Life can be at once exciting and exhausting, but too
much of either is numbing.
Certainly, that’s the case with our national politics.
Ah, for the days of Lyndon Johnson coming on TV to address his “fellow
Americans with a ‘heavy heart’” or Ronald Reagan demanding Mikhail Gorbachev
“tear down this wall” or even George W. Bush declaring, “It’s clearly a budget.
It’s got a lot of numbers in it.”
Now ... now we have Mr. Bigly, a man who has mocked
the disabled, accused Mexican border jumpers of being rapists, demeaned — and
bragged about — groping women, made patently false wiretapping, voter fraud and
even crowd size claims and dismissed as fake any news account that fails to
support his position, and, and, and, and ...
It’s been an exhausting four-month traipse through a
parallel universe where facts are alternate, history is ignored (or worse,
manipulated), personal loyalty trumps public integrity and blame is passed.
This past week we had the specter of a U.S. president
(who had spent much of his campaign maligning the nation’s intelligence
community) passing sensitive intelligence information to a known Russian
spymaster.
When the news leaked out, the White House immediately
dispatched National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to briefly deny The
Washington Post story was true (“at no time, were intelligence sources or
methods discussed”) then, overnight, the president tweeted: “As President I
wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have
the absolute right to do ....”
In the game of spy vs. spy, sensitive information
sometimes is selectively and purposely leaked, sometimes among allies and
sometimes in a carefully coordinated disinformation effort targeting
adversaries.
Trump leaked the secret intel when he, as he often
does, went off script. He wanted to brag about what intel he knows (and how he
is legally free to blab all he wants: “I get great intel. I have people brief
me on great intel every day.”)
Not that he’s the first bragger to occupy the White
House and share what until then was highly classified information. In a 1964
press conference, Lyndon Johnson disclosed some of the secret capacities of the
just-developed SR-71 spy plane. No doubt that was a pucker moment for the CIA.
This guy, however, takes haughtiness to new heights.
Consider the mixed stories of the firing of the FBI director James Comey.
First, it was the Justice Department’s idea, then it wasn’t, then the president
said he had long planned to can Comey, and then he mixed that thought with his
claim that the whole Russian-Trump campaign investigation is fake news and/or a
witch-hunt cooked up by Democrats upset about losing the White House.
Within hours, the president tweeted what amounts to a
threat aimed at Comey implying there might be tapes of their private White
House dinner during which Comey claims the president wanted a pledge of loyalty
but received only a pledge of truthfulness.
The day after the firing, the Russians (a Russian news
crew in tow but with U.S. media excluded) showed up in the Oval Office during
which the president bragged about his intel, then offered a tasty morsel to
prove it.
Exhausting, huh?
It wasn’t over. The next day came a New York Times
report that Comey had extensive notes about the Trump dinner and two phone
calls they had.
There are notes, too, in which Comey claims the
president asked him — but did not order him — to drop the probe of fired
national security adviser Michael T. Flynn and his ties to Russia. That request
came in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote
shortly after the meeting. “I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr.
Comey, according to the memo.
Comey had shared the notes with associates immediately
after they were written as an if-questions-arise insurance policy should his
integrity be impugned, say, for political reasons.
Every day it’s something. The drip, drip, drip is
wearing. Like Watergate four decades ago, much of the nation’s attention and
energy is being sapped as this Greek tragedy plays out. Unlike Watergate, which
went on for about two years, the current torture of the body politic is playing
out in tweet-storms and the 24-hour news cycle. There is no letup.
Watergate ended when a group of Republican leaders
went to the White House and told Richard Nixon it was over.
It remains to be seen if the critical mass of
right-minded Republicans can put a choke chain on this president to control his
behavior or, failing that, make clear that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the
people’s house and not a mansion surrounded by a moat.
— Contact Eric Grunder, former opinion page editor of
The Record, at elgrunder@msn.com. Follow him at
oncruisecontrolafter65.blogspot.com and on Twitter @elgrunder.
#White House #ethics #intel #CIA #NSA #specialcounsel #Trump #Russians #FBI #Comey
#White House #ethics #intel #CIA #NSA #specialcounsel #Trump #Russians #FBI #Comey