Not So Happy Talk

Sex Talk:  The Sunday morning talk shows went all in on sexual harassment, hyper focused on who should resign and when, so much so that they left little time for a discussion of tax reform.  NBC’s Chuck Todd cut off both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Ohio Senator Rob Portman when they tried to address the pending tax reform legislation.  Tax stuff just doesn’t generate ratings the way that sex does.  As to the sex stuff, Todd painted a somewhat inarticulate Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi into a corner, coming down on her when she refused to call for 88-year old Detroit Congressman John Conyers to step down for his transgressions.  Though Pelosi came off weak during the program it turns out that she had a good reason to obfuscate.   She had been working behind the scenes with the Congressional Black Caucus and Conyers, an icon of the Civil Rights movement, in an effort to get him to voluntarily step down from his position as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.  Later in the morning Conyers did step aside to participate in an ethics committee review, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler will assume his role.  Given his age, don’t be surprised if Conyers finesses the investigation by announcing that he won’t run for reelection.  Minnesota Senator Al Franken emerged from his Thanksgiving holiday saying he was “embarrassed and ashamed” about his groping allegations, he sounded remorseful and just a wee bit baffled that he’s being thrown into the same bucket as Alabama senatorial wannabe Moore.  Franken plans to return to work in the Senate to willingly participate in his ethics review.  In the meantime, Trump continued advocating for child molester Moore, tweeting “the last thing we need in Alabama and the US Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet…..Jones would be a disaster!”  Not only has Trump concluded that Moore is innocent of all those nasty pedophile and teen stalking accusations, he’s also now convinced himself that his own Access Hollywood tape isn’t authentic, illogical but very Trumpian. Though Trump’s all in for Moore, others remain less convinced.  Senator Lindsey Graham called Roy Moore’s candidacy a lose-lose proposition for Republicans, if he wins its bad for the party because then they have to deal with it, if he loses its bad for the party because they lose the seat.  As far as he is concerned the lesson is “don’t nominate candidates like Roy Moore.”  When pressed Senator Portman, who just wanted to talk about taxes, said it would be better for the country if Moore stepped aside but hedged when he was asked how he would vote if he were in Alabama.  Outspoken former basketball player and native Alabamian Charles Barkley cut through the crap by just saying  “Roy Moore should have been disqualified before this women stuff,” asking how can a white supremacist supported by Steve Bannon, another white supremacist, represent all the people in Alabama, a state that is 25% African American.  He has a point.           

Tax Talk:  Sex talk may make for good ratings but it doesn’t do anything for Republican prospects in the 2018 midterms so this week the focus in the Senate will be taxes, taxes and taxes.  Their plan is awful, with only 25% of Americans thinking it’s a good idea, Republicans know its wildly unpopular but leadership is determined to move forward because they need a notable legislative accomplishment and their donors are threatening to bolt if they don’t get their tax cuts.  With no Democrats on board every effort is being made to meet the concerns of Republican fence sitters.  The bill includes a sweetener for Alaska’s Senator Murkowski, opening up drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge something that has nothing to do with tax reform but which is near and dear to her, making her a likely yes.  Wisconsin’s Senator Johnson is continuing to hold out for better treatment for small corporations, he has been joined by Montana’s Senator Daines, working together they are holding out for a tax rate concession from leadership that will bring them back into the fold.  Maine’s Senator Collins is pushing to allow individuals to deduct up to $10,000 in local real estate taxes, a provision already included in the House version that had been omitted from the Senate’s. The challenge is that all of these changes would increase the deficit above the $1.5 trillion threshold so offsetting changes will have to be made at the same time and one possibility being considered would be a limitation on the amount of state and local taxes that corporations would be allowed to deduct.  Think about it, right now the plan so favors big corporations that it permits them to deduct state and local taxes at the same time that it eliminates a corresponding deduction for individuals. Senators McCain, Flake and Corker, remain concerned about the $1.5 trillion deficit increase, McCain is also concerned about the environmental impact of Murkowski’s pet cause, Alaska drilling, and all three are pissed at Trump and like hotdog maker Hebrew National, at this point in their careers they answer to a higher authority and that authority is not Trump, so it’s not clear what it will take to get them on board.  Nevertheless expectations remain that the Senate will pass something.  Hopefully, Senators can multi task because tax legislation isn’t the only thing that needs to be addressed, a continuing budget resolution must be passed by midnight on December 8 in order to avoid a government shutdown.  This time around expect Nancy and Chuck to hold out for the inclusion of a Dreamer solution.  The extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the previously uncontroversial program that’s been left in the lurch by the increasingly callous Republican leadership, and another tranche of hurricane funding relief are also on the docket.      

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Trump tweeted out “since the first day I took office, all you hear is the phony Democrat excuse for losing the election, Russia, Russia, Russia. Despite this I have the economy booming and have possibly done more than any 10 month President. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”  Preet Bharara, the Former US Attorney for the Southern District now a self-appointed Trump thorn, tweeted back “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, the President of the United States is Jan Brady” before commenting that there's a “substantial likelihood” that former security advisor Michael Flynn’s lawyers are “at least in discussions with regard to cooperating with Mueller.”  Asked if Trump should be worried about the possibility that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller's team, Bharara said: "It depends on what the President has done and what the President's conversations with Michael Flynn and others have been. But if you've done bad things, then you should be very worried."  Judging by his tweet, Trump is worried, very worried.

Press Talk:  Trump really hates the free press particularly CNN, so much that he has the Justice Department trying to disrupt ATT’s planned merger with Time Warner, CNN’s parent company.  Over the weekend he tweeted “@FoxNews is MUCH more important in the United States than CNN, but outside of the US, CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” Not only does that tweet make it that much harder for the Justice Department to prevail  but it also reveals another Trump lie.  During his Asia trip, when he was asked for a reaction to the accusation that Roy Moore had “dated” a 14 year old, he said that he couldn’t comment because he was out of the loop, he’d been too busy to watch much TV.  Apparently, not too busy, just very frustrated that CNN was his only choice.  Following Trump’s CNN tweet smack, his nemesis, America’s Boy Scout former FBI Director Comey tweeted  a quote from Thomas Jefferson that “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”  Last night the weary Justice Department’s plate got a little fuller. The battle for leadership of the Republican hated Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, the entity that Senate Minority Whip Durbin says “Republicans hate like the devil hates holy water,”  reached a new level when acting head Leandra English sued to prevent budget director Mick Mulvaney, the Trump appointee who has been openly hostile to the bureau’s mandate, from adding her job to his portfolio.  A little more chaos to the start of what is expected to be a very busy week.