The Commentariat -- August 26, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Trump Has a Problem Bigger than Bob Mueller. Noah Feldman of Bloomberg: "Trump is now facing a two-front war against the Justice Department. The team led by special counsel Robert Mueller is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Southern District can investigate any aspect of Trump's behavior that took place in its jurisdiction, at any time. And unlike Mueller, who could in principle be fired, the Southern District isn't one man; it's a whole office of career lawyers. It can't be fired. Even if Robert Khuzami, the acting U.S. attorney in this case, were removed, no new U.S. attorney could realistically call off the prosecutors.... It remains to be seen how far the Southern District will go. But its opening salvo -- [Michael] Cohen's statement against the president ... made in consultation with the Southern District prosecutors ... -- already went further than any part of the Justice Department has gone since Richard Nixon's administration."

The Nastiest Candidate Ever. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kelli Ward suggested Saturday that the Friday statement issued by Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) family about ending medical treatment for brain cancer was intended to hurt her campaign. McCain died Saturday hours after she made the suggestion on Facebook." ...

... Yesterday, James Arkin of Politico reported that on the campaign trail, Ward kept up her criticism of McCain after the family announced he was discontinuing cancer treatment. ...

... AND last summer, after McCain announced he had cancer, Ward said, "'the medical reality of [McCain's] diagnosis is grim,' and he should consider stepping down and having her take his place." Ward is in a primary race against Martha McSally -- the "establishment" candidate -- and that nice Joe Arpaio. to replace Sen. Jeff Flake (R), who is retiring. Mrs. McC: My guess is that McSally will win because Ward & Arpaio will split the white nationalist/crazy person/sadist vote.

*****

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81." ...

... Karen Tumulty wrote Sen. McCain's obituary for the Washington Post. ...

... Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator John McCain ... will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda and receive a full dress funeral service at the Washington National Cathedral. Mr. McCain ... will also lie in state at the Arizona Capitol before his burial in Annapolis, Md., a Republican official involved in the planning said.... Two Republicans familiar with the planning said that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been asked to offer eulogies at his funeral. Under initial plans for Mr. McCain's funeral, Vice President Mike Pence was to attend, but not President Trump, who clashed repeatedly with Mr. McCain. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, said on Saturday that he would introduce a resolution to rename the Russell Senate Office Building -- currently named for Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, who often opposed civil rights legislation -- in honor of Mr. McCain." ...

... The New Yorker features David Remnick's May 2018 reflections on John McCain. ...

... Russ Feingold, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers working with John McCain. Thanks to PD Pepe for the lead. ...

... Michael Sykes of Axios posts videos & photos of a few of "McCain's finest moments." ...

... Here are the last words of McCain's last book, titled The Restless Wave.

*******************************************************************

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump's wall of secrecy -- the work of a lifetime -- is starting to crack.... His longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last week to breaking campaign-finance laws and said he had arranged hush-money payments to two women at Trump's direction. A tabloid executive -- who had served Trump by snuffing out damaging tales before they went public -- and Trump's chief financial officer gave testimony in the case. All three had been part of the small circle ... who have long played crucial roles in Trump's strategy to shield the details of his personal life and business dealings from prying outsiders. But ... a growing number of legal challenges -- including the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and a raft of lawsuits and state-level probes in New York -- is eroding that barrier. The result has been a moment in which Trump seems politically wounded, as friends turn and embarrassing revelations about alleged affairs and his charity trickle out.... In coming months, certain cases could force Trump's company to open its books about foreign government customers or compel the president to testify about his relationships with women."

Michael Shear & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In his attempt at self-defense amid the swirl of legal cases and investigations involving himself, his aides and his associates, Mr. Trump is directly undermining the people and processes that are the foundation of the nation's administration of justice. The result is a president at war with the law. 'You are dealing with a potentially indelible smearing of our law enforcement institutions,' said Neal K. Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama. 'If Trump's views were actually accepted, there would be thousands of criminals who are out on the streets right now.' The president's public judgments about the country's top law enforcement agencies revolve largely around how their actions affect him personally -- a vision that would recast the traditionally independent justice system as a guardian of the president and an attack dog against his adversaries. For more than a year, he has criticized the Justice Department, questioned the integrity of the prosecutors leading the Russia investigation, and mercilessly mocked Jeff Sessions, his own attorney general.... As president, Mr. Trump is sworn to uphold the law, but he has viewed the legal system itself as an adversary, suggesting that it be circumvented to, for instance, send migrants back home." ...

... Bob Bauer in the Atlantic: "... even now we know what Trump seems unable to comprehend -- that he is a key reason why the investigation keeps going. This is ... because of what the investigation and his response have already revealed about this character: his disregard of legal limits when it is in his personal and political interest to ignore them, and his persistent failure to render an honest accounting of his actions. Although not quite in the way that he imagines, Trump is, in fact, what ties all [the] pieces [of the investigation] together and assures that the inquiry will, as it must, continue. Trump ... has failed to negotiate the boundary between legitimate self-defense and obstruction of justice, and in attacks such as those on his attorney general and his failed courtship of former FBI Director James Comey, he has indicated in no uncertain terms that he expects loyalty rather than fidelity to the law."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post on "the three illegal acts that may have helped Trump with the presidency.... [1] The hush money [to Karen McDougal & Stormy Daniels].... [2] The hackers. Last month, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III obtained an indictment against 12 Russians believed to work for the country's Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU.... [3] The trolls. In February, Mueller's team obtained indictments against 13 Russians who worked for an organization called the Internet Research Agency.... We ... do not yet have a full picture of two other key points of contact between the Trump campaign and Russian actors.... What became more clear this week is Trump's campaign was aided by many more surreptitious acts violating federal law than we realized -- and President Trump himself is now clearly implicated in aiding at least one." (Also linked yesterday.)

Conservative Peter Wehner in a New York Times op-ed: "A party that once spoke with urgency and apparent conviction about the importance of ethical leadership -- fidelity, honesty, honor, decency, good manners, setting a good example -- has hitched its wagon to the most thoroughly and comprehensively corrupt individual who has ever been elected president.... Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are right now the chief emblem of corruption and cynicism in American political life, of an ethic of might makes right.... Thanks to the work of Robert Mueller -- a distinguished public servant, not the leader of a 'group of Angry Democrat Thugs' -- we are going to discover deeper and deeper layers to Mr. Trump's corruption." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: How is it that Republican "thinkers" are shocked, shocked to discover that the leaders of their party are corrupt opportunists? My prediction is that the Never-Trumpers will get back on their high horses the minute somebody drives Trump out of Dodge. The whole lot of reprobates will once again be hailed as paragons of virtue saving us all from riffraff & "entitlements."

For What It's Worth. Ramsey Touchberry of Newsweek: "Roger Stone, a former Donald Trump aide..., said he believes one of the president's sons, Donald Trump Jr., will soon be indicted for 'lying to the FBI.' 'I [predict], based on excellent sourcing, that the special counsel is going to charge Donald Trump Jr. with lying to the FBI,' Stone told James Miller of the conservative online outlet The Political Insider." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "A federal district judge in Washington struck down most of the key provisions of three executive orders that President Trump signed in late May that would have made it easier to fire federal employees. The ruling, issued early Saturday, is a blow to Republican efforts to rein in public-sector labor unions, which states like Wisconsin have aggressively curtailed in recent years. In June, the Supreme Court dealt public-sector unions a major blow by ending mandatory union fees for government workers nationwide.... The complaint said that the president lacks the authority to override federal law on these questions, and the judge in the case, Ketanji Brown Jackson, agreed, writing that most of the key provisions of the executive orders 'conflict with congressional intent in a manner that cannot be sustained.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Democratic Party officials, after a yearslong battle between warring ideological wings, have agreed to sharply reduce the influence of the top political insiders known as superdelegates in the presidential nomination process. Under the new plan, which was agreed to on Saturday afternoon in Chicago at the Democratic National Committee's annual summer meetings, superdelegates retain their power to back any candidate regardless of how the public votes. They will now be largely barred, however, from participating in the first ballot of the presidential nominating process at the party's convention -- drastically diluting their power. Superdelegates will be able to cast substantive votes only in extraordinary cases like contested conventions, in which the nomination process is extended through multiple ballots until one candidate prevails."

Beyond the Beltway

Joe Johnson, et al., of the Raleigh News & Observer: "Police had arrested seven people by early Saturday afternoon, as protesters clashed at UNC-Chapel Hill five days after the toppling of the Silent Sam Confederate monument.... Silent Sam supporters numbered no more than a couple of dozen, while the anti-protesters had the numbers on their side, with about 200 people shouting and chanting various slogans.... The UNC-Chapel Hill Police Department on Friday filed warrants charging three people in connection with the toppling of the statue. The warrants charge the three with misdemeanor riot and misdemeanor defacing of a publi monument, according to a UNC police statement."

Way Beyond

New York Times: "On the second day of a difficult mission to win back the confidence of Irish Catholics, Pope Francis awoke on Sunday to a bombshell attack from within his own citadel. A former top-ranking Vatican official released a 7,000-word letter asserting that the pontiff had known about the abuses of a now-disgraced American prelate, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, years before they became public. The official, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a conservative critic of Francis and a former apostolic nuncio to the United States, claimed that the pope had failed to punish Cardinal McCarrick, who was suspended in June following allegations that he had coerced seminarians into sexual relationships. He was also found to have abused a teenage altar boy 47 years ago, when he was a priest in New York. In the letter, published on Saturday in Italian by The National Catholic Register and in English by LifeSiteNews, both critical of Francis, the archbishop called on the pope to resign." ...

     ... The report linked above is part of the NYT's liveblog of Francis's visit to Ireland. ...

     ... Chico Harlan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis -- among other top Catholic Church officials -- had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against a top American cardinal years before that prelate resigned this summer.... The letter offered no proof and Vigano on Sunday told the Post he wouldn't comment further." ...

... Chico Harlan & Amanda Ferguson of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis said Saturday that the 'failure of ecclesiastical authorities' to address sexual abuse has 'rightly given rise to outrage,' his first acknowledgment during his trip to Ireland of the traumas here that have radically diminished the Roman Catholic clergy's once-towering authority. In an address at Dublin Castle, Francis described the 'repellent crimes' and the failure to deal with them as 'a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.' But he did not discuss concrete changes in laws or transparency or address the question of the Vatican's complicity in the abuse cases." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The main Irish Times story is here. The front page of the Irish Times has links to numerous related stories.

News Ledes

(Jacksonville,) Florida Times-Union: "Multiple people are dead, including the lone suspect, after a mass shooting Sunday afternoon at the Jacksonville Landing during a video game tournament, a chaotic scene at a waterfront venue synonymous with downtown.... Many details about the shooting were not immediately clear, including how many people were dead and what kind of gun the suspect used. Police publicly referred to the incident as a 'mass shooting,' a term with varying definitions that often means at least three or four people have died." ...

     ... Washington Post Update: "Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the suspect took his own life, but he did not know details of any motive or if the suspect knew the victims. This story is developing. At least three people are dead and 14 are injured after a lone gunman opened fire Sunday during a video game tournament in Florida that drew professional players from around the world." The suspect is believed to be from Baltimore, Md.

New York Times: "Neil Simon, the playwright whose name was synonymous with Broadway comedy and commercial success in the theater for decades, and who helped redefine popular American humor with an emphasis on the frictions of urban living and the agonizing conflicts of family intimacy, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 91."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

You might think that a president* who threatens people for “disrespecting” the flag would have at least a vague clue what that symbol looks like.

You’d be wrong.

Here are photos that show Trump the Patriot demonstrating for little kids in a classroom that they should color the stripes on the American flag red, white, and, um, blue.

Hope he didn’t try to help them spell potato.

https://amp.slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/did-trump-color-an-american-flag-wrong-during-a-photo-op-with-ohio-kids.html

[PD Pepe]

The tributes for McCain are plentiful and I've read a few but I found Russ Feingold's (see sidebar) and David Remnick's (although David's piece was written in May of this year) the most moving and honest. In Feingold's you hear how true friends, albeit on different sides of the aisle, can work together and learn from each other. The picture here is of two stellar fellas having one hell of a time trying to do the best job they can.
In Remnick's much contrast between a man like McCain and a man like Trump. Within this piece Remnick inserts David Foster Wallace's portrait of McCain's Viet Nam experience. It's the first time I read about the details of his capture and torture–-David wants you to feel what it was like, and when you do that you realize what McCain went through in an entirely new way and know you would have become a broken person in no time. And after digesting that you remember what Trump said about McCain, he wasn't a hero because he was captured, and the repugnance of that statement becomes all one needs to know about the man.

I liked the fact that Remnick cited the mistakes McCain has made in his life and has owned up to them. The one that cut the deepest, he says, was the mistake of picking Palin. "It is not hard to draw a line between Palin and the rise of Trump," something I sensed some time back. The irony here is McCain never talked smack against her, but she came out big and bold for Trump and this was after he said McCain was not a hero. I found this disloyalty despicable, but not surprising.

The other story that piqued my interest was the Pope's visit to Ireland. I appreciate Marie giving us pieces from the Irish Times and the one I read was Fintan O'Toole's––I have always liked his writing. He says the Pope might have reified the sense of Christianity as a radical option for the poor as opposed to a form on institutional power.

"Usually, when someone comes to visit, you get to know them better. But Francis seems even more enigmatic for his presence among us. How can someone have such a warm human touch on the one hand and be so terribly out of touch on the other? How can he be so deeply sympathetic to human suffering and so apparently unable to do the things that would stop it? It is as hard not to warm to him as it is to figure out how his humble humanity sits with his aura of divine power."

[Akhilleus]

It seems that some Trump lackey finally got onto the boss’s tiny-fingered Twitter shouter and spewed out some boilerplate blah, blah, thoughts and prayers past-sale-date baloney to the family of John McCain. I’m sure these completely insincere and meaningless words were warmly received by Cindy, et al.

McCain was a complicated person, as most of us are. No one goes into public life without a certain amount of ego and no one runs for president—multiple times—without a lot of ego. Like Remnick, I didn’t, and would never, vote for McCain. But more than almost any other R of his generation, especially the last ten years or so, there were glimmers of decency and sincerity to partially offset the less honorable stuff. Can you imagine Trump tamping down bitter, overboard reactions by one of his campaign workers or supporters toward a victorious rival?

As delirious as I was that night, the night Obama won, I was really, and surprisingly, proud of McCain for standing up like that.

PD mentions the part of Remnick’s article where he quotes from a long piece in a 2000 issue of Rolling Stone by David Foster Wallace about McCain’s travails in the Hanoi Hilton. I recommend the Wallace piece for a number of reasons. Its day to day, hour by hour reportage of life in the midst of the campaign maelstrom is fascinating, but no more so than Wallace’s take(s) on McCain in whom he occasionally spies moments of what could be authentic leadership. Of course Wallace, although a bit of a political journalism tyro, which he admits, is too smart and too thoughtful not to see that there were other sides in play. Notably, he recognized that the tenor of the campaign started to change after NH, when it became clear that McCain, the outsider, the “maverick”, had a real shot. At this point it seemed as if McCain began to mull over the seeming necessity of “doing what it takes” to win.

He didn’t have long to worry about it though. McCain wasn’t the only one startled by the possibility of his going all the way. The execrable Bush, whom Wallace refers to as The Shrub, pulled out the dirty tricks and that was it for McCain. Although the “doing what it takes” lesson may have come back to bite him with his terrible selection of that dreadful Palin person.

He was certainly one of the more interesting, if frequently maddening figures in American politics, but for all his warts, for the S&L scandal, Palin, and his support of Trump, there are too many light years separating McCain from the current criminal bastard squatting in our White House to make calculation of the distance worth the effort.

And one more shady, unscrupulous character who pales in comparison to McCain is the current treasonous leader of the Senate. A news piece today, talking about McCain-Feingold, reminded listeners that the asshole leading the charge against campaign finance reform then, and still, was Turtle Man McConnell.

There are so few honorable and decent human beings in national politics these days. None on the right. Too many voters get sucked in by the pretense and the frauds.

McCain’s ability to be critical of his own actions was, as Wallace suggests, either a great show, or the real thing, or maybe both at different times. But even the possibility of authenticity is an exciting thing in the Age of Confederate Perfidy and Trumpian fraudulence.

As he warns at the end of his piece on McCain 2000, it’s best that we all stay awake.