2.11.18: What Kinda Unit You Running Here, Soldier?

Lots of discussion on today's program was devoted to White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly and his performance. More importantly, what's President Trump's opinion of his handling a series of issues such as his statement about the wall contradicting the president or his 'DACA applicants are lazy' admission that complicated the administration's stance. Last but not least of the performance questions is General Kelly's handling of Staff Secretary Rob Porter's domestic abuse history, his comments from from day to the next, and Mr. Porter's subsequent firing/resignation.

Here's one obvious but neglected question that needs to be asked of General Kelly:
What kinda unit you running here, soldier?

Someone get Colin Powell in here to give him a dressing down.

The Trump Administration is an utter mess. How many times can you say, "This was the worst week for the Administration?" Seriously. Chuck Todd used the words 'spinning out of control' while The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan repeated the phrase 'chaos and disorder' to describe the administration. What happened to the president hiring 'the best' people? Where's there even a sense of rudimentary professionalism? White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is dating Mr. Porter, and she is the one to write the official statement. White House Counsel Don McGahn has known about Mr. Porter perpetrating domestic abuse for a year. General Kelly we come to find knew about all this in November. All the while neither the president nor (of course) the vice-president knew anything about any of this.

Then...

Marc Short comes on today's program and says the president has 'confidence' in General Kelly. Mr. Short continued that the FBI clearance process for National Security has taken this long to complete, when it was the FBI who had informed Mr. McGahn back in January 2017, and essentially blaming the FBI for slow vetting and that's why they haven't acted until now. After all that, he say that he isn't blaming the FBI. Jared Kushner hasn't been approved for the highest security clearance and he is reading the president's daily briefing, Chuck Todd explained. Mr. Short doesn't, couldn't possibly, have a good answer for any of this.

NBC's Kristen Welker explained that the president isn't going to replace General Kelly because he 'doesn't want more drama' in the administration, which is laughable if it weren't so serious. Understandable questions of character brought by Mr. Gaude unavoidably have to be considered. Ms. Noonan pointed out that many qualified people just didn't want to get Trump's political cooties on them.

The Resurgent's Erick Erickson provided some consolation explaining that under General Kelly, the Administration did get tax reform done. Whether you agree with the policy or not, it's fine to agree that it's good the administration can function on some level. That's what he's really saying. Mr. Erickson said later in the program the President Trump is not a role model. Coming from him, that strikes a chord, be it a soft one.

But here's the rub. Given all the ridiculousness described above, there are more serious matters afoot, namely the Administration denying release of the Democratic rebuttal memo on the Russia investigation. There is no hypocrisy, as Mr. Short charged, in that the Democrats didn't vote for release of the Mr. Nunes's memo while both Republicans and Democrats voted for the release of the rebuttal memo. No... The reason Republicans members of the Intelligence Committee voted for the rebuttal's release is because they're all sick of Mr. Nunes's stupid, nakedly partisan antics, in a committee that shouldn't be partisan.

So when fmr. FBI agent Clint Watts comes on the program and discusses Russian meddling in our elections, of which the aforementioned memo release plays a part, there's little faith in anything being done. With the president trying to block the truth of the matter and his base going along with the notion of 'there's nothing to see here,' the two most important words Mr. Watts uttered: Paper ballot.


Panel: Kristen Welker, NBC; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Eddie Gaude, Jr., Princeton University; Erick Erickson, The Resurgent

One More Thing...
At the end of Mr. Todd's Olympics segment, there was a coming together of which sport both liberals and conservatives could come together on. Without going back, I can't remember what it was because I didn't care. Point is, do us a little favor a do a profile on an athlete or an interview with a former Olympic great instead of having to feel the need to do tongue-in-cheek politicizing of everything. I know, what a Debbie Downer I am.