“Rachel Brand, the third-ranking official at the Justice Department, decided to leave her post in part because she wanted to avoid any possibility that she would have to oversee the federal Russia investigation…”
It’s East Berlin over there.
Everybody’s desperate to tunnel out, scale the fence, or get past the White House guard dogs in order to flee.
Well, if you put it that way…
Exactly, besides there might not be enough pardons to cover everybody.
The Russia scandal and Trump Administration’s perverse and ubiquitous criminality is the biggest threat to America since WWII. Millions of Americans sacrificed their lives to fight for a secure America back then. The Trump regime threatens America at it’s core, yet this conservative Brand can’t find it in her to play a heroic, albeit desk-bound role, to ensure that America as an idea goes forward. What a shitty, selfish putz. Not unlike most conservatives.
I think this was a very smart move on her part, and applaud her choice to leave in a lifeboat, rather than go down with a sinking ship. Her motives are unimportant, as is her present choice of employment. She will still carry the stench of Trump wherever she goes, but she had the good sense to leave.
Speaking of profiles in courage, today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Wonder if all these moral midgets will reflect on that?
Whole new meaning to the saying “When the going gets tough the tough get going”. In this case it’s “when the going gets tough, …I’m outa here”.
Brand is not a hero. She could have followed in the tradition of Eliot Richardson or William Ruckelshaus, who resigned rather than fire Cox, Nixon’s special prosecutor.
But she Borked, sort of. She took the easy way out. Is she leaving her marriage too?
And Trump is probably trying to figure out a critical tweet that won’t be seen as anti-woman or more obstruction of justice.
Ha ha. No he’s not. Neither would even enter into his thought process. He probably just hasn’t seen the news yet on Fox, or know how they are interpreting it.
ETA: “thought process”? I meant reflex response.
The guy who freed the slaves?
“Identity politics!!!”
While I agree with this, she knew all of that coming in.
I have considerable respect for somebody who thought “I can’t work for this man in good faith”, and then declined the nomination. I have rather less respect for somebody who says “Ooh, I might get covered in second-hand excreta by this idiot’s flailing, peace out.”
Mind, both are miles better than making doe-eyes at the White House and saying “just axe Rod and say the word, and I’ll fire Mueller for you”.
That makes the Obamas unveiling their portraits today seem even more significant.
[quote=“bodie1, post:26, topic:68478, full:true”]
Speaking of profiles in courage, today is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Wonder if all these moral midgets will reflect on that?
[/quote]“Lincoln was a Republican. Not many people know that.” That’s about as reflective as Trump can get.
Now that she has slimed out under the door who is in line after her to potentially take oversight of the Mueller probe?
As a career conservative, she would have been between a rock and a hard place. Imagine she protected the Mueller investigation. The entire GOP wants it stopped, so she’d make no friends there. But trying to end it might open her to charges, too. And don’t underestimate the emotional toll living with threats against you and your family.
No, I certainly don’t like or admire her. But it isn’t hard to understand her choice.
Rosenstein is still in his job so she is hardly in position to be Richardson or Ruckelshaus. Also, Nixon fired those guys overnight. He did not drag them through the mud for months and months and months, musing about whether he will fie you, send you to Guantanamo or trade you to North Korea for a future draft pick. The job of defending Justice in the US will fall to Congress, but ultimately to the people who elected them. Even Bork was forced by public opinion to hire a new special prosecutor–Leon Jaworski.
Also, there are no Eliot Richardsons left in this body politic. The guy was
Supreme Court Clerk
Asst Secy HEW
Acting Sec, HEW
US Attorney, MA
Lt Gov, MA
Atty General, MA
Under Sec of State
Sec. HEW
Sec of Defense
Attorney General of the United States
Ambassador to Great Britain
Sec Commerce
The only other person to have held four cabinet positions was George Schultz
In theory, Trump can name anyone he wants to.
No one leaves a high flying DOJ career to move to Bentonville and work for Walmart. I used to represent Walmart and was in Bentonville several times for meetings, etc. That place is nuts. The Walmart cult is real and creepy.
As Josh pointed out, the great general counsel gig would always be available with much better locations that Bentonville. This was a quasi-panicked move.
But it is subject to Senate approval, so there is some hope.
Actually, it seems more like this gem: