Category: National

The terms “as of this writing” and “as we go to press” were never more applicable than they are now with the soap opera from hell that is the off-White House. Within a tweet cycle there can be multiple firings, hirings, promotions and career implosions. Corey, Sean, Reince, Mooch, thanks for playing. Sally Yates, James Comey, almost nice knowing you. Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, stuff happens. Steve and Kellyanne, still need dead enders and media harlots. Jared and Ivanka, check in with Gen. Kelly. Rudy and Chris, stay in touch. Jeff Sessions, who the hell knows.

All this, while the person in charge remains unprepared, unqualified and unhinged. Impeachment and 25th Amendment scenarios are openly discussed.

That said, here goes.

Retired four-star Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, the former Homeland Security secretary, means business. Discipline will be the theme. Seemingly, he will be appropriately empowered, and there will be an obvious chain of command with no links above him, just the chief narcissist.

A few takeaways before the unpresidential dust storm resumes.

First, this embarrassing excuse for an administration badly needs discipline. Only problem: Will Trump be amenable to it? He doesn’t do discipline. He has no impulse control. He runs the show, he tweets at all hours, he doesn’t read briefing books. He says what he wants, whether it’s the Boy Scouts or “Access Hollywood.” He’s still an unconscionably unpredictable brand.

Second, why, quite frankly, would somebody like Gen. Kelly want to work for somebody like Donald Trump? Hopefully, he’s the ultimate patriot. We know the caliber of people Trump tends to attract.

Third, if Gen. Kelly were doing such an outstanding job as Homeland Security secretary, why not leave him there helping insure the safety of the American people rather than being Trump’s Oval Office gatekeeper?

* Interesting debut as communications director for Anthony Scaramucci. He made one thing perfectly clear about his take on the president who he will serve. He’s got a crush on Trump. “I love the president,” cooed Scaramucci. “I’m very, very loyal to the president. And I love the mission the president has.”

What’s not to love? Unless, of course, it’s verbal fawning and blatant sycophancy. Or the perceived need for “Mooch” to underscore how much he regrets what he said about Trump in 2015, which is that Trump was just “another hack politician.” Ouch. But that was back when Scaramucci was supporting Scott Walker and then Jeb Bush. So, if anyone would understand allegiance rhetoric, it would be Trump, a former Democrat and ex-friend and fan of Hillary Clinton.

* Trump brought in the rich, slick, camera-savvy, Fox-friendly Scaramucci–think Ben Stiller in “Zoolander”–to take over the administration’s top “messaging” job. That’s just a more professional PR term for “branding.” That’s what Trump is looking for, because it’s what he has always looked for. Now he’s frustrated that his hotels and his kid’s clothes line fare better than his presidential reputation, one that has been shredded everywhere except with a certain deplorable element.

* Speaking of a base that ironically has not and will not fare better under this billionaire “populist” opportunist. That’s because he still acts and talks like the loudest, last-call drunk, and they hear what they want to hear. They seemingly can’t be reasoned with. Sort of like talking to the cult followers of Jim Jones.

* Former White House spokesperson Sean Spicer pre-empted a firing by quitting. He also took the high road to keep his post-Trump Administration career open to all options. The last one to take this route was Corey Lewandowski, who was replaced as Trump campaign chair by Paul Manafort. Lewandowski picked up a quick gig with CNN before moving on to his own consultancy career within the Beltway. Spicer, however, is not that calculated .

We’ll know more after he hosts “Saturday Night Live” in the fall.

* It’s never a good sign for a presidential administration when the word “indictment” is part of the public, political parlance. As in, can a sitting president be indicted? Even worse: When the likely answer is yes.

We know that special counsel Leon Jaworski was informed in a 1974 staff memo that he could indict Richard Nixon, a sitting president. It was well noted in a court brief.

Ditto for independent counsel Kenneth Starr in 1998. Thanks to a recent Freedom of Information Act release, we now know that a detailed, office memo reached the same conclusion regarding Bill Clinton. “It is proper, constitutional and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” it reads. “In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law.”

As it turned out, however, the issue became moot as both Starr and Jaworski preferred to let  Congressional impeachment proceedings play out.

As for an indictment option for special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Donald Trump’s Russian dealings and possible obstruction of justice, it may become moot as well. Letting it be known, and not too subtly, that he’s holding an indictment Trump card could be more than enough leverage.

* Given his very public rebukes and skewering by Trump, how does Attorney General Jeff Sessions retain any sense of pride? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question. Sessions already had forfeited any such claims by being the first senator to endorse Trump, wearing his “Make America Great Again” cap at Trump rallies and accepting the AG appointment in the first place. Call it karma.

* It hasn’t been all chaos, counterproductivity and intrigue-filled news as usual. Trump  announced that he will nominate Jon Huntsman to be U.S. ambassador to Russia. It makes sense in that Huntsman, former ambassador to China under President Barack Obama, has international experience and a reputation for integrity. And as a former governor (Utah) and a 2012 Republican candidate for president, he’s no political novice. The part that makes less sense, is that someone of his caliber would sign on in any capacity to this administration. The best-case take: He’s taking one for Team America in a global hot spot that can use his savvy.

* What Trump doesn’t get is that the presidential bully pulpit is much more than a “bully” forum. Bluster and swagger won’t get him far enough with career, congressional pols who know he’s really not one of them. So, he’d better master the details–of legislation as well as legislators’ home-state status. When he inevitably doesn’t do his homework, it’s a de facto insult to those he wants to impress and persuade.

News that former President Jimmy Carter was briefly hospitalized after becoming dehydrated at a Habitat for Humanity project in western Canada didn’t surprise me. Just worried me, because the combination of “hospital” and “92-years-old” is always concerning. It didn’t surprise me because I’ve been at a HFH project with President Carter and know what he can be like on site: all business. Whatever the weather, whatever the unfinished task at hand. He’s an accomplished carpenter with a work ethic sometimes at odds with his own well being.

I can still recall seeing him–in the late ’90s when he was in his early 70s–at a Houston “Jimmy Carter Work Project” on a roof hammering away on some plywood, seemingly oblivious to the Habitat folks below trying to coax him down. It was sweltering. An August-in-Texas hot house.

“Mr. President, you’ve been up there a long time, would you like to take a break?” came the beseeching inquiry from those below. “We’ve got more Gatorade over in the shade.”

“Not now. I’m still busy.” It wasn’t dismissive, just direct.

I was there as an in-house writer and a media go-between. The combination of a former president, the press and Secret Service sorts required it. The agendas didn’t exactly overlap seamlessly.

That’s mainly because Carter could be a handful. Even when properly hydrated.

For him, this was serious work, not opportunistic PR optics for politicians who know that everybody loves HFH because everybody loves sweat equity and volunteerism.

He had to be reminded respectfully and pragmatically why it was necessary to set aside some time to stop doing the important work he was doing to sit and talk to some print and TV strangers. The resultant publicity, as only a former president can deliver it, was in Habitat’s best interest. It helped with volunteers, in-kind services and donated construction materials. It was a win-win-win scenario.

A couple of other vintage-Carter moments still resonate from the experience.

One was the president shuffling along in a middle-school cafeteria line, pushing a plastic tray and agreeing to extra gravy on his mashed potatoes and an extra lemon in his iced tea. There was no presidential protocol; he didn’t jump the line. He didn’t look like he was going native for the modest-means occasion. He looked like he was in his overalled element with nice folks doing good work for humanity.

Later, he partook in the dedication of a house that had just been finished. There’s a standard ceremony that includes a few words and a quoted bible verse from President Carter.

Everyone had gathered at the appointed time, but it was apparent who was missing: the president.

People looked at their watches and made Habitat small talk, until a voice–unmistakably familiar and rural-Georgia–emanated from inside the nearly finished house next door. “Now, move that a little to your left, no a little more, no not that much. OK, that’s perfect. Thank you.” It was the president who had just finished some cabinet work, and, before leaving, was noticing that a couple of workers were putting in some final-touch landscaping. He had to weigh in.

I thought to myself–without sharing–My God, he really is a micro-manager. Some things don’t change–regardless of context.

BTW, President Carter was back at the Canadian worksite the day after he was hospitalized. Two days later he was back in Plains, Georgia–teaching Sunday School.

Amid all the predictable rhetoric and partisan agendas at play around the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, several points remain self-evident.

First, this isn’t about “election integrity.” Claims of widespread voter fraud have been proven again and again to be unfounded. What’s fraudulent is the premise. Talk about “fake news.”

What this is really about is Donald Trump’s ego. He lost the popular vote. By a lot. More than 3 million. How the hell could that have happened? It’s an embarrassing asterisk for one who has always reveled in ratings.

Second, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner made the right call by only providing voter information that is currently public record. The federal government already has enough hacker-vulnerable data. Most states are doing what Florida is doing.

Third, such a commission, in effect, diverts our attention from the biggest threat to America’s electoral democracy. Bigger than so-called “voter fraud.” Bigger than Moscow meddling.

It’s electorate ignorance, laziness and susceptibility to fake news and lowest common denominator pandering. That had more to do with the outcome of 2016 than fraud or Vladimir Putin.

* He said/he said would be too simple an explanation for what transpired at that Trump-Putin G-20 sideline summit. It’s what happens when a KGB-trained professional prevaricator and a pathological liar sit down to shoot the self-serving shinola. From Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, we know that Trump “pressed” Putin on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential U.S. election. We know from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Trump agrees with Putin that Moscow didn’t interfere with that election.

What we probably do know is that at some point both principals said in the universal language of summit diplomacy: “Whatever.”

And we know–stop the presses–that Trump has agreed to some sort of cybersecurity partnership with Russia, our foremost cybersecurity adversary. Whatever. We also know that international third parties accorded the advantage to Putin, the one who had to defend the indefensible. Whatever.

But a scheduled 30-minute sit-down that lasted for more than two hours? That must have made for a lot of back and forth and ultimate agreement on their common enemy. ISIS? North Korea? No, the media.

*Imagine, if–for all of his bluster, arrogance, misogyny, unhinged temperament and blatant lack of preparation–Donald Trump–as has been assumed by his adoring base–had truly mastered the art of the deal? Think Russia, China, North Korea, Syria, Iran, trade and immigration. It would almost be worth it. Almost.

* Another Russian-connection shoe drops. That John McCain centipede metaphor just won’t go away.

This time it was the revelation that a couple weeks into last year’s presidential campaign, Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chairman Paul Manafort met at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian attorney with an agenda that included sharing information about Hillary Clinton that would be “helpful to the Trump campaign.”

The Trumpsters deny wrongdoing, if not collusion optics. Besides, it was, according to the Trump Administration, mainly about American adoptions of Russian children. It was a “big, nothing burger,” said Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff and short-order political cook. Moreover, the presidential candidate was not there, nor was he aware of it.

Two points.

Increasingly, the Trumps seem like a half-assed Mafia family. Junior and Jared had seemingly free rein to negotiate and cut foreign deals and were deemed more important than professionals who would know what they were doing–and when to say “nyet.” This is as inappropriate and dumb as it is worrisome. And nobody was vetting Kremlin insiders, including those reaching out to collude?

The Richard Nixon inner circle was circumspect, professional and classy by comparison.

And, second, until a couple of days ago, President Trump was, as noted, unaware that such a blatantly problematic meeting had been held. There should be a statute of limitations on plausible deniability.

Rule of thumb: When your political career includes more than one “gate” affix, it’s over. Exhibit A: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. BridgeGate and BeachGate.

The U.S Postal Service held a special dedication this week in celebration of the new Henry David Thoreau stamp. It marks the 200th birthday of the 19th century poet, philosopher, historian, abolitionist and naturalist.

Well timed.

Thoreau quotes continue to resound. They embed commencement speeches as well as civil disobedience exhortations.

A favorite of the former: “Be yourself–not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”

As for the latter, what the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gleaned speaks volumes. “The teachings of Thoreau came alive in our civil rights movement,” said King. “I became convinced that non cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.”

The application is no less resonant right now.

“Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?”  rhetorically questioned Thoreau. “Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?”

Have to wonder what his take on 2017 “American exceptionalism” would be.

Whether it’s Tampa Palms, Orlando or San Bernardino, a rule of thumb–borne of cautionary common sense and self preservation–obviously applies:  “If you see something, say something.” It’s more than a modern meme. It’s the anxious times we live in.

The challenge in a democratic society, however, is not to let this become a license to profile based on appearance–not suspicious behavior. We all know the difference; we all know the implications.

* Collusion or not, the reality is that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted Trump elected. That’s the sobering part. He had his reasons. By all accounts, Trump was Russia friendly. Moreover, he was blatantly uninformed and loved the “tough guy” image.

* As far as political metaphors go, is there anything more fitting than the sinkhole that opened in front of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach?

Much has been made of the dilemma of Republican Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada. Would he abandon the president and incur the wrath of far-right, grass-roots GOPsters in his state by voting against the Senate health care bill? Or will he do what Gov. Brian Sandoval wants him to do–vote to keep the Affordable Care Act because it has manifestly helped the working poor in Nevada?

For once, it would have been refreshing to see a politician do the right thing for the right reason and then say it in un-nuanced, unparsed, non-press release fashion. To wit: “If this costs me politically, so be it. If political-career considerations are my main motivation, shame on me. I’m looking to represent constituents who need help, not partisans who need pandering.

“If helping those who need help is seen as a political liability, then I’ll plan on doing something more meaningful with my life. It won’t be hard.”