After spewing some of the most vacuous pabulum this side of "Just say no," it's not immediately clear if the First Lady knows to whom she is married.
Let me offer some presidential fact-checking. First, Bob Corker opposed the Iran nuclear deal (-- true). Second, Sen. Corker could be elected dogcatcher easily in Tennessee, or Georgia or Alabama. He is renowned across the tri-state area for his animal control credentials (-- writer's embellishment).
George Will: "Trump's Poodle" and Other Cool Analogies
"With eyes wide open, Mike Pence eagerly auditioned for the role as Donald Trump's poodle. Now comfortably leashed, he deserves the degradations that he seems too sycophantic to recognize as such. " Pence is a reminder that no one can have sustained transactions with Trump without becoming too soiled for subsequent scrubbing."
(Will, George, conservative opinion writer; "Sinister Figures Lurk Around Our Careless President"; The Washington Post; 10/13/2017.)
George Will is prescient.
Chief of Staff General John Kelly is the person placed in Trump's daily orbit whose unquestioned integrity was supposed to offset the president's galactic lack thereof. A week after the Post published Will's article, Kelly trotted out -- or was trotted out -- to the White House press podium to defend Donald's botched condolence call to a fallen Green Beret's widow and Trump's subsequent lies about that call.
The widow, Myeisha Johnson, other family members, and longtime family friend Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) were in a limo en route to receive Sgt. La David Johnson's body when the president called. (Reporters had asked him about the Niger casualties the day before, so he subsequently rushed to make the condolence calls.) Ms. Johnson chose to put the president on speakerphone so all could hear. Trump said something to the effect of, "He knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway." The family was offended and hurt by his words and tone. Rep. Wilson related the call to the press. Trump repeatedly denied he said those words and initiated an eight-day Twitter-putdown offensive on "wacky" congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
Note that no one accused the president of intentionally offending the family; he simply bungled the call. Nevertheless, the family was offended -- that's what they felt. After Donald denied saying those words, Kelly implicitly conceded Trump did say those words, though unartfully (Kelly and others also had listened in on the call). If General Kelly had left it there, he would have been OK. But then he slandered Rep. Wilson for "secretly" listening in on the call, and accused her of statements she never made at a 2015 FBI building dedication.
The refutatious proof came out immediately: 1) the widow chose to put the call on speakerphone (as was her absolute right); and 2) a forgotten video of the congresswoman's 2015 speech surfaced, in which she never took credit for obtaining funding for the building (as Kelly had accused) and effusively praised -- not herself but -- fallen FBI agents, the FBI in general, first responders, and GOP legislators who helped her get the facility officially named in time for the ceremony. Uh-oh.
Trump's entire premise for his weeklong assault on Rep. Frederica Wilson was that she secretly listened in on the call, she lied about his words to Myeisha Johnson, she was self-serving, and she wore cowboy hats. Then Sgt. Johnson's mother confirmed the call's speakerphone status and that Trump said those words. Then Sgt. Johnson's widow confirmed Trump said those words. Then the video of Rep. Wilson's dedication speech materialized. Then General Kelly never apologized for slandering Wilson, nor did he correct the record.
Rep. Wilson does occasionally wear cowboy hats. One out of four ain't bad.
John Kelly's days in the White House are numbered. He is officially a "Trump poodle," a la Mike Pence and Sean Spicer, and has become "too soiled for subsequent scrubbing." He will leave due to terminal humiliation. But there is one way for Kelly to redeem himself: He could follow in the footsteps of Sen. Bob Corker who said this week that his early support of Donald Trump was a mistake and that the president is hurting our democracy and literally endangering our country. C'mon, General Kelly, you can do it.
To Be (Ethical), or not to Be (Ethical)
Many people across the political spectrum like to say you can't legislate morality. A better way to put this might be that you can't legislate all morality. Certain things are understood universally to be right or wrong. Trying to legislate all common sense moral issues would clog up legislatures and law books beyond functionality.
How about presidential ethics and ethical norms? Can you legislate those?
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