In Case You Missed it (v4)

A head-spinning week, to be sure - I know I had a hard time keeping up with everything, so I forgive you if you missed a post.

Here's a recap.

Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, was Jake Tapper's guest for Sunday School. Obviously, the conversation was about the whistleblower complaint, which no one had yet seen. But, if what was being reported was true - that Trump had used his office to pressure someone into promising to do something that would benefit Trump, Schiff was clear:

This would be, I think the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office, certainly during this presidency, which says a lot, but perhaps during just about any presidency. There is no privilege that covers corruption... And again, I don't know if this is the subject of the whistleblower complaint. But if it is, it needs to be exposed. 

On Monday, I had myself a little Poll Watch party, and took a look at the so-called shocking results out of Iowa: Joe Biden was on longer the front-runner.  The Des Moines Register poll - historically, the most accurate in Iowa, they say, showed not only that Warren was the first choice of would-be caucus-goers, but also the second choice, and also picked up several points in the 'actively being considered' bucket, giving her an overall 9-point leave over Joe Biden (second overall) and a 19-point lead over Bernie Sanders.  Here's how it stacks up:

There was also some interesting information on the definition of 'electability that's worth checking out.

My Wondering on Wednesday was in some ways more about things that we don't need to wonder about, rather than things we do.  For example, thinking about president Trump's phone call with Volodymyr Zalensky, the president of Ukraine, I was able to quite easily draw these conclusions;

But on the important stuff:

• Don't wonder whether this was a shakedown: it was.
• Don't wonder whether this was inappropriate: it was.
• Don't wonder whether this was ethical: it was not.
• Don't wonder whether this was a normal conversation: it wasn't.
• Don't wonder whether there was pressure on Ukraine: there was.

And don't wonder whether a quid pro quo was on the table: There was.

Thursday's time at the Update Desk was again devoted to the top ten Dems, their emails, and their messaging. I should clarify, not 'their emails' like Hillary's, or Jared's, or Ivanka's - I mean their campaign messaging, which I'm getting via email. I certainly don't want to cause an international incident or anything.  Here's a snippet for you:

What else are they talking about? Trump and Ukraine, especially the Biden team. Impeachment and how much fun they're having in Iowa are common to all campaigns. Beto's still talking a little about pot, more about guns. And Bernie? He wants to wipe out billionaires. Seriously - take a look at these excerpts from his email with the subject "Billionaires should not exist." 

We didn't have a TGIF post this week - it was intentionally left blank, like those pages you see in manuals and manuscripts; given the news of the week, no one ended up on the good side of the ledger.

Coming up next week?  We'll visit Albany and Syracuse again, and have updates on the mess in DC; I think there'll be some poetry - in fact, I'm certain there will be - and we'll have one more update on the candidate messaging. It could be the last one, we'll see how things go. 

And, we should have the full complement of regular features, including an anticipated return to normalcy on Friday.  Which I know will help.