Skip to main content

Verdict



Rough week for the Donald, seeing both his former campaign manager and lawyer go down.  Not only that but the head of National Enquirer, David Pecker, flipped on him by supporting Cohen's admission that Trump was fully aware of the payoffs to the two bimbos in question.  Is there a more perfect name for the head of a rag like the Enquirer?  It's like something out of a bad mafia movie with Trump complaining that there should be a law against flipping.

One would like to think time is running out on the artful dodger, but I wouldn't hold my breath.  Even if the Democrats get the votes to impeach him in November, they would have to turn a dozen or more Republicans in the Senate against Trump and that is a very tall order.  Nevertheless, they finally have a crime to bring impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Darling Rudy took time out from a round of golf to say there will be a revolt in the streets if the Democrats dare to impeach the people's president, but I have a feeling they will get about the same turn out they got for the white nationalist rally in Washington earlier this month.  I think most persons are sick of all these pathetic fun and games and want a real president again, not this fake one we have had to endure for the past 18 months.

Not that Mike Pence would be much better, especially given his ties to Paul Manafort, but it would represent a victory of sorts, and it is doubtful that Pence would be anymore than a lame duck his two years in office, much like Ford after Nixon was run out of town.

Of course, this all hinges on the Democrats taking the House in November, and at the very least breaking even in the Senate with no losses of seats.  This would send a clear message to the Republicans that Trump is dead weight.

As for our dear president, he continues to act as if he is in complete control of things.  He admitted to paying off the bimbos but said he did so with his own money.  Nothing illegal about that.  Only problem is that there are records of these transactions having gone through his campaign, so he couldn't bring himself to come completely clean on his fourth try.

He went from a complete denial, to an admission there was a payoff but he didn't know about it, to yes he did learn about it after the fact to now an admission he approved the hush money.  It's really a wonder anyone can trust anything he says at this point.

Florida Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo sure isn't buying anything the president says.  He was on CNN today openly discussing impeachment.  In fact he wants everyone to know he was open to impeachment since last May after Trump fired Comey.  There are a handful of Republicans in the House who never bought into the Trump mania and have been waiting for the ongoing federal investigation to yield something they could latch onto.

This is also forcing Democratic leaders to rethink their campaign strategy, as Chuck and Nancy haven't embraced impeachment.  Feinstein has insisted on going slow, much to the chagrin of her California patrons, and many others remain sitting on the fence.  But, it is clear the Democratic base wants Trump to go, and will help propel those candidates that support his impeachment.

The national mood is ripe for a revolt, but not the one Giuliani imagines.  The resentment toward Trump has been building for 18 months.  What Americans have been waiting for is something that will force Congress to act against Trump.  Now they have it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005