TGIF 7/13/18

It's FRIDAY!!!

I'm thinking Trey Gowdy, Bob Goodlatte and the rest of the Republicans involved in the Peter Strzok hearings are probably glad the weekend's here, would you agree?

Having made their obligatory appearances on the Trump News Network in attempts to snatch any victory, no matter how small, from the jaws of their defeat, they can co home, have a beer or three, and lick their collective wounds inflicted by FBI guy Peter Strzok at the GOP Gonna Beat You Down, Oh No You Don't, Not So Fast Skippy hearings we had both the pleasure and dismay of seeing yesterday. Regarding Strzok's responses to the attacks from the Rs, one of them actually garnered applause from people in the room.

My favorite moment from the hearings so far -- I confess I've yet to watch the full 10 hours - had to Maryland's Jamie Raskin talking about members of Trump's party who have said equal or worse things about Trump than Strzok did. And they said them in public, not in private text messages.  After reading the names of a bunch of Republicans who are involved in the Russia investigation that Strzok supposedly allowed his bias to interfere in (or something), Raskin reminded us who's said what about the president.

So I'm looking for evidence of the Republican conspiracy and all I could find were the kinds of statements that you have been arraigned on today. I want to ask you about those statements. 

In the spring of 2016, Senator Ted Cruz called Donald Trump a snivelling coward, a pathological liar and a serial philanderer...

Senator Marco Rubio said Trump was unworthy of being our president...

In October of 2016, Speaker Paul Ryan said I am not going to defend Donald Trump - not now, not in the future.

After each revelation, he asked if these were related to a conspiracy that Strzok led; the answer, of course, was no. And then he quoted Trump's current or former cabinet members, who had used terms like moron, a child, a kindergartner, a dope and an idiot, again asking about a conspiracy that Strzok must have been leading.  It was theater, it was poetry, it was bad ass.  As I said, I think they all need a beer and some mutual wound-licking.

The president might also be glad it's Friday, so he can go butcher a round of golf or two at his resorts in Scotland. He had a whirlwind couple of days in Europe, to be sure, mocking our allies, threatening them, and being quite belligerent even before breakfast. He gave a scathing interview to the  British press, denied what he said, called his own interview fake news, and then he was late to meet the Queen.

Oh, and a quarter million or so people showed up to protest against him.

And finally, I'm thinking, British Prime Minister Theresa May is probably extremely glad it's Friday, too.  For so many reasons, not the least of which is that she won't have to let Trump hold her hand again for a long time.

TGIF, everyone.