2017 Feb 15^th

It is now just after 1:00 P.M. on Tuesday Feb 15^th. I must be very clear about the timing because you should know which side of the looking glass I’m on at this moment. Our national embarrassment and Bibi Netanyahu have just finished their mutual stroking of each other.

Andrea Mitchell has asked Senator Adam Schiff of the intelligence committee what he makes of the president’s recent comments regarding the dismissal of General Flynn. The senator answered, “Andrea, you can’t make this stuff up.” Senator Schiff is wrong, you could make it up but if you did it would fall on the fantasy fiction book shelf.

According to Trump, the departure of General Flynn is the fault of the media and criminal leaks from various groups. He has said, “I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media — as I call it, the fake media, in many cases,” Trump said at a press conference Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I think it’s really a sad thing he was treated so badly.”

Well, Trump has a point; look at the debacle his way. Things were going along just swell, Flynn was doing his job of communicating Trump’s willingness to make nice-nice with the Russians while they were leaking stuff poisonous to Hillary Clinton. The public, including Vice President Pence, were kept nicely out of the loop.

Then, into the loop steps the acting attorney general, this Yates woman, a holdover from the Obama administration. She tells them about Flynn’s hobnobbing with Ambassador Kislyak of Russia. OK, so they dump her but the bag strings are loose and the cat has its head out. It isn’t long before Flynn’s bald-faced lie to Vice President Pence about his confab with Kislyak is common knowledge and now all the cats are out of the bag and something must be done. Trump’s VP is mad as hell and poor Donald cannot fire VP Pence. He can fire anybody else in his administration but he can’t fire the vice president. Oh Pshaw! His only choice is to fire Flynn, and so he does fire Flynn but he goes to some trouble to tell us “how unfairly Flynn was treated” and what a great guy he was. He naturally neglects to mention that he was the one who fired the man. He has no concern about, and indeed never mentions, Flynn’s lies about his talks with the Russian ambassador. Trump, himself, lies as easily as he breathes, perhaps more easily, so why would he be annoyed at someone else’s lies if those lies were not meant to deceive him.

Even Flynn’s firing was out of a Keystone Cops episode: Kellyanne Conway told us that Flynn had Trump’s “full confidence.” Hours later Sean Spicer, Trump’s mouthpiece, told a press conference that Flynn’s situation was being evaluated, then by evening Flynn was fired. Maybe Putin can find something for Flynn to do. They are, after all, good friends.

The Senate Intelligence Committee will investigate the Russian influence on our last election and that investigation will include Trump’s Russian connections. At this point no special committee will be appointed. Republicans had no problem with a special committee when they investigated Hillary Clinton’s actions regarding Benghazi, not anymore.

The Senate Intelligence Committee can hear secure testimony that cannot be made public. Indeed, they can refuse to talk to the public about anything they find, so if they discover something devastating about Donald Trump you might never know about it. A special committee is very different; the committee that held televised hearings requiring Hillary Clinton’s presence was a special committee. Senator McConnell isn’t ready for a special committee so he’s still playing politics with the Russian issue. Some senators in his retinue are getting antsy.