Normally, I’d write off this piece in Politico as a literary hit job, because equating one person, living, with another person, dead and universally considered despicable, is usually a dubious effort, rank with malicious intent.
But the well-documented mendacity and unrestrained habits of Donald J. Trump makes this one of those pieces which might actually be unsettlingly accurate. It makes my stomach churn to think so, but it’s a plausible assertion. The piece concerns the late lawyer Roy Cohn:
One of Donald Trump’s most important mentors, one of the most reviled men in American political history, is about to have another moment.
Roy Cohn, who has been described by people who knew him as “a snake,” “a scoundrel” and “a new strain of son of a bitch,” is the subject of a new documentary out this week from producer and director Matt Tyrnauer. It’s an occasion to once again look at Cohn and ask how much of him and his “savage,” “abrasive” and “amoral” behavior is visible in the behavior of the current president. Trump, as has been well–established, learned so much from the truculent, unrepentant Cohn about how to get what he wants, and he pines for Cohn and his notorious capabilities still. Trump, after all, reportedly has said so himself, and it’s now the name of this film: “Where’s My Roy Cohn?”
Roy Cohn was a psychopath who believed rules were for suckers is what I glean from the piece, and that certainly seems to apply to Donald J. Trump. But go read it yourself, or see the movie (I have not). Me quoting it piecemeal isn’t half as much fun as the entire piece.
But keep a sink nearby. Or a bucket. That someone mentored by Cohn, if indeed he did, is the President makes the blood run cold.
