Sunday School 1/30/22

I wandered into ABC's This Week classroom yesterday. Here are some highlights. The segment that got the most press, from what I could see, was the George Stephanopoulos interview with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Very Concerned) and what she didn't say. But let's start with what she did say. 

Collins appreciates adding diversity to the Supreme Court, but says the "clumsy at best" process around Biden's promised nomination of a Black woman "adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be." And, she disagreed with George that this was the same thing President Reagan did during the 1980 campaign.

Actually, this isn't exactly the same. I've looked at what was done in both cases. And what President Biden did was as a candidate, make this pledge. And that helped politicize the entire nomination process. What President Reagan said is, as one of his Supreme Court justices, he would like to appoint a woman.

I'm very concerned with the senator's research skills - because Reagan did not say he "would like to appoint a woman." He went much further than that.

I am announcing today that one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration will be filled by the most qualified woman I can possibly find, one who meets the high standards I will demand for all court vacancies. 

Not only that, but thanks to some great research and documentation, we now know Reagan did it for exactly the same reason Biden did: to secure votes from a specific demographic in order to garner his party's nomination. 

Now, to the attention-grabbing part. George asked Collins about president Trump's hint that he'd pardon January 6th insurrectionists if he gets elected in '24, and whether she could  "imagine any circumstances where (she) could support his election." Collins said Trump shouldn't have said that; she thinks we "should let the judicial process proceed." And when George pushed her on not ruling out supporting Trump, here's what she said.

Well, certainly it's not likely given the many other qualified candidates that we have that have expressed interest in running. So, it's very unlikely.

It's also very unlikely she'll commit to anything, if she can't even commit to this. 

The panel this week included political animals Donna Brazile, Donna Shalala, and Chris Christie, and Reihan Salam, president of the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Here's Brazile on SCOTUS, after noting that 108 of the 115 Supremes have been white males, some of whom "were extraordinary..."

But the fact is, 55 years after Thurgood Marshall was put on the court, 31 years after Clarence Thomas, 13 years after Sonia Sotomayor, this is a moment when the country can finally say equal justice under the law applies to everybody. It's an extraordinary move by the president. I welcome this appointment. And I'm going to fight with everything I have, to make sure that this extraordinary woman gets confirmed.

Here's Christie after noting that "elections have consequences."

...it wouldn't have been the way I would have approached it, by pre-announcing something like that, but Joe Biden won the election. He gets to make the choice. And every one of the 100 senators has a right then to scrutinize this person's background, experience, and decide whether or not they deserve lifetime tenure.

And Shalala, on both the prospect of a Black woman joining the Court and on polling showing most American just want the most qualified person. (I don't believe that for a NY minute, I've gotta tell you, but I digress). 

Well, it brings someone with a different experience, a black woman's experience. It makes the court look like America. It makes it look fairer. And I'm not surprised the majority of Americans think he ought to just pick the -- the qualified candidate. That's, in fact, an advancement, that we ought to pick the qualified candidate. But a black woman on the court, it will make a difference.

And, here's Salam, after noting he thought Biden's promise "was a mistake," because it limited his options 

... I think that one thing to keep in mind is that the Democratic coalition is awfully diverse along many different dimensions. Donna Shalala mentioned that there's such a thing as a black women's experience. When you look at the four leading contenders, as far as news reports go, these are people with dramatically different experiences and actually some subtle differences in ideological sensibilities as well... So I think that recognizing the distinctions among black women and recognizing that there are many other kinds of diversity one could bring to the bench is a good and valuable thing. And Democrats ought to keep it in mind.

Perhaps the most remarkable comment of this discussion was about the politics of the whole thing, and it came not from a panelist, but from the host. Christie set it up.

...But on the politics of this, George, for the midterms, when you have inflation where it is, when you have crime where it is, the things that affect people's everyday lives, they don't see the Supreme Court affecting their everyday lives in the same way that inflation, crime, and foreign policy crises do. So, I think it may have some small effect, but nowhere near a determinative one.

Here's the comment from Stephanopoulos.

It has rarely been a big - a big voting issue in either presidential or midterm elections...

Um, really, George? I'm Susan Collins-level very concerned with your failed memory of the 2016 and 2020 elections. The Supreme Court was one of the keys to Trump's victory in the former, and he also used it in the latter. Sheesh - everyone knows that.

I was going to end the post there, but instead I'll close with thoughts about Rs not wanting to stick a fork in a Trump 2024 run. Here's Salam's take on it.

Well, I think that it makes sense for people to want to preserve freedom of action. You do not know how the environment might change. There are a lot of Republicans, a lot of conservatives who said at the very beginning of the 2015-2016 campaign cycle that they wouldn't support Donald Trump. But then things changed. And we could condemn them. We could praise them for that. But the reality is that, you know, politics, the environment moves very, very quickly.

And, here's Brazile.

I can't imagine President Trump saying he will pardon the very same people who injured 140 policemen. I can't imagine President Trump saying at a rally that he would pardon people who said, kill Mike Pence, assassinate Nancy Pelosi. There's -- there's -- there's no place in our politics for that type of rhetoric and that type of action and leadership. So I hope the Republicans reject Donald Trump so that they can move past this movement and we can try to figure out how to bring the country together. 

From where I sit, 'bringing the country together' remains a Herculean, or even Sisyphean task, but one can always hope. I encourage you to join me in not holding your breath on this one.

See you around campus.

In Case You Missed It (v73)

Here's your recap of last week's posts.

Sunday School brought us an MTP interview with California's Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead manager on Trump's first impeachment, talking about the managers for Trump's second impeachment, which ended yesterday, pretty much in the way we all knew it would. 

Schiff said that the managers for Trump II need to present all the facts, and not presume that everyone - including all senators - are familiar with the full breadth of what the former president did over the course of many months leading up to January 6th. He's confident they'll be able to tell the story.

Tell the story they did. - better than Schiff told his story when it was his turn, IMO.

For your Extra Credit, I highlighted Wyoming's Rep. Liz Cheney, she who won a vote of support from her caucus after issuing perhaps the most scathing Republican condemnation of the twice-impeached insurrection inciter. But, that's water over the damn, under the bridge and down the toilet.

Cheney talked with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, and said she's not resigning, as her state party requested when they censured her for "betraying the trust of Wyoming voters." 

The censure language indicated people still believe that BLM and Antifa were behind the Capitol insurrection. She said they've got a lot of work to do, and she blamed Trump and his lies for that.

We need to make sure that we as Republicans are the party of truth, that we are being honest about what really did happen in 2020 so we actually have a chance to win in 2022 and win the White House back in 2024.

Apparently, lots of people in her party don't believe that being the party of truth matters. Not only that, but far too many of them, including the ghastly GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, are willing to continue relying on Trump to help with their future goals. 

I wrapped up my Sonofa Gov's State of the State this week, not an easy task. In the first of three Meanwhile Back in Albany (MBIA) posts, I focused on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan for moving forward in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.

Now it's time to start looking ahead with the same toughness, the same smarts, the same unity, the same discipline, and the same love that brought us through last year. 

2021 will be a year of continued challenges, transformation, and change. We will need to adjust to the new social and economic realities of the post-COVID world.

Expanding on his Day 1 message, he spoke of having to reopening New York "smartly and safely." It's not an either/or thing, it's a "a new model of balance" using science and technology to do things intelligently. 

As Tuesday rolled around, bringing us the opening of the impeachment trial, I dropped a Poll Watch.

The Senate will have a split vote on whether it's even constitutional to impeach him, with the Rs likely ignoring, for the second time in two weeks, that it was their own rules that made it impossible to impeach him before his term ended. 

We will go through the motions: the Rs will claim the impeachment is dividing the country, and Ds will say that Trump continues to pose a clear and present danger to everything that's good and wholesome, so he must be prevented from ever holding office again. Pundits will wear their best outfits, the networks will have their impeachment background music, and when it's over, everything is supposed to be OK. 

But will everything be OK? Here's some info from a recent Quinnipiac poll illustrating where we stand right now, on impeachment and some other measures of 'OK-ness.'

The results? We're afraid for our democracy, we're afraid of violence, and we're afraid we're stuck in a partisan nightmare. 

Moving on to the third day of Cuomo's SOTS, I dropped another MBIA; this one focused on the greening of New York. In his words, 

As is true in so many major issues of our time, the challenge is to close the societal and governmental gap between aspirations and accomplishment, between rhetoric and reality, between saying and doing. Offering hope of a tomorrow that never comes is one of the main causes of our social unrest and distrust in government. We are just not making enough actual progress. Why? Because change is hard.

Have no fear, though: "As the world economy resets, and as change is a necessity, there is an opportunity to raise our efforts to the next level - and New York should seize this moment." And, we can seize the rhetorical moment, too: Cuomo noted that "candles cannot power the future." 

We're going to stick a fork in fossil fuels, or something, via a four-pronged approach. 

And, finally, the fourth and last MBIA, in which the Sonofa Gov spoke of when we used to lead, and how he wants us to be leaders again.

It's a long-taught lesson, he said, but without focus on the "ancillary" benefits - a collective lifted spirit, a belief in the future, and how those inspire economic confidence and stimulus. FDR, Cuomo said, understood that, and the Sonofa Gov wants us to understand that, too. And, don't forget, FDR was a New Yorker, and New Yorkers understand big ideas, and build big things.

Our country has lost its ambition, he said. Other countries "developed around us," and built the cool stuff - the largest high-speed rail network (China), the longest tunnel (Europe) and even the Middle East is "turning barren desert into economic engines."

He's got monster plans for building, across all three parts of the state: NYC, Long Island, and the vast thing called 'upstate.' 

Turning back to impeachment, I was inspired by lead House Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who did a better-than-admirable job with the task he had. I was inspired by his recollection of the Voltaire 'absurdities...atrocities' quote, and how Trump turned so many into believers, with the inevitable end promised by Voltaire. 

All the absurdities, every single one of them, was believed. He was convincing in the telling, in the repetition, in the challenge, in the call to action. He is nothing if not relentless, nothing if not convincing, and they were ready and willing to be convinced, to be led, to obey the call. He had them hanging on his every word, hanging on to him.

He made them believe the absurdities, and when he asked, the atrocities followed. To the end, they were hanging on his every word, hanging on to him.

Who are 'they,' you ask? Who are the believers? They're not just his MAGA people - they're in the House and the Senate, too. The Republicans own them, now - don't be a believer when they tell you otherwise. 

And finally, it was time for a slightly unconventional TGIF, in which I focused on the last evidentiary day of the impeachment, and Trump's lawyers and their defense, if you could call it that, of the former president.  

That the lawyers managed to complain about the fancy media company the House Managers used to create their slick video, and then turn around and do exactly the same thing, but even slicker and, if I heard it right, with music, and Madonna, and Johnny Depp, was indicative of how little defense they had, and how little defense they presented in their time today. 

Oh, there was lots of emphasis on Trump's one statement of asking for people to be peaceful, as if the continuum of his incitement began and ended on that phrase on January 6th. I thought Rudy Giuliani was a bad lawyer, but these guys are giving him a run for their money. 

I closed with post, and the week, with this: 

Soon, we'll know officially that the Republicans are still afraid of Trump, and what he can do to their careers, and there will be an acquittal. The only thing we don' t know is, how many Rs will vote to convict. I hope some of them find the courage to do so; maybe the ones who've already declared they're not running next time?

Good week? Bad week? You pick.

We now know the answer to my question: seven. Senators Richard Burr (NC), Bill Cassidy (LA), Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AL), Mitt Romney (UT), Ben Sasse (NE), and Pat Toomey (PA) voted to convict Trump of "the gravest violation of his oath of office by any president in the history of this country," to quote Rep. Cheney. Burr and Toomey have already announced they're not seeking re-election.

You're all caught up. See you later for Sunday School.

In Case You Missed It (v66)

Got your cuppa? Here's your recap of last week's posts.

I devoted my Sunday School classroom time to folks who have been tapped to serve in the incoming administration, including Jen Psaki, who'll be the new White House press secretary. She talked with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday about a number of things, including the day's hot topic. Take a look.

And, finally, the Hunter Biden questions: does Biden promise to let US attorney David Weiss (he's currently conducting the investigation) finish the job?  And second, what does Biden think about a special counsel possibly being appointed to investigate his son?

 Well, let me be crystal clear, Chris, and I appreciate you asking this question. He will not be discussing an investigation of his son with any attorney general candidates. He will not be discussing it with anyone he is considering for the role, and he will not be discussing it with the future attorney general. It will be up to the purview of a future attorney general and his administration to determine how to handle any investigation.

That's pretty clear, and boy, I  hope she's not kidding. 

A lot of classroom time was spent talking about the likely-committed-by-the-Russians computer breach, although some of the people interviewed pointed out that we do need to make sure we do the hard work on attribution before we go off all halfcocked and hog wild down the retribution path. I included those interviews in your Extra Credit. 

One of the folks making the rounds was Kevin Mandia, CEO of FireEye, the cyber security company that initially discovered the breach. He talked with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. Here's part of their discussion on how we keep this kind of thing from happening again.

He said we need to "have doctrine," like we do for the use of chemical weapons, so people know the rules of the game, and if we don't, he thinks it will just get worse.

We're going to see the borders continue to be pushed outward in cyber attacks-- to the point where, when do we finally do the work--when it's already intolerable, when it already got so bad that we have no choice but to respond. But like you said, it starts with doctrine. With doctrine, you have to get attribution right. And with attribution, then you have to do a proportional response to whoever the actors were. 

I dropped a Trump in Transition post, the 48th in that series, on Tuesday. There'll be one on January 20th, I think. We'll see if he earns one before then. Here's a bit of that brain dump.

The millions who showed our displeasure, our distaste, our dislike, he cannot or will not comprehend. Our exhaustion, he cannot comprehend. How annoyed we are, how sick we are of his constant self-promoting, the embarrassing tweets, the grifting, the cast of characters by whom he is surrounded, that he foists upon us, that he honors and celebrates, he cannot comprehend.

Equally incomprehensible is that, as he pretends all of this isn't happening, didn't happen, isn't true, he continues to roil the waters in which his devout supporters swim, working them into a frenzy of martial-law supporting, havoc-wreaking, our-country-has-been-stolen fanatics. They are insisting he will be president, he will have his second-term inauguration come January 20th, and they don't care what it takes to make that happen.

Sometimes, trying to get my arms around this stuff between him and his followers, I beg for the chance to have my own 'Bobby Ewing in the shower' moment, I really do. 

Disgraced former Buffalo-area Congressman Chris Collins was in the news again; he was the subject of a note from The Update Desk.

Tonight, the impeached, lame duck president issued 20 pardons and commutations, with Collins being among the lucky. 

That the former congressman was the first one to support the president probably was very meaningful to Trump - and I can only imagine that, had he still been in office, Collins would have happily added his name to the list of 126 House Republicans supporting the 'Texas+' lawsuit (sorry, tired of listing the other states that joined that ridiculous case). 

My Wondering on Wednesday included a bunch of random questions (including a couple related to Christmas) - and the ones below.

Why is the United States considering offering immunity to Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi royal who's such a good What's App friend of Jared Kushner, for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?

Who will be the next target that the president will attack, now that he's gone after the #2 Republican in the Senate? Any guesses?

Why are people all of the sudden worried about foreign policy? Why haven't they been complaining all along? And why are reporters and politicians lying about it?

I took the rest of last week off, for a little holiday R&R, but we're back at it. See you later for Sunday School.

The Update Desk: Chris Collins, Again, Darn It

I was sure, the last time I wrote about convicted securities fraud conspirer Chris Collins, the former Congressman from Western New York, that I was writing about him for the last time.  I really should have known better.  You can read his sad story here, in my last update. 

I had been ignoring the delays in getting his just over two-year prison term started - concerns about the coronavirus and all - and I even ignored it when he finally did report for duty at the Pensacola Federal Prison Camp back in October. 

Tonight, the impeached, lame duck president issued 20 pardons and commutations, with Collins being among the lucky. 

That the former congressman was the first one to support the president probably was very meaningful to Trump - and I can only imagine that, had he still been in office, Collins would have happily added his name to the list of 126 House Republicans supporting the 'Texas+' lawsuit (sorry, tired of listing the other states that joined that ridiculous case). 

He probably would have been appearing at rallies for the president, or maybe trying to overturn New York's election or something equally silly. At least we didn't have to see that, with him in prison down in Florida. 

I'll leave you with a comment from Geoffrey Berman, the prosecuting US Attorney in the Collins case. (You may remember that Berman was fired by Trump after some questionable personnel decisions by AG Snitty Snitty Bill Barr backfired.)

Anyway, here's what Berman said.

Lawmakers bear the profound privilege and responsibility of writing and passing laws, but equally as important the absolute obligation of following them. Collins' hubris is a stark reminder that the people of New York can and should demand more from their elected officials, and that no matter how powerful, no lawmaker is above the law.

Yes, they do. And no, they aren't. No matter what the pardon memo says - or doesn't.

Sidebar: "Let's Call It Trumpvirus"

In our Sunday School Extra Credit post this week, Chuck Todd asked Mike Pence about some comments being made by people on the right tabout people on the left trying trying to weaponize and politicize the coronavirus against the president.  

Here's a comment from Junior that Todd used, along with one from Rush Limbaugh and Ronna McDaniel, to spur some conversation.

For them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning is a new level of sickness.

We'll leave Junior's particular level of sickness out of the picture, and focus on what Pence said, after Todd pressed him to name names. 

CT: Because this is just -- it just feels like gas-lighting. Please name some names. I’m -- we're all big -- we're all big people here. Name some names.

VP: There was a column in the New York Times by a prominent liberal journalist that said, "We should rename it the Trump virus." --

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/

AFP via Getty Images

That was done, the veep said, "so that the president would be blamed." 

So, what did the piece, with the headline "Let's Call it Trumpvirus," say? Let's take a look at what columnist Gail Collins, former editor of the Times' Op-Ed page, wrote.

On appointing Mike Pence to be head of the coronavirus task force: 

So, our Coronavirus Czar is going to be … Mike Pence. Feeling more secure? “I know full well the importance of presidential leadership,” the vice president said as soon as he was introduced in his new role. Totally qualified. First criterion for every job in this administration is capacity for praising the gloriousness of our commander in chief... 

In contrast, here's what the president had to say about appointing a similarly unqualified person to lead a pandemic effort. 

Rightfully so, he was not the only one to criticize the Obama appointment, just as many others besides Collins have criticized his own appointment of his groveling veep to this critical role. 

On our stock market's roller-coaster, which came on the heels of similar thrill rides in every global market, the president downplayed the impact of a potential pandemic, and instead pointed to his Democratic opponents. 

“I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves,” Trump told reporters. Plus, that virus thing is … not necessarily a big deal. What really “shocked” him, Trump said, was his discovery that “the flu in our country kills 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year.”

So the problems are the Democrats and the flu...

But it's OK, because everything's going to be great, and we'll keep #winning, just like junior said.

The president had been saying everything is totally under control for some time. (“It’s one person coming in from China.”) The whole administration picked up the cry. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, 82, overcame his habit of dozing off at meetings long enough to tell Fox Business Network that the disease would “accelerate the return of jobs” from overseas.

Trump totally agrees. “What it’s gonna do is keep people home, and they’re going to travel to places we have,” he said. See? The virus thing is a bonus.

The article also talks about the elimination of the epidemic-watching groups that were in place during the previous administration.

 One was headed by the highly regarded Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, who got sent packing by John Bolton. Another infectious disease expert, Tom Bossert, suddenly vanished from the Department of Homeland Security in 2018, presumably also at the hand of John You-know-who.

If Bolton’s memoir ever makes it into print, do you think it’ll have a chapter called “My War on Pandemic Fighters?” OK, probably not.

And, it talks about a couple of what Trump surely would have called SAD! performances, had these folks been in someone else's administration. First, there was this:

The nation got its first real look at Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, who appeared before a Senate subcommittee and admitted he had no idea how the virus was transmitted among humans, exactly how dangerous it was, or … pretty much anything. 

When Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican not known for anti-administration bias, asked whether the country had enough respirators to deal with a coronavirus epidemic, Wolf answered in the affirmative.  

“We just heard testimony that we don’t,” Kennedy responded. “OK,” said Wolf. 

To be fair, he’s only been on the job since November. He’s the fifth head of Homeland Security Trump’s had in the last three years. Good thing he has a deputy — or at least an acting deputy — to help. That would be Ken Cuccinelli, who made news this week when he went on Twitter to ask for tips on how to find an online map of coronavirus sites posted by Johns Hopkins University. (“Here’s hoping it goes back up soon.”) 

And then, there was this, in reference to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, also part of the P-Team.

At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Azar was asked if he’d consider using some of the billions of dollars in funds for Trump’s border wall to help combat the current health crisis. Azar just chuckled.

Actually, people, this is probably not a theme we ought to be pursuing. Chances are, if the president is encouraged to mix the subjects of coronavirus and Mexico walls, he’ll suddenly announce that we need a barrier much bigger and thicker and more expensive, so it can stop the flow of immigrant germs.

And on that last part, let's go again to that same Extra Credit post, which included a Chris Wallace/Azar interview, in which the subject of Mexico came up.

Wallace asked whether there was any serious consideration to close the US/Mexican border.

Well, right now Mexico has very few cases. So that would -- that would take a real change in the epidemiological profile and the risk to the US from there.  I think (the president) is trying to say is, all things are on the table. We're not going to take anything off the table in our armamentarium of tools we have to protect the American people. 

Regular readers know my profound distaste for the president and most of the people in his administration, but this opinion piece is not untruthful; it references real occurrences and real comments from real members of the administration. Sure, it adds a bit of sarcasm, but that does not make it incorrect, nor does it politicize the virus. It certainly doesn't demonstrate a "new level of sickness" - Donny Jr can hold that title all by himself. Nor does it justify the veep's closing thoughts from his MTP interview.

VP: And when you see voices on our side pushing back on outrageous and irresponsible rhetoric on the other side, I think that's important.

CT: Do you think this rhetoric from your side helps?

VP: I, I never begrudge people responding to unwarranted, unjustified attacks. 

All I can say it that it's even more abundantly clear why the GOP can't do anything about gun safety legislation. It's not the NRA's fault - it's that these goofballs think that the truth is a weapon being used against them. 

In Case You Missed It (v20)

Another busy week for news watchers (and news avoiders), so here's a recap in case you missed any of this week's posts.  

The week started with news from the Update Desk - we had another update on the long, sad saga of Rep. Chris Collins, who last Friday was given a 26-month sentence stemming from his guilty plea on insider trading and other charges.

Saying that he believes "there is a need to both show respect for the law and to inflict just punishment," Judge Broderick added a $200,000 fine and a year of supervised release to the prison time, ending what the paper called "an unusually long three-hour sentencing hearing" which included a very emotional statement from Collins in which he said, among other things,

I violated my core values...  People feel sorry for me. They shouldn't. I did what I did. 

For this week's Sunday School, I sat in on an economics lesson, given by former Trump director of the National Economic Council. In addition to telling us he's not worried about a recession and he doesn't like tariffs, he also talked about some Democrats and their gimmicky policy proposals on raising revenue. And, for a while there, he sounded a lot like me.

You know, we look at spending and we look at revenue and we don't talk about them in the same sentence. We collect taxes and we spend. And Congress never thinks about how much money they have to spend. They just go spend... you wouldn't run your household like that. I wouldn't run my household like that. 

In the Extra Credit post, I looked at what some of the House Managers had to say; and there was Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-Trump), who came in from the golf course to chat with Chris Wallace. Graham actually agreed with managers Hakeem Jeffries and Jerry Nadler, the letter who said about Hunter Biden testifying, that Biden

"has no knowledge of the accusations against the president," which is true. Anyone on the Senate side suggesting he be called would be absurd. Jeffries echoed that thinking, saying that the standard for calling witnesses is "relevance to the central allegation in this case," that being Trump pressuring Ukraine. 

Graham himself said

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and the whistleblower, we can look at those allegations of misconduct outside of impeachment." 

I hope he remembers that exchange, since later in the week he seemed to be changing his tune on that.

Following an op-ed by Greta Van Susteren, I went back and looked at my posts related to Making Political Debates Better, and compared them with that Van Susteren said. She and I have very similar positions on this, aiming to put educating voters front and center in the debates. We focus on driving one-liners, sound bites, and pitting the candidates against each other, instead of allowing for a nuanced discussion on key issues, some of which have been around, unsolved or unaddressed, for years.  As Van Susteren said,

... If we don’t want the Oval Office to operate like Twitter, why do we test our candidates as if it does? 

Turning to my weekly Wondering on Wednesday, I spend some time wondering about things Rand Paul was saying about John Bolton, and what he might say if he were called to testify in the impeachment trial.

Which one is the guiding light for John Bolton at this point? Axe to grind and books to sell? Or, be a player and say, 'even if I'm gone, he's doing what I want on Iran and other things?'

To which I responded, 

Hey, Rand Paul, here's an idea: maybe Bolton is going to be a patriot, and say, 'even if I'm gone, and even if Trump's doing what I want on Iran and other things, I don't care - and I'm going to do the right thing and tell the truth?'  

On Thursday, in addition to the Email of the Week from one of the Dem presidential candidates - this week's winner was That Guy From Vermont - I re-opened the Trump in Transition theme to consider what would happen in a post-Trump administration if a Democratic president had the full and unfettered power of the presidency, unlimited either by criminal statute or Constitutional power.

... picture a President Sanders asking a foreign country to investigate an opponent of 'Democratic Socialism' or a President Biden having a friendly foreign government dig up dirt on all of the nepotism hires in the government, or a President Buttigieg having an equality-centric foreign country go after anti-gay politicians and their families, or a President Warren asking another country for help in digging around in DNA databases for dirt on political opponents... 

I'm pretty sure we all can picture the look on the Republicans' faces under those circumstances, can't we?

For this week's TGIF, in addition to some thoughts on impeachment, we had fun with the new Space Force logo (and the old ones, which were even more fun when introduced to help raise money for the Trump/Pence gang).  Here's how I closed the post.

To which George Takei - Sulu on Star Trek - said, "Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this..."

So, there you go - you're up to date on the veritable pastiche for the week. If you'd rather stay up to date on posts when they happen, drop your email in the Instant Gratification box on the right sidebar on the blog.

See you tomorrow for Sunday School.

The Update Desk: Chris Collins, One Last Time

How many times have we talked about former Rep. Chris Collins, the disgraced former Buffalo-area congressman who denied and then pled guilty to insider trading and other charges? There have been more than a few updates, for sure - take a look. 

First, there was this:

Collins, you have likely heard, has been charged with insider trading; the charges stem from him being on the board of an Australian pharma company, and him allegedly using information he learned about the failure of one of the company's drugs, which he then allegedly shared with his son (perhaps as he attended a White House gathering, if the timeline is correct), and his son allegedly shared the information with his soon-to-be father-in-law. 

And, there was this announcement: 

After extensive discussions with my family and my friends over the last few days, I have decided that it's in the best interests of the constituents of NY-27, the Republican Party, and president Trump's agenda for me to suspend my campaign for re-election to Congress.

I will fill out the remaining few months of my term to assure that our community maintains its vote in Congress to support president Trump's agenda to create jobs, eliminate regulations, reduce the size of government and lower taxes.

I will also continue to fight the meritless charges brought against me and I look forward to having my good name cleared of any wrongdoing.

 But then, we're in New York, so

Buffalo-area congressman and Trump first responder Chris Collins is going to be on the ballot for his congressional seat in November after all.

Unfortunately, it seems, trying to get off the ballot under some grand scheme being worked on by Erie County Republicans and Collins could jeopardize his defense against the federal criminal charges filed against him mid-summer, and could have led to a lawsuit by NY Democrats fighting against the plan to replace him on the ballot. It might even have jeopardized his bail, attorneys thought.

And, we're in New York so, he won re-election. Which brought us to this.

Collins is in the news again, for a couple of reasons. First, the House is going to reopen its ethics investigation into his case, which was suspended back when he was indicted on federal charges. But not to worry -- the House has promised the Department of Justice that they'll not interfere with the criminal case against him.

And that led to this.

Well, he's back, and now news is breaking from his hometown newspaper, the Buffalo News: 

WASHINGTON – Rep. Chris Collins resigned Monday, a day before he is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to federal charges stemming from an insider trading scheme that prosecutors first detailed in an indictment nearly 14 months ago.

And finally, we are here, with this latest update from his hometown paper. 

Chris Collins cried so hard that many of his words got lost in his anguish.

But that act of contrition meant only so much to US District Court Judge Vernon S. Broderick, who on Friday sentenced Collins to 26 months in prison for launching an insider trading scheme with a call to his son from a White House picnic in June 2017.

Saying that he believes "there is a need to both show respect for the law and to inflict just punishment," Judge Broderick added a $200,000 fine and a year of supervised release to the prison time, ending what the paper called "an unusually long three-hour sentencing hearing" which included a very emotional statement from Collins in which he said, among other things,

I violated my core values...  People feel sorry for me. They shouldn't. I did what I did. 

He spoke of the damage to his son's reputation, the problems caused for his son's in-laws, and for his own family, and said of former colleagues who reached out to him that morning,

I let them down -- and the president of the United States.

Broderick pointed out that, in addition to the damage Collins himself called out, he had also left his district unrepresented for months.  And US Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who prosecuted the case, said this.

Lawmakers bear the profound privilege and responsibility of writing and passing laws, but equally as important the absolute obligation of following them. Collins' hubris is a stark reminder that the people of New York can and should demand more from their elected officials, and that no matter how powerful, no lawmaker is above the law.

And sadly, that's a message that New Yorkers have had a hard time mastering, as we've seen so many times before.

We need to do better, we really do.

Sunday School Extra Credit 1/12/20

I wanted to spend some time with one of the roundtable gangs in this week, and chose the panel from ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, since they had House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to talk about.

This Week's group included former NJ Governor Chris Christie; former Obama administration ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard; Rachael Bade of the WaPo, and Molly Ball from Time Magazine.

For background on the panel's discussion about impeachment, I've included some of Pelosi's comments from her chat with George. First off, she said she always intended to send the articles, so "there shouldn't be any mystery to that."

What we did want, though, and we think we accomplished in the past few weeks, is that we wanted the public to see the need for witnesses, witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what happened, documentation which the president has prevented from coming to Congress as we review this. 

And, in response to George's statement that Mitch McConnell (R-White House) still isn't promising there'll be any witnesses, Pelosi said

Well, he has -- he will -- I think that he will be accountable to the American people for that. Over 70% of the American people think that the president should have those witnesses testify. So, again, it is - it's about a fair trial. They take an oath to -- to have a fair trial. And we think that would be with witnesses and documentation. So, that dynamic has - now the ball is in their court to either do that, or pay a price for not doing it. 

How did the panel react?  Rachael Bade noted that Pelosi was "clearly putting a positive spin on what a lot of Democrats have privately said was a failed strategy." She didn't get any commitment on having witnesses, or on how the trial would be run - and, the "revelations" that dropped over the past weeks, including John Bolton saying he'd testify if asked to, "probably would have happened regardless" of Pelosi's actions, adding

And, in fact, there might have been even more news focused on those things, if everybody wasn't asking, 'what is Nancy Pelosi doing (with) the articles?' So, I do think there are a lot of Democrats who, while not going on the record and saying it, a lot of them have concerns about this.

Molly Ball talked responded to George's statement about Dems who suggested (again, off the record)  Pelosi didn't have a choice because McConnell can't be trusted, particularly "that maybe he might even move quickly to dismiss."

Ball said the standoff between Pelosi and McConnell was "very sort of unstoppable force meets immovable object," noting they're both "very clever" tacticians - but she discounted the quick dismissal theory.

I think that that was probably never a strong possibility, just because of president Trump. It's been clear from the start that he always wanted to have the exoneration of a Senate trial, not a mere dismissal. And he has been putting pressure on McConnell behind the scenes this whole time. And so that - if there was any leverage on the part of the Democrats, that was where the leverage sat. 

Stephanopoulos suggested, though, that the president had come around to McConnell's strategy of having no witnesses, if it's actually successful. Chris Christie thought that shift was "inevitable" - because, he said, "nobody does this better than Mitch McConnell."

And that's what Nancy Pelosi learned over the last three weeks, and what Chuck Schumer has learned time and time again.. And the president has learned over time, by watching all the judges he's gotten confirmed, and all the ways he's done things to make the president's legacy even better, that it's probably smart to listen to McConnell on this. 

He pointed to Pelosi's "serious error in political judgment"- holding back the articles - as the primary reason "this has been a really good three weeks for the president." He also noted that during this time, we haven't had the media doing special reports on the start of the trial and whatnot - so Trump was able to talk about other stuff, as he chose.

Patrick Gaspard did not agree with Christie so much, noting that they're "arguing balls and strikes after the game's already been decided."

The president of the United States has been impeached by Congress.... And you right that nobody's better than Mitch McConnell at obstructing governance."

Needless to say, there was some laughter when Christie pointed out that wasn't exactly what he said.  Gaspard continued, noting that

now the pressure is on him and his caucus and senators in states that were won by Hillary Clinton last time whose names are on the ballot now. And they have got to defend this process. 

Christie said the game was over, noting Trump's "not going to be removed;" he also expressed confidence that there won't be witnesses - and Bade agreed, even as Stephanopoulos mentioned both Mitt Romney and Susan Collins said they'd like to hear from folks. She pointed out they need four Republicans to go along with the Dems, and "that's going to be an uphill battle" given how well McConnell manages his caucus.

She's also watching the Trump-McConnell dynamic, which she finds "really interesting," pointing to their contrasting styles.

And yet, throughout this whole past few weeks, Trump has been deferring to McConnell over and over again regarding witnesses. McConnell privately convinced him, 'let's not call in Hunter Biden, let's not call in Joe Biden, let's do no witnesses, because if they bring in someone like Bolton, it's mutual assured destruction' is what he's told his members. 

Moving to the three Democratic candidates who are also senators -  Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, and That Guy from Vermont - they talked about how the impeachment trial might impact them. Joe Biden and Mayor Pete - who don't have to worry about it - could gain some ground if they're out there pretty much alone.

Molly Ball agreed with Stephanopoulos that Iowa is "anybody's ballgame right now" and that the impeachment trial is on everyone's mind, particularly the Vermonter,  now leading in the polls, who

is not going to be able to be out there on the stump. And it's a potentially big problem to try to do these things simultaneously. The senators are required to be there at the trial, but they can't talk, and so they're sort of sitting on their hands watching the clock wind down.

She also noted that the debate this week "is going to be very important" given how tight the field is.

The issue of witnesses may also make a mess of things in New Hampshire - and beyond, conceivably, which Rachel Bade recognized. For the Dems, it's a blessing and a curse, she said. On the one hand, Dems have been waiting for months to hear from first-hand witnesses.

I mean, the top Republican talking point pushing back against these charges against the president has been, 'oh, your witnesses are second-hand information. None of them have actually talked to the president.' Well, Democrats want to hear from those people who have been talking to the president, Bolton. Mick Mulvaney. 

On the other hand, she said,

But if they decide, at the end of it, it's going to take about two weeks for them to go through opening arguments... if they get that fourth Republican to call in, you know, Bolton or some of these first-hand witnesses, then that could mean another two to four weeks, I mean, of impeachment trial all throughout the various caucuses in the states.

And that could be a big problem for Sanders and Warren, she said.

Christie got the last word on this., saying that the presidential candidate senators are "real fans of the -- of the Pelosi strategy, I guess, right?" and adding

Three weeks - three weeks they've waited now. And that extends them even further into the - into the season. Nancy Pelosi is not going to be getting any cards or letters from those four thanking her for her great, failed strategy.

Christie included Booker, who was still in the race when the panel was having their conversation - he dropped out today - and whether there are four senators in the hunt or only three, I suspect he's right on his point that none of them are thanking their lucky stars for Pelosi right about now.

What will be interesting is to see what Mitch McConnell does once he has the articles in hand. Does he rush forward to put the president out of his misery, or does he put the brakes on a little, to make it a little less comfortable for the candidates?  Stay tuned.

That's your extra credit -- see you around campus.

The Update Desk: Fair Redistricting

A couple of updates related to my Grains of Salt post on voters in Syracuse approving a change to the city's Charter to bring us independent, fair redistricting:

First, Syracuse's Common Council President Helen Hudson talked with folks at WAER, our local PBS affiliate, about redistricting in general and what we might expect down the road.

The proposition was approved by a 76% to 23% margin, and Hudson, who says we're long overdue for a redistricting, "appreciates the strong support" the measure received. She gave just one example of  why we need to redraw the maps.

We know within the last twenty years, we've had a really huge influx of new Americans, and most of them are packed into District One, which is overpopulated. So we need to start looking at how we can reshape some of these districts and give people representation.

She also pointed out one of the things that drives people crazy about how districts are drawn: that there are places where multiple councilors represent portions of the same street, making it hard for residents to figure out who represents them - and, I'd add, potentially make it harder for neighborhoods like this have cohesive representation.

Hudson said that the next step is "to engage citizens in public hearings," with the goal of getting input on how the independent commission should be created.

We're going to be looking at civic involvement, how often you voted, demographics, racial makeups... We're going to be looking at a whole gamut of things to ensure that everyone gets the representation they deserve. 

She noted that folks interested in being on the commission will be able to apply, and said that the City Auditor, with no stake in the district maps, would receive resumes in the interest of keeping this process independent. She also noted that our officials are looking to other cities which have already gone this way for guidance, including Austin, Texas.

Also from our friends at WAER, we've learned that we have our first candidate for the DeFrancisco-Antonacci seat in the NY State Senate.

At an announcement held at Syracuse's Schiller Park, John Mannion announced he will run for the seat. Mannion, you'll recall, lost to Antonacci in a close race to fill the seat after DeFrancisco retired.

I've done it before, you know. A lot of the things in the platform are the same; it has to do with the environment, it has to do with the economics of the region, and education is always going to be important to me. We have have a positive change in the teacher evaluation system, but we still don't have a fair funding formula that's working for school districts. 

It's still not known whether there'll be a special election for the seat, but the Sonofa Gov, Andrew Cuomo, seems to be leaning in that direction, according to this report from one of our local TV stations.

The day after the election, when it appeared that Senator Antonacci would likely win one of the three State Supreme Court seats, Cuomo said that his "inclination would be to call a special election" if Antonacci resigns

He's already got another special election to call -- the one to fill the seat vacated when disgraced Congressman Chris Collins resigned and pleaded guilty in his federal insider trading case. And, it's "most cost effective" to have the special election on New York's primary day, Cuomo suggested, since the polls will be open anyway, and it's possible that the open State Senate seat could be handled the same day.

The problem, of course, is that waiting until April 28th would leave parts of Onondaga and Cayuga Counties without representation during the first four months of the legislative session which amounts to around 70% of the 57-day session. Having it sooner - it could happen sometime in March, I guess, based on the typically difficult rules for special elections, but that would be up to the Governor.

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that folks in the district would rather spend the money and have someone representing them, than the alternatives: waiting until the session is almost over, or having someone appointed to fill out the term and letting the parties do their primary thing, with winners to face off in the general election in November.

In Case You Missed it (v5)

Another jam-packed week of news, sports, weather, and veritable pastiche.

In case you missed anything, here's a recap.

Sunday School this week was all about Cory Booker, because he was the only 2020 Dem hitting a classroom. Most of the question he got had nothing to do with his campaign and everything to do with the current president, impeachment, the former vice president.. you know.  Here's an excerpt about ethics, and Trump.

Look, I have a lot of beliefs about ethics rules and the needs for our government of the United States to go far further in the rules than we have. But the fact that the Republicans right now are trying to use this and distract from the president of the United States and his own actions is to me incredible.

Need some Sunday School Extra Credit? Chris Wallace chatted with former Trump Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, who also served as Deputy Homeland Security Advisor under Dubya. Among other things, he offered some insight into the method, or the madness, of Trump:

...I honestly believe this president has not gotten his pound of flesh yet from past grievances on the 2016 investigation. I believe he and his legal team have been looking into this, probably even prior to Joe Biden announcing that he would run for president.

Western New York was in the spotlight in a couple of posts; unfortunately, not in the best light. We had news from the Update Desk on the sad tale of Rep. Chris Collins, the first member of Congress to support the president.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her office received Collins' resignation letter Monday. The aide said Collins' resignation will become effective Tuesday.

Why did  he resign, you ask? So he could plead guilty to charges in his insider trading case, of course.

The second post was a Quick Take on multiple investigations looking into how things are being done at the WNY Off Track Betting (OTB) office. Not on the gambling end, but on how the Board does business, and who benefits.

New York has a history of good intentions gone bad, and sadly we seem to excel when it comes to situations where public corporations, boards, and authorities are given freedom to do their own thing - because that almost always ends up with politically connected companies and people receiving benefits they are probably not entitled to, or that are way beyond what's reasonable for the work done, and that regular folks have no way to access

In this Poll Watch entry, we learned that, no matter what he tells us, the president is underwater not only on his personal likeability, but also on his policies. He must be reading different polls?

The other takeaway from this question?  Approval of his policies is underwater by 10 points (54% don't approve, 44% do). And, this will pain Trump I'm sure, but his predecessors - Obama (64%), Bush II (57%), Clinton (55%) Bush I (78%), and Reagan (66%) were all better liked than he is. Data on Abraham Lincoln is not immediately available.

And in a Sidebar on the same poll, the news wasn't all that great for the Democrats' policies, either.  None of their big ideas have strong support from a majority of voters, and they're struggling with Democratic voters, too.

Only a handful of the issues - DREAMers, the Medicare opt-in, student loan forgiveness tied to a repayment plan, and tuition-free college - have strong support from a majority of Dems; all the rest of the issues fall below 50% on the strength of support.

In the blink of an eye,  it was Hump Day, and time for some Wondering about Joe Biden's campaign acting badly, and Mike Pompeo's chest-thumping to protect his employees, even as the president maligns them, and about Hillary Clinton, too, and whether she understands her role these days.

 I get it - she couldn't have known that there was going to be an impeachment inquiry starting just days before she and Chelsea hit the road, but she has to know that we're in the middle of a Democratic Primary, and that we don't need her to be on the stage talking about why she lost, or policy, or Trump, or impeachment, or about anything other than Gutsy Women.

The Update Desk was busy this week; in addition to the Collins post, we got caught up with the Democratic candidates via my ongoing social experiment. In addition to counting the emails and the requests for money, I've added a new feature to this: the email of the week, which this time around was sent by Be to O'Rourke's team. Here's a snippet.

Maybe I could do a Facebook live stream with a kitten in hand and say, “You know, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to this kitten now would we… Send your $5 now and Miss Whiskers will be fine.”

To be clear, we’re not planning on harming any kittens. But we do need your help...

Someone should get Miss Whiskers a Twitter account, don't you think?

And finally, blissfully, TGIF. Among other things, we heard from the candidates on their fundraising efforts for the 3rd quarter.

Third-quarter fundraising totals are out for the Democratic candidates. Here's how it look, according to the campaigns: Sanders ($25.3M), Warren ($24.6M), Buttigieg ($19.1M), Biden ($15.2M), Harris ($11.6M), Yang ($10M) and Booker ($6M). Big losers? Biden, down $6.8M and Buttigieg, down $5.8M compared to last quarter's official FEC filings. Time to thin the herd, I think?

That's it -- a busy week for sure. I still owe you some poetry, an Albany update, and more. Let's see if I can fit everything in next week!