TRUMP: REPUBLICAN PATRIOTS NEEDED

The highest drama is being enacted in the autocratic crazed Trump Presidency where a confluence of events are contributing to the fate of the Forty - Fifth President of the United States. As the noose of legal entanglements tightens Trump’s only hope is to defy the rule of law and halt the proceedings against him. This he can do by firing the Attorney General and nullify the Mueller investigation. Then he needs the Courts to rule that the President cannot be subpoenaed, deposed or charged in a civil or a criminal case. Trump needs to consolidate his position before the midterms when the Democratic Party are favorites to regain at least the House of Representatives. All of this a long shot but Trump has always thrived on being on the edge.

The immediate counter to the President’s autocratic behavior has to be that the Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court be halted then the midterms have to be a resounding vote of no confidence in the President with the loss of the House and even the Senate. For an end, to what has been described as a Presidency that is a real and existential threat to the future of the country, Legislator Republicans have to come forward and initiate investigations into Presidential behavior and make it clear that that Trump puts himself ahead of the Constitution of America.   

THE CONFIRMATION OF BRETT KAVANAUGH

Central to the events in this high stakes reality Presidency is the confirmation hearing of his choice to be the deciding vote on the partisan Supreme Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The latter choice was a risk as Kavanaugh had way-out positions that could provoke just two votes against and unravel his presidency. Mitch McConnell, who has bent every convention and destroyed the traditional process in the Senate to ensure a Republican majority on the Supreme Court, including an unprecedented refusal to allow an Obama Supreme Court nominee to have a hearing and reducing the number of votes needed to confirm Trump’s Federal Judges, begged Trump to find a more easily confirmable nominee. Brent Kavanaiugh besides having way out positions on abortion, gun rights and in all probability torture has authored a paper that states that a President should not be subpoenaed, deposed or indicted. An odd position to say the least for Kavanaugh who was a persecutor of Clinton, only second to his chief Special Counsel Ken Starr. 

Put another way the Republicans are in the process of nominating a potential swing vote to the Supreme Court who will not commit himself on whether a sitting President can be subpoenaed and who skirts around on whether the Supreme Court unanimous precedent that Nixon be subpoenaed for his tapes was decided correctly. He claims to be governed by Court precedent yet his record shows that his decisions are often way out minority interpretations and are in disagreement with the majority of the court.  For example, he claims to follow the Roe v Wade precedent but distorted it in a minority opinion that would have prevented a seventeen year old, who had been raped, to have an abortion. As far as gun rights are concerned in yet another dissenting opinion he equated Second Amendment Rights with First Amendment Rights. This meant that there should be no distinction between semi automatics, grenades, nuclear weapons and bee bee guns. Other absurd positions were that the Consumer Financial Bureau and Net Neutrality were unconstitutional.  The candidate was wishy washy on the restrictions on executive action leaving the observer to believe that in his interpretation of the constitution the President could do whatever he liked. Kavanaugh refused to promise that he would recuse himself should an issue relating to Trump’s legal responsibility come before him. Finally, it is fair to say that the prospective judge, to the highest court, did not convince too many that he did not lie to the Senate at his previous confirmation hearing.

LEGAL WOES INTENSIFY

All this taking place to the unedifying spectacle of an increasing number of indictments and guilty pleas in the Russia investigation. The POTUS’S most serious immediate  legal jeopardy to date is that he is an unindicted co conspirator in a criminal case involving his former lawyer who has sworn to tell the truth. He also faces criminal and civil cases some of which are advanced. All this has resulted in the President appearing more and more unhinged as he fumed against his Attorney General for allowing two Republican Congressmen to be charged for criminal activity. Thirty - five indictments and guilty pleas have already been ratcheted by Mueller. 

There is little doubt that Trump was finally, unashamedly and openly declaring himself above the rule of law.

WOODWARD’S “FEAR” PRE REVIEWED

In the midst of all this theater the renowned journalist and investigative author Bob Woodward, who is credited with Carl Bernstein for cracking Watergate wide open and who has written the definitive inside stories of eight presidencies, previewed his tell all insider story, “Fear”.  The later detailed the chaotic and dangerous Trump WhiteHouse. Woodward told stories of Trump’s inner circle ignoring calamitous orders that could have created international crises. 

The two biggest takeaways from what is now already a pre ordered best seller is that aides closest to him see it as their duty to protect America from his bizarre behavior and his personal lawyer in the Mueller investigation resigned after informing him that if he testified he would end up in an orange jump suit. For the rest there appears to be confirmation of the dysfunctional and directionless Whitehouse that have appeared in other inside books by Michael Wolf and Omarosa as well as in the daily diet of revelations from the media. 

These revelations were immediately challenged by Trump supporters to which Woodward countered that he had hundreds of tapes, notes and documents. In addition Woodward put on the internet an audiotape discussion with Trump where the latter is obviously lying that he had not been informed that Mueller wanted to interview him. The familiar tweeting will now follow with Woodward subject to endless abuse. A lifelong Republican he will once again be smeared as a lackey of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. He has already been labelled a “Dem Operative” by the out of control POTUS.

NEW YORK TIMES ANONYMOUS OP - ED

Contemporaneously with the McCain funeral and the Woodward revelations another bombshell pushed the crucial Kavanaugh hearings out of the news - the New York Times published an op ed, written anonymously by a senior WhiteHouse insider, entitled “I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration”. 

The earth shattering piece begins by baldly stating, “I work for the president but like like - minded colleagues I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations”. He/she continues identifying their beliefs and politics:

 “To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have made America safer and more prosperous. But we believe our our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.”

He/she sums up the basis of the catastrophe, “The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored in discernible first principles that guide his decision making.”

There is also a plea for recognition to the unsung heroes behind the scenes, “The erratic behavior would be concerning if it were not for the unsung heroes in and around WhiteHouse. Some of his aides have been cast aside by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful”. 

The anonymous writer details what everyone knows, Trump’s predilection for dictators, first and foremost Russia’s Putin. The author references McCain’s farewell letter and the peroration runs as follows, “All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation”.

The insider’s biggest bombshell was that the cabinet had discussed removing the President via the 25th Amendment which provides for his removal on the basis that he is incapable of carrying out the responsibilities of the office. 

SO WHAT NOW?

* The New York Times informant must know that he/she is going to be busted as he/her has there cover blown. This exposure could have any number of interpretations ranging from a cry for help to the possibility that moves to remove the President are in the works. More likely it is an appeal for Congressional Republicans to act.

* Trump has predictably gone volcanic demanding that the NY Times hand over this treasonous informant to the government for national security purposes. He alternates between his berating the leaker and attacks on the “failing NY Times”. 

* It is hard to swallow that there are not even two Republicans in the Senate who haven’t come to terms that they are going to confirm the appointment of a Judge who seems to back the unfit President’s viewpoint on his legal invincibility. The biggest disappointment has to be Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain’s closest friend who has caved into Trump on every key issue including the firing of Attorney General, Sessions. Graham has told the Democrats that they have to win an election to be able to nominate Judges. He has become such a pathetic lap dog that he forgets that it was he and the Republicans that refused to give the elected President Obama’s picks for Federal judges including a Supreme Court Judge a hearing.

* The crucial test as to whether the American people will reject this amoral leader has to be in the midterms where this narcissist has conveniently turned the election into a referendum about him. Their congress representatives have failed them. 

* One fact that is a certainty and that is all hell is going to break lose when the author is named. 

* And Bob Woodward’s book hasn’t even hit the shelves yet with its four hundred page expose of all that is amiss, it will flesh out in graphic detail about everything that the informant has laid out.