Speaking of humility…
I keep forgetting – how did David Brooks become a thing, again? Is it because he’s so mediocre and conventional and uninteresting?
Today he’s telling us we owe Donnie Two-scoops an apology.
“You have a president who, in my opinion, beyond a shadow of a doubt, sought to, however ham-handedly, collude with the Russian government, a foreign power, to undermine and influence our elections.” — Beto O’Rourke, presidential candidate
“I think there’s plenty of evidence of collusion and conspiracy in plain sight.” — Adam Schiff, chairman of House Intelligence Committee
“I called [Trump’s] behavior treasonous, which is to betray one’s trust and aid and abet the enemy, and I stand very much by that claim.” — John Brennan, former C.I.A. director
Then one from Rob Reiner, because hey let’s just be random.
Maybe it’s time to declare a national sabbath. Maybe it’s time to step back from the scandalmongering and assess who we are right now.
Democrats might approach this moment with an attitude of humility and honest self-examination. It’s clear that many Democrats made grievous accusations against the president that are not supported by the evidence. It’s clear that people like Beto O’Rourke and John Brennan owe Donald Trump a public apology. If you call someone a traitor and it turns out you lacked the evidence for that charge, then the only decent thing to do is apologize.
But we don’t lack the evidence. Just for one thing: Helsinki. Remember that? He met with Putin alone except for the interpreter; the interpreter has as far as I know never been interviewed about what went on in that meeting, nor has any other information about it been forthcoming. That isn’t normal, and it isn’t even an absence of evidence of treason.
There’s that Oval Office meeting the day after he fired Comey, with only Kisliak and Lavrov and some Russian media people. There’s the firing of Comey. There are the other solitary chats with Putin. There’s the Trump Tower Moscow project.
David Brooks needs to go soak his head.
Again, I am reminded of the way people often approach cases of rape that don’t go forward. Not enough evidence to bring to trial means “bitches be lying”, even when there is clear evidence that someone molested the woman. And when there is enough evidence to go to trial (as there might be with Trump, if it wasn’t for Barry), there are myriad ways they can spin that evidence to make it come back to “bitches be lying”.
Trump has violated our country without full and complete, enthusiastic consent. He has interpreted the minority who voted for him as a mandate to f*** our treasure, our international relations, our domestic tranquility, our labor relations, and everything else. And now we get the usual standby that protects privileged male people – not enough evidence.
All of the above quotes are true though Brooks; Beto may be overdoing it a bit but Brennan and Schiff sure didn’t.
The Mueller Report’s conclusions don’t rub out everything else we’ve known about for the past two years.
I’m embarrassed to say that Brooks and I overlapped at college (I was two years behind him). Given my campus job, there’s a pretty good chance that we interacted, though I don’t remember ever meeting him.