Naughty or Nice

Geese a Laying:  Trump kept his promise, he signed his tax bill before Christmas. He really wanted to hold  the traditional end of the year news conference but dispensed with it upon the forceful advice of his handlers who were convinced that he would pull another “Lester Holt” and accidentally implicate himself in some more obstruction of justice or collusion so reluctantly, following the signing, he hopped a flight to Mar a Lago instead.  Despite assertions that little of his tax cut would trickle down to the less advantaged, a few corporations are bucking expectations, delivering Trump appreciation checks to their employees.  Coincidentally some of those generous corporations, like ATT, Comcast, Sinclair Media and Wells Fargo are recent beneficiaries of the changed net neutrality policy or are trying to get the Trump administration to ignore their past transgressions or ease antitrust approval for planned mergers.  ATT wants so much to keep CNN and Wells Fargo wants regulators to forget how they keep cheating their customers. 

Pipers Piping:  The exodus from the Administration is starting to resemble a stampede.  Deputy White House Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn is leaving early next year as is Jeremy Katz, Gary Cohn’s respected Deputy Economic Advisor. Though he hasn’t announced his plans, Gary Cohn could be next out the door.  Larry Kudlow, the former Bear Stearns economist and CNBC commentator’s name has been floated as a possible replacement, but his name seems to float a lot so nothing may come of it. Bucking tradition, Senate Democrats refused to sign off on rolling the nominations of about one hundred of Trump’s nominees into next year.  To the extent that the White House wants to stick with the mostly unqualified group they will have to nominate them again, the candidates will then have to update their disclosure forms, a timely and expensive process which may cause some of them to just throw in the towel. Health Secretary nominee Alex Azar and Singapore Ambassador nominee KT McFarland are among the crowd who will have to redo their forms.  Azar will probably go the distance, but given her involvement in the Flynn affair, the White House could use this as an opportunity to quietly throw McFarland’s nomination into the waste bin.  To the extent that openings remain, human resources can just find some pipers, they are just as qualified and will be available in early January, that is to the extent they aren’t preparing to run as a Democrat for a seat in the House or Senate. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell is growing increasingly concerned that it won’t take much to pick off many of his Republican colleagues during the upcoming 2018 midterms.  The White House is concerned as well, reports are that Trump has been getting an earful from Corey Lewandowski his one-time campaign manager about just how much his political handlers are messing up their election strategy.  It looks like Lewandowski is angling for one of those White House openings and given that Trump is the decisionmaker- in- chief, a recent accusation that he engaged in some sexual harassment probably won’t hurt his chances.   

Drummers Drumming:  With Mueller’s drums beating louder than ever, the battle to delegitimize the FBI wages on.  Yesterday, James Baker, the FBI’s chief legal counsel was “reassigned.”  Unnamed Republican “sources” are claiming that Baker had inappropriate contact with David Korn, the Mother Jones reporter who first broke the story about the infamous Steele dossier and its contents.  Korn responded by saying “I’m not going to discuss my sources but in order to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate information, I will say that James Baker was not my source for this story."  Baker’s reassignment was pretty sudden, as recently as Thursday he represented fellow FBI Agent,  Deputy Director Andrew McCabe while he was being grilled by Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee.  It’s not clear if Baker was reassigned for a bona fide reason or if he was moved out of his position to placate Trump, who has been unusually critical of Christopher Wray, the new FBI Director that he handpicked.  Trump, with the assist of some of his Congressional co-conspirators has been pushing Wray to rid himself of many of the senior FBI agents promoted during the Comey years, a move that probably won’t go over well among the FBI rank and file, a group already dispirited by Trump’s suggestions that their agency is in tatters.  Despite all the distractions and fears about his longevity, Mueller toils on.  Reports are that he met with Trump’s legal team at the end of the week and though we don’t know for sure, he likely told them that the end of his investigation is not in sight. However, the House Intelligence Committee is trying to wrap up their work and they are doing that by speeding through interviews, scheduling them an inconvenient times, and keeping their Democratic colleagues in the dark whenever possible.  Yesterday the committee’s staff members met with Trump’s long time personal assistant Rhona Graff at an undisclosed location in NYC even though she had expressed a willingness to meet with the whole committee in Washington.  Graff who served as Trump’s gatekeeper and his “human email account” was mentioned by Rob Goldstone in his correspondence with Don Jr during the run up to the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.  Earlier in the week, the staff members met with Felix Sater, the questionable Russian American real estate guy with a sketchy past as an FBI informant, who Trump sometimes denies knowing even though they worked together on a number of projects including the Trump Soho Hotel, the one that just changed its name and cut it ties with the Trumps because the Trump association was hurting its business.  The meeting with Sater was purposely scheduled at the same time as the House tax bill vote to make sure that no members of the Committee, especially those difficult Democrats, could participate.  Reports are that the Committee has plans to interview Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowski next.  Their list is impressive but since none of these “invited” guests are being subpoenaed, none of them are swearing to tell the truth.    

Lords a Leaping:  Lady and Lord Kushner have been having a tough week.  Despite her best efforts to appear ever so composed and lady like, Vanity Fair reports that Ivanka got so angry with Steve Bannon that she told him to go F-ck himself during one of those White House bonding sessions.  As to Lord Kushner, his finances are coming under more scrutiny.  Prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of NY are reported to have subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for records related to the Kushner Companies.  This request may have nothing to do with Mueller’s Russia probe, but it’s still a bigly problem for Jared.

Checking That List:  Note to Santa, don’t waste much time checking that White House list, and certainly don’t bother checking it twice.  It’s fair to say that most of the Trumpkins, especially the seriously orange one with the chipmunk on his head fall in to the naughty category.  The crowd that coined the term alternative facts, gave new meaning to lying and care nothing at all about the unfortunate or the North Pole icecap are hardly worthy of much. It’s coal for them, lots of it.  And don’t bother delivering it yourself, have a few idled miners help, despite Trump’s claims and their delusional hopes, they could use the income.  In the off chance that you need a break, check out UN Ambassador Nikki Halley’s party, she’s only inviting “nice” people, representatives of the countries that voted alongside us, abstained or just didn’t show up for the recent referendum on Jerusalem.  If Nikki says they are nice, they must be, so feel free to bring a long a few gifts.  No need to even bother flying over North Korea, Kim Jung Un’s been a very bad fellow and has no need for coal especially while he’s basking in the glow of his growing nuclear arsenal.  Besides, given the newest set of harsh sanctions applied this week by the UN, the little rocket man could be testier than usual and might mistake you and the red nosed boy for an incoming missile.

Merry Christmas to All!!