McCain’s wit only thing funny in D.C. in troubling times
2 sad stories for price of 1
God bless Sen. John McCain, one of the two or three D.C. Republicans graced with both common sense and a nifty sense of humor.
When the sage of Arizona was asked yesterday if he had laid eyes on the secret health care bill that his colleague, Mitch McConnell, was drafting behind closed doors with a select group of GOP lackeys, a wry smile crept across the old man’s face.
“No, I haven’t seen it,” McCain said of the mysterious legislation, “but I’m sure Russia has.”
It was a comeback worthy of Stephen Colbert.
With his rejoinder, McCain managed a bank shot that touched upon both front-burner issues yesterday: the phantom Trumpcare bill, as well the discussion in both houses of Congress regarding Russia’s cyber invasion of our election apparatus.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson minced no words in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee.
“Vladimir Putin orchestrated cyberattacks on the U.S. for the purpose of influencing our elections, plain and simple,” Johnson said.
There wasn’t anything new in Johnson’s testimony, of course. His words have been reiterated and confirmed by the nation’s entire intelligence community for almost as long as Donald Trump has been in the White House.
Yet, the man inside the White House still doesn’t allow the words Russia or Putin to cross his lips, unless he’s yukking it up in the Oval Office with a couple of Russian diplomats (see spies) about the “nut job” FBI director he fired for asking too many questions.
We have now been through the looking glass from the moment Sean Spicer first appeared to insist, contrary to what our eyes told us, that Trump’s inauguration crowd dwarfed Barack Obama’s.
Two days ago Trump’s official mouthpiece was asked if our president believes what the rest of the country knows — Russia hacked the last election.
“I have not sat down and talked with him about that specifically,” Spicer said.
Think about that for a moment. The last Homeland Security director basically confirms that Russia has engaged us in a war, more sinister in many respects, than the Cold War we were waging for half of the last century.
And still, Trump won’t utter the R-word until he’s sure Bob Mueller won’t be sending any subpoenas in the mail.
It’s beyond pathetic. It’s disgusting. But in all fairness, Jeh Johnson made it clear that Trump wasn’t alone in his lethargy. The Democratic National Committee and by extension, former President Barack Obama, was way too slow in responding to what Russia did last year, he said.
Ah, but then who cares about Putin’s manipulation, when a Republican won in Georgia Tuesday night and our president could put on a hat, fly off to another rally and remind the Trumpians how wonderful he is?