5 (Political) Thoughts for March 22, 2017

Wow, what a day. If you only pay attention to broadcast or print news, the only headline today was that Paul Manafort was caught with direct evidence of working for Russia. People, the White House is on fire and that fire has just crawled out of the basement.

1. Devin Nunes Becomes The Story: Shilling for your president is one thing, but then to use his chair at the Intelligence Committee to collect privileged intelligence info involving possible criminal probes or foreign espionage investigations to inform Donald and the public behind the backs of others in Congress, is something else. He could very well be putting the noose around his own neck if he leaked classified information to the press, or impeded a criminal investigation. He's no longer just putting his seat in Congress at risk.
   

   Sen Wyden (On Intel Cmte): "Nunes' statements would appear to reveal classified information, which is a serious concern." pic.twitter.com/552zWuCvPN

   — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) March 22, 2017

2. Adam Schiff Counters: Without explaining specifics, Schiff countered Nunes' public announcement by stating that "there is more than circumstantial evidence now" of evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. He could very well be reaching, but hours later CNN offered up an explosive story (see next item).
3. CNN Reports US Officials Have Evidence of Collusion: CNN is reporting that US investigators are poring over evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Specifically, one US official has stated, "people connected to the campaign were in contact and it appeared they were giving the thumbs up to release information when it was ready." While the qualifier -- appeared -- should be understood to mean that they do not have recordings of Trump campaign officials giving clear signals, it does suggest that they have established a clear pattern and that they're digging even deeper as a result.
4. Thursday's "The Big Day": On Thursday, the House will vote on the revised Trumpcare bill. As it stands right now, it's headed for failure. It has been pointed out that according to the CBO, Trumpcare would make things worse than if Congress simply repealed the ACA. This has apparently emboldened the Kochs to create a fund to support Republicans who vote against Trumpcare. The vote itself appears to represent little more than symbolism as Republican senators have already stated that the bill is DOA in the Senate, but that symbolism was vastly elevated to a proxy vote on Donald by Donald himself. The best part about it all, however, is that Republicans have set themselves up to a Catch-22 situation: If they vote in favor of Trumpcare, they risk rising anger from the poor and elderly who'll run them out of office in the midterms; if they vote against Trumpcare, they risk losing enthusiasm of party-loyal voters -- this is what makes Thursday "The Big Day". Donald loses, regardless of how the vote goes and he can't see this basic truth.
5. SCOTUS Rebuked Gorsuch: "Rebuked" might be too strong of a word, but effectively, SCOTUS's unanimous 8-0 ruling against a previous Gorsuch decision is surely the closest thing to a rebuke that SCOTUS can offer. In itself, this will not stop Gorsuch from receiving a vote and confirmation, but make no mistake, a majority of Democrats are extremely angry that Republicans have taken to turning a blind eye to the criminal activity used to eventually nominate a conservative to SCOTUS, aka "putting party ahead of country" and "the ends justifying the means".