Steve M. makes a good point when he notes the contrast between how the Trump administration has performed in staffing up their administration (with a special emphasis on the vacancies at the State Department) with their intention to build a large rapid response team of “street fighters” to wage war against the Russian investigation.
Mike Allen reports:
West Wing officials are prepping for a years-long war with investigators and the bureaucracy, with plans to beef up legal, surrogate, communications and rapid-response teams as part of a “new normal” for President Trump — besieged.
“The White House is embracing the fight, which is going to last as long as Donald Trump is president,” said a Trump ally familiar with the preparations. “We’re getting street fighters ready to go.” …
* What’s next: Proposed war-room org charts have been prepared, and final decisions on the structure will be made after Trump returns this weekend.
* Jonathan Swan hears that comms/rapid response structures are being considered for both inside the White House and on the outside.
Meanwhile, out of the 559 key positions in government that require Senate confirmation, there is currently no nominee for 445, and only 36 have been confirmed. I’m not sure if the FBI director is even included in that list, but I notice that Joe Lieberman has withdrawn his name from consideration.
I have a thought, which is that fighting this investigation hasn’t worked so far and has, in fact, backfired in rather spectacular fashion. So, maybe it would be better, since they’re so innocent, to focus on cooperating with the investigation to make sure that they can be exonerated as soon as possible.
I know if someone accused me of committing a murder and I knew I didn’t do it that I would not want to be accused of obstructing justice and I wouldn’t want the investigation hanging over me any longer than necessary. That’s why I offer this advice, because it’s solid advice for anyone who has nothing to hide.
This would also allow them to focus on staffing the positions that really matter rather than on building a giant machine for spinning bad news into bullshit.
You’re working on a comedy routine? If I were on the East Coast I’d come to see it!
I know, right? That got a LOL from me too.
More leakers.
They don’t want to staff these positions. It’s part of the “drown it in the bath tub” approach to government.
“solid advice for anyone who has nothing to hide. “
Yeah but it obviously doesn’t apply in Trump’s situation.
If the people in those positions aren’t on tv then the position doesn’t exist in Trump’s mind.
is this from the Onion?
Embarrassing. Like a 5 year old.
So Presidential… NOT.
imo thug is more accurate
I know I’m among the few, but I’m still not all that convinced that Russia had much, if any, influence over the outcome of the election.
Trump’s decision to staff up a rapid response team strikes me as part and parcel of who Trump is: someone who fights and bullies his way to the bitter end, rather than cooperating. I never read any of his books, but in observing his bs bluster over the years, that seems to be his MO. NEVER give a quarter. Always fight to the last breath.
I’m not sure that this move, as ill-conceived as it is, indicates his guilt or connivance with the Russians. Time will tell. I just think it’s more sheer wasteful idiocy from this creep who “made it” via Daddy’s money, bankruptcy, mobbing up, and other criminal, unethical and amoral tactics to screw over everyone in a Winner Take All fashion.
Trump doesn’t WANT to staff the State Dept. He’s made that blindingly obvious on many occassions. He doesn’t trust them, and he wants to rule how the State Dept is run, no matter what. Trump wants to be fully in control of foreign policy – mainly to make money, is my take on it. But there you have it.
Yes, I believe Trump is wildly unsuited to this job. Do I think that anything he’s done so far is at the level of impeachment? No. Not so far. That’s just my take.
One of my bigger regrets (not the only one by a long shot) is the huge amount of money being utterly wasted on this inarticulate, incompetent boor.
I could go on. You get the picture.
That’s topped off by wanting to take away health care from the ugly, icky female, sinning, poors, who don’t deserve health care, whilst giving himself (and his richy rich buddies) a whackingly huge tax cut.
UGH. Loathsome. But impeachable? Don’t think so. At least not yet.
I’m not sure whether it matters that Russia had much influence over the elections or not. Did they try to help Trump and weaken Clinton? Very likely and damaging to relations.
But there’s other, more definitive reasons for why Trump won. It’s important to have both the right policies and the right narratives to get back into power.
So, the Democrats have to have the right policies to at least compete for voters they ceded to Trump and voters who have given up on the political process. But, they also need to tell a story of the next four years.
Incompetence, corruption, and a tool of Putin. I don’t care about impeachment. I care about 2018 and 2020.
The point is…he wants to take the government down.
Everything else is smoke and mirrors. On his side as well as on the government’s side. He thinks that he can win; the Permanent Government thinks that he cannot.
Need I point out that “The Permanent Government”…in the various guises of the Republican centrists/neocons during the primaries, the Democratic centrists/neolibs during the election and the so-called “Intelligence Community” that has been called in as emergency troops by the other two centrist parties to take Trump down using their own long-practiced and lovely ways…has proven itself to be (so far) totally incapable of even getting him to even compromise a little!!!
This is an extraordinary turn of events. They say that his entire organization…not even subtly hinting that this goes right to the top…is crooked. He says “Prove it!!!” and follows up with “So are you!!!” They trot out their “facts”…true, false or anywhere in the middle…and he counters with equally postfactual “facts,” all the while suggesting that the entire system is post-factual.
And somewhere close to 50% of the pollable U.S.citizenry agrees with him. God knows what the ones who will not answer pollsters are thinking!!!
Do you know why?
Because he is right.
There is no longer any reilable, hard truth available in this system. No one believes anything. Not really…
This really started with the various coverups during the assassination years. I truly believe that “The Intelligence Community”…the really smart ones…did this on purpose.
William Burroughs understood this way back into the ’50s.
Only…as Burroughs predicted…the system is breaking down of its own post-facuality.
Its own untruth.
May the best liar win?
Yup.
But what if the “best liar” isn’t the one that you want to win?
Then what?
I only have one answer:
There is no power higher than truth, either.
It’s just that sometimes the truth takes a long while to grind down all of the lies.
That’s what Martin Luther King meant when he spoke these words:
Bet on it.
So…
When you get tired of all of the false “He said!!!/She said!!!” headlines and start to be tempted to just chuck the whole thing and support the lesser of two evils…which is precisely what the most of the people who are supporting Trump and the people who are HooRahing the RussiaGate thing are doing, really…stop and say this little prayer.
“This too shall pass.”
And then step back and let them destroy each other.
Amen.
Later..
AG
Even if I agreed with everything you said (I don’t), them destroying each other destroys us with them.
You get that right?
Trump and the Permanent Government? Destroying (or at the very least seriously wounding) each other?
I think that might be our only chance to straighten this country out.
AG
This is worse case of Treason in America’s history, and you are blathering on about Perma Gov?
Every topic is an excuse to blather about the PermaGov, for Arthur.
PermaBore.
.
Watching video of T’s speech to NATO leaders, which as you can imagine is all about him; worth watching for the cutaways to Angela Merkel’s eyerolls and the puzzled looks on others’ faces, or beseeching looks up towards the heavens, or looks of alarm, or simply deep sighs. absolutely must see TV
here’s a cutaway to the audience reaction
There is just no way this guy makes it four years
.
Once again it’s me, Jordan, here to doggedly remind everyone of how stupid Trump is — so stupid that he routinely confounds us by refusing to conform to even the simplest expectations of crude problem-solving intelligence.
Any reasonable person understands that, in America, if you’re accused of a crime you didn’t commit, the best thing to do is to cooperate — be open and honest and go along with any investigation — in order to clear your name, because that’s how it works.
And any reasonable person understands how, consequently, the appearance of guilt or innocence is determined by how readily one does the above — fleeing in a white Bronco or pleading the fifth or attacking the investigators creates an aura of guilt.
Trump doesn’t understand the second point because he doesn’t understand the first point. Even if he were arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, he wouldn’t understand the value of cooperating and patiently giving evidence — he would get huffy and say “I didn’t do it; leave me alone!” and attack the cops as “losers” and get more and more infuriated.
Just like when he sat there getting angrier and angrier at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Obama roasted him. He doesn’t understand the basic mechanisms of civil society. There’s something wrong with him — he never learned any of it.
maybe.
I’d argue that if there’s anything Trump understands it’s a legal threat. How many times has he been sued?
He will lawyer up, stonewall, and task this new staff with managing the “appearance of guilt or innocence”.
nor am i sure that the U.S. legal system works the way you think it does, not very reliably anyway. Clearing ones name is frequently possible only for those with the resources for good lawyers.
This is why he was unable to get in front of the leaked name of the UK suicide terrorist. It feels like no one that works for him even knew we leaked until it was on the TV. Even if someone in the UK called Tillerson or the donald would either even understand that the release of the name was a problem.
Oh yes, he’s this stupid.
Does not get satisfaction from Comey, so he asked the head of the NSA and the DNI to help.
That’s stupid on a whole new level.
.
he’s redefining stupid. You’ve heard the expression “dumber than dirt”; compared to Trump, dirt is a rocket scientist.
You knew this was coming,
Quite frankly he is representing his base rather well.
Who’s paying for all this?