Posted on 05/19/2017 3:34:46 PM PDT by Kaslin
"With the stroke of a pen, Rod Rosenstein redeemed his reputation," writes Dana Milbank of The Washington Post.
What had Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein done to be welcomed home by the Post like the prodigal son?
Without consulting the White House, he sandbagged President Trump, naming a special counsel to take over the investigation of the Russia connection that could prove ruinous to this presidency.
Rod has reinvigorated a tired 10-month investigation that failed to find any collusion between Trump and Russian hacking of the DNC. Not a single indictment had come out of the FBI investigation.
Yet, now a new special counsel, Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI, will slow-walk his way through this same terrain again, searching for clues leading to potentially impeachable offenses. What seemed to be winding down for Trump is now only just beginning to gear up.
Also to be investigated is whether the president tried to curtail the FBI investigation with his phone calls and Oval Office meetings with FBI Director James Comey, before abruptly firing Comey last week.
Regarded as able and honest, Mueller will be under media pressure to come up with charges. Great and famous prosecutors are measured by whom they convict and how many scalps they take.
Moreover, a burgeoning special counsel's office dredging up dirt on Trump and associates will find itself the beneficiary of an indulgent press.
Why did Rosenstein capitulate to a Democrat-media clamor for a special counsel that could prove disastrous for the president who elevated and honored him?
Surely in part, as Milbank writes, to salvage his damaged reputation.
After being approved 94-6 by a Senate that hailed him as a principled and independent U.S. attorney for both George Bush and Barack Obama, Rosenstein found himself being pilloried for preparing the document White House aides called crucial to Trump's decision to fire Comey.
Rosenstein had gone over to the dark side. He had, it was said, on Trump's orders, put the hit on Comey. Now, by siccing a special counsel on the president himself, Rosenstein is restored to the good graces of this city. Rosenstein just turned in his black hat for a white hat.
Democrats are hailing both his decision to name a special counsel and the man he chose. Yet it is difficult to exaggerate the damage he has done.
As did almost all of its predecessors, including those which led to the resignation of President Nixon and impeachment of Bill Clinton, Mueller's investigation seems certain to drag on for years.
All that time, there will be a cloud over Trump's presidency that will drain his political authority. Trump's enemies will become less fearful and more vocal. Republican Congressmen and Senators in swing states and marginal districts, looking to 2018, will have less incentive to follow Trump's lead, rather than their own instincts and interests. Party unity will fade away.
And without a united and energized Republican Party on the Hill, how do you get repeal and replacement of Obamacare, tax reform or a border wall? Trump's agenda suddenly seems comatose. And was it a coincidence that the day Mueller was appointed, the markets tanked, with the Dow falling 372 points?
Markets had soared with Trump's election on the expectation that his pro-business agenda would be enacted. If those expectations suddenly seem illusory, will the boom born of hope become a bust?
A White House staff, said to be in disarray, and a president reportedly enraged over endless press reports of his problems and falling polls, are not going to become one big happy family again with a growing office of prosecutors and FBI agents poking into issues in which they were involved.
Nor is the jurisdiction of the special counsel restricted to alleged Russia interference in the campaign. Allegations about Trump's taxes, investments, and associates, and those of his family, could be drawn into the maw of the special counsel's office by political and business enemies enthusiastic about seeing him brought down.
More folks in Trump's entourage will soon be lawyering up.
While it's absurd today to talk of impeachment, that will not deter Democrats and the media from speculating, given what happened to Nixon and Clinton when special prosecutors were put on their trail.
Another consequence of the naming of a special counsel, given what such investigations have produced, will be that Vice President Pence will soon find himself with new friends and admirers, and will begin to attract more press as the man of the future in the GOP.
A rising profile for Pence is unlikely to strengthen his relationship with a besieged president.
In the United Kingdom, the odds are growing that Trump may not finish his term.
So how does he regain the enthusiasm and energy he exhibited in previous crises, with such talk in the air?
A debilitating and potentially dangerous time for President Trump has now begun, courtesy of his deputy attorney general.
They flubbed the election, so why would ANYONE believe them on any topic Trump related now.
I have not lost my Trump enthusiasm.
I am sick and tired of so called conservative talking heads ripping into Trump all of the time though. ENOUGH. Attack the true enemies of this nation. Call them out on their hypocrisy all day long. Don’t give any time to these so called anonymous sources.
No evidence, I don’t have time for that, lets get back to issues we have evidence for and can address.
Where was Sessions in all this?
He’s a snake in other words
Stop it with your snickering.
Buchanan seems to think the Swamp holds sway over 65,000,000+ passionate Trump supporters who are no longer sheep and are all connected via social media.
Buchanan is still using dial-up.
Without consulting the White House, he sandbagged President Trump
More than likely Bullshit and fake news.
I posted this on another thread; fits here too:
You can thank Rosenstein for this appointment of Robert Mueller, and then thank Sessions for being a fool and recusing himself in the first place, doing Trump no favors. And then thank whoever is advising Trump to select Rosenstein, a Dem, to the position of Deputy under Sessions, and then thank Trump for having been such a fool to fall for such advice. And now some of his staff (Kutchner perhaps?) are trying to persuade Trump to hire Joe Lieberman to head the FBI? Another Dem at heart liberal on most things, politician who ran for VP on the Dem ticket?
Trump better get his head out of the sand fast, and start taking his advice from Bannon, Lewandowski, Bossi, and them that brung him to the dance, or Trump is going to be in deep political doo doo. He’s being surrounded by East Coast liberals, be they Pubs or Dems, and these elitists are doing him no favors. Their “advice” is going to sink Trump into a political hole he is going to have a heck of a time digging himself out of. Not the time to be going all naive on us about some of those advising you, President Trump. To your detriment.
I posted this on another thread; fits here too:
You can thank Rosenstein for this appointment of Robert Mueller, and then thank Sessions for being a fool and recusing himself in the first place, doing Trump no favors. And then thank whoever is advising Trump to select Rosenstein, a Dem, to the position of Deputy under Sessions, and then thank Trump for having been such a fool to fall for such advice. And now some of his staff (Kutchner perhaps?) are trying to persuade Trump to hire Joe Lieberman to head the FBI? Another Dem at heart liberal on most things, politician who ran for VP on the Dem ticket?
Trump better get his head out of the sand fast, and start taking his advice from Bannon, Lewandowski, Bossi, and them that brung him to the dance, or Trump is going to be in deep political doo doo. He’s being surrounded by East Coast liberals, be they Pubs or Dems, and these elitists are doing him no favors. Their “advice” is going to sink Trump into a political hole he is going to have a heck of a time digging himself out of. Not the time to be going all naive on us about some of those advising you, President Trump. To your detriment.
All of these people in the President Trump persecution will be held accountable.
5.56mm
And they should be.
You summed it up beautifully.
Excellent! May I copy to other places with attribution?
I believe the payment center is secure. I paid my contribution a few hours ago.
“wait till Obama’s unmasking hits the fan”
What are you talking about? If none of the felonies committed by the Clinton/Obama axis have had daylight shown on them by now they never will. I have no idea why Trump never took the offensive on these matters. I thought he was a fighter. Hell, a Bush could have rolled over like this.
Trump has one last chance with his FBI pick. If he errors that pick he’ll have no one but rinos and the press to seek the truth. Lieberman??? Are you kidding me? Hoping this report is more fake news.
It’s individual “journalists” who need the fear if God put into them. Not suggesting anyone in particular or when or how it should be done. But for the bullshit flow to be stopped, the shit hole must be plugged.
Pat is frustrated because Trump doesn’t ask him what to do
Pat was
Pat isn’t
A nicely written piece by Buchanan but it’s too much like conventional wisdom. Trump is where conventional wisdom goes to die.
“Excellent! May I copy to other places with attribution?”
Sure, go ahead. Get the word out. Thanks for the compliment.
And who appointed him? I heard it was some guy named Trump
Problem began when Jeff Sessions caved to the left and agreed to neuter himself. Pubs are always so dumb.
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