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Podesta news should rattle Dems on Russia
Posted on: October 23, 2017 at 17:01:10 CT
Spanky KU
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The most attractive lie partisans tell themselves after a defeat is that they were victims of their own virtue.
The implicit argument from Democrats has been that their party lost a stunning upset in 2016 for the basic reason that the Republicans were more rotten. The sometimes explicit accusation that Republicans colluded with Russian operatives is as much a self-consolation for Democrats as it is an attack on their rivals.
Probably even before Henry Clay said that he would rather be right than president, pretty much everyone who loses has determined that excessive rightness is probably to blame.
What Democrats have forgotten, however, is that political rightness and rottenness are relative. With the news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is on the scent of Tony Podesta, bag man and influence peddler extraordinaire, they are being reminded.
A little history here might be instructive. In the high-rolling, ethically freewheeling Clinton era of Washington in the 1990’s, Podesta was the preferred conduit for special interests looking to sluice money into Clinton Inc.
You are probably more familiar with his brother, John, the good cop of the family’s extraordinary lucrative tag-team. John did the policy stuff and nerd wrangling while Tony made it rain.
On the expectation of the restoration of the House of Clinton, those in the business of buying influence were going long on the Podestas.
According to NBC News, Kremlin allies were among those looking to get in on the game. The network reports that Podesta’s firm failed to disclose work on behalf of Kremlin-backed forces in Ukraine. Which is, of course, the baseline accusation against former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.
There is something analogous here to the recent revelations about sexual misconduct in Hollywood. When leading figures on the left were found to fall short of standards applied by Democrats to Trump, things got ugly quickly.
We have no way to know which of these chirps and squeaks we hear about the Mueller investigation are important and which are ancillary. But we do know that the investigation looks likely to sweep up more than just a handful of Trump insiders.
Remember, until fairly late in 2016 the two major parties were in reverse relationship vis-à-vis Russia. For most of the Cold War and the Putin era, it was Republicans who took the harder line with Moscow and Democrats who wanted to make a deal.
The revelation of successful Russian efforts to hobble Hillary Clinton’s already balky candidacy has made Russophobes of the doviest doves and resettingest reseters.
Meanwhile, Republican hawks have been dropping like flies as they prepare to defend their president against some pretty unseemly allegations.
The GOP has been trying for months to make the Russia story about the Obama administration spying on Trump, depicting the new president as a victim of a frame-up. Partisans have understandably focused on this to the almost exclusion in some cases of the more substantive question about ties to Team Trump and the Russians.
What we found out today, though, ought to be enough to have politicos on both sides of the aisle nervous.
If Mueller really is in the business of exposing the full efforts of the Kremlin to influence American politics and government in recent years, there will be plenty of hacks, flacks, lobbyists and elected officials who will sleep less soundly tonight.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/23/podesta-news-should-rattle-dems-on-russia.html
The implicit argument from Democrats has been that their party lost a stunning upset in 2016 for the basic reason that the Republicans were more rotten. The sometimes explicit accusation that Republicans colluded with Russian operatives is as much a self-consolation for Democrats as it is an attack on their rivals.
Probably even before Henry Clay said that he would rather be right than president, pretty much everyone who loses has determined that excessive rightness is probably to blame.
What Democrats have forgotten, however, is that political rightness and rottenness are relative. With the news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is on the scent of Tony Podesta, bag man and influence peddler extraordinaire, they are being reminded.
A little history here might be instructive. In the high-rolling, ethically freewheeling Clinton era of Washington in the 1990’s, Podesta was the preferred conduit for special interests looking to sluice money into Clinton Inc.
You are probably more familiar with his brother, John, the good cop of the family’s extraordinary lucrative tag-team. John did the policy stuff and nerd wrangling while Tony made it rain.
On the expectation of the restoration of the House of Clinton, those in the business of buying influence were going long on the Podestas.
According to NBC News, Kremlin allies were among those looking to get in on the game. The network reports that Podesta’s firm failed to disclose work on behalf of Kremlin-backed forces in Ukraine. Which is, of course, the baseline accusation against former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.
There is something analogous here to the recent revelations about sexual misconduct in Hollywood. When leading figures on the left were found to fall short of standards applied by Democrats to Trump, things got ugly quickly.
We have no way to know which of these chirps and squeaks we hear about the Mueller investigation are important and which are ancillary. But we do know that the investigation looks likely to sweep up more than just a handful of Trump insiders.
Remember, until fairly late in 2016 the two major parties were in reverse relationship vis-à-vis Russia. For most of the Cold War and the Putin era, it was Republicans who took the harder line with Moscow and Democrats who wanted to make a deal.
The revelation of successful Russian efforts to hobble Hillary Clinton’s already balky candidacy has made Russophobes of the doviest doves and resettingest reseters.
Meanwhile, Republican hawks have been dropping like flies as they prepare to defend their president against some pretty unseemly allegations.
The GOP has been trying for months to make the Russia story about the Obama administration spying on Trump, depicting the new president as a victim of a frame-up. Partisans have understandably focused on this to the almost exclusion in some cases of the more substantive question about ties to Team Trump and the Russians.
What we found out today, though, ought to be enough to have politicos on both sides of the aisle nervous.
If Mueller really is in the business of exposing the full efforts of the Kremlin to influence American politics and government in recent years, there will be plenty of hacks, flacks, lobbyists and elected officials who will sleep less soundly tonight.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/23/podesta-news-should-rattle-dems-on-russia.html
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Podesta news should rattle Dems on Russia - Spanky KU - 10/23 17:01:10