December 27, 2017--Lock Them Up

I know in advance that I'm going to get into trouble for this one. Therefore let me approach it carefully--

Unless you were checked into a hotel yesterday you probably didn't see USA Today. Therefore you would have missed the lead story, "Justice Probe Looms As Possible Landmine for Mueller."

The probe is not the Mueller investigation but one underway concurrently, largely out of the headlines, being conducted by the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, to investigate the government's contentious handling of the Hillary Clinton email inquiry. 

Theoretically these two investigations could proceed on separate tracks. But daily they are being conflated. In part because Donald Trump, his lawyers, Trump flacks in Congress, and especially Fox News are using what the inspector general is turning up (the FBI investigation of Clinton's emails, it must be admitted, was botched) to beat up on the independence of the Mueller probe.

Most damaging to the credibility of the investigation of Trump and his inner circle is the case of two members of Mueller's staff--FBI senior counter-intelligence agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page, who worked for both investigations and, here's the looming problem, Strzok and Page are a couple and exchanged personal emails on government servers that disparaged President Trump, thus calling into question aspects of Mueller's emerging findings.

Fox folks like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and the preposterous hosts of Fox & Friends (Trump's favorite morning TV program) are all over this as have been the bloviating rightwing radio talkshow hosts. Some have been calling for Mueller to be taken out in handcuffs. "Lock him up."

In truth, this is troubling to the Mueller investigation as it calls its fair-mindedness into question. Even though Mueller himself is a Republican that does not inure him from semi-legitimate charges that (some of) the work of his team is tainted.

So, here's my thought--

Rather than resisting the investigation of Hillary Clinton and, more broadly the Clintons, Democrats and liberals should support it. 

There is enough credible concern about her tenure as secretary of state and of the Clinton Foundation that any independent-minded person could responsibly call for all of that to be looked into.

It also would be politically smart to want this investigation to proceed. It is hypocritical to call for a close examination of Trump and his people while calling the Clinton probe political persecution.

We need to keep an eye on the big picture--the investigation of Trump and ultimately holding him and his enablers responsible for a host of offenses. 

Just as Al Franken needed to be pressed to resign in order to, with a straight face, demand that Roy Moore in Alabama be held accountable for his offenses--even though they were not morally equivalent--Trump and Hillary Clinton should be held to the same standard.

December 7, 2017--Al Franken

As I write this a number of events are unfolding that are closely connected--

Additional women have stepped forward to accuse Senator Al Franken of sexual improprieties.

Support among his Democratic Senate colleagues--mainly women including Kirsten Gillibrand, Patty Murray, and Claire McCaskill--is collapsing. A number of male Senators have joined them in calling for Franken to step aside.

Gillibrand said, "It would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn't acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve."

Senator Bob Casey said, "I agree with my colleagues who have stepped forward today and called on Senator Franken to resign. We can't just believe women when it's convenient."

Meanwhile, in Alabama, it is looking as if Roy Moore will be elected and Republicans in the Senate will "seat" a likely pedophile in their caucus.

While the Republicans are backed into a corner--most would like Moore to up and disappear--for the Democrats there is a political opportunity.

No matter how good a senator Franken has been (I think his work and influence are overrated), he has become a political liability to Democrats. 

It will be difficult to point a finger at the GOP, claiming they are the party of sexual predators Donald Trump and Roy Moore (I can already see the 2018 political ads) while going through months of investigations and technical procedures to determine if Franken is fit to be a U.S. senator.

I am not saying that what Franken has admitted to doing is morally or even legally equivalent to Moore's transgressions, but they both should go. 

From my partisan liberal perspective, I would be happy to have Moore in the Senate and ranting on CSPAN while Franken moves on. I am therefore proud of the Democrats who are finally acting as if they want to stop whining and win.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand

November 22, 2017--Notes From the Swamp

As part of his campaign in Alabama, Roy Moore has been enlisting the assistance of a large group of Evangelical preachers.

This week, a number of them reached rock bottom in their desperate attempt to deflect attention from Moore to those who accused him of sexual abuse.

One in effect said, "Who can blame him. Some of these 14-year-old girls look like they're 20."

Another said that if Jesus Christ himself came "down off his cross" and confronted Moore about his behavior, Moore should say, "I need to talk with my president to see what he would advise me to do."

I think we know what Trump would advise.

My favorite--one minister said that his accusers have committed crimes and should be prosecuted. If they claim that he molested them, they should not have waited decades to report him to the police. They had a legal responsibility to seek his indictment. Not to do so is to obstruct justice. A felony.

This is my favorite because of its desperate logic--if it is valid to say the girls and women were covering up crimes that means that Moore would be admitting he committed the crimes they are covering up.

This is so hypocritically and perversely clever that it suggests Steve Bannon is behind these counterattacks.

*    *    *

Rona last night raised a complicated question--

We were talking about the governor of Alabama who, among others, said she believes the the accusers but will still vote for Moore because anything is better than electing a Democrat.

Rona said, "If you're a Christian conservative and believe that abortion is killing; and that if Moore's opponent, Doug Jones, believes in a woman's right to choose (he does), you're faced with the dilemma of voting for either a pedophile or a baby killer. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who is passionate about this. What do you say? What do you do?"

I'm still thinking about this. There's a part of me that wants to be fair minded, then there is another part of me that . . .

*    *    *

Then, I wondered, when attempting to compare Moore with Al Franken, feeling that there is no moral equivalency, there may be a great and sad irony that Moore, who I think will be elected, will be ushered into the Senate while Franken is being ushered out. How out of joint does that feel?

*    *    *

Further, about the sexual component of this, there is yet another social divide between people of faith and those of us who are more secularly oriented.

Whatever the truth about Franken's and Moore's behavior, clearly Franken was having some sophomoric though inexcusable "fun" as the photo of him fondling Leeann Tweeden reveals, while Moore was involved in acts of traditional, regional Gothic perversity. Yet another example of the great cultural dissonance that continues to plague our country.

*    *    *

Finally, I was thinking about the swamp that Trump and Bannon famously say they want to drain. Putting aside for the moment what that all means--since by my definition of swamp creatures they both qualify--one thing is clear: we're not talking about a swamp. We're talking more about a cesspool that in fact needs to be drained. 

To compare what is going in within our various governments--federal as well as local--swamp is an inappropriate metaphor. 

Swamps are a part of the natural order and as forested wetlands serve important life-generating purposes. They are places of great fecundity and contribute vitality to biodiversity and the larger ecosystem.

Cesspools on the other hand are, well, cesspools. And we have an overflowing one in Washington and another in Alabama. They and the many others are long overdo for draining. 

Swamp