YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? WELL, YOU KNOW

Last winter, people were fond of comparing Trumpism to European fascist movements of the 20th century.  After six months in power, the Trump phenomenon has begun to look more like a particularly inept version of the French Revolution.  Trump is less Robespierre than Lewis Carroll’s Queen of Hearts bellowing “off with his head” while his minions scramble to keep him happy by painting the roses red. 

If Election Day was the equivalent of the Storming of the Bastille, we now appear to be entering the Trump Revolution’s Reign of Terror phase.  Let us hope that the modern equivalent of 18th Brumaire comes quickly.  As Napoleon Bonaparte said (more or less), never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Speaking of mistakes, I need to correct something I wrote last week about Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions.  I said that if Trump got rid of Sessions, as he is clearly trying to do, a lengthy confirmation process would be required to replace him.  I’ve since learned that if Trump were to appoint someone as acting Attorney General while Congress was in recess, that person could serve without confirmation until January, 2019, when a new Congress is sworn in. 

As it happens, Congress is scheduled to be in recess for the month of August – a perfect time for Trump to work his mischief and then head for a golf course until the dust settles.  Except that the dust won’t settle, because Trump himself IS the dust.

Because Sessions is racist and homophobic, he is popular with the Senate Republican caucus, and Mitch McConnell has a counter-move if Republicans want to use it.  The Senate could take away Trump’s recess appointment option by scheduling the month of August as a pro-forma session.  That means at least one Senator would have to show up every day, declare the Senate in session, perhaps say a few words, and then gavel the day’s session to a close. 

I should note that President Obama defied a Republican pro-forma session in 2012 to make four appointments; Republicans sued, and the Supreme Court issued a mixed ruling on the process more than a year later.  But even if a pro-forma session wouldn’t stop Trump, the spectre of a Republican Party united behind Jeff Sessions might.

Despite the fact that he’s evil, I find myself hoping Sessions toughs it out for a while longer.  The longer a recused Jeff Sessions is Attorney General, the harder it will be for Trump to fire Robert Mueller, which is clearly what this little dance is about. 

Meanwhile, new infighting has broken out among White House staff.  New kid on the block Anthony “the Mooch” Scaramucci has become Trump’s mini-me.  He wasted no time in threatening to fire everyone on Trump’s communications staff, and has now picked a fight with Reince Priebus, calling him a leaker and threatening him with an FBI investigation.  There’s just one tiny problem.  Priebus didn’t leak the Mooch’s financial disclosure form.  A reporter got it simply by asking his previous employer, the Export-Import Bank, for the information.  And since the Ex-Im Bank is a government agency, the information was a matter of public record anyway. 

Last week, it would have been hard to imagine anyone getting off to a worse start than Sean Spicer did in January, but the Mooch is giving him a run for his money.  Jacques Mallet du Pan, who sided with the Royalists during the French Revolution, nailed it when he wrote "the revolution eats its young."