Mr. Smith Goes To Washington 🌻🌻🌻 💙

Leaking as a Hobby:  Friday Attorney General Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel for the investigations into Trump’s Mar a Lago and some, though not all of the, January 6^th cases.  That’s big news but also important is the NY Times article about the goings on at the Supreme Court. The article, co-written by Jodi Kantor who is one of the investigative journalists who brought producer Harvey Weinstein’s pattern of sexual abuse to light, describes a multi-year effort by Robert Schenck, an evangelical minister and former anti-abortion activist and his non-profit organization to reach out to and influence conservative Supreme Court Justices including Samuel Alito.  Schenck claims that years before the Alito written, Roe overturning Dobbs’ decision was leaked another important reproductive rights decision, also written by Alito, was leaked to a donor, who then shared the information with Schenck, after the donor dined with Justice Alito and his wife.  That decision, Burwell v Hobby Lobby, ruled that “closely held corporations” and by closely held think companies that object to contraception because of their owners’ religious views, could deny birth control coverage to their employees despite the requirements of the then newly passed ACA (Obamacare legislation) which mandated that health insurance plans include birth control coverage.  Minister Schenck says that after the Dobbs opinion was leaked, he wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts telling him about the Hobby Lobby case leak but that he received no response.  That’s Justice Roberts who was so outraged by the Dobbs leak that he ordered an investigation into that “singular and egregious breach of trust.”  If the NY Times article is right, the Dobbs leak wasn’t singular.  Also, note that despite Roberts’ investigation, nothing about who leaked the Dobbs decision has been made public, nothing except accusations from the right that the leak “obviously” came from someone on the left.  The NY Times article has prompted a lot of outrage among the usual group of Senate Democrats including Judiciary Chair Dick Durban, Sheldon Whitehouse and Amy Klobuchar, none of them shrinking violets, so this story should have legs and it should because it looks like Justice Thomas isn’t the only one cannoodling with an interested influencer, not that any of this is all that surprising.

Mr. Smith:  It turns out that Jack Smith won’t be going to Washington just yet.  The newly appointed Special Counsel who is leaving his position at The Hague to assume his new role overseeing the investigation of our home-grown Mafioso plans to work remotely from the Netherlands because he recently broke a leg, the result of a bicycle accident. It turns out that in addition to having years of experience investigating corrupt public officials, Smith is also an accomplished triathlete.  Let’s hope that he’s better at taking down former presidents than avoiding potholes or trucks or whatever caused his break. Despite the break, the DOJ insists that Smith will be able to hit the ground running (presumably figuratively not literally) and that his appointment won’t delay the investigation and any possible indictment(s). Vocal critics on the left believe that Garland is just punting, allowing Trump and his recently announced run to influence and stall him suffering any consequence.  Those in the middle say appointing a Special Counsel makes sense due to politics as well as the volume of work  Garland oversees as Attorney General and some of those believe that the Smith appointment implies that an indictment, especially for the purloined documents case is very likely.  Those on the right, including Trump of course, see this as just an extension of the Democrat’s witch hunt. To date Trump has been venting about all this on his own social media site, Truth Social, but should he be so inclined he’s now welcome back on Twitter and though he says that he’s not inclined to take up Elon Musk’s invitation to return, it’s highly likely he will soon, especially since Truth Social’s future remains highly uncertain.  Though Trump’s not using Twitter, his buddy in hate, Kanye West is.  Ye, who was seen this weekend meeting with far-right white supremacist Nick Fuentes, is also talking about making another run at the presidency and teased hiring disgraced right winger Milos Yiannopoulos, best known for advocating for (yes for) pedophilia, as his 2024 campaign advisor. As to hate, it turns out that the man responsible for shooting and killing 5, while injuring an additional 25 individuals, some of them critically, at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub this weekend is the grandson of a MAGA Republican California state representative who supported the January 6^th insurrection equating it to the Revolutionary War. It turns out that there are consequences when a party and a family member spread hate.  Remind me again, when was the last time that a Drag Queen Story Hour resulted in a mass shooting? Like never.     

Midterm Madness:  The election is not over yet though the outcome in Alaska is starting to look more certain. Ranked voting calculations won’t be done until Wednesday but since she already has 48.7% of the vote, it’s pretty much a given that Democrat Mary Peltola will be returning to Congress for a full term, meaning Sarah Palin most certainly will not be.  On the Senate side with 43.3% of the vote, incumbent Lisa Murkowski has overtaken Trump endorsed Republican Kelly Tshibaka who has 42.7%.  That may seem close, but it really isn’t as the lion’s share of the voters for the third-place candidate, a Democrat, are likely to have picked Murkowski as their second choice. The Georgia Senate race is headed to a December 6^th runoff and thanks to the efforts of election whiz Mark Elias and his legal team, the early weekend voting that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his squad tried to squelch is now back on the calendar.  Although Raffensperger stood up to Trump in 2020, he’s no hero, at his heart he is still all in on suppressing Democratic turnout. Then there’s GOP Leader, Speaker wannabee Kevin McCarthy, the man who now answers mostly to Margie Q.  McCarthy is now saying that he plans on taking committee assignments away from Democrats Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar. Nothing like mending fences with the opposition in the hope of getting things done for the country. #Sigh