“A strong AG could have begun the investigation by examining the illegal FISA warrants. The best defense is an offense.”
Thanks for the very well thought out response - it comes very close to answering my question. I understand being on the offensive and not appeasing.
What I wanted to know is what tangible results (visible to the public), like specific indictments or arrests of top level Clinton or Obama administrators, would we have seen - and which or how many specific terminations of top level deep state bureaucrats do you think we would we have seen in the early months - if we’d had a strong AG?
The second part of my question was - how would the MSM and rabid Left (which neither of us want to appease) - how would they have responded to this assertive AG? After firing a bunch of the key deep state traitors, would they have backed off out of respect for the show of strength? After indicting a bunch of corrupt career politicians from past administrations - would they run for cover because there’s a new sheriff in town?
I’m not suggesting appeasement is better - I’m just asking how you think the tough AG’s toughness would have gone over - would it have scared them into submission or would it have escalated the “war” on Trump? I’m not saying good or bad - just asking what you think the landscape would look like right now if we’d done it your way?
What I’m getting at of course, is that when we “walk softly and carry a big stick”, there are several reasons why we should walk softly - and appeasement is NOT one of them. One reason to walk softly is stealth. A second reason is so as to remain alert - in a listening mode - so as to be aware of the enemy’s movements. A third reason is to constantly offer the enemy an optional course of action to resolve the dispute without bloodshed.
I worry that some on our side are so angry that they want blood - they wouldn’t accept a draining of the swamp unless it involved Clinton’s in jail.
I’d love to see Clintons in jail but I don’t think that will ever happen - nomatter who is AG.
‘What I wanted to know is what tangible results (visible to the public), like specific indictments or arrests of top level Clinton or Obama administrators, would we have seen - and which or how many specific terminations of top level deep state bureaucrats do you think we would we have seen in the early months - if we’d had a strong AG?’
This is absolutely, positively not the issue. When Trump won, despite his having encouraged chants of Lock Her Up, his entire focus was on MAGA. This is crystal clear in his words and actions post-victory. Certainly some in the base would have been disgruntled, but their resentment would have waned had Trump been free to barrel ahead with his huge and excellent MAGA plans.
The rage, the fury, the white hot resentment of Sessions is that he knee-capped—to understate the issue by orders of magnitude—the POTUS right out of the gate. Instead of being free to charge ahead with his great plans, Trump has been hounded, dogged, persecuted, undermined, undercut, weakened, deprived of leverage and ruined in terms of momentum. And it’s entirely Sessions’ doing. Trump said it best:
“Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.”
As far as the press/leftists are concerned, we know absolutely how they’d have responded. Every time a Republican gives in to their demands they destroy him or her. Witness that senator, George Allen, who tried to appease the press by apologizing for his use of the word, maccaca. They destroyed him. There are many such examples.
Then there are the times Republicans refuse to appease. Even McCain had such an instance. He sang a snatch of, ‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,’ — and the press went berserk. They sensed a George Allen moment. They were going to destroy McCain for being so giddy for war with Iran that he was singing about it.
In possibly his only good move in the entire campaign, McCain came right back at the press with both guns blazing. He mocked and ridiculed them for having no sense of humor and for taking a light hearted molehill joke and trying to make a mountain out of it.
The press slunk off like whipped puppies. They thrive on apologies/appeasement, and are taken aback when the childish pettiness of their words is unexpectedly thrown back in their faces.
Trump’s campaign was one long succession of similar press gotchas. Every time he said something outre or an incident surfaced from his past the press/Democrats lost their minds. They screamed hysterically that THIS time Trump was done.
Trump merely showed his genius for making the press look like stupid babies. He did it again and again. Yes, it was Lucy and the football, but Trump was Lucy.
Sessions crime is that he didn’t give Trump time to ridicule and mock the Russian collusion fairytale. Before Trump could properly frame the silliness and dispose of the idiocy, Sessions had saddled him with a never-ending witch hunt/fishing expedition. In my wildest imaginings, I can’t picture Sessions screwing Trump over worse than he did. Sessions is a disgrace.
Any AG that wouldn’t have placed Trump at the mercy of Deep State pro-Hillary snake Rosenstein would have been incalculably better. Sessions created a catastrophic mess. Maybe Trump can recover and maybe he can’t. We’ll see.