Today's "Meet The Press" was preempted by the broadcast of the British Open. It's a 'free' day, a Sunday during which "Meet The Press" doesn't air, so it carte blanche on topics to discuss.
Certainly the trouble is deepening for the Trump Administration with regard to Russia because of its campaign activity. A last ditch effort by the Administration in hiring Anthony Scaramucci as the new White House Communications Director, ousting Sean Spicer, is an attempt to stem the onslaught.
As said before in this column, it's really all about the money when it comes to Mr. Trump's connection to Russia. If you follow the money, which Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team are doing, we'll find that the Trump Organization is heavily leveraged by Russian oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin. It seems reasonable to conclude that this may be one of the reasons Mr. Trump never released his tax returns. Now, doing business with Russian oligarchs offers a minefield of illegalities, but it isn't illegal. As president, it's a different story all together. From Attorney General Jeff Sessions lack of recollection of meetings with the Russian ambassador, about policy and the campaign no less, when asked by Congress to Jared Kushner's, senior advisor to the president, constant revisions of his disclosure forms for a security clearance - undisclosed money and contacts - to campaign manager, Paul Manafort, having to register as a foreign agent to Donald Jr. taking meetings with Russian officials to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, it all raises serious questions. And now that all of these people have been obviously less than forthcoming, the American people have more questions. They must be answered.
That the last two individuals on the above list have cut a deal with Congress not to testify in public this week, but instead in a closed-door sessions. Probably for the best because Congress needs real answers and frankly, we don't need the show of a public hearing, in which these two people decline to answer questions while Congresspeople pontificate.
That's just a microcosm of what's going on and that's enough for one to say, enough already.
Then there is the series of fall-downs on the part of the Republicans with regard to healthcare and their repeal and replace plan. First, the Senate couldn't pass the replacement bill because of grievances from moderates (going too far on cutting Medicaid) and conservatives (not fully repealing Obamacare) alike. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) floated the introduction of a straight repeal and that didn't fly either.
This you know, but here's why the Republicans got stuck.
At the beginning of the Senate process, which really wasn't a process as much as it was Mitch McConnell locking himself in a room and coming up with a healthcare bill, the Senate leader indicated that he didn't want the Administration involved in the process, a hands off approach. Why? Because Mr. McConnell knows that the president, who would usually be out on the stump shouting about the new healthcare bill, in this case doesn't know the first thing about healthcare, has no desire to learn it, and could inadvertently undercut the Senate plan by contradicting it on the stump. In other words, Mr. McConnell thinks the president is unreliable. The president, for his part, had no interest in discussing the details of healthcare and just sat back, with 'pen in hand,' which is not leadership.
In boxing out the president, though understandable, Mr. McConnell couldn't utilize that megaphone, and since the rest of the Senate wasn't involved in the process, thus not knowing what was in the bill, they couldn't champion it either. Thus, with no one to sell it to the American people and with no other information to go on with the exception of an unfavorable CBO, it had no chance.
With all that said, here are the takeaways as to why there is a glimpse of hope from these adverse circumstances (and the point of this column).
Because of the Republicans' legislative failure on healthcare, Mr. McConnell also said that the Congress should work to sure up the markets by doing some fixes on the Affordable Care Act. Everyone agrees that the ACA, aka Obamacare, that it needs fixes and the only way to make those fixes is in a bipartisan manner. Hmmm...
Interesting, there is a bill traveling rapidly through the Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support on toughening sanctions on Russia, which also includes the caveat that the sanctions can not be rolled back by the president without Congress's consent. This could present a very problematic situation for President Trump, who opposes the bill. He may veto a Russian sanctions bill that has widespread bipartisan support. Hmmm... again.
Is it possible that this rudderless, troubled and divisive administration is bringing Republicans and Democrats together on the major issues facing our country - healthcare and Russian cyber attacks?
If so, it's a win for the American people, a backward one, but a win nonetheless. We'll take it.
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