Media Orchestrations

I could be fooling myself but it seems that, in the lead-up to former FBI Director James Comey's TV testimony tomorrow, both sides of this political symphony are pulling media strings to help their case. Trump just announced his choice for  his new FBI  Director, Christopher Wray ... and Obama's former intelligence chief, James Clapper, said in Australia yesterday that Watergate pales in comparison to the current Trump-Russia collusion probe (interestingly, in his recent Congressional testimony, Clapper said that there was no evidence of collusion in this matter).

Where will the truth eventually land in this ever-shifting kurfuffle? I certainly don't know ... or if we will ever know ... but it is becoming increasingly clear to me exactly how this political music is scored. And the fact that Clapper has pulled his u-turn at this late hour ... presumedly with no access to newer relevant information ... suggests to me that the Democrats may be hitting a sour note.

Cloud of Suspicion

There is a growing cloud of suspicion surrounding our former National Security Advisor Susan Rice ... for her past escapades, including, it seems to be more and more obvious, her using our intelligence agencies to spy on Donald Trump's presidential campaign team. This is an extremely serious charge which may involve other Obama political appointees ... maybe even B.O. himself. President Trump has even suggested that Ms. Rice may be guilty of a crime ... particularly if she requested unmasking of more than two dozen intelligence intercepts that apparently had no national security or Russian contact references ... only political value and personal information.

I know. I know. It it quite early in this investigation to make these leaps of logic. But, like when President Reagan was embroiled in Iran-Contra, it is the seriousness of the charge that is paramount. We are peeling this onion ... and, like it has been over the last week, this obvious misfeasance is looking more and more like the early days of Watergate. ... serious malfeasance. I will not be surprised that, if over the next months, Susan Rice is joined in the docks by such luminaries as Rice's aide Ben Rhodes, Obama's confident Valarie Jarrett, the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA head John Brennan,  and even former AG Loretta Lynch (her meeting with Bill Clinton came shortly before the first FISA request to wiretap Trump Tower).

I suspect it might be a very entertaining summer of congressional TV hearings swirling around this spying on Trump and his people matter.

The Gong Show

A number of years back there was a TV production called The Gong Show. On it, a number of no-talent contestants strut or sung their “stuff” until one of the judges couldn’t stand it any longer and stood up and rang a big gong … which caused this pitiful performance to be hooked. (This genre was recently repeated on American Idol where Simon Cowell’s acerbic tongue took the place of the gong.)

Now, we have a repeat of The Gong Show on the national stage insofar as our response(s) to the current crisis in Egypt. Viz:
- Yesterday the United States’ Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, said that the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is “largely secular … has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam." This is the same group which assassinated Anwar Sadat and was where Ayman Al-Zawahiri (the #2 man in Al-Qaeda) and Mohamed Atta (the leader of the 9/11 attacks) learned their trade.
- Also yesterday, Leon Panetta, the Director of our CIA for heaven’s sake, said that there was a “strong likelihood” that Murbarak would step down by the end of the day. When this didn’t happen, Panetta said that he got this information from the national press. Does he not have a multi-billion dollar intelligence network behind him?
- President Obama has held more all-too-public postures relative to this Egyptian crisis than Carter’s proverbial Little Liver Pills. First, Mubarak must go, then he must cause an orderly transition to Democracy, and then the Muslim Brotherhood needs to be part of the next Egyptian government. He even met with this radical group right after his inauguration (see: Muslim Brotherhood Meeting.)
- In late January, Vice President Joe Biden said that Hosni Murbarak was no dictator and he shouldn’t step down. He has been sequestered in the Naval Observatory ever since.
- Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has said “the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people" (see Hillary Speaks.) Not too much later she appealed for an orderly transition to democracy in Egypt.

Is there any position that the United States has not taken relative to this extremely serious situation in Egypt? Back to The Gong Show … Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing! Boing!