Gen. Flynn under fire

National Security Adviser Mike Flynn started out on some pretty shaky ground. His too-cozy relationship with Russian officials has always made some congressional Republicans squeamish.

Then word leaked about his Dec. 29 phone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which just happened to coincide with the outgoing Obama administration’s announced new sanctions on Russia for its interference with U.S. elections.

The topic of sanctions never came up, Flynn insisted in a private conversation with then Vice President-elect Mike Pence. And in several Sunday morning television interviews that followed, Pence told the nation precisely that.

But U.S. intelligence officials, who monitor such phone calls of foreign diplomats (and didn’t Flynn know that?) have a transcript of the calls that shows otherwise. In fact there was more than one phone call between Flynn and Kislyak that day. So two lies by Flynn and to the now-vice president of the United States — lies that basically made Pence the Susan Rice (she of the TV appearances in which the Benghazi attack was all about an anti-Muslim video) of the Trump administration.

The only good news for Flynn here is that, according to intelligence officials who have seen the transcripts, he apparently didn’t make any promises about lifting those sanctions. Since Flynn was still a private citizen at the time, that would have violated the law. Although he did reportedly talk about improved relations.

In an administration where truth is only a sometime thing, perhaps Flynn’s unforced error doesn’t count for much. And maybe Mike Pence is a very forgiving man. But with National Security Council career staffers dropping like flies, the nation’s security apparatus is suffering — and who really wants to work for a liar?

Flynn’s days in the White House should definitely be numbered.