Good Bye Al, Good Bye Truth

McCabe and Mrs. Clinton:  When the going gets tough, Republicans go after Hillary because almost one year into the Trump autocracy she is still their designated scapegoat, so with news mounting about Trump team problems, Hillary is once again getting special attention.  Some of that “alarming news” was revealed yesterday in Foreign Policy Magazine where it was disclosed that documents turned over by the White House to Special Counsel Mueller show that White House Counsel Don McGahn knew that former national security director Michael Flynn had violated the law even before the intrepid former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates made her fateful pilgrimage to his office to tell him, the meeting where he pretended that he had no idea that Flynn was a bigly problem.  Apparently, even before the Yates meeting McGahn had researched federal law dealing both with lying to federal investigators and with violations of the Logan Act, the federal law that prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.  This is a problem for Trump because it sheds new light on what McGahn likely told him about Flynn’s transgressions and make his outreach and subsequent firing of former FBI Director Comey look more and more like obstruction of justice.  McGahn was interviewed by Mueller a few weeks ago and it’s fair to assume that he stuck to the truth so Mueller probably knows what and when he told Trump about Flynn.  Anyone up on their Watergate History may remember that it was John Dean, Nixon’s White House Counsel who started that ball rolling.  So getting back to Hillary, what are Republicans doing in response to increasing concerns about Trump?  They are going after Hillary era “crimes” of course.  The Jeff Sessions led Justice Department is interviewing FBI agents about the much disparaged Uranium One transaction trying to find “dirt” proving that Hillary and the Clinton Foundation influenced the sale of the company to Russian related interests for their own nefarious purposes and that her actions were covered up by all her “friends” at the FBI, the same FBI friends that helped tank her candidacy.  As to Uranium One, it’s been reviewed so many times that even Fox News’ very own Shep Shepard has debunked claims about it being an illegal transaction and the assertions about Hillary involvement. The purported reason for the Sessions investigation is to determine whether or not a special counsel should be appointed to conduct a further investigation of the deal, an idea being advocated by Trump. It’s not clear that Sessions really would appoint another special counsel or whether he is just going through the motions in order to earn points with his boss.  While Sessions focuses on Uranium One, the House Intelligence and Judicial Committees have been separately grilling FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.  All together he’s spent sixteen hours on their collective hot seats.  His testimony took place behind closed doors so all we know as of now is that he confirmed Comey’s assertions that after leaving his meetings with Trump, he went back to the FBI and brought certain of his colleagues, including McCabe, up to speed on the questionable subjects covered in those “inappropriate” meetings.  We also know that several of the Republicans in on the committee meetings were woefully dissatisfied with McCabe’s testimony and want him fired, more of an indication that they didn’t like what he had to say than anything else.  It’s worth noting that McCabe, unlike most FBI agents is a registered Democrat, making him that much more untrustworthy.  Senator Rand Paul  who has been somewhat quiet since his neighbor attacked him has jumped on the “go after everyone but Trump” bandwagon.  Yesterday he tweeted “time to investigate high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump! This could be WORSE than Watergate!”  Maybe it wasn’t just the smelly mulch that cause his neighbor to beat the crap out of him?  And he is right about one thing, this Trump mess is worse than Watergate.

Oh Oh Obamacare:  Trump may actually believe that his tax bill killed Obamacare but it hasn’t, at least in the eyes of the almost 9 million people who enrolled through the federal exchange.  That number was down only modestly from last year’s 9.2 million despite a shortened enrollment period and a 90% reduction in advertising for the program, not to mention Trump’s repeated assertions that Obamacare was dead, a message that confused a lot of people but not enough to stop them from signing up.  The 9 million number does not include the people who signed up on individual state exchanges, a number that is still growing since some of those exchanges remain open.  Despite Senator Susan Collins' efforts to get Obamacare insurance subsidy payments reinstated in exchange for her yes vote on the trillions for billionaires tax law, the legislation has been pushed off until next year and even then is expected to face an uphill battle. Though she hates hearing it, and calls any criticism of her negotiating skills sexist, Collins got played. Maybe she should have read Trump’s book on deal making.  Somewhere in there it must say that you need to make the other side deliver before giving up the goods. For his part Senate Majority Leader McConnell says that he has no plans to make another push to repeal Obamacare care next year.  Having killed the individual mandate, he is ready to move on and doesn’t want to inspire anymore health care protests in the run up to the 2018 midterms.

Open for Business:  The House and Senate passed another one of their kick the ball down the road continuing budget resolutions yesterday allowing the government to stay open at least until January 19 when the money will run out again.  Trump was all in on getting the resolution passed claiming that it was important to spoil the hopes of the Democrats who he tweeted  "want a SHUTDOWN" to "distract from the very popular, just passed" tax bill. "Don't let this happen."  It didn’t happen because those Democrats stepped up and helped pass the funding, a bill that included enough funds to keep the Children’s Health Insurance Program running for a few more months, some money for a Veterans Health program, and a temporary extension of the FISA warrant-less surveillance program.  The House also passed an $81 billion disaster relief funding bill but their Senate colleagues punted their vote until after the new year, leaving Puerto Rico and the other storm ravaged areas without the additional needed funds.  To the dismay of the Dreamers, a DACA fix was not included in the stopgap legislation.  However, all is not lost on that front as it appears that serious negotiations are ongoing with the intention of passing legislation early next year. Or at least that’s the line being delivered to the increasingly frustrated Dreamers and their congressional supporters.   As to that tax bill, Ivanka the favorite daughter, went on Fox News and asserted that Americans will be so happy when they file their taxes on a postcard and see on April 15 how much they’ve saved.  Apparently dilettante Ivanka doesn’t know that taxes paid this April reflect 2017 earnings and old tax laws, nor does she know that even after the tax bill goes into effect that “postcard” promise won’t apply because it wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.  For his part Trump is expected to sign the bill into law before Christmas because a separate vote waived  the mandated “paygo” budget cuts that would have forced $25 billion in annual cuts in Medicare expenditures to be immediately implemented, one of those things that wouldn’t go over well ever but especially in an election year.   

Oh Jerusalem:  As expected the UN went forward with its vote condemning the US decision to recognize Jerusalem, Israel’s capital, as Israel’s capital. Israel is used to being routinely condemned by the UN but the experience was new to Trump.  To the surprise of few, 128 nations voted for the non-binding resolutions, 9 including the US, Israel and a few small Pacific nations who feared getting their US support cut voted no, and 35 abstained.  Britain, France, Germany and Japan voted for the resolution, while Canada and Australia abstained.  It’s been reported that Canada was seriously considering voting with the US but that Trudeau changed his mind in response to Trump’s heavy handed threats to cut funding for any “allies” who didn’t vote his way.  Trump’s message was vote against us and “we’ll save a lot, we don’t care.”  Apparently, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, some of the biggest recipients of US aid didn’t care, or more likely, believe that they are too strategically important to face cuts.  With his Israel, Egypt trip postponed and a few extra days open on his schedule, Mike Pence made a surprise trip to Afghanistan to rally the troops.  Apparently it’s a lot easier to protect a short, stout white haired guy from errant missiles than it would be to protect a tall, very stout guy with neon orange hair.

Giant of the Senate:  Al Franken made his final speech to his Senate colleagues yesterday and by colleagues think Democrats, as only one Republican, Lamar Alexander was in attendance to hear his farewell words. Those words speak for themselves:  “As I leave the Senate, I have to admit that it feels like we’re losing the war for truth.  Maybe it’s already lost. If that’s what happens, then we have lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus.”  He went on to denounce the tax bill calling it a means of “showering corporations and wealthy donors with tax breaks and special favors.”  I miss him already.