Trump: Hey Don, want to participate in a little obstruction of justice with me?

Don Mcgahn: No, but thanks.

Trump: Drat

All that’s left is for Tom Cruise to put Colonel Jessup on the stand.

I’m often reminded of this quote from Abraham Lincoln:

“He who represents himself in court has a fool for a client”

If you watched any of the O.J. Simpson trial, the guy sat there for over 4 months with a stoic look on his face.  I’m positive he was simply following the instructions of his attorneys.  There’s this basic legal practice of not engaging in facial expressions, emotions, or reacting in any way.  No emotional outbursts.  Nothing.  Just sit there in your suit and let me handle this.  Failure to comply with this makes the attorney’s job more difficult, so clients are strongly advised to comply if they want the best chance at a favorable outcome.

It’s clear that Trump routinely ignores the advice of counsel.  I’m positive they told him to stop tweeting.  I’m also sure the reason he hasn’t had a press conference in almost a year has to do with his gaffe with NBC’s Lester Holt where he basically admitted obstruction of justice live, on the air.

Again tonight, just as Trump’s legal team is trying to figure out the best forum to get Robert Mueller’s special council the information it needs, Trump goes off script with the media and says “sure, I’ll testify under oath.  No problem.”  A few hours later, his legal team is cleaning up the mess putting out statements.  Ty Cobb:

“While Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly before departing for Davos, he remains committed to continued complete cooperation with the OSC and is looking forward to speaking with Mr. Mueller.”

This Trump tweet was so egregious, his personal lawyer John Dowd had to claim personal responsibility for it because the ‘and the FBI’ add-on was self incriminating for Trump, admitting he knew Flynn lied to the FBI and still kept him on.

“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” the Saturday tweet reads. “He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”

When asked if he routinely tweets for Trump, Dowd replied “No, this was the one and only time.”  Not exactly a believable story.

This leads me to the conclusion that if Trump is removed from office, (which I think he will be one way or another), it will be because he is the WORST CLIENT IN THE HISTORY OF LAW.

Ordinarily one and done is a considered a rare accomplishment (see Ball, Lonzo).  But if you’re the POTUS, not so much.

As Kate McKinnon characterized it on SNL last weekend in her portrayal of Robert Mueller, “They didn’t leave us breadcrumbs.  They left us whole loaves.”

Here’s a link to the timeline that makes obstruction impossible to defend from a legal standpoint.  The end is nigh.

The short summary is, the Hastert Rule: 

The Hastert Rule, also known as the “majority of the majority” rule, is an informal governing principle used in the United States by Republican Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships and limit the power of the minority party to bring bills up for a vote on the floor of the House. Under the doctrine, the Speaker will not allow a floor vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill

Paul Ryan has a bit of a dilemma on his hands right now.  In order for him to resolve the #Trumpshutdown, he’ll need to break that Hastert rule.  Something he is loath to do.

With support for a short-term resolution for DACA recipients near 85%, getting a majority of The House to pass protection for DACA workers is simple math.  The problem for Ryan is, it would almost certainly have to break the Hastert rule.   It would be fairly simple to appease House democrats and persuade a handful of Republican congressmen on a solution to DACA, but the Freedom Caucus would start experiencing convulsions before the vote even hits the floor.  Oddly enough, about the only one who recognizes this at the moment is Lindsey Graham.  His odds of convincing his peers towards accepting a yes vote and moving on are slim to non-existent.

However if Ryan sticks to the Hastert rule, he’s also screwed because the House is currently filled with ultra conservative wing-nuts.  Any legislation they deem acceptable couldn’t possibly assemble 60 votes in the Senate.  This even discounts the Stephen Miller effect, who Graham is currently grousing about.

Meanwhile, president Bone Spur is advocating what Mitch McConnell knows to be political suicide – The Nuclear Option.  Donald Trump on Twitter:

Great to see how hard Republicans are fighting for our Military and Safety at the Border. The Dems just want illegal immigrants to pour into our nation unchecked. If stalemate continues, Republicans should go to 51% (Nuclear Option) and vote on real, long-term budget, no C.R.’s!

No way does Mitch McConnell want to go down the nuclear path with the mid-terms just 10 months away.  If he changes the rules, the republicans get the benefit for 10 months but if they manage to lose the Senate — which is a real possibility — he just handed over all the power to democrats who will only need 51 votes to pass legislation on anything, indefinitely.  Based on his own words, I do not see him complying with Trump’s wishes.  The only benefit would be a short-term one for Trump and McConnell is too smart to take the bait that.

I do not see an easy way out of this one.  Nobody likes egg on their face but someone is going to end up with a face plastered with yokes.  Gosh darn-it it’s hard to actually govern.

Gosh it was nice to see senators Collins and Murkowski at work today praising just how hard everyone there was working towards a resolution to the government shut-down.  They just seemed so…. optimistic!

And knowing how honorable the Republicans are at keeping their word, I’m sure the talks would have happened anyway, even if Chuck Schumer hadn’t forced the issue.

I have never seem a party transition from obstinate to Kum Ba Yah in such a short period of time.  Miraculous, isn’t it?

The U.S. government is going to shut down in an hour and 5 minutes.

While I hate to see the inconvenience this will impose on hundreds of thousands of federal workers and contractors, I applaud Chuck Schumer for taking a principled stand. The republicans have worked themselves into a corner where they have absolutely no credibility with respect to a promissory note to fix important issues later.  Schumer and the democrats recognized that it’s now or never.

With the ensuing chaos that will start tomorrow morning where Dick Mulveyney will need to decide what stays open and what closes, there exists a clear inconvenience to republicans to come to the table and negotiate.  Trump might have to postpone a golf game or two.  The party celebrating the one year anniversary of his inauguration is in jeopardy.  It’ll be interesting to see if he holds it.  It would be incredibly bad optics.

Schumer played this poker hand pretty well this time.  Basically called republicans’ bluff that Dems would take the heat for a shut-down.  On the contrary.

If he’s able to negotiate a deal for the Dreamers and get funding for CHIP, he’ll have accomplished two things.  One, his principled stand will get looked at as what resolved the Dreamers issue.  Two, he will have established credibility that democrats are willing to call McConnell’s bluff if they feel like public opinion is on their side.  These are two very important accomplishments that need to happen in order to fix the ‘tude problem on the other side of the aisle.

I’m reminded of a funny story I was told by local musician, producer, singer, songwriter Jim Walker a few years ago.  One day we got off on the topic of people who, with no talent of their own, like to sit there and launch criticisms of bands and how they suck or whatever.

So as the story goes, Jim and a friend were at a bar watching a local band and there happened to be an obnoxious guy standing behind him who kept making rude comments about the band and how they sucked.  You can only ignore someone like that for so long.  Evidently Jim’s friend had had enough of this guy, turned around and asked him “Where’s your song, man?”  I guess he got a lot more quiet after that.

I’m reminded of this humorous episode as I watch Republican infighting over the DACA solution.  It’s humorous for a couple of reasons.  First, Lindsay Graham tries to be Trump’s buddy and get into his inner circle by going golfing with him and flattering him afterwards.  Then he makes what I would say is a good faith effort to work with democratic senator Dick Durbin on a bipartisan solution to DACA.  Does the President want to hear about it?  Sure, c’mon over.

To his surprise, Trump had invited a few of his hardliners to the meeting as well.  Graham’s idea got shot down by Cotton and Perdue who have no intention of working in a bipartisan fashion with any democrat, even though 80% of U.S. citizens want to see a solution for Dreamers.  So Graham is out there strumming his tune, laying out his proposal and Trump gets indignant about it complete with shithole comments.

But as bad and racist as that was, that’s not the point here.  The point is, okay, you don’t like my plan.  Where’s yours?

So, Senators Cotton and Perdue.  Where’s your song, man?