Happy day after “Smoking Gun Day.”
When it’s all said and done — and it’s a dead certainty that after Ambassador Bill Taylor’s presentation yesterday that something will be done — one the greatest ironies of the Trump era will be how much the demise of his tabloid reign of blunder and vulgarity was the result of him being led around by the exact same kind of wildly implausible right-wing fantasy theories.
We’ll debate for years how much Trump actually believed this latest one, about how the nefarious Ukrainians and not the “very strong and powerful” Russians — were the real culprits in the election meddling of 2016. Not that it even matters if he even thought it was true. But the fact that Rudy Giuliani, working off the FoxNews/talk radio playbook, managed to convince Trump this was an angle with real marketing possibilities, says everything about Trump’s strategic acuity and his sense of the gullibility of his base.
Functionally illiterate in terms of understanding the Constitution and basic rules of presidential behavior, Trump has lived by the sewer-dipped sword of “sigh and gasp” inducing right-wing lunacies. From Obama’s birth certificate, to immigrant invasions, to Hillary’s e-mails and on and on … and on and on, his presidency, if we can even call it that, has been a ceaseless hopscotch back and forth from every bit of ludicrous nutjobbery belched up by conservative America’s most paranoid and cynical circus performers … a profitable shtick fueled by a shrewd assist from Vladimir Putin’s troll farms.
And now Trump is about to die, or at least be impeached, by that same tabloid-crazy sword.
If you’re Trump, the scariest words uttered by anyone in the moments after Taylor dropped his hand grenade on the “no quid pro quo” defense was Mitch McConnell saying, “I don’t recall any conversations with the president about that [Ukrainian] phone call.”
It’s always likely, of course, that Moscow Mitch was lying. He places no great value in public truth-telling. But by in effect saying, “The President is on his own on this one”, McConnell is signaling that the door is fully open to letting this impeachment thing go where it may.
Not that McConnell himself — up for reelection in Kentucky where at last glance he had the lowest approval of any incumbent Senator in the country — would ever vote for conviction. But if you’re someone way smarter than Trump, you’d be explaining to POTUS, when he isn’t getting political advice from “Fox & Friends”, that McConnell is signalling that he will not require his nervous Republican Senate colleagues to vote in lockstep for Trump’s acquittal.
I continue to believe that McConnell is actively considering a Mike Pence presidency. Due diligence requires as much from him. And that he will accept Pence — i.e. allow a Senate conviction of Trump — provided he’s confident the electoral blowback from Trump’s deranged Second Amendment/evangelical/racist base will be minimal, or at least less bad than with Trump on the ticket again in 2020.
That said, one of McConnell’s key tasks when — not if — Pelosi hands him the articles of impeachment, will be to protect his most vulnerable members. Maine’ Susan Collins (second only to McConnell in terms of miserable home-state popularity), Cory Gardner in Colorado, Thom Tillis in North Carolina, Martha McSally in Arizona — all up for reelection in 2020 — certainly understand the risk in putting their names to a vote acquitting a now demonstrably corrupt and incompetent Trump.
I have no idea how exactly Mitch will avoid a vote. But based on our long, sordid history with the man, you know he’s got his Federalist Society brain trust working on any permutation, truncation or contortion of the Senate trial process that gets him out of Trump and on to Pence with the least damage to his precious majority.
There are a few trusting souls who believe Chief Justice John Roberts will not put up with a historic dump of McConnell treachery. But me, I prefer to expect the worst.
Anyway, with Ambasador Taylor’s assiduously documented smoking gun, the game of impeachment is fully afoot. Which means it is time … again … to turn to the great Bette Davis …
“Fasten you seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.”
If you want people to believe you, you need to at least appear to believe whatever it is that you are selling. I think that it is entirely possible that Trump has convinced himself of the truthfulness of the things that he says. Which is to say that he is the gullible one, as much as if not more so that his followers.
Now I don’t for a minute think that Moscow Mitch believes this crap, but that just demonstrates why the Trumpkins love Trump, and not Mitch. Mitch isn’t a believer. Trump really is. Mitch is a pretender.
I think you are right–we are coming to ” the emperor has no clothes” moment of the Trump Presidency.
Here is a great book on this topic: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674707580
basically what Megan McArdle writes about here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-the-senate-might-actually-remove-trump-from-office/2019/10/22/c0d1c080-f50f-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html
We are almost at the tipping point…… (I wonder what it will take to get us there?)
After three-plus years of seeing “inflection points” and “turning points” I’m convinced that as far as Trmp-in-the-Oval Office goes we are now on the downhill slide. Having said that, my personal obsession is with Pelosi and Schiff’s long-game strategy to neuter Mitch McConnell and … and … roll Mike Pence around in Trump’s sewer.
Yep. What didn’t the president know, and when didn’t he know it? It seems certain that we’ll have to decide if the president is corrupt, stupid, or some combination of both. Sadly, I suspect Trump is that rare type of bulshitter who believes the nonsense coming out of his own mouth — so even a polygraph could be unhelpful.
Lie detectors require a sense of conscience, don’t they?
Brian, you’re the inveterate optimist. It’s a mistake to think that ANY fact or testimony will shake the maggot out of power. The base doesn’t budge, and the Republican politicians other than Romney don’t see any persuasive reason to defy the base. The part of fascism you aren’t taking into consideration is that once power is seized, it isn’t going to be relinquished. If the Democrats had brains and spines, they’d pick up the maggot’s dog-whistle message about civil war and not let go of it. There’s an issue to exploit . . . and to just let it sit there until it germinates on Trump’s timetable would be even more of a blunder than Bill Clinton’s failure to have the FCC restore the Fairness Doctrine when he had a chance. By the way, note the NYT story about the big advantage Trump’s campaign is building on Facebook and other Internet arenas. NONE of the lies, frauds, crimes, and villainy which would have sunk any other politician have left a mark on the maggot. Our republic is such a hollowed-out carcass that we’ve reached a point analogous to ancient Rome, where the Senate truckles and how-tows, and the ruler is looked on as a Deity, not to be constrained by laws or mores.
Well, I don’t know about “inveterate”, but I’m still optimistic that a lot of smart, influential people are so disgusted by Trump and his crowd — and see a place for themselves as historic heroes — that they’ll do what needs to be done to remove him from office, if not destroy him. How exactly Trump (and Barre and Pompeo) leave is anyone’s guess. I do not forsee Trump smiling and jumping on a chopper back to Manhattan.
“truckles and kow-tows” is what I had typed in previous post, but the computer didn’t agree to spell it as I typed it and I didn’t notice until it was posted. I ought to know by now.
Great Bette quote. And here’s another, which Mitch could reply to Trump: “I’d like to kiss you, but I just washed my hair.” Also, you’re very good at this political thing, Mr. Lambert.
Thank you, sir. Keep it coming from your end. I believe you’re at the end of your probationary period. It’s ime to hit up Czar Joe for a fat raise.