Is Adam Schiff Re-Inventing Himself-- With The Help Of Trump?

Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) hammering Trump by Nancy Ohanian

I don't want to go into-- for the 300th time-- the whole long story about how I helped my congressman first get elected in 2000 and then was mortified when he joined the Blue Dogs and started voting like a Republican. Needless to say, my support turned to anger and I never voted for any of his reelection bids-- and stopped talking to him. But, lately, things have changed. It wasn't even that he quit the Blue Dogs and started voting more like a Democrat. He still wasn't a progressive and identified with the Wall Street-owned New Dems instead. But then he took a bow on the national stage and became best-known for something else instead. But... I live in Los Feliz, part of California's 28th congressional district and, yep, my member of Congress is Adam Schiff, of late Trump's chief antagonist and someone who is handling the Republicans on the House Intel Committee as perfectly as anyone could possibly hope he would (short of setting up an impromptu firing squad). Early last week, a radio syndicate asked me if I would come on to denounce Schiff as a conservative Democrat, as I had done many times in the past. Slightly embarrassed, I begged off and suggested electorally vulnerable ConservaDems Dan Lipinski, Tom O'Halleran or Josh Gottheimer instead.

Last week, I asked award-winning illustrator Nancy Ohanian, to consider doing a caricature of Schiff. That's it up top. Nancy sent me a few autographed 12"x16" copies of it. If you'd like one, contribute any amount to any Blue America-endorsed congressional candidate on this page or by clicking on the thermometer on the right. (We will pick 3 random winners on Tuesday evening at 6pm, PT.) Unless the Democrats keep their House majority, Schiff will be replaced as chairman of the Intel Committee by Devin Nunes, the ranking member who has been acting as Trump's chief defender throughout the hearings-- and for the two-plus years previous to the hearings.

Last week, writing for L.A. Magazine, Bryan Smith penned a feature, Adam Schiff Is Ready to Rumble, that will be music to the ears of his constituents, my neighbors. In 2016 Hillary eviscerated Trump in this district, 72.1% to 22.3%, and last year Schiff was reelected with 78.4%. If I'm reading the signs correctly, Trump will do even worse next year and Schiff will do even better. In Smith's words, "The mild-mannered, vegan congressman from Burbank has become the GOP’s worst nightmare... Before the impeachment inquiry Schiff was known for eschewing fame while representing a town-- Hollywood-- built on it."

He is world-famous now. The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence can now see himself caricatured on Saturday Night Live. In Trump’s Twitterverse, he’s the limp, Ivy League-educated elitist scheming to bring down the President of the Real America. To his supporters, he is Elliot Ness chasing Al Capone, Joseph Welch facing down Joseph McCarthy. Which of these images wins out may ultimately determine nothing less than the fate of the free world.

...He may not want to play the leading man, but Schiff’s confrontation of Trump is the stuff of a Frank Capra film. The by-the-book former prosecutor, who seems every bit the embodiment of the process he champions, is poised to take down a president whose primary mission has been to blow up the system for his own gain, regardless of how many laws (or reputations) were trampled in the process.

...When the impeachment inquiry opened, and Schiff replaced Robert Mueller as the existential threat to Trump’s presidency, Trump and his GOP henchmen trained their full hyperbolic artillery on the “congessman from Hollywood.”  The attacks intensified after Schiff paraphrased the written summation of a telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rather than reading straight from the summation, culminating (for now) in the absurd blitz of the “secret” impeachment hearings. “He’s a liar!” Trump tweeted.  “Behold the Lord High Impeacher,” sneered a headline in the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section. Meanwhile the usual suspects at Fox News-- Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro-- spewed their daily invective. In yet another sign of the times, the evangelical preacher and best-selling author Perry Stone claimed that Schiff and other Democratic lawmakers were possessed by demons and trying to “place hexes” on Trump.

The demonization campaign also has had its darker side. “Someone called the office and said, ‘I’m going to put three bullets in the back of your head, and this is the gun I’m going to use,’ ” Schiff told me. A Major League Baseball umpire tweeted in October that he would “be buying an AR-15 tomorrow,” and there would be “another cival (sic) war” if Trump was impeached.

...He finds the “conspiracy stuff” that Trump’s attacks foster less humorous. A man named Anthony Comello attempted to make a “citizen’s arrest” of Schiff after reading an outlandish QAnon conspiracy. Not long after, Comello was charged with murder when he shot and killed a mob boss he was convinced was part of the “deep state.” Comello’s lawyer argued that his client only shot Francesco “Frank” Cali after the mobster resisted Comello’s citizen’s arrest.

Schiff makes no attempt to hide his contempt for Trump. One of my visits with him came just after the president mocked Elijah Cummings, whose home had recently been burglarized. When I asked Schiff if he thought Trump was racist, he responded bluntly.

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any question about it. And you know it’s startling to come to the conclusion that the president of the United States is racist, but there’s no denying the facts. And we just have to make sure that his fundamental calculation that that’s a good political strategy is dead wrong. And God help us if we can’t.”

Regarding Trump’s more serious attacks, Schiff was equally direct: “Preaching hate is dangerous,” he told me. “This president gets up every day determined to find new and innovative ways to divide us. I think it’s really tearing the social fabric of the country apart. Meanwhile it has also legitimized a lot of bigotry that was there below the surface [that]people now feel free to express.”

Equanimity comes naturally to Schiff, but it’s also a part of a conscious strategy. “I do think that this is such a head-on-fire kind of a time that there’s a premium amount of people talking rationally. Along the way I’ve had people say, ‘You need to get angrier. You need to yell.’ I say, ‘Look, there are plenty of people getting angry right now. That’s just not who I am.’ And I think people in my line of work who have a problem, it’s often because they try to be something they’re not or someone they’re not. I’ve never tried to be anything other than what I am, and so I tell those who are looking for someone more incendiary there are lots of other choices.”

The other advantage, Schiff said, is that when he does show anger people pay far closer attention. “If you’re not angry all the time,” he said, “then people do notice when you are. And it tends to have more of an impact.”

In June of 2017 Schiff signed on as a co-sponsor of Pramila Jayapal's Medicare for All act. This year, he was an original co-sponsor of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez's Green New Deal Resolution. He was also an original co-sponsor of Bobby Rush's Raise the Wage Act-- the $15 minimum wage bill. And when Lloyd Doggett introduced his tougher-than-Pelosi bill to lower drug prices (H.R. 1046), Schiff was one of the 108 co-sponsors on February 7, 2019-- day one. Maybe he's changing. Maybe he's getting ready for the race to win the Feinstein Senate seat when she gives it up.

Trump Rebuffed AGAIN-- Congress Likes Adam Schiff More Than Him

"It will be said of House Republicans, when they found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous and unethical president in American history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did."

Not even Señor Trumpanzee is stupid enough to have imagined the House was going to censure Adam Schiff today-- to censure him for doing a good job on Trump's impeachment. For the GOP it was just stagecraft and fundraising inside their moronic Fox-bubble-base. This was one of Trumpy-the-Clown's endless tirades about Schiff, who he has managed to transform into a hero for over half the country:

I live in Schiff's district, CA-28. When Trump ran in 2016, he managed to do significantly worse than McCain (26.0%) or Romney (26.5%), winning just a miserable 22.3% of the vote. This cycle, he's so universally despised here that he'll be very lucky to break 20%. There are homemade anti-Trump signs up on my block, including some inventive and artistic ones made by school children! On the same day Señor Trumpanzee took 22.3% of the vote, Schiff won 77.9%. Last year, after just one year of Trumpism, Schiff won 78.4%.

This evening, Democrats derailed the Republican censure motion, tabling it 218-185 and turning it into a less easy-to-understand process vote. Far right freak show and Putin ally, Andy Biggs (AZ-04, who represents a super-reactionary central and western Arizona red hellhole-- R+21) just drips with hatred and extremism and has never accomplished anything since being elected to Congress. So today was his big day... until it wasn't. Biggs and Trump can howl at the moon and screech into their own shared darkness all they want that Schiff is "corrupt," but the voters know full well that Trump is the most corrupt politician in the history of our country and that he and his pathetic enablers, like Biggs, disgrace the country with every breath they draw.

Trump was watching closely-- or as closely as someone strung out on Adderall can-- to see if any Republicans took Schiff's side. Idependent Justin Amash voted with the Democrats and several Republicans missed the vote, including some who want nothing to do with Trump, like Francis Rooney (FL) and Fred Upton (MI). Today he was publicly demanding that Republicans defend him more robustly and with far greater vigor-- and as though they really mean it. He retweeted this hilarious whip count early today:

Adam Schiff Got His Revenge On Señor Trumpanzee For Calling Him Liddle Adam Schitt-- And Trump And His Media Lackeys Explode

Active Shooter by Nancy Ohanian

ABC News released the new poll by Ipsos yesterday and there was nothing in it that should surprise anyone. Most Americans know Trump is a treasonous scumbag and they expect treasonous scumbaggery from him. Or-- in more pollstery lingo: nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Señor Trumpanzee's encouragement of a foreign leader to investigate Trump's political rival and his family is a serious problem, but only 17% said they were surprised by the fake and illegitimate "president's" actions.

Also not surprising-- only 32% of Republican voters think this is serious. Last week, NPR released a poll showing that the number of people who think a formal impeachment inquiry is necessary rose sharply. Among registered voters, Trump's job approval was 45%, while 51% disapproved. Among independents, approval is 44% and disapproval 52%. Among adults, 18 years and older, 49% approve of the decision to start the impeachment inquiry and 46% disapprove. (93% of Republicans do not want an impeachment inquiry. Interestingly, if Trump were to defect to Russia, 93% of Republicans would accept whatever excuses Fox and Hate Talk Radio made up to excuse it.)

Are you watching the just-released Netflix series, The Politician? Episode 5, "The Voter," features Russell Posner as Elliot Beachman (the voter). His interest in the election is pretty much less than nothing. If you don't blink, you will see him in this clip shoving a pesky pollster down a flight of steps (2:22-2:23). I found it scary in this poll and in others like it that around 18% of adults don't know enough about Mitch McConnell to have an opinion about whether he's doing a good job or not-- including 20% of Republicans!-- and that 8% of adults don't know enough about Nancy Pelosi to have an opinion about whether she's doing a good job or not. Even greater numbers of people don't know who Chuck Schumer is. And almost no one knows who Kevin McCarthy is.





Meanwhile a CBS News poll shows that "more than half of Americans-- and an overwhelming number of Democrats-- say they approve of the fact that Congress has opened an impeachment inquiry" into Señor T.

I live in Los Feliz, an L.A. neighborhood northeast of Hollywood, part of the 28th congressional district-- along with Burbank, Glendale, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Silverklake, Atwater, Echo Park, La Cañada Flintridge, Sunland-Tujunga and La Crescenta-- represented by Adam Schiff. When Trump declared war on Adam Schiff-- who Pelosi has tasked with leading the impeachment investigation rather than the less controllable Jerry Nadler-- was he declaring war on my neighborhood? [Trump's a fool; he should be happy that the Intelligence Committee is handling impeachment rather than the Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee includes some of the sharpest minds in the House dedicated to destroying him-- Ted Lieu, Jamie Raskin, Pramila Jayapal, Joe Neguse-- while the Intelligence Committee is mostly a home to timid moderates with far less of an instinct to move in for the kill.]

So far Trump's war against Schiff is just a Twitter war. Everyone in my neighborhood is hoping Trump keeps his war against Schiff on Twitter and doesn't act against the people who live in the district. It is worth noting, however, that Trump only got 22.3% of the vote in CA-28. And last year Schiff was reelected 196,662 (78.4%) to 54,272 (21.6%). 





If a Republican qualifies for the general election ballot next year-- likely but not guaranteed with Democrats Maebe A. Girl and Akinyemi Agbed also running, as well as 2 Republicans and possibly a third (crazy far-right second-rate actor Randy Quaid)-- it is likely to be crackpot and failed GOP Attorney General candidate Eric Early, who was badly defeated in the 2018 primary. Early has turned himself into a typical all-in Trump nut and there is a buzz in the district that Trump will bring his circus to the Greek Theater in Griffith Park, which is in the very center of Schiff's district-- and walking distance from my house. Trump, a clown who has referred to Schiff as Schitt, didn't appreciate Schiff's humor:

“Rep. Adam Schiff fraudulently read to Congress, with millions of people watching, a version of my conversation with the President of Ukraine that doesn’t exist,” Trump wrote online. “He was supposedly reading the exact transcribed version of the call, but he completely changed the words to make it... sound horrible, and me sound guilty.”

At Thursday’s Intelligence panel hearing, featuring testimony by Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Schiff offered an exaggerated version of the transcript of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.

That conversation, during which Trump urged Zelensky to work with Attorney General William Barr to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, is the main focus of the impeachment probe into the president’s conduct.

“Shorn of its rambling character and in not so many words, this is the essence of what the president communicates,” Schiff said, before launching into his dramatic rendition of the call’s subtext.

“I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though, and I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good,” Schiff, channeling Trump, told the committee. “I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent, understand? Lots of it.”

The chairman’s monologue drew quick scorn from conservative commentators, as well as Trump’s campaign staff and Capitol Hill allies, and Schiff sought to clarify his remarks later in the hearing.

“My summary of the president’s call was meant to be at least part in parody. The fact that that’s not clear is a separate problem in and of itself,” he said, adding: “My point is, that’s the message that the Ukraine president was receiving, in not so many words.”

But Trump refused to accept that explanation Friday, twice calling for Schiff’s resignation and claiming that he “lied to Congress and attempted to defraud the American Public.”

The attacks came after Trump, tweeting just after 7 a.m., accused CNN of purposefully misreporting his derisive-- and curiously phrased-- nickname for his Democratic foil.

“To show you how dishonest the LameStream Media is, I used the word Liddle’, not Liddle, in discribing Corrupt Congressman Liddle’ Adam Schiff. Low ratings @CNN purposely took the hyphen out and said I spelled the word little wrong. A small but never ending situation with CNN!” Trump wrote in his message, which incorrectly spelled the word “describing” and confused two punctuation marks.

The hosts of Trump’s favorite morning show, Fox & Friends, were also irritated by Schiff's statement Thursday, devoting a brief segment to knocking him in the opening minutes of their broadcast.

“If you are the chairman of a committee, and you’re trying to get credibility for your latest impeachment push, why would you start in the fiction section of the library?” asked co-host Brian Kilmeade.

Later in the program, Trump attorney Jay Sekulow likened the performance to a “Saturday Night Live routine,” while White House spokesman Hogan Gidley mocked it as “some type of crazy cosplay convention” where Schiff was “dressing up like a congressman reading fantasy.”