#Wynning

#MeToo Las Vegas Style:  The Republican establishment’s initial reaction to the revelations that Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas Casino tycoon and Republican Finance Chair, is a serial sexual harasser who had made at least one $7.5 million payment to silence one of his accusers, a manicurist who worked for his casino conglomerate, was to shrug, hoping against hope that no one had read the Wall Street Journal article based on interviews with over hundred sources.  That strategy didn’t go over well, so after some serious dithering and a call with Trump that must have been very weird given his own history, the Republican National Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, Mitt’s obsequious niece, gave Wynn the boot, forcing him to step down from his RNC finance position.  Though the party still has several billionaire donors, including the Koch Brothers and the Mercers, the loss of Wynn is significant. He raised lots of money, was a longtime acquaintance and sometime BFF of Trump, and given his Las Vegas home, was influential in Nevada politics. Since Republicans embarrassed Democrats into returning their tainted Harvey Weinstein contributions after his sins went public, they are under pressure to return their Wynn money.  When asked about this on Sunday, Senator Susan Collins was pleased to announce that she had never been a beneficiary of his largesse and called for those who were to ditch his money. Last night, a reluctant Paul Ryan said that he will be donating the $1000 that he received to charity and Representative Karen Handel who won the Atlanta 6 special election and who is facing another tough election in November also announced that she is sending her $2700 contribution to a women’s group.  Expect more similar disgorgements to follow. Wynn’s pressure on Dean Heller, Nevada’s imperiled Republican senator was one of the reasons that Heller, who at one point voted against the repeal of Obamacare, changed his vote to support repeal legislation.  Heller, who is up for reelection in November and who is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Republican senators, has now lost his most significant financial backer. The Wall Street Journal’s expose that triggered Wynn’s demise is particularly significant because for much of the Trump era, constrained by Rupert Murdoch’s personal conservative politics, the paper had been a minor player when it came to publishing Trump critical stories.  Between the Stormy Daniels porn star payoff story and this Wynn harassment story it appears that those constraints have been eased, the WSJ is now trying to get into the game, giving the NY Times and Washington Post a run for their money, or at least for the Pulitzers.  Murdoch may be having second thoughts about Trump.  Hillary Clinton is also having second thoughts, hers are about the way she allowed her spiritual advisor to stick with her 2008 campaign after he was accused of harassing another campaign aide.  She docked the guy’s pay and sent him for some “therapy” but didn’t fire him, the woman was reassigned.  Then again, that was 2008, the times have finally changed, or appeared to have changed for some, and most importantly, as Trump likes to remind us, she’s not president.      

#Release the Memo:  Trump is running scared, very, very scared.  The official White House position is that there was no collusion with the Russians, Trump is an innocent and obstruction is a farfetched fantasy.  As far as they are concerned Manafort and his crony Gates are just guys he never really knew whose bad deeds predate their involvement with Trump’s campaign. As to the two guys who’ve actually reached plea deals, Flynn is just a misguided really nice war hero who was tricked into lying, and George Papadopoulos was just a nefarious coffee boy.  The rest of the investigation, especially the focus on obstruction of justice, is just a Democratic plot to justify Hillary Clinton’s election loss by questioning the validity of Trump’s victory and an attempt by the deep state to overturn the will of the people, or at least the will of the Trump base.  Moreover, they have the facts to prove it, those “facts” are detailed in a memo prepared by Devon Nunes with the help of the House Intelligence Committee Republican assistants.  Nunes hopes to release his memo this week, possibly today, despite the opposition of the Trump run Department of Justice who fear that its contents will reveal critical information about US intelligence methods.  The memo is thought to be no more than a series of bullet points that detail Nunes’ assertions that the entire Mueller investigation, including his appointment, is based on spurious facts and an improperly obtained FISA warrant that relied solely on the disputed Steele Dossier. Though the contents and conclusions of the memo are questionable at best, it’s likely that Trump will declassify the memo and its contents so that it can be released ASAP, part of his efforts to delegitimize the Mueller investigation.  Trump has been trying to get rid of Mueller for a while, has been engaged in a strategy of ruining the reputations of the FBI agents who worked under Comey and would be more than happy to get rid of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in order to accomplish his objectives.  It’s thought that the memo “documents” Rosenstein’s missteps, and attacks the FBI agents involved in all aspects of the Russia investigation. With the exception of West Virginia Senator Manchin, whose political future relies on him dancing on a political tightrope in his heavily pro-Trump Republican state, virtually all of the Democratic members of the Senate want legislation passed immediately to protect Mueller’s position.  Manchin’s not all that concerned that Trump would really fire Mueller, he thinks those private rants against Mueller are just examples of “New York” talk.  He, like many of his Republican associates, is willing to wait until Rosenstein’s body is found floating in the Potomac before putting in place any Mueller protection legislation.  Republican Senator Tillis, a previous co-sponsor of a bill to protect Mueller has mysteriously pulled his support, at least for now.  Lindsey Graham seems to be the only Republican in support of the legislation.  He still believes that Mueller is “the perfect guy to get to the bottom of all this, and he will.” He also believes that firing Mueller would end Trump’s presidency, at this point he may be the only Republican willing to say that out loud. For his part Rosenstein may want to start wearing water wings and a bullet proof vest, as long as he stands in the way of firing Mueller, his days may be numbered.  Despite his assertion that he can’t wait to testify, Trump’s lawyers are looking into ways to get him out from under that promise.  In addition to negotiating with Mueller about ways to minimize Trump’s exposure, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump’s lawyers are looking at a 1997 federal court ruling that presidents are protected against disclosing information about their decision-making process if that information is available elsewhere.  The ruling is probably not all that applicable to testimony as opposed to physical evidence but could impede the Mueller investigation by providing Trump and his lawyers with a tool to initiate a court challenge that could delay his testimony for a while. As to Trump, he is still displaying his curious affinity for Putin and Russia, he still hasn’t implemented the financial sanctions on Russia mandated by the legislation that was overwhelmingly passed last year.   

#DACA, #Immigration:  The DACA negotiations continue. Trump is expected to formally release his plan today, the one that he leaked when he held an impromptu press conference in Chief of Staff Kelly’s office moments before Kelly was going to walk through it on background with the assembled group of reporters.  That peformance was just another way of Trump establishing that he, rather than Kelly, is boss.  On its surface the Trump plan looks like an offer to double the number of DACA recipients who would benefit from permanent status and eventual citizenship in exchange for a high level of wall funding, an outcome that sounds appealing despite the stupid wall component.  However, the Trump plan also contains some fairly onerous limitations on future immigration that go well beyond the DACA concerns.  Democrats and members of the bipartisan group of Senators led by Manchin and Collins view the Trump plan as barely a starting point and are continuing to move forward with their own bill.  Democrats want to focus solely on DACA and some wall funding, leaving tougher immigration decisions for another day.  Rightwing anti-immigration Republicans want to tackle the whole issue, because they know that the Democrats are feeling the DACA pressure and because they know that tackling the whole immigration issue will throw the DACA resolution out the window for now and maybe forever.  House Speaker Ryan just wants the immigration “thing” to die in the Senate.  February 8 is only one week away.