Whack a Mole Redux

Book Lists:  Over the weekend Barack Obama shared his favorite reads of 2019.  It’s not clear that Trump, who doesn’t even read his daily briefing, read any books this year although he did manage to make one, his son’s book Triggered, a NY Times best seller by having Republican party apparatchiks purchase tons of copies for distribution to his fawning donors.  Trump spent some of that time freed up by not reading engaged in one of his favorite activities: tweeting.  He again retweeted an article outing the anonymous Whistleblower.  He did that over the objections of his advisors who have repeatedly told him that he shouldn’t. He also continued to trash talk Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attacking her for sitting on the articles of that “faux” impeachment “witch hunt” and going after her state and district’s homeless problem.  His tweet attacks were so relentless that some concluded that Hillary Clinton must be subletting her usual corner in his head to Pelosi.  Trump also found time to attack Senate Minority Leader Schumer and all things New York State leading a few to surmise that he might know that something bad is about to drop from one of those many NY investigations. That’s a possibility but it could just be that he’s really upset about impeachment and with a series of articles that were published in the NY Times.  The NYT provided extensive details, including previously unreleased and quite horrific videos, about the war crimes committed by Edward Gallagher, the SEAL who Trump pardoned and had reinstated because who doesn’t love a war criminal.  The article appeared just after Trump had the charming fellow to Mar a Lago as a featured Christmas guest. In a weekend appearance on ABC’s This Week, Robert O’Brien, Trump’s current national security advisor, defended Trump’s treatment of Gallagher saying if ever a guy deserved clemency it was Gallagher; so now we know how O’Brien qualified for his job.  As to John Bolton, one of Trump’s many previous national security advisors, via another NYT article we learned a little more about how he together with Secretary of State Pompeo and Defense Secretary Esper tried hard to get Trump to release the Ukraine military aid that had been promised but then held up as part of the “get dirt on Biden and shift blame to Ukraine for the 2016 election interference” quid pro quo.  Published last night, the NYT article, details the timeline of events related to the Ukraine aid hold up.  It includes more information about the frustration and pushback from career staffers at OMB and the Defense Department who tried to get the Congressionally mandated aid released.  The article also throws more light on the cadre of Trump political appointees, most notably his acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, but also some people in OMB and legal who blocked the aid distribution while ginning up curiously questionable legal justifications for sitting on it. To the extent that the Senate impeachment ever gets off the ground, and it probably will sometime in January, Pelosi’s impeachment managers will find the NYT’s elegant timeline useful. As to the impeachment trial, we still don’t know what Senators Schumer and McConnell will agree to, or more accurately what McConnell will allow, but at least so far, Speaker Pelosi’s stall strategy appears to be providing the time for more relevant evidence to seep out while also impacting polling numbers.  Though the percentage of people supporting Trump’s removal remains somewhere in the low to mid 50s depending on the poll, the percentage who believe that witnesses should be called is above 65% .  Turning back to Pompeo, it’s hard to miss that though he had no problem with the character assassination of former Ambassador Yovanovitch, he clearly understood the importance of delivering the aid to Ukraine, a fact that makes his behavior that much more difficult to countenance.  In any case, though O’Neill insists that Pompeo isn’t going to leave his post to run for the open Kansas Senate seat, reports are that Pompeo’s already got a new website and that Trump is floating names of possible replacements and that one of those possibilities is O’Neill while another is current Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.  

Hate:  Sadly, hate was everywhere this weekend.  As evidenced by this weekend’s Hanukkah knife attack in Monsey New York, the scourge of anti-Semitism continues to be on the upswing.  The family of the Monsey attacker asserts that he has a history of mental illness and though that’s likely, when did mental illness become an excuse for anti-Semitism?  Another hate spewing attacker who “only” managed to hurt three Orthodox Jewish women in Brooklyn last week was released after her defense attorney cited her mental illness and promised that she would attend twice monthly counseling because as we all know twice monthly counseling is a cure all for ingrained hate. It doesn’t look like she’ll be free to show up for those sessions because she’s been arrested again for committing another assault. Fortunately, neither the Monsey nor the Brooklyn attackers had guns but the same can’t be said for the now deceased murderer who shot up and killed some parishioners at a church outside of Fort Worth, Texas. What a way to finish the year, but then again given current events, not all that surprising.  Anyway, you’ll be relieved to know that Trump and daughter Ivanka joined the long list of politicians condemning the attacks.  As to Ivanka during an interview with CBS’s Face The Nation, she mumbled something about how she’s not sure how much longer she’ll stay in Washington or whether she’ll ever run for office, that she’s got so much more to do but ultimately it will be up to her kids.  Could someone please tell me what she does and why CBS thought that interview was at all appropriate?

Etcetera:  In other news, Joe Biden first said that he wouldn’t honor a subpoena to appear before the Senate if he was “invited” to testify.  He then changed his statement to say that he shouldn’t be called because he’s not a fact witness on things related to the charges against Trump but that of course he would honor any subpoena.  He should have said that in the first place or said something along the lines of “Gee I’d be happy to testify if Trump does too.” Apparently, it’s not just Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani has also been mucking around in Venezuela, seeking to impact policy while benefiting from some business opportunities.   Several news services reported that it’s too early to count Senator Bernie Sanders out, that he is a real contender.  That may or not be true or it may just be that Bernie’s people succeeded in pushing out a good story.  Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer continue to spend millions and millions of dollars to the consternation of their competitors but to the joy of local media outlets everywhere.  There were early reports of a ceasefire deal with the Taliban but since winding down military activities like ending hate crimes is similar to playing whack a mole the possible end of war in Afghanistan has been offset by an upswing in activity in Iraq and Syria where the US attacked some Iran sponsored militias.          

I’ve said it before but will say it again we are in for a bumpy 2020.  Happy New Year!     

Boxing Day Update

Rudolph, not Rudy:  The rhetoric quieted down just a little bit for the Christmas holiday though in between  Santa’s and the reindeer’s ride, calls to soldiers, a visit to a new church and an admission that he hadn’t bought anything yet for dear wife Melania, Trump did manage to stay on his message, calling the economy great and the impeachment unconstitutional, a hoax perpetrated by those do nothing Democrats.  Of course he also called out Speaker Pelosi for her failure to formally deliver the House’s articles of impeachment to the Senate.  As to Pelosi’s stall tactic, it’s purpose is to force Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to agree to the calling of a few of those witnesses who know a lot but, at least so far, have refused to talk under oath.  It’s unclear whether Pelosi really can do anything to influence McConnell’s decision but one of the consequences of her stalling is that more implicating facts keep on coming to light raising the threat that the Democrats could actually vote on another article, something they probably won’t really do though it sounds threatening.  As to more evidence, late Friday, at a time when few were paying attention, 146 pages of documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Center for Public Integrity.  Those documents included emails between OMB and Pentagon officials detailing their concerns that Trump’s decision to hold up Ukraine’s promised aid violated the Impoundment Control Act, a law writtten to prevent presidents from ignoring the will of Congress.  Essentially a president isn’t supposed to simply ignore Congress’s direction, no matter how inconvenient that instruction might be. If funds are withheld or shifted elsewhere, Congress is supposed to be notified.  Despite the law Trump’s decision to stop the Ukraine aid wasn’t announced, nor was any formal notification provided to Congress. Notably one of the emails included in the pre-Christmas dump was sent on July 25 shortly after Trump’s now infamous Zelensky call.  In that email Michael Duffey, a senior OMB political appointee, told the Pentagon’s comptroller about the aid halt, while asking him to keep the information on the down low because “Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute the direction.”   

Michael Duffey is one of the witnesses that Democrats want called to testify during the Senate impeachment hearing.  Now we know why they want him.  Another one of those targeted witnesses, former national security advisor John Bolton, continues to resist testifying but has no problem talking to reporters so before the holiday, he sat down with Axios to bash Trump’s North Korea policy, saying that "the idea that we are somehow exerting maximum pressure on North Korea is just unfortunately not true." He’s probably right about that given that Kim Jong un continues to advance his nuclear program and has promised to send an as yet undelivered Christmas “present” our way, one that probably isn’t that nice vase that Trump says it could be, but rather an intercontinental missile of some sort. While interesting, and maybe even enlightening, Bolton’s public commentary on North Korea highlights the absurdity and hypocrisy of his failing to step up and talk about Trump’s Ukraine shenanigans and all around incompetence. And that email dump to the Center for Public Integrity provides more evidence of how Trump’s been obstructing Congress.  There’s something truly crazy about government watchdog organization being able to get their hands on documents, albeit redacted ones, that the House has been unable to obtain through ordinary channels. Though most Senate Republicans appear to be firmly behind Trump, Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski appears to be annoyed with Mitch McConnell tying himself so closely to the White House and seems to want to see witnesses called to testify.  It’s not clear yet whether more are ready to join her.  Her sometime cohort Maine’s Susan Collins, who has formally announced that she is running for reelection, is all in on pearl clutching but is also getting lots of money from Republicans and lots of comforting support from Trump.

Rudy, Rudy, Lev:  Then there’s Rudy, Trump’s off kilter, increasingly demented lawyer, another guy who feels compelled to spill his guts whenever it suits him or whenever he has had too much to drink which appears to be quite often.  He gave a rambling, alcohol infused interview to New York Magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi. It wasn’t just the drool dribbling down the side of his mouth, his bumping into walls or his unzipped fly that made the interview nuts, it was also the crazy things he had to say that were notable.  In addition to advancing his debunked Ukraine conspiracy stuff, he perpetrated the Elders of Zion anti-Semitic trope by attacking Hungarian born Holocaust survivor George Soros, saying that the financier/philanthropist had controlled former US Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch and continues to control the FBI while adding that he, Giuliani, is “more of a Jew than Soros is, saying “I probably know more about — he doesn’t go to church, he doesn’t go to religion — synagogue. He doesn’t belong to a synagogue, he doesn’t support Israel, he’s an enemy of Israel. He’s elected eight anarchist DA’s in the United States. He’s a horrible human being.”  Whoa.  The Anti- Defamation League’s president responded by saying that Giuliani’s “assertion that George Soros controls US Ambassadors, employs FBI agents and is ‘hardly a Jew’ is baffling and offensive. Let’s be crystal clear: Mr. Giuliani is not the arbiter of who is Jewish and who is not, or what is anti-Semitic and what is not. For decades, George Soros’ philanthropy has been used as fodder for outsized anti-Semitic conspiracy theories insisting there exists Jewish control and manipulation of countries and global events. Mr. Giuliani should apologize and retract his comments immediately, unless he seeks to dog whistle to hardcore anti-Semites and white supremacists who believe this garbage.” Rudy hasn’t and won’t apologize but was seen praying somberly in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Christmas eve.  Still he continues to insist that he’s more Jewish than half his friends. One of those friends, or at least one time friend, Lev Parnas is in the process of parting ways with one of his high priced lawyers, Edward MacMahon, not to be confused with Johnny Carson’s departed sidekick.  Apparently, despite or maybe because of the discovery of the infusion of that $1 million from a Russian oligarch, Parnas can no longer afford to keep MacMahon on his team. It’s possible that Parnas is closing in on a plea deal with Southern District of New York prosecutors and no longer has a need for two lawyers.

Religious Right:  Trump’s religious right flank appears to be splintering a bit which might account for his decision to ditch his more usual attendance at the “liberal” Episcopal church where he married Melania to go instead to a more conservative Evangelical Baptist one for Christmas services. That change is likely his response to the Christianity Today editorial calling for the end of his regime. Though one hundred or so Christian fundamentalists reiterated their support for all things Trump in response to the Christianity Today editorial and a number of people cancelled their subscriptions, a larger number have now signed on. While Trump doesn’t appear to be going anywhere other than a new church right now, the Christianity Today editorial has resulted in at least one casualty.  Napp Nazworth has resigned his position at the Christian Post magazine saying that he was leaving “rather abruptly,” after he “was forced to make the difficult choice” of leaving or publishing an editorial that positions the Post on Team Trump. He went on to say that he couldn’t “be an editor for a publication with that editorial voice.”  He then tweeted that “Christians sully the name of Christ in their alliance with Trump.”  Of course, the rather conservative Nazworth is now being called out as a liberal mouthpiece though he clearly is far from liberal or anyone’s mouthpiece.  That said he’s got company, Ramesh Ponneru a senior editor at the National Review hasn’t had to resign his position but is being criticized from the right for coming down on the side of impeachment.  He’s concluded that “The Constitution provides for impeachment and removal to protect us from officials, including presidents, who are unable or unwilling to distinguish between the common good that government is supposed to serve and their own narrow interests. Though he has done some good things in office, Trump is just such a president. Congress should act accordingly.”

Democrats:  The Democrats are still fighting over wine caves and contributions and now Mike Bloomberg, who is self-funding, appears to have hit a tripwire.  Apparently, some of those people calling you at home on Mayor Mike’s behalf have been doing so from their prison cells. It turns out that his campaign organization, contracted home dialing to an organization that employs prison labor.  Mayor Mike has apologized and ended his unintended relationship with the contractor but employing prison labor is not a good look especially given the heat Bloomberg continues to take over stop and frisk.  As to the impeachment schedule, five of the Democratic candidates, Senators Booker, Klobuchar, Warren, Sanders and Michael Bennet from Colorado who for the record is still running, are going to be very busy double tasking come the New Year as they will be on the impeachment jury in Washington DC when they’ll want to be out on the campaign trail.  

Blogs will be spotty for the next few days as we go into the new decade.  In the meantime, wishing you a happy and healthy New Year.        

Wine Caves

Democrats:  With impeachment the story of the week it’s not clear that many people were watching December’s episode of How the Democrats Spin. To be honest, count me among those who focused on the recaps rather than the entire debate but then again maybe it’s the recaps and the press impressions that matter since they are what gets played over and over again.  Most of the pundits, particularly those who lean moderate rather than progressive, thought that Senator Amy Klobuchar had a really good night and that former VP Joe Biden did as well, noting that he is finally benefiting from all the practice.  As expected Mayor Pete Buttigieg took hits from both sides, with Klobuchar knocking his experience by highlighting her rivals comparative accomplishments and experience and with Senator Elizabeth Warren calling him out for holding a fundraiser for millionaire investors in a California wine cave. Buttigieg hit back at Warren, pointing out that she, unlike him, is actually a millionaire and as such anyone accepting some of her largesse could accurately be called out for taking money from rich people.  He also noted that she was still benefiting from money raised during her recent senatorial campaign and that some of that money came from rich people and most importantly that beating Trump will require candidates to get off their high horses and accept money from billionaires.  His response was spot on but that wine cave thing is going to haunt him because it’s both catchy and elitist; he’d be wise to hold his next fundraiser in a beer pub.  Senator Bernie Sanders was his usual loud and lively self, his fans aren’t going anywhere though it’s not clear that his performance will earn him any new ones.  Though Klobuchar had a lot of good quips, the award for best comeback of the night went to Warren who, after one of the moderator’s pointed out that if elected she’d be the oldest president ever inaugurated, responded that she’d be the “youngest woman.”  Snap!  Andrew Yang who, with Julian Castro and Cory Booker failing to qualify and Kamala Harris out of the race, was last night’s designated minority, got some compliments for his performance but at this point in the process, both he and Bill Steyer seem superfluous.  Biden’s acknowledgement and discussion of his stutter, a possible reason for some of his “gaffes,” got extra attention after former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders mocked him for it.  It’s impossible to understand why she thought that was a good idea but then nothing she says or does is all that explicable. Biden responded to her heartless slight by tweeting “I’ve worked my whole life to overcome a stutter. And it’s my great honor to mentor kids who have experienced the same. It’s called empathy. Look it up.” After being trashed mercilessly on twitter, the former press secretary kind of/not really apologized tweeting back "to be clear was not trying to make fun of anyone with a speech impediment. Simply pointing out I can't follow much of anything Biden is talking about."  She really is deplorable and will also probably be the Governor of Arkansas someday.

#IMPOTUS:   Though he’s calling it impeachment light, Trump is clearly not happy about joining the impeached club.  Senator Lindsey Graham says that he is “mad as hell” and “demanding his day in court.”  He also can’t be all that happy with his newest and trending nickname #IMPOTUS, the one bestowed on him by Kellyanne’s hubby George Conway.  It’s not clear when Trump will get his day in court.  Speaker Pelosi has not sent the articles of impeachment on to the Senate yet nor did she appoint any of her impeachment managers before heading home for the holiday recess; she says she waiting until Senate Leader Mitch McConnell establishes the Senate rules and so far he’s still playing hardball.  Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says that with somewhere around 70% of the country wanting to hear from witnesses such as Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton he’s fairly confident that he will be able to get the four Republicans he needs to join his Democrats in voting for them to be called.  Notably he says that all of his Democratic Senators are on board for that, implying that even Joe Manchin, who might ultimately decide to vote against impeachment, is with him on the witness issue. For now the timing of the Senate hearing remains in limbo and given the holidays it could stay that way until Congress returns in January.  As to #IMPOTUS, the Washington Post reports that a bunch of their anonymous White House sources say that he was spoon fed the shift the blame for the 2016 election interference from Russia to Ukraine crap by none other than Putin himself with one former senior White House official saying Trump even stated so explicitly at one point, saying he knew Ukraine was the real culprit because “Putin told me.”  We kind of suspected this but still it’s disturbing to hear it and it’s equally disturbing that these former White House denizens are still hiding behind the veil of anonymity.  At least one group is speaking out, Christianity Today, a prominent evangelical newspaper magazine founded by Billy Graham, is now calling for Trump to be removed from office.  As evangelicals go, the magazine’s editorial board is viewed as moderate so it's not clear that any of Trump’s most fanatical religious supporters will care but still the scathing editorial is notable.  Their words: “The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.”  On Wednesday some of Trump’s Republicans abettors compared his treatment to the crucifixion of Christ.  Wonder if any of them are Christianity Today subscribers?            

Human Resources:  Well it’s looking more and more likely that Congressman Mark Meadows is Trump’s Chief of Staff-in-waiting.  Apparently, acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney has been sidelined and is expected to depart once the impeachment trial is over, whenever that may be.  Also, yesterday the Senate confirmed Stephen Biegun, the State Department’s North Korea envoy, as the Deputy Secretary of State, setting him up to become Trump’s next Secretary of State in the event that Mike Pompeo resigns to run for the Senate.  Then there’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort who at last report was recovering from a cardiac related event in an unnamed prison hospital.  He got some good news on Wednesday after a New York judge threw out state fraud charges against him. The Judge, Justice Maxwell Wiley of the State Supreme Court, ruled that the indictments violated a state law against double jeopardy. So, unless something else sticks, or the judge gets overruled by a higher Appellate Court, if that's even possible, Manafort could walk free if Trump decides to pardon him and that “cardiac event” could be just the justification that the oh so empathetic Trump needs to do so.  

Happy Holidays! 

Members Only

Impeached:  Trump who was impeached yesterday is finally a member of a really select club, just not the one he wanted to join.  Unfortunately when not in Mar a Lago or one of his other golf resorts he still resides in the White House and is unlikely to lose that Pennsylvania Avenue address anytime soon  There was lots of speechifying, some of it somber, a lot of it downright ridiculous and some of it very ignorant.  There were those who quoted the Bible, and there were those who said that impeaching Trump was a disaster akin to Pearl Harbor. On the religious front, one Republican, Georgia’s Barry Loudermilk, called impeaching Trump worse than crucifying Jesus. And then there was the “genius” who said that if Trump was removed from office the Republicans would have to retaliate by impeaching his replacement, leaving it to Democrat Jerry Nadler to interject that VP Pence, rather than Hillary Clinton, would be that replacement. Far too many hours after the process started the final vote was taken.  On the first article, abuse of power,  230 voted yes, 197 voted no and 1 voted present.  On the second article, obstruction of Congress, 229 voted yes, 198 voted no and 1 voted present. All but one of the yes votes were cast by Democrats with the remaining yes cast by Independent Justin Amash.  Three members, one Democrat and two Republican did not vote at all. That Democrat was New York’s Jose Serrano who is currently recovering from a serious fall, am not sure about the Republican non-voters but the Republicans who voted all voted against impeachment.  On the Democratic side,  Jared Golden of Maine sat on the fence, voting yes for abuse of power but against obstruction of Congress.  Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, the Democrat who is now a Republican sat with his new comrades and voted no for both articles and Collin Peterson of Minnesota who is still a Democrat also voted no.  There were no reports on where Peterson sat or if anyone invited him out for post vote drinks.  Then there’s Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaiian Democrat who is still running for President, she voted present acknowledging that Trump is guilty of wrongdoing but saying she couldn’t vote for impeachment because the “process was partisan and fueled by tribal animosities.” Hard to disagree with her tribal animosity comment but it’s highly likely that her vote was more about raising eyebrows and garnering attention than protesting pow wows. After the vote was over Speaker Pelosi swiped her hand in the air and glared sternly, making it clear to her caucus that they should refrain from showing any glee.  She also  remained vague about when she might send the articles of impeachment to the Senate saying she couldn’t appoint her impeachment managers until she knew more about the Senate’s trial rules. Pelosi appears to be trying to use the threat of delaying the next stage of the impeachment process as leverage to force Senate leader McConnell to permit some witnesses.  Unfortunately, it’s not clear that her tactics will work.  McConnell has already said that he is not “an impartial juror” and there’s no reason to think that he’ll start acting like one now.    

Dinging Dingell: White House Press Secretary Grisham insisted that Trump was too busy doing his day job to pay much attention to the impeachment vote but we know that was just more bunk because he tweeted about impeachment all day before leaving for another one of his campaign speeches, this one in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he continued to attack the Democrats, the impeachment and his target for the day Michigan Congresswoman Debbie Dingell whose recently departed husband, John Dingell served in the seat she currently occupies for 59 years.  Apparently Trump was angry that she voted for impeachment because by his twisted standards she owed him one for lowering the flag to commemorate her husband’s death.  He snidely suggested that John Dingell was looking up at her from hell, leaving the Congresswoman to reply “Mr. President, let’s set politics aside. My husband earned all his accolades after a lifetime of service. I’m preparing for the first holiday season without the man I love. You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder.”  To Trump cruelty is the point.

Health Care?  With the labor dispute at California’s Loyola-Marymount University resolved, tonight’s Democratic debate is back on the schedule and given yesterday’s news, the dueling Democrats will have even more to discuss on the heath care front.  Yesterday a federal appeals court found the Affordable Care Act's (Obamacare’s) individual mandate unconstitutional.  However since the court did not invalidate the entire law Obamacare remains in effect for now. The judges sent the case back down to the lower court to consider whether the individual mandate can be separated from the rest of the law. To be clear Obamacare’s future and things like the coverage of pre- existing conditions are still in jeopardy, the Appeals Court’s ruling just pushes any Supreme Court action off until after the 2020 election. Though the Democratic candidates will have a lot to discuss tonight, like whether or not it was okay for Mayor Pete to have worked for the McKinsey consulting firm (spoiler alert, it was), they should also remind the audience that the Republicans are the ones trying to kill Obamacare and have no replacement in mind.

  

Human Resources:  North Carolina’s Freedom Caucus Congressman Mark Meadows, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters, revealed this morning that he will not be seeking reelection but that he will be sticking with Team Trump in some other capacity to be disclosed at some future date.  Maybe that Chief of Staff spot currently occupied by Acting Chief of Staff Mulvaney will be opening up soon? The announcement of Meadows decision was pushed forward by his state’s early candidate filing date.  Though Meadows joins a long and growing list of mostly Republicans bailing from Congress, his seat will likely remain in Republican hands.  Bill Taylor, the highly respected and experienced acting Ambassador to Ukraine who had been appointed upon the recommendation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to serve as  the “temporary” filler for the much besmirched Maria Yovanovitch after she was fired at the urging of Rudy Giuliani, is out.  He was scheduled to step down soon but was asked to get out of Kiev a few days early so that he’d be gone before Pompeo’s scheduled visit to the country.  According to the Wall Street Journal Pompeo wants to make sure that the two don’t get photographed together because that would really infuriate his dear leader.  By the way, Pompeo is still seriously considering running for the Kansas Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Pat Roberts and to do so, he’ll need Trump’s full support.  

Crime in Progress

Impeachment Day.  Yesterday, during a comparatively tame session of the House Rules Committee led by Democratic Chairman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican Ranking Member Tom Cole of Oklahoma rules were set for today’s impeachment proceedings. Notably House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler missed the meeting, he was out dealing with his wife’s health emergency and sent Representative Jamie Raskin in his place.  Both Nadler and California’s Ted Lieu, who was out last week for an unplanned heart procedure, are expected back for today’s vote.  Though the whole impeachment process kicks off at 9 ET this morning, the Committee agreed to allow six hours for debate so actual voting isn’t expected to take place until this evening.  Absent any truly dramatic event, like Trump pulling the House fire alarm or a zombie apocalypse, the outcome isn’t in doubt as more than a sufficient number of Democrats, and former Republican/Independent Justin Amash, have already announced their intentions to vote for impeachment.  So far only two Democratic House members are voting “no,” Minnesota’s Collin Peterson who is “waiting” for more damning evidence and New Jersey’s Jeff Van Drew, who appears to have gone through with his plans to become a Republican.  He should fit in well among his new colleagues because like Senators Graham and Cruz and House Minority Leader McCarthy until recently he’s had nothing but really hateful things to say about Trump.  Peterson reports that Republican leadership invited him to switch parties too but that he demurred. Although three Democrats from Trump districts still haven’t announced how they will vote, twenty-five have said they will vote for impeachment with Maine’s Jared Golden riding the fence, he will vote “yes” for abuse of power but “no” for obstruction of Congress.    

Freak Out Aisle Trump:  Despite all his bluster, Trump isn’t handling the impeachment thing all that well.  Yesterday he delivered a six page rambling and incoherent letter to Speaker Pelosi.  In the letter, which was littered with a lifetime supply of explanation points, he called the impeachment a “star chamber of partisan persecution” and an “attempted coup,” he referred to the FBI as “totally incompetent and corrupt” and accused Pelosi and her party of “fabricating lies, ”  and that was the nice stuff. Basically, he’s projecting, accusing the Democrats of doing all the things that he’s been doing.  The letter was written on White House stationary but no one in the White House counsel’s office would take any credit for its contents.  It’s thought that it was written by Trump with the help of his very charming sycophant Stephen Miller.  By contrast during his impeachment, instead of lashing out, Bill Clinton apologized for his misdeeds, but then again, while he had engaged in some obstruction, he hadn’t tried to extort an ally in exchange for election assistance.  A number of former federal prosecutors said that though Trump’s letter was extreme, they’ve seen similar ones before, but only from the guiltiest of defendants.  Though he generally speaks only when called from his crypt and directed by Mother, VP Pence, who earlier promised to release all the details of his conversations with Ukraine’s President Zelensky, now says that he won’t allow the public to see the additional information provided by his national security aide Jennifer Williams to the House Intelligence Committee. Judging by Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s push to get Williams’ newest disclosure out in the open, it’s fair to assume that it must incriminate Pence and/or Trump.  As to incrimination, Rudy Giuliani continues to tell anyone and everyone who’ll listen about all the bad things that he’s done on behalf of Trump while also claiming that when the time is right he’ll reveal some really incriminating stuff about Joe Biden.  In the meantime, a number of prominent Republicans are ramping up their opposition to Trumpism.  Yesterday seven of them including George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband, and Steve Schmidt, the McCain aide who had been working on Starbucks’ Howard Schultz short lived independent campaign, have launched the Lincoln Project PAC.  They plan to use the PAC’s funds to  thwart Trump’s reelection and to help those running against his Republican enablers.   

Moscow Mitch:  Senate Leader McConnell is acting about as well as expected, meaning he’s doing his best to be uncooperative and sadly, he is really skilled at that.  Yesterday he took to the Senate podium to attack Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, claiming that by going public with the names of the witnesses that he’d like to see called to testify at the upcoming Senate trial Schumer had violated the norms of impeachment process, a pretty absurd and ironic accusation from McConnell given his history of trampling norms, his treatment of Obama court nominee Merrick Garland and how he’s forced a large number of truly incompetent, but incredibly right wing, judges on to the courts.  McConnell made it clear that given his druthers he won’t allow any of Schumer’s hoped for witnesses, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former security advisor John Bolton, senior advisor to the Chief of Staff Blair and OMB official Michael Duffey, anywhere near the stand.  That said, the final decision on who gets called to testify will go up for a vote and it’s possible that a few Republicans will conclude that facilitating some testimony is the right thing to do for their own careers and reputations.

Only the Best:  Yesterday Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Paul Manafort’s partner in crime Rick Gates to 45 days in jail and three years of probation.  She expressed appreciation for his cooperation with prosecutors but, despite their request for greater leniency, she felt his crimes warranted some prison time and a longer than recommended probation period. Clearly exasperated by Trump and Attorney General Barr’s comments about the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation, she took the time to remind everyone how justified it was by summarizing some facts, saying  "In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort laundered more than $18 million, which was used by him to buy property goods and services in the United States, income that he concealed from the United States Treasury, the Department of Justice and others. Gates transferred more than $3 million from the offshore accounts to other accounts that he controlled.”  Adding “those are facts. Those are not alleged facts, those are not alternative facts, or a narrative created by the media.”  As to Manafort, yesterday it was reported that due to a recent cardiac event, he has been temporarily transferred to a prison hospital.  We also learned some more details about the $1 million that Giuliani crony Lev Parnas forgot to disclose to federal prosecutors.  Apparently that money was “loaned” to his wife by a Swiss lawyer representing indicted Ukrainian oligarch/Putin guy Dmitry Firtash.  Firtash who is currently under house arrest in Vienna fighting extradition to the US is represented in the US by the Trump and Giuliani approved legal team of Victoria Toensing and Joseph diGenova who also serve as Fox legal experts.  This story goes on and on and absent his removal from office Trump is only going to do more bad things.  As Nadler stand-in Jamie Raskin said yesterday Trump’s conduct is ”not some kind of surprising aberration or deviation in his behavior for which he is remorseful.  On the contrary, Trump is completely unrepentant and defiantly declares his behavior here 'perfect,' indeed 'absolutely perfect…..it will take place again and again.”  In other words the crime is in progress.

Asylum?

Impeach, Impeach, Impeach:  Though a lot of attention is now being focused on whether or not Senate Majority Leader McConnell will allow any witnesses during the upcoming Senate impeachment hearing and, if he does, who they will be, action in the House isn’t over yet.  Today, the usually obscure House Rules committee will start the process of determining how much debate time the House will spend on the articles, whether or not amendments will be allowed and voting procedures.  The Committee is also expected to loosen up House rules as to what can be said about Trump on the House floor.  Ironically, though Trump gets to say nasty things and frequently does, usually Congresspeople aren’t allowed to say anything personally offensive to a president, but given that “criticism of the president is inherent to the impeachment process” they’ll get to say more of what they’re actually thinking than usual.  That said don’t expect any of them to call out Trump’s teeth even though the very juvenile Trump slammed Speaker Pelosi by saying her “teeth were falling out” over the weekend.  The rules process is likely to be more animated and contentious than usual so things could take longer than planned, but once finished the Rules Committee will pass the impeachment process to the House floor in anticipation of an impeachment vote on Wednesday or Thursday.  To that end, yesterday, more of the vulnerable freshman Democrats, including Utah’s Ben McAdams, South Carolina’s Joe Cunningham, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin and Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria put their seats in jeopardy by announcing that they will vote for impeachment, notable because some of them eked out slim victories in very, very Republican pro-Trump districts.  And then there is Hawaii’s Tulsi Gabbard, the disruptive presidential candidate who has nothing to fear since she comes from a Democratic district and in any case isn’t running for reelection. She announced that she’s still not sure how she is going to vote, an indication that she will probably vote against impeachment.  Anyone who doubted that Hillary Clinton was wrong about Gabbard being this election’s Jill Stein should apologize now.  Anyway, getting back to those vulnerable Congresspeople, though Mike Bloomberg has pledged $10 million to help their campaigns, they will need all the help they can get so if you are so inclined, consider going to Actblue.com, every little bit helps.

McConnell’s Domain:  Moving back to the Senate, no Republican Senators have shown any guts, yet.  Mitt Romney told reporters that he “wants to talk to his colleagues about whether witnesses are necessary, saying he has a point of view on the topic but didn’t want to talk about it yet.”  The pearl clutching Susan Collins dissed Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to let Trump’s legal team dictate his actions saying that “would not be the approach that I’ve taken,” but then criticized Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for making his letter to McConnell about process and witnesses public. Iowa’s vulnerable Senator Joni Ernst more or less confirmed that she’s sticking with McConnell and Team Trump by saying that she saw no need for any witnesses, she just wants to see the impeachment trial go as quickly as possible. Not much was heard from the other vulnerable Republicans, but the NY Times suggests that some more of those retiring Senators including Kansas’ Pat Roberts might be worth watching, as they might support having witnesses testify.  That’s not to say that any of these Republicans will do anything rash like vote for impeachment.

Rudy, Rudy, Flynn:  Rudy Giuliani continues to confound.  He admitted to the New Yorker that he was behind  Ambassador to Ukraine Maria Yovanovitch’s ouster, saying he needed her out because she was standing in the way of his Biden and Crowdstrike dirt digging activities.  In addition to the New Yorker interview, Giuliani got more air time as his so called “Ukraine documentary” aired on the super conservative, One America News (OAN) Saturday and Sunday. Of course, he pushed his increasingly “convoluted conspiracy” theories about the Biden family and Ukraine.  He then doubled down on Fox telling Laura Ingraham that Yovanovitch, widely recognized as a capable diplomat, was corrupt because she had impeded his efforts, all of which were being done on behalf of Trump who knew what he was up to because the two chatted about it frequently.  He also implicated Secretary of State Pompeo saying that, as instructed by Trump, he kept him in the loop too.  As to that loop, it continues to spin, yesterday when asked, Trump acknowledged that Giuliani had spoken with him about his most recent Kiev dirt digging trip saying that though he hadn’t shared “too much” he’s a  “very great crimefighter. He was probably the greatest crimefighter over the last 50 years, very smart. He was the best mayor of the city of New York, he’s a great person who loves our country, and he does this out of love, believe me.”  So like Giuliani said a few weeks ago, he has some “insurance” in his files, and whatever it is, it’s enough for Trump to want to keep him very close.  Mike Flynn, Trump’s national security advisor for a minute best known for leading Trump’s campaign rallies in “lock her up” chants and for getting caught lying to the FBI will be sentenced on January 28.  “Lock him up?” Emmet Sullivan, the judge overseeing his case rejected Flynn’s requests to compel prosecutors to turn over additional evidence, saying his lawyers had “failed to explain” why any of it would be relevant to the crime he has already admitted.  Additionally, the exasperated Sullivan said that Flynn’s new defense lawyers had “failed to establish a single” violation by prosecutors of the rule requiring them to disclose to defendants evidence that could help exonerate him adding that he had “ethical concerns” with a legal brief that they had provided.  Who would have guessed that Flynn’s current lawyers, recommended by team Trump were ethically compromised? It’s not a stretch to believe that assuming the Senate hearing goes his way, a depressingly realistic assumption, Trump will grant the lying Flynn one of those coveted golden pardons.  

Etcetera:  Over the weekend the NY Times joined the list of newspapers endorsing impeachment by saying that they agree with the House Judiciary Committee’s conclusion that Trump “has demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office, and has acted in a manner grossly incompatible with self-governance and the rule of law.”   Yesterday, William Webster, a former head of both the CIA and the FBI under Democratic and Republican presidents, scorched Trump and AG Barr’s treatment of the FBI, expressing outrage at Trump for calling them out as scum and adding that Barr’s  “charges of bias within the FBI, made without providing any evidence and in direct dispute of the findings of the nonpartisan inspector general, risk inflicting enduring damage on this critically important institution.”  Webster isn’t the only Republican and former official disgusted by current events. Tom Ridge, the former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security Secretary told a Harrisburg audience that he is “disappointed and troubled by the very fact that my president – and he is my president – would ask a foreign leader of a troubled country who’s been besieged by an enemy of the United States, to do him a political favor.”  Adding that “as far as I’m concerned, it is abuse of power.”  All that said, polls appear to be bouncing around.  A Fox poll shows support for impeachment up to 54% while a CNN poll shows it at 45%. Don’t be surprised if Trump who expressed fury at Fox by tweeting “The @foxnewsPolls  always inaccurate, are heavily weighted toward Dems. So ridiculous - same thing happened in 2016. They got it all wrong. Get a new pollster!” starts lavishing praise on CNN, well for a minute. And, it’s not just Thursday’s Democratic debate that’s up in the air, Trump is now threatening to boycott the presidential debates, not because he isn’t super confident of his innate debate skills but because “"The problem is that the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates is stacked with Trump Haters & Never Trumpers.”  Trump is trolling us but he’s being trolled too.  Gloating over the picture of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov standing next to Trump during their most recent Oval Office meeting, Russian media agreed with Congressman Eric Swalwell’s assessment by calling Trump out as Russia’s agent and saying that when Democrats come back into power they would welcome him to follow former Ukraine President Yanukovych’s by seeking asylum in Russia.      

Impartial Justice?

Impeachment Week:  While Trump’s most avid supporters, most notably Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, were out and about this weekend defending his Ukraine related actions as “perfect” and the whole impeachment process as partisan hogwash the House Judiciary Committee finalized and delivered its impeachment report to the whole House in anticipation of this week’s planned impeachment vote.  Regarding the vote, it’s still not clear how many Democrats will vote against impeachment, but it’s expected that one of the two who voted against the impeachment inquiry, NJ Representative Jeff Van Drew, will switch to the Republican Party. It’s worth noting that Van Drew is significantly underwater in his “lean Republican” district largely as a result of his decision to vote against impeachment inquiry so his move reflects a desperate attempt to preserve his seat rather than a sudden love for all things Republican.  It’s unlikely that joining the GOP will save his hide, nor is it impressing his staff, five of whom have already jumped ship, but it will provide Trump with a great PR moment.  Over the weekend, a number of the most exposed “newbie” Democrats showed more spine, announcing that they will be voting for impeachment with some of them pushing for former Republican Justin Amash to be named one of Pelosi’s designated impeachment managers, a counter to Van Drew’s party shift and a way of saying FU to Trump. As to Trump’s fanboys, Senator Graham reiterated his oft expressed affection for all things Trump by saying "I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here” calling the impeachment “just a partisan nonsense" while Cruz, expressed his undying support for Trump by resorting to a series of lies, not all that surprising given that he’s widely known for his mendacious speechifying.  Though Cruz and Graham’s loyalty oaths weren’t all that surprising, it was disappointing to see Texas Congressman Will Hurd who should really know better speak out against impeachment too especially since he admits that Trump’s actions were far from “perfect.”  Could there be a job waiting for him at a Republican thinktank after he leaves Congress next year? 

Senate in the New Year: On the leadership front, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell let it be known that he is working hand in glove with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, saying "Everything I do during this I'm coordinating with the White House counsel,” adding that there will be no difference between his and Trump’s impeachment position.  That McConnell is working with the White House isn’t surprising, but his public statements about it are,  but then again McConnell needs Trump’s support both for his own Kentucky reelection and to retain Senate control.   McConnell wants to shorten the Senate trial, anticipated for January, as much as possible but to do that he’ll first have to agree on terms with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer who over the weekend sent a letter with his requests to McConnell.  In that letter, Schumer asked that four witnesses be called to testify.  Specifically, he wants to hear from Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former national security advisor John Bolton, Mulvaney’s senior adviser Robert Blair and OMB official Michael Duffey.  Schumer also wants a pile of the documents that the House previously requested but that the White House refused to deliver. Though McConnell runs the Senate he’ll have to put a lot of process decisions, including witness requests, up for a vote and since he doesn’t have a Speaker Pelosi sized majority and, as an interested party, VP Pence is not allowed to vote on impeachment things, McConnell will probably have to agree to some of Schumer’s requests or risk losing some of those few Republican Senators who either truly want a fair trial or who need to appear to want a fair trial in order to win their upcoming elections.  In addition to Senators Mitt Romney and Susan Collins, that crowd is likely to include Iowa’s Senator Ernst, Colorado’s Senator Gardner, North Carolina’s Senator Tillis, Arizona’s McSally, and a few others like Alaska’s Murkowski and Tennessee’s Alexander.  To be clear, it would be an unreachable reach for all, or maybe even any, of them to vote to impeach Trump but they might conclude that it’s in their best interests to look like they are honoring the oath to “do impartial justice” that they will be taking at the beginning of the hearing. As to that oath Graham, Cruz and McConnell will all be lying the second they take it.               

Taxes and Tidbits:  On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump v Mazars, the case involving whether House investigators may obtain Trump’s financial records from Trump’s accounting firm. The Mazars case will be heard alongside two other tax related cases, Trump v Vance and Trump v Deutsche Bank.  The cases will be heard in March with the results expected by the end of June right smack in the middle of election season. If Trump is hiding something bigly, that timing will be particularly inconvenient for him but then again he does appear to be protected by either super strength Teflon, Putin or both.  A skeptical person might think that Trump has reasons to expect that his stacked Supreme Court will tilt his way.  Here’s to hoping that the skeptics are wrong.  Former FBI Director Comey went on Fox TV this weekend and admitted to Chris Wallace that he’d been wrong about the FISA process, that  he had been “overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years” and “thought they were robust enough,” adding “there was real sloppiness.” Trump, unfamiliar with the concept of remorse and the admission of mistakes, immediately tweeted “So now Comey’s admitting he was wrong. Wow, but he’s only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail?”  Speaking of jail, Trump’s current lawyer/fixer Rudy Giuliani isn’t there yet, but he continues to skate on thin ice.  Nevertheless, he visited the White House on Friday though it’s not clear if he was just trolling and just visiting his son Andrew on bring your parents to work day or whether he actually had a meeting with his client Trump. Also trolling, but with nukes, is North Korean leader Kim Jong un, he’s promised to deliver a big holiday present to Trump, either a boast or something along the lines of placing a “little rocket man” satellite into orbit. Lastly, the first “phase” trade deal with China has been agreed to although the details remain somewhat vague, with the Wall Street Journal and Trump’s trade advisor Lighthizer having a public disagreement on its terms.  

The Democrats:  For what it’s worth last week’s Emerson College Poll, shows that with 23% of the vote former VP Biden now has a small lead in the Iowa Caucus. Bernie Sanders is next with 22%, followed by Pete Buttigieg with 18%.  Elizabeth Warren is down to 12% and slow but steady Amy Klobuchar is now in the double digits at 10%.  Another debate is supposed to take place on Thursday except that it might not because all seven of the participating qualifiers (Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Warren, Yang, and Steyer)  as well as the DNC are on record saying that they won’t cross the picket lines set up by union workers who are involved in a contract dispute at Loyola Marymount University, the planned site of the debate.  Senator Cory Booker who has not qualified for the debate stage because his poll numbers are in the toilet, has rallied his opponents to support his request to the DNC, to loosen up the qualification criteria for January and February to allow a candidate that meets either the polling or funding thresholds but not both, to qualify.  His argument is that the Democratic stage needs more minority representation and that having one Asian, Andrew Yang, doesn’t suffice.  At least so far, it doesn’t appear that DNC Chairman Tom Perez is persuaded by his argument.  For the record, Bloomberg’s poll numbers are now hovering around 5%. He doesn’t meet the funding requirements because he’s self-funding, but would his poll numbers then get him on the stage?  I don’t know the answer to that, but it would make for an interesting unintended consequence.

Pots and Kettles

Impeachment: Yesterday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the articles of impeachment of Trump went on forever, or at least it felt like forever.  Both sides were given opportunities to propose amendment to the two articles. Aside from some clean up to make sure that references to Trump’s name were consistent, the Democrats had no amendments but of course the Republicans had many, most of which involved things like replacing the text of the articles with odes to Trump’s greatness. The process involved letting each member speak for up to five minutes on each and every amendment but even before the amendment process began the Republican contingent attacked Committee Chairman Nadler for refusing to allow them to hold their own minority hearing, for refusing to let them invite their own witnesses and for being associated with Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, who has achieved full enemy of the state status.  In order to try to blunt further protests, Nadler permitted the Republicans to propose as many amendments as their hearts desired.  As a result the amendment process went on and on with Republicans using their five minute slots to argue that Trump had done nothing wrong, if he’d done wrong things they weren’t bad enough to constitute impeachable offenses, that Democrats didn’t understand the Constitution, and my personal favorite, that Trump who just this week had to pay $2 million for his faux charity crimes is a long time champion against corruption.  In turn, the Democrats, responded by citing the Constitution, repeating the events comprising the Ukraine fiasco and pointing out that all of the witnesses who had appeared before the Intelligence Committee were Trump’s very own appointees.  Kudos go to Democratic Congressman and once and likely future presidential wannabee Eric Swalwell.  A former prosecutor, he’s been doing a really good job of hammering home Trump’s offenses into digestible soundbites.  Also deserving of praise are NY’s Hakeem Jeffries who has a succinct staccato style that effectively delivers power point like jabs and Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, a former Constitutional law professor who ably punched back at Republican assertions in an easily understood way.  I believe that it’s fair to say that across the board, the Democrats were far more impressive than their Republican counterparts, possibly because they really are more impressive but also because the facts are on their side and they, unlike some of their Republican counterparts don’t buy into the “he who shouts loudest and speaks fastest wins” philosophy, the approach employed by Republicans Doug Collins and Gym Jordan. Screaming aside, for some reason Trump acolyte Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz thought that reading the sections of a New Yorker article in which Hunter Biden discussed his struggles with drug abuse was a good idea. Clearly Hunter Biden has issues and should not have been on Burisma’s board but, as Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson, the Democrat who spoke after Gaetz pointed out, that was the “pot calling the kettle black” as in people with problems of their own should avoid going in that direction, an obvious reference to Gaetz’s DUI arrest and related viral mug shot. Someone else also managed to squeeze in a brief aside about Trump’s adult children and their interesting career paths.

Tune in at Ten: Somewhere around midnight, just as it appeared that the votes on the two articles of impeachment were imminent, Chairman Nadler surprised everyone by announcing it was bedtime.  He sent everyone home saying that the committee would reconvene at 10 AM this morning at which time the final votes will take place.  That decision shocked the Republicans and the TV hosts who were hoping to report the vote.  Most notably ranking member Collins went ballistic, crying that Nadler’s decision to put off a final vote until daylight hours was a travesty, just a Democratic ploy to maximize attention.  Apparently Nadler’s decision upended some travel plans.  Though Nadler didn’t explain his decision, reports are that Collins and the Republicans had promised to stop with their nonsense amendments by 5 PM with the votes following shortly thereafter.  Nadler, who until his recess shocker had actually gotten compliments from some Republicans for yesterday’s process, had shown great restraint by letting the Republican contingent propose amendment after amendment but when it became apparent to him that they were stalling so that the votes would take place in the middle of the night he decided to call their bluff by rescheduling the votes to the daylight hours.  The ranting Collins claimed that was all about maximizing the TV audience, and to a certain extent that’s true, but it was also because Democrats didn’t want to be accused of voting under the cover of darkness, something that the Republicans, who are already running ads about Democratic cowardice would use to their advantage.  Bottom line, it’s ugly out there and it’s unlikely to get better anytime soon.  As of yesterday, the editorial boards of six major newspapers including the Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, Orlando Sentinel, Philadelphia Inquirer and USA today have come down on the side of impeachment.  Notably, some of them, including WaPo had previously been skeptical.              

The Lev and Igor Show:  Prosecutors are now investigating whether Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman (who for some reason I keep wanting to call Oleg) were working with Rudy Giuliani and/or using their connections with him and Trump to change the management of Ukraine’s huge state owned gas company Naftogaz, not to be confused with Burisma, the much, much smaller company that the Bidens are accused of corrupting.  Apparently Lev and Igor wanted to better their business prospects with Naftogaz and needed their corrupt people on the company’s boards to do so. To the extent bribes were involved, that would mean that Lev, Igor, and possibly Rudy had violated the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act. Why is it that the crime the Trump universe accuses others of doing is so frequently a smaller version of the ginormous crime that they are actually doing?  Don’t be surprised if former Energy Secretary Perry, who actually did get some of his long-time political patrons into lucrative arrangements with Ukrainian energy companies soon gets pulled into this mess.    

Be Best:  A very twitchy Trump tweeted in excess of one hundred times yesterday.  In one notable tweet he attacked Time Magazine’s person of the year, teen age climate activist Greta Thunberg, repeating his oft used assertion that she has an anger management problem.  What leader of the free world doesn’t bully a committed teen who also happens to have Asperger’s syndrome?  UK’s Boris Johnson’s Conservative party easily won a majority of seats in parliament, solidifying his position and making it far more likely that Brexit will happen.  No doubt Trump will take full credit for Johnson’s victory, but it had much more to do with the unpopularity of his opponent Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.  In any case, Brexit will be the easy part, negotiating new trade packs will be difficult to say the least so lots of uncertainty and market turbulence lies ahead.  It’s also quite possible Brexit will result in Scotland voting to leave the UK and the reemergence of Ireland “troubles.”  It appears that the Trump administration has reached some sort of phase one trade agreement with China, one that rolls back some tariffs and provides for sales of US farm goods, a rollback of some, but not all of Trump’s trade war without the concessions that the trade war was supposed to achieve.  And the Senate finally passed a resolution recognizing the mass killings of more than 1 million Armenians in Turkey that took place a century ago.  The resolution which Trump tried to stall for as long as he could will infuriate Turkey President Erdogan. Because the resolution is non-binding, it does not require Trump's signature.  

Who Needs Housewives?

Reality Programming:  Yesterday was all hearings all the time.  The day began in the Senate where this week’s episode of the Lindsey Graham Show, also known as the Senate Judiciary Committee featured Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and his report.  Despite former FBI Director Comey’s assertion that he’d been vindicated by the Horowitz report, the reality is that no one, least of all Comey got off scot free. The FBI, or at least the whole FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) warrant process, took a major hit.  Though we’ve all been told over the past few years about how hard it is for the FBI to get authorization for a FISA warrant, it turns out that there are plenty of flaws in the process, that once a mistake, intentional or unintentional, is made, renewal warrants can get reissued endlessly as everyone up and down the food chain continues to assume information included in an initial application is true even when eventually proven false. The prime example for this was the warrant authorizing surveillance of Carter Page, the Trump campaign’s quirky foreign affairs “expert.” Despite recurring errors and a reliance on what later turned out to be inaccurate information, the authorization for his surveillance kept getting renewed.  Notably, Information that Carter Page had at times acted as an undercover informant for the CIA wasn’t initially shared with the FBI and, when it finally was, the FBI lawyer responsible for forwarding the information didn’t share it, instead he actually altered an email to conceal it, worse than what I had previously called a “cut and paste” offense.  It’s not clear what his motivation was for that deception but, already gone from the FBI, he’s likely to be indicted for his malfeasance if he hasn’t been already. Notably, Horowitz refused to call him out by name him, but Graham did because why not add another person’s life to the human shredder.  We still don’t know how Carter Page ended up as a CIA informant but it’s likely that before he joined team Trump he’d been caught canoodling with Russian agents, something no one on the Trump campaign team knew or cared about.  Anyway his informant activities did not involve spying on any of the Trumpkins and he unlike Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos and a few others was never prosecuted though he did get lots of TV appearances and has an op-ed in today’s WSJ. The FISA screw ups aside, Horowitz did not find that any politically motivated bias affected “Crossfire Hurricane,” the name of the FBI investigation into team Trump though you wouldn’t know that given how much Trump and his cohorts in crime continue to scream about bias yesterday when, in addition to rightfully criticizing the FISA process, the Committee’s Republicans, most notably Chairman Lindsey Graham focused as much as possible on sexting duo Lisa Page and Peter Strozk’s Trump bashing texts. In fact Graham made them the key feature of his never ending, rambling opening remarks.  Funny thing about that is that neither he nor his Republican committee members cited any of the the texts from the pro-Trump crowd.  Wonder why?

Always Rudy:  FISA problems aside, there were some other notable takeaways from Horowitz’s testimony.  First and foremost the independent Horowitz stands by his conclusion that there is no evidence that political bias affected the investigation into the Trump team. He clearly is not pleased that Attorney General Barr doubts that conclusion.  He, like the rest of us, doesn’t see the purpose of the additional investigation by Barr’s handpicked guy US Attorney John Durham.  Moreover, he was surprised by Durham’s statement dissing the conclusions of his investigation because the two had discussed the rationale behind the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.  Though Durham had told him that he didn’t necessarily agree that the information provided by Australia, the unnamed friendly country that tipped the FBI to George Papadopoulos’ drunken bragging about Russian plans to offer up emails to the Trump team which was the premise for the opening of an investigation, warranted the “full” investigation that the FBI opened, Durham agreed that there had been enough evidence to support the opening of a  “preliminary” investigation.  And as Horowitz notes in his report, “investigative steps such as confidential human source activity that occurred here are allowed under a preliminary investigation or full investigation."  Under questioning from the Democratic members of the committee Horowitz revealed that he’s still investigating the allegations that back in 2016 one or more NY FBI agents leaked information about Anthony Weiner’s laptop and its stash of Hillary emails to Rudy Giuliani.  He’s got lots of call records that show that conversations took place but still doesn’t have information about what was said on those calls, but he’s still working on it!  And though, the law doesn’t allow Justice Department Inspectors General to initiate investigations into the actions of Justice Department lawyers, other Inspectors General do not operate under similar restrictions and it appears that some of them are already looking into things related to Ukraine.  Getting back to Rudy, who has now settled his most recent divorce, apparently his upcoming “documentary” on Ukraine “corruption” may have an air date. Who needs housewife programming when you’ve got Rudy?

Prime Time:  As the day turned to evening, action shifted to the House where the Jerry Nadler led Judiciary Committee held hearings on the articles of impeachment against Trump.  That process had little to do with actual drafting and a whole lot more to do with pontificating and fire breathing.  Each member of the committee got to say whatever they wanted to say about the whole impeachment thing.  Democrats who talked about the need to defend the Constitution against the Trump crime wave were mostly somber, Republicans not so much.  Representative Louis Gohmert, one of Trump’s designated flamethrowers actually called out the Whistleblower by name during his rant.  The committee is expected to vote on both of the articles of impeachment today before sending them to the floor for a full House vote.  It doesn’t appear than any Republicans will crossover to the pro-impeachment side though it’s likely that a few Democrats will vote against.  That said, Speaker Pelosi is confident that she will hold most of her caucus and that she has the votes to impeach.  For his part former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is on Team Impeach, announced last night that he’s setting aside $10 million to help purple/red district Democrats who get targeted by Republican PACs and their ads for voting for impeachment.  Speaker Pelosi is all in on that, she responded by saying ““In 2018, Mayor Bloomberg was a critical ally in helping House Democrats regain the majority. Now, the stakes are even higher as we work to make health care more affordable by reducing the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs, increase wages and root out corruption. We welcome and thank Mayor Bloomberg for his support.”  The other Democrats running for president, or at least the ones who aren’t billionaires, might find Mayor Mike’s money problematic but the every pragmatic Pelosi gets it value and is happy to have some of it.

Other News:  During his Tuesday night rally in Pennsylvania, Trump made a baseless claim about Lisa Page and Peter Strozk saying that he’d heard that Strozk needed a restraining order “to keep him away from Lisa? That’s what I heard. I don’t know if it’s true. The fake news will never report it, but it could be true.” It’s not true, but it will provide more fodder for any lawsuits that either of the two might want to file against Trump, at least Kellyanne Conway’s husband George feels that way.  He tweeted out all the grounds that would justify such a lawsuit, maybe next he’ll take the case?  Lev Parnas is in some more trouble this morning for failing to disclose to Federal prosecutors that he’d received $1 million from someone in Russia in September. The payment raises “provocative” new questions about the nature of the work Parnas and his buddy Igor Fruman were doing and who they were doing it for and could get Parnas’ bail revoked.  It also makes it unlike that Parnas  will be available to spill his guts to Congress anytime soon.  A skeptical person might thing that was the reason that the Barr run Justice department disclosed this new information.  Michael Cohen, the Trump lawyer/fixer from an earlier chapter of this saga is now asking a judge to reduce his sentence in appreciation for his continuing efforts helping out prosecutors.  On the Ukraine front, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff revealed that VP Pence’s national security assistant Jennifer Williams, who has already testified, submitted additional classified evidence to House impeachment investigators about a September 18 phone call between Pence and Ukraine President Zelensky. Schiff is asking Pence to declassify the information saying that there is no “legitimate basis to keep it secret.”  Surprise, surprise Pence is not cooperating.  In still other news Israel will be holding another election, that makes three if you’re counting, because their Democracy is even more polarized than ours.  And, though he sees “good people on both sides” and likes to use and tweet anti-Semitic tropes, Trump wants us all to think that he’s leading the war against anti-Semitism.  To that end he appears to be defining Judaism as a nationality rather than just a religion, saying that will help him clamp down on anti-Semitic actions on college campuses.  Clamping down on college anti-Semitism, definitely a good thing.  Defining Judaism as a nationality not so much.  What’s next?  Yellow stars on lapels?