From Mike Allen of Axios comes a copious digest of almost everything known about the fallout from trump's firing of James Comey. The most salient takeaway is that this is one element of the great Trump obfuscation effort that is not going away. Trump, Comey, and Russia are all going to be words that are remembered as precursors of the day when a special prosecutor will either clear the President or send him back to Trump Tower or Mar A Lago to live out his days as the greatest president ever, a victim of GOP traitors and fake news.
Impulse and risk
Trump intimates and associates say the decision to fire Comey was a W. C. Fields slow burn building up to an explosive and impulsive act. Everything the White House has offered as an explanation including the Comey firing's origin as a Justice Department initiative is, to put it politely false.
Negative results
Allen cites four negative results within 24 hours. The Senate had to delay work on Trump's health care legislation. Democrats are emboldened, no longer supine. The Senate Investigating Committee is getting tough. Yesterday, they demanded Flynn turn over key documents. It was a subpoena for which he can be held in contempt if he balks. There is a leak storm coming, led by Jake Tapper's note yesterday that Comey never offered Trump any assertion of loyalty.
Meeting your match
It seems that the Trump Bannon progress toward remaking America in their authoritarian image has hit a speed bump or two. Allen says shoes are dropping everywhere. He reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein could resign to protest the false assertion that his hastily penned-on-demand bill of particulars against Comey was the cause of the emerging scandal.
Unfortunately, Allen does not mention that having acceded to the White House order, Rosenstein did deliver.
Other leaks reported by Allen touch on Comey having more and more corroboration of Trump-Russia collusion, Trump rage mounting and laments that substantiate the fact that what is happening now is doing real damage to the Trump effort.
There is more
Bob Woodward opined on Morning Joe that the real action on Trump is among lower level prosecutors at Justice. Roger Stone says he didn't recommend firing Comey. Allen, whose column is sponsored by Koch, did not mention the most salient sign that Trump faces a real challenge. It was the action yesterday of three Republican Senators to suggest that decency might be a key factor in removing Mr. Trump from office.
