The Tolling Bell

The Revolving Door:  The big talk surrounds the future of Attorney General Sessions and though Sessions head has been on the chopping block for quite a while, expectations are that his days in the cabinet will likely come to an end sometime after the midterm elections.  While the Wall Street Journal reports that a number of Sessions’ Senate supporters are encouraging him to do his best to stay put and that Senate Majority Leader McConnell is in his court, The Washington Post reports that Trump wants to rid himself of  Sessions sooner rather than later and is only holding off right now because his TV lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow have advised him that Special Counsel Mueller would “interpret such an action as an effort to obstruct justice and thwart the investigation.” Of course, Mueller would reach that conclusion primarily because it’s true. With the exception of his recusal from the Russia investigation, Sessions has been and continues to be Trump’s most effective cabinet member so the only reason to fire him would be to get someone new in place, someone who could take charge of the Mueller investigation to shut it down and/or lock away any final report.  A number of Sessions’ former colleagues in the Senate seem willing to go along with whatever decision Trump makes, as long as he doesn’t act on it until after the midterm elections. Alabama Senator Shelby, one of Sessions’ closest buddies, has pretty much said that Trump should get to do what he wants and Senator Lindsey Graham, the same guy who gave a moving speech on the Senate floor yesterday tearfully talking about his good friend and mentor John McCain and the value of independent thinking, has gone from saying that firing Sessions would be the beginning of the end for Trump to saying that he should get to do whatever he wants.  Yesterday, Graham told NBC’s Today show hosts that Trump’s relationship with Sessions is beyond toxic and though he wouldn’t go into any details, he added that there was some kind of “deep breach” between the two of them that’s even worse than any of us can imagine.  Graham insisted that any replacement would have to let Mueller finish his job, but then again Graham’s been known to change his mind, might see in Trump the mentor he now is lacking, and anyway it’s hard to believe that Trump would fire Sessions only to let the investigation continue. Trump’s evangelical supporters would also be okay with Sessions leaving, though they don’t want to see anything happen that would hurt Republicans during the midterm elections.  To that end Trump has warned them that they need to be especially vigilant because Democratic victories in the midterms would result in a rollback of all of his fundamentalist accomplishments as well as a wave of Antifa instigated violence.  He encouraged the ministers to tell their flocks to show up and vote Republican and not to worry about those sermons being a violation of the Johnson Amendment because he would never tolerate anyone enforcing the prohibition against tax-exempt churches weighing in on elections.  As to a Session replacement, Trump would have a hard time getting anyone too sketchy through the confirmation process so as much as he may now want the spot, Rudy Giuliani probably wouldn’t be a likely choice.  Former NJ Governor Christie’s name has been mentioned but he may now be facing some disqualifying  problems of his own.  This morning’s Wall Street Journal reports that Malaysian financier  Jho Low  who played a major role in the embezzlement of $4.5 billion from  a Malaysian fund, may have used laundered money to pay Christie for legal services, and by laundered we aren’t talking a Tide spin.  In any case, Trump may not be all that worried about getting his next Attorney General through a confirmation process, he would be satisfied with an interim appointment, one who could fire Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein without Senate approval.  Word is that Sessions isn’t the only lawyer headed out the door, Axios reports that White House Counsel Don McGahn, who has been talking about leaving by year end will leave as soon as the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation process is completed.  It is likely that he will be replaced by Trump’s other lawyer, Emmet Flood, who has lots of relevant impeachment experience. Trump, who can’t be all that pleased about those reports that McGahn more than cooperated with Mueller and hasn’t been all that happy with McGahn for a while,  would be more than happy to show him the door.  As to that door someone in Trumpland has been making senior Justice Department attorney Bruce Ohr’s life very miserable.  Ohr, who has years of expertise dealing with corruption, one of his area’s of expertise is the Russian Mafia, is now being raked through the coals by Trump and his House toadies.  During the course of his career Ohr developed a good relationship with Christopher Steele, the former British agent. Though much of what Steele included in his infamous dossier has been verified, Steele’s relationship with the FBI was ended when officials became upset with him for reaching out to the press to insure that his concerns about Trump’s shenanigans were being taken seriously. After that formal relationship was ended, people within the FBI asked Ohr to serve as an informal intermediary with Steele because the agency still wanted to benefit from his expertise, particularly with regard to the dossier’s contents.  Ohr is now being skewered for that contact with Steele.  Trump tacked his name onto that long list of Obama era intelligence officials who he plans to strip of security clearances, a particular problem for Ohr who needs the clearance to be effective at his Justice Department job.  Yesterday, Ohr was subjected to intense questioning by a number of Republican members of the House Intelligence and Oversight Committees.  Democrats did not attend the meeting.  Notably in the course of investigating the Russian Mafia, one of Ohr’s Russian targets was Oleg Deripaska, the now sanctioned Russian oligarch who convicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort promised to keep in the loop on all things related to the Trump administration.  It’s fairly obvious that Ohr, like Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and Yates is being smeared by team Trump chiefly to diminish his credibility and thus the value of any of his possible future testimony.           

Election Update:  As expected Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally easily beat out her two rivals, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Dr Kelly Ward, to win Arizona’s Republican senate nomination.  She will run against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, who dominated her primary opponent setting up what is expected to be a close race, a possible Democratic pick-up, for the Senate seat being vacated by Jeff Flake.   Arizona Governor Ducey, who is also facing reelection in November, is expected to name a replacement for Senator McCain’s seat next week following the Senator’s funeral.  Ducey’s selection is being complicated by his own need to satisfy the right wing of his own party, the 48% of the Republican voters who supported either Arpaio or Ward, while also maintaining the support of the moderates who he’ll need to win reelection.  The upset of the day took place in Florida where the progressive candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, narrowly beat out a number of Democratic rivals including Gwen Graham who had been expected to win.  As the frontrunner, Graham had come under attack by another one of the candidates while Gillum, who had the support of Bernie Sanders, quietly built the momentum he needed to win.  Gillum will face off against Republican Ron DeSantis, who easily won his primarily mostly because he benefited from a Trump endorsement.  DeSantis and Gillum couldn’t be more different. DeSantis won by out Trumping Trump while Gillum, who to the extent that he wins would be Florida’s first African American Governor, supports the Obamacare Medicaid expansion something that the current Republican Governor, Rick Scott has opposed, except during his own election years when he feigned interest.  For his part Scott, who is running for the Senate will face off against incumbent Senator Bill Nelson.  Democrats are rightfully concerned that the very wealthy and camera ready Scott, who has been spending millions of his own money on that race, stands a good chance of beating the older and more reserved former astronaut Nelson.     

Death Toll:  Yesterday, the Governor of Puerto Rico formally acknowledged that the hurricane Maria death toll was 2975.  To put that number in perspective the death toll for hurricane Katrina was 1833 while the death toll for 9.11 was 2996.  Remember Trump once said that Maria wasn’t a big deal and that he deserved an A plus because “only” around 64 Puerto Ricans were killed.  A large number of the Maria deaths are attributable to a failure to act by the his administration possibly because as Trump said, Puerto Rico is an island in an ocean and anyway, those people aren’t really US citizens anyway.  Okay, he didn’t say that last part, but he probably thought it.