Clear and Present Danger  🌻🌻🌻

January 6^th Hearings:  Yesterday’s show and tell featured J Michael Luttig, a former Appeals Court judge revered by the conservative set, and Greg Jacobs, a lawyer who had served as counsel to former VP Pence during his time in office.  The hearing started off slowly largely because Luttig’s plodding monotone made him almost as hard to listen to as that one-time savior who wasn’t Special Counsel Mueller.  Fortunately as time passed the hearing improved, largely because Jacobs’ easygoing, camera ready style compensated for Luttig’s not ready for prime time one and also because the content of Luttig’s ponderous utterances more than made up for his drone in a “holy sh-t” kind of way. For example, Luttig’s statement that the Former Guy and his supporters “remain a clear and present danger to American democracy” was chilling.  The hearing focused on the absurdity and unconstitutionality of the advice provided to the Former Guy by kraken lawyer John Eastman, who like Senator Ted Cruz, once clerked for Luttig. While Luttig’s testimony focused on the danger to democracy posed by John Eastman’s “stay in office” scheme, Jacobs who made it clear that he and Pence both concurred with Luttig’s conclusions also provided insight into Pence’s thoughts and actions as he dealt with the FG’s pressure campaign to overturn the election results, the pressure campaign that ultimately put Pence’s life in jeopardy so much so that at one point some of those “peaceful tourists,” who according to a Proud Boy informant really did intend to kill Pence got within forty feet of where he was hiding. As to that hiding place, Pence was there only because he refused efforts by the Secret Service, including possibly one or more whose motivations were questionable, to whisk him far away because he understood that leaving the Capitol would have achieved the FG’s goal of putting off the certification of the 2020 election results.  Getting back to Eastman, it turns out that he, like the FG and virtually everyone else in his orbit, knew that the phony elector scheme was illegal.  Eastman even understood that the scheme wouldn’t survive judicial review, although curiously he thought that he stood a chance of getting two Supreme Court Justices, likely Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, to agree with him. We also learned that Eastman inquired about securing one of those FG pardons, the ones that son in law Jared was so busy working on when the White House counsel team “whined” that they’d resign if the overturn the election shenanigans didn’t stop.  Eastman’s consciousness of guilt likely explains why he plead the fifth one hundred times during his Committee interview. Getting back to Clarence, the lone dissent in the Supreme Court's January order rejecting the FG's bid to withhold documents from the January 6 panel, we keep on learning more about wife Ginni’s efforts to overturn the election, none of it good. For example in addition to sending missives to more than thirty Arizona lawmakers encouraging them to participate in Eastman’s phony elector scheme, Ginni communicated directly with Eastman and also with former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, access that she wouldn’t have had were she not the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice. Yesterday, in response to all the attention she’s been getting, Ginni said that she’d love to come in and talk to the January 6^th Committee to explain how they are misconstruing the things she said and did, though it’s not clear that she really means to cooperate. For his part hubby Clarence who wants us all to believe that he and Ginni never talked about her insurrectionist actions, remains busy, probably polishing one or more  of the awful Supreme Court decision expected to be handed down shortly. Though its doubtful that he’ll spend much time focusing on Ginni’s actions, Attorney General Garland has formally asked the January 6^th Committee to send over all of its interview tapes and transcripts to help in the DOJ’s expanding investigations.  

Milk and Cookies:  After the events of January 6^th Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherill of New Jersey, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, reported that she’d seen a number of her Republican colleagues giving reconnaissance tours of the Capitol in the run up to insurrection day. Well now, to the chagrin of Georgia Republican Congressman Barry Loudermilk, there’s video that shows she wasn’t imagining things.  Loudermilk who first denied that he’d given any tours, then said maybe he had but it was just one of those things that you do for nice constituents during a pandemic when the Capitol was closed to guests, is now insisting that those innocent guests who just happened to take lots of pictures with multiple cameras of staircases and hidden hallways in parts of the building not typically shown to tourists were just staircase and wall sconce enthusiasts and nothing more.  That’s a problem for him because at least one of those sconce obsessed tourists also shows up on an insurrection day video calling for the heads of Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler and AOC. Notably Sherill says that Loudermilk wasn’t the only Republican she saw giving “tours” so more videos could be forthcoming.  Though he apparently didn’t spend any milk and cookie time with his kids, it turns out that Herschel Walker, the former football player who is now the Republican’s candidate for the Georgia Senate seat currently held by Reverend Raphael Warnock has four children, three more than he previously acknowledged.  That’s especially significant because Walker, who polls show running neck and neck with Warnock, prides himself on being a huge critic of absentee dads. Of course he’s also claimed that he’s worked in local law enforcement and was employed by the FBI (he didn’t),  graduated top in his college class (he didn’t even graduate), founded a not for profit mental health program for veterans (it was a profit making enterprise that is now being investigated) and has hugely inflated his business success. In other words a perfect Republican candidate.

Viral Musings:  As early as next week children as young as 6 months old will be able to get COVID vaccines though in Florida their parents might find them hard to find.  Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who could very well be his party’s next presidential candidate should the FG finally implode, if Tesla’s Elon Musk has anything to say about it, says he is “affirmatively against providing the COVID vaccines to young kids.” As a result Florida is the only state that hasn’t ordered doses of the child sized vaccine. The shots will still be available but only at pharmacies and pediatrician offices meaning those most in need will probably not have access.  We shouldn’t be surprised about this given that DeSantis’ chosen state Surgeon General, who shares his views, also doesn’t believe that facemasks provide any protection for anything.