'Donald Trump' Plus 'Slow Bleed' Sounds Like Porn for Very Particular Political Kink

The Democrats have asked this week for documents from over 80 people associated Donald Trump and his finances, and while that might sound like they’re laying the groundwork for impeachment, it couldn’t be further from the truth. The House Democrats are playing it smart. Their strategy is not to nail Trump on one crime, or endeavor to impeach him knowing that the votes won’t materialize in the Senate. The Democrats know if Trump is impeached and he survives it, there could be a backlash against the Democrats, allowing Trump to win his re-election.

Instead, they are taking a “slow bleed” approach, and I got lightheaded and my arm got tingly just typing that. They’re going to spend the next two years investigating Trump, heading into the 2020 election. There won’t be a week that goes by without another hearing, or some new bit of Trump corruption news surfacing, so when it comes time to cast a vote for President next year, the Democrats are gambling that the public will be so sick and exhausted with headlines about Trump’s abuses of power, obstruction of justice, his financial fraud, his self-dealing, and his interactions with foreign leaders (including Putin), that voters will just throw their hands in the air and say, UNCLE.

From Axios:

Garrett M. Graff of WIRED told me the House strategy reflects the fact that what’s most likely to move public opinion isn’t any single crime or bombshell, but “when a pattern of behavior is so clear it becomes un-defensible.”

In the meantime, what the hell is Trump going to get accomplished in the next two years? He won’t be able to get anything through Congress, except the occasional bill to rebuke the President. Trump, apparently, doesn’t even have an agenda for his last two years, other than to rail about The Wall. There’s very little to distract the American public from two years of bad Trump headlines, other than Trump’s Twitter account, which is increasingly being tuned out. Although, +10 points to Slytherin for this tweet, which manages to reflect total ignorance of history and a rich hypocrisy.

“We the people will now be subjected to the biggest display of modern day McCarthyism….which is the widest fishing net expedition….every aspect of the presidents life….all in order to get power back so they can institute Socialism.” @seanhannity

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019

Someone should brief both Trump and Sean Hannity on exactly what McCarthyism was before they, uh, start calling out socialists. I’ll say this for the tweet, though: It does wonders to reinforce Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece yesterday about how Fox News and the White House are attached at the hip.

The Mueller investigation is also still ongoing, of course, and you know who is a big fan of Mueller? Ty Cobb, Donald Trump’s personal attorney until a few months ago.

“I think Bob Mueller’s an American hero … even though he came from an, arguably, privileged background, he has a backbone of steel. He walked into a firefight in Vietnam to pull out one of his injured colleagues and was appropriately honored for that. I’ve known him for 30 years as a prosecutor and a friend. And I think the world of Bob Mueller. He is a very deliberate guy. But he’s also a class act. And a very justice-oriented person.”

Ty Cobb resigned as Trump’s attorney over a difference of opinion regarding strategy.

— Elsewhere, Walid Fitaihi — a prominent doctor who has dual American and Saudi citizenship — is being tortured in Saudi Arabia, purportedly so that he will give up information on a relative. From WashPo:

He has been tortured during his captivity. He was reportedly grabbed from his room at the Ritz, slapped, blindfolded, stripped to his underwear, bound to a chair, shocked with electricity and whipped so severely that he could not sleep on his back for days. The Times said his lawyer has written to the State Department that the doctor “is in fear for his life, that he cannot take his situation any longer, and that he desires all possible help.”

The Saudi Arabians don’t fear any repercussions whatsoever, because they already know that Trump (and Jared Kushner) allowed them to get away with murdering Jamal Khashoggi. The foreign policy lesson of the Trump Administration is that foreign leaders can get away with whatever they want, as long as they are doing something that might enrich Trump.

— Finally, in 2020 news, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley — a good guy — has opted against running, deciding instead to run for re-election in the Senate, where he can be of more use. There are a few others who would be wise to take his lead.