Poor Stephen Colbert of The Late Show. He goes on a two week vacation and misses out on former Campaign Manager Manafort’s multitudinous convictions and President Trump’s personal lawyer pleading guilty to multiple counts, including admitting to paying off to two former mistresses of President Trump’s, as reported by The New York Times:
Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges, a litany of crimes that revealed both his shadowy involvement in Mr. Trump’s circle and his own corrupt business dealings.
He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” implicating the president in a federal crime.
“I participated in this conduct, which on my part took place in Manhattan, for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016, Mr. Cohen said.
For my older readers, do you remember the commercial for the number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? I think we’re seeing that here, the gradual dissolution of a Presidency through his own mis-deeds. Manafort may be a bit of a sideshow, as the President merely employed a crook in that case. But Cohen deservedly occupies center-stage, as his admission of guilt directly implicates the President in a campaign finance crime.
And that last bit may be the one saving grace for the President. A lot of folks look at campaign finance as an arcane part of the law, perhaps not as important as, say, instigating the robbery of the opposition political party. In particular, the base of the Trump Party won’t, for the most part, care, and that’s the key to why I’m not entirely excited or shocked by this revelation, because the Trump Party base remains the key to the actions of the GOP members of Congress, and they, in turn, are the key to impeaching the President. They are second- and third- raters, for the most part, devoted to Party over Country, and ignoring their paramount responsibilities of monitoring the Executive, producing quality legislative work, and protecting the United States’ various resources, from environmental to human. So long as the Trump Party base prates about their President in the most glowing of terms, the GOP won’t take seriously the idea of ousting him for what they’ll deem a minor crime.
So we should speculate as to the excuses now to be put forth. Cohen lies! is easy enough. No one was hurt! is obvious as well. More odious, and destructive to the reputation of the Trumpists, is But Gorsuch and other conservative judges!
Feel free to come up with more and send them to me. And if you think this is no chortling matter, remember that sometimes the best way to highlight the seriousness of an issue is to dribble sarcasm all over it in such a way as to clarify the foolishness of those on the other side.
And for those of you puzzled over the commercial reference, or nostalgic, here’s one of those commercials:
