monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

Clinton was impeached for lying to Congress about a bj in the Oval Office and now we will watch the Republicans twist themselves into pretzels making up excuses why it was no big deal for Sessions and the other Trump goons to discuss the future with what St. Reagan called the evil empire. I worked for DOD for 32 years, and if I met with the Russians to discuss anything I would have been fired, then face trial for sedition, but apparently the Trumpster thinks he can out strategize the Russians.

Current and former U.S. officials say they see Kislyak as a diplomat, not an intelligence operative.

Steven Hall, former head of Russia operations at the CIA, said that Russia would have been keenly interested in cultivating a relationship with Sessions because of his role on key congressional committees...Sessions’s membership on the Armed Services Committee would have made him a priority for the Russian ambassador.

Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor who until 2014 served as U.S. ambassador to Russia, said he was not surprised that Kislyak would seek a meeting with Sessions.

I'm not going to defend Sessions but I will defend the process.

Session's is today's lefty punching bag, eh? It's fun watching how the tides turn based on who's bone is being chewed.

I'm not going to defend Sessions but I will defend the process. He gave a specific answer to a specific question as required by the letter of the law. If there is one thing everyone should have learned from Martha Stewart and Bill Clinton is to only answer the very bare minimum and do so honestly.

If you actually believe that Sessions was lying because he was working a deal with the Russians for a case of vodak or whatever you believe it to be, ask yourself why. What reason could he possibly have?


I'll go ahead an answer for you. He had no reason because it didn't happen.

Top Republicans said Thursday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should recuse himself from federal investigations of whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

The Washington Post contacted all 26 members of the 2016 Senate Armed Services Committee to see whether any lawmakers besides Sessions met with Kislyak in 2016. Of the 20 lawmakers who responded, every senator, including Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said they did not meet with the Russian ambassador last year. The other lawmakers on the panel did not respond as of Wednesday evening.

If you actually believe that Sessions was lying (...)

When a politician (...) opens their mouth, you should assume they are lying. Every single one. No exceptions.

“I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

“did not consider the conversations relevant to the lawmakers’ questions and did not remember in detail what he discussed with Kislyak.”

Why would Sessions talk to an official with the Russian government? Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) noted overnight that she’s been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for a decade, and she’s never had any reason to call or meet with the Russian ambassador. What’s more, the Washington Post talked to 20 senators who were on the committee in 2016 – from both parties – and not one of them had communicated with the Russian ambassador.

Sessions, however, had two separate meetings. He says the communications were “superficial” and unimportant, but we have no idea if that’s true. We also don’t know why he’d take steps to conceal conversations that were anodyne.

It’d also be interesting to know if Sessions had other routine meetings with the Russian ambassador prior to 2016, or if this was unique to last year’s election period.

When the audience gave Carryn Owens, Chief Owens’s widow, a standing ovation, Mr. Trump added, “Ryan is looking down right now, you know that, and he’s very happy, because I think he just broke a record.” He was referring, presumably, to the length of the applause.
(...)
In fact, the comment offered a useful peek into the president’s psyche: When he imagines a deceased veteran gazing down from heaven at his widow, the president and the assembled Congress, he sees that veteran measuring the length of his own ovation, and patting himself on the back for breaking a record. In other words, when asked to take the perspective of someone who has “laid down his life for his friends, for his country, and for our freedom,” Mr. Trump assumes that what would gratify such a person is the same thing that gratifies him: adulation.

Hmm. I didn't know the top Republicans were lefties.

AG Sessions : 'I will recuse myself' if necessary

Why would Sessions talk to an official with the Russian government?

Sessions last year had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, including the British, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Indian, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and German ambassadors, in addition to Kislyak.