Up until now, the Watergate scandal has been the most attention-grabbing, titillating, train-wreck of a political drama in my lifetime. It was the O.J. Simpson trial…on steroids. Every one was glued to the television set, hearing the sordid details of the cover-up, watching high government officials soil themselves, and observing, in real time, the collapse of the once-promising Nixon presidency. (I even voted for the guy!)
That a man so intelligent and experienced, with so much to offer, could fuck up so bad was…astounding. President Nixon’s biggest mistake: blatently lying to the American people, and, then, clumsily trying to hide the evidence under the carpet, so to speak. What a doofus.
It now appears that we have another one of these “once-in-a-lifetime” spectacles to suffer through. It’s being labeled “Russiagate”, for lack of a better word. It seems that a day doesn’t go by where we hear of another juicy tidbit of evidence that something amiss occurred during the 2016 Presidential campaign and…that the Trump/Russia skullduggery might be ongoing.
President Trump has done his best to deny that there was any collusion between his campaign and the Russian government with the objective of tilting the outcome in Mr. Trump’s favor. “Never happened!”, “Fake news!”, etc.
Even worse has been the praise and soft-peddling approach of the Trump administration toward Russia during the campaign and afterward, as if there were some sort of love affair a’brewing. Interestingly, many of the President’s key advisors, Cabinet appointments, his family, and business associates have close ties to Vladimir Putin’s kleptocracy in Moscow. Yet, Trump denies any sort of relationship, prior to, or continuing after, his inauguration.
The problem with those denials is the multitude of suspicious liasions, connections, meetings, financial dealings, phone calls, etc. between Trump campaign strategists, advisors, and relatives that have already been uncovered by a multitude of sources. A bigger problem is that our President sees nothing wrong with hopping into bed with the brutal Russian leader.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” is an axiom of the journalistic trade, and, in this case, there is a hell of a lot of smoke. Something’s rotten in Denmark…er, the White House…and professional journalists around the world are circling, like bloodthirsty sharks. They know that this is a good story, with legs.
Trump and his crew of apologists, who have been caught in lies virtually every day since his election, on a variety of subjects, have been throwing out denials right and left. So has Vladimir Putin. But, they’re not very effective denials.
The more that the President denies obvious red-flag problems, the more his standing with the public declines. Approval ratings and credibility are in the toilet.
Over the past few weeks, the Administration has unleashed a counterattack…an obvious diversionary tactic…which attempts to focus the media’s attention on alleged wiretapping and snooping of the Trump campaign by Obama’s forces.
The lapdog Fox News Network, and Congressman Nunes, have outdone themselves in trying to develop this subterfuge, but have not surfaced a single fact to bolster Trump’s clumsy parlor trick. Seeing the desperation of the President and his cronies, journalists are digging deep into the steaming Russiagate story, and…are finding more golden nuggets. Every day, a new lead or expose. Just like the Watergate debacle, with a cover-up more likely every time a new diversionary tactic or adamant denial is thrown against the wall to see if it sticks.
It’s shaping up to be the story of a lifetime…again. The President of the United States reduced to a caricature of a vain, clueless clown, and the status of the Greatest Nation on Earth knocked down a peg or two. One wonders what world leaders think of this guy.
I don’t think this is what voters had in mind when they fell for the “Make America Great Again” slogan.
This is the guy who was, with one hand tied behind his back, going to correct everything that was/is wrong with Washington D.C. He was going to “drain the swamp” and make life wonderful for everyone. (At least that’s what the toadying National Enquirer tabloid reported…from the Trump press-release)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (i.e. White House) the fuck up continues. The Trump-supported GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, something that was in the works for seven years (?), debuted to an overwhelming cacophony of boos from both sides of the political aisle, and was quickly hidden out of sight, like some embarrassing relative. So, much for a centerpiece of the Trump presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, the chorus grows within the Trump administration to silence the critics, whistleblowers, and leakers who know a shit sandwich when they see one, and can’t stomach the mess. The President has already banned certain media outlets and journalists from his press conferences, lest they ask any embarrassing questions.
This could be the worst audition for a job in the history of employment.
Probably, in the end, this entire Keystone Cops-like charade will simply be known by historians as Trumpgate.