Before we get to the fresh lies emanating from the Oval Office this week, we have to begin with a look back. Because not only has President Donald Trump now hit the milestone of lying over 3,000 times while in office, but apparently it's getting too much for even Fox News personalities to take.

Over the past 15 months, we've occasionally seen lists compiled of Trump's biggest whoppers, but these are usually posted as comments to other articles by fervent opponents of the president. That's where we've run into them most, at any rate. Which makes the following list all the more extraordinary, because not only is pretty comprehensive, it was broadcast by none other than Neil Cavuto, on his Fox News show. In other words, Donald Trump might just have had to sit through it. When even the Foxlandia cheerleaders are pointing out the mountain of lies Trump's been telling, you know we've reached some sort of tipping point (thanks, Rudy!).

We did a cursory search for a transcript of the Cavuto diatribe, but could not find one. So instead we present this summary list, compiled by Salon. Cavuto opened his show by first addressing the bombshell news that Rudy Giuliani revealed this week, that Donald Trump did indeed reimburse his fixer Michael Cohen for that $130,000 hush money payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Then Cavuto really gained steam, and began to list all the lies Trump has so far told -- all of which are easily disprovable. Here's the list, from the article:

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I have to begin with my apologies to Mick Jagger and the gang for today's title. Mea culpa. But today certainly has been all about Rudy, so it seemed appropriate even if the reference was a bit weak. Although the lyrics: "When you change with every new day / Still, I'm going to miss you" may indeed wind up being applicable to Rudy Giuliani, or maybe even his new boss. One can always hope, right?

Last night, President Donald Trump's new lawyer went on Fox News to admit that both Trump and everyone around him have been flat-out lying all along about the payment of $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. This bombshell was almost casually dropped, appearing to catch even Sean Hannity by surprise. Other people it also apparently caught by surprise: the entire Trump legal team, and everyone else who works in the White House. But not, notably, Donald Trump himself. Rudy would never have taken it upon himself to change Trump's story in such dramatic fashion without Trump's prior approval, so I do take Rudy at his word that he had gotten Trump's approval to do so in advance.

So, Trump lied. It's still debatable whether it was a lie of omission or a lie of commission, but what is beyond doubt is that Trump did indeed lie. So did everyone else surrounding Trump and his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen who was asked about the payoff. Trump did indeed reimburse Cohen and, according to Rudy, also included enough on top to cover any possible taxes as well as a tidy profit for Cohen. Giuliani said this money was paid over time, through $35,000 monthly fees paid from Trump to Cohen. Giuliani even dropped a possible total number in one interview, after being asked how many payments it took: "Do the arithmetic, right? $35,000 a month, probably starting in January or February. By the time you get to $250,000, it's all paid off." So apparently the legal fee for paying the hush money was a cool $120,000 -- nice work, if you can get it.

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California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, has had a change of heart, it seems. It was reported late yesterday that Feinstein announced in an interview that she no longer opposes legal marijuana. No doubt that the fact that she's up for re-election this year in a state that already legalized recreational adult use of marijuana and the fact that she's drawn a progressive primary challenger both have a lot to do with her sudden epiphany. Feinstein has been, to date, one of the most strident anti-weed voices around, though, so this is big news no matter what her reasons truly are.

However, Feinstein's War On Weed record cannot be erased, no matter what her current position may be. Eight years ago, California had a ballot initiative that would have legalized recreational marijuana. But Proposition 19 failed to pass. Partly, this was due to the fact that the "No On 19" side was better organized and aired better television commercials. Dianne Feinstein chaired the "No On 19" effort. Six years later, Proposition 64 did pass, and once again Dianne Feinstein was chair of the "No" group. She took a very hands-on approach, in other words, while plenty of other Democrats were content to sit on the sidelines and see what the voters wanted to do. Some Democrats actually showed leadership on the issue -- the "Yes on 64" effort was led by Gavin Newsom, who could be California's next governor. But Feinstein's attitudes towards marijuana had been set in stone way back in the 1960s and -- until yesterday -- have not changed one iota. She's not just been against marijuana legal reform in the abstract, she's taken a very hands-on and active part in demonizing the idea.

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Yesterday I wrote about a politician committing what's known as a Kinsley gaffe (i.e., a politician accidentally telling the truth in public). Today, we have Donald Trump, who seems to have randomly stumbled upon a truth, by accident, with no actual intent whatsoever -- much like a broken clock will tell the right time twice a day, in fact. Of course, even this requires a generous reading of Trump's tweet, but that doesn't make it any less amusing.

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Senator Marco Rubio just let the cat out of the bag. In traditional "Kinsley gaffe" fashion (defined as a politician accidentally telling the truth), Rubio admitted what Democrats have known all along -- that the Republican tax cuts were primarily designed to help Wall Street, not Main Street. Here is the relevant quote, from a recent interview Rubio gave to The Economist: "There is still a lot of thinking on the right that if big corporations are happy, they're going to take the money they're saving and reinvest it in American workers. In fact they bought back shares, a few gave out bonuses; there's no evidence whatsoever that the money's been massively poured back into the American worker." That's a pretty sweeping indictment not only of the sole item on the Republican agenda that the GOP Congress has managed to pass, but also on the sole plank in the Republican platform for the 2018 midterm elections (which will take place almost exactly six months from now).

Rubio's admission is a stark contrast from how the rest of his party is attempting to sell the tired old snake oil of trickle-down economics. When the tax cut bill was being debated in Congress, the White House made a jaw-dropping promise that wages for the average American worker would immediately increase by $4,000. Needless to say, they haven't. Workers have noticed this fact, too. Tax cuts are usually quite popular with the public, but not this time around. A recent Gallup survey showed only 39 percent support for the GOP tax cuts, while a majority of 52 percent disapproved of them. And yet this is all the Republican Party has to run on in November, because it's all they've really accomplished in Washington (despite controlling both houses of Congress and the White House).

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Last week, we were admonished for celebrating 4/20 in a manner that was too subtle by half. We subtitled last Friday's article: "Dazed And Confused," and began with: "We don't know why that headline sounded like such a good idea on today, of all days. [Ahem.]" But the rest of the article didn't really have much to say about the issue of marijuana. So today we are going to correct that lack, as you can tell by this week's subtitle.

We wrote an article back in January which predicted that marijuana legalization had passed a "tipping point" with the public. No matter how hard the War On Weed warriors fought back, the growing swell of public support for legalization would ensure that America's second Prohibition would come to an end, the article predicted. We wrote this right after Vermont became the first state in the nation to legalize recreational adult use of cannabis through its legislature (rather than through the direct democracy of a ballot initiative). This law was signed by a Republican governor, it's worth pointing out. But we were only cautiously optimistic that national politicians would be part of the process this year:

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Today, Donald Trump shifted his publicly-stated position on the Stormy Daniels lawsuit in what could turn out to be a major way. While chatting with his buddies on the Fox News morning show, Trump admitted that his "fixer" lawyer Michael Cohen was indeed representing him in the Stormy Daniels affair. Trump's exact words were: "He [Cohen] represents me -- like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me." It's tough to square this with all the other claims Trump has made about the case, to put it mildly. Trump's position seems to be evolving over time.

Trump's initial position was the most laughable one. Trump stated that the sexual encounter never happened, he had never heard about the non-disclosure agreement or the payoff of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels, which was paid out of the goodness of his personal lawyer's heart, from money Cohen had to borrow from a home equity line. The whole thing was a gigantic surprise to Trump, in other words.

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Arizona held a special House election last night, and while the Democrat overperformed the historical partisan makeup of the district by double digits, the Republican managed to eke out a win. It was closer than it should have been, but in the end the deep-red district stayed in the GOP column. So you could say both sides can feel good about the outcome, although in reality only one of them is actually worried about what it might mean for the future.

Donald Trump won Arizona's 8th district by 21 points. Last night, the vote spread was only 5 points. This means eight percent of the voters who voted for Trump shifted to voting for a Democrat, resulting in a 16-point shift in the margin of victory (as in all such shifts, when one percent of the voters change their minds, the margin goes up by two percent -- as in: "from 50-50 to 51-49").

Republicans were relieved to hold onto the seat (the special election was called due to yet another Republican stepping down in disgrace), but then again they never should have even been worried about it in the first place. This is not normally what anyone would call a "swing" or "battleground" district. In fact, there are 147 other House districts that are less reliably Republican than this one. Which is precisely why Democrats see this as a real opportunity for November.

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That is a rather bizarre headline, as is any sentence with both "Donald Trump" and "our Founding Fathers" in it, really. But then I'm in a rather bizarre mood today, waiting for some election results which may turn out to be rather good news even if (as expected) the Democrat loses. Plus, I've been saving this subject for a slow day, which turned out to be today.

Before I dig into the main subject, though, a quick note on that election seems necessary. Arizona's 8th congressional district is up for grabs tonight, due to yet another Republican House member who had to step down in disgrace over sexual misconduct in the office. This is a district that Trump won by more than 20 points, so it really shouldn't even be close. But it is. The odds are still heavily against the Democratic candidate, but that the race is even close is sending shivers down the spines of astute Republicans everywhere. So the margin of victory will be important even if the Republican wins. If the margin of victory for the Republican candidate is five points or less, it will send almost as loud a warning signal to the GOP as if the Democrat actually wins. So it'll be interesting to see what happens, even if the Democrats don't pull off a spectacular upset.

But I digress. Getting back to the subject at hand, I've been noticing for a while now that Donald Trump seems to be channeling his inner Founding Father in one particular way. See if you can spot it from the examples below. Hint: you don't even need to read every word, just skimming them should be sufficient. First, a few of Trump's most recent tweets:

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Due to circumstances beyond my control, there will be no column today. Sorry, folks, but two minor emergencies (one medical, one automotive) happened over the weekend, so I had to deal with both of them today. Don't worry, everything's fine on both fronts, but it took so much time that I didn't have enough to spare to write today.

I was going to write about the new royal baby in England... nah, just kidding, I was going to write about Macron's visit from France and wonder if he'll be able to talk Trump into staying in the Iran nuclear agreement, if anyone needs a subject to talk about in the meantime.

I apologize for the lack of column, and do realize it's the second time in a week there hasn't been one, but while the first was nothing more than my own fault (for putting things off until the last minute), today just kind of snuck up on me. So I ask your forgiveness and promise there'll be a new column tomorrow.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant