Irma, Irma, Irma 

Russia, Russia, Russia: Special Counsel Mueller plans to interview six Trump aides including Trump’s trusted gal Friday and interim Communications Director Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, current White House Counsel Don McGahn and one of his deputies James Burnham and Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works with son-in-law Kushner. Mueller seems to be focusing in on Trump’s attempts to obstruct the Russia investigation and each of the individuals are on Mueller’s list because they were witnesses to one or more of the critical events under investigation, including Trump’s decision to fire former FBI director Comey, the White House’s response to former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates’ warning that Michael Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, and Trump’s role in drafting Don Jr’s statement about his meeting with the Russian lawyer.  Hicks and Raffel were on Air Force One when the Don Jr statement was crafted and they were among the advisors who were overruled when they advocated that coming clean about the Russian lawyer meeting was the best strategy.  Hicks has now joined the ranks of the “lawyered” by hiring Robert Trout, of Trout Cacheris & Janis.  McGahn was the person that Yates notified about Flynn’s Russian canoodling.  He also put a stop to the first version of the Comey dismissal letter, the one that cited Comey’s refusal to publicly say that Trump wasn’t under investigation as one of the reasons he was being fired.  McGahn can be interviewed because his conversations with Trump are not subject to attorney client privilege. Right about now Trump is probably wishing that he treated Spicer and Priebus with a little more respect.  Among other things Priebus was asked to help make the Russian investigation go away and Spicer was asked to obfuscate everything.   

Still Smarting:  Yesterday, the House voted to pass the government funding bill that delivers $15 billion in disaster aid and extends government funding and the debt ceiling until December 8.  The bill passed over the objections of many Republicans who “booed, groaned and hissed” at Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Budget Director Mulvaney earlier in the day at a Capital Hill meeting where they were urged to vote for the Schumer-Pelosi plan. The assembled Republicans were particularly turned off by Mnuchin when he asked them to vote for the bill “for him,” before leaving the meeting to attend to other pressing matters.  The bill passed 316 to 90, every member opposed was a Republican, including four Republicans from the Texas delegation who had no problem voting against disaster relief since their districts were unaffected by Harvey.  Pelosi commented that the “scale of the Republican revolt was remarkable,” and is further evidence that they have a “philosophical problem with governance.”  One of the reasons that Pelosi is so widely hated by Republicans is because when she’s in charge, she runs a much tighter ship.  Crossing her is never an option.  It’s likely that Pelosi and Schumer will do their best to insist that Dreamer legislation is attached to the December government funding and debt ceiling extension bill.  Though a large number of Republicans will protest and Trump will try to extract something in exchange, the conservative Koch brothers, funders of many Republican campaigns, are supportive of passing Dreamer legislation giving Pelosi and Schumer’s plan a surprising boost. As to the pointless debt ceiling, Vice President Pence joined Senator Schumer and Trump by calling for the elimination of the debt ceiling requirement.  

Out of Here:  Two moderate Republican Congressmen,  Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent and Washington’s Dave Reichert, announced that they will not be running for reelection in 2018.  Both are from vulnerable swing districts.  Reichert’s district voted for Hillary, Dent’s went for Trump but without a popular incumbent is considered a realistic Democratic pick-up so their retirements makes it more likely that their districts will swing Democrat in the 2018 midterms. Dent cited his regret that it has been difficult to “instill stability, certainty and predictability in Washington” ….. “given the disruptive outside influences that profit from increased polarization and ideological rigidity that leads to dysfunction, disorder and chaos.”  In other words, he can’t take it anymore.

Last Items:  As Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano created DACA.  Now she is the president of the University of California system.  In that role she has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Trump officials of violating administrative procedures and constitutional due process by abruptly ending the DACA program. A significant number of Dreamers are beneficiaries of DACA work permits which facilitate their attendance at her universities.  More than a dozen Democratic state attorneys general have also sued saying that the DACA decision was motivated by “racial animus towards Mexicans as evidenced by Mr. Trump’s comments during the presidential campaign.” Sometimes, even when you are Trump, your words come back to haunt you. Lastly, Minnesota Senator Franken and Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley are protesting two of Trump’s judicial picks who they view as unreasonably conservative.  Franken says he’s objecting to the Minnesota pick because the Judge in question sees current Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former Justice Scalia as his models.  Traditionally, Senators have a sort of veto power over judicial picks from their home states.  If both senators from a state don’t return their “blue slips,” the Judiciary Committee usually declines to hold confirmation hearings, effectively derailing the nomination. Franken, Wyden and Merkley won’t return their “blue slips.”  Senate Republicans now have to decide whether to respect the blue slip tradition or destroy another venerable Senate tradition.   

Good luck to all the Floridians among you!  Stay safe.