* He’s an author, an academic and a resident scholar at the (conservative) American Enterprise Institute. In an era of over-the-top rhetoric and in-your-face attitudes, Norman Ornstein is a well-informed, evenly-modulated, respected centrist who knows enough not to need alternate facts. He’s nobody’s partisan puppet. Foreign Policy magazine named him to its list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.
So when he says something that sounds like a line out of “The Manchurian Candidate” or “It Can’t Happen Here,” discerning readers take note. Ornstein is now advocating for Democrats to go obstructionist in their Congressional response to controversial Trump Administration moves not seen as in this country’s best interest–both at home and overseas.
“We don’t have a conventional president,” explains Ornstein. “We’re seeing behavior that could lead us right down the path to martial law or authoritarian rule.”
* As befits a belittling, hair-trigger Tweeter, President Donald Trump called federal Judge James Robart, the one who imposed that temporary restraining order on the targeted-immigrant ban, a “so-called judge.” How classless. Meryl Streep, Sen. John McCain, Chief Justice John Roberts and the New York Times, among others, can identify with the insult-Tweet syndrome. But if anyone should be expected to traffic in such sophomoric put-downs, it should be a so-called president.
* Media relations, as we’ve all been witnessing, have been a cluster Trump so far. But it’s not entirely fair to roll out those John F. Kennedy comparisons, where the lionized JFK could be disarmingly witty in response to unfriendly fire from the press corps.
True enough, Kennedy was articulate, quick and charismatic. And to his credit, he always acknowledged the primacy of the press in its free-society role. But let’s not forget: The rules–as well as the “media”–were different then. In pre-Watergate, pre-Gary Hart-Donna Rice America, there were untouchable areas of presidential scrutiny. Had the media been asking about the girlfriend, Judy Exner, that Kennedy shared with Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, Kennedy’s relationship with the media would have not been the same–inherent wit and charisma notwithstanding.
Comparing the disparate media eras is like comparing the benignly humorous JFK impressionist Vaughn Meader with the biting, spot-on Trump parody by Alec Baldwin.
* Speaking of, anyone else find watching SNL a bittersweet experience these days? There’s certainly a plethora of material–courtesy of Trump, Pence, Bannon, Spicer, Conway & Co.–and the skits are generally funny, especially Baldwin’s channeling of Trump. But at a certain point, we’re again reminded that beneath the satire is the real world of worrisome, embarrassing leadership. Going for the LOL jocular–without the geopolitical, national-security jugular–would be more fun.
* President Trump was at MacDill AFB on Monday to receive briefings from Central Command and Special Operations Command. He was notably accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford. No less notably, he wasn’t accompanied by alt-right wingman Steve Bannon, who now has a full seat on the National Security Council’s “principals committee,” its primary policy-making mechanism. Bannon, unconscionably, has the seat vacated by Gen. Dunford, who was downgraded. It could have been worse, but it still had to be an awkward day for Dunford.
* For those who seemed indifferent to–or enamored of–the concept of a billionaire populist, two words: Dodd-Frank.
* Should the Great Mexican Border Wall be built–a formidable, concrete one, not something overly reliant on fencing, drones, cameras and sensors–there could be some bigly irony involved. “If this wall gets built in Texas, there is a high likelihood that a significant bit of the work force will be undocumented,” notes Jose P. Garza, executive director of the Workers Defense Project, which supports low-income workers.
* I recently re-read an op-ed piece penned by USF St. Petersburg history professor Raymond Arsenault a couple of days before the election. He was reflecting on Orson Welles’ 1941 classic “Citizen Kane.” He compared the hubris and megalomania of Charles Foster Kane–a thinly fictionalized send-up of William Hearst–to Donald Trump.
The parallels, Arsenault reminded, are eerie. The president didn’t fare well. “Kane,” he noted, “is arrogant without being ignorant.”
Is there hope? Maybe, speculated Arsenault, if Trump has his own “Rosebud,” available for retrieval before it’s too late.
I ran into Arsenault at a Super Bowl party. He’s no longer speculating.