have banded together to give Trump a major victory: not only a historic restructuring of the tax system, but also a partial repeal of Obamacare.... These Republicans have alternated between bolstering Trump and chastising him, but have never acted with any larger strategy or taken any meaningful action to constrain a president they distrust.... The reason they have caved to Trump is because, for all their objections to Trump's tweeting and the innumerable ways he has damaged democratic traditions in this country, concerns about the deficit or the integrity of the Oval Office or the rule of law or the rights of minorities simply don't have much traction in the modern Republican Party. As many have noted, it has only one, unifying agenda: tax cuts and deregulation. As a result, the efforts to reform Trump's Republican Party from within have all collapsed, out of deference to these narrow policy goals." ...

... Rebecca Kysar & Linda Sugin, in a New York Times op-ed: Republicans have built a tax "system that will not last." The writers blame, in part, the GOP's choice to exclude Democrats from the process. But the writers, who are both law professors, also cite a number of the soon-to-be law's most glaring deficiencies. Most of them we know, but here's one we've missed: "On the international side, an area badly in need of permanent reforms, Republicans have erected planks that appear to violate World Trade Organization agreements. Eventually the United States is likely to have to repeal major parts of the law or face sanctions. Rather than ending tax maneuvers in which corporations shift money abroad, the international system envisioned by the bill actually loses money. What's more, the new international system arguably increases incentives for offshoring assets and income." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon me for being a suspicious witch, but it seems likely that the instability of the tax heist is actually a feature -- one which benefits GOP members of Congress only (okay, and some of their lobbyist friends). Suppose Republicans had done what they campaigned on: a middle-class tax cut, a simplified tax code & a lower corporate rate, which, by eliminating loopholes more equally distributed the burden on corporations. Okay, done. Their donors AND voters are happy. But by creating tax law that Democrats are bound to dismantle ASAP, Republicans have a permanent cudgel with which to batter their donors: "If you don't support us bigly, you will lose all the generous cuts we gave you." This bill uses GOP donors' greed to satisfy the GOP Congress's greed. Neat. ...

... Mark Murray of NBC News: "The tax plan ... has grown more unpopular in the last two months, with nearly two-thirds of Americans believing it's designed mostly to help corporations and the wealthy, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In addition, the survey finds that Democrats have overtaken Republicans on which party better handles the economy -- their first lead on this question since 2013 and their largest since 2009." ...

... "The Trump Tax." Dana Milbank: "The deeply unpopular bill has the support of only a third of Americans, most of whom (correctly) perceive that it's a giveaway to rich people and big corporations.... USA Today reported last week that the bill had 'the lowest level of public support for any major piece of legislation enacted in the past three decades, including the Affordable Care Act in 2009.'... Republicans are making impossibly high promises, and if anything goes wrong -- if the economy doesn't boom, wages don't soar and the middle class doesn't rebound -- it will be the fault of this legislation, soon to be labeled 'the Trump Tax' by Democrats.... While the 'forgotten man' Trump lured with phony populism gets little benefit, the things that bothered the forgotten man about the tax code -- a tangled mess of loopholes for businesses, the rich and Wall Street -- remain intact." ...

Why are my taxes going down and my assistant's is going up? Can someone explain how that is fair? -- Jason Harbor, a real estate investor ...

... Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "The tax bill soaks some ... rich Americans -- but it does not soak the richest.... Some executives are already calculating that they will be paying additional seven-figure sums in taxes. OK, you might want to get out get out your smallest violin.... The two most popular games for the very wealthy will be running their income through pass-through companies, which pay a lower rate, or using a corporation to pay themselves a tiny salary and huge dividends, which will be taxed at the lower capital gains rates.... Private equity and real estate executives, as has been well documented, will make out like bandits under the new system. According to the Tax Policy Center, 5 percent of taxpayers would pay more in taxes in 2018; 9 percent in 2025 and 53 percent in 2027." ...

"The Stealth Repeal of ObamaCare." Joanne Kenen of Politico: "Obamacare survived the first year of ... Donald Trump, but 's badly damaged. The sweeping Republican tax bill on the verge of final passage would repeal the individual mandate in 2019, potentially taking millions of people out of the health insurance market. On top of that, the Trump administration has killed some subsidies, halved the insurance enrollment period, gutted the Obamacare marketing campaign, and rolled out a regulatory red carpet for skimpy new health plans that will change the insurance landscape in ways that are harmful to former President Barack Obama's signature health care law. None of these individually represent a death blow. But in aggregate, the past year adds up to a slow, stealthy erosion of the law. 'They obviously couldn't kill it, so they're trying to starve it slowly,' said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which helped write the original law."

The Trumpeteers -- All for One & (Sometimes) One for All. Jonathan Chait: "Trump and the congressional Republicans ... have essentially merged into a politically coterminous entity. Trump has absorbed all the liabilities of the congressional party, while his distinctive grossness largely extends to them. Nothing has brought together the union quite so vividly as the tax cuts, Trump's singular legislative achievement, and one the entire party has greeted almost ecstatically.... Americans see the Republican Party as enriching its donor class, and the president personally, at the expense of the broader public. Republicans have addressed these liabilities by simply lying about them.... The regular Republican Party of tax cuts for the rich and deregulation of polluters and the financial industry once seemed to be set apart from its clownish demagogue presidential candidate. In rapid order, the strands have merged together into a party disdainful of transparency and united in self-enrichment."

Ed O'Keefe of the Washington Post: "Democrats are backing away from a pledge to force a vote this month over the fate of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, angering activists but probably averting the threat of a government shutdown at a critical moment in spending negotiations with Republicans and President Trump. With a deadline of midnight Friday to pass spending legislation, dozens of Democrats had vowed to withhold support if Republicans refused to allow a vote on a measure, known as the Dream Act, that would allow roughly 1.2 million immigrants to stay legally in the United States. But a group of vulnerable Democratic senators facing reelection in conservative states next year aren't willing to go that far -- meaning the party is unlikely to muster the votes to block the spending bill." ...

... Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Top senators and White House officials are laying the groundwork for a major immigration deal in January to resolve the fate of young undocumented immigrants whose legal protections were put in limbo by ... Donald Trump." Mrs. McC: Read the story & draw your own conclusions. It looks to me as if this group of senators is acting more-or-less in good faith, while colossal dickhead John Kelly is refusing to tell them how high a U.S.-Mexico border wall he & Fuckface von Clownstick will demand in return for not deporting these young Americans.

Amanda Terkel of the Huffington Post: "The Senate banking committee rejected ... Donald Trump's choice to lead the Export-Import Bank on Tuesday, voting 10-13 against advancing his nomination to the full Senate. Two Republicans joined with Democrats in opposition. Scott Garrett, who was a tea-party-aligned Republican congressman from New Jersey until he lost his re-election bid in 2016, has faced intense opposition from the business community ― including corporations like General Electric Co. and Boeing> ― and many traditional GOP allies, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers. That's because Garrett once wanted to shutter the institution that he now is trying to run, and he consistently voted against reauthorizing it. In 2015, he lambasted the Export-Import Bank as an institution that 'embodies the corruption of the free enterprise system.'... Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.) and Tim Scott (S.C.) were the two Republican votes against Garrett." ...

... Zachary Warmbrodt & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "The decision by a bipartisan group of senators to block ... Donald Trump's pick to lead the Export-Import Bank marked a stinging defeat for Vice President Mike Pence, who worked for months to boost the nomination despite doubts from some administration officials. Pence continued to push senators to support former New Jersey Republican Rep. Scott Garrett's nomination to lead the bank until the final hours before the Senate Banking Committee met for a vote Tuesday morning.... [Pence & Garrett] served together in the House and are said to share similar worldviews." Mrs. McC: It is discouraging to be reminded that there are others who share pence's pinched "worldviews."

The Top Trumpeteer. Everything Good Is Because Trump. Michael Scherer & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "During the first presidential debate in September 2016, then-candidate Donald Trump argued that the booming performance of the stock market under the Obama administration should not be trusted. 'Believe me: We're in a bubble right now. And the only thing that looks good is the stock market -- but if you raise interest rates even a little bit, that's going to come crashing down,' Trump said. 'We are in a big, fat, ugly bubble. And we better be awfully careful.' More than a year later, President Trump has turned similar record stock market bench marks into his favorite measure of his personal success in office. [Mrs. McCrabbie P.S.: the Fed has raised interest rates three times this year & five times since the financial crisis of 2008.]... 'DOW RISES 5000 POINTS ON THE YEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER -- MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' the president tweeted ... Tuesday, marking the 58th time he has mentioned the stock market on Twitter since taking office.... In recent weeks, the president has taken full credit for market performance, even though the recent rate of increase largely matches the bullish run under Obama, which began after the market hit bottom in 2009.... Presidents traditionally have avoided commenting directly on stock values.... Part of the reason is that stock gains typically are not felt by many voters who remain frustrated by their economic situation."

Michelle Nichols of Reuters: "The 193-member United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on ... Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, sparking a warning from Washington that it will 'take names.'... U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of U.N. states on Tuesday..., warned that the United States would remember those who voted for the resolution.... 'The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue,' Haley wrote. She echoed that call in a Twitter post: [']The U.S. will be taking names.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I doubt leaders of other countries care about your empty threat, Madame Ambassador. Your crazy boss has turned a once-admired great nation into a pitiful, if dangerous, rogue state. Even if & when the Congress or the voters throw him out of office, the damage he has done will be long-lasting. Who would trust a country where someone like Donald Trump can become its titular leader & a compliant legislature props him up? Rather than making a list & checking it twice, you might want to try seeing oursels as ithers see us. ...

     ... OR, as Marvin S. put it more succinctly in yesterday's thread, "... America First is working. Looks like we no longer have any allies."

What the Russia Matter Is Really About:

I think this past weekend is illustrative of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that's what he's doing with the president.... You have to remember Putin's background. He's a KGB officer. That's what they do. They recruit assets. And I think some of that experience and instincts of Putin has come into play here in his managing of a pretty important account for him, if I could use that term, with our president. -- James Clapper, on CNN Sunday ...

... ** Martin Longman of Booman Tribune: "James Clapper spent over a half a century working in the American intelligence community, capping his career with a six-year stint as the Director of National Intelligence. It's true that he lied to Congress in 2013 about what kinds of information the NSA collects on U.S. citizens, a crime exposed by Edward Snowden and for which Clapper paid no price whatsoever. You shouldn't forget that when assessing his credibility, nor should you ignore the fact that career intelligence professionals aren't necessarily or generally known for being forthright and honest in their public statements.... Yet, even a skeptic has to note the highly unusual spectacle of a customarily taciturn and circumspect intelligence officer of Clapper's rank accusing the president of being a witting agent and pawn of the Russian state.... His opinion is shared widely in the intelligence community which is precisely why Clapper felt free to express it without any concern that he'd be seen as a kook or somehow shunned by his peers. He was speaking for them, or at least a large plurality of them." Longman links Clapper's remarks to the Steele dossier & points out that Robert Mueller's team "serve[s] and answer[s] to a president whom they highly suspect of being compromised at best and a witting agent of a hostile foreign power at worst." ...

... John Schindler, former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer, in the New York Observer: "... [James] Clapper went on CNN to drop an unimaginably large bombshell on ... Donald Trump.... America's most experienced spy boss publicly termed our president an asset -- that is, a witting agent -- of the Kremlin who is being controlled by Vladimir Putin. Even if meant only 'figuratively,' this is the most jaw-dropping statement ever uttered about any American president by any serious commentator.... This, of course, is precisely what Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation are trying to get to the bottom of -- and, not coincidentally, what President Trump and his supporters are trying just as hard to prevent Team Mueller from unraveling.... In our Intelligence Community, it's widely understood that Donald Trump possesses longstanding ties to the Kremlin which are at best suspect and at worst reflective of an unsettling degree of Russian influence over our commander-in-chief." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Say, have we mentioned that the publisher of the New York Observer is Jared Kushner? (The site is now in a "blind" family trust, but guess what? His brother-in-law Joseph Meyer is the current publisher, making the "blindness" of the trust exactly as sight-impaired as are the doings of the Trump Organization is to one Donald Trump.) Everything is getting curiouser & curiouser. ...

... Paul Waldman: "If Trump's allies thought the facts would prove the president's innocence and that of everyone else involved, they wouldn't be in such a panic.... But there's one Republican who's convinced Trump will be fully exonerated: Donald Trump.... The latest twist, however, is one that could bring the scandal to an entirely new level. Mueller's team has obtained thousands of emails written by members of Trump's presidential transition team.... As Mueller's spokesperson said in response to the White House's assertion that the GSA shouldn't have given Mueller the emails, 'When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process.' The repetition of the word 'criminal' should send shivers down a few people's spines." ...

What Winger Conspiracy Theorists Say the Russia Matter Is All About:

... Eli Watkins of CNN: "... Donald Trump's eldest son suggested Tuesday that the investigation around his father's campaign has been fueled by government higher-ups who have conspired to block the President's agenda. 'There is, and there are, people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America,' Donald Trump Jr. told a gathering of young conservative activists in West Palm Beach, Florida.... In his remarks Tuesday, Trump Jr. railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and attacked the media's coverage of the Russia story, saying the ongoing probe was emblematic of the kind of 'rigged system' the President had railed against during the campaign." ...

... Annals of "Journalism," Fever Swamp Edition. Daily Beast: "A Fox News guest-host on Tuesday suggested the FBI plotted to assassinate ... Donald Trump before he took office. While discussing the text messages of two bureau agents formerly working on the FBI's probe of Russian election interference, right-wing radio host and Outnumbered guest-host Kevin Jackson said he hopes the Senate Judiciary Committee presses deputy FBI chief Andrew McCabe on whether certain texts point to a specific intent, 'whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever.'" Mrs. McC: Just another day at Fox "News." ...

I think ... the Clintons and their operatives in the FBI ... are going to go ahead and make their move to kill the president. I think in the next 30 days, I think they're going to make an assassination attempt. I just -- my gut -- I see all of them together, they're that desperate. They're either going to give up or they're going to activate their cells. -- Alex Jones, Monday ...

I'll take a wild guess & vote for "they're going to give up." That Hillary just has no stamina. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

... Kyle Swenson of the Washington Post: "... on Tuesday, [Republican] criticism [of Mueller's investigation] hurtled across an even more extreme line, when Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson suggested the FBI might have had plans to assassinate President Trump. It's a conspiracy theory that has already been percolating on the extreme fringe, the petri dish for much of the 'deep state' rhetoric.... By his own admission, Jackson's fears of assassination came from 'social media stuff.' But the Fox News commentator was picking up on a frequency beamed out only a day before by InfoWars's Alex Jones.

Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The White House has taken down a popular online tool created by President Barack Obama's administration that allowed the public to create online petitions, some of which required an official response. All of the petitions, including one that called on President Trump to release his tax returns -- the most popular, with more than a million signatures -- disappeared from Petitions.WhiteHouse.Gov as part of what a statement posted on the site said was part of a maintenance effort to improve its performance. The statement said that the site, as well as all of its existing petitions, would be restored by the end of January.... The Trump White House has not responded to any of the petitions that have circulated on the site since the president took office, many of which have taken a particularly grave tone." Emphasis added.

Fake News Quashes EPA Covert Ops. Rebecca Leber, et al., of Mother Jones: "The Republican PR firm that was awarded a $120,000 EPA contract for media monitoring has pulled out of the deal, days after Mother Jones first revealed the controversial arrangement. The no-bid contract drew widespread scrutiny in recent days, in part because the for-profit firm, called Definers, is overtly partisan and& is connected to a network of GOP political groups ... that have performed opposition-style research on environmentalists.... Mother Jones first reported on Definers' EPA contract on Friday. Later that day, the New York Times reported that an employee at the firm had filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests seeking records from EPA staffers who had been critical of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. The controversy continued to grow over the weekend. On Tuesday, two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) and Kamala Harris(Calif.), called for the contract to be canceled. The senators quickly got their wish." ...

... MEANWHILE. AP: "The head of the Environmental Protection Agency used public money to have his office swept for hidden listening devices and bought sophisticated biometric locks for additional security. The spending items, totaling nearly $9,000, are among a string of increased counter-surveillance precautions taken by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who also requires around-the-clock protection by an armed security team." Mrs. McC: If he can't spy on employees, employees can't spy on him. So there. Maybe living in a cloud of pollution has made Scott Pruitt crazy.

Never Mind. Josh Gerstein & Renuka Rayasam of Politico: "A looming Supreme Court showdown over abortion rights for immigrant children in federal custody appeared to be defused Tuesday night after the U.S. government released one of the pregnant teens at the center of the fight, citing new evidence that she is an adult. Lawyers for the Trump administration said a birth certificate for the immigrant known in court filings as Jane Roe shows her to be 19, not 17 as previously thought.... The Justice Department said the immigrant was turned over to ICE and released on her own recognizance. That leaves her free to seek an abortion if she wishes to do so."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Cardinal Bernard F. Law, whose stature as archbishop of Boston and America's senior Roman Catholic prelate was shattered in a maelstrom of scandal, acrimony and resignation in 2002 after revelations that he had protected abusive priests for years, died Wednesday. He was 86 and lived in Rome. The Vatican confirmed the death in a news release." ...

     ... The Boston Globe, which broke the stories on how Law aided serial child molesters who were priests in the Boston diocese, has links to numerous stories about Law on its front page. They are firewalled, so you can read them only if you have a subscription.

Beyond the Beltway

Your Vote Matters. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "The balance of power in Virginia’s legislature turned on a single vote in a recount Tuesday that flipped a seat in the House of Delegates from Republican to Democrat, leaving control of the lower chamber evenly split. The outcome, which reverberated across Virginia, ends 17 years of GOP control of the House and forces Republicans into a rare episode of power sharing with Democrats that will refashion the political landscape in Richmond. It was the culmination of last months Democratic wave that had diminished Republican power in purple Virginia. Democrat Shelly Simonds emerged from the recount as the apparent winner in the 94th House district, seizing the seat from Republican incumbent David Yancey. A three-judge panel still must certify the results, an event scheduled for Wednesday. Of the 23,215 votes cast in the district on Election Day, Yancey held a lead of just 10 votes going into Tuesday's recount. But five hours later, after a painstaking counting overseen by local elections officials and the clerk of court, Yancey's lead narrowed -- and then reversed. The final tally: 11,608 for Simonds to 11,607 for Yancey."

The Commentariat -- December 19, 2017

David Sanger & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump declared Monday that the United States faced growing competition from Russia and China, two great-power rivals that he said 'seek to challenge American influence, values and wealth.' But Mr. Trump, in presenting a new national security strategy that carried distinct echoes of the Cold War, said nothing about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, even though the official strategy document itself warns briefly of 'Russia using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Mr. Trump referred instead to a Sunday telephone call from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who thanked him for intelligence that the C.I.A. had passed on to Russian authorities, which Mr. Trump said foiled a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg that could have killed thousands of people.... Mr. Trump's speech seemed oddly divorced from the 55-page document, a blueprint for American policy on issues including jihadi extremism, space exploration, bio-threats and pandemics. Speaking to an audience that included cabinet members and military officers, the president delivered a campaignlike address, with calls to build a wall along the nation's southern border with Mexico and a heavy dose of self-congratulation for the bull market, the low jobless rate and tax cuts, which he said were 'days away.'" (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I doubt Trump ever read the 55-page policy paper, that his briefers kept him in the dark on matters that might upset him, as usual, & his speechwriters tailored his remarks to suit his prejudices & predilections. ...

     ... Update. Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "A White House spokesman on Monday couldn't say whether President Trump had read the administration's new national security strategy in its entirety. The comment came after CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked national security spokesman Michael Anton if Trump had read all of the 55-page strategy document rolled out earlier Monday. 'The president has been involved in the drafting of it from the beginning, has been presented with sections of it over the past many months and was briefed on the final document several weeks ago,' Anton replied. 'The president himself personally led the presentation of the document to his Cabinet only about a week ago,' he added. 'But has he read the whole document?' Blitzer pressed. 'I can't say that he's read every line and every word. He certainly had the document ... and has been briefed on it,' Anton said." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Anton, who is a total Trumpestuous ass, may soon find himself out of a job anyway. Instead of hedging on Trump's grasp of "his own" policy, he was supposed to tell Wolf, "Read it? He wrote it! The President is a genius, blah blah blah." ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "The year 2017 has seen a supercharged hurricane devastate Puerto Rico, wildfires raging out of control in California, and a catastrophic rainfall event in Houston.... There is convincing evidence that the massive amount of carbon humans are pumping into the atmosphere played a key role in all of these occurrences. The Trump administration's reaction: This is fine. In its new National Security Strategy, which President Trump will announce in a speech on Monday afternoon, the administration will drop climate change in its list of threats to the nation. Instead, it will focus on securing the country's border and a plan for 'economic security,' which involves an aggressive posture toward China and (somewhat surprisingly) Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Polina Nikolskaya of Reuters: "The Kremlin dismissed ... Donald Trump's new national security strategy as imperialist on Tuesday, but welcomed Washington's willingness to cooperate in some areas."

Zeeshan Aleem of Vox: "The Trump administration angered much of the world earlier this month by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A startling UN Security Council vote Monday showed how far America's closest allies are willing to go to try to force the White House to change course.... [Fourteen] of the 15 members of the UN Security Council approved a measure 'expressing deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,' a clear nod to the Trump administration. The US immediately vetoed the resolution, but the overwhelming margin of the initial vote highlighted the administration's growing isolation over Jerusalem. The measure was drafted by Egypt, one of the Trump administration's closest allies in the Arab world, and drew support from Britain, France, and other nations with longstanding and warm ties to Washington.... It's extremely rare for the UN Security Council to pass measures targeting the US, let alone ones that require the US to veto the resolution itself rather than assuming one of its allies would do so instead."

Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials.... The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton.... The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said.... Trump was 'briefed and warned' at the session about potential espionage threats from Russia, two former law enforcement officials ... told NBC News. A source close to the White House said their position is that Trump was unaware of the contacts between his campaign and Russians.... The situation was complicated by the fact that the FBI had already become aware of contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia, and was beginning to investigate further.... By the time of the warning in late July or August, at least seven Trump campaign officials had been in contact with Russians or people linked to Russia, according to public reports. There is no public evidence that the campaign reported any of that to the FBI." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: "The official position" is baloney. Even if Trump were unaware of his staff's contacts with Russian officials & operatives -- which I highly doubt -- he had a responsibility to take steps to ensure that the campaign was not being and had not been compromised or infiltrated by foreign adversaries. Clearly, he did not do that. ...

... Josh Marshall: "I think that tells us what we should already know: that Trump and his top advisors knew they were doing something wrong, even if it might not have gone so far as 'collusion'.... And since they knew it was wrong they worked hard to keep it secret and hidden.... FBI and FBI counter-intelligence agents knew that Trump had at least troubling ties to Russian organized crime, money-laundering and possibly intelligence operators long before the campaign." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "... Donald Trump insists he's not going to fire Robert Mueller, but that's not stopping Republicans and others close to the president from orchestrating a relentless stream of attacks on the credibility and integrity of the special counsel and his team of Russia investigators.... The purpose of the onslaught, according to people close to the White House..., is to sow public doubt about Mueller and his prosecutors in advance of upcoming criminal trials -- and to give the president political cover if he wants to start issuing pardons to any current or former aides swept up in the Russia scandal." ...

... Jonathan Chait figures that instead of firing Robert Mueller, Trump will fire Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who "has exercised close and frequent oversight over the special counsel. If Trump wanted to stop Mueller's work, he could replace Rosenstein with a more pliable figure." Chait suspects that one reason Rosenstein would be an easier hit is that he's Jewish. ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe. Trump does stereotype Jews, but that may be more because he's fairly simple-minded than because he's antisemitic. I think the real reason Trump might fire Rosenstein is the same reason he considered withdrawing Neil Gorsuch's name from consideration (story linked below) & why he fired Jim Comey & Steve Bannon: these men did not show perfect loyalty to the king. A Trump courtier can't just kiss the ring; he must prostrate himself daily. Also, Rosenstein has neither the name recognition nor the universal admiration by Republicans that Mueller once enjoyed. ...

... **Asha Rangappa in Just Security: "... Trump has recently expressed dissatisfaction with Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Rod Rosenstein, calling him 'weak' and a threat. Along with those comments, the Washington Post reports that 'Trump appeared to be contemplating changes in the Justice Department's leadership.' In short, there's a good chance that the guillotine is poised for Rosenstein, not for Mueller -- and if so, that is cause for even greater concern for all who care about the integrity of the Russia investigation and, yes, the rule of law.... The Russia investigation existed independently of Mueller before he was appointed.... Mueller simply stepped in to an already-existing investigation and carried it forward with a team of prosecutors with greater independence but still oversight from the Justice Department.... Rosenstein is effectively Mueller's boss.... In short, the president has one move he can make in which the benefits to him might outweigh the costs.... Trump has great discretion in deciding whether to remove him and can do it quickly and directly. And by removing Rosenstein but not touching Mueller, Trump can claim that he is in fact not trying to interfere with the Russia investigation at all: Indeed, it could be very hard to prove otherwise, which insulates him significantly from further obstruction charges. Firing Rosenstein but keeping Mueller gives the president the ultimate political and legal protection...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: In addition, Rosenstein smacked Trump upside the head this week. Andrew Prokop of Vox: "Rosenstein repeated in congressional testimony last week that he believes he is the only person who has the authority to fire Mueller, that he believes he legally can't fire Mueller without 'good cause,' that he's seen no good cause to fire Mueller yet, and that he would not carry out an order to fire Mueller without that good cause." These remarks violate Trump Rule No. 1: "I'm the only one that matters." (It's true that Trump was talking about State Department policy at the time, but you can be sure that Rule No. 1 applies everywhere.) ...

... Stay Tuned. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House lawyers are expected to meet with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's office late this week seeking good news: that his sprawling investigation's focus on President Trump will soon end and their client will be cleared. But people familiar with the probe say that such assurances are unlikely and that the meeting could trigger a new, more contentious phase between the special counsel and a frustrated president, according to administration officials and advisers close to Trump. People with knowledge of the investigation said it could last at least another year.... The special counsel's office has continued to request new documents related to the campaign, and members of Mueller's team have told others they expect to be working through much of 2018, at a minimum." ...

... All of Hillary's Opponents Were Russian Stooges. Emma Loop of BuzzFeed: "The top congressional committee investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has set its sights on the Green Party and its nominee, Jill Stein.... Producers from RT News, the Russian state-funded media company..., booked Stein for several appearances, [a Stein campaign worker] said.... When asked Monday what the committee was looking for from the Stein campaign, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the committee's chairman, responded, 'collusion with the Russians.' Burr said that the committee is 'just starting' its work investigating two campaigns, but did not elaborate.... Stein's name has also come up in the context of a 2015 dinner hosted by RT in Moscow. Stein sat at the same table as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn...."

** Dana Milbank has some swell suggestions not only on many words & phrases Trump should ban but also on replacements for the banned words. "... an all-out vocabulary blockade, enforced by an armada of language police -- could be Trump's ticket to survival." For instance, "Trump should probably ban the word 'irony' after his attorneys argued that the '.gov' emails from his transition team are 'private' property and not 'official' -- even though Trump's defenders argued the opposite when defending Michael Flynn's Russia contacts during the transition as 'official' and not 'private.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: I also notice that Trump's transition team lawyer was claiming "presidential communications privilege" -- even though during the transition Trump, of course, was not president. And, as we all know, he has never been "presidential." ...

... Speaking of "Not Presidential":

... Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "For nearly eight months, President Trump has boasted that appointing Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court ranks high among his signature achievements. But earlier this year, Trump talked about rescinding Gorsuch's nomination, venting angrily to advisers after his Supreme Court pick was critical of the president's escalating attacks on the federal judiciary in private meetings with legislators. Trump, according to several people with knowledge of the discussions, was upset that Gorsuch had pointedly distanced himself from the president in a private February meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), telling the senator he found Trump's repeated attacks on the federal judiciary 'disheartening' and 'demoralizing.' The president worried that Gorsuch would not be 'loyal,' one of the people said, and told aides that he was tempted to pull Gorsuch's nomination -- and that he knew plenty of other judges who would want the job." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: So Trump not only expects the Justice Department (including the FBI) to be loyal to him, he also expects supposedly nonpartisan justices -- the leaders of a whole 'nother branch of our checks-and-balances system of government -- to be loyal. I can't decide if Trump is more mafia boss or more banana-republic-style dictator.

The Republican M.O.: Privatize the gains, socialize the losses. -- Unwashed, in today's Comments ...

... Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Republicans return to Congress this week with victory in sight on their long-awaited tax bill as the House and Senate gear up to vote on the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul as soon as Tuesday. The bill's expected passage along party lines had Democrats scrambling over the weekend to try to pressure a late supporter of the legislation, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, to vote against the bill. With just a 52-48 majority in the Senate, Republicans have little room for defections given that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, is getting medical treatment in his home state and is not expected to return to Washington in time for the vote. Democrats are now looking to change the trajectory of the bill by convincing Republicans who had initially wavered on the bill to vote against it this week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Corker Kickback, Ctd. Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday shot down reports that a tax break for real-estate developers was 'air-dropped' into the final GOP tax bill and that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) had pushed for it. 'Both assertions are categorically false,' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in a letter to Corker. Hatch's letter comes after a request from Corker on Sunday to get more information about how a provision relating to pass-through businesses ended up in the final tax legislation. The provision in question allows capital-intensive pass-through businesses to receive more tax relief.... Hatch said he is 'disgusted' by press reports that have 'distorted' how the provision originated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, because many members of Congress & big donors have real-estate investments set up as pass-throughs, not just Corker. This is a gift for many GOP friends & donors. Hatch didn't want to forget any of them. Also, too, Hatch's "tell" is high dudgeon. Whenever he gets really indignant, it's because he's been caught doing something, well, "disgusting." ...

... Eric Levitz of New York: "... there is, nonetheless, a farcical aspect to the outrage that the 'Corker Kickback' has generated. The IBT story uncovered circumstantial evidence that Corker traded his vote for a tax provision that benefits him personally. This was treated as a scandal. And yet, just two weeks ago, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson said -- publicly and repeatedly -- that he would vote against the Senate bill unless it provided a larger tax break to pass-through businesses, like the one that his family owns. Mitch McConnell relented, Johnson collected his ransom, and the whole incident was covered as a legitimate policy dispute.... The 'Corker kickback' is a small piece of the tax bill; the broader [Johnson] pass-through deduction is a pillar of it.... When lawmakers craft regressive legislation reviled by the public and [their own] experts alike, it stands to reason that their work is being corrupted by special interests." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Whatever the Republicans' protestations, this malodorous [Corker pass-through] loophole is further confirmation that congressional leaders are doing everything they can to maximize benefits for the wealthy at the expense of almost everybody else.... All told, the 20 percent deduction for pass-through income would cost the government $414.5 billion in lost revenue over 10 years, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. To put that number into context, it is about 29 times as much as the roughly $14 billion a year that the federal government spends on the Children's Health Insurance Program, which covers nearly nine million kids from low-income families. Congress let authorization for that program lapse at the end of September. The tax bill's generosity toward real estate titans stands in stark contrast to its stinginess toward the average wage earner as well as its very real damage to taxpayers in high-cost states." ...

... Trickle-Down Corruption. Paul Krugman: "Unless something drastic happens, this will be the week Republicans ram through a tax cut that adds more than a trillion dollars to federal debt while undermining health care for millions. They will do so by violating all previous norms for major legislation, having held not a single hearing and rushed to a vote before the new senator from Alabama could be seated." Krugman cites three reasons why. "The final, and most disturbing, possible explanation for the behavior of Republican legislators is that they're supporting legislation, knowing that it's bad for both the country and their party, because it's good for them personally.... [Bob] Corker denies that he had any role in adding that provision. But he has offered no coherent alternative explanation of what changed his mind about voting for a bill that explodes the deficit. We may never know exactly what happened with Corker. But there's every reason to believe that Republicans in Congress are taking their cues from a president who openly uses his office to enrich himself." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The idea that Trump led politicians to be corrupt is farcical; however, his blatant corruption may encourage politicians to be more open about their own corruption. So you get some old hands like Hatch & Corker who still take umbrage at suggestions of impropriety; but others, like Ron Johnson (thanks, Wisconsin!) -- who is admittedly the stupidest man in the Senate -- openly demands he receive a personal kickback.

One of the Best People Is Withdrawing His Nomination. John Wagner & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Matthew Petersen, a nominee to the federal judiciary, has withdrawn from consideration days after a video clip showed him unable to answe basic questions about legal procedure, the White House confirmed Monday. Petersen, nominated for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is the third Trump judicial pick to withdraw in the past week amid criticism from Democrats and others about their qualifications.... The video of Petersen that went viral Thursday captured five minutes of pointed questioning by Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) at Petersen's confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee the day before." ...

... Kevin Dupuy of WWL-TV (New Orleans): "Kennedy told WWL-TV Monday that he did not know that Petersen was so inexperienced for the position. 'Just because you've seen 'My Cousin Vinny' doesn't qualify you to be a federal judge,' Kennedy said. 'And he has no litigation experience. And my job on the judiciary committee is to catch him. I would strongly suggest he not give up his day job.' Kennedy said that Trump called him Saturday to talk about the nominee. He said Trump did not personally interview Petersen and the nominations were chosen by his staff. 'He has told me, "Kennedy, when some of my guys send someone who is not qualified, you do your job,"' Kennedy said Monday." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: I dunno. Petersen could have learned something about criminal procedure from Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gywnne):

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Alex Kozinski, the powerful judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit who was facing a judicial investigation over allegations that he subjected 15 women to inappropriate sexual behavior, announced Monday that he would retire effective immediately. In a statement provided by his lawyer, Kozinski apologized, saying that he 'had a broad sense of humor and a candid way of speaking to both male and female law clerks alike' and that, 'in doing so, I may not have been mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace.'... The announcement comes just days after The Washington Post reported that nine more women had accused Kozinski of making sexual comments to them or of other conduct, including four who said he touched them inappropriately. That story followed an earlier report in The Post, which detailed the allegations of six women, including former clerks who said Kozinski showed them porn in his chambers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Josh Gerstein & Renuka Rayasam of Politico: "The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to block an abortion for a teenage girl in immigration custody, even as federal officials gave up their fight to prevent another undocumented immigrant teen from terminating her pregnancy. The moves came just hours after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to permit abortions as soon as Tuesday evening for both pregnant 17-year-old girls being held in federally funded shelters in different states. The Justice Department did not provide a detailed explanation of its decision to acquiesce in one girl's decision while continuing to seek to block the other teen from getting an abortion, but simply cited 'differing circumstances.'... Since the start of the legal battle, the administration has maintained that undocumented minors in federal custody have no legal rights to abortion."

"The Year in Resistance." Michelle Goldberg: "... while Trump has given his followers the liberal tears they crave, that victory contains the seeds of its own reversal. Trump has done more to spur progressive political organizing than Bernie Sanders, George Soros and Saul Alinsky combined. The president once warned that if he fell, he'd take the entire Republican Party down with him. Thanks to the Resistance, he might still have the chance."

Patricia Mazzei in the New York Times: "Facing mounting evidence that Puerto Rico has vastly undercounted the number of people who died because of Hurricane Maria, Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló ordered on Monday that every death on the island since the calamitous storm be reviewed. Officials will look again at all deaths attributed to natural causes after the hurricane, which made landfall Sept. 20 and knocked out power to 3.4 million Puerto Ricans -- and to their hospitals and clinics. Parts of the island are still without power almost three months later, and the power grid is operating at only 70 percent of capacity. The prolonged blackout hampered critical medical treatment for some of the island's most vulnerable patients, including many who were bedridden or dependent on dialysis or respirators. But if they died as a result, the storm's role in their deaths may have gone officially unrecorded."

The Tyranny of Pharma. Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The zigzagging trajectory of the price of Daranide, now known as Keveyis, shows just how much freedom drug companies have in pricing therapies -- and what a big business opportunity selling extremely-rare-disease drugs has become. It also illustrates how well-intentioned policy to help spur the development of 'orphan' drugs for very rare diseases can have unintended consequences.... The price has been on a roller coaster in recent years -- zooming from a list price of $50 for a bottle of 100 pills in the early 2000s up to $13,650 in 2015, then plummeting back down to free, before skyrocketing back up to $15,001 after a new company, Strongbridge Biopharma, acquired the drug and relaunched it this spring."

Kristine Phillips of the Washington Post: "TV and radio personality Tavis Smiley continues to push back against allegations of sexual misconduct, accusing PBS, which has suspended distribution of his late-night talk show, of mishandling its investigation into the accusations.... He admitted he has had consensual sexual relationships with subordinates, but he said those relationships were neither prohibited nor coerced. He also denied firing or threatening employees with whom he had a relationship.... PBS fired back Monday, saying in a statement Smiley 'needs to get his story straight.' A PBS spokeswoman said Smiley's latest comments contradict a previous Facebook post in which he said he had just one relationship with an employee."

News Lede

Seattle Times: "The Amtrak train that derailed Monday morning on its inaugural trip through a faster railway route was supposed to slow dramatically before entering the curve where the crash occurred. The speed limit at the curve where the train crosses Interstate 5 is 30 miles per hour, said state transportation department spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe, while the speed limit on most of the track is 79 mph. She said speed-limit signs are posted two miles before the lowered speed zone and then just before the zone.... A late-night news conference by National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials verified the train was going 80 mph in the 30 mph zone. Officials said they had no other information."

The Commentariat -- December 18, 2017

Afternoon Update:

David Sanger & Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump's first national security strategy envisions a world in which the United States confronts two 'revisionist' powers -- China and Russia -- that are seeking to change the global status quo, often to the detriment of America's interests. But while the document outlines a detailed plan to push back against China's global economic ambitions, it says little about dealing with the kind of cyber and information warfare techniques that Moscow used to try to influence the 2016 presidential election.... The president, his aides said, enthusiastically approved the strategy and wanted to present it himself, something that his two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, did not do when their congressionally mandated strategies were published.... The document describes Russia's behavior in far more critical terms than Mr. Trump himself often does.... Mr. Trump's strategy contains more than a few hints of a return to a Cold War view of the world." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Trump is "enthusiastic" about it because his briefers, comme d'habitude, didn't tell him what-all was in it. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "The year 2017 has seen a supercharged hurricane devastate Puerto Rico, wildfires raging out of control in California, and a catastrophic rainfall event in Houston.... There is convincing evidence that the massive amount of carbon humans are pumping into the atmosphere played a key role in all of these occurrences. The Trump administration's reaction: This is fine. In its new National Security Strategy, which President Trump will announce in a speech on Monday afternoon, the administration will drop climate change in its list of threats to the nation. Instead, it will focus on securing the country's border and a plan for 'economic security,' which involves an

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Republicans return to Congress this week with victory in sight on their long-awaited tax bill as the House and Senate gear up to vote on the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul as soon as Tuesday. The bill's expected passage along party lines had Democrats scrambling over the weekend to try to pressure a late supporter of the legislation, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, to vote against the bill. With just a 52-48 majority in the Senate, Republicans have little room for defections given that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, is getting medical treatment in his home state and is not expected to return to Washington in time for the vote. Democrats are now looking to change the trajectory of the bill by convincing Republicans who had initially wavered on the bill to vote against it this week." ...

... Corker Kickback, Ctd. Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday shot down reports that a tax break for real-estate developers was 'air-dropped' into the final GOP tax bill and that Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) had pushed for it. 'Both assertions are categorically false,' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in a letter to Corker. Hatch's letter comes after a request from Corker on Sunday to get more information about how a provision relating to pass-through businesses ended up in the final tax legislation. The provision in question allows capital-intensive pass-through businesses to receive more tax relief.... Hatch said he is 'disgusted' by press reports that have 'distorted' how the provision originated." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, because many members of Congress & big donors have real-estate investments set up as pass-throughs, not just Corker. This is a gift for many of our friends & donors. Our corruption is widespread.

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Alex Kozinski, the powerful judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit who was facing a judicial investigation over allegations that he subjected 15 women to inappropriate sexual behavior, announced Monday that he would retire effective immediately. In a statement provided by his lawyer, Kozinski apologized, saying that he 'had a broad sense of humor and a candid way of speaking to both male and female law clerks alike' and that, 'in doing so, I may not have been mindful enough of the special challenges and pressures that women face in the workplace.'... The announcement comes just days after The Washington Post reported that nine more women had accused Kozinski of making sexual comments to them or of other conduct, including four who said he touched them inappropriately. That story followed an earlier report in The Post, which detailed the allegations of six women, including former clerks who said Kozinski showed them porn in his chambers." ...

*****

Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin called President Trump on Sunday to thank him for the work of the Central Intelligence Agency in helping prevent an Islamic State attack in the northern Russian city of St. Petersburg. In rare words of praise for the C.I.A., Mr. Putin said the agency had provided information that 'helped detain terrorists planning explosions,' the Kremlin said in a statement posted on its website. The attackers planned to strike crowded sites including Kazan Cathedral, a landmark Orthodox Christian church, the statement said." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This mutual admiration society is getting saccharine.

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Sunday sought to douse speculation that he may fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III amid an intensifying campaign by Trump allies to attack the wide-ranging Russia investigation as improper and politically motivated. Returning to the White House from Camp David, Trump was asked Sunday whether he intended to fire Mueller. 'No, I'm not,' he told journalists, insisting that there was 'no collusion whatsoever' between his campaign and Russia. The president's comments came a day after a lawyer representing Trump's transition team accused Mueller of wrongfully obtaining thousands of emails sent and received by Trump officials before the start of his administration -- a legal and public relations maneuver seen as possibly laying the groundwork to oust the special counsel. Trump criticized Mueller for gaining access to those emails, telling reporters the situation was not looking good.' 'It's quite sad to see that,' Trump said. 'My people were very upset about it.'" ...

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "For much of the seven months since Robert S. Mueller III was appointed special counsel, President Trump's lawyers have stressed their cooperation with him, believing that the more they work with his investigation, the sooner the president will have his name cleared.But in recent weeks, as the investigation has reached deeper into Mr. Trump's inner circle, that image of cooperation has begun to fracture. Mr. Trump's lawyers and supporters have significantly increased their attacks on Mr. Mueller.... Kellyanne Conway, said ... 'the fix was in against Donald Trump from the beginning.'" ...

Mommy, Why Does White Santa Go Only to Rich People's Houses? Jesse Drucker & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Trump has called the $1.5 trillion tax cut that Republican lawmakers are on the verge of passing a Christmas present for the entire nation. But the fine print reveals that some will get a much nicer gift than others, the benefits will change over time, and some will be left out in the cold. Real estate developers and technology companies could see big tax cuts, while low-income households and people buying health insurance could lose out." Big Shiny Gifts go to Donald Trump & his family, big corporations, multimillionaires, private equity managers, private schools & those who can afford them, the liquor business, architects & engineers, tax accountants & lawyers. Lumps of Coal go to people buying health insurance, ordinary taxpayers, the elderly, low-income families, owners of high-end homes, people in high-property-tax states, people in high-income states, Puerto Rico, the IRS. ...

Dear Cousin Fred, I had planned to send you a beautiful Merry Christmas card with a generous greenback enclosed, but instead I'm sending you a lump of coal wrapped in this New York Times story. You are such a loser. Hope your fucking MAGA cap & T-shirt keep you warm. As affectionately as ever, Cousin Bea

... The Corker Kickback, Ctd. Judd Legum of Think Progress: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) went on the teevee & kinda refuted Sen. Bob Corker's (R-Tenn.) claim he had no idea that the tax heist bill that came out of the House-Senate conference committee had added a big new tax break that would specifically benefit Corker (and the Trump family). Cornyn "told ABC News that the provision that benefits real estate investors [like Corker, the 4th-richest U.S. senator] was added as part of an effort to 'cobble together the votes we needed to get this bill passed.' When asked if the provision was added specifically to secure Corker's vote, Cornyn dodged the question.... Meanwhile, #CorkerKickback is trending on Twitter." Mrs. McC: If you missed the backstory on this, I linked one on Saturday & one on Sunday, but Legum writes a good summary. ...

... Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The Republican tax bill does not pass the postcard test. It leaves nearly every large tax break in place. It creates as many new preferences for special interests as it gets rid of. It will keep corporate accountants busy for years to come. And no taxpayer will ever see the postcard-size tax return that President Trump laid a kiss on in November as Republican leaders launched their tax overhaul effort. This was not the grand simplification of the code that Republicans promised when they set out to eliminate tax breaks and cut the number of tax brackets as they lowered rates." ...

... Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Sen. John McCain left the nation's capital Sunday to spend Christmas in Arizona with his family as he battles brain cancer, giving his Republican Party one less vote as it is expected this week to attempt to push through a contentious tax bill along party lines. President Trump told reporters Sunday that McCain (R-Ariz.) and his wife, Cindy McCain, have 'headed back [to Arizona], but I understand he'll come if we ever needed his help, which hopefully we won't.'... Trump said he spoke to Cindy McCain by phone Sunday." ...

David Horsey of the Los Angeles Times.... E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "The tax bill the GOP is trying to foist on the country is not only an unfair and deficit-bloating hodgepodge written on the fly. It is also deeply corrupt. Every Republican who votes for this bill will be joining a festival of venality.... The tax bill is not illegal. But it is a dishonest power and money grab by -- and on behalf of -- the already powerful. As for 'inducements,' well, there are those long-term investments of tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions (enabled by the collapse of all the guardrails around political money) from wealthy individuals and regiments of interest groups. They will have a merry holiday season if the bill passes as expected.... The shamelessness of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's description of the bill on CNN Sunday as 'a very large tax cut for working families' is quite staggering."

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's consideration of a wage freeze for federal employees is one piece of a renewed multifront Republican push to shrink those workers' pay, benefits and workforce....  Confidential administration information released last week by Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.), the leading Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, revealed an administration proposal to freeze federal salaries in fiscal 2019. That is the third piece in a pattern that includes Trump's 2018 budget proposal to cut the employer contribution to retirement benefits and the House Republican plan to have retirees pay more out of pocket for their health insurance. Congress did not approve the last two recommendations, and the pay freeze, which Trump can impose, is not beyond the leaked-document stage. Yet the proposals lurk, likely to reemerge in future budget plans after having long percolated in conservative circles."

We have seen a lot of nefarious activities from Trump. But hiring a fossil fuel front group that specializes in political hits and is doing F.O.I.A. investigations of your agency's own employees is a new low. -- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)

This is classic propaganda from an authoritarian regime. -- Tom Steyer, billionaire environmenalist & Democratic donor, whom America Rising is surveilling ...

... Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: Right after EPA employees complained about aspects of the agency, "requests were submitted for copies of emails written by them that mentioned either Mr. Pruitt or President Trump, or any communication with Democrats in Congress that might have been critical of the agency. The requests came from a Virginia-based lawyer working with America Rising, a Republican campaign research group that specializes in helping party candidates and conservative groups find damaging information on political rivals, and which, in this case, was looking for information that could undermine employees who had criticized the E.P.A. Now a company affiliated with America Rising, named Definers Public Affairs, has been hired by the E.P.A. to provide 'media monitoring,' in a move the agency said was intended to keep better track of newspaper and video stories about E.P.A. operations nationwide.... In addition to sharing at least nine current and former executives, Definers Public Affairs shares an office building in Arlington, Va., with the multiple arms of America Rising and NTK Network. ...

... But He's Not Watching Fake "Charities." Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "Years of conservative attacks on the Internal Revenue Service have greatly diminished the ability of agency regulators to oversee political activity by charities and other nonprofits, documents and interviews show. The fall in oversight, a byproduct of repeated cuts to the IRS budget, comes at a time when the number of charities is reaching a historic high and they are becoming more partisan and financially complex. It represents a success for conservatives who have long sought to scale back the IRS and shrink the federal government.... The main part of government tasked with policing [nonprofits], the IRS's Exempt Organizations division, has seen its budget decline from a peak of $102 million in 2011 to $82 million last year. At the same time, division employees have fallen from 889 to 642. The division now lacks expertise, resources and the will needed to effectively oversee more than 1.2 million charities and tens of thousands of social welfare groups, according to interviews with two dozen nonprofit specialists and current and former IRS officials." ...

... Nor Big Pharma. Lenny Bernstein & Scott Higham of the Washington Post: "After two years of painstaking investigation..., the Drug Enforcement Administration team ... were ready to move on the biggest opioid distribution case in U.S. history. The team, based out of the DEA's Denver field division, had been examining the operations of the nation's largest drug company, McKesson Corp. By 2014, investigators said they could show that the company had failed to report suspicious orders involving millions of highly addictive painkillers.... Some of those went to corrupt pharmacies that supplied drug rings.... But ... top attorneys at the DEA and the Justice Department struck a deal earlier this year with the corporation and its powerful lawyers, an agreement that was far more lenient than the field division wanted.... Although the agents and investigators said they had plenty of evidence and wanted criminal charges, they were unable to convince the U.S. attorney in Denver that they had enough to bring a case. Discussions about charges never became part of the negotiations between the government lawyers in Washington and the company."

Jonathan Chait: Republicans can't figure out why they're so unpopular. Donald Trump knows. During the presidential campaign, he promised to be a different kind of Republican. "He promised to raise taxes on himself and other wealthy people, give everybody terrific health care, break up the big banks, take on Big Pharma, spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure, and rewrite every trade agreement. These promises played a crucial role in helping attract downscale Democrats in the Midwest who had voted for Obama but now saw Trump as the economic populist candidate. In office, he has abandoned every one of these promises. The unpopularity of Trump and his party is no mystery. Despite the continuing growth of the economy, public antipathy has swollen well beyond the normal backlash experienced by a party in control of government. The public simply hates everything they're doing.... Amazingly, passing a deeply unpopular tax cut for rich people was a consensus solution to the party's low standing with the public." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Chait is wrong about this. Republicans are perfectly aware the public hates their tax heist. That's why they crafted the bill is secret & lie every day about what's in it. More generally, Republicans know they're unpopular with ordinary people. Why else would they work so hard to suppress votes? Or gerrymander the hell out of every state they control? Or want to revoke the 17th Amendment which established the popular election of U.S. senators? Or, or, or. ...

... Alex Shephard of the New Republic links Roy Moore's loss & the tax bill to announce "the end of economic nationalism.... Trump won by rejecting both liberalism and mainstream Republicans, who remain fixated on massive supply-side tax cuts for the wealthy and just as massive entitlement cuts.... [But] ... he was not interested in adhering to a coherent political philosophy, abandoning trade deals one moment only to throw his support to the Republican Party's corporate donors the next. But [Steve] Bannon continued to carry the flag, claiming he would champion those candidates who would upend mainstream Republican thinking.... While Moore didn't advocate the kind of economic policies that Bannon had claimed for his revolution, he was a rabid culture warrior unafraid to take on his own party. Bannonism isn't grounded in intellectualism; it is merely a more nihilistic variant of the right-wing rebellion that burst into the open in 2010 with the Tea Party.... After Roy Moore, it became painfully obvious that economic nationalism was a con all along."

Sens. Elizabeth Warren & Bernie Sanders, in a New York Times op-ed, encourage Congress to do right by the American people instead of just their fat-cat donors. Ho ho ho.

Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who urged Franken not to step down to begin with -- at least not before he went through an Ethics Committee investigation -- said the Minnesota senator was railroaded by fellow Democrats.... People familiar with Franken's plans said he has not changed his mind and intends to formally resign in early January. He praised the selection of [Tina] Smith [to replace him] and has begun working with her on the transition."

Even though Senator-elect Doug Jones won the women's vote (tho not the white women's vote), he doesn't think sexual assault is a "real issue." Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Speaking on CNN on Sunday, Jones emphasized he has no interest in focusing on what reporter Jake Tapper referred to as the 'horrific' allegations of sexual assault against ... Donald Trump. 'Those allegations were made before the election. So people had an opportunity to judge before that election,' Jones said in the interview. 'I think we need to move on and not get distracted by those issues. Let's get on with the real issues that are facing people of this country right now.'" And he does not think Trump should resign over those allegations.

Jourdan Rodrigue, et al., of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: "... Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson released a statement through the team on Sunday night that said he will put the team up for sale at the conclusion of the 2017 NFL season. The announcement came just hours after a Sports Illustrated report outlined allegations of sexual and racial misconduct by Richardson toward former Panthers employees. The team announced an investigation into the alleged misconduct on Friday evening. The NFL said Sunday that it would take over the investigation." ...

     ... The Sports Illustrated report, by Jon Wertheim & Viv Bernstein, is here.

News Lede

Seattle Times: "At least three people were killed after an Amtrak train derailed and fell off a bridge over Interstate 5 near Mounts Road between Lakewood and Olympia. Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told news media that there were fatalities on the train and that motorists had been injured, but not killed. The extent of the injuries is not yet known."