Category Archives: President
Special Counsel Robert Mueller Crime Search
The Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller special counsel this week. His mission is to investigate suspected collusion between Team Trump and Russia. And pretty much anything else that strikes his fancy once he gets going.
Mueller’s a career creature of the Washington Swamp. But, as swamp creatures go, he’s one of the most respected. He served as FBI Director for 12 years without scandal. It also doesn’t hurt that he earned a Bronze Star and Purple heart as a Marine rifle platoon leader in Vietnam.
Mueller Crime Search
Another Washington swamp creature, Rep. Maxine Waters, looks forward to the Mueller crime search. She anticipates a thorough and fair investigation. Ending with the impeachment of Donald Trump.
The only problem is, so far, there’s no evidence of a crime.
Bull in the Swamp
When President Trump rides high so does the stock market. The Dow Bull has surged 2,700 points since his election.
Trump and Bull Get Swamped
But as allegations from unnamed sources rise in the media, President Trump sinks in the swamp. Apparently, so does the stock market. The Dow lost 373 points on Wednesday. The experts say investors worry that if Trump goes down so will his agenda for tax cuts, less regulation, and more growth.
Most experts that is. Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, says the market could spike 1,000 points if Trump resigns.
Update: Well, as of noon Friday the Bull has clawed back over 200 points of Wednesday’s losses. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse to draw an alligator.
Unaccountable Washington Politics
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote a memo laying the groundwork for the firing of FBI Director Comey. He says Comey was unaccountable. Here’s a version of Rosenstein’s memo published in The Atlantic.
But Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe writes in the The Washington Post that Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey. He thinks Trump should be impeached.
Meanwhile, Senat minority leader Chuck Schumer is demanding a special prosecutor to investigate any possible Trump/Russian caper.
No Accounting for the Unaccountable
Gerald Seib calls this a “troubling undercurrent for Trump.” He quotes a WSJ/NBC poll saying, “The survey found a strong desire, cutting across political affiliations, for an independent commission or a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of Russia’s role in the 2016 election.”
Jim Comey Had A Very Bad Nixonian Russian Firing Day
Let’s recap:
Comey went public with Hillary’s email server crimes.
And Republicans loved it.
But he said she lacked intent and couldn’t be prosecuted.
And Democrats loved it.
But then he said someone sent classified documents to pervert Carlos Danger’s laptop.
And Republicans loved it.
But then he said, “Never mind.”
And Hillary blamed him for losing the election.
And Comey became mildly nauseous.
Then Trump fired him.
That somehow outraged Democrats. They called it the Tuesday Night Massacre. Like the Saturday Night Massacre of Watergate lore.
They said Trump is Nixonian. Nixon, through Henry Kissinger, had Detente with Russia. Democrats say Trump had collusion with Russia.
And then Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak showed up at the White House.
And then Henry Kissinger showed up at the White House…
Deep State Russian Dragnet
Daniel Henninger in the WSJ calls the Obama/Lynch decision to allow the NSA to spread raw intel to the other 16 agencies the Rosetta Stone for the Russia story:
As with Hillary’s server, there is a Rosetta Stone for the Russia story. It is the Barack Obama/Loretta Lynch decision in January to sign rules permitting the National Security Agency to disseminate “raw signals intelligence” to 16 other intelligence agencies without privacy protections for individuals.
Russian Dragnet
Two months later, it was reported by the New York Times that Obama administration officials had done this to dispense information across the intelligence bureaucracies “about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians.”
Of course, those “contacts” leaked into the water-collection barrels of the entire Washington press—either from officials inside 17 U.S. intelligence agencies or from Obama officials themselves, such as it-wasn’t-me Susan Rice.
The predictable tumult from the Obama-originated mass leaks then intimidated Congress into sending the House and Senate intelligence committees chasing after these “suggestions” of collusion.
Beyond Mike Flynn and Carter Page, why haven’t we seen more leaks pushing past the original stories? Why have the leakers gone silent, unless they leaked everything they had? Indeed why hasn’t there been a mega-dump into the press by now of all the original NSA “raw signals intelligence” à la the Pentagon Papers?
Instead, calls are now bubbling up from this swamp—what else can you call it?—to appoint a special prosecutor, presumably to get to the bottom of the Russian collusion swamp, though without subpoena powers in Moscow.
