Donald Trump knows how to play offense, and he is
good at it. He learned early-on that if he fought dirty, and never let up, and
ignored all of the rules, others would step back and let him have his way.
If they didn’t, he would sue them.
The heart of the Trump offense is not strategy.
The man who famously does not read is not a student of George Washington, or
Ulysses Grant, or Ike, who at war was the hero of D-Day and at peace, mobilized
the wheels and gears of government to revolutionize our infrastructure by
creating the interstate highway system.
The heart of the Trump offense is simple. It is
loudness – overwhelming and unrelenting loudness, battle tested to drown out
the voices of perceived adversaries. Up against non-stop loudness, the
reasonable and the rational have wound up battered and bloodied.
And that might explain why so many of my fellow
anti-Trumpers are noticeably lacking in optimism, in spite of the great Blue Wave
that placed the people’s House in the hands of the Democrats. The Mueller
investigation, though richly productive, continues to be quiet – too quiet if
you have been nervously biting your nails, waiting for the big takedown.
Now, Democrats are running the committees, and
they too have been nerve-rattling quiet and way too reasonable and rational to
give hope to many that are waiting and praying for a Democracy-loving King Kong
to arrive on the scene and save us from the godless Godzilla.
To those of you looking for Kong, please believe
me:
The game has changed.
Six Democrats, possessing different styles,
different skills and different super powers – brand new super powers – will
soon have him cornered, and we will begin watching him take the blows in real
time. Finally, he will have to play defense like his presidency and the future
of his adult children depend on it.
A foreign government is not supposed to help elect
a president of the United States, but Russia did exactly that. Devin Nunez, the
now former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, did back flips to
convince us that our real enemies were our own intelligence agencies, and that
these deep state, Obama agents were out to frame the innocent POTUS.
Nunez made sure that witnesses, called before his
committee, were handled gently. In fact, witnesses called before all House
committees were handled gently, if they were called at all. For Devin Nunez and
his committee counterparts, protecting America was replaced with protecting
Trump. This heist took place, while the one man who could have stopped it, Paul
Ryan, stood silently and impotently at the door.
Now Paul Ryan is out and Madam Speaker is in.
His
speakership will be defined by his feeble excuses for not using his voice.
She,
on the other hand, took the gavel, not simply as a person who fought for her
job and was clever and savvy enough to win it, but as one filled with the
belief of her appointment with destiny.
Devin Nunez is out and Adam Schiff is in.
While Nunez publicly trashed the Department of
Justice, the FBI, and the Constitution, Schiff, the ranking member, could only
watch the charade and call it out in the press. Setting the record straight
earned him the Trump tweet-name, Little Adam Schitt.
Now, Little Adam Schitt is chairman, and real
investigations are about to begin. New witnesses will be called. Old witnesses
will be recalled. Subpoenas will be issued. The story of: What did the president know about Russia and when did he know it?
is about to unfold before our eyes.
And there will be more –
a lot more.
Ranking members, Jerry Nadler on the Judiciary Committee, Richard Neal on Ways and Means, and Maxine Waters on Financial Services could only watch the Republican
charade and call it out. Soon they will start calling witnesses. Corrupt
cabinet members, abandonment of Puerto Rico, immigration, family separation, money
laundering, campaign violations, possible criminal behavior by Don Jr., Ivanka,
and Jared, and the pursuit of Trump’s tax returns will all be getting a long
awaited dose of daylight.
And, that first sustained blast of daylight will
take place on February 7th, when Elijah Cummings,
chairman of the House Oversight Committee, grants former Trump fixer, Michael
Cohen the opportunity to come clean, as all of us watch. Michael Cohen is on
his way to a three-year prison term. He branded himself as Trump’s go-to hatchet
man, once boasting “I would do anything to protect Mr. Trump.” He would like to
change both his prison sentence and his public image.
In fact, he hopes that loudly serving the crime
boss’s head on a platter will make him the hero of this story. Grateful though
we may be, history will not be so kind, regardless of the secrets he might
reveal.
The real heroes, like Mueller, will be strategic,
focused, and unflappable.
For Adam Schiff, Richard Neal, Maxine Waters, Jerry
Nadler, and Elijah Cummings, the tone has been set and probably much of their
agendas. They will go after the truth, while being goaded by committee
Republicans (like the rabid Jim Jordan) to lose their tempers, to appear overzealous
and vindictive, but they are unlikely to take the bait.
And Godzilla will do everything he can think of to
drown them out, to stomp on them and their hearings.
But they have been preparing for their moment for
what must seem like an eternity, and they understand that history is watching.
Of course, nobody understands that more than Madam
Speaker, who wields a very big gavel and is not afraid to use it.
