Manny and The Professor

Manny:  Paul Manafort, Trump’s one time campaign chairman has done the unthinkable, he has flipped. On Friday he pleaded guilty Friday to two felony conspiracy charges and reached an agreement to provide "complete cooperation" with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also pleaded guilty to the counts left over from his Virginia trial. By cooperating, Manafort, who appears to have given up on getting that elusive Trump pardon, hopes to reduce his prison time and obtain protection for his family.  His decision to join Team Mueller left Trump and spokes lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who against all logic claims that Manafort’s joint defense agreement with Trump is still in place, stunned, so much so that Giuliani retracted his initial statement, the one that said "Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth” replacing it with one that left out the part about Manafort telling the truth because going forward Team Trump plans to insist that “convicted felon” Manafort is the world’s biggest liar.  As part of his plea, Manafort promises to tell the government about “his participation in and knowledge of all criminal activities,” including what he knows about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya and her team of Russian agents, decisions about Ukraine made at the Republican National Convention and a “host” of other behind-the-scenes discussions in the spring and summer of 2016.  Manafort also agreed to forfeit $22 million in New York properties to the government, including his house in Southampton and his apartment in Trump Tower, so that the Mueller investigation which has cost about $15 million to date could end up as a net contributor to the government coffers.  In an effort to diminish the value of Manafort’s flip, a number of Trump’s most ardent supporters continue to insist that he has nothing on Trump but does know a lot about some bad deeds committed by a number of Democrats, including John Podesta’s lobbyist brother Tony and the Clinton’s and their Foundation.  While some Democrats and a number of other lobbyists should be concerned, Trump and his family have more to be worried about because as frequent Trump defender Alan Dershowitz said over the weekend, Friday was a very bad day for Trump.  Not only did Manafort flip, but reports are that one time lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen has also started spilling his guts to Mueller’s team. After a brief twitter pause, Trump who is reported to be just a wee bit terrified about all of this went all out again on Mueller tweeting "While my (our) poll numbers are good, with the Economy being the best ever, if it weren’t for the Rigged Russian Witch Hunt, they would be 25 points higher! Highly conflicted Bob Mueller & the 17 Angry Democrats are using this Phony issue to hurt us in the Midterms. No Collusion!"  He also called the Russia investigation illegal. In between his Mueller attack tweets, Trump transferred some anger to Puerto Rico, by continuing his attack on all the recent reports which include dramatically higher Hurricane Maria death counts. He was so fixated on Puerto Rico, that he almost forgot to express his concerns for the victims of Hurricane Florence and his appreciation for the work being done by “his” team at FEMA.  As to FEMA, at least for now its head, Brock Long still has his job despite accusations that he has misspent millions of dollars inappropriately commandeering FEMA vehicles and staff members for his weekly trips back to his North Carolina home. Apparently, his boss, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen considered firing him moments before Hurricane Florence hit but was convinced by cooler heads that axing the head of your emergency agency while hurricane winds were swirling was bad form.  For his part, Long is doing his best to secure his position.  Over the weekend in response to a question about the revised Puerto Rico mortalities he defended Trump on NBC’s Meet the Press calling the Puerto Rico studies “frustrating” because “You might see more deaths indirectly as time goes on... Spousal abuse goes through the roof. You can’t blame spousal abuse after a disaster on anyone.”  Trump was thrilled with that response.           

The Professor:  We still don’t know who wrote the NY Times Op-Ed excoriating Trump but now we do know the name of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser.  She is Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford.  Professor Ford, who hoped to remain anonymous, decided to come forward after a number of reporters staked out her classes and residence.  In an interview with the Washington Post she said that Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who grew up to become a well-known conservative writer, pusher her into a room where Kavanaugh pinned her down and tried to force himself on her.  She added that Kavanaugh placed his hand over her mouth to silence her scream and that she feared for her life.  She managed to escape after an extremely inebriated Mark Judge jumped on both of them causing them to tumble out of control.  The assault  occurred while they were all attending an unchaperoned, alcohol infused party in the Maryland area not far from where the guys attended Georgetown Prep and Ford went to the Holten-Arms School.  At the time, she was 15, Kavanaugh was 17.  Ford says that she was traumatized by the experience and too afraid of their reaction to her drinking beer to tell her parents.  Though she didn’t tell anyone at the time, in 2012 she told both her husband and her therapist, who has notes describing her description of the assault.  She has passed a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent. Last week Kavanaugh unequivocally denied that he had ever assaulted any woman and Mark Judge, who has written a book about his days as a teen age alcoholic and his tendency to black out when drunk, says he does not recall the incident which is fine since he might not be the best character witness anyway as his recently removed internet postings reveal that he continues to have an unhealthy obsession with teen age girls.  During the course of the confirmation hearings, Democrats accused Kavanaugh of lying about a number of legal issues, now they believe that he is also lying about the assault.  Until last night Republicans were all on Team Kavanaugh so much so that last week almost immediately after Senator Diane Feinstein revealed the existence of the then anonymous letter, Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley produced a list of 65 women from Kavanaugh’s high school days who all vouched for his character.  That such a list was available on such short notice and that Kavanaugh even knew 65 women when he was in high school seemed fairly odd at the time, now it looks even more peculiar.  The Judiciary Committee is due to vote Kavanaugh’s nomination out of committee on Thursday; Democrats want that vote postponed.  Yesterday evening Republican Senator Jeff Flake joined them, calling for the vote to be delayed until after Ford can be heard.  Later Senator Lindsey Graham, who is also on the committee said that “he would be open to hearing what Ford has to say,” even though he still questions the timing of her disclosure and is convinced the whole thing is just a big nothing burger. Senator Bob Corker, who is not on the committee and who like Flake is leaving the Senate at the end of the term, also called for a delay in the vote. Senator Grassley, who initially resisted doing anything in response to Ford’s accusations, says that he is now seeking to set up calls with both Kavanaugh and Ford to follow-up on the matter even though he still thinks it’s all bunk and questions Democrats’ timing and motives. To no one’s surprise on Sunday the White House reiterated Trump’s complete confidence in Kavanaugh because who cares if he assaulted anyone as long as he’s all in on presidential power and overturning Roe.  Late Sunday, the so-called moderate Senator Susan Collins who is supposed to care about women’s issues but seems to be really crushing on Kavanaugh said that “I’m going to be talking with my colleagues, but I really don’t have anything to add at this point, as I said. I did ask — I did read the letter last week and — and asked the judge in a telephone conversation on Friday about it, and he was very emphatic in his denial.” Of course she also believes in the Easter Bunny and that Kavanaugh will uphold Roe and is still waiting for Majority Leader McConnell to make that Obamacare subsidy fix that he promised her last year.  Late last night Senator Lisa Murkowski who is also supposed to care about Roe and women’s issues finally emerged from hiding to say that the Judiciary Committee might need to delay its vote to look into the Ford accusation.

Other News:  Cynthia Nixon, the Sex in the City star whose hopes of becoming governor of New York went down  faster than a commiseration Cosmopolitan cocktail, blamed her primary loss on large voter turnout.  Apparently her team had expected  that only the most liberal of voters would show up for last week’s NY primary, and holds the large number of mainstream Democrats who showed up and voted for NY Governor Cuomo responsible for her loss.  As to those voters, Democratic leadership is thrilled that they turned up in record numbers because, despite Nixon’s view, more Democratic voters, mean more Democratic wins come the November elections.  And those voters had better show up, last week at an event in Wisconsin, House Majority Leader Ryan told his crowd that if Republicans hold the House, they will take another run at Obamacare and will also do their best to slash Medicare benefits.   He went on to remind the crowd that with Senator McCain and his thumb gone, Senate Republicans now have the votes they need to finally  achieve that repeal and replace thing.