It's just a few hours away now. All kinds of weird things are already going on in Washington, where sports bars are opening early, turning their massive TVs on to the hearing, and creating goofy drinks named after the goofy things going on ever since Donald T. Trump's inauguration.
Never in American history have we had a President like this one. Never. And that we haven't is exactly what his loyal 38% love. Trump ain't nobody's stooge. Doesn't matter if he's his own, as long as he doesn't tote Washington's water. No sir. He's nobody's lackey. Doesn't matter if he's an idiot either, at least he's nobody else's.
Even his stalwarts wish he'd cut out the infernal tweeting, where he so clearly and ably shows himself to be the fool--and worse. The man lies as he breathes. "Okay," his supporters would say, "at least he lies openly." Hannity appears to think, as does Trump, that he's still running against Hillary, or in some kind of competition against the master deceiver, Barack Obama, the devil himself. You want to hear people talk about Obama and Hillary, listen in to Fox.
I won't be listening to anyone this morning. I remember all too well the famous Watergate hearings, remember my own fascination, my obsession watching the truth run down Nixon's lies. I lusted back then, wanting to see Tricky Dick fall--as I do now too. I'll confess. I could shoot the morning easily today, watch every minute.
The greatly patriotic Christians of this nation meeting in Washington today just to hear him speak probably consider my loathing of the man and my contempt to be sin. But it's really hard not to see that he is simply all about himself. His incredible arrogance bullies his every move. No one would want their children to behave like he does.
But since avoiding sin is always a good policy, I'll not be watching. Besides, the Comey testimony is already out. Most everyone who cares about politics knows that at one crucial meeting between the two, at a moment when Trump had eerily cleared the room so he could talk to the FBI director alone, an awkward silence grew between them when Trump told Comey that he expected loyalty from his people. To that statement, Comey says all he gave the President was silence--not a nod or a wink or anything that hinted at assent. That silence lingered painfully. Right now, it's the silence heard round the world.
Donald Trump is a businessman who doesn't understand that his real work now, as President, is for us, not for a bottom line, not for his brand, but for the people he serves. That particular verb is ever troublesome to Donald Trump--"to serve."
What's going to happen? I don't think anyone knows because Trump isn't just anyone. He's far-and-away the greatest entertainer ever to occupy the Oval Office. When he was busy belittling umpteen candidates for the Republican candidacy, commentators liked to say that "Trump takes the oxygen out of the room." No one else could get a line in. Wherever he is, no one else has a chance to stand because he knows better than anyone just exactly how to dominate.
Nothing's changed. He still takes the oxygen out of the room, but it's just a massively bigger room. Paul Ryan may think the Republicans can ride him into more conservative government, but Paul Ryan is a bit player in the high drama that is Donald Trump, the high drama that will be staged around him, no matter how long he serves--eight years, four years, four months, four days. Trump will always be the story.
That won't change until Washington is in his rear view mirror. It'll be the story this morning too. Right now, odds are, he could never win a second term. But then, as he so ably stated right here in Sioux Center, Iowa, at my alma mater--"I could shoot somebody and not lose voters." Those red-blooded devoted multitudes who sent him to Washington to build a wall and clear the swamp will never leave the stadium.
But he'll leave them--count on that. He'll leave them because he'll leave anyone because all that matters to him is him.
Stay tuned. If we're sure of anything it's this: today will be a show. Mostly his.
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