[Michael Cantor]

Here's one I've been waiting and hoping for. Story just broke that Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy AG who wrote the three page memo on Comey, threatened to resign over the way it was used. I suspect this one will explode during the next twelve hours or so.

The TASS photos (no American photographers were allowed in) of Trump grinning and goofing with the Russian diplomats in the Oval Office shortly after he fired the FBI director for pushing the investigation of Russian meddling with our elections are frightening. I wonder if we'll be treated to another shit storm of tweets tomorrow morning. I think the guy is falling apart.

[Jim Moonan]

How many times have I thought "the guy is falling apart" and he morphs like a virulent strain of bacteria? I cannot count.

Here’s my continuing concern: time after time we’ve seen, with few exceptions (Lindsay Graham, John McCain) adversaries become allies. There’s something sinister going on “in the room where it happens”. Trump is corruption personified, perfected. (He is also the poster boy for neo-racism, neo-sexism, neo-capitalism AND the current incarnation of Narcissus, whose flower is that of evil -- oh, and he is soulless). A gangrene has formed in American politics that must be administered to. It has been festering for years.

Michael: The TASS photos (no American photographers were allowed in) of Trump grinning and goofing with the Russian diplomats in the Oval Office shortly after he fired the FBI director for pushing the investigation of Russian meddling with our elections are frightening.

One thing is certain to my mind: Trump's war with the media is unwinnable and will ultimately be what fells him. It's the aftermath that scares me...

Meanwhile, silver linings appear; Sally Quinn rises.

[John Isbell]

Jim Moonan: "How many times have I thought "the guy is falling apart" and he morphs like a virulent strain of bacteria?"
Precisely accurate. And one of Donald Trump's great talents is for compromising and corrupting all who come in contact with him. Not to say that people don't lend themselves to the corruption; they do. But he is like a Midas who turns all he touches to garbage. Even John McCain,. whom I respect, found himself paying lip service to Trump in his own reelection bid. The GOP - the Evangelical right, for instance, in its millions - has jettisoned its last remaining principles, and it was Trump who led them over that abyss.

[Roger Slater]

Originally Posted by Michael Cantor

Here's one I've been waiting and hoping for. Story just broke that Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy AG who wrote the three page memo on Comey, threatened to resign over the way it was used.

Which makes me wonder why he didn't carry through on his "threat" and what he was demanding as a condition for not carrying out his "threat." I suspect he was just pissed and vented a bit, but ultimately he doesn't have the balls to do more than that. I hope I'm wrong.

[Roger Slater]

Though one can hold out the slim hope that Rosenstein hasn't resigned because he plans to follow the recommendation of the NY Times to appoint a special prosecutor (which would, of course, result in his being fired, but not before the damage has been done).

[Roger Slater]

Originally Posted by John Isbell

Roger Slater: "And the excuse they cooked up was that Comey had been very unfair to Hillary nine months ago, a fact that dawned on him just three days ago, at which point he sprang into action."

Chris Hayes on MSNBC just called this initial White House rationale "almost aggressively preposterous." That of course is a Trump modus operandi. As Voltaire put it, if you can get people to believe an absurdity, you can get them to commit an atrocity.

The conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin put it very well:

And finally, if Trump fired him for the reasons stated in Rosenstein’s memo [i.e., he had behaved improperly investigating Hillary's emails last year], then there would have been no need to rush; a replacement would have been lined up and staff would have been ready to defend this action. The president blindsided his own staff because, it seems, he rushed action out of anger and frustration.

[Quincy Lehr]

Greenwald PRETTY MUCH NAILS IT here. (And on a side note, even if Russian intelligence was in some way linked to the obviously-in-the-public-interest DNC leaks, that makes neither their leaking improper nor Wikileaks "Russian" per She Whose Candidacy Was Less a Campaign than a Two-Year Professional-Class Smugfest-Turned-Hissyfit. The phrase "Russian Wikileaks" is so manifestly jingoistic and blatantly wrong that it should have no place in serious discourse. That it does, anyway is a sad commentary on the nature of the self-dubbed "Resistance.")

[Roger Slater]

The point you seem to be missing, Quincy, is that the president took unilateral steps to shut down an investigation in which he was personally implicated. Once it is determined what it is he did or didn't do, we can then have a discussion regarding whether it ought to bother us. In the meantime, I think the focus ought to be on the issue of whether a president ought to be able to shut down an investigation into himself.

[Jim Moonan]

Quincy: (And on a side note, even if Russian intelligence was in some way linked to the obviously-in-the-public-interest DNC leaks, that makes neither their leaking improper nor Wikileaks "Russian" per She Whose Candidacy Was Less a Campaign than a Two-Year Professional-Class Smugfest-Turned-Hissyfit. The phrase "Russian Wikileaks" is so manifestly jingoistic and blatantly wrong that it should have no place in serious discourse. That it does, anyway is a sad commentary on the nature of the self-dubbed "Resistance.")


The focus must stay squarely on Trump's statements and actions as a candidate and as president.

Repeatedly he encouraged Russia and wikileaks to hack our political systems. Repeatedly he has incited throngs of crazies to "lock her up" even as recently as two weeks ago at his Harrisburg CAMPAIGN RALLY (WTF???) Repeatedly he has used his soapbox to tweet lies like the one he spewed accusing Obama of illegally wiretapping him. Repeatedly he has defamed legitimate news outlets as being fake news. Repeatedly he spread conspiracy theories masquerading them as facts (he instigated the Obama birther movement). Repeatedly he has refused to allow due process to be our guiding principle (the muslim ban, the investigations into Russian involvement in our elections). Repeatedly he has rattled our intelligence community to the point of disfunction with insults and demoralizing critiques based on lies and innuendo. Repeatedly he has resisted transparency through blocking media access, denying access to his tax returns, etc.

He is a monstrous result of a perfect storm of so many things that I can't wrap my head around it well-enough to sum it up.

[Catherine Chandler]

Watch the Trump/Lester Holt interview (now being shown in snippets on CNN). In essence, Trump himself admits he was going to fire Comey regardless of any other input, Rosenstein's memo included. He then goes on to declare that at a dinner and on two phone calls (one initiated by Trump himself) he point blank asked Comey whether he (Trump) was under investigation, and that Comey said no. It was disgusting to see how Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to defend the contradiction and her arrogant answers to the press corps.

As for hissy fits, here's a good one.