;)
The Commentariat -- April 27, 2019
Afternoon Update:
Betsy Woodruff of the Daily Beast: "Carl Kline, the official who green-lit Jared Kushner's security clearance, has agreed to attend a voluntary interview next week with staff for the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, according to a letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. The letter ... comes at the end of a week of fervid clashes between Chairman Elijah Cummings; Carl Kline...; and the White House Counsel's office. Cummings subpoenaed Kline on April 2 for an interview with his committee staff. Kline and the White House agreed that he would not attend if he couldn't bring lawyers from the White House Counsel's office, arguing that the interview could involve material potentially covered by executive privilege. Cummings' team told Kline he could not bring lawyers from that office, so Kline and the White House decided he would not go to the interview. Cummings subsequently moved to hold Kline in contempt, paving the way to make him the first official held in contempt under the newly Democratic-controlled Congress. That's when [Jim] Jordan, the top Republican on the committee and a White House ally, stepped in. Earlier on Friday, he wrote a letter to Kline inviting him to come in for a voluntary interview, with White House lawyers on hand. Jordan said the invitation was meant to 'avoid unnecessary conflict' and 'de-escalate Chairman Cummings' orchestrated interbranch confrontation.'"
Frances Robles of the New York Times: "Slipped into the ... special counsel report on Russian interference in the 2016 election last week was a single sentence that caused a stir throughout the state [of Florida] and raised new questions about the vulnerability of the nation's electoral systems. Although the spearphishing attempt in Florida had first been brought to light nearly two years ago when The Intercept cited a secret National Security Agency report, state officials said they were certain no elections computers had been compromised. The Mueller report turned that assertion on its head. 'The F.B.I.,' it said, 'believes that this operation enabled the G.R.U. to gain access to the network of at least one Florida county government.'... In an interview on Friday, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida took it one step further, saying that Russian hackers not only accessed a Florida voting system, but were 'in a position' to change voter roll data.... Mr. Rubio said in the interview that there was, in fact, an intrusion, but the target or targets were never notified."
Ollie in Another Nice Mess. Michael Brice-Saddler of the Washington Post: "National Rifle Association president Oliver North has been ousted by the organization's board after an alleged extortion scheme within the group's highest-ranking officials came to light on Friday. The NRA's chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, wrote a letter to the board Thursday accusing North of plotting to remove him from the group by threatening to release to the board 'damaging' information about LaPierre. He claimed North, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel perhaps best known for his role in the Iran-contra affair, was pressuring LaPierre to resign over alleged financial transgressions."
Mike Barber of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "After winning the national championship, the Virginia basketball team won't be following the tradition of visiting the White House. 'We have received inquiries about a visit to the White House,' UVA coach Tony Bennett said in a statement the school released Friday. 'With several players either pursuing pro opportunities or moving on from UVA, it would be difficult, if not impossible to get everyone back together. We would have to respectfully decline an invitation.'... Sophomore forward De'Andre Hunter... retweeted the school's announcement, adding the words 'No Thanks Trump,' followed by two laughing emojis."
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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "In a speech to National Rifle Association members on Friday that was part political rally and part pep talk, President Trump called himself a champion of gun rights. Then he proved it, whipping out a pen onstage to sign a letter that would effectively cease America's involvement in an arms treaty designed to regulate the international sale of conventional weapons. Mr. Trump said that his administration 'will never' ratify the Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to discourage the sale of conventional weapons to countries that do not protect human rights. Although the accord was brokered by the United Nations and signed by President Barack Obama, it has never been ratified by the Senate. Experts in arms control note that the accord, even if ratified by the Senate, would not require the United States to alter any existing domestic laws or procedures governing how it sells conventional weapons overseas." ...
... MEANWHILE. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Turmoil wracking the National Rifle Association is threatening to turn the group's annual convention into outright civil war, as insurgents maneuver to oust Wayne LaPierre, the foremost voice of the American gun rights movement. The confrontation pits Mr. LaPierre, the organization's longtime chief executive, against its recently installed president, Oliver L. North, the central figure in the Reagan-era Iran-contra affair, who remains a hero to many on the right. Behind it is a widening crisis involving a legal battle between the N.R.A. and its most influential contractor, Ackerman McQueen, amid renewed threats from regulators in New York, where the N.R.A. is chartered, to investigate the group's tax-exempt status. With contributions lagging, the N.R.A. is also facing an increasingly well-financed gun control movement, motivated by a string of mass shootings. Mr. North asked Mr. LaPierre to resign on Wednesday, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.... Mr. LaPierre, in a stinging letter sent on Thursday night to the N.R.A.'s board, accused Mr. North of threatening to leak damaging information about him and other N.R.A. executives unless he stepped down." Mrs. McC: Sad! But in a good way.
John Wagner & Barb Berggoetz of the Washington Post: "President Trump renewed his vow Friday to repeal the Affordable Care Act, seemingly putting him at odds with a top Republican senator who insisted that Congress will not scrap President Barack Obama's signature health-care law. Appearing at a National Rifle Association conference in Indianapolis, Trump touted Republicans' success in eliminating the individual mandate, which he called 'the absolute worst part of Obamacare.... Now we're going for the rest,' Trump said before again blaming the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz) for his party's failure to repeal the entire law last year. It was unclear whether Trump was referring to his administration's involvement in an ongoing lawsuit aiming to declare the ACA unconstitutional or whether he was pushing for congressional action before the 2020 elections."
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: On Friday morning, Trump was on his familiar I-didn't-say-what-they-say-I-said tour:
Trump "Answered Perfectly." Katie Galioto of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday defended his 2017 statement that there were 'very fine people' on both sides of the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, comments that recently came under fire again after former Vice President Joe Biden attacked Trump for them.... 'If you look at what I said you will see that that question was answered perfectly,' Trump told reporters on the White House lawn ahead of a trip to Indianapolis to speak at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting. 'I was talking about people that went because they felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee, a great general[, whether you like it or not].'... In the days following the deadly protests, Trump did not denounce the marchers, instead condemning violence on both sides and calling for Americans to 'come together.'" ...
... Actually, No. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post reviews the transcript of the Q&A surrounding Trump's "very fine people' exposition: "REPORTER: You said there was hatred and violence on both sides -- TRUMP: Well, I do think there's blame, yes, I think there's blame on both sides. You look at both sides. I think there's blame on both sides.... You had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides." (Emphasis Blake's.) Blake goes on with the transcript. "Trump does this a lot. He will say something suggestive -- in this case, suggestive that the violence in Charlottesville wasn't really such a clear-cut result of resurgent racism -- and then he will later say something else to give himself plausible deniability. But the plausibility here is basically nil. Trump seemed to find something redeeming in a group of protesters that was clearly full of racists.... [In his presidential announcement video,] Biden correctly described who was marching that day, and then he correctly characterized Trump's comments. The idea that he's launching his campaign on the 'Charlottesville hoax' or the 'Charlottesville lie' is a rather amazing contention." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently Trump is unaware that Robert E. Lee was one of the most significant traitors in American history. Update: That a little something not lost on Philip Bump. ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In Trump's world, FBI agents are traitors, and Robert E. Lee isn't.... Trump claimed that he had spoken with many generals at the White House who said that Lee was perhaps their favorite general. This is a bit surprising, because Lee's most notable service was as a military enemy of the United States.... Few people are as directly responsible for as many American deaths as Lee.... He was a traitor, in the most direct sense of the word.... [At the NRA convention, Trump turned to assailing the FBI:] 'And you see it now better than ever, with all of the resignations of bad apples -- they're bad apples! They tried for a coup...,' he said. 'All was taking place at the highest levels in Washington, D.C. You've been watching, you've been seeing, you've been looking at things that you wouldn't have believed possible in our country. Corruption at the highest level. A disgrace. Spying. Surveillance. Trying for an overthrow. And we caught 'em. We caught 'em.'" ...
... Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Maxwell Tani & Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "A Fox News reporter on Thursday called out two of his colleagues for sounding 'like a White Supremacist chat room' when they attempted to defend President Trump's infamous 'both sides' comment about white supremacists in Charlottesville, according to internal emails reviewed by The Daily Beast." Fox "News" reporter Doug McKelway e-mailed dozens of colleagues defending Trump's remarks against Joe Biden's criticism. Then "Fox News digital senior editor Cody Derespina replied-all, agreeing with McKelway, and adding to it a snippet of a Fox News interview with Jarrod Kuhn, a Charlottesville marcher who claimed he was not a white supremacist, but simply there to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.... Fox News Radio's White House correspondent Jon Decker ... [wrote,] 'I really don't understand the point you are making... Jarrod Kuhn was one of those individuals in Charlottesville holding a tiki torch while the mob chanted "Jews will not replace us."'"
Three Lies In One Breath. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday insisted that he did not order former White House counsel Don McGahn to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, despite McGahn's testimony to the contrary, explaining that he was aware of the potential consequences. 'I'm a student of history. I see what you get when you fire people, and it's not good,' Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a National Rifle Association conference in Indianapolis. The president maintained he had the legal right to fire Mueller, but that he chose not to." Mrs. McC: Three lies: "(1) didn't order McGahn to fire Mueller; (2) student of history; (3) doesn't fire people because it's bad. Not only does the Trump administration have the highest turnover rate in recent history, largely because Trump has a lot of people fired, he also has (what I think is) the highest percentage of "acting" people in top-level positions because, he says, that gives him "flexibility."
** The Master Toady. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "sought to defuse the volatile situation [that arose in September 2018 from a New York Times report that he had suggesting wearing a wire to record Trump] and assure the president he was on his team, according to people familiar with matter. [In a phone call with Trump, Rosenstein] criticized the Times report, published in late September, and blamed it on former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, whose recollections formed its basis. Then he talked about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and told the president he would make sure Trump was treated fairly, people familiar with the conversation said. 'I give the investigation credibility,' Rosenstein said, in the words of one administration official offering their own characterization of the call. 'I can land the plane.'" Read on. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It seems to me Rosenstein willingly went where Comey would not -- in his "Team Trump" assurances, he pledged his loyalty to Trump, or at least gave the dimwitted Trump the impression he had done so. Rosenstein's fingerprints are all over the Mueller investigation, & his complicity in Trump's obstruction efforts are, as Susan Collins might say, "unflattering." In the meantime, if you are in a position where, to stay in that position, you must go along to get along, there is no better teacher than Rod Rosenstein. ...
... Molly Olmstead of Slate: "On Thursday night, after being contacted by the Post for comment, Rosenstein gave an unusual speech railing on the news media. 'Some of the nonsense that passes for breaking news today would not be worth the paper was printed on, if anybody bothered to print it,' he said." ...
... digby: "The moment I read that ridiculous 'Comey firing' memo that Rosenstein wrote for Trump I knew he was a brown-noser (or, as Comey reportedly said, 'a survivor'.) He was clearly ready to take out Comey, which wasn't wrong in itself since Comey had behaved very badly. But he did it to curry favor with Trump, knowing that his reasoning was being used dishonestly. I think we were all misled into thinking that he was protecting the investigation when, according to the Mueller Report, it appears that the investigation was being protected from inside the White House. Now he's out there giving speeches basically sucking up to Trump and blaming the Obama administration for the Russian interference[.]" digby also points out something that I think I missed at the time: a contemporaneous AP report that Rosenstein had flown from Washington, D.C., to Florida with Trump in early October 2018. "The flight provided an opportunity for their most extensive conversation since news reports last month that Rosenstein had discussed possibly secretly recording Trump to expose chaos in the White House and invoking constitutional provisions to get him removed from office," the AP reported. As digby writes, "You want a 'tarmac meeting'? This is the one that really stinks." Emphasis added. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump does stuff all the time that are similar or worse than things Democrats have done that cause Republicans to go ballistic. The Bill Clinton-Loretta Lynch tarmac meeting -- and the GOP war-cry that ensued -- is what led Jim Comey to call a presser in which he announced that although the DOJ would not bring charges against Hillary Clinton for the e-mails!, she was "extremely careless." (Comey had intended to call her "grossly negligent," but reportedly then-FBI counterintelligence expert Peter "Strzok changed the language from 'grossly negligent' to 'extremely careless,' scrubbing a key word that could have had legal ramifications for Clinton. An individual who mishandled classified material could be prosecuted under federal law for 'gross negligence.'" Rosenstein of course later used Comey's awful presser as a cover for Trump, who wanted to & did fire Comey because of Comey's refusal to express his "loyalty" to Trump by curtailing the ongoing FBI Russia investigation.) Meanwhile, Trump's acts go almost unnoticed & unremarked. IMO, Democrats & their supporters need to greatly step up their outrage game.
Jacqueline Thomsen of the Hill: "A federal judge on Friday ordered Russian agent Maria Butina to serve 18 months in prison. She will get credit for nine months already served. Butina, who was arrested in 2018, had pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent on behalf of the Russian government." ...
... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere & Eileen Sullivan, is here.
Lock 'Em Up. Caroline Kelly & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "A Democratic lawmaker on Thursday ratcheted up warnings to the Trump administration amid a growing standoff over subpoenas and oversight requests the White House says it will resist. Rep. Gerry Connolly threatened jail time for White House officials who are declining to comply with congressional committees' efforts to conduct oversight of ... Donald Trump's administration.... Connolly, who sits on the Oversight Committee, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on 'The Situation Room,' 'We're going to resist, and if a subpoena is issued and you're told you must testify, we will back that up.'"
Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "A member of the independent counsel team that recommended the impeachment of President Bill Clinton says that President Trump's attempts to obstruct justice are 'blunter by a thousandfold' than anything Clinton did and more than justifies the House Judiciary Committee opening impeachment proceedings. In an interview with the Yahoo News podcast 'Skullduggery,' Paul Rosenzweig, who served as a senior counsel to Ken Starr, said that a 'significant number' of his former colleagues from the independent counsel office share his views — although notably not Starr himself. 'My view is that there's ample reason right now for the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment inquiry ... and if it were up to me, I would recommend them to impeach,' said Rosenzweig. '... Trump's obstruction of justice and frankly, more importantly, Trump's dereliction of duty in failing to address the issue of Russian interference in our electoral processes, are by themselves grounds for his impeachment. Add to that, his recalcitrance in responding to [special counsel Robert] Mueller and his stonewalling of congressional investigations and the case becomes ... much more compelling than that which attended the [impeachment] recommendation with respect to Clinton,' Rosenzweig added." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Another member of the Starr team who doesn't seem to agree with Rosenzweig: Rod Rosenstein. ...
... Digby in Salon: "There is one faction of the Republican party that may be peeling off..., and it's the faction that Trump has been counting on to keep the Democrats at bay. I'm speaking of conservative lawyers, some of whom seem to feel a bit queasy about what they saw in the Mueller report and Trump's reaction to it. [Don] McGahn's testimony in the report is likely a big part of the realization that this is getting serious.... Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway's husband George has formed a group of high-powered conservative legal scholars called Checks and Balances, which has now called on Congress to open an impeachment inquiry on the basis of the Mueller report[.]... Law professor and former Trump transition official J.W. Verret wrote an essay for The Atlantic stating that the evidence clearly showed obstruction of justice and likewise called for impeachment hearings. Even Fox News' Andrew Napolitano is on the record with the opinion that Trump obstructed justice.... By slamming McGahn, Trump is unwittingly playing into his former lawyer's self-serving heroic narrative. That may inspire others to follow his lead."
Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday issued a forceful denial that his administration paid any money for the return of Otto Warmbier following reports that North Korea issued a $2 million medical bill in exchange for his release. 'No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else,' Trump wrote in a tweet in which he falsely contrasted his position with that of his predecessor and criticized a hostage swap that took place in 2014.... The Washington Post first reported the $2 million bill's existence Thursday, writing that North Korea refused to release Warmbier until a U.S. official signed an agreement to pay it. Joseph Yun, the State Department's envoy to North Korea at the time, signed that agreement at Trump's direction, the Post reported, but as of 2017 it remained unpaid."
Sebastian Rotella & Tim Golden of ProPublica with Shane Kavanaugh of the Oregonian: "The government of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly helped Saudi citizens evade prosecutors and the police in the United States and flee back to their homeland after being accused of serious crimes here, current and former U.S. officials said. The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have been aware of the Saudi actions for at least a decade, officials said. But successive American administrations have avoided confronting the government in Riyadh out of concern that doing so might jeopardize U.S. interests, particularly Saudi cooperation in the fight against Islamist terrorism, current and former officials said. 'It's not that the issue of Saudi fugitives from the U.S. wasn't important,' said retired FBI agent Jeffrey Danik, who served as the agency's assistant legal attache in Riyadh from 2010 to 2012. 'It's that the security relationship was so much more important. On counterterrorism, on protecting the U.S. and its partners, on opposing Iran, the Saudis were invaluable allies.'"
Elections 2020
Julian Barnes & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The F.B.I. director warned anew on Friday about Russia's continued meddling in American elections, calling it a 'significant counterintelligence threat.' The bureau has shifted additional agents and analysts to shore up defenses against foreign interference, according to a senior F.B.I. official. The Trump administration has come to see that Russia's influence operations have morphed into a persistent threat. The F.B.I., the intelligence agencies and the Department of Homeland Security have made permanent the task forces they created to confront 2018 midterm election interference, senior American national security officials said. 'We recognize that our adversaries are going to keep adapting and upping their game,' Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, said Friday in a speech in Washington, citing the presence of Russian intelligence officers in the United States and the Kremlin's record of malign influence operations." ...
... ** Mrs. McCrabbie: Since Rudy Giuliani has publicly argued, "There's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians," we must assume that Trump is planning to accept the same or similar help this go-round. When Wray warns of Russian interference, he is warning, among other things, that the President* who appointed him will take advantage of that interference.
John Bowden of the Hill: "In an interview with CNN, [Pat] Schroeder [D-Colo.], who advocated for [Anita] Hill during her time in Congress and advised Hill prior to her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, described [Joe] Biden's conduct towards her and other women of the House when they demanded Hill be allowed to testify in 1991. '... congresswomen gave one-minute-speeches on the floor [prior to (Clarence) Thomas's hearing], and then walked over to the Senate because we were so upset that they weren't even going to let her testify. And remember, [Biden] was the chairman,' Schroeder said. Schroeder asserted that Biden was pressured by then-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine) into letting Hill testify, adding that Biden would not have allowed it otherwise. 'He said to us: You really don't understand. I promised [former] Sen. [John] Danforth [(R-Mo.)] in the gym that this would be a quick hearing,' Schroeder said, adding that Biden was a member of the 'boys' club.'... Biden refused to apologize for his own conduct during the 1991 hearings Friday during an interview with 'The View' on ABC when questioned about Hill's remarks. 'I'm sorry for the way she got treated,' he said. 'Look at what I said and didn't say; I don't think I treated her badly.'"
... Mrs. McCrabbie: I saw clips of the "View" interview. Joy Behar patiently explained to Uncle Joe why Hill deserved an apology for the way he treated her, not for the way she "was treated," as Biden had put it. Biden refused. In addition, he is still treating the "hugging" issue as one that is only about his own intent, not about women's reactions. I don't know that we need another president who has trouble empathizing with others & can't admit mistakes he's made, even those made in the long-distant past. Moreover, one has to suspect Biden's political advisors have explained to him what's wrong with his responses. ...
... Update. Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: "It's almost impossible to know how to deal with a candidate who almost gets it, but not quite.... It feels petty, in some ways, to be cataloguing the sins of Joe Biden, when the other fish to fry right now are actually more like whales.... It's not his previous actions that are disappointing. It's the way he tries to distance himself from them. As if he were a victim of backward times, rather than a powerful legislator who should have been in charge of defining them.... Seeing how Anita Hill was treated led a generation of women to decide silence was a better option than coming forward to report how they had been harassed. We're still paying for the failures of 30 years ago. That's what Joe Biden needs to apologize for."
... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's interesting that the best thing people were saying about Bill Barr was that he was an "institutionalist"; that is, someone who would not tear down the institutional norms of the DOJ. (That turned out not to be true, of course.) But what you see in Joe Biden is that being called an "institutionalist" is not a compliment. Biden propped up the institutional norms of the Senate -- as Pat Schroeder put it, "the boys' club" -- at the expense of Anita Hill, of the women whom he denied the chance to testify at all, and of all women who worked in hostile environments. And he won't cop to that. ...
... Frank Rich: "For all the chatter about whether AOC Democrats in the party's base will accept a centrist like Biden, the real threat to Biden's viability is Biden himself. Not just his checkered past record, but his ability to adapt to present circumstances and react to them in real time.... The issue is not necessarily whether his views are progressive enough but whether he is culturally limber enough in a fast-moving new order. (This may also be a growing challenge for the didactic [Bernie] Sanders, Biden's current runner-up in polling.)... While I have no more idea than anyone else who will win the Democratic nomination, history is rife with generals who lose by refighting the last war."
Beyond the Beltway
Kansas. Sabrina Tavernise & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday blocked a law that would have banned the most commonly used procedure for second-trimester abortions, arguing that the state Constitution protected the right of women to 'decide whether to continue a pregnancy.' The court sided in a 6-1 majority with the plaintiffs in the case, two physicians who performed the procedure, in a sweeping ruling that opens the door for abortion rights activists to challenge a series of other restrictions that the state's Republican-controlled Legislature has enacted."
Kentucky. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Kentucky's Republican governor, Matt Bevin, came under criticism from state Democrats on Friday for suggesting that teachers on strike were to blame for the shooting of a 7-year-old girl who had stayed home because of school closures. The remarks were the latest to ignite controversy for the governor, who faces low approval ratings ahead of an election in November."
California. Vivian Ewing of the New York Times: "A man who plowed his Toyota Corolla into a group of pedestrians at a crowded intersection in Sunnyvale, Calif., on Tuesday apparently did so in part because he thought at least some were Muslim, the police said Friday. The man, Isaiah J. Peoples, 34, faces eight counts of attempted murder in the episode, in which eight people were injured. Three of the victims were minors, and one, a 13-year-old girl, remained in critical condition on Friday evening." Peoples appears to be black.
News Lede
New Your Times: "A man has been taken into custody in connection with a shooting at a synagogue in California on Saturday afternoon that resulted in injuries, the authorities said. The Poway Station of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter that the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. local time at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, Calif., about 25 miles north of San Diego. It said that there were injuries but that no additional details were immediately available." ...
... New Lede: "The gunman entered the synagogue on Saturday yelling anti-Semitic slurs, and opened fire with an A.R. 15-style gun. He paused when the rabbi of the congregation tried to talk with him. But he fired again, shooting the rabbi in the hand. His attack left a 60-year-old woman dead, the rabbi wounded and a 34-year-old man and a girl with shrapnel wounds. It was the Sabbath and the last day of Passover...."
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Reader Comments (10)
Again one wonders what the Conway household is like these days especially now that George has ratcheted up his vitriol toward his wife's boss man by organizing something called "Checks & Balances" that, along with other conservative legal scholars, are setting the stage for impeachment. I still cannot fathom this marital relationship–-unless–-Kellyanne was just playing a part and this play ends with her walking away with a smile.
Last night watched "Firing Line" with Margaret Hoover interviewing Tulsi Gabbard. I was impressed by Tulsi's demeanor, her quiet, but forceful disagreements –-"No, I don't see it that way at all and here's why"–– She has a well modulated voice and states her points without drama but with conviction. Gabbard hasn't gotten a lot of coverage and I doubt whether she will given that the number of Dems running for the brass ring could fill up a small hotel.
And speaking of hotels–-Paul Simon's New Canaan mansion is for sale at $13.9 M with lots of land and oh, so grand. Maybe Trump might want to grab it up for good measure.
In my local rag yesterday under the Business section was a piece about Stephen Moore, the pick of Trump's for the Federal Reserve Board, who knows about as much about finances as I know about plumbing. (Oh, noes–-so unfair I say to me-self.) But Stevie has more problems than just ignorance, he apparently is a full fledged, dyed in the wool, misogynist:
"If women were so oppressed and offended by drunken, lustful frat boys, why is it that on Friday nights they showed up in droves in tight skirts to the key parties?"
He prefaces this with saying that heck, colleges are for young men to sow their oats–-do some rabble rousing–-stay out way too late drinking and in the good old days the girls seemed to do just fine.
He also appears to love the U of Illinois basketball team just as much as he loves his wife. When in 2008 after this team lost the NC,AA championship he wrote this:
"My wife has groused all year that I love this team more than her, but I was always the good husband. I would pat her on the head whenever she felt under-appreciated and remind her that I loved both the same."
Alrighty, then. Case closed.
P.S. A lein of more than than $75,000 was filed against Moore in 2018 for unpaid taxes. He has also fallen behind on alimony and child support payments for his ex wife ( maybe one too many taps on the head for her)
Woke this AM, picked up the newspaper, did the crossword, then read the news. Little there. Saw most of the national political news I cared to see on RC last night before I went to bed, but this morning with the second cup of coffee did manage to focus a little on the Pretender's NRA ravings.
So he withdrew from a treaty we are not a party to anyway because the Senate has never ratified it. I wonder if the flabby tough guy even knew that.
And I see he still doesn't like the ACA. This one doesn't make sense to me, because over time it has become a political loser, even among his base. People like the ACA.
Is it only the Pretender's anti-Obama animus driving it? Does his Obama derangement syndrome run that deep?
Or is it more a matter of declining mental capacity? Does the Pretender have no room in his deteriorating brain for anything new to say? It seems all his speeches are mishmashes of old rallies, the same parts tumbling out of his mouth in no particular or predictable order. Can't wait for the campaign season to heat up. I'm betting those rallies will set new low standards for the politically and rhetorically cringe-worthy.
More news from last night:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress-clearances/white-house-consents-to-congressional-interview-of-ex-staffer-on-security
A crack in the White House wall? I'm thinking not. More likely another ploy to run out the clock. If Rep. Cummings does agree to allow Kline to have a lawyer or two with him, or even if not, I'd expect we'll see a cloud of "executive privilege" obscuring everything that matters.
@Ken Winkes: I forget who it was, but Cummings recently refused to allow a witness to bring his lawyer to a hearing (it might have been Kline). I was a little nonplussed by that, inasmuch as I would want to have an attorney in tow if I had to answer questions posed by a panel of Congressmembers, many of them hostile to me & many of whom are attorneys themselves. It is not out-of-the-ordinary for Congressional witnesses to have lawyers present; you may remember Ollie North's attorney Brendan Sullivan, during the Iran-Contra hearings, objecting to an objection to his objections: "Well, sir, I'm not a potted plant. I'm here as the lawyer. That's my job."
Here's the full link to the article you cited:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-congress-clearances/white-house-consents-to-congressional-interview-of-ex-staffer-on-security-idUSKCN1S22AH
Now is the time to take on Biden. He is not the candidate I want to see as the Democratic nominee. For cryin' out loud, the first thing he did after formally announcing his candidacy was to host a fat cat fundraiser at the home of the guy who runs Comcast's lobbying machine.
Seriously. Do you think we'll get net neutrality back after that?
If Biden somehow manages to win the nomination, I will support him as the alternative is too horrible to imagine. Until then, however, I will spend my time and my money on someone who does "get it."
Bea,
The Reuter's article also mention Meadow's intervention, possibly based on a real difference on national security issues between the standard R's, who- and whatever they and Meadows pass as these days, and the White House version.
I also didn't understand (it was Cumming's demand that Kline appear sans attorney) why Cummings demanded that in the first place. I wondered if the dispute might have been over a possible difference between a personal attorney and a White House attorney, the one there to protect the client, the other, the Pretender...
Many unfamiliar steps in this White House-Congressional dance, but I guess that is to be expected when the two dance partners hate one another.
And attorney(s) or not, I would still expect little but smoke from Kline's testimony.
@Schlub: I agree with you. I still haven't picked a favorite, but it isn't Joe Biden.
Ken, I think you may be right. The Woodruff article says "Cummings’ team told Kline he could not bring lawyers from that office." That sounds like Cummings does not want White House lawyers obstructing his hearing.
Maybe Biden isn’t The Guy but fergawfsakes please no Bernie.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-republican-war-on-democracy.html?
Bouie provides good summary of what we already know--complete with the connections among them traced.
Der Ring Des Trumpelungen
Spent the afternoon listening to the final installment of Wagner's immense Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung, "The Twilight of the Gods", live from the Metropolitan Opera, and it occurred to me (and not for the first time), that we would all be better off if women ran the show.
The entire story line of the Ring Cycle involves a struggle for power between men, a struggle, the difficulties of which are compounded by hatred, suspicion, racism, and revenge (sound like anyone you know?) that threaten destruction on all sides.
The quick version for those of you unfamiliar with hundreds of years of Scandinavian and Germanic mythology and medieval lieder, filtered through the crazy brain of Richard Wagner (meaning, probably, most people) is this: The Niebelung dwarf Alberich tries to put the moves on the Rhinemaidens, otherworldly women who guard the Rhinegold. They give him the kiss-off which sends him into an incel fury. He steals their gold and sets in motion the events that lead to the end of the world. Alberich forces the Niebelungen to forge a ring of power from the gold.
Now Alberich's theft of the gold is not overlooked. The Father of the Gods, Wotan, pressed by Loge (Loki in Scandinavian myth), a shape-shifter godling of fire and lies and mischief, steals the ring of power from Alberich and all hell breaks loose.
Even though the story line of the Ring appears to be a struggle between Alberich and Wotan (sometimes referred to as White Alberich, denoting how close they are in many ways), the real power in the cycle lies with the women.
Wotan, seeking knowledge and advice, goes to the Earth Goddess, Erda. He had earlier sacrificed an eye to her so that he could "see more clearly". His machinations are stymied several times by his wife, Fricka, who insists on his observance of his own laws. Bummer, for Wotan.
Now in almost all mythical tales involving heroes, the Hero's Journey is paramount. In the Ring it is not Wotan, nor his son Siegmund, nor his grandson Siegfried, who are the true heroes. It's the Valkyrie, Brunhilde. Most people know Brunhilde as the fat broad with the spear and the funny hat who sings at the end of the opera ("It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings...", remember?). But Brunhilde is more. Much, much more. As Wotan's daughter, she is the one who knows his heart, who understands what he needs to do, and is willing (unlike Wotan) to sacrifice herself to his desires (and pays a stiff price).
By the end of the cycle, it is Brunhilde who, after being manipulated, lied to, put to sleep and surrounded by a ring of fire, and chiseled by scheming mortals, stands up for herself, and for what is right. The men are too busy trying to screw each other, or are too stupid to figure things out.
Unlike Wotan and Alberich, and the other men in the cycle, Brunhilde's abiding guide is love. And at the end of the "Twilight of the Gods", she sacrifices herself to save the world, not for power or gold, but for love. The two essential qualities of motherhood: love and sacrifice.
Wagner's distinctly anti-religious (specifically anti-Christian) bent results in the destruction of the gods, with the world redeemed by love, and with humans left on their own to sort things out (no hell below us, above us, only sky, as John Lennon once put it), guided by the example of Brunhilde's sacrifice.
I bring all this up to point out the essential differences between (some) men and women (if such needed to be pointed out at this late date) and their approach to power, its uses and abuses.
Without women, the species ceases to exist. Men cannot create life on their own. Only women can bring life into the world. But it is exactly this power that men have long sought to control. The gods in Wagner's epic attempt to take control of things without realizing that in the end, it's a woman who will decide everyone's fate. And, boy, does she.
Republicans today continue this express desire to curtail and control the power that women hold by denying them the ability to make decisions for themselves. Does anyone really believe that Trump's glomming on to women over the course of his life has anything to do with love? Well, besides self-love? He sees women as extensions of his own wonderfulness. "See how great I am? Look at these hot chicks I bang." But let them get too uppity, and look out.
And this is the way Republicans seem to treat women as well (just look at how scared they are of AOC).
The point to all this is that, Wagner, not exactly a paragon of ethical or moral behavior, understood that women hold a very special place in the world, a place that is far more influential and powerful than that held by men. And at this point in our nation's history, continuing to deny that place is not just stupid, it's dangerous.
Another reason the Bart O'Kavanaughs and Trumps see that their best bet to maintain power is to step on women, and continue to keep them down.
Brunhilde's vision of love saved the world in Wagner's Ring. Maybe we can all benefit from that idea.
Here's the final scene of Götterdämmerung. While the men still think they're playing Game of Thrones, Brunhilde is taking names and kicking ass. She leaps into the flames that destroy the gods (you'll see the Rhinemaidens, representative of the natural world, reclaiming the Ring of Power) and the humans are left with a world cleansed of hatred--and gods.
By the way, if you watch the clip, you'll see that Brunhilde calls for Grane, her horse. Horses don't normally appear on opera stages, but in 1936, the Australian soprano, Marjorie Lawrence, jumped on a horse onstage at the Metropolitan Opera and rode it into the fire, as Wagner intended. Pretty awesome. Here's that scene in a film bio of her life, "Interrupted Melody".
Women rock.