2017 Jan 10^th

A senate committee is having hearings on Trump’s cabinet picks. Of course they will recommend to the full senate that they approve all of them. Senator Grassley is in charge of the hearings this morning and he has laid down ground rules that will send any rule violators out of the room immediately. President–elect Trump’s cabinet picks, many of whom have previously been rule violators will be allowed to stay. Rex Tillerson as CEO of ExxonMobil had oversight of an oil company that traded with Iran during the embargo but I doubt that he’ll have to talk about that rule violation until the full senate meets.  

Trump has done all he can do to curry favor with the senior Republican, Senator McConnell, who will preside when the full senate votes on these people. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chou, is Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Transportation. Is that smart politics or what? Do you suppose McConnell will recuse himself from chairing the portion of the vote that deals with his wife? Of course he will; she is a shoe-in without his help because she is the most qualified cabinet appointee Trump has made. She has served as Secretary of Labor and as Deputy Secretary of Transportation in previous Republican administrations. McConnell can let himself look ethical when it can’t hurt him.

Speaking of ethics there is the interesting accusation of plagiarism against Monica Crowley, a talk show host, Fox person and Trump’s choice for a communication post with the National Security Council. Her problems are long standing: In 1992 she was accused by no less a liberal rag than “The Wall Street Journal” of plagiarizing part of a story she wrote for them. Here is the WSJ comment about that incident:  "There are striking similarities in phraseology between "The Day Richard Nixon Said Goodbye," an editorial feature Monday by Monica Crowley, and a 1988 article by Paul Johnson in Commentary magazine ... Had we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article." There is more of course; once you taste the cookies, you can’t help putting your hand back in the cookie jar. There also seems to be similar problems with her Ph.D. dissertation and with one of her books. The Trumpeters claim it’s all just political. What else can they say?

Poor Kellyanne Conway is earning her high six-figure salary by trying to defend the indefensible. Meryl Streep, during her Golden Globes presentation, said again that Trump had mocked a disabled reporter. There is ample video evidence of that in spite of Trump’s denial. Now Kellyanne is between a rock and a hard place trying to defend her boss. She chose to use a novel defense. Here is a quote:

“Why is everything taken at face value? You can't give him the benefit of the doubt on this and he's telling you what was in his heart? You always want to go by what's come out of his mouth rather than look at what's in his heart.”

Trump, as is his custom, was quick to come to his own defense by hectoring Meryl Streep, his accuser. He called her one of the most overrated actors.  Given Meryl Street’s many awards, this characterization is simply silly.  What else is new? His only defense of his own behavior is to attack the person objecting to it.

This is reminiscent of G. W. Bush’s 2001 comment about looking into Putin’s eyes and seeing his soul. If President Bush could manage that with Putin why can’t Kellyanne teach the pundits to see what is in Trump’s heart instead of just focusing on what he says. Maybe it’s an unteachable skill that only Kellyanne has. I’ll bet that’s it.