The Seventies

Septuagenarian Playbook:  Like him or not, Joe Biden seems to know how to get under Trump’s skin.  Yesterday Biden got the endorsement of the International Association of Firefighters.  Trump who prides himself on the support of the white male working class couldn’t take that one lying down so he slammed the union’s “Dues Sucking” leadership, tweeting “I’ll never get the support of the dues crazy union leadership those people who rip-off their membership with ridiculously high dues, medical and other expenses while being paid a fortune. But the members love Trump. They look at our record economy, tax & reg cuts, military etc. WIN!”  Biden, or as Trump likes to call him, Sleepy Joe, off holding his first official political rally in Pennsylvania, one of Trump’s key swing states, tweet responded  “I'm sick of this President badmouthing unions. Labor built the middle class in this country. Minimum wage, overtime pay, the 40-hour week: they exist for all of us because unions fought for those rights. We need a President who honors them and their work.” For the record Trump wants us all to know that he is the most “vibrant, young” septuagenarian running, a shocker to both Biden and Bernie Sanders, who are virtual energy bunnies in comparison to Trump, the only world leader who rides in a golf cart to cross the street at international summits while all other world leaders walk.  Though the primary season is still in its early stages and, if we learned anything in 2016, polls don’t really mean much, it’s still worth noting that Biden’s off to a good start, he’s bumped up 6% to a 35% favorability among likely Democratic voters since his announcement, giving him a 14% lead over the current second place holder, Bernie Sanders.  As to Trump, whose favorability numbers remain stuck in the high thirties, he continues to push back hard against anymore investigations into anything related to his finances.  Last night he, Don  Jr, Eric and Ivanka and his business filed suit against Deutsche Bank and Capital One in an attempt to block them from turning over financial records to the congressional committees that have issued subpoenas for the information.  The suit which Representatives Adam Schiff and Maxime Waters, chairs of the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees, call “meritless” “efforts to delay accountability,” alleges presidential harassment and congressional overreach.  At least with regard to Deutsche Bank, the information may already be out of the bag, last week bank officials reported that they had begun turning over some of those disputed records to NY State’s Attorney General.  The Trumps aren’t the only ones who aren’t feeling all that cooperative right now.  Attorney General Barr is still fighting with the House Judiciary Committee about the terms of engagement for his upcoming appearance on their “hot” seat.  He insists that he won’t show if they continue to insist that he sit for questioning by committee lawyers.  Chairman Nadler’s response is that Barr doesn’t get to dictate the terms of his appearance and that he’s willing to go the subpoena route if necessary. It’s worth remembering that last fall Senate Republicans employed a specially hired sex crimes prosecutor to conduct their interrogation of Justice Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, somehow or other no one in the Trump administration had any problem with that.

Human Resources, etc:  Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is finally leaving the Justice Department.  Yesterday he submitted his official letter of resignation notifying Trump that May 11 will be his last day.  Not surprisingly, the Rosenstein letter was curiously written and just a little too obsequious.  He wrote ““I am grateful to you for the opportunity to serve; for the courtesy and humor you often display in our personal conversations; and for the goals you set in your inaugural address: patriotism, unity, safety, education and prosperity.”  Justice Department attorneys aren’t supposed to engage in “personal conversations” with the president, or at least that was the Republican position when Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch had that June 2016 tete-a-tete on the Phoenix airport tarmac with former president Bill Clinton, the little meeting that led to Lynch stepping away from the Hillary email investigation, an action that led to former FBI Director Comey taking it upon himself to go public with too many details about the whole email server investigation, one of the pivotal events that contributed to Trump’s victory.  On the campaign front Beto O’Rourke who has pretty much avoided making policy statements has finally announced one, his version of a Green New Deal, a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change that while ambitious is  less so than the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plan in that it doesn’t rule out any forms of low-carbon energy, like nuclear power, and because it sets 2050 rather than 2030 as the date for achieving net-zero carbon emissions.  As to slime, Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, the same two right wing characters who tried smearing Special Counsel Mueller’s reputation with trumped up accusations that he’d engaged in some sexual harassment have been out seeking some young male volunteers to launch similarly phony accusations against Mayor Pete Buttigieg.  They were caught this time but not before some of their slime oozed on Facebook.  Lastly, though he’s still in the running, a few Republican Senators have started to publicly express their concerns about Federal Reserve wannabee Stephen Moore and his history of women and minority dissing commentary with Iowa’s Republican Senator Joni Ernst saying that “His past writings are ridiculous,” adding that she’s “not enthused about supporting him, let’s put it that way.”  

Infrastructure Week:  Okay maybe it’s not really infrastructure week again, but it is infrastructure morning.  Trump is once again hosting Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in his office to discuss infrastructure projects because when all else fails, it’s time to discuss infrastructure.  This time around the Democrats appear to be really serious, they are including  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip James Clyburn, Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Lujan, Richard Neal, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Peter DeFazio, the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as part of their traveling squad.  Pelosi and company plan to propose $2 trillion in projects but it’s not clear that the Trump piggy bank, already diminished by last year’s tax cuts has anywhere enough money to fund much more than another Trump helipad.