Nasty stuff

That poor old Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the Senate and loyal liege of King Donald of Orange, just hates being called "Moscow Mitch" is just a hoot. He's not just upset or irritated, he's boiling mad. He's outraged. He doesn't think he deserves it.

This, despite the fact that his fearless leader does it almost hourly. The man whose robe he totes hands out slams like no pol and certainly no President in the history of these United States. Trump, king of branding and would-be king of the empire, says right now he believes it'll be "Sleepy Joe" running against him next year, like Lyin' Hillary (plus Cruel Hillary and Heartless Hillary) did before him. Long before that, came Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, Low-Energy Jeb. When Mayor Pete was a'rising, he was Alfred E. Neuman. Nobody caught the trashing like Leakin' Lyin' James Comey, who also went by Sanctimonius, Slippery, Slimy, and Shady Jim Comey, who, let's remember, aided and abetted the Trump candidacy by announcing the reopening of the Hillary email investigation little more than a week before the election Trump lost (by three million votes) but won (in the Electoral College).

Just for the record, there's also Lightweight Gillibrand, Al Frankenstein, Cheatin' Obama, High Tax-High Crime Nancy, Wacky Nancy, Crazy Nancy, and Nervous Nancy. Just about every woman who crosses him gets the name "Nasty." Countless more too. Look 'em up if you've got a couple of hours sometime.

So Joe Scarborough, once a Republican member of the House and now his own style of talk show host. just happens to toss out a nickname for poor Mitch McConnell--"Moscow Mitch," Scarborough says, because McConnell had the audacity to personally scrub two bills off the senate agenda, not even allowing them a vote--both of them came with by-partisan approval, both dealing with cyber-meddling associated with the firmly established record of Russian interference in the 2016.

But the POTUS won't let the matter be discussed anywhere in his hearing. Russian interference if "fake news," anyone who mention it is an "enemy of the people." It's all a Trumpian litany.

"Moscow Mitch, "Moscow Mitch," "Moscow Mitch." I say, let the banner be raised. Our side has finally done it to theirs.

Lest any of us forget, there's an old story, lost in the blizzard of breaking news, that should itself be shouted from the hilltops. Here it is from McConnell's district, the Louisville Courier-Journal just this morning:

In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, President Barack Obama called top congressional Republicans and Democrats together and informed them of national intelligence assessments that found the Russians were using an internet disinformation campaign to influence the presidential election.

Obama wanted to send out a bipartisan statement warning the Russians that such meddling wouldn’t be tolerated, but it also would have served notice to Americans that what they were reading online may have been placed there by Russian actors.

McConnell objected. Not only did he refuse to sign the letter, the Washington Post reported later that McConnell said “he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.”

For most of Trump's two years in office, McConnell has criticized Obama for not playing hardball with the Russians right then, when in fact he was the one who quashed the report that would have made Russian interference public before the 2016 election. Why?--the report was "too partisan."

What drew Joe Scarborough's ire was McConnell's saying "too partisan" again last week in denying the possibility of a vote on substantial legislation that at least attempted to address what everyone except Trump knows was Russian interference. "Too partisan," McConnell said, and Joe Scarborough called him "Moscow Mitch, which fit like a round and furry winter hat.

And that's the way he comes up on t-shirts right now, which just burns his Kentucky butt.

Turnabout is fair play. "Moscow Mitch"--I hope it sticks.