It has become commonplace to refer to a series of news
reports concerning an investigation as a “drip, drip, drip” of revelations, and
that metaphor [which conjures images of the fabled Chinese water torture] has
certainly seemed apt during past investigations, most notably during the
appropriately named Watergate, which, I keep reminding myself, took twenty-six
months from the break-in to Nixon’s resignation. But the development of the investigation into
the possibility of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the
Russians to influence the outcome of the Presidential election has come to
resemble a stream, not a drip-drip-drip.
Today we learn that Representative Nunes [CA 22] has unilaterally
cancelled not only the scheduled appearance of former Deputy Attorney General
Sally Nunes before an open meeting of the House Intelligence Committee but the
meeting itself and all other meetings,
open or closed, of the Committee!
We must of course all be mindful of Robert Shore’s
admonition that everyone is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty [in a
court of law, although he omitted that important phrase] but we are permitted
to speculate, I trust, inasmuch as we are none of us sitting on a jury. I for one find myself speculating that there
is a network of secrets concerning Trump/Russian collusion that Trump and his
closest circle are quite eager not to have revealed. Early this morning, in a transparent effort
to distract the media from a story taking on the lineaments of a genuine and
possibly prosecutable scandal, Trump tweeted about the fact that the Clintons
took big fees for speeches in Russia.
That smacks of desperation, I am afraid.
All of this is unfolding rapidly only two months into the
new administration. It reinforces the
defeat on the health care bill, and allows us to begin to wonder how long it
will be before on-the-record under oath testimony reveals manifestly illegal
Trump/Russian collusion.
Meanwhile, Trump and his cabinet appointees are beginning a
series of seriously malign attacks on workers’ rights, the environment, internet
security, and scientific research, among many other things. For the moment, Democratic Senators and Representatives
are opposing Trump’s initiatives, but it goes without saying that most of them
cannot be relied upon. We have an opening
here to push the Democratic Party firmly to the left, and we must seize it.
1 comment:
Prof. Wolff -- What do you think of this take on the Trump-Russia connection?:
http://whowhatwhy.org/2017/03/27/fbi-cant-tell-trump-russia/
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