JustOneMinute

Mitt Is Back

Mitt Romney blasts Trump in a WaPo guest piece, gets blasted back.

I question this from the Mitt piece:

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation.

Shapes, or reflects?

Mitt Is Back

Mitt Romney blasts Trump in a WaPo guest piece, gets blasted back.

I question this from the Mitt piece:

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation.

Shapes, or reflects?

Happy New Year All!

Celebrate with conviction!

I Was Not Ready For This Football

Clemson crushes Notre Dame, Alabama has nearly completed trouncing Oklahoma.

Stuck In Prague

Still on the story that Cohen was in Prague in the summer of 2016: Lots of alternatives here, including spoofing and missing cell phones.

BONUS PARANOIA: Suppose Russian Intelligence decided to exploit Hillary's paranoia and opportunism by spoofing a meeting with Cohen, hoping to spark a Obama-approved investigation of his political opposition with resulting finger-pointing, division, and de-legitimization. Mission Accomplished!

Prague Summer Yet Again

Trump fixer Michael Cohen's cell phone was pinging cell towers in Prague in the summer of 2016? Lock 'em up!

This is interesting:

McClatchy reported in April 2018 that Mueller had obtained evidence Cohen traveled to Prague from Germany in late August or early September of 2016, but it could not be learned how that information was gleaned.

We can flashback to that report and this Jake Tapper follow-up:

CNN’s Jake Tapper reported Wednesday morning that intelligence officials looked into allegations from an explosive unsubstantiated memo that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague in late August to meet with Russian officials, and found that it was a different Michael Cohen who visited the city.

Cohen strongly denied the charges Tuesday, saying that he had never been to Prague. The Washingtonian reported that two sources at the University of Southern California confirmed that Cohen was in Los Angeles at the time he was supposed to have been in Europe.

Tapper seemingly confirmed Cohen’s story. “People tried to run that down and concluded it was a different Michael Cohen. It was a Michael Cohen with a passport from another country, same birth year, different birth date,” he said.

Eventually Cohen showed his passport to Buzzfeed with no relevant entries to Europe, prompting me to wonder whether he has two passports (not unheard of!).

And here we go again.

Meanwhile, Back In Iraq...

Trump travels to Iraq as a Christmas surprise. Media coverage is not surprising.

The Grinch Who Tweeted Away Christmas

The stock market reeled after Steve Mnuchin, who ought to know better, reassured a bunch of people who weren't panicking that there was no need to panic.

Donald Trump then delivered what is currently my Favorite Tweet EVER!

 The Fed can't putt!

Doesn't matter. Today, we fight! (S&P Futures show a modest bounce, so here's hoping.)

And A Merry Christmas To All

There is probably something happening but I am afraid to look.

Although I still remember my surprise when I discovered on around Decmber 28th that Bush 41 had pardoned Weinberger and some other Iran-Contra guys on Christmas Eve. These personal news blackouts can be SO exciting!

And yeah, how did we live before Twitter, Matt Drudge and 24/7 Screaming Cable?

 

Christmas Eve Open Thread

Happy Holidays everyone! Do remember the old advice - friends don't let friends drink and shop. Not alone, anyway.

Sunday Morning

A Man Alone - per the Times, Trump is being Trump by himself:

At the midpoint of his term, Mr. Trump has grown more sure of his own judgment and more cut off from anyone else’s than at any point since taking office. He spends ever more time in front of a television, often retreating to his residence out of concern that he is being watched too closely. As he sheds advisers at a head-spinning rate, he reaches out to old associates, complaining that few of the people around him were there at the beginning.

 

Saturday Afternoon

Let's get that open thread going!

Government Down, SecDef Mattis Out

Have yourself a merry little mayhem.

All He Was Saying, Was "Give Peace A Chance"

Channeling his inner Obama, Trump announces a US troop withdrawal from Syria in exchange for... beats me.

Maybe he just thought it would be fun to watch the NY Times editors go marching to war the week before Christmas.

Get Shopping!

The traditional "Shouldn't you be out shopping frantically?" open thread.

MEANWHILE... Flynn and Sullivan at loggerheads during what was expected to be a routine sentencing hearing.

Build The Wall!

Trump backing away from a mini-shutdown over the wall.

Big If True

This is a partisan stem-winder but still - the author seems able to document his point that Mueller may have railroaded Gen. Flynn by concealing frelevant and potentially exculpatory evidence.

Does Mueller's behavior sound like the sort of thing that happens all the time but shouldn't? Or has he been way out of bounds here?

Lessons From Hillary

A third grader loses a class election to a fourth grader. Hillary sees sexism, not a triumph of experience over hope.

We'll Always Have Paris

Diligent and creative posturing by bureaucrats whose careers are tied to climate change negotiations deliver more "progress" on climate change. Whew!

DO LET ME ADD: Good athleticism by Michal Kurtyka. the Polish deputy minister who jump-started these talks. OK, jump-ended them. Whatev.

Saturday Afternoon

Away we go.

THE MIGHT HAVE FALLEN: The mighty have fallen, or at least been brought to their knees - the NFL is scuffling to book a half-time act for the Super Bowl.

Traditional Market Meltdown Open Thread

Once again we have faced fear and fled.

I said many months back that (assuming Mueller comes up empty on Russian collusion, as seems likely) the Fed was the last institution standing between Trump and a glide path to re-election based on a strong economy.

Buckle up! That glide path looks a lot less assured right now. Plan B - a quick mini-recession or growth pause starting, like, yesterday and ending quickly - is problematic because the perception of recovery generally lags the reality, as Bush 41 found out in 1992. Of course, back then the media was happy to play along with Bill Clinton, who claimed the economy was in the worst shape since the Depression. And they will play along with the Democrats this time around, for obvious and timeless reasons.

Hey, Dude, Where's My Collusion?

Really?

Tabloid Publisher’s Deal in Hush-Money Inquiry Adds to Trump’s Danger

Yeah, yeah, and Al Capone was busted for tax evasion. More to the point, Richard Nixon was busted for (among other things) campaign finance irregularities. But for heaven's sake - the Watergate investigation started with irrefutable evidence of a break-in at DNC headquarters, which we all understand to be a crime. Not to mention that Nixon wondering whether the CIA could head off the FBI investigation looked a lot like obstruction and an abuse of Presidential power.

But Trump and Cohen? For better or worse, paying off former Playmates and playmates is not a crime. As to whether the actual mechanism violated campaign finance rules, well, first of all, that is why Trump hired lawyers. Lacking evidence that Cohen advised Trump this was illegal and Trump ordered him to go full speed ahead anyway, where is the criminal intent? And a perceived lack of criminal intent is why Hillary is not serving time for her server shenanigans.

This is a crime so subtle that charging it looks like yet another interminable NFL booth review of a sideline catch, where replay officials host a seance to determine the location of various body parts relative to ground and sideline and then enlist diviners to judge whether the receiver was juggling the ball, had firm possession, engaged in a football move, or whatever.

Even top Democrats admit that this campaign finance thing is iffy:

If the campaign finance case as laid out by prosecutors is true, [incoming House Judiciary Chair] Mr. Nadler said, Mr. Trump would be likely to meet the criteria for an impeachable offense, and he said he would instruct his committee to investigate when he takes over in January.

But he added that did not necessarily mean that the committee should vote to impeach Mr. Trump. “Is it serious enough to justify impeachment?” he asked. “That is another question.”

Democrats can use it as a tack-on to their central charge of "Orange Hair Bad".

Michael Cohen

Three years for Cohen. Is there a pardon in his future?

Is Anyone On The Fence About This?

Trump wants $5 billion for a border wall and a symbolic win. Pelosi and Schumer will give him a fence, or a partial government shutdown. Resist!

I love Schumer's soundbite: "The public expects us to be even smaller and less reasonable than Trump and we won't disappoint them."

I may have misheard that. Probably not.

Theresa May, Or She May Not

Brit PM Theresa May bails out on a Parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal. What next? Who knows!

DEAD POOL UPDATE: it seems like only a week ago we were contemplating the G-20 meeting in Paris, but really it was a week and a half. I can't handicap all twenty of these world leaders, but among Merkel, Macron, May and Trump, Merkel was already headed out the door (as of 2021) at the meeting. But she clings to power today, as do the other three leaders in the Dead Pool.

So who will be the first among this group (or the larger G-20) to be shown the door? Theresa May virtually any day? Likely! Macron next spring or sooner? Not so fast - as President of France (NOT Prime Minister) he was elected to serve a five year term in 2017. The Assembly would normally serve until then as well. So barring a complete collapse of the governing structure, Macron should be able to stay until 2022, even if events force him to replace his current PM leading a new coalition.

Trump may be impeached by House Democrats for having a bad comb-over but nothing revealed so far suggests there will be 67 votes in the Senate for removal. OTOH, unless re-elected Jan 20, 2021 is his end date.

So who lasts the longest? It seems weird that Macron, who may be the least popular of the four and with a country beset by riots, is most likely to be in office in 2022. PredictIt bettors say May is the next European leader to go (69% probability) followed by Macron (20%).

OK, my calls: May is the next to go, Trump will outlast the other three.

Lock 'Em Up Or Bust

Andrew McCarthy thinks the prosecutors of the SDNY are coming for Donald Trump.

The major takeaway from the 40-page sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors Friday for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is this: The president is very likely to be indicted on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws.

It has been obvious for some time that President Trump is the principal subject of the investigation still being conducted by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

McCarthy explains that although Trump could have contributed the amounts in question fro his own account there would still be disclosure rules that were not followed.

This will be a major talking point for Trump supporters:

Moreover, campaign finance infractions are often settled by payment of an administrative fine, not turned into felony prosecutions. To be sure, federal prosecutors in New York City have charged them as felonies before – most notably in 2014 against Dinesh D’Souza, whom Trump later pardoned.

In marked contrast, though, when this was discovered that Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was guilty of violations involving nearly $2 million – an amount that dwarfs the $280,000 in Cohen’s case – the Obama Justice Department decided not to prosecute. Instead, the matter was quietly disposed of by a $375,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission.

My guess as to the Democratic spin is that the Obama-era violations were an administrative breakdown, not willful misreporting directed by The One. it'll be the old "the buck stops down there somewhere" defense.

As a bit of an aside, also in the news is the impact on our trade talks with China of the arrest of a prominent member of the Chinese ruling elite. I have no doubt that Chinese leaders believe their own system engages in politically motivated prosecutions, and they may suspect the US system does as well. Plenty of Americans also believe that, which is a bit awkward.

Even more of an aside is this:

“Her arrest will have phenomenal repercussions in China,” said Tao Jingzhou, a corporate lawyer in Beijing.

“The wealthy have already been worried for a long time about their safety and their wealth in America,” he added. “If the U.S. is going to pursue corruption and extraterritorial laws, that will increase.”

Wait, what? Wealthy Chinese have been worried "for a long time" about their status in the US?!? Uhh, they haven't been buying real estate in New York and San Francisco to avoid US prosecutors. That is "flight capital", and it is wealth that has been moved out of China against the day when a backlash against corruption sweeps aside the current ruling kleptocracy. A day that may never come, of course.

Well. Swerving back to the original distraction, here are more details about the charges against Ms. Meng. The US has been complaining about Huawei evading Iran sanctions for years. Ms. Meng had avoided the US, presumably fearing detainment:

Ms. Meng had traveled to the United States regularly in 2014, 2015, 2016, Mr. Gibb-Carsley said. Her last trip was in February and March 2017. In April 2017, Huawei found out about the United States investigation into the company when its subsidiaries were served with a grand jury subpoena, he said.

Ms. Meng and other executives then stopped visiting the United States, even though she has a 16-year-old son — one of three sons from a previous marriage — at a school in Boston, Mr. Gibb-Carsley said. Ms. Meng, who remarried, also has a daughter, according to an affidavit.

Mr. Martin pushed back on the idea that Ms. Meng had avoided the United States because she feared prosecution. After AT&T canceled a deal to distribute Huawei smartphones in the United States in January and the federal government banned the use of Huawei products in government contracts, Huawei essentially abandoned the market, Mr. Martin said.

“An entity would have to be tone deaf to not understand that the United States had become a hostile place for Huawei to do business,” he said.

 

Lessons In Ethics

Hands up if you're an office pool savant who collected on a bet that media darling Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez would be getting ethics lessons from Don Trump Jr.

Are We Making The Jobs Report Great Again?

We'll find out with the November jobs report in 10 minutes. Not that Wall Street has lacked for excitement this week.

Climate Change Solutions: Easiest Prediction Ever

Take these three stories together and the next few decades of climate change science and policy become obvious.

A. The big cities most threatened by rising sea levels are in Asia, with emphasis on China and India. The US will be spending $6 billioin a year defending New Orleans, New York and Miami. China will be spending $18 billion defending Guangzhou, Tianjin and Shenzhen. India will be spending $10 billion on Mumbai and Kolkata.

B. The fastest growth in carbon emissions in 2018 is coming from India (+6%) and China +(+5%). The US is up 2% and the EU is probably down. The biggest emitters are China (27% of global emissions), the US (15%), the EU (10%) and India (7%). Unsympathetic math says that IF China and India each grow by 5% per year for five more years their new emissions will roughly equal all of the current EU emissions. If the EU huffs and puffs and goes to zero emissions in the next five years (Bon chance, Macron!)  then net global emissions will still be higher. Not encouraging!

C. Geoengineering is likely to take to the skies over the US next year, despite grave concerns from Greens worried that this will be a distraction from the real fight to push us all back into caves.

The blindingly obvious upshot - China is the biggest emitter by far and has the most to lose from climate change. Also, as Tom Friedman has noted with approval, pesky Greens don't hold much sway there. Expect China, probably with the direct or tacit cooperation of India, to embark on some major geoengineering projects whether the rest of the world is on board or not. If a Pacific volcano can spread dust around the world, surely a motivated Chinese effort can do the same.

The ensuing diplo-scuffles will be fraught. Does the rest of the world impose trade sanctions on China? Does China hold the world hostage, arguing that developed nations owe the third world billions in compensation for our decades of polluting with carbon? And what, pray tell, happens of the apparent short-term consequences are benign to positive - does the rest of the world remain freaked out, or shrug and move on to the next problem?

I am confident that if Barbra Streisand is still alive, this Chinese venture will kill her. As to other consequences, well, I expect to live long enough to find out.

Mueller Skepticism In Vanity Fair

The Resistance braces for disappointment.

Out Like Flynn

Mueller recommends no jail time for Flynn, although he remains a felon.

I assume The Resistance is swooning over the news that Flynn provided substantial assistance and sat for nineteen interviews. That clanging they hear itsn't Salvation Army bells, its jail cells slamming shut! But for all we know, Flynn sat for a series of "I'd love to help and I'm telling you all I know, which s nothing" interviews. Which, BTW, can still be helpful to a old-school prosecutor trying to understand a case. Since Mueller is trying to invent a case (we think, and we might be wrong!) that may be less helpful.

We'll Always Have Paris

We'll always have Paris. But will we have the French in the Paris Accord on global warming? Macron suspends his green fuel tax.

Is Paris Burning?

Read their lips: "Pas de nouvelle taxes!".

Out of touch elites want to tackle global warming by raising taxes on a working class that is already tapped out. Protests ensue. Who could have seen that coming?

Georgia On My Mind (But Off My Playoff List)

Ok, wow - that Alabama-Georgia brawl convinced me that Georgia may well be one of the top four college teams in the country. It also convinced me that Oklahoma will be a more entertaining entrant in the College Football Playoffs. With last year's Championship game collapse and yesterday's SEC Championship loss, Georgia has had two bites of the apple - let Alabama beat someone else for a change. 

And no more Ohio State - they might be able to beat anyone but they can surely lose to anyone. Show me Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Oklahoma.

We'll find out soon enough. High Noon, roughly.

Bush 41 Joins Barbara

George H.W. Bush has passed on.

It may be odd but (as long-time readers will recall) my clearest memory of Bush 41 is his second Presidential debate with The Duke. I watched it with an ardent liberal, who basically chose to hide under a towel after fifteen minutes. If it had been a fight, the refs would have stopped it.

The debate was most famous for The Duke's response to a hypothetical question about his position on capital punishment vis-a-vis the prospective rape of his wife. The gist of his response - I would slather the killer with oatmeal and talk him to death. OK, I may be paraphrasing a bit unfairly. But only a bit!

As bad as that response was, it was matched or exceeded by a seeming softball in which Dukakis was asked to name some of his heroes alive today. His gist: All my heroes are dead. Inspiring! Bush 41 went second, and with time to mull it over realized that heroes normally have names, so he provided an admirable list.

Obviously there was a lot more to Bush's life. There is a quote I have not been able to run down was someone's reaction to his 1992 defeat, after successfully overseeing the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Empire. Clearly it would hardly have mattered what Bush got right if he had gotten that wrong but he lost to Bill Clinton anyway. As I recall it, the quote was along the lines of "You level mountains and lose office because someone has a problem with a molehill". Not empathetic, since in 1992 it was the economy, stupid, but whoever said it had a point.

On To Moscow!

Michael Cohen claims to have chased a Trump Tower-type deal in Moscow until just before the Republican primary in 2016, despite previous testimony that he (and more to the point, Trump) dropped the effort before the Iowa primaries.

Possible explanations:

(a) Cohen is lying. Problematic, since there are (or ought to be) emails and phone records that overlap with his new story (e.g., a phone chat with an aide to Putin's press secretary).

(b) Trump has been lying. Possible!

(c) Fog of deal-making. Folks who have worked on the Big Deals, whether it be a real estate project, a book/movie deal, an elaborate tax scheme, or something else know that deals generally have the potential for a zombie status, where they aren't alive but no one can quite kill them. Why? Because there are generally many constituents, most of whom did not achieve whatever there current status is by taking "no" for an answer. Knowing nothing about it, we can be sure that if Trump has been pursuing a property idea for Moscow there are financiers, property owners, builders, prospective tenants, government officials and various middlemen that can see a payday for themselves if a deal happens. In fact, a day later the Times reports that Felix Sater, a grifter in Trump's orbit, had pushed a Moscow deal for years and never stopped.

So. Knowing Trump's reputation and impulsive and subject to giving weight to the last person with whom he spoke, it is entirely plausible that at some strategy session in January 2016 Trump agreed to cut the Moscow push and focus on the Presidential run. That may or may not have made business and political sense but it was of no help to intrepid dealmaker Sater, who soldiered on. Cohen took his calls, played along a bit, and may or may not have kept Trump in the loop. If Cohen can produce evidence of email exchanges or notable meetings with Trump on this topic, that will be one thing; if his evidence that he briefed Trump is that Cohen remembers giving him an updated elevator pitch while in Trump Tower or mentioned it in one of their many phone calls, well good luck with that - maybe it didn't happen, maybe it did and Trump brushed it off and promptly forgot.

As to whether this is evidence of collusion with the Russian government during the election, well, not in itself. For those excited by the possibility that Trump lied, well, wait until they learn about the daily sunrise (and the monthly full moon!).

ERRATA: Back when he surfaced I mocked the absurd notion that Team Trump would outsource their Moscow outreach to George Papadopoulos, who had no history of Russian contacts and had not been in Trump's orbit long enough for his coffee to get cold. That was obvious then and confirmed now - Trump's top people knew how to reach people in Moscow even without the help of Mr. P.

Speed Chess

Interesting - the defending world champion was content to play for a draw in the conventional format and take his chances in the speed chess tie-breaker. And it worked easily.

We Are Not Alone!

FWIW, the battle between the ruling elites and the Great Unwashed is not just about Trump and US. The UK, France and Germany continue to have serious leadership problems opportunities.

The French protestors have the best line, as quoted by President Macron:

Ordinary people say the president’s speechifying about the fate of the planet overlooks the month-to-month struggle of their lives, and they are demanding he listen.

...

“What I want the French to understand — and especially those who are saying, more or less, ‘We’re hearing the President, the government, talk about the end of the world, but we, we are talking about the end of the month’ — I want them to understand, we’re going to deal with both,” Mr. Macron said in his speech to government officials in Paris.

It's the end of the month as we know it and I need wine.

Manafort Violated Plea Agreement?

Per a new filing from Team Mueller, Paul Manafort lied when he was supposed to be cooperating with the Federal investigation into anything that can be pinned on Trump.

Maybe Manafort really can't tell truth from lies, or maybe Mueller has an expansive definition of "lying". Either way, this has to be yet another red flag for anyone advising Trump about maybe negotiating a live interview with Mueller.

No Brownie Points For Kirsten Gillibrand

Progressives just can't let go of serial sexual harasser Al Franken, and Presidential aspirant Kirsten Gillibrand may pay the price.

Weirdly, Politico never mentions the blindingly obvious reason Franken was dumped - it was to establish some Dem credibility as they attacked Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama. Even Vox can face reality occasionally:

Booting Franken was good politics for Democrats

At the exact moment the Franken story broke, a Democrat in an Alabama Senate special election, Doug Jones, looked like he might win. The Republican candidate in the race, Roy Moore, was accused of sexually abusing, assaulting, or attempting to pick up teens when he was an adult. Moore was even banned from the local mall at one point. 

President Trump endorsed Moore, and Hill Republicans were reluctant to denounce him. It was the perfect moment for Democrats — particularly Gillibrand — to strike.

Franken, a beloved Democrat and popular media figure, was accused of behavior arguably less bad than Moore’s. (There’s not much worse than accusations of child molestation.) If Democrats booted Franken, it would draw a clear distinction between Democrats, who said it was bad that Moore preyed on teen girls, and Republicans, who wouldn’t denounce him.

At first glance, it looked like Democrats were taking a brave stance. They were turning on a popular figure in their own party and losing an effective media surrogate. But in reality, even if Franken stuck around, he’d never be the same. He’d been tainted by scandal and wouldn’t be a commanding liberal voice for the party on TV. If he resigned, he was sure to be replaced by a Democrat in Minnesota who’d vote exactly the same. The cost to the party would be minimal.

It worked. Franken left. Jones won.

For one faction, this was a big victory: Democrats picked up a Senate seat, got rid of a potentially damaging figure, and paid little for it. But for another, this was a case where politics trumped basic fairness. To them, Franken was a sacrificial lamb.

Mississippi Burning

Trump can run AND he can Hyde-Smith!

Old King Coal

Really too long for a Sunday but the NY Times Magazine takes us to coal country - in India. Lots of hand-wringing about the use of cheap, reliable coal as a power source in developing Asian countries; since it is the Times, there is no discussion of nuclear power as the baseload alternative.

I still want to see more done with thorium, oversold or not.

Open Season Saturday

Go, Maize and Blue!

Hit The Mall

People are off doing whatever they do while waiting for the Big Game tomorrow. Just to get in the mood, here is ESPN recapping "Bo Over The Top". As an aside, I had forgotten that Herschel Walker was in the SEC at the same time. Whoo, tough time to be an SEC linebacker.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

How about that turkey!?!

HEALTH WARNING: Too much turkey can cause brain damage. Hillary advising Europe to retrain immigration to placate the populists? Just what is her message to Democrats in the United States?

And Hillary's psychoanalysis of right-wingers sounds like a classic case of projection, since she is clearly describing contemporary college campuses:

Clinton said rightwing populists in the west met “a psychological as much as political yearning to be told what to do, and where to go, and how to live and have their press basically stifled and so be given one version of reality.

“The whole American system was designed so that you would eliminate the threat from a strong, authoritarian king or other leader and maybe people are just tired of it. They don’t want that much responsibility and freedom. They want to be told what to do and where to go and how to live … and only given one version of reality.

“I don’t know why at this moment that is so attractive to people, but it’s a serious threat to our freedom and our democratic institutions, and it goes very deep and very far and we’ve got to do a better job of shining a light on it and trying to combat it.”

SO triggering! But one more thing for which to be thankful - with an anti-immigrant message like this, she won't be running.

They Forgot To Repeal The Law Of Unintended Consequences

A bipartisan debacle from the late Bush era:

Palm Oil Was Supposed to Help Save the Planet. Instead It Unleashed a Catastrophe.

A decade ago, the U.S. mandated the use of vegetable oil in biofuels, leading to industrial-scale deforestation — and a huge spike in carbon emissions.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and we will drive down it in bio-diesel cars.

More Resistance Porn

So we are going to see Trump impeached for suggesting something crazy and stupid and then accepting the advice that is was crazy and stupid? Sure, why not!

A Bonus Howler is here:

According to The New York Times, Trump was rebuffed by White House counsel Don McGahn, who warned it “could prompt accusations of abuse of power.” McGahn has since departed the White House and the current acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, wrote in a 2016 op-ed that he would indict Clinton.

Toobin told Wolf Blitzer tonight, “This is what happens in authoritarian countries. The president orders––the leader orders the investigation and prosecution of his political enemies.”

Wait'll he hear about Carter Page.

Throw Another Straw On the Fire

We're grilling nothingburgers today - looks like Ivanka better not run for President.

If Money Talks...

If money talks, Beto runs, not walks. On to 2020!

For Democratic strategists eager to advance a younger nominee contrasting with President Donald Trump, O’Rourke’s appeal rests on his perceived ability to bridge a gulf within the party — between Democratic contenders who are older but come with pre-existing donor networks, and Democrats who are younger but have not yet developed a substantial fundraising base. O’Rourke, at 46, has both.

I've said many times that Republicans want to nominate Ike or Reagan. hence the preference for elder statesmen such as Bush 41, Bob Dole, McCain '08 (but not the 2000 insurgent!), Romney '12, etc.

Democrats, on the other hand, are desperate to nominate a young, energetic, telegenic John Kennedy. Or Robert. But definitely young, in part because older normally means Positions Taken and Factions Alienated - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama had the blank slate thing working for them. John Kerry was a bit of an exception but since he had been a stealth Senator he was virtually free of legacy barnacles. Hillary of course was the Establishment "We Owe You One" pick and we saw how that worked out (She won the popular vote!).

Beto should be perfect for the Dems in 2020. Go, go Beto!

Down And (Finally) Out in Florida

Politico recaps some of the Florida Follies. My favorite is the faulty ballot design that, like the infamous butterfly ballot of 2000, may have swung the election.