There's been a lot of commentary about Michael Cohen's big day with the House Oversight Committee yesterday, and it's unlikely I've had any reactions that have yet to be expressed on cable tv, but, since I haven't heard them expressed, here goes. . . .
You know the joke about, "Yes, Mrs. Lincoln, but other than that, how did you enjoy the play?" Well, along that line, I'm not at all surprised that the legal beagles and other talking heads on tv are talking about Trump's alleged criminal conduct, whether it means he will be impeached or possibly indicted, etc., etc., all of which is roughly analogous to the assassination of Mrs. Lincoln's husband. But the play was terrible, too--I mean, there are small bad things in addition to the big bad things. For example, according to Cohen, Trump once donated a portrait of himself for a charity auction, then planted "bidders" at the auction who, supplied with Trump money, bid up the price of the portrait so that it would raise more money than any other donated item. It's not a crime, or an impeachable offense, but what kind of sad sack does that? Even his "charity" is a form of improvisational grifting and self-promotion. Among the many threatening letters Cohen wrote on Trump's behalf were the ones to administrators of schools he (Trump) attended, warning of severe consequences if they were ever to release any of his academic records, including his SAT scores. This is of a piece with Trump's steady bad habit of harping on the IQ of friends and foes, a topic evidently of great import (and sensitivity) to him. Maxine Waters is "a low IQ person." His cabinet has "one of the highest IQs of any cabinet ever assembled." Black people are "too stupid" to vote for him. And so on & so forth.
It seems safe to conclude, from the letters Cohen was assigned to write to school administrators, that Trump himself was not at the top of the class, or within hailing distance of the right-hand edge of the bell curve distribution for standardized measurements of intellectual ability. I doubt Trump voters care but I wonder if they care that Trump cares because it's obvious that he does.
It wasn't a good day for Trump's party, either. The GOP members of the committee exhibited no interest in anything except Cohen's history as a liar. But it's like prosecuting the mob: everyone who knows the score is corrupt--nuns and school principles don't work there. Moreover, Cohen's supposed depravity raises the question of why Trump hired him and, over the course of ten years, advanced him within the organization. ("I only hire the best people," Trump says.) According to US intelligence agencies, Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election and is still at it today, but the Trump administration and congressional Republicans don't appear even mildly interested. The varieties of their incompetence are beclouded by their thoroughgoing buffoonery. The way that white Americans like to attribute their opinions on racial topics to "black friends" of theirs has deservedly achieved the status of a hackneyed joke, so ridiculous is it, but yesterday, Mark Meadows, R-Carolina, fed the old joke steroids and interjected it into a congressional debate. Cohen's opening statement, which included the charge that Trump is a racist, had circulated the night before his testimony, so at the appropriate time Meadows was ready and produced from behind the curtain an obscure Trump Co. employee, an African American lady, who stepped out into the lit room and shifted her weight nervously as Meadows in effect identified her as another of the "black friends" who show I'm right and you're wrong. An embarrassing, pathetic stunt. What a dope.
Did anyone shine? Yes, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the bogey-girl of right-wing fever dreams! See the clip of her interrogation of the witness above. Unlike the bloviating old white men well known to seasoned CSPAN viewers, she was crisp, poised, prepared, concise, and effective--like the smart girl in school who's also not above doing her homework. The answer to the question "why does x hate y" is often "because x knows y is better than him." The congressional questioners get their turn in order of seniority, so Ocasio-Cortez was near the very end, when the headlining questions have been animatedly pursued by long-term incumbents. The usual thing is for eager back-benchers to follow their elders' example and go over the same trodden ground again, maybe waving their arms more to prove they belong. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez was ready with untried lines of questioning which she pursued briskly to their conclusions, staying within her allotted time and eliciting from Cohen new charges of criminality as well as the names of individuals who could corroborate his story. Here she is conducting a similarly effective interview at a previous congressional hearing--she's 29 and a walking, talking, thinking, laughing, ebullient rebuttal to the familiar plaint about how the younger generation has gone all to hell.
So you think that a person who thinks we can retro fit
All the buildings in the United States, shut down air travel, take trains
Across ocean, put up wind farms that need to be manufactured with the use of fossil
Fuel plus transport the thing , get ride of cows is the person
We’re suppose to aspire to?
Because she asked questions rapidly? Or is it because she
Pointed out a rich guy does everything he can to pay less taxes?
Wow she really hit it out of the park
Good thing according to her and the Al Gore’s of the world who said the planet
Is going to explode or dye in the next 10 years
We won’t have to listen to this 29 yr old for much longer
Wait Al said that 30 yrs ago she wasn’t even born yet
But I bet she read his book in the 8th grade as asigned
Reading
Borch
Posted by: Pat Borchardt | March 01, 2019 at 11:28 AM