Kevin Drum

A blog of my opinions. Plus charts and cats.

  • Lankford: Tweets, Private Oval Office Requests, Whatevs

    June 8, 2017

    Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma: Did President Trump ever ask you a second time to drop the Flynn-Russia investigation? No? Pretty light touch from the president, eh?

    Lankford again: Is there really any difference between the President’s tweets and a private conversation in the Oval Office with the director of the FBI? Everyone already knew Trump didn’t like the Russia investigation, didn’t they?

    Lankford yet again: Hey, let’s talk about Hillary’s emails.

    For chrissake.

  • Republicans Circling the Wagons on Comey

    June 8, 2017

    Let me get this straight. The Comey hearing is now about an hour old, and the Republican pushback is that Comey is confirming President Trump’s contention that he was never personally under investigation by the FBI. It’s a win for Trump!

    Seriously? That’s it? They’re pretending that this is what the whole Comey thing is about? Do they think this is going to fly with either the media or the public? Hell, even “moderate Republican” Susan Collins is mostly obsessing about whether Trump was personally under investigation.

    This is pathetic.

  • Congressional Staffers Are Being Paid Less Than Ever

    June 8, 2017

    I’ve had this in an open tab for a couple of days, but it’s too interesting to close out without sharing:

    This is from Josh McCrain, a grad student at Emory. For some reason, salaries for congressional aides have been declining for the past two decades. (All figures are adjusted for inflation.) The only exception is for staff assistants, who can hardly be paid any less.

    Why? I have no theories. Maybe in the same way that Silicon Valley engineers are attracted by stock options more than salary, congressional aides these days are attracted mostly by post-Congress lobbying opportunities. Anybody have any other ideas?

  • Three Quotes

    June 7, 2017

    These are all from Donald Trump:

    January 27, to James Comey: “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.”

    February 24, to Comey: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

    Over the next two months, Comey declines to let Flynn go. On May 9, Trump fires Comey.

    May 11, to Lester Holt: “Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself — I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”

    I’m no lawyer, but what more do you need? As Ben Wittes says of Comey’s testimony confirming his conversations with Trump, “It is the most shocking single document compiled about the official conduct of the public duties of any President since the release of the Watergate tapes.”