There's an old joke in Washington that the press knows how to ask politicians questions that can't be answered in any acceptable way. The classic example, of course, is: "So, Senator, have you stopped beating your wife?" This week, however, the Trump White House has been getting a variant: "So, how long was a wife-beater who couldn't get a security clearance allowed to work for the president, and why?"

Each week, optimists think to themselves: "Surely the Trump administration has hit rock bottom and they just can't go any lower," and then each and every week (or so it seems), they prove to go not just lower, but way lower. Remember the porn star who got hush money for an affair with Donald Trump just after his current wife gave birth? No? Seems almost quaint by now, but that was just a few weeks ago. Having dealt with a previous scandal supporting an accused child molester (Roy Moore), the White House is now down to dealing with wife-beaters. It just can't go any lower than this, right? Well, we'll all have to see what they can come up with next week... (sigh).

Continue Reading »

The deficit hawks have all flown south, it seems. This is a cyclical migration, because it happens whenever a Republican occupies the White House. When a Democrat moves in, the deficit hawks all return from sunnier climes and begin beating their chests and rending their garments once again. For Washington, this is considered normal.

When Barack Obama was sworn in, he inherited trillion-dollar-plus annual deficits, thanks mostly to the cratering economy and the George W. Bush tax cuts. In his eight years in office, he notably turned things around and got the annual deficits under $500 billion. That's the economy he handed off to Donald Trump.

Trump's first year in office was mostly a continuation of the Obama years, since he didn't have any real say over the policies which had been put in place for that fiscal year. In 2018, however, Trump and the Republicans have taken control, first with their enormous tax cut and secondly with the budget extension they are passing even as I write this.

Continue Reading »

As I write this, Nancy Pelosi has been speaking for something like seven straight hours on the floor of the House of Representatives. Historians are scurrying to comb through the House archives, and some are already calling it the longest such speech ever delivered on the House floor. It's not technically a filibuster (which only happen in the Senate), instead Pelosi is exploiting a parliamentary loophole known as "leader time" -- which allows party leaders to speak uninterrupted. Minority Leader Pelosi has been doing so since 10:00 in the morning, Eastern time, and so far shows no signs of stepping down.

This is, obviously, a new political tactic. The reason why it matters is that we're smack up against another budget deadline, meaning if a bill doesn't pass the government will soon shut down. Absent that kind of pressure, it's doubtful whether the media would have paid much attention to Pelosi's stunt. Adding to the pressure is the fact that the Senate seems to have hammered out a sweeping budget deal for the next two years, which even includes raising the debt ceiling until after this November's elections. Even if this bill passes the Senate, it still has to make it through the House, which is impossible until Pelosi sits down and yields the floor. So, in practical terms, Pelosi's speech is working exactly like a Senate filibuster.

Continue Reading »

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a woman who lost her legs in service to her country (as a military helicopter pilot, in Iraq), just taught everyone an important history lesson.

She did so in reaction to remarks by President Donald Trump, where he expressed his disappointment that Democrats in Congress didn't applaud and give him standing ovations at his recent State Of The Union speech. Of course, Trump has always been severely confused by the concept that loyalty to the country doesn't necessarily mean blind loyalty to him, personally, but this time he went further that he's ever gone before. Here he is, whining about Democrats not applauding:

Even on positive news like that, really positive news like that, they were like death, and un-American. Somebody said "treasonous." I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Shall we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much.

It's right there for anyone to see: not applauding him personally means Democrats don't "seem to love our country very much." Which, according to Trump -- because "Why not?" -- is actually treason, a crime punishable by death.

Continue Reading »

Will the "Trump Bump" turn into the "Trump Slump," or will the president somehow manage to successfully shift the political blame? That is the question on everyone's mind in Washington today, as the Dow Jones average slipped close to 1,200 points, after falling over 600 points last Friday. Trump has been overly eager to claim all the credit for a soaring stock market, so now that a bear seems to have taken hold of Wall Street, will he shoulder an equal share of the blame as the credit he's been claiming all along? That seems doubtful, knowing his aversion to accepting blame for pretty much anything under the sun.

This may give rise to a parlor game inside the Beltway, where people try to anticipate who Trump will attempt to lay all the blame on. Step right up and place your bets!

Continue Reading »

Happy Nunes Memo Day, everyone!

Today, of course, was supposed to be the day when the memo from House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes caused the skies to split and the F.B.I. building to spontaneously implode in upon itself, leaving nothing left but a mysterious rift to some dark and deep otherworld. Bob Mueller was also supposed to make a public announcement that his entire investigation was nothing short of a sham (secretly directed by Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros), and that he would be shutting down his office just as soon as all the documents could be shredded and the hard drives erased.

None of that, obviously, happened. Instead, the reaction in Washington was pretty incredulous: "That's all you got? Seriously?" The memo was a dud. The rightwing news media had been drooling over the prospects of this memo for weeks now (Sean Hannity claimed the memo "makes Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar from a drug store," and predicted it would be "the biggest political scandal in American history"), but a clear indication of the incredible weakness of the memo was the timing Nunes chose for its release: on the Friday just before Super Bowl weekend. That's not when you release a bombshell story, in other words; that's when you release stuff you are embarrassed about.

Continue Reading »

I've been meaning to write about immigration specifics, but hadn't quite come up with a way to present the issues I wanted to address. Then I read a story in today's Washington Post and while perusing the comments came across an excellent set of questions for Republicans. This seemed the best way to launch into the subject.

The comment came from "babsy47," and here it is in full (or you can read it in context with the article and the other comments, if you prefer):

Continue Reading »

Poor Donald Trump. It seems fate has pre-empted the media reviews of his first State Of The Union speech with a story about a Republican trainwreck. That has to have annoyed Trump, one assumes. We all know how much he likes seeing people talk about him on television, so seeing the trainwreck story instead certainly must have put a damper on his victory lap.

Now, I don't mean to belittle the accident. One person is dead and many others injured, although it seems that most of the congressmen and their families are going to be OK. But as with any accident involving death or injury, it really isn't a laughing matter. After the train hit the garbage truck, several Republicans with medical training were reported to have leapt to deliver aid, even though the security officers were cautioning them not to. That is selflessness and should be applauded, without regard to their political leanings.

Still, even having said all of that, the irony is pretty obvious. Trump delivers a speech calling on Congress to take action, the Republicans board a train the next day to travel to a retreat to hear more from Trump, and a trainwreck with a garbage truck ensues. I have not seen the news today, but my guess is that the trainwreck is going to be the lead story ("if it bleeds, it leads," right?), and Trump's speech will be treated as an afterthought. Television news just loves big accidents to report on, and I don't expect this one will be any different.

Continue Reading »

As usual, I hereby offer up my initial snap reactions after watching both President Trump's first official State Of The Union speech (last year's was just "an address to the Congress"), and the Democratic response. I like to do this before I dive in to what others may have opined about the speech, so as not to be influenced by any Washington media groupthink. Tomorrow morning, I'll be able to see who agreed with me and who didn't, of course.

One caveat throughout -- all quotes are provided as hastily jotted down by yours truly, so I can't be completely certain they match up word-for-word with what was spoken (I do not know proper shorthand, in other words). But they're all pretty close to what was said, of that I am certain. Just to assign errors in transcription where they belong (with me), before we begin. Mea culpa and all of that, as it were.

General impressions

First, some overall thoughts about the speech. Tonight, Donald Trump put in a decent performance, for him. He read off the TelePrompTer the words that others had written for him, and he (mostly) managed not to sound like he had never read any of it before his live delivery. He only had a few stumbles (which late-night hosts will doubtlessly be pointing out with glee, later on tonight), and at times actually sounded like he believed what he was saying. This would be an unremarkable performance for just about any other politician worth his or her salt, but for Trump it was one of the best TelePrompTer performances he's ever given (the other one in his top two being his first address to Congress, last year).

That's not saying the speech was one for the ages, mind you, just that he delivered it without sounding like a struggling fifth-grader in a spelling bee -- which is his usual style when delivering TelePrompTer speeches.

Continue Reading »

Tomorrow night, President Donald Trump will give his first official State Of The Union speech. The White House is leaking that his speech will be the first where he reaches out in an attempt to unify the country and offer bipartisan leadership to Congress. That is a pretty tall order for this particular president, for obvious reasons. But even if he manages to deliver an impressive speech, it's not likely to change anything afterwards. At least not in the way of actual bipartisan legislation, since Democrats are not likely to strike such deals right before a midterm election that could put them in a much better bargaining position afterwards.

Continue Reading »