Nixon Was A Master Of The Media-- But It Didn't Save Him... Will It Save Trump?

The other day I was asked to participate in a BBC World Service radio debate about the Flynn firing. One of the participants was a Trump shill who reminded me of my brother-in-law-- just repeating mindless talking points from the regime via Hate Talk Radio and Fox. His talking point du jour was that the "real story" wasn't Flynn's and the Regime's connivance with Putin but the leaking. That was the scandal-- the leaking. An Adderall-fueled Trump tweeted about it two days in a row:

Tuesday

Wednesday

House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff admonished Trump to "stop whining and act like a president... Real scandal here is @POTUS knew Flynn lied about Russian contacts and did nothing about it until the leak." That isn't what Ryan and his House Republican lemmings, now in full-on coverup mode, want to hear.

The Trumpist congressman from Iowa, neo-fascist Steve King was yelling and screaming and accusing the CIA of undermining the Regime. "We're at great risk if we have these kinds of moles" [in the intelligence community]. That is unpatriotic." Trump's amigos in Russia-- like official Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and neo-fascist Senator Vladimir Jabbarov-- are saying that the revelations that the Trump Regime was working clandestinely with Putin are "part of an intelligence community conspiracy to have the President impeached." Putin is said to be dazed at the loss of Flynn who he spent so much money on putting in as National Security Advisor. The loss of Trump who be a complete disaster for him.

Seth Moulton (D-MA) is no hot head or rabble-rouser. He's a cautious and relatively conservative congressman who came to politics after an active duty stint in the military-- 4 tours of duty in Iraq. Tuesday he was on CNN accusing members of the Trump administration/campaign of "conspiring" with Russia, pointing out to Wolf Blitzer "that's the very definition of treason... I mean, let’s not lose perspective on exactly who we’re talking about here. Russia is the No. 1 enemy of the United States of America. If members of the administration are essentially conspiring with Russia-- either through the campaign earlier or now in the administration itself-- I mean, look, Wolf, that’s the very definition of treason. This is a very, very serious affair. The definition of treason is putting our enemy’s interests ahead of our own. That’s what the definition is."

As Dan Rather warned earlier this week, Putin-Gate is likely to prove much bigger and more toxic than Watergate. But the Republicans in Congress are working with all their might to cover to up. Ryan and McConnell have been conspiring to prevent an independent nonpartisan investigation, preferring to control everything through puppet hacks like Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr, House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes and the useless co-conspirator Jason Chaffetz of the House Oversight Committee. Their latest line is that with Flynn resigning, everything is over andante with. "Nothing to see here, sheeple."

Perhaps Rand Paul was the most honest of the 2Live GOP Cover-up Crew, telling Fox viewers that he disagrees with McCain's assertions that Flynn's firing "raises further questions about the Trump administration’s intentions toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia." Ran thinks "that might be excessive. I think it looks like the President has handled the situation and unless there’s some kind of other evidence of malfeasance, this sounds like something that was internal White House politics and it looks like the President’s handled it. I just don’t think it’s useful to be doing investigation after investigation, particularly of your own party. We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do like repealing Obamacare if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans. I think it makes no sense."

I guess that's the latest Republican definition of making America great again. Although I suspect that won't hold even until the end of the week as more and more frightened Republicans-- frightened of their constituents who want action on this-- are demanding copies of the Flynn transcripts that Trump is refusing to release. Who will play Trump's Rose Mary Woods?




Yesterday, as the White House and the Republicans floundered trying to get their stories straight, Ted Lieu (D-CA) said he was "stunned to learn that Trump aides, including campaign manager Paul Manafort and advisor Michael Flynn, allegedly had repeated contacts with Russian Intelligence agents during the presidential campaign. It's a safe bet to say they weren't discussing the weather. If there was collusion between Trump aides and the Russian government, that would be a high crime. It also raises a number of critical issues. What did Trump know and when did he know it? Did Trump authorize or order the repeated contacts with Russian Intelligence during the presidential campaign? What are Trump's business holdings in Russia or Russian-controlled areas? I call on Republicans in both the House and the Senate to put country over party-- to put America First-- and work with Democrats to investigate these extremely serious allegations."