Category: National

* No. Not a chance.” That was Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona in a candid answer to the “60 Minutes” question of Scott Pelly as to whether he would have gone out on a political limb to push for a delay in the Senate Kavanaugh vote–if he weren’t retiring. It speaks volumes when even a relatively moderate, sensitive Republican can only act on his conscience if he no longer has to worry about re-election. Meanwhile, the rest of us worry about our increasingly authoritarian and dystopian society.

BTW, what happens to a politician of conscience who is not re-elected? How about political commentating, lobbying, book-writing or ambulance-chasing?

* “I did not do any kind of political calculation in making my decision. I have to apply my best judgment. I cannot weigh the political consequences.”–That was Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, addressing her vote for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. She should want a mulligan: Her vote was disgraceful, her explanation disingenuous.

* Sen. Lindsey Graham deserves his perch atop Trump’s basket of deplorables. He knows better than to be taken in by a cult figure. This is about blatant hypocrisy and opportunism and a frequent golfing partner. Remember he was part of the GOP primary field in 2016. Recall he was the candidate who, in reference to Trump, who he had called the “world’s biggest jackass,” rhetorically asked: “You know how you can make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” Well, some of us are still taking his advice.

I know I’m not the only one.

As I watched Brett Kavanaugh’s last Senate Judiciary Committee appearance–following that of his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford–I couldn’t overcome the sense that this might be hard for “Saturday Night Live” to spoof. I mean, how to you satirize a parody? Is the “Honorable Brett Kavanaugh” an oxymoron?

It was obvious from the start that Kavanaugh was doubling down on the tactic that mattered most at sexual-misconduct-allegation crunch time. This was more than damage control. In short, this was about showing viscerally that Kavanaugh was a victim of a reputation-destroying Democratic witch hunt. Plus, he wanted the back-in-the-day theme to be beer for the cool guys, not babes for assaultive sorts.

The hearing was a “circus,” a “sham” and a “national disgrace,” he charged. Moreover, the Senate had “replaced ‘advice and consent’ with ‘search and destroy.’” In response, Kavanaugh had replaced judicial temperament with calculated anguish and anger. Wonder what RBG thought about a punk on the court.

Then it got worse. He was never a “boring Boy Scout,” as Ted Cruz had mischaracterized him. He was just one of the guzzling guys, only the one who was top of his elite, country-club-milieu, prep school class and Yale-and-legal-career bound.

He even worked in a conspiratorial Clinton reference. He was angry, belligerent, defiant and flippant. He liked beer; he liked girls. Who doesn’t? But he had never assaulted anyone, and he had never passed out, even if he had been a member in particularly good standing of the “Beach Week Ralph Club.”

He lacerated the process and all Democratic Party enablers. This was a job interview, and the committee and the nation had just heard the excruciating testimony of Dr. Ford, a relative avatar of authenticity. As a result, he was on the #MeToo ropes–and nobody was more important than his nominator, Donald Trump. Certainly not Christine Blasey Ford, playing the lead in an immorality play to take down his besieged nomination.

Given Kavanaugh’s defiant demeanor and sniffling, thirst-quenching, rage-against-the-machine manner, it was surprising that one of the Democratic senators didn’t ask: “So, Judge, how many beers have you already had today?” I’m even more surprised that “SNL” didn’t go with it.

The bottom line: It was an embarrassing circus, one that should be unworthy of this country and its pre-eminent, “advice and consent” deliberative body.

But, yeah, Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh pulled it off on “SNL.” “I’m still an optimist” wryly noted Damon as Kavanaugh. “The keg is half full.” But we’ve all had Kava-nough.

It’s not that hard to become almost inured to the reality that we’ve always had sexual predators in our society. In every society. The real shock–and rationale for hope–is having victims summoning the public courage to speak out. It’s exactly what predators never expect.

But of all those marquee names–from Harvey Weinstein to Kevin Spacey–the worst example, by far, has been Bill Cosby. He wasn’t just a prominent show business personality who was rich, entitled and assaultive. But he was also somebody we needed for our racial tinderbox society. He reminded black-and-white audiences that we had much more in common than in conflict.

His comedy–from early Philly nightclub stand-ups while he was still attending Temple University to movies, syndicated TV shows and national tours–was universal. He didn’t traffic in the gratuitously vulgar or raw or political cheap shots. His humor was as universal as a “Fat Albert” cartoon or a “Noah’s Ark” biblical riff. He defied racial stereotypes and played a funny, empathetic, middle-class physician dad on “The Cosby Show.”

Now, at 81 and legally blind, he is the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be locked up for his predatory ways. His life is over, but the harm he caused has lingered long over the years. He waived his right to address the court after his sentencing. No apology for anything.

Bill Cosby was never who we thought he was and wanted him to be, and that’s the ultimate tragedy. America wanted–and needed–Dr. Huxtable, who was really Mr. Hyde.

• Anyone else cringe when the words United Nations and Donald Trump inhabit the same sentence? Must he treat the UN dais like an Evansville campaign rally or a Manhattan open-mic night? It’s the ultimate–and only such–forum we have to gather globally to try and resolve issues among sovereign states. Playing to their nationalism should be anathema, especially with a Stephen Miller-written speech that “Rejects the ideology of globalism. ” “We embrace the doctrine of patriotism,” trumpeted the president. At least he didn’t wear his MAGA cap.
• And while Trump was chairing, so to speak, the UN Security Council, he used that forum for some partisan priorities. Most notably on China. “Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 elections,” he charged. “They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.” So much for any more sit-down dinners at Mar-A-Lago with Mr. and Mrs. Xi.

At best, the Security Council was a blatantly inappropriate forum for a highly-charged, bilateral issue. But how ironically suspicious that he didn’t take the opportunity to reference Russia’s ongoing cyberattacks on American elections, attacks aimed at helping Trump’s agenda and, not coincidentally, his 2020 prospects.

• The optics at Trump’s rally in Wheeling, West Virginia, included a backdrop of two prominent banners: “Promises Made” and “Promises Kept.” No specifics, including Mexico paying for some wall, necessary. But we all remember the agenda. PM/PK: Pushing big tax cuts for the non-base, rubber-stamping the Federalist Society’s choice of Supreme Court justices, promoting global isolationism and turning the most influential country in the history of the world into a nativistic outlier.
• “And then we fell in love.”–That was Trump at the same rally referring to his aha moment with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the erstwhile “Little Rocket Man,” after their summit meeting. OK, it’s bad Trumpian hyperbole in search of a way to reference a working relationship with a dictatorial murderer, but how might he characterize the one with Vladimir Putin?
• “(Democrats’) con game.” That’s how Trump characterized the sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But maybe this has more credibility than we thought. If anyone should know such scenarios, it would be the ultimate, p—- grabbing “con artist.”
• How are Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham in the same party?
• Last comment on the Kavanaugh hearing: The question should have been begged about the whereabouts of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s husband. He should have been seated behind her for all the obvious reasons.

Time was when watching a major sporting event was an escape from business as usual and day-to-day routines. Thank you, sports sanctuary. Our jobs, our families, our concerns could be put on hold while we cheered and yelled and drank and cursed and celebrated. That was then; this is not.

I watched the Bucs-Steelers game on Monday to see Ryan “FitzMagic” Fitzpatrick for myself–but there was no way to avoid the overall context of his unexpected prominence. Were it not for Jameis Winston’s sleazy doppelganger, Fitzpatrick would have been carrying the back-up quarterback clip board instead of carrying the team with a couple of stellar performances. You can’t speculate on Fitzpatrick’s future–even after the disappointing Pittsburgh loss–without factoring Winston, who has been the face of the franchise. We all know why he didn’t play against the Steelers. Not even the NFL will let a team go out and win one for the groper. Entitled macho men taking liberties with women is something the league is trying to distance itself from. It’s criminal; it’s degenerate; it’s evil; and, yeah, it’s bad for the league’s image.

Actually, this was more like a microcosm of where America is these days. #MeToo is not just the next-up generation of female activists. It’s symptomatic of these specific, disturbing times. You can’t have an arrogant avatar of immorality and misogynism in the White House without repercussions and increased societal awareness. The Oval Office occupant can’t be a role model for celebrity predators.

And it’s not, of course, just professional sports, a subset of show business, that invites #MeToo scrutiny. Hell, you can turn on the TV and see it at play in the nomination hearing of a Supreme Court justice. And it will continue to permeate other niches of society until a post-Trump America finally gives more than lip service to the self-flattering notion that, indeed, “we’re better than this.”

And then, maybe, we can get back to tuning in to a big game or an important hearing and simply watch skilled athletes and pandering politicians play their roles without a back story of sexual misconduct.

• President Donald Trump at the UN: What a forum to underscore that the U.S., in effect, is going it alone.
• If the U.S. had a savvy negotiator, maybe something good would come out of challenging the trade status quo with China. Stolen technology and intellectual property, market barriers and currency manipulation don’t deserve to be ignored. That’s the irony. The status of this quo has to go–but not to the tariff-war detriment of the U.S.

And speaking of negotiations, how’s that seat-of-the-CEO-pants approach working with North Korea? Does “denuclearization” loom? Does a working definition of “denuclearization” loom? And might formally declaring an “end” to the Korean War, which actually ended 65 years ago, be too much of a concession? Perhaps we’ll get some hints–in writing–at the next Trump-Kim summit, which is now being scheduled. Perhaps.

• Does Jeff Sessions not know the meaning of demeaning?
• The Trump Administration, as we are constantly reminded, doesn’t appeal to the A-Listers when it comes to professional staffing. Especially women. Exhibit A: Trump “counselor” Kellyanne Conway, the ultimate White House harlot. Here’s her take on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination that’s been blindsided by sexual-misconduct allegations. “This may be the first time we ever heard of allegations against someone as a teenager who did not prey upon women thusly as he became powerful.” That’s because such offensive conduct is, thusly, much more, but not exclusively, the purview of sleazy men with status and leverage. Speaking of, that’s the MO of the man Conway reports to and misrepresents to the outside world. How do you undermine the context of the accusations against Kavanaugh while working for a vulgar, misogynistic, admitted p—- grabber in the Oval Office? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. She wouldn’t be in that position if she couldn’t disingenuously defend the indefensible.
• So, Trump skeptically–and predictably–weighed in on Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser. Wonder if he directly tweeted Kavanaugh? If so–and given his sexist, assaultive nature–might he have tweeted: “MeToo”?
• Brett Kavanaugh isn’t backing off. Among the things he won’t be saying in his own defense: “I apologize for what I did. I also apologize for not apologizing until now. I know it looks self-serving. It is. But now, at least, you know I’m being candid. Christine Blasey Ford deserves better than this; I sure in hell don’t. I only disagree with Dr. Ford, because I was too drunk to remember all that I did. I wish that were a valid excuse for my behavior. But I can, I assure you, still be a good, Constitution-revering justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Maybe even better than Clarence Thomas. Maybe.”
• Trump recently compared himself to Lincoln. Maybe he meant George Lincoln Rockwell?
• Trump voters who are women and evangelicals: Shouldn’t they number in the single digits instead of the multi millions?

• Malcolm Nance is a former U.S. intelligence officer who specializes in cryptology. He’s also an author and a frequent panelist on non-Fox cable news shows. He dismisses those “Manchurian candidate” scenarios involving President Donald Trump.

Then he updates it.

“If anything, (Trump) is a product of the first successful global cyber propaganda campaign to seize control of an enemy’s leadership. He is a Cyberian candidate.”

• It speaks volumes, doesn’t it, that one of the big early markets for Bob Woodward’s “Fear” best seller has been foreign embassies. They know this author is no cash-in opportunist. His reputation is that credible. And they know his subject is that incredibly craven and impactful.
• And you know movie scripts and legal scenarios are already part of pitch meetings.
• The U.S., of course, has unilaterally withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement, but that doesn’t mean individual states have to also ignore the obvious and do nothing. California, for example, will partner with Planet Labs, a geospatial imagery company, to build a satellite that will monitor pollution from orbit.

“We’re under attack by a lot of people, including Donald Trump,” explained California Gov. Jerry Brown. “But the climate threat still keeps growing. We’ve got to know what the hell’s going on all over the world, all the time. So, we’re going to launch our own satellite–our own damn satellite–to figure out where the problem is and how we’re going to end it.”

In any other Administration, this would be an unconscionable, embarrassing rebuke to the EPA. This is not any other Administration.

• The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office recently announced that the S. federal deficit for fiscal year 2018 had reached $895 billion, a $222 billion–or 32 percent– increase over the previous year. The CBO now estimates that the U.S. government’s budget deficit will reach $1 trillion per year by 2019. That’s sobering, and it begs the obvious questions. As in, how’s that GOP tax plan looking? It’s not just that it’s richly skewed; it also pads the deficit. And whatever happened to the GOP’s core principle of budget restraint, much less whatever happened to the hot-button, ideological agenda of the Republican Tea Party movement?

Perhaps Ron DeSantis can explain what happens to priorities when ostensibly principled ideology meets self-serving, cult-figure idiotology.

• One thing we know for sure about the Mueller investigation. No one knows more than Robert Mueller. He does what a federally-appointed special counsel should do. He doesn’t go public before he’s finished. He doesn’t tweet or spin to carry–or divert–a news cycle. And, yes, he’s still a Republican, as we will be reminded as this plays out.
• Paul Manafort’s deal with prosecutors has one aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to motivation to cooperate with the feds. Manafort is actually IN jail–and has been since June. It’s not some plea-deal abstraction for this 69-year-old. He had been living an over-the-top affluent, elite–albeit criminal–lifestyle, and he could be incarcerated for the rest of his life. Good bye, trappings of luxury, deference and insider status. Adios, Just for Men stash. The ego-crushing, jump-suited, new normal for him would be a life sentence–not a life worth living.

And what does he know that matters? He replaced Corey Lewandowski as presidential campaign manager to get Trump through to the GOP convention. It was a critical time frame with lots of moving parts, domestic and foreign. And, of course, he was in the infamous, “dirt-on-Hillary” Trump Tower meet-up with Jared Kushner, Don Trump Jr. and Russians. He likely knows useful stuff–and he knows that anything less than full cooperation and the un-hedged truth would be a deal-breaker. He also knows that the possibility of a blatantly, self-serving presidential pardon is problematic at best.

• Could Trump really pardon himself? Doesn’t it speak volumes that this even enters a democratic conversation? Wouldn’t self-pardoning power equate to absolute power? Isn’t that authoritarian? Shouldn’t that be, well, un-American?
• When has a U.S. president not been welcomed in Ireland? IRELAND!
• We now know that it wasn’t just the U.S. that was on the receiving end of Russian cyber meddling meant to influence elections and denigrate NATO and the European Union. So too were a number of our NATO allies, including England, France and Germany. So too was non-NATO Sweden. Indeed, Swedish authorities have called out the Russians for flooding their country with fake news, disinformation and forged documents meant to smear the government. The goal: Discredit NATO and keep Sweden from formally joining.
• It was obvious that Brett Kavanaugh paid more than lip service to his Senate confirmation-hearing playbook. Most notably: Don’t answer hypothetical questions, hide behind precedent, be careful of body language, show appropriate empathy, have a selectively-faulty memory and hope there are no last-minute, character-assaulting bombshells from back in the day.
• How committed are the Dems to a blue wave scenario? Well, somebody convinced country music icon Willie Nelson to give a first-ever campaign performance. Nelson, 85, will headline a rally later this month for Democratic Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who is running to unseat Ted Cruz from the U.S. Senate. Yeah, that “Lyin’ Ted’ Cruz. Vaya,
• It’s no secret that former Vice President Joe Biden is at least considering a 2020 presidential run. He might still want a mulligan from 2016. For sure, he will be, along with former President Barack Obama, on the campaign trail leading up to the midterms. He’ll be crisscrossing the country to help the blue-wave cause. But don’t look for him to speak at any rallies in Iowa or New Hampshire. Such appearances would only divert attention from local candidates and refocus it on Biden’s possible plans for 2020.

• The Washington National Cathedral memorial service for John McCain was more than a hero’s send off. It was a metaphor for who we still are and where we now are. There was a bipartisan presence and requisite aura of respect and gratitude. The aisle, in this case, didn’t separate political party affiliations. But there was a palpable, GOP elephant in the rhetorical room–ironically notable for its absence: the president of the United States. He was not there because he was specifically uninvited by Sen. McCain.

 

The reasons have been well chronicled. President Donald Trump, unconscionably, included McCain among his myriad targets for ridicule and insult. It was all too appropriate that Trump took his hypocritical “thoughts and prayers” to a Virginia golf course. And while speakers, such as Meghan McCain and former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, pulled some rhetorical punches and didn’t mention Trump by name, they made sure their praise of the late senator was juxtaposed to that of the unprincipled, classless current occupant of the White House.

 

The choice of Obama was totally appropriate. It was, even for Republican birthers and Obama obstructionists, a graphic reminder that not long ago we had an eloquent, honorable man in the White House. Flawed, but not an unethical, immoral, existential threat. It could happen again.

 

“So much of our politics, our public life, our public discourse can seem small and mean and petty,” noted Obama. “Trafficking in bombast and insult and phony controversies and manufactured outrage. It’s a politics that pretends to be brave and tough, but in fact is born in fear.” It looked like Lindsey Graham, a McCain best friend who’s increasingly prominent among Trump toadies, was among those party-first GOPsters nodding in embarrassed assent.

 

We can only guess as to how many rewrites Meghan McCain did. Her presentation was personal as well as patriotic. It was, of course, her father who was on the receiving end of those sophomorically demeaning, disrespectful insults from Trump. “The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great,” she said with barely a hint of nuance. “We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness,” she underscored. “The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.” Indeed, John McCain’s “America First” had nothing to do with international arrogance or race-baiting, white nationalism.

 

One more thing–and a reminder that sometimes we add by subtracting. No Sarah Palin.

• “You’re one election away from losing everything you’ve got,” said Trump in recently warning a gathering of, yes, evangelicals about what could happen if the arch-enemy Democrats do well in the mid-terms. “The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable. They will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently.” Well, there’s Trumpian bombast and red-meat, base rhetoric. It’s a daily loop in Trump world. Then there’s this–an incendiary, de facto call to meet concocted violence with violence.
• Upon further–and much earlier–reflection, does anyone in the Trump Administration, except the Oval Office Apprentice, really think it was a good idea to have that Trump-Kim summit without much preparation? How’s that (ambiguously-defined) “denuclearization” process going?
• Imagine Trump now supporting the Senate re-election campaign of Ted Cruz. As in “Lyin’ Ted.” As in “unattractive” wife. As in “all talk, no action pol.” As in son of someone who may have been involved in the JFK assassination conspiracy. No outrage is too outrageous. Cruz and Trump may actually deserve each other, but this country deserves so much better. You go, “Beto” O’Rourke.
• So, Sen. Lindsey Graham interceded and helped Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner put in an official appearance at John McCain’s Washington memorial service. It arched more than a few non-Trumpian brows.

 

We know the Trump-Kushner motivation and who they were representing. IT and JK are not unhinged, ideological haters. So, OK, why not put in a symbolically respectful appearance–while the president was golfing–and squeeze in near Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Director John Bolton?

 

But you can bet there’s another agenda, because there’s lot left of their post-Trump Administration careers and reputations. And it’s more than likely that being part of a historically disgraced family and administration–wealth and opulent lifestyle notwithstanding–will not advance their standing and agendas, which could include their own political ambitions. However this Oval Orifice mess ends, including before 2020, Ivanka and Jared want more than life-long societal pushback for being calculated opportunists who helped enable what could be seen as the most reviled presidency in U.S. history.

• Word has it that Jessica Manafort, 36, the indie film-making daughter of convicted felon Paul Manafort will be changing her name. Reportedly, she will become Jessica Huckabee Sanders. No, not really. But we understand; being associated with a nationally disgraced person is unfair familial baggage for any individual, let alone one with a public-context career. No word on whether Ivanka Kushner or Melania Knavs have had similar epiphanies.
• Here’s what no president, especially a faux-populist one, wants to hear on Labor Day from the president of the AFL-CIO. “Unfortunately, to date, the things that (Trump) has done to hurt workers outpace what he’s done to help workers.” That was AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, not exactly a spokesman for establishment elites.
• “Coal miners for Trump.” We get that. “Bikers for Trump.” We get that. “Nazi Robo-callers for Trump.” Hell, we get that too. But “Evangelicals for Trump”? We will never get that. In fact, shouldn’t that be a sin?
• The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh is the first formal test of whether the rhetoric of respect and bipartisan participation at John McCain’s Washington memorial service has made any difference. It hasn’t.

• Trade deficits, as we’ve heard time and again, are incompatible with MAGA. Regardless of the overall volume of trade. But here’s a way to trim that deficit without resorting to tariff threats and trade wars: Get more foreign tourists to visit the U.S.

Since 2016, the number of international visitors has dropped by nearly 7.5 million. Travel industry economists estimate that this decline has reduced foreign purchases of American goods and services by more than $30 billion. It also, obviously, impacts jobs.

And begs the question of why. The strong dollar is a factor, as is immigration scrutiny. But the biggest factor is Donald Trump. Many foreigners with the wherewithal to travel and spend money don’t like Trump, his policies and the arrogant, America-first image the United States has been projecting.

• It says it all that two former presidents and rivals, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, will speak at a memorial service for John McCain. It also speaks volumes that the current president will not.
• Remember when the media, in effect, colluded with partisan Republicans in legitimizing “Obamacare” as the go-to, demonizing reference for the Affordable Care Act? Maybe it could do something comparable and Dem-friendly with the Trump energy plan that would increase carbon emissions and lead and subsequently cause up to 1,400 premature deaths annually. Maybe “Trump Gas” instead of the disingenuous “Clean Energy” rule.
• “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen.” Indeed, but it took Donald Trump a dozen-plus years of personal attorney-fixing to finally come to that realization about Cohen. Just never know when an epiphany is coming in the world of Trump.
• It’s a longstanding Justice Department position that a president cannot be criminally charged while in office. It’s also a longstanding tenet of American democracy that no man is above the law. Something’s got to give.
• He was once a respected prosecutor, “America’s mayor” and a presidential candidate. Today he’s a ghoulish minion farcically defending the indefensible. Rudy Giuliani: We hardly knew ye.
• “Bikers for Trump.” Who would have thought?
• Whatever happened to the “law and order” candidate? Aren’t campaign finance violations illegal? Isn’t being surrounded by felons sort of at odds with a “law and order” mantra?
• Alas, John McCain is gone. The best way for his party to honor him would be to mirror his feisty, truly America-first response to the threat that is the Trump presidency. Feckless fealty can’t trump principles if you want to honor McCain’s legacy. Among McCain’s last proclamations was his assessment of the Trump-Putin summit: “One of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” Too bad his spine couldn’t be donated to the Republican Congressional leadership.
• So, who is the key figure in the National Inquirer’s effort to keep secret the identities of those who had extra-marital sex with Trump? David Pecker. Once again, you can’t make this stuff up.
• Using campaign-finance hush money to shut up sex partners has all sorts of legal ramifications. As for the Trump base, having extra-marital sex with babes is a perk–not a character flaw or some technical illegality. And if Melania doesn’t seem to care, why the hell should anyone else?
• “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” That was Sir Walter Scott–not Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
• Our democracy is founded on the constitutional sanctity of three branches of government and attendant separation of powers. It can understandably be a delicate balance. But there’s nothing understandable–or acceptable–about the legislative branch’s abdication of power-sharing responsibility. The Congressional quislings.
• “There will be holy hell to pay.” That was South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham last summer when rumors were rife about Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. These days, in effect: “Fire away. We’ll move on.” Graham has become Exhibit A for all the gutless GOPsters (who are not stepping down) who constantly remind us of their hierarchy of priorities: Career, Party, Country. A basket of deplorables.
• And when AG Sessions is finally disposed of, imagine how the Senate hearing for Trump’s next nominee will play out. It will be a de facto forum on “recusal,” “the indictment of a sitting president,” “perjury,” “obstruction of justice,” “impeachment” and “collusion.”
• If Senate Leader Mitch McConnell had an iota of fairness and integrity, he would consider saying something like: “Given that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, of Ken Starr-staff fame, is on record for favoring the criminal immunity of a sitting president, we cannot accept his nomination by this vulnerable president. The prospect of a conflict-of-interest scenario looms too likely. Frankly, I’d like to see the president re-nominate Judge Merrick Garland. It might help heal the dangerous divisiveness that truly imperils our country. And let’s not forget, Trump isn’t really a Republican anyhow.”
• Imagine Trump’s crazed reaction to the disparaging zinger of Fox News host Neil Cavuto. “You are so darn focused on promoting a financial boom that you fail to see that you are the one creating this moral bust,” castigated Cavuto. “And we could all be the poorer for it.”
• Living in the tremulous times of Trump certainly lends itself to escape. If your respite from reality, however, is going to the movies, heads up if you’re going to see Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” Lee is not exactly agenda-challenged, and it’s no coincidence that this movie is out now in the context of rabid white nationalism. “Make America great again” and “America first” are dialogue staples. And you won’t depart the theater on a note of hope. The movie, which is worth seeing, ends with brutal images from the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

“McCarthyism at its worst!”

That’s what the commander-in-grief tweeted the other day in reference to Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. What an ironic reference and all-too-apt metaphor.

 

In the early 1950s “McCarthyism” was synonymous with the headline-grabbing, “Red Scare” paranoia created by Wisconsin Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy. His loud, accusatory, down-to-earth speaking style resonated with a lot of Commie-fearing Americans for several years. And his self-serving, infiltration crusade was enabled by a media easily drawn to his Cold War predictions of America’s imminent ruin. He made the House Committee on Un-American Activities must-cringe optics.

 

McCarthy underscored his shameless, prophetic prose with false charges that ruined careers and lives. By the middle of 1951, “Tailgunner Joe” McCarthy was warning his fellow senators of “a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man.”

 

That will dominate more than a few pre-Twitter news cycles.

 

And it sounds like a perverse precursor to President Donald Trump, the fabulist-in-chief. McCarthy’s fear-mongering playbook obviously survived: Play to societal anxiety, find scapegoats, blatantly lie and make false charges to further an agenda and bully fellow members of Congress to discourage those inclined to call your bluff and call out your lies.

 

McCarthy kept it going for three years because he had a complicit, clamorous base: those who shared his Red Scare anxieties, liked his wise-guy rhetoric and enjoyed watching the elites squirm.

 

It would, in the end, all come crashing down when McCarthy was ultimately censured by the Senate that condemned his wanton witch hunt ways and removed him from any committee seats. He was then largely ignored–including by the media–for the duration.

But what an unhinged, maliciously melodramatic run it was–and a reminder of what can befall America when too much power, complemented by raw nationalism, is amassed at the people’s expense.

 

One other familiar aspect to the Trump-McCarthy parallels. McCarthy’s chief counsel during the height of the Red Scare ‘50s was Roy Cohn. The same “punch first and never apologize” Roy Cohn who became Trump’s mentor and lawyer in the 1970s and ‘80s.