I count 3 stories in the last 3 days or so in the press attesting to Bolton’s high-mindedness to right the ship of state and come across as some kind of hero. The guy who loves war and is mostly pissed off we haven’t declared war on Iran? Call me a cynic on these accounts over Bolton. The article says it was “an unnamed source”. Huh? Not even a person connected to the WH or in government with knowledge of the Congressional appropriations? This guy has a book deal coming up to write the inside story about this White House supposedly. But at this point…who doesn’t? Its how any of them can cash in on serving in the worst administration since the founding of the Republic. Yet still, Bolton won’t willingly testify without a subpoena to explain all those “many relevant meetings” he knows about in Ukraine. Some fucking patriot he is.
This is what it comes to. Don’t be surprised if Trump soon tweets…
Jared Kushner is our new Secretary of State
Ivanka my Chief of Staff
Don Jr. The Oval Office Court Jester
Need I go on.
*Dun Dun…*In The Impeachment-Justice System…
Brought to you by the GOP voter.
Yes, the sheer level of chaos in this ‘administration’ (scare quotes advised) never ceases to amaze. As bad as anyone thought it was, it rarely fails to be worse than anyone thought.
Venality and malevolence tempered only by incompetence.
My guess is that Bolton wasn’t trying to rescue anyone’s chestnuts or prevent an illegal move. He’s a hardcore Russia hawk and wanted Ukraine to get that military aid ASAP. He was annoyed at the aid being held up for political shenanigans, and wasn’t especially concerned about the ethics or illegality of it.
My favorite quote from that day Reagan was shot…Haig - “The President took a round.”
Treason!
“The department reportedly released the aid after White House lawyers found that Trump and the Office of Management and Budget could not legally delay it, a finding the lawyers had made earlier in 2019. According to Bloomberg, the lawyers detailed the finding in a classified memo to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.”
WH lawyers were already getting extremely nervous. Bolton was at odds with lots of people (its his MO, after all), and, specifically, about this. Pompeo probably didn’t order the money released, but he probably didn’t say no when he got the memo. That’s very damning for Pompeo, actually.
Its also very damning for Eisenberg. Supposedly, his story is he put the call in the secret server vault until he could work out the legalities. But according to this, he already knew that it was illegal, so that excuse no longer holds water. He hid it away because he was covering up.
The other important question here is…who is leaking this?
Funniest line in the article:
A spokesperson for the OMB told Bloomberg that Bolton lacked the authority to issue such an order and had not done so.
Mendacity!
I just read that Bolton got a $2 Million advance on the book he’s writing.
I think anyone calling Bolton a hero is doing so with tongue firmed planted in cheek.
KAC is pissed!
Bolton acted to release hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons into an active conflict. This is perhaps the most predictable thing ever. You think he’s going to let Trump stop him from bathing in the blood of . . . well, pretty much anyone, really.
I’m a bit confused about Bolton’s role. This from the Bloomberg article.
But the State Department disagreed. Taylor, the envoy to Ukraine, said in his testimony that it was remarkable that the legal offices at the State and Defense departments had decided “they were going to move forward with this assistance anyway, OMB notwithstanding.”
If Defense and State has decided they were going to release the funds on the basis of their attorneys’s legal opinion and regardless of OMB’s opinion, what did they need Bolton for? Is he taking credit where none is due?
ETA: I’m beginning to wonder if Bolton is taking “credit”, when it was actually Pompeo. But they didn’t like each other, did they? In any case, Pompeo should be facing a lot of questions from the media. It was his Department.
Yeah I was going to point out there had been some crazy unhinged potentates in history, but probably never an elected leader. (and by elected I mean by a free and fair election process)
So who will play Bolton in the inevitable movie version that will likely be made in the next 2-3 years? I vote for either Sam Eliot or Jeff Bridges–although John Goodman’s lost a lot of weight and might work too. Would it be too on the nose to have Alec Baldwin play Trump?
Anyway, if Bolton ends up being the “hero” here, or one of them at least, in a very specific and limited but still crucial way, I’m ok with it. The enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend, but he could be a useful situational ally. I mean, Stalin was also a nasty piece of work with a peculiar stache, yet he helped us take Hitler down. So maybe we have to make nice to “Uncle John” for now.
I’ve also got to wonder if Bloomberg’s apparent entrance into the race at this precise juncture is his “both sides do it” way of telling both Dems and Repubs to grow up and stop bickering, and signaling to the public that he’s the only grownup in the room who can be trusted to lead the country.
It certainly reinforces a certain muted beltway meme that’s likely to become more pronounced as impeachment drags on and starts to grate on people whose attention span is limited to a typical news cycle, that Dems may be overreaching with impeachment and perhaps censure is the best path forward.
It’s like he’s saying “Now now, children, papa’s back from work and it’s time to end this childish nonsense and get back to eating vegetables”, directed equally at both sides. He’s always been a patronizing dick that way, even if he “means” well. I hope that Dems, both in the house and among the field, are prepared to deal with the coming centrist impeachment backlash and its insidious silliness.
I remember when Rachel Maddow was on Air America and she used to discuss the Ambassador as JOHN BOLTON in a scream because he was SO NUTS and ‘now’ we find out at least HE knows what the fucking law is all about.
